Netflix is moving quickly on the release of its new ad-supported subscription service, which it recently revealed will be supported by tech from Microsoft. In today's earnings report, Netflix said that it is targeting "the early part of 2023" for the tier's release.

The tier, which was announced earlier this year, will offer a lower subscription price in exchange for viewing advertisements. The news comes as Netflix confirms that it lost nearly 1 million subscriptions despite the success of Stranger Things Season 4, which has been viewed for more than 1.3 billion hours since launch.

According to Netflix, the rollout will be gradual, and the tier will "likely start in a handful of markets where advertising spend is significant."

"Like most of our new initiatives, our intention is to roll it out, listen and learn, and iterate quickly to improve the offering," Netflix says in its letter to shareholders. "So, our advertising business in a few years will likely look quite different than what it looks like on day one."

Over the long run, Netflix is hopeful that the new tier will "enable substantial incremental membership (through lower prices) and profit growth (through ad services)." Netflix has not yet revealed the new price structure.

In the meantime, Netflix is also cracking down on password sharing while testing out a new model that will enable subscribers to buy additional "homes." It's all part of an attempt to appease shareholders amid declining subscriptions, which in turn has resulted in layoffs and other cutbacks.

Netflix has been buoyed by the success of Stranger Things 4, which has topped streaming charts and continues to draw significant interset. However, with Stranger Things 5 not expected to release until late 2023 or early 2024, Netflix will have to continue to find other ways to rebuild its subscription count.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Netflix's subscriber bleed appears to have accelerated over the spring. After losing 200,000 subscribers between January and March, its Q2 earnings reveal that it dropped again between April and June - this time by a whopping one million subs.

The streaming company reported 220.67 million subscribers at the end of June, down from 221.64 million the previous quarter, which was itself down from 221.84 million at the end of last year. Its loss of one million subscribers is actually better than what was projected; CFO Spence Newman had previously speculated they'd lose two million. Netflix revenue was up 9% year-over-year.

Last quarter, Netflix blamed its slowed subscriber gain on the global economy, the war in Ukraine, and account sharing, the latter of which the company has been promising an aggressive crackdown on for some time and appears to be on the cusp of implementing.

But this quarter, Netflix's shareholder letter was less self-reflective. While the letter acknowledged the company "had more time to understand these issues, as well as how best to address them," the following paragraphs largely focus on praising Netflix's content slate and existing plans. It also reiterated its upcoming plan for a lower-priced ad tier in partnership with Microsoft, which now appears to be dropping in early 2023. A full rollout of its paid account sharing offering is also expected that year.

For now, Netflix is projecting a one million subscriber bounce back in the coming quarter, largely thanks to Stranger Things season 4. However, it expects revenue growth to continue to stall year-over-year, and is expecting only 5% growth in Q3.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Netflix's subscriber bleed appears to have accelerated over the spring. After losing 200,000 subscribers between January and March, its Q2 earnings reveal that it dropped again between April and June - this time by a whopping one million subs.

The streaming company reported 220.67 million subscribers at the end of June, down from 221.64 million the previous quarter, which was itself down from 221.84 million at the end of last year. Its loss of one million subscribers is actually better than what was projected; CFO Spence Newman had previously speculated they'd lose two million. Netflix revenue was up 9% year-over-year.

Last quarter, Netflix blamed its slowed subscriber gain on the global economy, the war in Ukraine, and account sharing, the latter of which the company has been promising an aggressive crackdown on for some time and appears to be on the cusp of implementing.

But this quarter, Netflix's shareholder letter was less self-reflective. While the letter acknowledged the company "had more time to understand these issues, as well as how best to address them," the following paragraphs largely focus on praising Netflix's content slate and existing plans. It also reiterated its upcoming plan for a lower-priced ad tier in partnership with Microsoft, which now appears to be dropping in early 2023. A full rollout of its paid account sharing offering is also expected that year.

For now, Netflix is projecting a one million subscriber bounce back in the coming quarter, largely thanks to Stranger Things season 4. However, it expects revenue growth to continue to stall year-over-year, and is expecting only 5% growth in Q3.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Moon Knight star Ethan Hawke has spoken out about Marvel’s treatment of its filmmakers. During an interview with IndieWire, the 51-year-old actor explained why he thinks Marvel directors have a hard time compared to its actors.

