The Game Awards got off to a flying start with a string of fascinating announcements during the pre-show. One of the freshly revealed games that's coming your way soon is Thrasher, which is from Brian Gibson, the artist and composer behind the 2016 nightmare factory Thumper.
Gibson (who is also the bass player in the band Lightning Bolt) teamed up with Rock Band VR and Fuser alum Mike Mandel to form Puddle Games. Gibson handled Thrasher's art and music, while Mandel was responsible for coding and research and development. The pair collaborated on the design.
Thrasher will see you take control of a space eel at the dawn of time. You'll need to master "fast-paced gesture controls" to evolve this creature into a so-called megabeast. While it might not be a direct sequel to Thumper, the trailer suggests it'll share some of the previous game's DNA. It seems like there will once again be mind-melting visuals to match a pulsating, anxious soundtrack. I'm terrified already.
Thrasher is coming to Meta Quest and other virtual reality platforms in 2024. It'll arrive on consoles and PC at a later date.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thrasher-looks-like-another-nightmare-inducing-game-from-the-artist-behind-thumper-010802152.html?src=rss
The Game Awards got off to a flying start with a string of fascinating announcements during the pre-show. One of the freshly revealed games that's coming your way soon is Thrasher, which is from Brian Gibson, the artist and composer behind the 2016 nightmare factory Thumper.
Gibson (who is also the bass player in the band Lightning Bolt) teamed up with Rock Band VR and Fuser alum Mike Mandel to form Puddle Games. Gibson handled Thrasher's art and music, while Mandel was responsible for coding and research and development. The pair collaborated on the design.
Thrasher will see you take control of a space eel at the dawn of time. You'll need to master "fast-paced gesture controls" to evolve this creature into a so-called megabeast. While it might not be a direct sequel to Thumper, the trailer suggests it'll share some of the previous game's DNA. It seems like there will once again be mind-melting visuals to match a pulsating, anxious soundtrack. I'm terrified already.
Thrasher is coming to Meta Quest and other virtual reality platforms in 2024. It'll arrive on consoles and PC at a later date.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thrasher-looks-like-another-nightmare-inducing-game-from-the-artist-behind-thumper-010802152.html?src=rss
The tenth edition of the Game Awards is upon us. The event unfolds Thursday evening, with host Geoff Keighley scheduled to take the stage at 7:30PM ET. In addition to the myriad trailers, announcements, gameplay clips and speeches, six titles will compete for the coveted Game of the Year award. Engadget will cover all the big news as it happens, and you can watch along below.
Nintendo had a banner year, even as the Switch likely approaches its swan song. The company raked in 15 total nominations — the most of any publisher. Sony was next, with 13 nods, while Microsoft (including Bethesda and Activision Blizzard) received 10 noms. Meanwhile, Epic Games, the only non-hardware-producing publisher in the top four, snagged nine.
The awards show includes 31 total awards in areas as diverse as Best Action Game, Best Esports Coach and Best Independent Game. The indie category opened a can of worms this year, as the beloved Dave the Diver was included in the category despite being produced by a subsidiary of Nexon, a behemoth with an $18.3 billion market cap.
You can tune into the Game Awards on YouTube, Twitch (and other platforms) at 7:30PM ET on Thursday. Or, watch below:
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-the-game-awards-2023-here-at-730pm-et-190011911.html?src=rss
The tenth edition of the Game Awards is upon us. The event unfolds Thursday evening, with host Geoff Keighley scheduled to take the stage at 7:30PM ET. In addition to the myriad trailers, announcements, gameplay clips and speeches, six titles will compete for the coveted Game of the Year award. Engadget will cover all the big news as it happens, and you can watch along below.
Nintendo had a banner year, even as the Switch likely approaches its swan song. The company raked in 15 total nominations — the most of any publisher. Sony was next, with 13 nods, while Microsoft (including Bethesda and Activision Blizzard) received 10 noms. Meanwhile, Epic Games, the only non-hardware-producing publisher in the top four, snagged nine.
