Monthly Archives: February 2018
Marvel Studios Head Wants Black Panther Director to Make a Sequel
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige wants Ryan Coogler to direct a Black Panther sequel.
In an interview with Variety, Feige discussed the possibility of getting more Black Panther movies, teasing there are still plenty of stories to tell about Wakanda and its ruler. Though Feige made sure to emphasize Marvel Studios only works on one project at a time, he believes fans haven't seen the last of T'Challa in his own standalone film.
"We always say we work on one movie at a time," Feige said. "If you have any good ideas, put it in the movie you’re making. If you don’t, you might not be able to make another one. That said, Panther has been around for more than half a century in the comic books and there are many, many stories to tell."
McDonald’s to Remove Cheeseburgers from Happy Meals
In news that shook this writer to the core more than he expected, McDonald's is aiming to reduce the number of calories in its Happy Meals, and the humble cheeseburger is taking the hit.
As reported by USA Today, McDonald's plans to have all US Happy Meals reduced to 600 calories by June this year, with half of its franchises across the world hitting the same threshold by 2022. Currently, in 20 countries, only 20% of Happy Meal combos meet the new standard.
The upshot is that cheeseburgers will no longer be a part of the standard Happy Meal line-up - although they can be provided on request.
Fake Scientific Paper Was Actually a Star Trek Episode Synopsis
The scientific field isn't immune to 'fake news', after an anonymous 'biologist' submitted a paper based purely on an episode of Star Trek.
io9 reports that the paper took its cue from the events of Star Trek: Voyager's 'Threshold' episode, in which Captain Janeway authorises Tom Paris' attempt to break the transwarp barrier - which he does, but at a price. Travelling at warp 10 accelerates the human evolution process and turns him into an amphibian.
Rapid Genetic and Developmental Morphological Change Following Extreme Celerity was accepted by four different journals and actually published in the American Research Journal of Biosciences, who asked for $50 in exchange.
Star Trek: Discovery Is the Most Talked-About Show Online
The debut season of Star Trek: Discovery has wrapped up, and despite the stellar line-up of shows that have aired alongside it, CBS' Discovery is the most talked about TV show online last month, beating out the likes of The Walking Dead, Altered Carbon, and Stranger Things.
Parrot Analytics (via Comicbook.com) reports that the "demand expressions" for Discovery - the amount of discussion about it on social media - rose from 53 million last month, to 66 million this week. The season one finale airing earlier this week most likely gave the numbers a boost, especially considering that surprise ending.
Marvel Offers a Sneak Peek at the Death of Mighty Thor
The death of Jane Foster has been on the cards for a while and Marvel has offered a peek ahead of Mighty Thor #705 next month.
"Prepare yourself as Jane Foster picks up Mjolnir one last time and witness the death of a hero!" reads a press release. Check out all the previewed art below:
"The epic showdown years in the making finally explodes across the heavens. Thor battles the unstoppable Mangog, with the fate of all Asgardia hanging in the balance. Is Thor willing to pay the ultimate price in order to save the gods? The tragic and heroic story of Jane Foster finally reaches its heart-rending zenith. You knew it was coming. The Death of Thor is here at last."
Runner3 Finishes Development, Submitted to Nintendo
Commander Video's latest adventure, Runner3, has finished development, and the game has been submitted to Nintendo for final approval.
Developer Choice Provisions has announced the third game in the Bit.Trip.Runner series is complete, and once Nintendo finishes testing the game, to ensure it is ready for release, the game will go to the manufacturer to begin printing physical versions. Digitally, the game will be available day and date on Switch and Steam.
Although the developer is "eager to share" a release date, since the game has now been submitted for testing, "the ball is currently in
Sony Was Once Offered the Movie Rights to Nearly All of Marvel’s Heroes
If you've managed to keep up with the buying-and-selling of the movie rights to Marvel's stable of superheroes, you'll know that Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man, but it turns out that it could have owned the whole shebang in a proposed deal 20 years ago - that it turned down.
The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies - an upcoming book by Ben Fritz - recounts the moment in 1998 (via io9) when a Sony executive apparently stated that "nobody gives a s**t about any of the other Marvel characters. Go back and do a deal for only Spider-Man.”
Opinion: Asmodee Has Become the Disney of Board Games
On February 9, 2018, board game publisher Mayfair Games closed its doors after 36 years. After the decision was made, Mayfair reached out to another board game publisher, Asmodee, with the opportunity to purchase all of Mayfair’s titles as well as their subsidiaries Lookout Games and GmbH. Asmodee spent the money and now owns everything left of Mayfair. I say “left” because in 2016 Asmodee bought all english version rights to Mayfair’s biggest title, Settlers of Catan. Now, just 2 short years later, Mayfair is closing and Asmodee owns all the assets. As an isolated incident, this seems like an unfortunate series of events, but with context to Asmodee’s actions throughout recent years, this may be pointing towards a much more concerning issue.
IGN AU 2017 Select Awards: Winners Revealed!
The winners of IGN Australia's sixth annual Select Awards were revealed during a huge special event at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney on Friday, February 16.
2017 was absolutely crammed with terrific games and several categories were extremely tightly-contested.
The top three games in each category and the winners, as voted by IGN users, are listed below:
Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto Online, Rocket League
Runners-up: Horizon Zero Dawn, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Runners-up: Cuphead, Horizon Zero Dawn
Runners-up: Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Origins
PUBG’s Anti-Cheat Company Says 99% of Banned Accounts From China
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' problem with cheaters has been a major issue for the game, and recent data from the company's anti-cheat tech provider, BattlEye indicates that 99% of accounts that have been banned for cheating are from China.
Youxi Story reports the statistic, adding that 46% of PUBG's total players are based in China. It makes the problem a significant one in PUBG's most important territory.
One million accounts were banned for cheating in January, with BattlEye saying that "things continue to escalate" in spite of this.