Tag Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Songs from Adele and others are returning to YouTube as SESAC agrees to a new deal

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Update, September 30, 4:30PM ET: YouTube says it has reached a deal with SESAC, and that the affected songs will be returning to the platform soon. A spokesperson sent the following comment: "We're pleased that SESAC reconsidered our offer. We've reached a deal and content will come back up shortly. We appreciate everyone's patience during this time." 

The original story, headlined "YouTube blocks songs from artists including Adele and Green Day amid licensing negotiations," follows unedited.

Songs from popular artists have begun to disappear from YouTube as the platform’s deal with the performing rights organization SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers) approaches its expiration date. As reported by Variety, certain songs by Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, R.E.M., Burna Boy and other artists have been blocked in the US, though their entire catalogs aren’t necessarily affected. Videos that have been pulled, like Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” now just show a black screen with the message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

A black screen with the message: Video unavailable. This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country

In a statement to Engadget, a YouTube spokesperson said the platform has been in talks with SESAC to renew the deal, but “despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before its expiration. We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.” According to a source that spoke to Variety, however, the deal hasn’t even expired yet — it’ll reportedly terminate sometime next week — and the move on YouTube’s part may be a negotiation tactic. SESAC has not yet released a statement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/songs-from-adele-and-others-are-returning-to-youtube-as-sesac-agrees-to-a-new-deal-151741508.html?src=rss

Here’s a peek at how A Minecraft Movie will handle crafting

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The team behind the upcoming Minecraft movie shared a new clip during Minecraft Live that expands on the brief crafting moment we saw in the polarizing first teaser. The scene comes in the middle of a discussion between Mojang creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson and A Minecraft Movie director Jared Hess, at 4:51. The segment also gives us our first look at the movie’s interpretation of a Minecraft bee, which I’m not quite sure how to feel about yet. That you can find toward the end of the video.

A Minecraft Movie is slated for release in April 2025 and stars Jack Black as Steve, alongside Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Plans for it were first announced a decade ago, and potential release dates were set and scrapped on multiple occasions in the time since. At long last, it’s actually now happening — for better or worse.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/heres-a-peek-at-how-a-minecraft-movie-will-handle-crafting-220454126.html?src=rss

What to read this weekend: The history of overhyped tech, and a new graphic novel from Charles Burns

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New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/history-of-overhyped-tech-charles-burns-final-cut-richard-powers-playground-163018545.html?src=rss

Blizzard is trying to make a StarCraft shooter again (for the third time)

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Blizzard is diving into the StarCraft shooter well once again, after two previous titles were canceled. This information comes from a forthcoming book about the developer by games journalist Jason Schreier and was discussed during a recent IGN podcast.

This time around, veteran developer Dan Hay is leading the effort to translate the world of StarCraft into a shooter. Hay certainly has the right pedigree for the job. He’s been involved with the Far Cry franchise since Far Cry 3, eventually becoming creative director of the series. Hay joined up with Blizzard to oversee the long-gestating survival game Odyssey before it was unceremoniously canceled. This is the first we’ve heard of him since.

We don’t know anything about the game he’s working on now, beyond it being a StarCraft shooter. Past as prologue, it’ll probably be canceled sometime in 2029.

To that end, StarCraft-themed shooters have had a rocky history. First there was StarCraft: Ghost, which spent years in development limbo before being sent to the trash heap. The game eventually leaked online, a full 14 years after being canceled.

After that, Blizzard started developing something called Ares, which ended up being a StarCraft FPS. It was reportedly fairly far along in development before getting scrapped and, according to Kotaku, was shaping up to be “quite good.” Blizzard must have disagreed, as it went to a farm upstate back in 2019.

Who knows what will happen with this one. Best case scenario? It gets finished and we all have a great time blasting away swarms of arthropodal aliens sometime in the next few years. In the meantime, both StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II hit PC Game Pass on November 5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-is-trying-to-make-a-starcraft-shooter-again-for-the-third-time-153950275.html?src=rss

It’s the last day to get three months of Disney+ Basic for only $6

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With the rights to content from big studios and franchises like Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, Disney+ is a streaming service that everyone knows and loves — so much so that it nabbed a spot as one of the best streaming services in our guide. Whether you look forward to sitting down on your couch ready to be whisked away to Marvel’s multiverse of TV shows, like the highly anticipated Agatha All Along, or want to keep the kids entertained with hit classics like Bluey, or Inside Out 2, Disney+ has great content for adults and kids alike.