The awards show includes 31 total awards in areas as diverse as Best Action Game, Best Esports Coach and Best Independent Game. The indie category opened a can of worms this year, as the beloved Dave the Diver was included in the category despite being produced by a subsidiary of Nexon, a behemoth with an $18.3 billion market cap.
You can tune into the Game Awards on YouTube, Twitch (and other platforms) at 7:30PM ET on Thursday. Or, watch below:
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-the-game-awards-2023-here-at-730pm-et-190011911.html?src=rss
The Game Boy might be over 30 years old, but it remains one of the most beloved retro systems. Despite its age, there’s been a steady increase in indie releases, thanks in part to GB Studio — a drop-and-drag tool for making games and an influx of new retro-focused handhelds. But 2023 has been a particularly strong year for the console. An upcoming Game Boy Color title, Dragonyhm, looks set both to raise the bar for the current wave of titles and round off a stellar year for fans of Nintendo’s iconic handheld.
We can thank the pandemic for Dragonyhm. Chris Beach was working in real estate when the COVID lockdowns put a tight squeeze on his day job. He used the time to realize a long-held desire to create an RPG for the Game Boy. The result was Dragonborne, whichBeach released himself under his newly-minted Spacebot Interactive publishing imprint. The company would go on to handle the first run of Deadeusand begin production of Dragonborne DX for the Game Boy Color. But thanks to some new features in the latest version of GB Studio, the project soon took on a life of its own.
“It started off as just a color version of the original Dragonborne. I thought it'd be a quick job, colorize it and re-release it. But with all the new features of GB studio, we went down a rabbit hole, and we've ended up overhauling pretty much everything in the game,” Beach told Engadget. The result is Dragonyhm, a larger RPG with new graphics, reimagined sound, improved mechanics and more levels to explore. “We've got plans for five [games] at the moment, and they'll be released over multiple consoles, not just not just the Game Boy.”
Spacebot Interactive
In the time-honored retro RPG tradition, Dragonyhm begins in our hero Kris’ home. His mother wakes him with worrying news that his father Kurtis, the kingdom’s best dragon-slayer, is missing. Worse, there are rumors that monsters in the dungeons have begun to stir. How long before they awaken and wreak havoc on our hero’s once peaceful lands? No prizes for guessing whose quest it is to find and save Kurtis and in turn, the entire kingdom.
The first moments of the game do overlap heavily with Dragonborne, but it’s not long before the two start diverging. In the original version, there’s a simple puzzle very early on to acquire an object. In Dragonyhm, the same task is much more dynamic and with more interesting mechanics.
Playing the game on an Analogue Pocket, with its impressive Game Boy Color screen mode, Dragonyhm could easily pass for an official title from back in the day. The graphics capture the spirit of RPGs of the era and the dialog and challenges feel authentic. The game also feels satisfyingly big. Developing for vintage systems is hard and the projects are usually one person’s labor of love, which can result in shorter games or superficial gameplay.
Photo by James Trew / Engadget
With Spacebot Interactive, Beach wants to keep the bar high and release games that would have been worthy of saving up an allowance for, and that means longer playing times with more sophisticated stories and mechanics. “I think Link's Awakening was about 15 hours on a standard playthrough. And [Dragonyhm] will probably be on par with that, maybe a bit longer” Beach said. There will also be a secondary mechanic that will extend replay potential once the main story has been completed.
If my early playthroughs are anything to go by, the game offers the right amount of guidance and nudging at the beginning, but it’s also not long before you find yourself battling it out in your first real mission. As with most RPGs worth their salt, you’ll need to start grinding as soon as you can to level up in order to be strong enough to take on bigger and badder enemies and unlock new areas of the game. Though, for these early stages at least, you’re doing so alone and not as a party.
Mega Cat games
Dragonyhm isn’t the only sizable retro game in 2023. Earlier this year, Mega Cat studios raised almost $50,000 on Kickstarter to bring the adventure game Kudzu to life. Development is now complete, with boxed versions set to ship in January. Kudzu is another RPG-flavored game, with a similar quest to find your missing mentor, Zoen. This time though it’s set in a very different world, one where a raging “world eating” plant — the eponymous Kudzu — is the main enemy.
