Monthly Archives: March 2021
Netflix’s New Test Might Call You Out If You’re Sharing Passwords
A new Netflix test may indicate that the streamer will attempt to prevent users from sharing accounts in the future.
In the past week, Netflix has introduced a verification system for users across multiple countries that displays a warning: "If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching." The new prompt was first reported on by GammaWire.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/28/new-to-netflix-for-march-2021"]
The test allows users to authenticate their account through text or email, or simply press a button to "Verify Later." It also provides the option of setting up a new account.
“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so," Netflix told IGN when reached for comment.
In its current form, the prompt will not lock users out of the account they are using if they select the option to verify later. Additionally, it only appears on TV devices at the moment. It appears the test is limited to a few markets, currently.
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The new test represents a notable shift in Netflix's own attitude towards the practice of password sharing, to which it has historically turned a blind eye. While it isn't exactly illegal for users to share passwords with one another, it does go against the terms of service listed on the company's website. The company already has lighter password sharing prevention measures in place, limiting the number of devices that can use an account at the same time. However, this is a notably forward reminder to users of the streamer's official policies.
In 2016, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings explained password sharing to analysts as something that came with the streaming landscape. "Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with," Hastings said. "There’s so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse [or] with your kids... so there’s no bright line, and we’re doing fine as is."
Netflix reported that it had 203.7 million global subscribers at the end of 2020. As the streaming landscape continues to grow more crowded, with services like Paramount+, HBO Max, and Disney+ launching in the past two years, cracking down on password sharing appears to be one pathway that Netflix could take to continue growing its subscriber base in the future.
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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Netflix’s New Test Might Call You Out If You’re Sharing Passwords
A new Netflix test may indicate that the streamer will attempt to prevent users from sharing accounts in the future.
In the past week, Netflix has introduced a verification system for users across multiple countries that displays a warning: "If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching." The new prompt was first reported on by GammaWire.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/28/new-to-netflix-for-march-2021"]
The test allows users to authenticate their account through text or email, or simply press a button to "Verify Later." It also provides the option of setting up a new account.
“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so," Netflix told IGN when reached for comment.
In its current form, the prompt will not lock users out of the account they are using if they select the option to verify later. Additionally, it only appears on TV devices at the moment. It appears the test is limited to a few markets, currently.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-netflix-original-movies-and-tv-shows&captions=true"]
The new test represents a notable shift in Netflix's own attitude towards the practice of password sharing, to which it has historically turned a blind eye. While it isn't exactly illegal for users to share passwords with one another, it does go against the terms of service listed on the company's website. The company already has lighter password sharing prevention measures in place, limiting the number of devices that can use an account at the same time. However, this is a notably forward reminder to users of the streamer's official policies.
In 2016, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings explained password sharing to analysts as something that came with the streaming landscape. "Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with," Hastings said. "There’s so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse [or] with your kids... so there’s no bright line, and we’re doing fine as is."
Netflix reported that it had 203.7 million global subscribers at the end of 2020. As the streaming landscape continues to grow more crowded, with services like Paramount+, HBO Max, and Disney+ launching in the past two years, cracking down on password sharing appears to be one pathway that Netflix could take to continue growing its subscriber base in the future.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Gnosia Review
Adrift in space, a ship faces a terrifying crisis: Some of its members are no longer human, and plan to take over the vessel to offer it to an otherworldly being known only as the Gnos. To succeed, these beings--the Gnosia--must kill the other crew members, one by one, and deceive the others into thinking that innocent crew are the enemy. Trapped in a terrifying time loop that only you and another crew member are aware of, you must protect the ship from the threat of the Gnosia--or, as fate might dictate, eagerly destroy everything for your sinister overlord.
If you're thinking that this concept sounds a lot like a certain multiplayer game that's become extremely popular over the last year, you're not wrong--the similarities in concept between Gnosia and Among Us are undeniable. But Gnosia, which released a few years back on the PS Vita and only recently came to Switch in English, takes that concept and puts a very different spin on it. By utilizing a visual novel-like presentation, RPG-like mechanics, a great cast of characters, and a multi-layered story, Gnosia presents you with a very different take on the social deduction game--one that, despite some stumbles, succeeds quite admirably.
