In 2018, WWE made gigantic strives to try an elevate the women’s division as much as possible, which all culminated in October’s all-women’s PPV, Evolution. Since we started reviewing the PPVs earlier this year, Evolution scored the highest between the two reviewers scoring the show an average of 7.8 for all its matches. And yes, the 6-woman tag match between The Riott Squad and Natalya, Sasha Banks, & Bayley was the quintessential pee break/filler for the evening, but when you look at what transpired before this match and after it, you understand why this Sunday Night Raw match was on the card.
Prior to that, there was the Mae Young Classic finals between Toni Storm and Io Shirai, which Chris E. Hayner said, “They threw out the best they had for this match and it was the exact kind of match I love.” And Mat Elfring said, “This match was a gateway drug to indie wrestling. It felt like something you’d seem more in NJPW or ROH rather than a WWE event.”
Then after the filler match, there were two of WWE’s best matches of the year. First, it was Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Bazsler for the NXT Women’s Championship, which gave the average WWE viewer just an idea of how great NXT is, week after week. Following that was the Last Woman Standing match between Becky Lynch and Charlotte for the Smackdown Women’s Championship, which was undoubtedly the best WWE match of the year. Even the Ronda Rousey match against Nikki Bella was a lot of fun
It is easily the strongest main roster WWE PPV of the year, and while NXT tends to put on a brilliant PPV product, this is the only WWE show which highlighted the main roster, superstars from the past, NXT, and stars who have yet to make a name within WWE with the Mae Young Classic. It is a total package for what WWE’s women’s division has become the past two years, which all culminates with this moment. — Mat Elfring
Wreck-It Ralph takes his wrecking ways online in Disney’s new movie sequel, Ralph Breaks The Internet. In a fitting addition to that story, video game characters Ralph and Vanellope get a chance to do some damage to virtual reality in The Void’s new tie-in VR experience, Ralph Breaks VR–and participants get to join them in the digital world of the internet that feels like a little more than a video game.
Ralph Breaks VR goes beyond what headset owners at home experience. The Void is a room-scale VR platform built on stages that incorporate real objects into its virtual worlds. That means when you step on a virtual tram and ride the information superhighway to the digital city that is the movie’s version of the internet, you’re enclosed by real walls that you can reach out and touch. In addition to wearing a VR headset and carrying the necessary tech to render its images in a backpack, participants also wear haptic vests that vibrate when something touches them, providing another level of interaction between your real body and the virtual experience. The Void’s mix of real and virtual takes the idea of VR to a different level, and it’s perfectly suited to the Wreck-It Ralph franchise.
Ralph Breaks VR starts with participants disguising themselves as Netizens, the colorful folks who live in the internet in the movie, each with a different bit of personality–such as a stuffy nerd or surfer dude. With your new identity in place, you head onto the real stage, which matches the images you see in the headset. So as you move through darkened rooms or cross walkways high above the city streets, you’re walking through physical places that you can actually run into.
The four participants in Ralph Breaks VR meet up with Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), who take them on a guided tour of the internet, although it’s mostly an experience of playing games with and against the other people in your group. Look at your virtual wrist in the experience and you’ll see a watch displaying the names of everyone in the session, along with the points they accrue as they play, giving the whole thing a light air of competition.
The first stop is a TRON-like area of the web, called Dunderdome, that is dedicated to video games, where you play a version of arcade classic Space Invaders. But instead of running the game on a screen and battling extraterrestrials with a controller, participants find themselves at the ground level of the game, using a control panel to move around the tanks normally found at the bottom of a Space Invaders screen. Broken into teams of two, one player controls the tank’s movement and fires its main gun, while the other controls air strikes and protects the tank from attackers.
Once the game of life-size Space Invaders is over, things take a turn–the software that protects the internet flags the humans as viruses and sets out to eradicate them, while Ralph and Vanellope work to try to get them to safety.
