“Mom, Dad! The baby can talk!” DreamWorks Animation has released a second full-length trailer for their next animated comedy, titled The Boss Baby, made by the same director as the Madagascar series and Mastermind. The first trailer introduced us to the “Boss Baby”, an adorable baby voiced by Alec Baldwin who carries a briefcase and harbors a malicious desire to put an end to ever-so-cute Puppy Co. Other voices in this are Miles Bahski, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Tobey Maguire, and Steve Buscemi. This looks fun, and they’re obviously selling the sibling rivalry and cuteness above all else, I just hope there’s something more to this. Maybe the story of them becoming friends is the core emotion. Check it out below. ›››
“You’re like the drowning man trying to wave at an ocean liner.” Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled a trailer for the film titled Norman, in full it’s Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer. This is the latest from Footnote director Joseph Cedar and stars Richard Gere giving one of his best performances in recent years. Gere plays a “fixer” in New York City trying to help out other wealthy businessman/politicians, but gets mixed up in something over his head. The cast includes Lior Ashkenazi, Hank Azaria, Steve Buscemi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michael Sheen, and Dan Stevens. I already caught this in Telluride and it does have a Coen Brothers feel to it, but it’s just not that good. Give it a look. ›››
It’s always a good time to watch a Studio Ghibli movie. GKids is planning a very limited US release of a 1993 film that never actually was released in the US back then. It’s titled Ocean Waves, and is about a love triangle between two good friends who both fall hard for a new girl who transfers to their high school from Tokyo. It was actually made as a TV anime but still plays a 72-minute feature, which is being released on Blu-ray following the theatrical screenings. Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki, Ocean Waves is set in the city of Kōchi, on the Japanese island of Shikoku. It doesn’t exactly have the same feel as a Miyazaki movie, but it does look just as gorgeous as anything else Ghibli has made, built upon the honest emotions of growing up. ›››
Kimmel joked about the figure,”I think it’s illegal to pay nothing.” As for whether he should have disclosed the figure in the first place, he said, “Nobody told me not to. I consider this their fault.” Kimmel went on to say that $15,000, to his knowledge, is the typical payment every year.
Kimmel hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, which is also the network that has aired the Oscars since 1976. According to The Hollywood Reporter, when the Academy and ABC inked a contract extension through 2028, there was an implicit understanding that Kimmel would get the hosting gig.
This won’t be Kimmel’s first time hosting an awards show, as he also did that job for this year’s Emmys. Only nine people in history have ever hosted both shows, and Kimmel will be the first to do so for the same season.
Ahead of its launch next week, Telltale Games has confirmed that the third season of its acclaimed Walking Dead series, A New Frontier, won’t come to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In a blog post (via Polygon), Telltale specified that this pertains to disc and digital versions of the game.
A New Frontier responds to the choices you made in Season Two, so you might be wondering what that might mean now that last-gen systems are no longer supported.
As explained in a support article, players who wish to import their Season Two save to a different platform (Xbox 360 to Xbox One, for example), need to download a patch for Season Two on the original platform. This could be an issue if you’ve gotten rid of that console. Once the patch is applied, the option to upload your save will become available; you will also need a free Telltale account.
Players who want to import their save files or have questions about how it works should read this support article; it has detailed instructions for what you need to do.
While Nintendo is waiting until January to share specifics about the Nintendo Switch‘s specs, a new report gives us an idea for what to reportedly expect in terms of horsepower.
VentureBeat has heard from two sources that the Switch will use Nvidia’s Maxwell graphics processing technology, not the chip-maker’s newer Pascal architecture. It was confirmed during the Switch announcement event in October that the console would use a variant of Nvidia’s Tegra chip.
“The custom Maxwell Tegra (which uses a 20nm process as opposed to the more efficient 16nm process of the Pascal) in the machine is still powerful enough to play Nintendo-style games that rely on quality art over horsepower, but don’t expect Switch software to match the graphical fidelity of the highest-end PS4 games,” VentureBeat reported.
Sources told the site that Nintendo is in “such a rush” to launch the Switch that it could not wait for the Pascal version of the Tegra processor to be ready for use. Nintendo and Nvidia declined to comment when approached by VentureBeat.
Market researcher Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research told the site that it likely won’t matter if the Switch is underpowered compared to the competition.
“I don’t see Nintendo’s strategy as a risk,” he said. “Too many pundits and fanboys and investors make a serious mistake when they try to compare and contrast Nintendo with Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo has a niche in the affordable, accessible product, and performance is never a leading criteria for them. It is gameplay and immersion. They are never a technology pioneer. Trying to compare Nintendo to Sony is like comparing a Volkswagen to a Corvette. It’s a facetious and fallacious analogy and a discredit to fans who love Nintendo.”
Nintendo has said it will discuss the Switch’s specs, as well as its price point and launch lineup, during its January 2017 event. This week we learned exactly when the briefing will be held.
Keep checking back with GameSpot in the days and weeks ahead for more on the Switch.
Nintendo’s next smartphone game, Super Mario Run, launches today–and it’s predicted to be a huge hit right out of the gate.
It does not appear that the auto-runner, in which you control Mario with one hand as he runs through colorful environments filled with obstacles and enemies, has launched as of 7 AM ET. We’ll update this post later today when it officially goes live.
Research firm SuperData said in a note this week that it expects Super Mario Run to reach around 30 million downloads and bring in $60 million in its first month. The company noted that this is well below Pokemon Go, but that game was launched on iOS and Android simultaneously. The Android version of Super Mario Run is coming later, though a specific release date has not been announced.
“After a long period of having no clearly defined mobile strategy, Nintendo is entering the mobile games market at an opportune time,” SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen said in a statement. “Right as the market is cluttered by an abundant offering, the Japanese giant enters with a highly visible franchise. Beyond the success for Nintendo, other publishers will be watching to see if a $10 premium model will work on mobile from here on out.”
He added: “The nostalgia factor plays a key role here, as an entire generation of gamers suddenly, and finally, finds itself able to play one of their childhood franchises on their phone, two weeks before the holidays.”
Noted analyst Serkan Toto previously predicted that Super Mario Run would reach 1 billion downloads “easily,” making it one of the most popular smartphone games in history. One billion downloads is not an unprecedented feat in the mobile gaming world, as Temple Run and Angry Birds have reached that mark, but the major, important distinction is that this figure is for multiple games in those franchises.
Are you planning to pick up Super Mario Run on iOS today? Let us know in the comments below!
Microsoft has released a new system update for Xbox One, dramatically improving download speeds for games and apps.
According to the update notes, you’ll get up to 80 percent faster speeds for Xbox One downloads if your home broadband speed is greater than 100 Mbps. If your connection speed is less 100 Mbps, you’ll apparently “experience more consistent performance that is up to 40 percent faster than before.”
Microsoft notes that “additional optimizations have also made background downloads more resilient to intermittent connectivity issues,” and that the update also includes stability and performance improvements.
Google has released its annual collection of top search results for the year, and as always there’s some good video game shit to dig through. Like the fact Pokemon Go was the #1 search topic in the world for the year. And that many of you like to follow up your Overwatch Googling with something a little more adult.