However, the service has not been immune to price hikes, that's why this deal is a good opportunity to save $24 over three months. Through the end of the day on September 27, you can get Disney+ Basic (with ads) for just $2/month for three months — that’s less than a cup of coffee.

There are a few different Disney+ plans available, but since Disney+ doesn’t offer a free trial, the Basic (with ads) is the cheapest option to gain access to all your favorite content, including TV shows and films. With Disney+ Basic, you can stream over 500 films, 15,000 episodes and 80 Disney+ Originals, including The Acolyte, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version), Percy Jackson and the Olympians and more. In addition to full library access, Basic also supports 4K content and streaming across multiple devices at once.

Although Disney+ offers an abundance of content suitable for most people, it’s a fantastic streaming service for families. Once you’ve signed up and installed the app (on your TV, smartphone, PC or tablet), you can add up to seven profiles so you don’t have to fight over what to watch, or risk spoilers when someone in your household binge watches the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy that you haven’t seen. There’s also a bunch of parental controls like Junior Mode, PIN protection and content ratings, which can help parents ensure their little ones aren’t exposed to anything they don’t want them to be.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/its-the-last-day-to-get-three-months-of-disney-basic-for-only-6-100001652.html?src=rss

New California law will force companies to admit you don’t own digital content

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California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 2426, a new law that requires digital marketplaces to make clearer to customers when they are only purchasing a license to access media. The law will not apply to cases of permanent offline downloads, only to the all-too-common situation of buying digital copies of video games, music, movies, TV shows or ebooks from an online storefront. The Verge spotted the development, which could see marketplaces facing fines for false advertising in the state if they don't use clear language to explain the limitations of what access entails. In other words, you won't be seeing language like "buy" or "purchase" once the law takes effect in 2025.

The move to digital storefronts has raised new parallel concerns about ownership and preservation for media in the modern age. Ubisoft's move to delete The Crew from players' libraries after the game's servers shuttered is one of the most recent examples of how customers can suddenly lose access to media they felt they owned. The new California law won't stop situations like The Crew's disappearance from happening, and it won't stop those losses from hurting. But it does make clearer that ownership is a pretty rare and intangible thing for digital media.

Governor Newsom is having a busy week. He also signed the state's "click to cancel" bill yesterday and last week signed two bills with protections against unwanted AI likenesses of actors, both living and deceased.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/new-california-law-will-force-companies-to-admit-you-dont-own-digital-content-203053750.html?src=rss

StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II are coming to PC Game Pass

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StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II: Campaign Collection are coming to PC Game Pass, as announced by Xbox at Tokyo Game Show. Both titles will be available on November 5 to anyone with a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

The multiplayer components of both games are already free-to-play on PCs, but this will allow people to experience the single-player campaigns. Starcraft II: Campaign Collection, for instance, includes over 70 missions pulled from all of the various DLC, like Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, among others.

StarCraft: Remastered adds some modern goodies to the original game, like 4K visuals, enhanced audio and newly-designed leaderboards. This update has been floating around since 2017, but Game Pass availability should introduce the iconic 1998 real-time strategy (RTS) title to a new audience.

Despite getting a bit long in the tooth, both games still have active multiplayer communities. This also holds true in the world of professional competitive gaming. Many credit StarCraft II, which released back in 2010, with assisting in the rise of live streaming.

This isn’t the only Blizzard-centric news to come out of Tokyo Game Show. Overwatch 2 is getting (probably very expensive) skins based on the anime My Hero Academia. This promotion goes from October 17 to 30.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/starcraft-remastered-and-starcraft-ii-are-coming-to-pc-game-pass-170133814.html?src=rss

The Last of Us season two trailer shows Ellie in danger and Joel in… therapy?

