WWE has been shaking up its broadcast platforms recently, with the latest development coming via a partnership with X, formerly known as Twitter. The pair have signed a two-year deal for a new weekly series called WWE Speed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show will be exclusive to X and feature timed matches lasting under five minutes.
Well-known wrestlers across the WWE franchise are set to participate in WWE Speed. The plan is for the show to be shot with a studio audience, with new episodes airing every week, starting this spring. WWE Speed will be the latest sports show on X. The platform aired exclusive content in partnership with Fox during the last FIFA World Cup. This year, it will work with NBC Universal to stream segments during the Paris Olympics.
As for the WWE world, X isn't the only company getting in on the action. The news follows Netflix's recent acquisition of WWE's flagship show, Monday Night Raw, for a reported $5 billion over 10 years. The deal includes weekly shows in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and more, along with airings of the WWE shows NXT and SmackDown in countries outside of the US. International audiences will also get access to documentaries, new shows and more original series starting next year.
Netflix users in the US will likely have to wait a while for access to more WWE programs. NBC Universal is reportedly paying $1.4 billion over the next five years to broadcast Smackdown on USA Network, while the CW is paying between $100,000 and $250,000 for the same time period to air NXT.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-will-host-a-new-wwe-speed-weekly-series-starting-in-the-spring-103013383.html?src=rss
With a fewwell-received games under its belt in recent months, Ubisoft will be looking to keep up its momentum into 2024 and beyond. The publisher may well be gearing up to host an Ubisoft Forward event in May, as that's when it's promised to reveal more details about several of its upcoming projects.
In the company's latest earnings report, it said it will reveal the bulk of its lineup for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which runs through March 2025, in May. It will unveil more details about Star Wars Outlawsand a Japan-set Assassin's Creed game codenamed "Red," as well as free-to-play mobile titles The Division Resurgence and Rainbow Six Mobile. The latter will arrive roughly two years than first expected.
Ubisoft previously indicated that Outlaws, which is slated to be a truly open-world Star Wars game, is scheduled to arrive later this year. We can also now expect Assassin's Creed Red (or whatever its official name is) to drop before April 2025 as well.
Meanwhile, there's likely to be some news on the XDefiantfront soon too. Ubisofot expects "a limited contribution from XDefiant" to its bottom line this quarter, so perhaps that's when the free-to-play tactical shooter will arrive. Plus, after many, many delays, Ubisoft will at long last release Skull and Bones next week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisoft-will-reveal-more-star-wars-outlaws-and-assassins-creed-red-details-in-may-184012158.html?src=rss
Idris Elba once again voices the titular Echidna. This time around, Knuckles will be training human companion Wade Whipple (Adam Pally) to become a warrior, all the while fending off those who want to use his power for nefarious means.
The trailer is entertaining enough. There's a decent gag about a dog's mortal enemy and it sets up the premise of the show neatly. All episodes of Knuckles will hit Paramount+ in the US and Canada on April 26. The show will arrive on Paramount+ elsewhere the following day. Folks in Japan will need to wait until later this year to catch the show.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonic-spin-off-series-knuckles-will-hit-paramount-on-april-26-170506646.html?src=rss
Homeworld 3, the much-anticipated sequel to 20-year-old real-time strategy game Homeworld 2, has been delayed once again, Gearbox Publishing and Blackbird Interactive announced. It's now set to come out on May 13, 2024, a couple of months after the previously announced March 8 debut.
The decision to delay was made following a playthrough by users from outside the company. "This resulted in additional insights and perspective the will be incorporated to make Homeworld 3 the best experience possible," the team wrote. A public demo also likely weighed on the decision, showing some issues like balky camera and other controls.
Gearbox Publishing/Blackbird Interactive
Homeworld 3 was originally pegged for a 2022 release, but it was postponed until 2023 and later February 2024, then again slightly until March 8. Though public beta users found some elements balky, the game generated positive comments as well, so the new May 13 date may be realistic.
Homeworld 3 is an ambitious sequel to its popular predecessor, attempting to capture the vibe that people loved while introducing new modes including PvP and co-op. The latter (War Games) has a roguelike aspect emphasizing coordination with fellow players and may be the new title's ace in the hole. In any case, May is a generally a quiet month for game releases, so if the latest date works out, it would be a fine time to get into a complex RTS.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/homeworld-3-delayed-again-until-may-113515101.html?src=rss
Disney will invest $1.5 billion in Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, the company announced on Wednesday. As part of the initiative, Disney and Epic Games will create a brand new “games and entertainment universe” over the next few years, Disney said in a statement.