“That group of people [at Marvel] is extremely actor-friendly,” he said. “They might not be director-friendly, and that could be what Scorsese and Coppola are talking about. But they love actors.”

Hawke appears to be referencing the now-iconic interview with Scorsese in which he claimed that Marvel movies are not cinema.

“I don't see them,” said the legendary filmmaker. “I tried, you know? But that's not cinema,”

Despite joining the MCU as the villainous Arthur Harrow in Marvel’s Moon Knight, it looks as though Hawke shares Scorsese’s sentiment.

“If you keep reviewing these movies that are basically made for 14-year-olds like they’re Fanny and Alexander or Winter Light, then who the hell’s going to get to make Winter Light?” he said.

And the actor appreciates the elder filmmakers calling them out.

“I appreciate the elder statesmen of the community reminding people not to set the bar too low,” Hawke added. “I know it makes some people think they’re stuck up, but they’re not stuck up.”

Marvel’s long-running Cinematic Universe has often been criticized when it comes to how much creative freedom its directors are given. But Marvel actors seem to have an altogether more positive experience.

“I think Kevin Feige had a great thing happen with Robert Downey Jr. and he understood that Downey’s passion was a large part of the success,” said Hawke. “When actors are excited by a part, audiences get excited about watching them. Feige understood the algorithm there, so they’re extremely respectful toward the process. The best thing about Moon Knight for me was Oscar’s performance. It’s a gonzo thing that happens to have a giant budget — a pretty out-there performance.”

Still, it sounds as though Hawke won’t be tied down by his Moon Knight role for very long. After all, the season finale left Arthur’s story pretty much tied up.

A good thing, considering that Hawke doesn’t sound too bothered about returning.

“I’m not supposed to talk about it,” he said. “I had to sign an NDA about dealing with them, but I’m not interested in long-term commitments. I protected myself because I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just wanted to know what that sandbox was like. And it’s what young people are watching, so why are we going to sit there and tell them it’s not good?”

Want to read more about Marvel’s Moon Knight? Check out what the show’s ending really means, and find out what psychologists really thought of the show.

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

Moon Knight star Ethan Hawke has spoken out about Marvel’s treatment of its filmmakers. During an interview with IndieWire, the 51-year-old actor explained why he thinks Marvel directors have a hard time compared to its actors.

“That group of people [at Marvel] is extremely actor-friendly,” he said. “They might not be director-friendly, and that could be what Scorsese and Coppola are talking about. But they love actors.”

Hawke appears to be referencing the now-iconic interview with Scorsese in which he claimed that Marvel movies are not cinema.

“I don't see them,” said the legendary filmmaker. “I tried, you know? But that's not cinema,”

Despite joining the MCU as the villainous Arthur Harrow in Marvel’s Moon Knight, it looks as though Hawke shares Scorsese’s sentiment.

“If you keep reviewing these movies that are basically made for 14-year-olds like they’re Fanny and Alexander or Winter Light, then who the hell’s going to get to make Winter Light?” he said.

And the actor appreciates the elder filmmakers calling them out.

“I appreciate the elder statesmen of the community reminding people not to set the bar too low,” Hawke added. “I know it makes some people think they’re stuck up, but they’re not stuck up.”

Marvel’s long-running Cinematic Universe has often been criticized when it comes to how much creative freedom its directors are given. But Marvel actors seem to have an altogether more positive experience.

“I think Kevin Feige had a great thing happen with Robert Downey Jr. and he understood that Downey’s passion was a large part of the success,” said Hawke. “When actors are excited by a part, audiences get excited about watching them. Feige understood the algorithm there, so they’re extremely respectful toward the process. The best thing about Moon Knight for me was Oscar’s performance. It’s a gonzo thing that happens to have a giant budget — a pretty out-there performance.”

Still, it sounds as though Hawke won’t be tied down by his Moon Knight role for very long. After all, the season finale left Arthur’s story pretty much tied up.

A good thing, considering that Hawke doesn’t sound too bothered about returning.