Kudzu takes the classic Game Boy RPG and spices it up with humor and cozy-catastrophe charm. Along your journey you’ll meet an interesting cast of characters including a cat that wants a pen pal and the in-game currency is mushrooms. Kudzu also uses a wide variety of challenges to move the story along. One minute you’ll need to use logic and memory to navigate mazes that change with levers, the next you might be collecting goats. And then there’s the mysterious Kudzu “jelly” — use it wisely and you might just fine Zoen before it’s too late.
If you prefer platformers and adventure games, then Far After — announced over summer — might be more your speed. This game blends a lot of classic retro themes — magic, quests, turn-based battles and platforming — making it an obvious crowd pleaser. Far After is published by Bitmapsoft which is no stranger to the retro world with numerous Game Boy titles on its roster.
The current wave of new interest in making Game Boy games is running in parallel with another, related trend: an abundance of retro gaming handhelds. These emulation devices start from around $50 and offer modern conveniences like a full-color, backlit display. Not to mention plenty of game storage, Wi-Fi and relatively long battery life. Then of course, there’s the Analogue Pocket, a higher-end handheld that’s basically the answer to the question “what would a Game Boy look like if it were designed and released today.”
Bitmapsoft
These retro-friendly handhelds make it incredibly easy to get started with emulating almost any console from more than 15 years ago. You might even argue that, while many developers are simply making games for their favorite system, once you have something like the Pocket or Ayn Odin, the platform the game was actually made for is less important. These could easily be mobile games or modern retro titles like Celeste, just someone chose to make them with a certain tool that delivers a certain aesthetic and desirable limitations.
Of course, there’s also Nintendo’s eShop and Virtual Console which provides a legitimate route for games like Dragonyhm to be played on official hardware for those that get a kick out of that. Beach confirmed they are aiming to release the game on Switch this way next year. With more and more ways to play these games, it’s a great time to be a Game Boy fan.
“I think it's a really good time, I would go as far as calling it a golden age, because there's so many developers developing homebrew Game Boy games now, and some of the quality is unbelievable. It’s really pushing the boundaries and producing stuff that's on par with licensed games” Beach said.
Dragonyhm is slated for release next year in partnership with Incube8 Games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dragonyhm-is-the-latest-in-a-wave-of-new-game-boy-rpgs-160039153.html?src=rss
The Game Boy might be over 30 years old, but it remains one of the most beloved retro systems. Despite its age, there’s been a steady increase in indie releases, thanks in part to GB Studio — a drop-and-drag tool for making games and an influx of new retro-focused handhelds. But 2023 has been a particularly strong year for the console. An upcoming Game Boy Color title, Dragonyhm, looks set both to raise the bar for the current wave of titles and round off a stellar year for fans of Nintendo’s iconic handheld.
We can thank the pandemic for Dragonyhm. Chris Beach was working in real estate when the COVID lockdowns put a tight squeeze on his day job. He used the time to realize a long-held desire to create an RPG for the Game Boy. The result was Dragonborne, whichBeach released himself under his newly-minted Spacebot Interactive publishing imprint. The company would go on to handle the first run of Deadeusand begin production of Dragonborne DX for the Game Boy Color. But thanks to some new features in the latest version of GB Studio, the project soon took on a life of its own.
“It started off as just a color version of the original Dragonborne. I thought it'd be a quick job, colorize it and re-release it. But with all the new features of GB studio, we went down a rabbit hole, and we've ended up overhauling pretty much everything in the game,” Beach told Engadget. The result is Dragonyhm, a larger RPG with new graphics, reimagined sound, improved mechanics and more levels to explore. “We've got plans for five [games] at the moment, and they'll be released over multiple consoles, not just not just the Game Boy.”
Spacebot Interactive
In the time-honored retro RPG tradition, Dragonyhm begins in our hero Kris’ home. His mother wakes him with worrying news that his father Kurtis, the kingdom’s best dragon-slayer, is missing. Worse, there are rumors that monsters in the dungeons have begun to stir. How long before they awaken and wreak havoc on our hero’s once peaceful lands? No prizes for guessing whose quest it is to find and save Kurtis and in turn, the entire kingdom.
