Monthly Archives: March 2015
Join IGN for Our Live Coverage of Apple’s “Spring Forward” Event
On March 9, Apple will hold its "Spring Forward" event—and we'll be liveblogging it so you can follow along with the news as it's dropped.
What can we expect? With the Apple Watch launching in April, it's practically a guarantee that the press conference's opening focus will be on the upcoming wearable. Expect an exact release date, as well as more specific pricing for the three versions of the smartwatch and likely more information on what apps it'll support.
Of course, given Apple's approach to press conferences, there'll be other product announcements in store too. Product lines we haven't heard much about recently include Macbooks, AppleTV, and the iPod Touch; we may hear about a Macbook Air with an Intel Broadwell processor or an AppleTV that supports 4K. (And perhaps iPod Touch fans will see an upgrade from a 2011-era A5 processor to last fall's A8 processor.)
The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee Lands TBS Show
Back when Jon Stewart announced that he was leaving The Daily Show, we wondered if one of the show's current correspondents would take his place. But then the news came last week that Jason Jones was leaving the show to star in and executive produce a new scripted comedy for TBS.
Now it's been announced that Jones' wife, The Daily Show's Samantha Bee, is also leaving - also for TBS - to host her own (currently untitled) show where she can "apply her smart and satirical point of view to current and relevant issues."
SEGA and Pokemon Dev Tease New Project
SEGA may have a project in the works with Pokémon developer Game Freak, according to a recent tweet.
SEGA Tweeted the below image, which shows what appears to be an elephant (or other animal with a trunk) shooting peanuts and grenades at another ambiguous fleeing animal. The image shows the date March 11, 2015, suggesting the companies may have an announcement coming soon.
BioShock and Others Re-Imagined as Classic Sci-Fi Novels
An artist named Joshua Ketchen has taken to re-imagining popular video game franchises as old-school science fiction novels.
More specifically, their covers. As spotted by Kotaku, Ketchen has shown what BioShock, Resident Evil, Portal, Pikmin, Star Fox, Metroid, Mega Man, and EarthBound would have looked like and been called had they been on store shelves years ago. Each are currently available for purchase. Check them out in the slideshow below:
Fifty Shades Passes $500 Million at Box Office
Universal Pictures' Fifty Shades of Grey has surpassed $500 million at the global box office.
The film adaptation of E.L. James' bestselling erotic novel, which cost only $40 million to make, has grossed over $350 million in foreign markets. That makes it Universal's highest grossing R-rated movie of all-time internationally, according to Variety.
Domestically, Fifty Shades of Grey grossed $81.7 million in its opening weekend, making it the biggest Valentine's Day weekend opening ever. The next weekend, however, Fifty Shades dropped 73%, grossing just $23.2 million.
Steam Machine Models, Pricing Listed on Steam Store
Valve listed pricing for a variety of Steam Machine models on the Steam Store, some of which will be bundled with the Steam Controller at launch.
All models release sometime in November of this year, although Valve has yet to announce the exact date. The first among the listed models is the Alienware Steam Machine, which comes bundled with the Steam Controller –– all in all, the bundle is priced at $450 USD.
Final Fantasy 15 Director Gets Advice From Series Creator
Despite having left Square Enix over ten years ago, Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi still keeps in contact with the developers at his old haunt. In fact, during a recent sit-down interview with IGN, he revealed he even imparted some advice to Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV, on how to handle the popular series.
"My advice was, 'you guys should just go out and freely make what you want, but make sure that you don't leave things hanging. It's very important to make sure that you have a nice, completed package to deliver to the people, and then when you move onto the next
, just start all over.'"
We recently reported that Sakaguchi has a dislike for spin-offs, so it's no surprise he's hoping future Final Fantasy games will have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Whether the Final Fantasy XV team will heed his advice remains to be seen.
NASA Scientists Reproduce Building Blocks of Life
The scientific community is always seeking out answers to the big questions, and primary to that quest is figuring out how life began on this planet. NASA Ames scientists recently discovered a way to reproduce three key elements of ribonucleic (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) in the laboratory.
The molecule pyrimidine, which is found in meteorites, exists as a bonding structure for these three building block elements. And by irradiating ice samples in a vacuum chamber, the process is synthesized to create these genetic elements.
Suicide Squad: Leto’s Joker Goes Bleach Blond
As every nerd and their barber probably knows by now, Jared Leto cut off his long hair and shaved his Biblical beard this week in preparation for playing Joker in the Suicide Squad movie.
But, oh, that's not all he did to his locks. He also bleached them blond as revealed by these new photos posted to the Oscar winner's Instagram:
Comcast Blocks HBO Go on PS4
The HBO Go app released on PlayStation 4 recently, but Comcast customers are unable to activate it on Sony's console.
HBO Go originally released for PS3 last year, and the same problem occurred under Comcast. Users took to forums asking the broadband provider if the ommission was for technical reasons, and Comcast cited business technicalities for the app's absence. The provider didn't mention PS4 specifically in the post, but did include "other devices" in its response.
"HBO Go availability on PS3 (and some other devices) are business decisions and deal with business terms that have not yet been agreed to between the parties," Comcast wrote on the forum thread. "Thanks for your continued patience."