Monthly Archives: February 2019
Activision Blizzard Reportedly Planning Massive Layoffs
Activision Blizzard is reportedly planning on announcing job cuts that could "number in the hundreds" following slowing sales for the company responsible for such titles as Call of Duty and Overwatch.
As reported by Bloomberg, the announcement of these layoffs could arrive as early as Tuesday and are "part of a restructuring aimed at centralizing functions and boosting profit."
Activision Blizzard's shares dropped around 2.5% on Friday and is furthering the story that was "acknowledged on a November conference call that some key titles, such as Overwatch and Hearthstone, were seeing flat or declining numbers of users."
Kingdom Hearts 3: The Challenges and Rewards of Working With Disney
There are licensed games, and then there’s Kingdom Hearts – very probably the biggest and strangest cross-company undertaking in video game history. Over the course of almost 20 years, Square’s borrowed dozens of Disney characters and adapted them for its bonkers multiverse plotline. Kingdom Hearts 3 is its most ambitious use of Disney properties yet, from trying to create photorealistic Pirates of the Caribbean characters, while simultaneously trying to capture Pixar animation magic for the first time.
It’s such an unusual task that, in getting the chance to talk with multiple members of the game’s team, my first question was invariably “what’s working with Disney like?” The range of answers reveals a lot about how both Disney and Square Enix work, and the challenges and rewards of their ongoing relationship. Here’s what I learned.
Kingdom Hearts 3: The Challenges and Rewards of Working With Disney
There are licensed games, and then there’s Kingdom Hearts – very probably the biggest and strangest cross-company undertaking in video game history. Over the course of almost 20 years, Square’s borrowed dozens of Disney characters and adapted them for its bonkers multiverse plotline. Kingdom Hearts 3 is its most ambitious use of Disney properties yet, from trying to create photorealistic Pirates of the Caribbean characters, while simultaneously trying to capture Pixar animation magic for the first time.
It’s such an unusual task that, in getting the chance to talk with multiple members of the game’s team, my first question was invariably “what’s working with Disney like?” The range of answers reveals a lot about how both Disney and Square Enix work, and the challenges and rewards of their ongoing relationship. Here’s what I learned.
New Code Geass Movie Is Coming to Theaters This May
Funimation's upcoming anime movie Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection will be released in North American theaters this May. The subtitled version will debut May 5 and the dubbed version will be shown May 7-8.
In addition to the release date, Funimation provided IGN with an exclusive new teaser. While brief, it gives us our first glimpse at series protagonist Lelouch vi Britannia (aka Lelouch Lamperouge or Zero) in the Code Geass sequel movie, and he appears to be alive and well.
Watch the new teaser trailer below:
Funimation dropped the first trailer for Lelouch of the Re;surrection this past December, showing Kalleen, Suzaku, and several others. Meanwhile, Lelouch was noticeably absent, with fans left questioning whether or not he's still alive. This new teaser makes it clear Lelouch is indeed alive, and it looks like he will play a key role in the film.
New Code Geass Movie Is Coming to Theaters This May
Funimation's upcoming anime movie Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection will be released in North American theaters this May. The subtitled version will debut May 5 and the dubbed version will be shown May 7-8.
In addition to the release date, Funimation provided IGN with an exclusive new teaser. While brief, it gives us our first glimpse at Code Geass protagonist Lelouch vi Britannia (aka Lelouch Lamperouge or Zero) in the movie, and he appears to be alive and well.
Watch the new teaser trailer below:
Funimation dropped the first trailer for the upcoming movie sequel this past December, showing Kalleen, Suzaku, and others. Meanwhile, Lelouch was noticeably absent, with fans left questioning whether or not he's still alive. This new teaser makes it clear Lelouch is indeed alive and will play a key role in the film.
Game of Thrones Fans Will Be ‘Really Happy’ With Ending, Says HBO Boss
With the final season of HBO's Game of Thrones just around the corner, HBO's programming chief Casey Bloys has said that fans will be "really really happy" with the ending.
As reported by Deadline, Bloys discussed how he feels as a fan of the show and how well he feels executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have done.
"The only thing I will say as a fan of the show is that I think the guys have done a brilliant job of ending the show in a dramatically satisfying and emotionally satisfying way," Bloys said. "I do believe that fans are going to be really really happy with how it all wraps up.”
Game of Thrones Fans Will Be ‘Really Happy’ With Ending, Says HBO Boss
With the final season of HBO's Game of Thrones just around the corner, HBO's programming chief Casey Bloys has said that fans will be "really really happy" with the ending.
As reported by Deadline, Bloys discussed how he feels as a fan of the show and how well he feels executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have done.
"The only thing I will say as a fan of the show is that I think the guys have done a brilliant job of ending the show in a dramatically satisfying and emotionally satisfying way," Bloys said. "I do believe that fans are going to be really really happy with how it all wraps up.”
Marvel Teases Major Fantastic Four Villain on Captain Marvel’s ‘90s Website
Update: Looks like this might be a false alarm, as some folk have pointed out that the Annihilus related URL is potentially one Marvel has used for image hosting in the past. Original story follows if you still want to know what it could mean for the MCU – and who knows, maybe Marvel is playing the long con!
In keeping with Captain Marvel’s ‘90s era setting, Marvel released a promotional website that looks like it was made in the ‘90s, and while the site counter, guestbook, and painfully over-animated fonts bring about a certain sense of nostalgia, that’s not what has fans talking. The URL for the throwback website features a big Easter egg for an iconic Fantastic Four villain.
Marvel Teases Major Fantastic Four Villain on Captain Marvel’s ‘90s Website
In keeping with Captain Marvel’s ‘90s era setting, Marvel released a promotional website that looks like it was made in the ‘90s, and while the site counter, guestbook, and painfully over-animated fonts bring about a certain sense of nostalgia, that’s not what has fans talking. The URL for the throwback website features a big Easter egg for an iconic Fantastic Four villain.
The URL starts with “https://i.annihil.us/” which spells out the name Annihilus, longtime nemesis of the Fantastic Four. The powerful bad guy first appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #6 from November 1968. Annihilus hails from another dimension called the Negative Zone and is a threat not just to Earth but the entire universe because he controls the Annihilation Wave, a massive fleet of insect-like warships. His power level is off the charts, able to go toe-to-toe with mighty cosmic Marvel characters like Silver Surfer and Thanos.
What Could Nintendo’s Unannounced 2019 Games Be?
Nintendo announced today that it's holding onto some unannounced games that it plans to release this year. If there's one thing I love, it's ruining the surprise for myself, and so I did a little digging into possible clues.
It's an interesting situation, given that Nintendo tends to enjoy teeing up its bigger games well in advance of their release. That would seem to point to a smaller release - but Nintendo has also said it has an unannounced title it thinks will "please fans" in the wings. With that in mind, the following is a list of (mostly) informed speculation about what we could be seeing pop up in a Nintendo Direct, and popping into our Switches shortly afterwards: