Monthly Archives: September 2017
Telltale Hires New President and CEO
Pete Hawley, the former general manager and senior VP of games a Zynga, has been appointed the new president and CEO of Telltale Games.
As reported by Variety, Hawley will step into the position—currently held by acting CEO Dan Connors, who will move to an advisory role—on September 18. Connors took on the role earlier this year, after former CEO Kevin Bruner announced he was stepping down in March.
Prior to working at Zynga, Hawley had leadership roles at Electronic Arts and Criterion Games, and was CEO and co-founder of location-based games developer Red Robot Labs.
Overwatch Developer Update Addresses In-Game Toxicity
Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan is ready to tackle what he describes as "the rising tide of toxicity or bad behavior in the game" with some much-needed improvements to reporting systems, as well as Blizzard's general strategy around maintaining a positive community.
In a developer update and forum post, Kaplan detailed some of the short, medium, and long term plans the Overwatch team has for combating in-game toxicity (such as adding the report function to console), as well as why it's such a huge priority.
Watch the Overwatch Developer Update below.
Call of Duty: WW2 PS4 Console Bundle Announced
A limited edition Call of Duty: WWII PS4 console has been announced, and will be released on November 3.
As detailed on PlayStation Blog, this special green camo console comes with a 1TB hard drive, a green DualShock 4 wireless controller, and a physical copy of Call of Duty: WWII.
For a look at the console bundle, check out the slideshow below:
The bundle will be available in the U.S. and Canada for $300 USD/$380 CAD. You can pre-order the console here.
GoT: Season 7 Blu-ray Release Date Announced
Game of Thrones' seventh season will be coming to Blu-ray and DVD this holiday season, with digital downloads available later this month.
HBO will release Game of Thrones: Season 7 on December 12 for Blu-ray and DVD and available for digital download on September 25, IGN can exclusively reveal.
Game of Thrones Season 7 Blu-ray/DVD box art
The Blu-ray release will include seven new animated pieces that give the history and background of notable season 7 locations and storylines, such as The Dragonpit, Highgarden, Prophecies of the Known World, the Rains of Castamere, and more. The series is narrated by members of the cast like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aidan Gillen, and more.
Fallout Shelter Hits 100 Million Players
Fallout Shelter has surpassed 100 million players across mobile, PC, and Xbox One, Bethesda announced today.
Collectively, Fallout Shelter players have put over 385 million hours into the vault management game, according to an infographic posted on Bethesda's website. Other fun facts from the infographic include the overall number of sessions played (over 7.6 billion) and number of vaults created (more than 140 million).
A Fallout Shelter infographic. Credit: Bethesda
Exclusive Images from the Making of Blade Runner, Aliens and More
You know his work even if you haven't heard of him: Syd Mead is an artist and designer whose concepts have helped bring to life some of the most famous sci-fi movies, including Blade Runner, Aliens, Tron, Timecop, Johnny Mnemonic and more. And now, a collection of his work is being released by Titan Books.
The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist collects hundreds of images from the artist's work, many of which have never been published before. According to Titan, "each entry provides a unique insight into the processes involved in Mead’s practice as well as illuminating the behind-the-scenes work involved in creating a fully-realized cinematic depiction of the future." Mead's work extends well beyond movies, having designed cars, architectural renderings, and so much more in his unique style. And we've got an exclusive gallery of images from the new book, which you can check out right here:
Gearbox Boss on Overwatch’s Effect on Battleborn
While Gearbox president Randy Pitchford isn't so sure the release of Overwatch directly impacted the sales of Battleborn, he's confident the comparison made between the two hero shooters is why Battleborn isn't always perceived as as success.
"Let's imagine Overwatch didn't exist at all; I don't know that anything would have been different. Maybe Battleborn would have had the same exact audience it had, it just wouldn't have been compared," Pitchford said on the latest episode of our monthly interview show IGN Unfiltered.
"They're actually different things," Pitchford said of Overwatch and Battleborn, suggesting Gearbox's hero shooter "might have had the same results" even if Overwatch wasn't released around the same time last year. "I'm telling you this, if Overwatch did not exist and it had exactly the same results, a lot of people would have seen, 'Oh, that was a winner, that's a new IP and it's successful, and holy crap where did this come from?' It would have been seen in a totally different light, even if it sold not a single unit more than it did," he explained.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Purchasing Guide for UK
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Samsung are taking preorders on their newly-announced Samsung Note 8 which has a healthy price-tag of £869.00. The Samsung upgrade programme is also available from £32.58 per month. Order yours today from Samsung's UK site in time for its release on 16th September, 2017.
Our Picks to Play the Losers’ Club in IT: Chapter 2
With Stephen King's IT a monster box office hit, a sequel -- It: Chapter II -- is all but officially announced. With the story picking up 27 years after the events of the first film (albeit with some flashbacks), we considered a broad field of actors in their late 30s to early 40s for our picks to play the adult versions of the Losers' Club.
Many actors have been suggested on social media for the roles of the grownup Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier, Stan Uris, Mike Hanlon, and Eddie Kaspbrak, but frankly many of them are too old to play the nearly middle-aged versions of characters who were adolescents or early teens in 1989.
Comic Book Reviews for September 13, 2017
It was another huge week for the comic book industry. DC celebrated Harley Quinn's 25th anniversary with a new anthology special and delivered the second chapter of the epic Dark Nights: Metal event. Marvel capped off Secret Empire with an epilogue issue and finally brought back the fan-favorite team the Runaways. Elsewhere, Valiant gave us a tease for their new reader-friendly Ninjak relaunch and Image released new issues of perennial favorites like Kill or Be Killed and Curse Words.
Scroll down to check out our reviews for these and various other new releases, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.