Monthly Archives: April 2016
ESL Bans Porn-Sponsored Esports Team
The Electronic Sports League has banned Team YP, a pro gaming team from Europe.
Team YP's main sponsor is adult website YouPorn, which breaches an ESL policy which prevents teams from being sponsored by organizations which are "widely known for pornographic … or other adult/mature themes and products."
According to VentureBeat, Team YP offered to re-brand several times, however the offers were turned down and YP are no longer allowed to participate at ESL events.
An ESL spokesperson gave the following statement to GamesBeat:
"Advertising pornography is not legal in the markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners we’re working with have strict ‘no drugs, no alcohol, no pornography’ rules that we’ve contractually taken on board. These aren’t new rules but ones that have been in our rulebooks for a long time. We have spoken to Team YP manager earlier this year, and in that conversation we’ve explained the situation and rules in detail and offered to look for potential alternatives in a bigger group. At the same time, we’re consulting with our legal teams about this. We will inform the team and the management as soon as we have any updates."
Nintendo’s Amiibo-Exclusive Game Releasing This Week
Nintendo's new Amiibo game Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge will arrive on the Nintendo eShop on April 28.
The game, which is only playable with the use of Amiibo figures, is the latest in Nintendo's puzzle series that began as Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
All Amiibo will be compatible with Mini Mario & Friends, but certain Mario series characters will unlock special abilities for the in-game Mini Toy—for instance, Yoshi eats enemies, while Bowser Jr. is immune to spikes.
Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge is available as a free download on Nintendo 3DS systems and Wii U.
Players who purchase any Amiibo figure from a participating retailer will get a brief head-start on the game. All Amiibo purchased from GameStop, Amazon, and Best Buy will include an early access code for Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge.
First Hollywood, Now Bollywood – Stan Lee Making Indian Superhero Film
Fresh from conquering Hollywood, comic book legend Stan Lee, is making his first foray into Bollywood superhero films.
As reported by Variety, Stan Lee is helping to adapt his Indian superhero, Chakra the Invincible for a live-action Bollywood production.
Chakra - a teenage Mumbai tech genius who dons a suit that supercharges the seven centres of spiritual power in his body - has so far appeared in cartoon and comic book form. However, the live action version will see him aged up into his 20s.
The film will be directed by the Cannes-selected Vikramaditya Motwane, and will be co-written by Lee.
Huge Overwatch Truck Hits a Car at PAX East
At PAX East this weekend, Blizzard was running a cross-promotion between Overwatch and Uber, but things didn't go quite to plan.
Soldier, a massive Overwatch-branded 76' Ford F560 truck apparently crashed into another car. Thankfully no one was hurt. However, to make things even more embarrassing, CEO of Gearbox Randy Pitchford told his half a million Twitter followers about it.
Just left PAX East and out full house Main Theater show to see a monster truck branded with competitive game run over a civilian car.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 22, 2016
Fox News Does Not Approve of The Division’s Recent Nerfs
Fox News has declared a new enemy - The Division. Well, more specifically, nerfs to its crafting system. Weird.
As reported by VG24/7, Red Eye host Andy Levy made his unexpectedly in-depth feelings on Massive's changes to the Ubisoft multiplayer shooter pretty clear:
In a segment about skills that every 18 year-old should have, he finished by adding, "Be able to level up your character in the Division, despite the way Massive nerfed the crafting system and allows packs of super-geared Rogues to gank you in the Dark Zone - thanks a lot, jerks."
The Division has suffered multiple problems in recent weeks, but I can't imagine the developers were expecting this particular broadside from this particular outlet.
Rock Band 4 Getting Online Play, Expansion
Harmonix has laid out what’s coming to Rock Band 4 in the year ahead.
This Fall, Rock Band 4 will be getting an expansion followed by synchronous online multiplayer this Holiday.
While details of the expansion will be fully revealed at E3, we do know it’ll include enhancements to the music library – filtering, a thumbs up/thumbs down rating system – as well as support for Xbox 360 ION Drum Rockers or E-Kits via a new adapter created by PDP, who, as it happens, is releasing a new Rock Band guitar controller around the same time.
As for the synchronous online multiplayer, this mode is still early in the design phase. That said, the idea is to introduce players to a modified version of quickplay-style gameplay.
GoT Actor Talks Premiere’s Big Reveal, the Jon Snow Situation
Full spoilers for Game of Thrones: Season 6’s premiere, “The Red Woman,” continue below.
Melisandre has been deceiving everyone for six seasons, but her biggest secret was revealed in the first episode of Game of Thrones: Season 6. In an incredibly intimate moment, the Red Priestess disrobed… and then fully disrobed, taking off her necklace to reveal what she actually is: a very, very, very old magician.
This big twist came right after Davos Seaworth expressed his trust in Melisandre’s abilities as he and a few members of the Night’s Watch held their ground against the mutinous forces at Castle Black. The juxtaposition of those two scenes isn’t lost on Liam Cunningham, the actor who plays Davos.
X-Men: Apocalypse May Also Have The Blob in It
An image from the set of X-Men Apocalypse may have revealed The Blob's involvement in the movie.
Director Bryan Singer released the image on Instagram of Ben Hardy as Angel standing over who appears to be The Blob, with the caption "Mutant Martial Arts. Light as a feather."
Blob has super strength and seemingly impenetrable skin thanks to his size, but has apparently been bested by Angel here in a cage fight. We last saw the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where The Blob was played by Kevin Durand.
Although probably not a big role (no pun intended), Blob is another on an already large list of mutants set to feature in the movie. Earlier this month we got looks at posters for the Four Horseman, as well as a whole range of international character posters.
Green Lantern Corps Movie Rumored to Have 3 Heroes
Rumor has it we could see up to three Green Lanterns from Earth in the upcoming Green Lantern Corps movie.
According to Latino-Review, not only will Hal Jordan and John Stewart be featured, we'll also get to see Kyle Rayner.
In addition, LR claims the actor to play Hal Jordan is likely to be in the age range of someone like forty-something Matt Damon, while the other two Lanterns will be younger.
We'll probably have to wait for some time to find out the official details though, as Green Lantern Corps isn't scheduled to hit theaters until 2020. We did get a sneak peek back in January though.
Box Office: Jungle Book Beats Huntsman: Winter’s War
The Jungle Book remained atop the North American box office this weekend, while newcomer The Huntsman: Winter's War failed to make a large impact.
For the second weekend in a row, Disney's live-action remake of The Jungle Book topped the rankings, earning a little over $60 million.
Meanwhile, The Huntsman: Winter's War brought in just $20 million in its opening weekend.
Worldwide, The Jungle Book has now passed the $500 million mark, and is still going strong after dropping just 41% from last weekend.
The Huntsman sequel's poor performance backs up IGN's review. For comparison, the first film, Snow White and the Huntsman, debuted with $56.2 million. The oriiginal film's Chris Hemsworth returned, however it has apparently not done as well without Snow White star Kristen Stewart.