In practical terms, that means players are quickly moving from room to room as they try to find their way out. Before long, you find your way into the mobile game Pancake Milkshake from the movie. In the film, Ralph invades the game, which is about feeding pancakes to a bunny and milkshakes to a kitty, where he overstuffs the rabbit to the point of explosion. Ralph Breaks VR expands on the concept with the bunnies and kitties out for revenge as they whip their favorite treats back at the participants. Luckily, you can pick up a blaster that fires both foods, so you can return fire as you dodge incoming sweets. The scenario even gives an extra nod to the film by awarding you with more points if you zap the right food at its corresponding animal. With Ralph and Vanellope’s help, participants fight their way out of the internet and back to safety.
Ralph seems like a unique fit for The Void’s VR experiences. That’s what both the Void team and ILMxLab, Lucasfilm’s immersive experience company, thought as they began working on the project, which is part of a six-experience deal with Disney.
“[It was] serendipity, and it’s such a great property, as far as how it fits into what The Void as a platform can do,” said Curtis Hickman, co-founder and chief creative officer at The Void. “There’s something that I think is really fascinating about putting on this equipment and going into VR. You are stepping into a video game in a sense, and what story really encapsulates that? Wreck-It Ralph.”
The experience is also full of Easter eggs for Ralph Breaks The Internet fans. The Void and ILMxLab worked closely with the movie’s screenwriter, Pamela Ribon, who wrote the experience’s story as well, to keep Ralph Breaks VR true to the movie on which it’s based. The VR world is full of visual callbacks from the movie, such as the signs scattered throughout the internet cityscape. And Reilly and Silverman reprising their roles as Ralph and Vanellope deepens the experience even more.
VR technology is breeding a lot of interesting ideas like The Void, but is still developing its hardware to be less expensive. While it’s not clear exactly where VR will go in the future, experiences like Ralph Breaks VR offer something that doesn’t exist anywhere else. It’s particularly fun if you’re a big fan of the Ralph series, but you don’t have to be: beaning cute animals with pancakes is a good time no matter who you are.
On the first Tuesday of each month, Sony makes a new set of games available for free to PlayStation Plus members. We’ve passed that milestone for December, which means the month’s free PS4, PS3, and PS Vita games are now available. Add them to your library, and they’ll be yours to download and play as long as you have an active PS Plus subscription. You can get all of the free games right here.
On PS4 this month, you can grab Soma, a game that’s decidedly not filled with holiday spirit. In this atmospheric horror game, you’re tasked with exploring a seemingly deserted underwater facility to discover what happened to the human and AI occupants. The other PS4 freebie is Onrush, an off-road online racing game that’s more about takedowns and teamwork than about finishing first.
On PS3 this month, you can grab Steredenn: Classic, a pixelated space shooter that mixes retro-arcade action with procedurally generated levels and massive boss fights. The other PS3 freebie is SteinsGate, an anime-style visual novel about teenage scientists who discover a way to send messages to the past–which you can bet begin to affect the future.
This month’s PS Vita games are the customs agent sim Papers, Please and the Metroidvania-style side-scroller Iconoclasts, the latter of which is also playable on PS4 thanks to Cross-Buy. Make sure to grab your free games by Tuesday, January 1, because that’s when a new batch will come and take their place.
Before Red Dead Online launched in November, developer Rockstar Games said it couldn’t guarantee that player progress and stats wouldn’t be wiped after the beta ended. The good news today is that Rockstar has confirmed that, at least right now, it has no plans to reset anything.
Back in November, Rockstar warned that it might have to reset player ranks and stats in Red Dead Redemption 2‘s multiplayer mode. The developer pointed out that it is not uncommon for large-scale betas to reset ranks and player stats ahead of the full release. As one example, progress in the annual Call of Duty betas get wiped before launch. So it’s especially good news to hear now that Rockstar doesn’t plan to reset stats or rank for Red Dead Online after the beta.
As Rockstar said earlier this week, it is hoping to release a new update for Red Dead Online this week to address general stability and the issues with the game’s economy balancing.
Red Dead Online, which is the free multiplayer mode for Red Dead Redemption 2 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, features new story missions set before the events of the single-player campaign that can be played solo or with others. It also features a variety of co-op and PvP modes, including Red Dead’s own battle royale mode.