The first moments of the game do overlap heavily with Dragonborne, but it’s not long before the two start diverging. In the original version, there’s a simple puzzle very early on to acquire an object. In Dragonyhm, the same task is much more dynamic and with more interesting mechanics.
Playing the game on an Analogue Pocket, with its impressive Game Boy Color screen mode, Dragonyhm could easily pass for an official title from back in the day. The graphics capture the spirit of RPGs of the era and the dialog and challenges feel authentic. The game also feels satisfyingly big. Developing for vintage systems is hard and the projects are usually one person’s labor of love, which can result in shorter games or superficial gameplay.
Photo by James Trew / Engadget
With Spacebot Interactive, Beach wants to keep the bar high and release games that would have been worthy of saving up an allowance for, and that means longer playing times with more sophisticated stories and mechanics. “I think Link's Awakening was about 15 hours on a standard playthrough. And [Dragonyhm] will probably be on par with that, maybe a bit longer” Beach said. There will also be a secondary mechanic that will extend replay potential once the main story has been completed.
If my early playthroughs are anything to go by, the game offers the right amount of guidance and nudging at the beginning, but it’s also not long before you find yourself battling it out in your first real mission. As with most RPGs worth their salt, you’ll need to start grinding as soon as you can to level up in order to be strong enough to take on bigger and badder enemies and unlock new areas of the game. Though, for these early stages at least, you’re doing so alone and not as a party.
Mega Cat games
Dragonyhm isn’t the only sizable retro game in 2023. Earlier this year, Mega Cat studios raised almost $50,000 on Kickstarter to bring the adventure game Kudzu to life. Development is now complete, with boxed versions set to ship in January. Kudzu is another RPG-flavored game, with a similar quest to find your missing mentor, Zoen. This time though it’s set in a very different world, one where a raging “world eating” plant — the eponymous Kudzu — is the main enemy.
Kudzu takes the classic Game Boy RPG and spices it up with humor and cozy-catastrophe charm. Along your journey you’ll meet an interesting cast of characters including a cat that wants a pen pal and the in-game currency is mushrooms. Kudzu also uses a wide variety of challenges to move the story along. One minute you’ll need to use logic and memory to navigate mazes that change with levers, the next you might be collecting goats. And then there’s the mysterious Kudzu “jelly” — use it wisely and you might just fine Zoen before it’s too late.
If you prefer platformers and adventure games, then Far After — announced over summer — might be more your speed. This game blends a lot of classic retro themes — magic, quests, turn-based battles and platforming — making it an obvious crowd pleaser. Far After is published by Bitmapsoft which is no stranger to the retro world with numerous Game Boy titles on its roster.
The current wave of new interest in making Game Boy games is running in parallel with another, related trend: an abundance of retro gaming handhelds. These emulation devices start from around $50 and offer modern conveniences like a full-color, backlit display. Not to mention plenty of game storage, Wi-Fi and relatively long battery life. Then of course, there’s the Analogue Pocket, a higher-end handheld that’s basically the answer to the question “what would a Game Boy look like if it were designed and released today.”
Bitmapsoft
These retro-friendly handhelds make it incredibly easy to get started with emulating almost any console from more than 15 years ago. You might even argue that, while many developers are simply making games for their favorite system, once you have something like the Pocket or Ayn Odin, the platform the game was actually made for is less important. These could easily be mobile games or modern retro titles like Celeste, just someone chose to make them with a certain tool that delivers a certain aesthetic and desirable limitations.
Of course, there’s also Nintendo’s eShop and Virtual Console which provides a legitimate route for games like Dragonyhm to be played on official hardware for those that get a kick out of that. Beach confirmed they are aiming to release the game on Switch this way next year. With more and more ways to play these games, it’s a great time to be a Game Boy fan.