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September 26 is The Last of Us Day and to mark the occasion, HBO has dropped the first proper trailer for season two of its misery simulator TV adaptation. This expands on a sizzle reel we saw several weeks ago, which included the first glimpses of Catherine O’Hara’s character (seemingly a therapist) and Kaitlyn Dever as a pivotal newcomer, Abby. There’s more of both here, including that terrifying sequence of infected nearly crushing Abby under a chain-link fence.

There are quite a few other recognizable moments from The Last of Us Part II in the new clip, including an encounter between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and an infected in an abandoned supermarket and a famous scene of her playing guitar for Dina (Isabela Merced). The game’s subway segment is featured, along with the Seraphites and Jeffrey Wright, who reprises his Part II role as the leader of a militant faction. Of course, Joel (Pedro Pascal) is featured throughout the trailer too — he plays guitar with Ellie and sheds a tear, seemingly while in a therapy appointment with O'Hara.

Unfortunately, the clip doesn’t narrow down the release date for the season, which will air in 2025. However, HBO boss Casey Bloys recently indicated it will arrive in the first half of next year to make it eligible for the next Emmy awards (the same goes for the next season of The White Lotus).

Elsewhere, Naughty Dog is marking TLoU Day in its own way with some new merch and other tidbits. There’s a new bunch of TLoU-related avatars and emoji you can pick up using Steam Points, along with a thematic Steam Deck startup video. Meanwhile, PS Plus Extra and Premium members have access to the PS5 remake of the first game at no extra cost starting today.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-trailer-shows-ellie-in-danger-and-joel-in-therapy-160401898.html?src=rss

Blumhouse Games’ Fear The Spotlight set for release on October 22

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Blumhouse, the horror production company behind such big cinematic hits as Get Out, M3GAN and the Insidious films, has extended its creepy tentacles to scary shows and movies to scary video games.

Fear the Spotlight is Blumhouse Games’ first entry into gaming with the help of the indie developer Cozy Game Pals. The horror game will get a full release on October 22 and there’s a demo currently available for PCs on Steam.

Fear the Spotlight is a third-person horror adventure game that takes place in a high school after hours. Two curious teens Vivian and Amy sneak into Sunnyside High, a school with a dark, mysterious history, in the dead of night to perform a séance. A deadly creature with a bright, glowing gaze rises and starts roaming the halls of the school. The spotlight monster separates the girls and it’s up to Vivian to unravel the school’s mystery, find Amy and make it through the darkness alive.

The game uses PS1 style, polygonal graphics, which just adds to the game’s creepy aesthetic like some of those early horror classics including Nightmare Creatures and the first Silent Hill game. There’s just something about a square-ish head that sends a shiver down my spine. It’s one of many reasons I’m not looking forward to the new Minecraft movie.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/blumhouse-games-fear-the-spotlight-set-for-release-on-october-22-194907647.html?src=rss

Blumhouse Games’ Fear The Spotlight set for release on October 22

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Blumhouse, the horror production company behind such big cinematic hits as Get Out, M3GAN and the Insidious films, has extended its creepy tentacles to scary shows and movies to scary video games.

Fear the Spotlight is Blumhouse Games’ first entry into gaming with the help of the indie developer Cozy Game Pals. The horror game will get a full release on October 22 and there’s a demo currently available for PCs on Steam.

Fear the Spotlight is a third-person horror adventure game that takes place in a high school after hours. Two curious teens Vivian and Amy sneak into Sunnyside High, a school with a dark, mysterious history, in the dead of night to perform a séance. A deadly creature with a bright, glowing gaze rises and starts roaming the halls of the school. The spotlight monster separates the girls and it’s up to Vivian to unravel the school’s mystery, find Amy and make it through the darkness alive.

The game uses PS1 style, polygonal graphics, which just adds to the game’s creepy aesthetic like some of those early horror classics including Nightmare Creatures and the first Silent Hill game. There’s just something about a square-ish head that sends a shiver down my spine. It’s one of many reasons I’m not looking forward to the new Minecraft movie.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/blumhouse-games-fear-the-spotlight-set-for-release-on-october-22-194907647.html?src=rss