Rockstar says to expect “lots more updates to the Red Dead Online beta in the coming weeks and months.” It hasn’t shared much about what to expect in terms of future updates to the game, though Grand Theft Auto V welcome numerous and significant updates over time.
Microtransactions are coming to Red Dead Online in the future, and players will be able to purchase the in-game currency gold with real money. Gold can also be earned by playing, and it’s used to buy certain weapons and other items, as well as a shortcut to lower your Honor level.
NBC has renewed the wacky and wonderful comedy The Good Place for a Season 4 to air in 2019-2020, the network has confirmed. In a statement, NBC programming bosses Tracey Pakosta and Lisa Katz congratulated show creator Mike Schur and the cast and crew for their contribution to making The Good Place a “thoughtful, mind-bending, and hysterical series.”
“We can’t wait to see what unexpected stories the new season will bring,” the pair said in the statement, which was noted by The Hollywood Reporter.
Kristen Bell stars in The Good Place, alongside William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil. Ted Danson and D’Arcy Carden also star in the comedy-drama about aliens, the afterlife, and the devil. The show contains numerous unexpected twists and turns, and with only three seasons to catch up on, we won’t spoil the big details here if you haven’t caught The Good Place yet and want to catch up.
According to THR, The Good Place is averaging 4.6 million viewers in its current season over its first nine episodes. The last episode of Season 3 this fall will air on Thursday, with the final three episodes of Season 3 landing in January 2019.
Schur, the creator of The Good Place, also worked on The Office, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. On The Office, he played Dwight Schrute’s cousin, Mose Schrute.
Every Xbox One bundle is $50 off right now in the United States, and this includes the higher-power Xbox One X consoles and the Fortnite bundle, Microsoft has announced.
The discount goes even deeper if you just want a console. The Xbox One X, which normally sells for $500 USD, is now available at retailers for $400 USD. Microsoft does not appear to sell the Xbox One S in a non-bundle, but you can get that system starting at $250 in bundles that come with games like Fortnite, Minecraft, NBA 2K19, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, and PUBG.
The Xbox One X, meanwhile, has numerous bundles available going for $450, including those that come with Battlefield V, Fallout 76, PUBG, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, and others. You can visit the Xbox website to see a full rundown of all the Xbox One S and Xbox One X bundles.
It’s not just Xbox consoles that are on sale this holiday. Beginning on December 9, Microsoft is offering $10 off the Phantom Black and Sport White Xbox One controllers. Another deal Microsoft is offering is $10 credit for the Microsoft Online store when you buy three months of XBL Gold.
It’s not immediately clear when the Xbox One console and accessory deals will end, but Microsoft describes the offers as being available only for a limited time.
In the past, competitor Sony responded to Microsoft’s Xbox console deals with offers of its own, so it will be interesting to see if the company does so again this time.
So much can change in a year. This time last year, it was PUBG, dominating on Steam and sporting an exclusive deal with Microsoft for the Xbox One version, which was driving the most discussion and helping propel the battle royale phenomenon even further. Today, Fortnite is a veritable juggernaut on the level that few could have expected or even imagined. It is a bona fide hit that has been so unbelievably successful it’s spurred changes to long-standing policies within the industry and impacted wider entertainment culture.
Developer Epic Games started out the year by announcing it was effectively shutting down its previous game, Paragon, and offering refunds to everyone. The studio apologised for failing the game’s audience and not being able to deliver them the game they might have wanted. While this is sad for those playing the game and wanting to see it further developed, it appeared to have been a sensible business decision given Fortnite’s popularity. Epic (seemingly) narrowing its focus to cut loose non-Fortnite projects speaks to the popularity of the game, the scale it has reached, and the work necessary to deliver on that vision.
Another major early 2018 development for Fortnite was when the game launched for mobile devices. Fortnite’s mobile version has been a revenue juggernaut, reportedly making $2 million/day for a period of time, and a total of more than $300 million as of October–on iOS alone. Not bad for a game that is technically free. The Android edition of Fortnite, meanwhile, made headlines for how developer Epic released it. Instead of launching through Google’s own store, Epic decided to release it via its own website.
