A new Nintendo Direct briefing kicks off very soon.
As announced earlier this week, the event will focus on Nintendo 3DS games–there won’t be any NX talk, Nintendo said. The briefing begins at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET, so there’s not much longer to wait. You can watch the event right here in this post; we’ll add a streaming embed as the event draws closer.
There was no mention of the specific games Nintendo would talk about during the briefing or what news it may have to share be that new game announcements, release dates, or anything else.
In an expected move, Netflix announced today that it has renewed Stranger Things for a second season.
It made the announcement in a video that lists off what appear to be episode titles. Some of them contain possible references to the events of Season 1, so be aware of that. Season 2 debuts in 2017.
TV Line reports that Marvel and ABC Studios are planning a New Warriors TV show that would focus on the superhero who has an affinity for squirrels. Marvel and ABC declined to comment.
The report cites sources that say they 30-minute show is now being shopped to various cable and streaming networks, though none were named. New Warriors is a team of teenage superheroes that is described in the report as “the junior version of The Avengers.”
Squirrel Girl, whose real name is Doreen Green, can communicate with squirrels, while she also has abilities like super-speed and strength. She is a relatively obscure character in the Marvel universe.
Recently, Pitch Perfect‘s Anna Kendrick elevated the character’s profile somewhat when she said in an interview with Net A Porterthat she would like to play Squirrel Girl. “I don’t know what Squirrel Girl does other than be half squirrel, but I could be half squirrel!” she said.
The TV Live report did not mention any names for actors who might appear in the New Warriors show, while a movie based on that or Squirrel Girl specifically has not been announced.
If you were worried you’d seen the last of Wii-style minigames, then fret no more. 2K announced today that it’s bringing Carnival Games to the Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and HTC Vive.
Carnival Games VR is everything you remember from the Wii’s glory days of bargain-bin minigame compilations, except this time, it’s in virtual reality. It features 12 different games including Shark Tank, where you throw balls in an attempt to dunk people into a water tank, presumably full of sharks. Yes, it sounds like you can commit murder in the next entry in the Carnival Games series.
Other games include Haunted House, in which you shoot targets while in a moving cart; Fast Pitch, which has you acting as a baseball catcher; and Funnel Cake Falls, where you’re tasked with catching funnel cakes on a tray. Doing well at these games earns you tickets for virtual prizes, in addition to unlocking new game modes at the Prize Booth. The game also features an interactive environment with four different carnival alleys to navigate.
Carnival Games VR is 2K’s first VR game and launches October 28 on PlayStation VR and HTC Vive for $20. No date has been announced for Oculus Rift, but 2K says it’s “coming soon.” This is likely because the game requires the Oculus Touch controllers, which have not received an official release date.
The Carnival Games series has sold millions of copies, but it isn’t exactly associated with quality. The franchise consists of four games with the last having released in 2011. The original Wii game received a score of 4.5/10 in GameSpot’s review, in which critic Alex Navarro said, “Unless fumbling your way through half-baked minigames to win some virtual stuffed animals sounds like fun, you should leave this overpriced collection on the shelf.”
In a new interview, Electronic Arts executive Peter Moore talked about the cancellation of the EA Sports NCAA Football series and teased that it may not be dead forever.
Speaking to IGN, Moore, who was formerly the president of EA Sports, said it was a “sad day” when the company decided to cancel the well-regarded series. The shutdown came in the wake of the player likeness and compensation lawsuits, which were eventually folded into a class-action suit. According to Moore, EA’s lawyers’ fees grew so much that they outweighed the revenue a new game could make.
“Settlements are still going out so it’s tough to get into a lot of detail. But what happened was NCAA Football became the lightning rod for bigger issues regarding college athletes getting paid for their performance in not only football but all college sports,” Moore said. “It was a sad day when we realized, ‘We are in the sights of a number of lawsuits.’ It was a sad day. When your lawyers fees are more than the revenue that you can expect to get in…”
When EA announced it was cancelling the NCAA Football series, the lawsuits hadn’t been settled. EA decided not to make any more games in the immediate future because they could take years to make and this was a risky proposal with the lawsuits unresolved. So EA had to say, “We just can’t do this anymore.”
The last NCAA Football game from EA Sports was 2013’s NCAA Football 14. According to Moore, it may not be the last. “One day I know we’ll be back,” he teased.
Also in the interview, Moore clarified that no one at developer EA Tiburon lost their job as a result of the NCAA Football franchise’s cancellation, as they were shifted to other roles at the studio. He also praised the NCAA Football series for being an authentic representation of what Saturdays around the country look and feel like, from the stadiums to the mascots.