“Our exciting new relationship with Epic Games will bring together Disneys beloved brands and franchises with the hugely popular Fortnite in a transformational new games an entertainment universe,” wrote Disney CEO Bob Iger in the statement. “This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion.”
Players will be able to “play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more” in the new entertainment universe, which will be powered by Epic’s flagship Unreal Engine. Disney currently uses Unreal Engine to produce movies, video games, and content used in Disney theme parks around the world. It has also partnered with Epic Games previously to bring characters from Marvel, Tron, and Star Wars to Fortnite.
Neither company disclosed how much the valuation of Epic Games, a private company, would be after Disney's investment. Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent currently owns 40 percent of Epic Games, while Sony owns just over 5 percent.
“[We] are collaborating on something entirely new to build a persistent, open and interoperable ecosystem that will bring together the Disney and Fortnite communities,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney in the statement. “Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite[.]”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-is-investing-15-billion-in-epic-games-to-create-a-games-and-entertainment-universe-215015443.html?src=rss
The production pipeline for mainstream video games has always been hectic. The AAA factory is powered by rigid marketing plans and periods of soul-sucking crunch, and while this process has resulted in incredible games over the years, it's also been detrimental to developers' mental health and long-term job stability. Layoffs have long been baked into the video game industry, but in recent months, this trend has been running in overdrive, and it's happening at studios of all sizes.
This week's stories
Kojima Films
Hideo Kojima is partnering with Sony to build a new game that’s actually more like a movie. Of course, you could say this about any of Kojima’s games since Snatcher, but this time around, he’s doing the Hollywood thing on purpose. The new project is codenamed PHYSINT., and it’s a return to Kojima’s action-espionage roots, but it’s definitely not Metal Gear. Apparently it’s going to blur the boundaries between film and games, and it’ll take advantage of Sony’s connections in movies and music. Kojima Productions will start working on the new IP after finishing Death Stranding 2, which is set to come out in 2025. Kojima is also building OD, an Xbox movie — sorry, game — made in collaboration with horror director Jordan Peele.
Xbox on other platforms
It looks like Xbox is preparing to release some of its exclusive titles on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. A handful of reports rolled out this week suggesting Starfield, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Sea of Thieves and Gears of War are all slated to hit PS5 or Switch in the near future. Xbox head Phil Spencer neither confirmed nor denied the reports, and instead teased an event next week that should clarify the studio’s multiplatform plans.
Layoffs in 2024
Both Sony and Microsoft have delivered their first showcases of 2024, highlighting all of the big, shiny games coming out soon, like Hellblade 2, Avowed, the Silent Hill 2 remake and Stellar Blade. The trailers for these titles are as vibrant as ever and the marketing beats are just as breathless — but, man, it’s really hard to get excited about video games right now. Rampant layoffs have cast a shadow over the industry, and even if 2024 turns out to be a banner year for video game debuts, it still feels shitty.
In the first month of 2024, an estimated 6,000 people in the video game industry lost their jobs. This figure is steadily climbing and it’s building on a rash of layoffs in 2023, when an estimated 10,500 video game jobs were cut. I don’t want to just drop these numbers without context — 2022 saw about 8,500 layoffs and this was considered terrible. 2023 eclipsed this total and, just six weeks in, 2024 is on track to do the same.
Here are some stats from January alone: Riot Games laid off 530 people, or about 11 percent of its workforce, and closed down its experimental publishing label. Devolver Digital laid off 28 people at Artificer, a team it purchased in 2021. Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive lost 45 people. Sega of America fired 61 workers. Microsoft laid off nearly 2,000 employees across Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Xbox the same week that it became a $3 trillion company. Unity plans to drop 1,800 employees by March, and this is on top of the 1,000 jobs that the studio eliminated in 2023. Embracer Group gutted the team behind Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and laid off 97 people at Eidos Montreal, canceling a new Deus Ex game in the process. The holding company already terminated about 1,000 jobs in 2023 and its restructuring efforts are expected to last until March.