When you begin Gnosia, you meet Setsu, an unassuming green-haired crewmember who briefs you on what's going on. Besides yourself, Setsu is the only other person on board who is fully aware of what's happening: that everyone on the ship is trapped in a horrifying time loop where one or more of the crew--including you--have been infected by the Gnosia. Unfortunately, Gnosia infection can't be determined visually, so each day, the crew votes on someone to send to cold sleep until all Gnosia are eliminated. With each loop, things change dramatically: the crew members on board, the amount of Gnosia, and what roles everyone plays. And sometimes, completely unexpected things happen beyond the control of even the humans or the Gnosia. With Setsu as your aide--and sometimes Gnosia-infected enemy--you must figure out a way to escape from this eternal hell by looping as many times as it takes to solve the mystery.
Continue Reading at GameSpotGnosia Review
Adrift in space, a ship faces a terrifying crisis: Some of its members are no longer human, and plan to take over the vessel to offer it to an otherworldly being known only as the Gnos. To succeed, these beings--the Gnosia--must kill the other crew members, one by one, and deceive the others into thinking that innocent crew are the enemy. Trapped in a terrifying time loop that only you and another crew member are aware of, you must protect the ship from the threat of the Gnosia--or, as fate might dictate, eagerly destroy everything for your sinister overlord.
If you're thinking that this concept sounds a lot like a certain multiplayer game that's become extremely popular over the last year, you're not wrong--the similarities in concept between Gnosia and Among Us are undeniable. But Gnosia, which released a few years back on the PS Vita and only recently came to Switch in English, takes that concept and puts a very different spin on it. By utilizing a visual novel-like presentation, RPG-like mechanics, a great cast of characters, and a multi-layered story, Gnosia presents you with a very different take on the social deduction game--one that, despite some stumbles, succeeds quite admirably.
When you begin Gnosia, you meet Setsu, an unassuming green-haired crewmember who briefs you on what's going on. Besides yourself, Setsu is the only other person on board who is fully aware of what's happening: that everyone on the ship is trapped in a horrifying time loop where one or more of the crew--including you--have been infected by the Gnosia. Unfortunately, Gnosia infection can't be determined visually, so each day, the crew votes on someone to send to cold sleep until all Gnosia are eliminated. With each loop, things change dramatically: the crew members on board, the amount of Gnosia, and what roles everyone plays. And sometimes, completely unexpected things happen beyond the control of even the humans or the Gnosia. With Setsu as your aide--and sometimes Gnosia-infected enemy--you must figure out a way to escape from this eternal hell by looping as many times as it takes to solve the mystery.
Continue Reading at GameSpotMission: Impossible 7 Adds Rob Delaney, Cary Elwes and More to Its Cast
Mission: Impossible 7 continues to get bigger.
Director Christopher McQuarrie announced several new additions to the upcoming Tom Cruise film's cast through his Instagram. Cary Elwes, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, Charles Parnell, and Mark Gatiss have joined the film, which has been in production through 2020 and 2021.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/07/13/mission-impossible-in-7-minutes-2018-update"]
Paramount Pictures also confirmed that Greg Tarzan Davis, who stars in the upcoming Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick, has also joined the cast.
These 6 actors join an already impressive ensemble of series veterans and newcomers. Alongside Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, and Henry Czerny will all be reprising roles from previous entries. Pom Klementieff, Hayley Atwell, and Shea Whigham will make their franchise debuts, as will Esai Morales in a villain role that was originally conceived for Nicholas Hoult.
While few details have been revealed about the nature of the newly announced actors' roles, McQuarrie's Instagram posts show Varma, Gatiss, Elwes, and Parnell in formal wear. Delaney's photograph features the actor in a military uniform, as well as the mysterious caption "Welcome to The Community."
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Elwes is most well-known for his starring roles in The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Delaney is primarily a comedic actor, having just starred in the live-action/animated hybrid Tom & Jerry. Meanwhile, Indira Varma was a regular cast member on Game of Thrones and was recently cast in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series. McQuarrie's announcement reflects a somewhat odd collection of actors that wouldn't typically appear in projects together. It will be intriguing to see how the director brings each personality into the action-heavy espionage of the Mission: Impossible series.
Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 were originally planned to be shot back-to-back, though scheduling conflicts and the pandemic prevented such plans. As is, Cruise and McQuarrie are both attached to return to Mission: Impossible 8 when it does enter production.