“I’m not supposed to talk about it,” he said. “I had to sign an NDA about dealing with them, but I’m not interested in long-term commitments. I protected myself because I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just wanted to know what that sandbox was like. And it’s what young people are watching, so why are we going to sit there and tell them it’s not good?”

Want to read more about Marvel’s Moon Knight? Check out what the show’s ending really means, and find out what psychologists really thought of the show.

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

Just the term "LASO" sends chills down even the most hardened Halo player's spine. The term refers to completing a Halo campaign on its hardest difficulty — Legendary — with all of the gameplay-modifying Skulls turned on (LASO standing for Legendary All Skulls On). If that doesn't sound hard enough as it is, how about completing the entire LASO run with zero deaths?

That's what content creator Charlie ‘Cr1tikal’ White is challenging the Halo community to complete. In a YouTube video first spotted by PCGamesN, he offered the first player to finish a Halo 2 Anniversary LASO run with zero deaths a $20,000 prize. Besides the seemingly impossible task of a one-life LASO run, Halo 2 is also widely recognized as the most difficult Legendary campaign in the franchise. $20,000 doesn't seem like enough.

Cr1tikal first announced the challenge a couple weeks ago, with a $5,000 prize attached. As the days went by with no takers, he quadrupled the prize to try and entice some fearless gamers to take the challenge. The streamer said he's tried the challenge himself, and was unable to get past the first two rooms of the first mission before giving up.

According to Cr1tikal, a run like this has only been completed once, but it had the Envy skull turned on, allowing Master Chief to turn invisible. So, to up the challenge even further, Cr1tikal is requiring players to turn that one specific skull off.

Other skull effects dramatically change gameplay, from increasing enemy aggression, to making enemies permanently cloaked, to eliminating your shield's ability to recharge normally. It's very possible no one will ever complete Cr1tikal's challenge.

If you want to jump into a Halo experience that won't have you breaking your controller, you can check out the details on Halo Infinite's co-op beta. Or, check out how the famous Halo 2 E3 demo will soon be playable.

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

Just the term "LASO" sends chills down even the most hardened Halo player's spine. The term refers to completing a Halo campaign on its hardest difficulty — Legendary — with all of the gameplay-modifying Skulls turned on (LASO standing for Legendary All Skulls On). If that doesn't sound hard enough as it is, how about completing the entire LASO run with zero deaths?

That's what content creator Charlie ‘Cr1tikal’ White is challenging the Halo community to complete. In a YouTube video first spotted by PCGamesN, he offered the first player to finish a Halo 2 Anniversary LASO run with zero deaths a $20,000 prize. Besides the seemingly impossible task of a one-life LASO run, Halo 2 is also widely recognized as the most difficult Legendary campaign in the franchise. $20,000 doesn't seem like enough.

Cr1tikal first announced the challenge a couple weeks ago, with a $5,000 prize attached. As the days went by with no takers, he quadrupled the prize to try and entice some fearless gamers to take the challenge. The streamer said he's tried the challenge himself, and was unable to get past the first two rooms of the first mission before giving up.

According to Cr1tikal, a run like this has only been completed once, but it had the Envy skull turned on, allowing Master Chief to turn invisible. So, to up the challenge even further, Cr1tikal is requiring players to turn that one specific skull off.

Other skull effects dramatically change gameplay, from increasing enemy aggression, to making enemies permanently cloaked, to eliminating your shield's ability to recharge normally. It's very possible no one will ever complete Cr1tikal's challenge.

If you want to jump into a Halo experience that won't have you breaking your controller, you can check out the details on Halo Infinite's co-op beta. Or, check out how the famous Halo 2 E3 demo will soon be playable.

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

Ghostbusters fans are adding Winston Zeddemore to the 1990 Sega Genesis game, after the fourth Ghostbuster was emitted from the original.

As reported by Ghostbusters News (and spotted by Kotaku), Zeddemore was left out as a playable character despite featuring in the first two films and The Real Ghostbusters animated series by the time theb game arrived.

The project is being created by modders Danilo Dias, BillyTime!Games and Master Lunkeui, who shared a first look at the mod on Twitter (below), showcasing Zeddemore in a variety of suits and poses.

Winston in SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis Ghostbusters???

