Monthly Archives: July 2015
‘Sparks Will Fly’ Between Daredevil & Punisher in Season 2
At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, IGN talked to Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada about the success of and Season 2 plans for Netflix’s Daredevil series. He discussed the darker tone and introducing both the Punisher and Elektra.
As CCO, Quesada’s job is to make sure any comic book that becomes a TV show, movie or what have you maintains its creative integrity and keeps its Marvel flavor. For example, Quesada teased that during Comic-Con he met with a designer about a TV show character who will be getting a new costume. He didn’t say who, but our minds immediately leap to Daredevil or Mockingbird from Agents of SHIELD.
Space Jam 2 with LeBron James Could Still Be a Thing
LeBron James’ production company SpringHill Entertainment has entered into a partnership with Warner Bros. Could Space Jam 2 be far behind?
The Wall Street Journal has the report on the partnership, which is part of James’ plan to build an entertainment business and comes on the heels of the basketball star’s appearance in the Amy Schumer film Trainwreck.
The Grand Tournament Hearthstone Expansion Announced
During a live event today, Blizzard announced the next expansion, The Grand Tournament, is coming to Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft. The expansion will include 132 new cards.
Game design manager Eric Dodds took to the stage to make the announcement, describing the expansion as being about "epic characters doing battle on epic steeds."
New cards were shown off during the presentation, as well as the announcement of a new mechanic that focuses on the heroes. There will be a "ton of new hero power cards," Dodds said. One such card is the Maiden of the Lake, a card that reduces hero power cost to 1. The expansion also introduces a new keyword, "Inspire." Inspire minions have powers that activate every time you use your hero power.
George R.R. Martin Loves Ant-Man
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is a big Marvel fan, and he had some strong opinions to share about Marvel Studios' latest film, Ant-Man.
"ANT-MAN has a proper balance of story, character, humor, and action, I think," he wrote on his personal blog. "A couple reviewers are calling it the best Marvel movie ever. I won't go that far, but it's right up there, maybe second only to the second Sam Raimi/ Tobey McGuire
Spider-Man film, the one with Doc Ock.
"I've liked most of the Marvel movies, to be sure, I'm still a Marvel fanboy at heart (Excelsior!), but I liked this one more than the first AVENGERS and a lot more than the second, more than either THOR, more than the second and third IRON MAN and maybe just a smidge more than the first (though I liked that one a lot too)."
Jurassic World Becomes Third Highest-Grossing Film of All Time
Jurassic World has now grossed $1.52 billion at the worldwide box office, surpassing The Avengers as the third highest-grossing film ever.
Starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World has grossed $614.3 million at the domestic box office, and an additional $907.3 at the foreign box office, according to Variety. The dinosaur flick is the second Universal Studios film to gross over $1 billion this year; Furious 7 grossed $1.51 billion globally to become the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.
While Jurassic World has yet to open in Japan, it's unlikely that the film will catch up to Titanic or Avatar, which have grossed $2.18 billion and $2.79 billion, respectively.
DC Sues T-Shirt Company for Using Superman Logo
DC Comics has filed a lawsuit against a clothing manufacturer for a t-shirt it claims uses the Superman logo.
Newsarama reports that the shirt from Mad Engine uses a similar design to Superman's iconic shield, but says "dad" in place of the Man of Steel's letter "S." The suit claims that Mad Engine didn't obtain a license to use the logo, and demands that it discontinues sales of the shirt. So far, the company has refused to discontinue sales.
The shirt in question.
Kirkman Teases Hopeful Ending for The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead has proven to be one of AMC's most successful television shows, and while an end isn't likely to come anytime soon, series creator Robert Kirkman knows how he wants to wrap the story up.
Speaking on the latest episode of the WTF podcast, Kirkman revealed that the series' ending, when it inevitably does come, will conclude on a hopeful note, despite its overly bleak tone. "People talk about how The Walking Dead’s very bleak, and if you take a certain cross-section of the story, yeah, it’s horrible," he said.
"People
getting their loved ones eaten and they’re having a horrible time. But I see the story from beginning to end, over many, many years, so I think it’s a very hopeful story about humanity overcoming this insurmountable, apocalyptic situation … it’s just gonna take them a long time to do it."
July’s Best PSN Deals
Every week dozens of PS4, PS3 and Vita games go on sale in the PlayStation Store, and it's hard to keep up with all the best deals before they disappear. We've sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention. Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change. 
Fallout 3’s Broken Steel Train Is Actually Just a Giant NPC Hat
Players poking around in Fallout 3's game files have noticed an entertaining detail: the rideable train in Fallout 3's third add-on Broken Steel is actually a hat worn by a fast-running NPC.
A screenshot reveals that the train was animated by an NPC with an entire train perched on her head. Fallout 3's Gamebryo engine wasn't really designed with vehicles in mind (in The Wasteland, most vehicles are simply rusted, abandoned, not-at-all-roadworthy wrecks, after all) - so when it came to the presidential metro train in the Broken Steel DLC, Bethesda Game Studios came up with a workaround: an NPC with a full-sized train hat. In-game, the player sees only a train car on tracks - but the whole thing is powered by a single NPC beneath the surface.
Sales of iOS Devices Now Match Windows PC Sales
Sales of iOS devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, now equal Windows-based PC sales for the first time.
According to an analysis done by venture capital firm Andreeson Horowitz, June marks the point when the two platforms achieved parity.
Symbolic: iOS unit sales are now matching Windows PCs. pic.twitter.com/4qsNg3ntYW
— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) July 22, 2015
Evans, who is a venture capitalist at Andreeson Howard, noted in a subsequent tweet that Android sales eclipsed Windows PC sales back in 2012. "Mobile is a bigger ecosystem than PCs. Much bigger."