Netflix has been working on its video game initiative for a while now, but it seems Netflix subscribers aren't catching on. Acording to a new report from CNBC, 1.7 million Netflix subscribers are interacting with the service's games on a daily basis, which is less than 1% of Netflix's 221 million subscribers.

Netflix's games have been downloaded 23.3 million times, which equals about 10% of Netflix's subscribers. However, that doesn't account for individual users who may have downloaded multiple titles. Any way you look at it, it's a very small slice of Netflix's customers that are taking advantage of the available games. This data is according to Apptopia, a global app tracker.

Netflix's current game catalog consists of 24 games, from Netflix adaptations like Stranger Things, to multiplatform indies like Moonlighter. We also know the company is working on adaptations of some of its original streaming content, including The Queen's Gambit, Shadow and Bone, and The Money Heist.

In January, Netflix said it was aiming to have "the absolute best" gaming service for its customers. It began rolling games out in November 2021, where active Netflix subscribers can access the catalog of available games for no additional cost. The company is hoping to increase its catalog to nearly 50 available games by the end of 2022.

It's been a rocky few months for Netflix. In July, the company announced it lost nearly 1 million subscribers over the last quarter. Netflix is also in the midst of a password sharing crackdown, as it blames customers sharing accounts for part of its struggles.

It hasn't been all bad for Netflix, though, as Stranger Things 4 rapidly became the second most-watched series in Netflix history, only trailing Squid Game.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson really wanted to forget making those movies.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 60-year-old filmmaker explained why he wanted to forget all about Middle-earth… and it was for a very good reason.

“When we did The Lord of the Rings movies I always felt I was the unlucky person who never got to see as a coming-out-of-the-blue film,” he said. “By the time they were screening, I was immersed in it for five or six years. It was such a loss for me not be able to see them like everyone else.”

Jackson was instrumental in bringing The Lord of the Rings to the big screen, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. He followed it up with The Two Towers in 2002 and finally The Return of the King in 2004.

Additionally, Jackson followed them up with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as well as its sequels, The Desolation of Smaug, and The Battle of the Five Armies. That’s a lot of Tolkien over the years.

But he still yearns to watch the films solely as a fan.

“I actually did seriously consider going to some hypnotherapy guy to hypnotize me to make me forget about the films and the work I had done over the last six or seven years so I could sit and enjoy them,” he said. “I didn’t follow through with it, but I did talk to [British mentalist] Derren Brown about that and he thought he could do it.”

Thankfully, he didn’t go through with it and still remembers making the Lord of Rings films… and Amazon, who made the upcoming Lord of the Rings show The Rings of Power were all too aware of his contributions, too.

Even if they did end up ghosting him after asking for his help.

Still, it looks as though this time around, Jackson will finally get to enjoy a Tolkien project that he hasn’t worked on… and he gets that fan experience for the first time.

“I’ll be watching it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If somebody makes a good film or TV show, it’s something to celebrate. The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer.”

Want to find out more about the Rings of Power? Check out our guide to the best way to watch the Lord of the Rings movies as well as what the upcoming TV show is all about.

Blogroll image credit: Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Classic video game Pac-Man is getting a live-action movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the retro arcade classic is heading to the big screen with a live-action adaptation.

Although video game movies don’t have the best reputation, this one is coming with quite a pedigree – produced by original game creators Bandai Namco Entertainment with a script based on an idea from none other than Sonic the Hedgehog producer, Chuck Williams.

A coin-op classic, Pac-Man was a pivotal title during the rise of video games in the 1980s. Released in 1980, it soon became an arcade staple and was followed by Ms. Pac-Man as well as the inimitable Pac-Land in 1984.

Everyone has played a version of the classic game. Pac-Man follows the titular hero making his way through a series of mazes while avoiding several ghosts – Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.

Quite how this will translate into live action remains to be seen.

However, the long-running arcade series has already seen several cartoons over the years, notably the Hanna-Barbera classic, Pac-Man, which first appeared on ABC in 1982, with Disney XD taking a swing at the arcade classic with Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures in 2013.

The Pac-Man live-action film will be made by Bandai Namco Entertainment as well as Wayfarer Studios – the studio behind Disney+ movie Clouds, as well as The CW series My Last Days.