Most games need the visibility of the Google Play store to find an audience, but Fortnite is an exception, and in bypassing the store, Epic avoided paying Google its store fee. One estimate said Google missed out on $50 million or more because of this. The closed nature of Apple’s ecosystem relative to Google’s meant that Epic was forced to launch Fortnite through the App Store. This move was the first major example in 2018 of Epic flexing its muscles and leveraging the popularity of Fortnite to blaze its own trail. What’s more, the way in which in-game items and progress move between the mobile, console, and PC editions of Fortnite is relatively uncommon in the gaming world. It reflects Epic’s wider ambition to break down the barriers between platforms–and that’s something people seem to generally enjoy.
Another way that Fortnite impacted the gaming world in 2018 was related to policy changes among the established platform-holders. After holding out for more than two years, Sony finally allowed the PS4 to connect with outside networks for cross-play–but only with Fortnite for the time being. Fortnite being so popular that it pushed an established giant like Sony–in the midst of a hugely successful generation of hardware–to change its policies is truly a testament to how powerful Fortnite is. Epic also used its weight and clout to convince Nintendo to drop its weird requirement to use a phone for voice chat; with Fortnite, voice chat works natively. What’s more, all three major consoles–Xbox One, PS4, and Switch–have Fortnite-themed hardware bundles, which is the first time that’s ever happened in the world of gaming.
Companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo recognise how all-powerful Fortnite has become, and they’re bending to the will of a developer in a way this industry has basically never seen before. They say a rising tide lifts all boats, and the platform-holders surely see Fortnite as a means to help their own brands fly higher.
Fortnite also further demonstrated to the industry this that narrative can have a place in multiplayer-only games. Fortnite cleverly wove some amount of narrative into the experience through numerous in-game events and stories throughout the year. Take, for example, the time the sky began to rip apart. What did it all mean? Fans searched the world for clues, eventually culminating in Epic revealing a new item, the Rift, that allows players to teleport to a new location on the map.
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Then there was impending comet–players saw it in the sky for weeks before it crashed onto the map, destroying Dusty Depot and leaving a massive crater with alternate gravity properties. There was also mysterious purple cube that one day simply appeared on the map, causing all kinds of wacky and weird things to happen. The cube, who was affectionally known as Kevin, eventually exploded, and sent players into an endless void. Epic’s genius is getting people to care about the Fortnite world outside of the moment-to-moment gameplay. It might not have been the first multiplayer game to feature compelling story elements, but the loose, ongoing narrative surely helped it to keep bringing players back.
In addition to expanding to mobile, Fortnite launched for Nintendo Switch this year, bringing the battle royale game’s presence to yet another major platform. Fortnite has been hugely successful on Switch. As part of an earnings report, Nintendo revealed that half of every Switch sold worldwide had Fortnite installed, which is a very impressive feat. Effectively, this seems to suggest that Fortnite may represent the kind of “killer app” that every platform needs to attract an audience. It further speaks to the power of Fortnite and the brand overall in that it can perform well no matter what platform it is on. The implication here is that, should Fortnite be able to remain popular, platform-holders like Nintendo (as well as Sony and Microsoft) may need to factor it in–in some capacity–for their future platforms.
Another way Fortnite impacted the larger gaming world this year was through its demonstration that delivering compelling new content on a regular basis can pay huge dividends. Epic releases new updates about once per week, introducing new modes, cosmetics, weapons, balance changes, and more. This helps make Fortnite feel fresh all the time–and it gives wavering players FOMO. This has surely contributed to the wider culture around Fortnite, especially among younger audiences who may feel compelled to keep coming back to see what’s new. There are countless challenges to complete, skins to unlock, and modes to play, and this heavy pull to come back to the game is surely beneficial to Epic in a business sense.
Some soury news around Fortnite came in May when PUBG Corp., the developer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, filed a lawsuit in Korea against Epic. PUBG Corp. claimed copyright infringement due to the similarities between PUBG and Fortnite. However, PUBG Corp. later dropped the lawsuit, though it remains to be seen if there was a settlement and what the terms might have been. Epic was involved in a number of other lawsuits throughout 2018, some against it, and others it filed against players for cheating and other reasons. Given the size and stature of Fortnite, it’s no surprise that Fortnite has found itself embroiled in legal matters, but as of yet, the litigation does not seem to have had much of a public-facing impact on the game.
