Netflix’s move into original programming continues, with the release of two trailers for new shows due to be screened in 2016. The Get Down is a ’70s-set drama from Romeo and Juliet director Baz Luhrmann. Meanwhile, The Crown looks at the early life of Queen Elizabeth II. Check them both out below:
Neither show has a set release date as yet, but are both major parts of Netflix’s continued expansion. The streaming giant has promised more than 600 hours of new programming in 2016.
As reported by Screen Daily at the CES conference in Las Vegas, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings explained that the company was now a “global internet TV network.” He added: “With this launch, consumers around the world–from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo–will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously.
“No more waiting. With the help of the internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”
It was also revealed that the Adam Sandler comedy The Ridiculous Six, which the company released last month, had already become the most watched movie ever on the service. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos cited the film’s success as a prime example of the importance of original programming.
“The Ridiculous Six, by way of example, in the first 30 days, it’s been the most-watched movie in the history of Netflix,” he said. “It’s also enjoyed a spot at number one in every territory we operate in, and in many of them it’s still number one.”
Bethesda’s flagship shooter DOOM could ship on June 30, if an Amazon France listing is to be believed.
The retail giant currently lists DOOM with a generic December 31 release date, but late on Wednesday the game’s launch date was put at June 30. Amazon France’s information was discovered by a fan who proceeded to publish an image of the release date on Twitter.
By convention, some publishers inform retail partners of game release dates prior to a general announcement.
Wii U level-building game Super Mario Maker has added another course designed by a multi-national corporation.
Southwest Airlines, a well-known low-cost carrier, built a level for the game called “Southwest Air Adventure.” The level, which features Southwest-themed obstacles (including the famous Southwest heart logo made of Mario coins), is available now through Super Mario Maker’s Course World (via Polygon).
Players can also unlock a “Sky Pop” costume by locating a Mystery Mushroom in the level. The Sky Pop vehicle first appeared in 1989’s Super Mario Land. Once players unlock the costume, they can use it in other Super Mario Maker levels.
This isn’t Super Mario Maker’s first corporate tie-in, as Mercedes-Benz and Facebook have also released themed levels for the game. Southwest Airlines said in a blog post that it was asked by Nintendo to create its level, though it’s unclear if the same is true for the other corporate partnerships.
It’s not just corporations that are building Super Mario Maker levels, of course. By Nintendo’s latest count, players had uploaded more than 3.3 million courses.
Homefront: The Revolution will release across North America in May, according to leaked retail pre-order materials.
A reservation card printed for US retailer Target, pictured below, expressly states that the open-world shooter’s release date is Tuesday May 17.
The project, which has lingered for years due to a number of obstacles such as former publisher THQ’s bankruptcy, as well as previous money problems at its second owner Crytek. Its latest proprietor, Koch Media, declined to comment on the leak, aside from stating that Homefront: The Revolution is scheduled to ship “Spring 2016.”
CJ Kershner, a writer at Homefront’s UK developer Dambuster, recently claimed that the studio “is making its own unique mark on the name of Homefront.”
He said: “Anything that you remember or know about the first game: forget it now. It’s not a continuation of that story or that style of gameplay. There’s a reason we don’t call it Homefront 2.”
Homefront: The Revolution is in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Linux, and Mac.
Palmer Luckey, the founder of virtual Reality business Oculus VR, has apologised for misleading consumers in September when claiming the Oculus Rift would be priced in the “ballpark” of $350.
In a written apology published on Reddit, Luckey confessed that when he was making such estimates about the Oculus Rift price being close to $350, it was known to him internally that the price would be closer to $600.
It appears that his explanation for misleading people was a means to counter another falsehood, that the Oculus Rift would cost somewhere close to $1,500.
“I handled the messaging poorly,” Luckey began.
“Earlier last year, we started officially messaging that the Rift [with a] recommended-spec PC would together cost roughly $1,500. Many outlets picked the story up as ‘Rift will cost $1500!’
“[Then] in a September interview, during the Oculus Connect developer conference, I made the infamous ‘roughly in that $350 ballpark, but it will cost more than that’ quote. As an explanation, not an excuse: during that time, many outlets were repeating the “Rift is $1500!” line, and I was frustrated by how many people thought that was the price of the headset itself.”
He went on to explain that, when making his infamous estimate, he was aware that a $600 price tag was likely.
Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR
“My answer was ill-prepared, and mentally, I was contrasting $349 with $1500, not our internal estimate that hovered close to $599. That is why I said it was in roughly the same ballpark.”
In October, Luckey had a second chance to clarify the messaging on price, when asked by RoadToVR whether the $350 ballpark price was accurate.
“You know, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you,” he began.
“We’re roughly in that ballpark… but it’s going to cost more than that.” He did not make any suggestions that it would cost nearly double that amount.
The news triggered an immediate backlash from some fans. Later that day, during an Ask Me Anything interview on Reddit, Luckey appeared to show regret for mismanaging expectations.
“Later on [after the $350 claims], I tried to get across that the Rift would cost more than many expected, in the past two weeks particularly. There are a lot of reasons we did not do a better job of prepping people who already have high end GPUs, legal, financial, competitive, and otherwise, but to be perfectly honest, our biggest failing was assuming we had been clear enough about setting expectations.
“Another problem is that people looked at the much less advanced technology in DK2 for $350 and assumed the consumer Rift would cost a similar amount, an assumption that myself (and Oculus) did not do a good job of fixing. I apologize.”
In an extraordinary statement added to his apology, Luckey attempted to placate fans by suggesting they might want to sell the controller at no loss to Oculus or the consumer.
He said: “The Xbox controller costs us almost nothing to bundle, and people can easily resell it for profit.”
It is not clear how much Microsoft loses for every Xbox One controller it bundles with a Rift.