Justin Baldoni, Manu Gargi, and Andrew Calof of Wayfarer Studios join as producers alongside Chuck Williams and Tim Kwok of Lightbeam.

How Pac-Man will work in live-action remains to be seen, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen the classic video game character on the big screen.

Pac-Man recently appeared in the video game movie, Pixels, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, and Peter Dinklage. Several Pac-Man characters also made predictable cameos in Wreck-It Ralph and its sequel.

Want to read more about video game movies? Here are the upcoming video game adaptations in 2022 and beyond, not to mention every video game movie coming to Netflix.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Microsoft recently released a new Xbox software development kit, which gives developers access to more memory. The change should help improve the performance when playing game on Xbox Series S.

As spotted by The Verge, the latest game development kit frees up hundreds of additional megabytes of memory for Xbox Series S game developers. "This gives developers more control over memory, which can improve graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions," Microsoft's Game Dev team noted in the June Game Development Kit video.

While this should help provide a much-needed boost to the Xbox Series S, it will take time for developers to optimize games, and there's no promise games already out on Series S will get a patch to improve their overall performance.

Either way, Microsoft freeing up more memory is a step in the right direction for the console. As Digital Foundry has pointed out, developers have reported the issues with the previous memory limitations on the Series S, which made it harder to optimize games on the system.

The Xbox Series S launched roughly two years ago as a $299 console far less powerful than Microsoft's current flagship, the Xbox Series X. As noted in our review back in 2020, the Series S has its place in the current home console market, but its limitations for resolution and storage make it hard to recommend for everyone.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Kevin Smith has weighed in on Warner Bros. Discovery's sudden and unexpected cancellation of the Batgirl film, calling the decision "an incredibly bad look."

Speaking on the latest episode of his Hollywood Babble-On series, Smith condemned Warner Bros. Discovery for axing the Batgirl movie starring Leslie Grace. He recognized the talents of directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah as he struggled to find a reason as to why the $90 million film had been scrapped when it was already so far along in post-production.

"It's an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina Batgirl movie," Smith said. "I don't give a sh** if the movie was absolute f***ing dogsh** — I guarantee you that it wasn't. The two directors who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of Ms. Marvel, and it was a wonderful f***ing show and they had more money to do Batgirl than they had to do an episode of Ms. Marvel and stuff."

El Arbi and Fallah have been inundated with messages following Batgirl's cancellation, with several filmmakers reaching out to share their support. El Arbi publicly thanked Marvel CEO Kevin Feige and directors James Gunn and Edgar Wright for their kind words, which came in stark contrast to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's comments that suggested Batgirl wasn't up to scratch.

"We're not going to release any film before it's ready," he said in a statement. "We're not going to release a film to make a quarter, we're not going to release a film — the focus is going to be, how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible. But DC is something that we think we could make better, and we're focused on it now."

Warner Bros. Discovery has since announced a new 10-year plan for DC films going forward that will be similar to what Disney and Kevin Feige have done for Marvel, but the "reset" has not gone down well, even with those inside the company, triggering wild speculation about the company's intentions for HBO Max and beyond, with reports suggesting that Supergirl could be in trouble as well.

DC Films president Walter Hamada was reportedly on the brink of quitting over the high-profile cancellation of Batgirl but has agreed to stay with the studio until at least the October 21 release of Black Adam. That film will usher in "a new era" of the DC universe — one that features the Justice Society of America represented by Atom Smasher, Hawkman, Cyclone, and Doctor Fate.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

House of the Dragon, the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, will include some elements that are told "very differently" to the book it's based on – but the showrunners have a very good (and very interesting) reason for that.

The source for House of the Dragon is Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin's spin-off book that tells the story of the Targaryen family in the guise of a history book. House of the Dragon, on the other hand, isn't being told like a history book, but a document of the real events.

In an interview with IGN (below), co-showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik explained that they want their show to feel like it interacts with Fire & Blood, rather than just telling the same stories onscreen.

"We're taking more of the approach [of] playing with the history as it was written. Essentially, saying that this is the objective truth that happened," Condal says of the show.

"The fun of this show is that it plays as a bit of a companion piece to the history book. It communicates with the history book. In a sense that, some things will line up. Other things will be told very differently. But the idea is that, in the end, the events are the same. It's just the 'why' and 'how' they happened that changes as you see the actual history."