“I think it's a really good time, I would go as far as calling it a golden age, because there's so many developers developing homebrew Game Boy games now, and some of the quality is unbelievable. It’s really pushing the boundaries and producing stuff that's on par with licensed games” Beach said.
Dragonyhm is slated for release next year in partnership with Incube8 Games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dragonyhm-is-the-latest-in-a-wave-of-new-game-boy-rpgs-160039153.html?src=rss
Remember when Fortnite was just a battle royale game? After six years of storylines, concerts and even Olympic events, Fortnite has grown beyond its roots into a general catch-all social space. And Epic Games isn’t going back, expanding the Fortnite experience even further with three new modes announced at its Big Bang Event this weekend: a racing game, a social music experience and, most importantly to kids, a Lego-themed survival builder that launches today.
If “Lego-themed survival builder” sounds suspiciously like Minecraft to you, you’re not wrong. Minecraft itself has been burdened with comparisons to Lego since its release over a decade ago; this is just the Lego company returning the favor. There’s a survival mode, where your little Lego minifig explores a verdant landscape punching trees and rocks to gather supplies for building. There are skeletons that wander around at night and will attack if they spot you. Various animals wander around that can provide resources: If you pet a chicken it will produce an egg, though I accidentally punched it first and got nothing as every other chicken proceeded to avoid me for the rest of the day.
Once you get into it, though, the comparisons fall away. The procedurally-generated landscape is realistically rendered thanks to the power of Epic’s Unreal Engine, with natural-looking trees covered in individual leaves and blades of grass that blow in the wind. Punching or chopping natural features is what turns them into Lego elements. It’s weird, almost like you’re colonizing the real world by turning it into a Lego one. It’s also huge, about 20 times the size of the battle royale island.
Once you’ve obtained the materials, building is rather simple. There’s a list of building plans, and your character adorably holds a Lego tile with blueprints on it while you’re in the construction mode. Players get a handful of essential recipes to start like a campfire to keep warm and a shack for shelter, and they can earn more as they play and level up. The game will helpfully sketch a ghostly outline of where each component goes, asking the player to slide and lock it into place. There’s no place for error or major creativity in the basic survival mode — that’s what the sandbox is for. There, all of the building plans will already be unlocked, leaving players free to let their imaginations go wild.
There’s plenty here for Lego devotees, as Epic has scanned around 10,000 different Lego elements for use in the game. All of your favorite pieces should be present, and the company plans to add more in the coming months (there are over 30,000 unique Lego elements total). As this is an official collaboration with the company, many of the graphical assets were received directly from Lego, and only “legal” builds will be allowed (as opposed to “illegal” builds, which refer to Lego configurations that in the real world, may stress or break pieces). Hardcore Lego aficionados will definitely appreciate the attention to detail.
Epic Games
And Epic would certainly like to see more Lego fans playing Fortnite, especially kids. Though it started life as a violence-oriented game, the title has evolved into a gathering space where kids sign on just to socialize with friends. The Lego feature, along with the two other modes Epic announced over the weekend — Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing — are Epic’s way of facilitating that by providing activities that are more than just running around and shooting. By eschewing the violent elements (as well as controversial practices like loot boxes), Epic also hopes to make Fortnite more palatable to parents.
Lego Fortnite, similarly to Minecraft, lets you customize the challenges you'll face in your world. You can toggle gameplay basics like enemies, hunger, temperate damage, stamina and so on, along with some more advanced features. The mode supports up to eight players in a party, and you can delegate seven of your friends as "key holders" to your world, allowing them to access and edit it when you're not around. Each player can have eight worlds saved to their profile.
As for existing Fortnite players, they’re free to continue playing as they always have and completely ignore the new modes – the only difference they’ll see is that the main menu has been expanded a bit to accommodate the new options. But, if they do decide to try out the Lego mode, they’ll find plenty that’s familiar, as over 1,200 skin options have already been translated into minifigs, and there are 100 emotes for your character to perform. Players will still earn XP, which will go into their overall stats, as opposed to remaining walled within the Lego mode. Cosmetic elements can be used between modes as well and, when you tab between options in the in-game locker, it will tell you what modes each skin is compatible with.