In January this year, the voice of EA’s NCAA Football series, Kirk Herbstreit, ruffled feathers when he said the athlete who brought the lawsuit, Ed O’Bannon, is to blame for the franchise’s cancellation.
Plans were in place for NCAA Football 15 in 2014, but the game was canceled as a result of a legal battle between the NCAA and student-athletes that resulted in a $60 million settlement package for the players.
Another athlete has made a play in the professional gaming space. ESPN reports that Boston Celtics forward Jonas Jerebko paid an undisclosed sum to acquire the professional gaming team the Renegades.
He bought the rights to the team from former owner Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles. As part of the deal, he also gets the team’s stake in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the WME | IMG Eleague and the ESL. Additionally, Jerebko will have the first right of refusal to negotiate new team contracts.
Members of the Renegades lived in Australia, but Jerebko moved them into a house/training center in Rochester, Michigan, also bringing on a coach and a team manager.
Before this deal, Jerebko built a Call of Duty pro team called Ground Zero. This squad will now operate under the Renegades banner; it will compete in this weekend’s Call of Duty World League Championship.
According to the report, Jerebko has bold ambitions for Renegades, saying he wants to set up professional teams for League of Legends, Halo, and Overwatch.
Battlefield 1‘s open-beta is now live, which means you can download and play DICE’s World War 1 shooter on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC without a code. The beta weighs in at around six gigabytes on all platforms.
You can download it on PS4 using this link if you’re in Europe and here if you’re in North America. PC players need only to start the Origin client and navigate to the Free Games section, where you’ll find it in the beta section. Xbox One players can get it here.
The beta features the Sinai Desert map, which will let you jump on a steed for horseback combat–a first for the Battlefield series. One of the big features of the map is an armored train which players fight for control of. Naturally, there’s also planes, cars, and other vehicles.
The beta features the Conquest and Rush modes, with up to 64 players supported. For more information, check out this post on the Sinai Desert map.
EA has not confirmed when the Battlefield 1 beta will end, but it is expected to last at least four days long.
In June the company’s iconic characters appeared on Vans sneakers, and now they’re being transformed into toy cars, as Nintendo has partnered with Mattel to turn six of its characters into Hot Wheels.
These characters are Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Toad, and Bowser. Unfortunately neither Wario nor Waluigi have been given the Hot Wheels treatment, which is a travesty if you ask me. Take a look at the characters in car form below.
In February, Kimishima said fewer young people were finding Nintendo’s characters through games, and were instead discovering them through products like officially licensed Mario toothbrushes. As a result, the company planned to focus on licensing deals.
“Due to changes in our industry, the proportion of young consumers who are first experiencing games on our systems has been falling,” he said. “We want to have everyone become familiar with our IP by reaching as many people as possible from an early age within their daily lives. Our long-term strategy is to spark our consumers’ interest in playing Nintendo game systems and encouraging continued growth of our games business.”
Although Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has stated that the new play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,would be the final adventure for the much-loved wizard, it has been reported that a film version could still happen. It is rumoured that Warner are looking to turn the hit production into a movie, with Daniel Radcliffe returning as Harry.
According to the New York Daily News, Warner are working on securing the film rights to Cursed Child and are keen to cast 27-year-old Radcliffe to play the adult Harry. “Warners is secretly working on getting the movie rights and a screenplay settled, and of course in their minds only one man should be Harry,” the paper’s source said. “However he has made it clear that his mind is certainly not focused on returning to the role anytime soon–and that could be until he hits 40.”
While this news is unconfirmed by Warner, the Potter franchise is so popular that it would not be surprising if the studio were looking to adapt Cursed Child. It already has the first Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them due in November, with a sequel scheduled for 2018.
A new update for the Pandora Xbox One app will unlock background music support, giving users yet another option to listen to music while they play games or use other apps.
Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra said the update for the music-streaming service’s app that introduces this functionality will be released “over the next 24 hours.” His message was posted around 7 PM last night.
Pandora will update over the next 24 hours to include background music on Xbox One functionality! #Xbox
After Ybarra tweeted about the Pandora update, someone immediately asked if there would be support for Spotify sometime down the road. Ybarra did not reply.
Like Spotify, you can listen to music for free on Pandora, though there will be ads. You can also pay a monthly fee to zap the ads and get other perks as well. Read more about Pandora at its website.
Do you use the Xbox One’s background music feature? Let us know in the comments below.
