Monthly Archives: September 2018
Production of PS Vita Will End in Japan Next Year, Says Sony
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that the manufacture of its handheld PlayStation Vita console will end in Japan in 2019.
SIE vice president, Hiroyuki Oda, shared the news with Famitsu, via Gematsu, confirming that PS Vita production will end in Japan next year, with no plans for a successor any time soon.
"Currently, we do not have any plans regarding a new handheld device,” he said. “In Japan, we will manufacture PlayStation Vita until 2019. From there, shipping will end.”
This news follows a report from earlier this year, that the company is set to end production of physical Vita cartridges by the close of "fiscal year 2018," which is March 31, 2019, although at the time it was made clear that digital distribution of games on the platform would continue after this date.
Bond 25: New Director and Release Date Announced
Cary Joji Fukunaga, director of the entirety of True Detective Season 1, will now take the reins on the 25th Bond film, which will now be released on 14 February, 2020.
Announced this morning on Twitter, filming will commence on 4 March, 2019:
Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig announced today that #Bond25 will begin filming at Pinewood Studios on 4 March 2019 under the helm of director, Cary Joji Fukunaga with a worldwide release date of 14 February 2020. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Oyzt826sXd
Titans Added ‘F**k Batman’ Line in Reshoots to ‘Set the Tone’
The "F**k Batman" line that Robin let loose at the end of the first trailer for Titans wasn’t originally planned, as it was added in during reshoots in order to set a particular tone for the series.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dick Grayson/Robin actor Brenton Thwaites elaborated that this particular fight scene needed a punctuation point, and he feels it is an appropriate line for both his character and the show in general.
“We’d already shot that alley fight scene before, and there was no punch to it,” said Thwaites. “There was no real exclamation mark. I think the producers wanted something that would kind of set the tone for the whole show.”
Final Fantasy Composer Nobuo Uematsu Stopping Work Due to Health Problems
The legendary composer of most of the music from the Final Fantasy series, Nobuo Uematsu, is stepping down from work due to health issues.
On his blog, Uematsu says that he is taking the rest of the year off to recover properly from an unnamed disease, and is hopeful he will make a full recovery.
Uematsu joined Square in 1985, where he composed the music to the majority of Final Fantasy titles, Chrono Trigger, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, alongside a wealth of others. He left Square in 2004 to form his own production studio - Smile Please - but continues to work for the company on a freelance basis. He is reportedly working on the music for the Final Fantasy VII remake.
Check Out Funko’s 7 Marvel NYCC 2018 Exclusives
Marvel has announced new Funko Pop figurines for seven of its superheroes will be available at New York Comic Con 2018
Comic Con attendees won't be able to simply walk up to the booth and walk away with one of the new Funko figurines, though. Interested fans have to enter an online lottery by Sept. 24 at 2 p.m. PDT in order to gain access.
As seen in the gallery below, the seven new Marvel Funko figurines for Comic Con are:
- Ironheart Dorbz
Marvel’s Female Superheroes Could Get ABC TV Series from Wonder Woman Writer
One of the DC Extended Universe's top writers is set to cross over to a Marvel Television project for ABC Studios.
Per Deadline, Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg has received a production commitment from ABC for an hourlong drama about female Marvel superheroes. The show is currently untitled, and the heroes the show will follow haven't been revealed, but they're reportedly lesser-known Marvel characters.
The project isn't a total surprise, however, as Deadline reported in a separate story last month that ABC has been in the market for another Marvel series for some time. It would be the second show about female superheroes created by Marvel Television and ABC Studios after Netflix's Jessica Jones.
DC Alters Batman Art to Remove Imagery of His Penis
DC's new line of comics for mature readers, DC Black Label, made its debut with Batman: Damned #1 by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo. Social media conversation around the title has been squarely focused on how it shows Batman's penis for the first time in the Caped Crusader's publishing history. DC apparently anticipated this and decided to remove the imagery of his penis from the digital release, as evidenced by that version having altered artwork that covers Bruce Wayne's privates with shadow.
A source close to the project told IGN that DC chose to alter the art because it wasn't additive to the story. The first print run currently on sale in shops still features the unaltered art, but all future printings of Batman: Damned will reflect the altered artwork, the source also said.
George R.R. Martin on Winds of Winter: ‘I Wish I’d Been Done 4 Years Ago’
Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin wishes he had been done with the upcoming novel Winds of Winter years ago.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, in which Martin was asked about the status of his upcoming book, Martin said, "I'm working on
, and I wish I'd been done four years ago, but I'm slow and the book is very complex."
The author has apparently also stopped making visits to the set of the HBO series because, although "going to set is a lot of fun," Martin says, "there's nothing for me to do there, so I thought I better stay home." He continued, "I still have two books to write."
The Girl in the Spider’s Web’s Hero Is a “Feminist Batman”
Hacker-vigilante Lisbeth Salander is like a "feminist Batman" according to Fede Alvarez, the director of the forthcoming The Girl in the Spider's Web, and having now seen 20 minutes of the film I can attest that it's an apt description of the character played here by Claire Foy.
As depicted in the original Swedish movies, the David Fincher remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, as well as the late author Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, Lisbeth Salander -- a hacker extraordinaire and investigator who metes out justice against male abusers and powerful figures who try to get away with their crimes -- has many of the staples associated with superheroes.
She's an avenger dressed in black who has a traumatic origin story, a lair, a cool vehicle, gadgets, a secret identity, a reporter ally/love interest, and, in The Girl in the Spider's Web, she even wears a mask of sorts. Fede Alvarez acknowledged the character's superhero trappings during a post-footage Q&A, where he was joined by leading lady Claire Foy (on the day after winning an Emmy for The Crown).
Is Spider-Man PS4’s Dev Already Teasing a New Game?
BEYOND!
On this week's episode of Beyond, IGN's weekly PlayStation show, Jonathon Dornbush, Brian Altano, Max Scoville, and Jon Ryan discuss the possibility of whether Insomniac Games is really teasing its next game within Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4, as well as offer their recommendations for what to play after you've beaten and platinumed Spidey's adventure.
They also dive into Shadow of the Tomb Raider, PS4's mysterious 6.00 update, a literal minute of Kingdom Hearts discussion, Divinity: Original Sin II, and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's season pass.
Timecodes:
- Intro - 00:00
- Is Insomniac Already Teasing a New Game? - 1:12