It's a fascinating approach to take, effectively giving existing fans of the book new reasons to pay attention to the events of the show, and compare them to Fire & Blood – and hopefully without inflaming the normal kinds of arguments about changes to the source material.

Condal – a huge fan of George R.R. Martin's original work – is clearly bringing his expertise to bear here, pointing out why the truth of the events and the history books might differ based on teh source material itself:

"Most of those historical accounts that [Fire & Blood's fictional writer] Archmaester Gyldayn was sifting through, at least two of them weren't really around at the time. Or at least weren't present as the events were happening. [Court jester] Mushroom was, if you believe Mushroom, but one was written after the fact. And then, Gyldayn certainly lived long after [the Targaryens] did.

"We're taking the approach that history in its telling changes the story. Because the historian only ever knows so much about what happened, which is why primary sources and eyewitness accounts are so important. But we didn't have all of that in this."

Of course, we asked how big those changes might be – could a character who dies in the book survive in the show? Condal was understandably enigmatic:

"Certain events will play out in ways that surprise the audience if they have read the book. Given their understanding of the underpinning history."

The other benefit for the showrunners was that Fire & Blood's more academic approach means that the real surpises can come in the characterisation of the major players in House of the Dragon. Previously, we knew them just by the facts of their lives, but the show can show us the humans behind those acts.

"I think it was a gift," says Sapochnik of that opportunity, "because it gave us stuff to do. To think through not the, 'What they did,' but how they did it and why they did it. I think it was a blessing, really."

We'll find out quite how big those changes may be when House of the Dragon premieres on August 21. The show is just one of many Game of Thrones spin-offs in development (not to mention a bunch of unused ideas).

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

A leak of what appears to be a new console port of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl has been uploaded onto the internet by a Russian streamer apparently upset over developer GSC Game World's approach to supporting the war in Ukraine.

A new report from PC Gamer reveals that a Russian streamer who goes by two names - 'Nevazhno, Kto' and 'Velichaishii' - uploaded footage of an apparent console port of the original STALKER game, first released on PC in 2007, accompanied by a five-page document. Said document details that Nevazhno leaked the footage because GSC Game World has, in his eyes, discriminated against Russian fans by encouraging them to donate to Ukraine's Come Back Alive Foundation. The foundation helps supply defensive equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces, and donating to the Ukrainian military is a crime in Russia, hence Nevazhno's anger.

Nevazhno's chief problem is that GSC, a Ukrainian developer, did not make Russian supporters aware of the potential legal consequences of donating to the Come Back Alive Foundation. "This was an attempt to make bargaining chips out of Russians," he wrote in the document, seen by PC Gamer. "The only mention of criminality came when people began to complain about this shit to Roskomnadzor [Russia's media monitoring agency]".

PC Gamer spoke to GSC, who said "We have been publishing pleas to help Ukraine in our social media and on our web resources—just like thousands of other Ukrainian companies… Nonetheless, an important thing to mention is that we also added a clarification about the donations from Russia later on. We think we might be in the absolute minority—if not the only ones—to do so".

The document reportedly includes a number of other complaints, including Nevazhno's belief that Russian players are discriminated against in GSC's Discord server, but the choice to release footage of the console port of STALKER seems to mostly be rooted in this donations issue.

Nevazhno told PC Gamer that he hopes this leak concludes his attack on GSC. "I hope that everything ends with this," he said. "It doesn't matter how I got it, what's important is that I didn't lie, and this is not some fan mod… this leak was made out of a desire to achieve justice, which I saw in revenge by any means at all. This was a cry from the soul".

As for the leak itself, while it does look reasonably genuine, there's currently no confirmation from GSC over the video's authenticity. The developer did, however, deny to PC Gamer that the leak came from an employee also upset about the studio's attitude to Russian fans, which is how Nevazhno claims he came into possession of the footage.

GSC is currently working on STALKER 2, despite the impact of the Russian invasion on its staff. Originally planned to release this year, the war put a pause on development, and it is now planned for the first half of 2023.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

Alejandro Jodowrowsky has enjoyed quite an eclectic career over the decades, developing a reputation as an avant-garde filmmaker, an accomplished comic book writer and the man who nearly brought Dune to the big screen before David Lynch. It's the second of those feats that's on display with the release of The Jodorowsky Library Vol. 3.