Mission: Impossible 7 is set to debut this November.
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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
(Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)
Mission: Impossible 7 Adds Rob Delaney, Cary Elwes and More to Its Cast
Mission: Impossible 7 continues to get bigger.
Director Christopher McQuarrie announced several new additions to the upcoming Tom Cruise film's cast through his Instagram. Cary Elwes, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, Charles Parnell, and Mark Gatiss have joined the film, which has been in production through 2020 and 2021.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/07/13/mission-impossible-in-7-minutes-2018-update"]
Paramount Pictures also confirmed that Greg Tarzan Davis, who stars in the upcoming Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick, has also joined the cast.
These 6 actors join an already impressive ensemble of series veterans and newcomers. Alongside Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, and Henry Czerny will all be reprising roles from previous entries. Pom Klementieff, Hayley Atwell, and Shea Whigham will make their franchise debuts, as will Esai Morales in a villain role that was originally conceived for Nicholas Hoult.
While few details have been revealed about the nature of the newly announced actors' roles, McQuarrie's Instagram posts show Varma, Gatiss, Elwes, and Parnell in formal wear. Delaney's photograph features the actor in a military uniform, as well as the mysterious caption "Welcome to The Community."
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=mission-impossible-fallout-gallery&captions=true"]
Elwes is most well-known for his starring roles in The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Delaney is primarily a comedic actor, having just starred in the live-action/animated hybrid Tom & Jerry. Meanwhile, Indira Varma was a regular cast member on Game of Thrones and was recently cast in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series. McQuarrie's announcement reflects a somewhat odd collection of actors that wouldn't typically appear in projects together. It will be intriguing to see how the director brings each personality into the action-heavy espionage of the Mission: Impossible series.
Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 were originally planned to be shot back-to-back, though scheduling conflicts and the pandemic prevented such plans. As is, Cruise and McQuarrie are both attached to return to Mission: Impossible 8 when it does enter production.
Mission: Impossible 7 is set to debut this November.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
(Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)
Benedict Cumberbatch Completely Rejects Playing Thrawn in Star Wars
With The Mandalorian: Season 2 name-dropping everyone's favorite blue-skinned Imperial warlord, it seems only a matter of time before Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his live-action Star Wars debut. And while we don't yet know which actor will take on that role, we can rule out one popular fan choice. Benedict Cumberbatch has torpedoed any possibility of playing Thrawn.
In an interview with Collider promoting his new film The Courier, Cumberbatch admitted he has no idea who Thrawn is and hasn't taken part in any discussions about taking on the role in The Mandalorian: Season 3 or Star Wars: Ahsoka. More to the point, Cumberbatch has no interest in committing to a part that would require hours of painstaking makeup each day.
"That’s a straight no from me, right now," Cumberbatch told Collider. "There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that."
Grand Admiral Thrawn originally debuted in the 1991 novel Star Wars: Heir to the Empire. While the character initially appeared mainly in Bantam's Star Wars novels and Dark Horse's Star Wars comics, he later made the jump to Disney's official Star Wars canon when he appeared in the latter two seasons of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Thrawn was voiced in that series by Lars Mikkelsen, who coincidentally starred opposite Cumberbatch in the Series 3 finale of Sherlock. It's not unreasonable to assume Disney might again turn to Mikkelsen to play Thrawn in live-action, especially with actress Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan Kryze already setting a precedent in that regard.
IGN spoke to Thrawn's creator Timothy Zahn in 2020, who revealed he doesn't see the current incarnation of Thrawn as being a fundamentally different character from the Expanded Universe version. Zahn is currently expanding on Thrawn's back-story through a new trilogy of novels called The Thrawn Ascendancy.
The Courier is a spy drama based on historical events where Cumberbatch plays Greville Wynne, a British businessman who helps his government gather intel on the Soviet nuclear weapons program. Check out an exclusive clip from the movie below:
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/the-courier-exclusive-official-clip"]
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Benedict Cumberbatch Completely Rejects Playing Thrawn in Star Wars
With The Mandalorian: Season 2 name-dropping everyone's favorite blue-skinned Imperial warlord, it seems only a matter of time before Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his live-action Star Wars debut. And while we don't yet know which actor will take on that role, we can rule out one popular fan choice. Benedict Cumberbatch has torpedoed any possibility of playing Thrawn.