In better news for Fortnite, the game’s success and prominence entered another stratosphere in April when Fortnite announced a gigantic partnership with Disney and Marvel for an Avengers: Infinity War promo that saw Thanos come to the battle royale game. As further evidence of Fortnite permeating wider pop culture, Fortnite also partnered with Epic to bring jersey skins for all 32 NFL teams to the game for a limited time. More recently, players discovered Ralph from the Wreck-It Ralph film series in the game as part of what appeared to be a stealth-marketing campaign for the new film, Ralph Breaks the Internet.
These examples clearly demonstrate that major global brands recognise the value and power of being even tangentially associated with Fortnite–even if it’s just a marketing tool. In that way, Fortnite has became a platform of sorts through which massive, established brands want to be involved with. What Epic will need to be mindful of is ensuring the partnerships make sense and don’t come across as overly cash-grabby (though indeed Epic is surely profiting from these deals).
The mainstream attention on Fortnite also made the game a target. Fortnite caught some heat in November when Scrubs star Donald Faison called out the game for ripping off his “Poison” dance for an emote. Show creator Bill Lawrence acknowledged that someone from the Fortnite side reached out about using Faison’s dance, but in the end, Faison isn’t getting any royalties. Before that, rapper 2 Milly accused Epic of stealing his dance for a Fortnite emote. And before that, Chance the Rapper said he takes issue with Fortnite’s use of the dances in the battle royale game. “Black creatives created and popularized these dances but never monetized them. Imagine the money people are spending on these emotes being shared with the artists that made them,” he said back in July.
Fortnite’s dances are based on or inspired by the performances of real artists, and it would be good to see Epic take further steps to publicly and in a front-facing way acknowledge and respect the origins of the dance moves. Fortnite is making an unthinkable amount of money from microtransactions, so it is nice to see Epic pour some of it back into the game’s community. In June this year, Epic announced a massive investment for Fortnite esports competitions both big and small. Epic said it would put in a staggering $100 million into global Fortnite competitions. The gargantuan figure towers above what other games pay for their tournaments, but importantly, the $100 million covers every Fortnite competitive event in the 2017/2018 season, not just one. For example, Dota 2‘s The International 2018 event had a total prize pool of almost $25 million.
Epic’s massive investment was a smart move for the developer, too, as it pretty much guaranteed that top-level players would continue to play to earn a slice of that money, which in turn keeps people on their couches at home watching and supporting the base game overall.
Fortnite is a free game but it makes money from the cosmetics it sells through its in-game store. When something is successful, other studios take notice. Activision’s Call of Duty series added a battle royale mode of its own this year with Black Ops 4‘s Blackout. The mode features a progression system that seemingly borrows heavily from Fortnite’s battle pass and seasonal system. EA’s Battlefield V is also going to have a battle royale mode; it’s called Firestorm, and it launches in March 2019. Even Rockstar Games is taking notice; the studio released battle royale mode for Red Dead Redemption 2‘s online mode (though GTA V launched a battle royale mode for GTA Online all the way back in August 2017, so it’s not new for Rockstar). The point is that Fortnite, building off the success of PUBG before it, has impacted the larger gaming community right up to the top players. It’s an incredibly impressive feat, and it further demonstrates that oftentimes some of the most innovative ideas originate at small studios before catching on in a more mainstream way.
Fortnite’s insane success has also led to improvements in developer relations–at least for those who use Epic’s Unreal Engine. Thanks to the extra money Fortnite has brought in, Epic was able to shift its own revenue-sharing arrangement in a move that further benefits developers, and potentially in the end, consumers as well. Epic formerly used the industry-wide 70/30 percent revenue-sharing agreement with developers who used its Unreal Engine, but after Fortnite’s success, Epic changed the agreement to 88/12 with developers making more and Epic taking less. The 70/30 revenue split goes back more than a decade, and it’s implemented across digital stores for not only games, but other forms of media as well. Epic shifting the split so significantly could spur further change across media, or at the least encourage more developers to use Unreal Engine (which in turn benefits Epic in the longer run).