Recent layoffs have affected studios of all sizes, and they’re happening even as the industry’s leading companies grow financially. If it sounds like I’m repeating myself, that’s because I am — I reported on the layoffs crisis at the end of last year, and things have only become more concerning in the first weeks of 2024. The video game industry received an influx of attention and cash during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and today’s layoffs are a response to a period of unchecked growth and corporate consolidation.
All of this instability provides an unsettling backdrop for the hype coming out of the video game industry this year. It’s tough to get excited about Xbox’s Avowed when we know people lost their jobs during production, and it’s hard to enjoy Devolver’s next edgy showcase when it just downsized a studio it didn’t need to buy in the first place.
At the same time, we’re seeing how unionization can help protect the people who make video games. Though dozens of people lost their jobs at Sega of America this year, the studio’s AEGIS-CWA union negotiated to save some roles and offer severance to temp workers. Unionization efforts have been on the rise since 2021, and the appeal of collective bargaining is only clarifying as the firing squads take aim.
Through our union efforts, we’ve been able to more than double the number of saved jobs, and to offer severance to our temp workers.
The futuristic action-RPG Stellar Blade is coming out on April 26, exclusive to PS5.
Dave the Diver, the pixelated non-indie game that somehow got nominated for Indie Game of the Year, is coming to PS4 and PS5 in April, and it’ll get Godzilla DLC in May.
Johanna Faries has replaced Mike Ybarra as the president of Blizzard. Ybarra quit during Microsoft’s downsizing in January, and Faries was previously the head of Call of Duty under Activision.
Now Playing
Now that I can actually talk about it, I want to say that Persona 3 Reload is absolutely delicious. The Morning After host Mat Smith wrote our review, go give it a read if you’re a freak like us.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/layoffs-are-sucking-the-joy-out-of-video-games--this-weeks-gaming-news-174541450.html?src=rss
Bluesky, the open-source Twitter alternative, is now open to anyone. After being in beta for a little less than a year and with just over three million users, the social media platform is an option if the ruins of X (formerly Twitter) or Threads aren’t doing it for you.
Bluesky began life as an internal project at Jack Dorsey’s Twitter, but it ended its association with the entity now known as X after Elon Musk’s takeover. “We really believe that the future of social is, and should be, open and decentralized,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber tells Engadget. “This is something that we think is good for the public conversation overall.”
Decentralized status aside, the service is functionally similar to X and Threads. Posts aren’t tweets but ‘skeets.’ There’s a chronological timeline, but you can also follow numerous other algorithmic feeds created by fellow users. (I’m intrigued by the feed for quiet friends — users you follow who don’t post that often.)
You can find me on there @thatmatsmith.bsky.social. I’m probably going to be one of those quiet friends.
The streaming service has reportedly warned US subscribers in an email.
If it worked for Netflix… Disney+ is emailing its subscribers, notifying them about a change in its terms of service. Its service agreement now states users may not share their passwords outside of their household “unless otherwise permitted by [their] service tier,” suggesting new subscription options in the future. It might be time for Mom and Dad to buy their own subscription. I say Mom and Dad, I mean you.
She threatened legal action against the same guy who ran the ElonJet account.
Taylor Swift has threatened legal action against a Florida student who set up multiple social media accounts that release real-time information of her personal aircraft’s whereabouts. The student facing legal action by Swift’s team is the same guy who ran the ElonJet account that tracked Elon Musk’s jet. Facebook and Instagram banned Sweeney’s accounts that track Swift’s air travel late last year, but they’re still live on Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram and other sites.
At almost seven years old, the Nintendo Switch is proving there’s still life in the hybrid console. Enough life for Nintendo to up its predicted sales figures for its current fiscal year. In its third-quarter earnings release, the company announced it was increasing the Switch’s projected sales from 15 million to 15.5 million. That’s great and all, but where’s the Switch 2?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-twitter-alternative-bluesky-is-no-longer-invitation-only-121534911.html?src=rss
Just one more hand. Just one more attempt to win at the card game, Queen’s Blood. In my limited preview time with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, weeks before the game is due to be released, I may have spent a little too long learning the rules of this companion card game, introduced relatively early into the game. And I regret nothing. (For one, because I previewed most of the changes to the battle system a few months ago.)