THE MOST WANTED ROM HACK EVER!!!

-Winston is stronger and jumps higher
-New custom palettes:
-Ghostbusters 1 Khaki uniform
-Ghostbusters 2 Dark Blue uniform (my fav one)

Follow the author @BillytimeG
for more! https://t.co/fkfsxpNRRe pic.twitter.com/Enb6ZGdmq0

— Master Linkuei (P.H.G.F.) (@masterlinkueibr) July 16, 2022

Two custom colour palettes will also be available, depicting the original Ghostbusters' khaki uniform and the sequel's dark blue version. The modder also revealed that Zeddemore would be stronger than the other playable characters - Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler - as he can jump higher and do more damage.

Though the mod is still in development, BillyTime!Games also revealed working gameplay on their YouTube channel, showing Zeddemore battling various ghosts on his way around a haunted building.

Myriad Ghostbusters games have been released since this one, of course, with technology moving on quite a lot since the Genesis days. The franchise is even stepping into the virtual reality world with the aptly named Ghostbusters VR, which is coming to both the Meta Quest 2 and PlayStation VR2.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Rodney Barnes' Killadelphia is easily one of the more inventive horror comics to come along in many years, given how the series combines vampire horror with a very grounded look at crime, corruption and murder in a major American metropolis. Fans of that series will definitely want to keep an eye out for Barnes' next horror epic, a period piece dubbed The Butcher of Black Bottom.

This new slasher horror series pairs Barnes with Argentinian artist Germán Erramouspe. The Butcher of Black Bottom will debut digitally on Barnes' Substack channel, Dark Apocrypha Presents, and will later be released in print form through his Zombie Love Studios imprint.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for an exclusive first look at The Butcher of Black Bottom:

There are no vampires to be found this time (that we know of), but plenty of blood will be spilled all the same. The Butcher of Black Bottom is set in 1920's Detroit, a time when the city is seeing a large influx of African American migrants from the South and racial tensions are reaching a boiling point. Adding fuel to that fire is the titular serial killer. Has Detroit attracted its own Jack the Ripper?

“The Butcher of Black Bottom speaks to the struggle to find racial harmony in a post-Civil War America. Where the migration of blacks from the south meets an industrializing north wrestling with its own issues," said Barnes in a press release. "As one might imagine finding peace was no easy chore.”

This series is one of several new horror projects Barnes is debuting in 2022, alongside previously announced books like Blacula (an adaptation of the 1970's Blaxploitation film) and Crownsville, a ghost story set in a black insane asylum.

Barnes will be discussing these and other projects during a pair of horror comics-focused panels at San Diego Comic-Con later this week. The first, "How the Best Horror Comics Summon Readers' Worst Nightmares," will be held on Friday, July 22 at 2:30pm in Room 5AB. The second, "Monsters Are for Everyone," will be held on Saturday, July 24 at 5:30pm in Room 24ABC.

Be sure to check out IGN's full Comic-Con guide to find out how to follow the con and what to expect. And then read up on Substack has suddenly become one of the most important comic book publishers.

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

No More Heroes 3 will come to PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, and PS4 on October 11 - ending what will be over a year of Nintendo Switch exclusivity.

The over-the-top action game arrived for Switch in August last year. In our 6/10 review, we praised its more bizarre elements, but called out its frequent poor performance - these new versions thankfully promise "improved HD visuals and framerates, along with faster loading times," which will hopefully alleviate those issues.

The PS5, PS4, and Xbox versions of the game will also be released as a $59.99 USD physical edition, including "a copy of No More Heroes 3, a 5.3”x7.3” softcover art book with more than 70 pages of gorgeous artwork, a CD featuring 22 full songs from the soundtrack, and a 7”x4” Santa Destroy commemorative biker license plate, with two different, all-new illustrations for both the game case and custom outer box done by series artist Yusuke Kozaki."

The newest installment expands on the story of “otaku hero” Travis Touchdown, who defends Earth against Prince Fu (and climbs his way to the top of the Galactic Superhero Rankings) by way of hack-and-slash combat, open world exploration and minigames (including mowing the lawn).

The series began in 2007, but creator Suda51 has declared No More Heroes 3 the end of Travis Touchdown's story.

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.