Monthly Archives: April 2015
Sony Announces Lifetime PS4 Sales of 22.3 Million
Sony has revealed PlayStation 4 console sales numbers passed the 22.3 million mark at the end of March. According to the last update we received, the company had sold 20.2 million by the start of the month.
The figure comes alongside news of 14.8 million PS4 sales for the financial year ending March 31, 2015, which caused the corporation's Game and Network Services segment to become its biggest earner.
The company's full year financial report revealed raw revenues for the segment jumped 33 per cent year-on-year (25 per cent on a constant currency basis) to bring in $11.5 billion dollars this year. Operating income rose to $401 million which, when compared to last year's loss of $78 million, is pretty impressive.
Tetris Can’t Be Beaten, Here’s Why
Using a bit of mathematics, it has been proven that Tetris can never be beaten.
PBS has outlined some of the reasons why in the video below. The seven tetrominos fit together in many different ways, however the rectangle shape they create is eight tiles wide. The Tetris board is ten tiles wide, so eventually you have to deal with the extra space.
The video also goes into "The Snake Sequence", which is where you get alternating S and Z pieces. If you get enough of these in a row, it creates gaps that cannot be filled. You have a 1 in 3,087 chance to be dealt four of these pieces in a row.
Watch Dogs 2 in Development, According to Employee CV
Watch Dogs 2 is in development, according to one of the original title's senior gameplay programmers.
The LinkedIn profile of Julien Risse, who's based at Ubisoft Paris, had the unannounced game listed on his profile alongside Watch Dogs and its Bad Blood DLC before removing it. Unfortunately, not before VideoGamer managed to grab a screenshot.
Comic Book Reviews for April 29, 2015
The final week of April proved to be a doozy for the comics industry. In addition to shipping another batch of Convergence books, DC delivered the long-awaited finale to Batman: Endgame, a game-changing new issue of Justice League, the final chapter of Multiversity and a Superman issue written and drawn by John Romita, Jr.
Marvel, meanwhile, wrapped up several major ongoing series this week. Jonathan Hickman's two Avengers titles concluded with a bang, while James Robinson said farewell to the Fantastic Four. IDW also has a big week, as they concluded the current volume of G.I. Joe and followed up on last month's traumatic cliffhanger in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Check out our reviews for these and other new comics. We're short two reviewers this week, so be sure to let us know your thoughts on the books we weren't able to cover, too.
BvS: Check Out 2 Purported New Batfleck Photos
A pair of photos purportedly showing Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice surfaced online today.
The photos -- one in black and white and the other in color and showing greater detail of the Batfleck costume -- can be seen below (via Batman-News). Warner Bros. did not respond to our request for confirmation of these photos' authenticity by time of publish.
Star Wars Fans Deliver X-wing Into Near-Space
Two amater space enthusiasts, Matt Kingsnorth and Phil St. Pier, released a model X-Wing into near-space using a weather balloon.
The activity was part of the duo’s Project Helium Tears, an initiative that focuses on capturing images of the Earth from the edge of space “For Essex, for Earth, for all mankind."
According to an interview with the BBC, the weather balloon carrying a camera, the X-Wing and a GPS device climbed to a height of approximately 118,000 feet (36,190 meters). The team expects to release the full video of the mission in the near future.
The US$1,840 (£1,200) stunt had a secondary purpose, an attempt to capture the attention of Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams to score some tickets to the film’s premiere.
Competitive Matchmaking Coming to Team Fortress 2?
Valve's popular free-to-play shooter Team Fortress 2 is reportedly set to receive competitive matchmaking in a future update.
TeamFortress.tv reports that the long-rumoured feature is a "high priority" on the to-do list for Valve.
The information came from a couple of notable Team Fortress 2 players who were invited to visit Valve, and posted a video on their experiences.
The TeamFortress.tv folks claim "that Valve is working on matchmaking
as a high-priority project".
TeamFortress.tv has promised to release more information about what else they heard from Valve later this week.
Ryan Phillippe and Marvel Talk Potential Netflix Series
Ryan Phillippe revealed on Howard Stern that he is meeting with Marvel to discuss a new project, igniting rumors that he could be the next Iron Fist.
"Marvel is interested in talking about Netflix, a series possibly," Phillippe said, keeping mum on the details.
Netflix recently released the first of its five upcoming Marvel-based series with the much-acclaimed Daredevil. AKA Jessica Jones (starring Krysten Ritter) is next to premiere—maybe even as early as the end of 2015—followed by Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron First, all leading up to the miniseries team-up The Defenders. While all of the other shows have been cast, Iron First is the only series yet to find its leading superhero.
Viewer Data on Netflix Series Revealed
Marvel's Daredevil, House of Cards, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are among Netflix’s most popular original programming, based on an analysis of user data.
Variety reports an estimated 10.7% of Netflix subscribers watched at least one episode of Daredevil—Marvel’s live action series about a blind masked vigilante—within the first 11 days of its premiere, according to San Diego-based Luth Research.
By comparison, the research company estimates that 6.5% of Netflix users viewed the third season of House of Cards in its first 30 days and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt attracted 7.3% in its first month. On the low end of the spectrum, only 2.4% of Netflix users watched Bloodline.
Ruffalo Wants Marvel to Make More Black Widow Merchandise
Mark Ruffalo has kindly asked Marvel for more Black Widow merchandise.
"Marvel, we need more #BlackWidow merchandise for my daughters and nieces", the Avengers star tweeted out. "Pretty please"
Ruffalo's tweet comes in response to news that very little official Avengers: Age of Ultron merchandise features the character. As brought to my attention by The Mary-Sue, out of 56 official items on Marvel.com, Black Widow can be found on four. Other Marvel retailers like Hot Topic and SuperHeroStuff don't offer much more.