In an interview with Collider promoting his new film The Courier, Cumberbatch admitted he has no idea who Thrawn is and hasn't taken part in any discussions about taking on the role in The Mandalorian: Season 3 or Star Wars: Ahsoka. More to the point, Cumberbatch has no interest in committing to a part that would require hours of painstaking makeup each day.
"That’s a straight no from me, right now," Cumberbatch told Collider. "There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that."
Grand Admiral Thrawn originally debuted in the 1991 novel Star Wars: Heir to the Empire. While the character initially appeared mainly in Bantam's Star Wars novels and Dark Horse's Star Wars comics, he later made the jump to Disney's official Star Wars canon when he appeared in the latter two seasons of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Thrawn was voiced in that series by Lars Mikkelsen, who coincidentally starred opposite Cumberbatch in the Series 3 finale of Sherlock. It's not unreasonable to assume Disney might again turn to Mikkelsen to play Thrawn in live-action, especially with actress Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan Kryze already setting a precedent in that regard.
IGN spoke to Zahn's creator Timothy Zahn in 2020, who revealed he doesn't see the current incarnation of Thrawn as being a fundamentally different character from the Expanded Universe version. Zahn is currently expanding on Thrawn's back-story through a new trilogy of novels called The Thrawn Ascendancy.
The Courier is a spy drama based on historical events where Cumberbatch plays Greville Wynne, a British businessman who helps his government gather intel on the Soviet nuclear weapons program. Check out an exclusive clip from the movie below:
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/the-courier-exclusive-official-clip"]
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Xbox Confirms Summer Event, Will Include More Bethesda News
Xbox has confirmed it is planning a summer games event of some kind this year, and Bethesda is heavily involved in its planning.
During today's roundtable discussing the recent Xbox acquisition of Bethesda, Xbox marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg and Bethesda global marketing and comms executive Erin Losi confirmed that they were "in the planning phase" for an event sometime this summer that would include more news about what the partnership between the two companies would entail.
No further details were given, though Greenberg did add that what they were planning was the sort of event Xbox traditionally would hold at E3.
This could potentially mean more details on upcoming Bethesda titles that have been quiet for some time, such as The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield -- though neither Greenberg nor Losi named any specific games during this segment.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/09/xbox-officially-owns-bethesda-heres-what-that-means-for-exclusives-ign-daily-fix-"]
E3 is happening as a digital-only event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is not clear yet whether this Xbox event will be separate from this digital event or not. Historically, Xbox has held big presentations at E3 each year, but as last year's E3 was cancelled, it and other companies held standalone events instead during the summer months.
In the same presentation today, Xbox announced that 20 Bethesda games would be coming to Xbox Game Pass beginning tomorrow, and Xbox head Phil Spencer gave more details on the future of Bethesda games on Xbox platforms, such as Game Pass, we well as non-Xbox platforms.
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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Xbox Confirms Summer Event, Will Include More Bethesda News
Xbox has confirmed it is planning a summer games event of some kind this year, and Bethesda is heavily involved in its planning.
During today's roundtable discussing the recent Xbox acquisition of Bethesda, Xbox marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg and Bethesda global marketing and comms executive Erin Lossi confirmed that they were "in the planning phase" for an event sometime this summer that would include more news about what the partnership between the two companies would entail.
No further details were given, though Greenberg did add that what they were planning was the sort of event Xbox traditionally would hold at E3.
This could potentially mean more details on upcoming Bethesda titles that have been quiet for some time, such as The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield -- though neither Greenberg nor Lossi named any specific games during this segment.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/09/xbox-officially-owns-bethesda-heres-what-that-means-for-exclusives-ign-daily-fix-"]
E3 is happening as a digital-only event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is not clear yet whether this Xbox event will be separate from this digital event or not. Historically, Xbox has held big presentations at E3 each year, but as last year's E3 was cancelled, it and other companies held standalone events instead during the summer months.
In the same presentation today, Xbox announced that 20 Bethesda games would be coming to Xbox Game Pass beginning tomorrow, and Xbox head Phil Spencer gave more details on the future of Bethesda games on Xbox platforms, such as Game Pass, we well as non-Xbox platforms.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.