This early addiction bodes well for the wider game. It’s a sign that the team behind this sequel-of-a-remake is making a world bigger and richer than the occasionally on-the-rails one in Remake. I’m hoping for a more open-world experience, now that the characters have finally escaped Midgar. (See: the plot of Final Fantasy 7 Remake) A change of location, too, shakes up the look of Rebirth. It has plants! Nature, everywhere! At least once you’re out of a satellite town called Kalm in Chapter 2.
Square Enix
First, I played through Chapter 1, which also acts as a tutorial. It’s a flashback to Nibelheim, which explains how protagonist Cloud and antagonist Sephiroth worked together before; well, the latter seemingly lost his mind and slaughtered everyone in town.
It’s a more story-weighted version of my earlier demo, but I could now explore the town that multiple party members grew up in. When Cloud explores his friend Tifa’s house – without her permission – it sets up some entertaining criticisms of his lack of boundaries. Still, it was all predicated on me choosing to be awful and barge into Tifa’s room, play her piano, and just be a bit of a creep.
The chapter also raises some unanswered questions around Cloud and his fuzzy memories of Nibelheim. Anyone who’s played the original knows where this is going, but given how some characters in the first third of the game didn’t die, I’m waiting to see how the developers further shake up the plot for new and old fans. There should be a significant death during this middle chapter of the game: Will they twist the knife?
Let’s go back to the new card game. Queen’s Blood follows on from Triple Triad, Tetra Master and that weird pinball-ish game in Final Fantasy XV that might best be forgotten. You’ll be able to customize your deck of cards, each with a different layout of tiles and occasional special effects. It’s almost Risk-like, aiming to dominate the board and rack up the highest score on three rows. Cards can reclaim territory, lower stats, and all the usual videogame card antics, and yes, I am struggling to explain it in words. But it’s fun. And I should have stopped playing to explore more of the grasslands than I did.
Square Enix
Once you’ve wrapped up your card games and stepped out from Kalm, I could explore in most directions. In the time I had leftover, I saw points of interest packed with treasure, unique monster packs, resources to collect, weapons with skills to master, chocobos to tame and race, chocobo stops to repair (which add fast-travel spots to the map); and the return of the terribly-named Chad with virtual battles and tasks for you to help unlock more materia for extra spells and abilities. I then ate dirt in a battle to unlock the summon spell for Titan.
I liked this pick-and-choose busy-ness, but some diversions felt like they were there for the sake of killing time, a la Assassin’s Creed. I hope the developers remember to pare down travel time where they can, because traversing an area can get boring, even when riding a giant bird.
Fortunately, getting from A to B is interrupted by entertaining, occasionally challenging, battles. One new addition to Rebirth is an enemy detection radar that shows enemies' aggression level, helping you avoid fights when you just want to get going.
Another new dynamic is the party’s bonds with each other, which are now integrated with your movesets and stats. This presented itself in dialogue choices and side quests, adding a popular social mechanic seen in somany JRPGs into this remake sequel. What’s notable is that the more you deepen this friendship, a separate skill tree improves characters’ stats and even unlocks new synergy attacks (which I elaborated on here) to use in battle. Square Enix teased that the level of bonds could affect the story too – but that could just reflect the theme park ‘date’ that Cloud goes on, later, in the original game. We’ll find out in a few weeks.
You can test out some of this for yourself now. Square Enix has launched a two-part demo, including the Nibelheim incident, available to download now. Just 49GB! A second section will unlock on February 21.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on the PS5 on February 29, 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/final-fantasy-7-rebirth-adds-an-addictive-card-game-and-some-familiar-social-mechanics-000156550.html?src=rss
Four days after the death of former costar Carl Weathers, onetime The Mandalorian actor Gina Carano is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for her departure from the series — with Elon Musk’s help. Carano, whose post-Disney credits include a film produced by conspiracy theorist Ben Shapiro, posted Tuesday on X, “The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time.” X confirmed its assistance in a statement to Engadget.
Carano shared news of the lawsuit in a 694-word post on X. In the essay, she claims never to have used aggressive language, compared Republicans to Jewish people during the Holocaust or written anything racist or transphobic. She insists her male costars were “permitted to speak without harassment & re-education courses or termination,” but she “was not afforded the same right to exercise my freedom of speech.”
