Monthly Archives: June 2015
Razer May Buy Ouya For $10 Million Dollars
Ouya is up for sale and it sounds like Razer could be interested in buying.
According to VentureBeat, a "reliable source" says that Razer is currently in talks to purchase the microconsole company for somewhere in the $10 million dollar range.
Ouya has a library of over 1,124 Android games and has been used by over 40,000 developers. At CES 2015 earlier this year, Razer revealed Forge TV, its own Android-powered microconsole, so the appeal of Ouya to Razer isn't too mysterious.
19 Awesome Details That Got Us Hype for MGS5
Yesterday, we published an expanded hands-on preview for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain based off of 12-hours of playtime. We had a ton of fun with Kojima's latest installment of the Metal Gear series, but we're not done talking about it. We had a bunch of small left over notes over we wanted to share with you. A quick note: None of these notes spoil the story but, if you want to go into MGS5 with "your memory completely clean," please don't read this.
At one point in the first hour of the game Snake’s arm is injured. The sound was similar to the injury chime from previous Metal Gear Solid games. But rather than jump through a bunch of menus to repair the injury (ala MGS3), I could fix my arm by holding down the action button (triangle).
New Star Wars Battlefront Screenshot Shows Hoth
Electronic Arts and DICE have released a new screenshot for Star Wars Battlefront that shows off Hoth.
The Star Wars Battlefront image (seen below and unveiled on Twitter) shows rebels defending their base on the remote ice world, presumably inspired by the Battle of Hoth in Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back. Hoth is one of the four planets revealed for the 12 multiplayer maps in the sci-fi shooter, alongside Sullust, Endor and Tatooine.
Tomorrowland: Disney’s Biggest Flop Since Lone Ranger
It's a good thing they own the money-printing machines known as Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and Pixar because Disney reportedly stands to lose a fortune on Tomorrowland.
The Brad Bird-directed, Damon Lindelof-produced sci-fi adventure film starring George Clooney stands to lose between $120-$140 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That would make it the studio's biggest write-down since 2013's The Lone Ranger, which lost Disney a reported $190 million.
THR says Tomorrowland cost $180 million to produce and at least $150 million to market. Tomorrowland has earned roughly $171 million worldwide so far, with $77.3 million of it coming from North American ticket sales. It finished in seventh place at the domestic box office last weekend.
ABC Fall Premieres: Agents of SHIELD, Muppets, and More
ABC has announced its fall premiere dates, with dates for Agents of SHIELD and The Muppets, among others.
The Muppets will begin September 22, at 8 PM ET. It will lead into the second season of Fresh Off the Boat. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is coming later in the month on September 29, and will replace Dancing with the Stars at the 9 PM ET spot.
Other new additions to the line-up include Blood & Oil and Quantico at 9 PM and 10 PM, respectively, on Sunday, September 27. The Ken Jeong comedy Dr. Ken will premiere at 8:30 PM on October 2, and Wicked City will begin at 10 PM on October 27.
Steve Watts is a freelance writer who is movin' right along. You can read more of his keen insights by following him on Twitter and IGN.
Batman v Superman Goes LEGO
The neatly stylized Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice posters have attracted a LEGO version from the toy company.
The image is almost identical to the real thing, albeit with Superman and Batman's LEGO-blocky faces and studded background surfaces. Plus, it adds the word "Building" to the 2016 teaser.
DC and LEGO have been working together these days, most notably with a prominent part for Batman (and cameos from Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern) in the recent The LEGO Movie. That was so successful, in fact, that LEGO Batman is getting his own spin-off movie in 2017. We would bet that Supes will make an appearance in that movie too, so maybe the two iconic heroes will throw down twice in a row.
Aca-ourse They’re Making Pitch Perfect 3
Pitch Perfect 3 is reportedly in the early stages of development.
According to Variety, Universal and Gold Circle are planning another sequel in the musical comedy series starring Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson. The movie studio and production company are apparently negotiating with writer Kay Cannon about returning for Pitch Perfect 3.
Cannon, who's written for 30 Rock and New Girl, penned the screenplays for Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. She also served as a producer on those TV shows as well as the feature film Baby Mama.
While Universal and Gold Circle are in talks with Cannon, there's no information on who might direct Pitch Perfect 3 or which Bellas could return for the film. That said, Pitch Perfect 2, helmed by Elizabeth Banks, has made over $250 million worldwide and beat out Mad Max: Fury Road during their debut weekends. So Banks has to at least be in the running for the gig.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Announced for Comic-Con
It's official: Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be at next month's San Diego Comic-Con!
StarWars.com announced today that The Force Awakens will have its own panel on Friday, July 10th, in Hall H. The panel's time has not yet been revealed.
Lucasfilm president and producer Kathleen Kennedy, director J.J. Abrams, writer Lawrence Kasdan, and "special guests" will be attendance to gives fans a special look at Episode VII. (The site says further details about the panel will be revealed Thursday at Entertainment Weekly.)
Research Finds Only 34% of Games Come to Retail
The latest findings from the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) group suggest an all-digital future may be closer than we think.
GamesIndustry reports that according to EEDAR's findings, the number of games released physically on Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony hardware has declined from 383 copies in 2008 to 145 in 2014.
Conversely, the drop of physical releases has been countered by the rise of digital. In 2008, 102 games were released onto digital storefronts, whereas in 2014, the number rose to 279. Now, virtually all games released physically also see a release on digital storefronts.
Phantom Pain Will Have Optional In-Game Purchases
An Italian PlayStation Store pre-order page for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain reveals the presence of microtransactions in Konami's upcoming stealth game.
The line "Acquisti in-game opzionali," which roughly translates to "optional in-game purchases," confirms suspicions first raised by a few recent previews of The Phantom Pain.
You can see the full Italian page listing on the PlayStation Store.
IGN's own Jose Otero also noticed room for what could be microtransactions when he previewed The Phantom Pain last month.