As this is Fortnite, all of the new modes will be free-to-play, including the Lego survival builder. Epic hopes this will bring new players in, though it remains to be seen whether it can draw significant market share from Minecraft. Existing players will see the new option pop up today (December 7), with the other modes set to follow this week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fortnite-aims-at-the-survival-builder-crown-with-its-new-lego-mode-151433897.html?src=rss
Remember when Fortnite was just a battle royale game? After six years of storylines, concerts and even Olympic events, Fortnite has grown beyond its roots into a general catch-all social space. And Epic Games isn’t going back, expanding the Fortnite experience even further with three new modes announced at its Big Bang Event this weekend: a racing game, a social music experience and, most importantly to kids, a Lego-themed survival builder that launches today.
If “Lego-themed survival builder” sounds suspiciously like Minecraft to you, you’re not wrong. Minecraft itself has been burdened with comparisons to Lego since its release over a decade ago; this is just the Lego company returning the favor. There’s a survival mode, where your little Lego minifig explores a verdant landscape punching trees and rocks to gather supplies for building. There are skeletons that wander around at night and will attack if they spot you. Various animals wander around that can provide resources: If you pet a chicken it will produce an egg, though I accidentally punched it first and got nothing as every other chicken proceeded to avoid me for the rest of the day.
Once you get into it, though, the comparisons fall away. The procedurally-generated landscape is realistically rendered thanks to the power of Epic’s Unreal Engine, with natural-looking trees covered in individual leaves and blades of grass that blow in the wind. Punching or chopping natural features is what turns them into Lego elements. It’s weird, almost like you’re colonizing the real world by turning it into a Lego one. It’s also huge, about 20 times the size of the battle royale island.
Once you’ve obtained the materials, building is rather simple. There’s a list of building plans, and your character adorably holds a Lego tile with blueprints on it while you’re in the construction mode. Players get a handful of essential recipes to start like a campfire to keep warm and a shack for shelter, and they can earn more as they play and level up. The game will helpfully sketch a ghostly outline of where each component goes, asking the player to slide and lock it into place. There’s no place for error or major creativity in the basic survival mode — that’s what the sandbox is for. There, all of the building plans will already be unlocked, leaving players free to let their imaginations go wild.
There’s plenty here for Lego devotees, as Epic has scanned around 10,000 different Lego elements for use in the game. All of your favorite pieces should be present, and the company plans to add more in the coming months (there are over 30,000 unique Lego elements total). As this is an official collaboration with the company, many of the graphical assets were received directly from Lego, and only “legal” builds will be allowed (as opposed to “illegal” builds, which refer to Lego configurations that in the real world, may stress or break pieces). Hardcore Lego aficionados will definitely appreciate the attention to detail.
Epic Games
And Epic would certainly like to see more Lego fans playing Fortnite, especially kids. Though it started life as a violence-oriented game, the title has evolved into a gathering space where kids sign on just to socialize with friends. The Lego feature, along with the two other modes Epic announced over the weekend — Fortnite Festival and Rocket Racing — are Epic’s way of facilitating that by providing activities that are more than just running around and shooting. By eschewing the violent elements (as well as controversial practices like loot boxes), Epic also hopes to make Fortnite more palatable to parents.
Lego Fortnite, similarly to Minecraft, lets you customize the challenges you'll face in your world. You can toggle gameplay basics like enemies, hunger, temperate damage, stamina and so on, along with some more advanced features. The mode supports up to eight players in a party, and you can delegate seven of your friends as "key holders" to your world, allowing them to access and edit it when you're not around. Each player can have eight worlds saved to their profile.
As for existing Fortnite players, they’re free to continue playing as they always have and completely ignore the new modes – the only difference they’ll see is that the main menu has been expanded a bit to accommodate the new options. But, if they do decide to try out the Lego mode, they’ll find plenty that’s familiar, as over 1,200 skin options have already been translated into minifigs, and there are 100 emotes for your character to perform. Players will still earn XP, which will go into their overall stats, as opposed to remaining walled within the Lego mode. Cosmetic elements can be used between modes as well and, when you tab between options in the in-game locker, it will tell you what modes each skin is compatible with.