“Artists do not sign away our rights as American citizens when we enter into employment,” Carano wrote Tuesday. However, since she wasn’t arrested or detained for her views, her rights as an American citizen appear fully intact. Meanwhile, American businesses like Disney have the right not to employ actors whose views clash with their brand.
The actor and former mixed martial arts competitor thanked Musk and X on Tuesday for “giving me an opportunity to bring my case to light” by helping fund her lawsuit. Musk previously said he would pay the legal costs of users who got in trouble for their posts on the platform.
X confirmed its monetary assistance in a statement to Engadget. “As a sign of X Corp’s commitment to free speech, we’re proud to provide financial support for Gina Carano’s lawsuit, empowering her to seek vindication of her free speech rights on X and the ability to work without bullying, harassment, or discrimination,” a company spokesperson wrote.
Carano as Cara Dune in season two of ‘The Mandalorian’
Disney+
Carano’s troubles with Disney arose from social media posts on X (Twitter at the time) and Instagram. In her posts, she questioned the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, blamed the Biden administration for the deaths of vaccinated people, claimed Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself and added “boop/bop/beep” as her pronouns.
The final straw for Disney was when she shared a post on Instagram implying that the treatment of conservatives in Trump-era America had parallels to the targeting of Jews in Nazi-era Germany. The following day, Disney dropped Carano from The Mandalorian and the (since canceled) Rangers of the New Republic series.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement at the time. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Carano’s agency, United Talent Agency, dropped her around the same time.
Carano’s post-Star Wars career has included Terror on the Prairie, produced by Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire. She also starred in the 2022 film My Son Hunter, a “fictional retelling of the lifestyle and scandals of Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/former-mandalorian-actor-gina-carano-sues-disney--with-xs-help-220039820.html?src=rss
It looks like Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire who doesn’t like having their private jet tracked. Pop star Taylor Swift has threatened legal action against a Florida student who set up multiple social media accounts that release real-time information as to the whereabouts of her personal aircraft, according to The Washington Post.
This is eerily reminiscent of the whole ElonJet scandal of late 2022, in which Twitter banned an account that was tracking Musk’s jet. As a matter of fact, the student facing legal action by Swift’s team is the same guy who ran that account. Jack Sweeney, 21, runs various social media pages that log the takeoffs and landings of aircraft owned by billionaires, politicians and, of course, pop stars.
Back in December, Swift’s attorneys wrote Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter that said the pop star would “have no choice but to pursue any and all legal remedies” if he did not stop publishing details as to her jet’s whereabouts, likening it to “stalking and harassing behavior.”
The letter went on to say that Sweeney’s actions had caused Swift and her family “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress,” and had heightened her “constant state of fear for her personal safety.” It’s worth noting that Swift has had numerous stalkers and harassers throughout her career. Just last month, a man was arrested for stalking her at home on several occasions.
“While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our client,” the legal team wrote. The letter added that there is “no legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control.”
Tree Paine, a spokesperson for Swift, made a direct line from Sweeney’s social media accounts to Swift’s harassers, saying that the pop star’s team couldn’t “comment on any ongoing police investigation but can confirm the timing of stalkers suggests a connection.”
Sweeney told The Washington Post that this is just an attempt to scare him away from sharing public data, noting that all of his jet-tracking accounts draw location information from the Federal Aviation Administration and volunteer hobbyists. Aircraft regularly broadcast their locations via transponders so air traffic controllers can see what’s going on. Anyone on the ground can pick up these signals by using a device called an ADS-B receiver, which are widely available online. “This information is already out there,” Sweeney said. “Her team thinks they can control the world.”
Swift’s team wrote that Sweeney is “notorious for disregarding the personal safety of others in exchange for public attention and/or requests for financial gain,” citing an incident in which he asked Elon Musk for $50,000 to take down the ElonJet account.
Facebook and Instagram banned Sweeney’s accounts that track Swift’s air travel late last year, but they’re still live on Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram and other social media sites. His live-tracking accounts have been banned on X, but he’s allowed to post location data with a 24-hour delay. In addition to the world’s biggest pop star, Sweeney also tracks people like Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian and Mark Zuckerberg.
It doesn’t look like Sweeney's planning to stop tracking the pop star's jet anytime soon. He's lawyered up to defend himself from legal action.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/add-taylor-swift-to-the-list-of-famous-people-who-dont-like-their-private-jets-being-tracked-163326648.html?src=rss