Monthly Archives: August 2015
Usain Bolt Gets New Look in Temple Run 2
To celebrate his sixth appearance at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, the playable Olympian Usain Bolt will be updated in Temple Run 2 to better reflect his current appearance.
Bolt's current jersey featuring the colors of Jamaica with black tiger stripes laid over yellow and green will be free to download for players who have purchased the limited edition Usain Bolt character.
Temple Run 2 is an endless runner and the sequel to the original Temple Run. It is available on iOS, Google Play, Amazon, and Windows Phone 8.
This isn't the first time professional athletes have been featured in Imangi Studios' mobile hit, as several professional football players have been playable characters in the past.
Hobbit Extended Trilogy Coming to Theaters
The extended versions of all three films in The Hobbit trilogy will be released in theaters this October.
Presented by Warner Bros. and Fathom Events over three nights, An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug, and The Battle of the Five Armies will be available to view in select theaters.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be the first of these extended screenings and will debut on October 5 at 7:30pm local. An exclusive introduction by director Peter Jackson will also be shown.
Ron Perlman on Why He Chose Hand of God After SOA
In Amazon's new series Hand of God - first season available September 4th in the U.S., UK, Austria, and Germany on Amazon Prime - Sons of Anarchy's Ron Perlman plays a morally corrupt judge who suffers a breakdown and believes that God is speaking directly to him, compelling him onto a path of vigilante justice.
Perlman, along with the show's cast and creators, answered questions from TV critics during the recent TCA Press Tour, touching on the arc of Season 1 and whether or not Perlman's character, Judge Pernell Harris, is insane or actually obeying commands from the Almighty.
"The answer could be multiple things," creator/executive producer Ben Watkins said. "I wanted to give fodder for both sides of it. And that puts the audience in the position where they have to draw the conclusions. And I'm really interested to see how that happens because then the answer is different for everyone, and it's really based on their beliefs, how they were brought up, and their agendas."
New Black Ops 3 Screens Showcase Campaign, Multiplayer
Gamescom kicks off this week, and to celebrate Call of Duty: Black Ops III's appearance at the convention, Activision has released a new batch of screenshots for Treyarch's upcoming shooter.
The images provide a fresh look at both the game's campaign and competitive multiplayer.
Give them a look in our gallery below.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is set for release on November 6, 2015. Before then, Activision is running a public beta, which kicks off first for PS4 owners on August 19. The following week, on August 26, the beta will go live for those on PC and Xbox One.
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Confirmed for 2015 Release
The final StarCraft II expansion, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, will officially be coming out this year.
Rumors of Legacy of the Void's release date first popped up back in January, and during its quarterly call to investors, Activision Blizzard officially announced that the game will be launching later this year. However, no specific date was mentioned during the call.
Gamers who preorder Legacy of the Void get Whispers of the Oblivion for free. The prologue features the first Zeratul missions since Wings of Liberty and is available right now.
World of Warcraft Subscriptions Down to 5.6 Million
World of Warcraft has dropped another 1.5 million subscribers, Activision confirmed today.
The company stated during its quarterly earnings call that the long-running MMO is sitting at 5.6 million subscribers. This is down 1.5 million from 7.1 million in March 2015, a number which itself was down from 10 million. The nearly 3 million WoW subscriber loss was considered the biggest quarterly drop in the game's history.
Activision did note that a large non-expansion update called Fury of the Hellfire released near the end of the quarter, and helped to stabilize the subscriber numbers. It also said Blizzard revenues are up thanks to strong performance across its products, and that overall online players are up 50% year-over-year for Blizzard.
Gamers Have Played 2 Billion Hours of Destiny
Destiny players have played the game for over two billion hours total since launch.
Activision shared the news today during its quarterly investor call. Diving the time over Destiny's 20 million players, that averages out to about 100 hours of gameplay from each person.
Bungie is soon making a few major changes to the game. Destiny's leveling system will no longer use the light system, plus, all of Ghost's lines, performed by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, will be removed and replaced with lines from Nolan North.
Activision Blizzard Reports $1 Billion in Q2 Revenue
During a call with investors today, Activision Blizzard reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal year. It's GAAP revenues for Q2 came in at $1.04 billion USD.
Digital revenue for the company came in at a Q2-record 55% of total revenue, with $569 million coming in digitally. When the numbers are presented on a Non-GAAP basis, growth in digital sales year-over-year was 27%.
Still absent from the Activision Blizzard report were hard numbers on Destiny sales. The company mentioned the high attach rate for the House of Wolves expansion, and said the 20 million registered Destiny players have averaged 100 hours of gameplay each, but provided no other sales figures for the game.
Microsoft’s Entire Gamescom Conference in One Place
What a way to kick off Gamescom 2015! Microsoft held a massive press conference this morning and it rivaled their E3 conference pretty closely in terms of sheer volume and presentation. From the incredible gameplay demo of Platinum's Scalebound, to the announcement of Halo Wars 2, it was a packed show. Let's run down the highlights. If you want to watch the whole thing, just look up, and enjoy!
Homefront: The Revolution Release Window Revealed
Publisher Deep Silver announced today it is targeting a Spring 2016 release window for Homefront: The Revolution.
Deep Silver also announced a multiplayer beta for Homefront: The Revolution earlier today during Microsoft's Gamescom press conference. The beta will be available first on Xbox One this winter. Homefront: The Revolution is also coming to PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, and Linux.
Originally slated for release in 2015, Homefront: The Revolution was delayed to give developer Dambuster Studios additional time to work on the project, after it took over development from Crytek UK. “We are giving the team every opportunity to turn Homefront: The Revolution into a best-selling title, and have set a 2016 release date to provide them the time they need to achieve this," said Deep Silver CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz at the time of the delay.