As this is Fortnite, all of the new modes will be free-to-play, including the Lego survival builder. Epic hopes this will bring new players in, though it remains to be seen whether it can draw significant market share from Minecraft. Existing players will see the new option pop up today (December 7), with the other modes set to follow this week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fortnite-aims-at-the-survival-builder-crown-with-its-new-lego-mode-151433897.html?src=rss
Warner Bros Discover (WBD) has scored a coup by inking a "Pay-1" deal with indie darling A24 for priority streaming rights, the company announced. That means new releases from A24 like Iron Claw (above) will appear first on HBO, Max and Cinemax before streaming on any other platform. The deal also extends WBD's licensing for A24's film catalog, giving it access to titles like Uncut Gems, Everything Everywhere All At Once and others.
"Movies included in the pay-1 output agreement include Dicks: The Musical, Priscilla, Dream Scenario, The Zone of Interest, Stop Making Sense(2023),The Iron Claw, Love Lies Bleeding, Civil War, and more," Warner Bros Discovery wrote in a press release. "Between the existing and new library of A24 films, subscribers will have access to more than one hundred A24 titles over the term of the agreement."
Typically films start in theaters, then go to digital purchase/rental before heading to streaming or OTA broadcast. Pay-1 gives streaming companies exclusive access to titles for a period of 12-18 months before they had to Pay-2 for general licensing and syndication.
Paramount's Showtime has held the Pay-1 deal with A24 since 2019, but it expired in November 2022 (and was then extended a year), according to IndieWire. WBD only mentions having Pay-1 access to A24 movies released after the new deal, so anything released before that (Talk to Me, The Inspection and others) will likely remain Pay-1 on Showtime.
In any case, the deal will be a boon for A24 and viewers in general. WBD's Max and Discovery+ have a combined 95.1 million subscribers, while Paramount+ has 63 million subs, and not all of those have the ad-free "with Showtime" tier. Around the end of 2022, HBO and HBO Max gained access to some of A24's older films, but they'll now have many more, over 100 in total.
Just ahead of the A24 deal, WBD was touting the improved tech and a updated UI of the Max streaming app. Other upcoming A24 films include Tuesday (2024, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Problemista (2024, Julio Torres, Tilda Swinton and RZA).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a24-movies-will-stream-first-on-hbo-and-max-as-part-of-a-new-multiyear-deal-104550565.html?src=rss
Netflix just announced that it has renewed Squid Game: The Challenge for a second season. The reality show is a toned-down version of the dystopian drama of the same name, a program known for its harsh critique of capitalism. Production on the second season is already ramping up, as casting is currently underway.
The Challenge recreates many of the more popular scenarios from the original show, complete with fake deaths by gunshot when a player exits the game. Despite being a fictional version of the drama, the real-life players were put in dangerous situations while competing. Many players said they suffered injuries during the game, and others claimed that provisions were so scarce that people were forced to use condoms as lip balm, among other complaints.
Just like its fictional counterpart, the cash prize was so large that people were willing to put up with less-than-ideal and potentially hazardous circumstances. The winner of the first season will be announced tonight and will take home $4.65 million dollars, $10,000 for each of the 465 contestants. That’s the largest payout in reality show history. However, its winner takes all, so 464 players get nothing. As an aside, Netflix is valued at around $200 billion.
Despite the controversy surrounding the show, it's obviously a hit. Squid Game: The Challenge has consistently perched atop the streamer’s top ten, likely helped by the abundance of news regarding the precarious conditions on-set. Bread and circuses, baby!
The streamer has also revealed a bit more information regarding an upcoming video game set “in the Squid Game universe.” Netflix notes that players will “compete with friends in games they’ll recognize from the series,” so we know it has multiplayer at the very least. It also leaves us with one glaring question. The Squid Game… universe? The MCU better watch out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-renews-the-squid-game-reality-show-for-a-second-season-of-mostly-fake-torture-180528484.html?src=rss