But just how popular is Fortnite? In June this year, Fortnite reached 125 million players, a figure that grew to 200 million as of November, an increase of 60 percent. This represents strong growth and even more evidence that Fortnite is no fad. There is no word on how the player population breaks down between platforms, but it’s easy to find matches everywhere, so you can imagine player figures are high across all systems.
Some of Fortnite’s other major achievements in 2018 included the game reaching an unthinkable and unprecedented 8.3 million concurrent players, Epic picking up a further $1.25 billion in venture capital funding, and celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Ellen, and the Saturday Night Live crew riffing on Fortnite during episodes of their shows. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox played the game so much this season that they had to remind themselves to eat. Some of the other notable stories around Fortnite this year include how Fortnite was cited in hundreds of divorce filings and how the mainstream media labeled the game addictive, violence-promoting, and damaging to young people. One story in particular said Fortnite was addictive in the same way that heroin is. It’s sad but not surprising.
2018 was Fortnite’s biggest and best year yet, but no game lasts forever. It will be intriguing to see how Epic plans to continue to shake things up and make the experience feel new and exciting in 2019 and beyond. Outside of its work on the Unreal Engine, will Epic become a one-game studio, pouring its resources into supporting and expanding Fortnite to make hay while the sun shines?
That would seemingly make sense for the time being, but I’d be surprised if the studio wasn’t at least in the planning stages on other new projects. After all, while Fortnite might be riding high today, no one expects it to stay on top forever.
2018 proved to be an incredible year for anime. We saw Netflix taking the initiative by funding and releasing original anime to their roster, brand new series like Megalobox, Aggretsuko, and A Place Further Than the Universe stand out, and the continuing adaptations of popular manga like My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan got what could be their best seasons yet.
But even with the amazing year in anime we’ve seen from 2018, 2019 is shaping up to be an even bigger year to get excited for. Netflix has a slew of strong anime lined up for its streaming service, which, if 2018 was any indication, will include some genuinely strong hits. Some of these are directed by well known anime studios, with Madhouse–animators of the first season of One Punch Man—tackling a new anime adaptation of Boogiepop and Others. We’ll even see the return of classic shows in a new way.
The shonen scene is strong too, with prolific anime series in their prime once again returning in 2019. Shonen Jump, the birthplace of Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Punch Man, and My Hero Academia will be getting yet another anime adaption from one of their serialized manga. Not only that, but we’re finally going to see the return of popular gag manga artist ONE’S major anime series, One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100. Fans have waited years to see the continuation of both of these series, and that long wait is finally coming to an end this upcoming year.
With anime’s burgeoning popularity, it makes sense that the biggest streaming services would look into increasing their portfolio. This is something Hulu’s planning to do, as the streaming giant’s recently announced that it has partnered with Funimation to bring a bunch of new shows to the platform at the same time they air in Japan.
According to a report by Variety, the deal will begin in 2019. While this Funimation partnership will produce new, original anime for Hulu, it also gifts the platform the entirety of Funimation’s catalog, including already-streaming shows like One Punch Man, Sword Art Online, and more than 600 others in both dubbed and subbed formats. With this contract finalized, it means Hulu will be the only place to watch both dubbed and subbed versions of popular anime like Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia.
This partnership comes just a few months after Crunchyroll and Funimation’s breakup. While together, the sites worked hard to simulcast anime in both English and Japanese. In doing so, select anime, such as Overlord, had both options available the same day as their Japanese release. After nearly two years working together, the two decided to end the relationship on November 9. Since then, Funimation has not been part of the VRV bundle, a subscription package with dozens of animation streaming services such as Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, and Machinima.
Last year, it was announced that Sony Pictures Television acquired Funimation for approximately $150 million. Thanks to the purchase, it seems Funimation plans use Sony as a launchpad to further distribute anime “through [Sony’s] global footprint of television networks and existing digital offerings.” It remains unclear how the Hulu/Funimation partnership will affect Funimation acquisition by Sony.