The latest in a series of deluxe edition hardcover collections from Humanoids, The Jodorowsky Library Vol. 3 features several seminal works from the writer's widely revered Incal/Metabarons universe. IGN can exclusively debut a preview of The Final Incal:

As the title suggests, The Final Incal is the last chapter in Jodorowsky's Incal Saga. These sci-fi graphic novels follow a lowly private detective named John DiFool, who gains unusual abilities after encountering an artifact called the Luminous Incal.

The original Incal graphic novels were illustrated by Jodorowsky's frequent collaborator Moebius. Moebius began work on a sequel called After the Incal in 2000, but left the project before it was finished. The Final Incal is essentially a rebooted sequel, repurposing some of the ideas from After the Incal and pairing Jodorowsky with artist José Ladrönn. Both sequels are collected in The Jodowrowsky Library Vol. 3, along with Metabarons Genesis: Castaka, Weapons of the Metabarons and various other short stories.

The Jodorowsky Library Book Three is priced at $49.99 and is slated for release on Wednesday, August 9. You can preorder the book on Amazon now.

Thor: Love and Thunder's Taika Waititi is attached to co-write and direct a film adaptation of The Incal.

Check out IGN's Dune Explained feature for more on the iconic sci-fi franchise and Jodorowsky's failed attempt at adapting the original novel to film. That failure was later chronicled in the fascinating 2014 documentary Jodorowsky's Dune.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Splatoon 3 will be getting a dedicated Nintendo Direct presentation this Wednesday, August 10.

The broadcast will be roughly 30 minutes long, and begins at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK / 11pm AEST. Nintendo hasn't hinted at what will be inside, but you can guess at a healthy swathe of new gameplay, as well as new information about the game's Campaign, PvP and PvE modes.

Tune in on August 10 at 6 a.m. PT for a livestreamed #Splatoon3 Direct presentation. Join us in the Splatlands for roughly 30 minutes of updates! pic.twitter.com/iFfaU3V6vM

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 8, 2022

Splatoon 3 will be released om September 9, so this may be our last public look at the squid-based shooter before it arrives. Splatoon 3 was first announced last year, and brings back a familiar mix of competitive multiplayer (albeit with new weapons and special abilities), a returning co-op mode, Salmon Run, and a new single-player campaign titled "Return of the Mammalians".

Splatoon 3 will be the first game to get its own special edition Switch OLED model, which comes with a unique dock and Joy-Con controllers that all feature the game's graffiti-esque artwork alongside a splash of ink. The dock itself is white with a yellow splat while the left Joy-Con is navy blue blending into purple and the right is yellow blending into green.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Ubisoft's Skull and Bones is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated new games of 2022, and now pirate fanatics have even more to look forward to at the end of the year. Dark Horse Books is following up the game's release with a new hardcover called The Art of Skull and Bones.

Like all of Dark Horse's video game art books, The Art of Skull of Bones features a mix of concept art, creator interviews and other behind-the-scenes material that sheds light on the making of the game. Considering how long Skull and Bones has been in development - and how often it's been delayed - that should make for some very interesting reading.

The Art of Skull and Bones will also devote special attention to the many colorful characters and ships that make up this open-world pirate adventure.

“The team did a phenomenal job at creating the world of Skull and Bones - filled with diverse regions, ships and characters," said art director Kobe Sek in Dark Horse's press release. "We are proud to be able to showcase a glimpse of never-before-seen concept art of our game. We hope you’ll enjoy discovering the unique setting inspired by the Indian Ocean and immersing yourself in the pirate fantasy of Skull and Bones!”

The Art of Skull and Bones is priced at $49.99 and is slated for release on December 20 in bookstores and online retailers and December 21 in comic shops.

After many delays, Ubisoft has now revealed a November 8 release date for the game. Check out everything you need to know about Skull and Bones including gameplay details and more here.

Previous Dark Horse art books include The Art of God of War Ragnarok, The Art of Horizon: Forbidden West, The Art of Halo Infinite, The Art of Deathloop and The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.