2016 is shaping up to be the year of the superhero showdown. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice arrives in theaters in March, while in May, Marvel’s Captain American: Civil War will see the shield-carrying hero do battle with fellow Avenger Iron Man. Star Chris Evans has now been speaking about the differences between the two characters, and what fans can expect from their conflict.
Speaking to Cineplex, Evans describes the parallels that could be drawn between these two legendary heroes and the real world. “It’s something we can all relate to in terms of how we perceive our own society and culture, in terms of what is best for people,” he said. “You can go right down to Democrat and Republican. Everyone has a different opinion of what’s best.
“You have this team of people who are destroying every city they go to, but they’re saving the world. So it’s a matter of, do we monitor these people or do we let them monitor themselves? The beautiful thing with Civil War is that no one’s right and no one’s wrong. It’s just your personal opinion.”
Evans went on explain how Civil War would subvert what is expected from both characters, based on the various Marvel movies they had featured in. “You have a guy like Cap, who grew up with structure. He was a soldier and he liked hierarchy, he liked the chain of command,” Evans said. “Now, all of a sudden, you have a guy who used to love the system not so sure about trusting it. And a guy like Tony Stark, who used to buck the system and dance to the beat of his own drum, all of a sudden thinking, maybe we need some order.”
Earlier this week, Marvel posted new concept art for the movie. Illustrated by Ryan Meinerding and Andy Park, it shows Earth’s mightiest heroes doing battle:
Captain America: Civil War is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. It also stars Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Jeremy Renner, and opens on May 6, 2016.
Zen Studios and Lucasfilm have reached an agreement to bring tables based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens to Zen’s Pinball FX 2, Zen Pinball 2, and Star Wars Pinball across platforms.
Some of the film’s main characters, including Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron, will be featured on the tables, which themselves boast “all-new table-transforming environment mechanics,” Zen said in a news release.
Using this “transforming” mechanic, players will get to virtually visit scenes from the movie and try their hand at twelve “action-packed story modes taking you through its most thrilling moments.”
There are two tables included with the Force Awakens Pack, both of which are called Might of the First Order. The first puts players in control of the First Order, “tasked with extending its power to many planets in the galaxy.”
The second sports a two-level playfield.
“You must use the special ball-lock system on Kylo Ren’s playfield to crush the Resistance, as well as the ability to control your own Star Destroyer with the help of a special magnetic upside-down ramp!” Zen said.
Both tables come with art, character models, and sounds pulled directly from the film.
With close to 36 million systems sold in two years, the PlayStation 4 is a huge success. So it may not be too surprising to learn that Sony sees the gaming console as a “benchmark” for the entire company. Speaking during Sony’s CES briefing last night, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai extolled the PS4 and its capabilities.
“PlayStation 4 sets a benchmark for our organization in terms of collaboration, of engineering, creativity, artistry, and also experiential design,” Hirai said, as reported by DualShockers.
“Sony’s innovation has inspired the creativity of enthusiasts, gamers, developers, and publishers, who are devoted to the PlayStation 4,” the executive went on to say. “The PlayStation 4 is the embodiment of those things that we value as an organization: powerful technology, advancement ahead of the curve… PlayStation 4 has built a very passionate community.”
Hirai added that Sony remains in “constant dialogue” with the PlayStation community as part of an effort to listen to their ideas to hopefully deliver “new, better, and more exciting gaming experiences.”
“And we’re really thrilled to see just how effectively PS4 has encouraged sharing, created a dynamic portal to games and entertainment, and immersed gamers in compelling narrative experiences,” Hirai said.
Sony’s CES briefing didn’t bring any actual gaming product news, however, and there was no mention of PlayStation VR (which is due to launch in the coming months) during the hour-long broadcast.
For a recap of the big announcements, check out the video above from GameSpot sister site CNET.
CES 2016 runs for the rest of the week from Las Vegas. GameSpot has a team on the ground and will bring you the big news as it’s announced.
ReCore, the upcoming adventure game from Microsoft and Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, will not launch this spring was was originally planned. A Microsoft representative tells Engadget that the Xbox One and PC game is now slated to arrive during “the latter half of 2016,” though an exact date was not divulged.
“We have not yet set a launch date for ReCore, however the game will be ready in the latter half of 2016,” the Microsoft representative said.
Just this week, Microsoft confirmed that ReCore will also launch on PC through Windows 10. However, whether or not it also will come to Steam remains to be seen. “We’ll have more to share soon on ReCore, please stay tuned,” the Microsoft representative said when asked about Steam availability.
ReCore is published by Microsoft and is in development at Inafune’s Comcept, alongside Armature Studio. That Texas-based studio also worked on Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate and is headed up by staff who formerly worked on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
Joseph Staten, the co-creator of the Halo and Destiny universes, has been confirmed as the project’s lead writer.
Gameplay footage of ReCore has yet to be demonstrated, though the E3 reveal trailer suggested the game follows a young woman who travels with a glowing blue orb that can possess a range of robotic companions.
However that list doesn’t portray the extent of the Witcher 3’s dominance in the poll. The open-world opus amassed 62 percent of all votes, which means it accumulated more endorsements than all the other 24 entrants combined. By the final count, its lead over second-placed Fallout 4 was an extraordinary 53 percent.
The top five finalists closely resemble GameSpot Editors’ Game of The Year list, in which Witcher 3 took first place above Rocket League, MGS 5, Bloodborne, and Super Mario Maker (Fallout 4 finished in 6th).
Meanwhile, in the individual platform categories for People’s Choice Game of the Year, The Witcher 3 took first on all platforms it shipped on (PC, PS4, Xbox One). Xenoblade Chronicles X won best Wii U game, while Fallout Shelter was voted best mobile game.
