Entertainment

In his latest post on his personal blog, Martin says that he worked with House of the Dragon writers on the two seasons during a recent trip to London. Neither of the seasons have been officially announced, but given the huge numbers for the show’s debut last year and the quick renewal for season 2, I’m not surprised that there’s work being done on the far future of the show.

Season 2 is set to premiere on Max in summer 2024.

Sony just published an interview on the PlayStation Blog with two of the game’s developers, and it’s packed with details about what you can expect and some ways the development team adapted the game to VR. This was one of my favorite tidbits:

This is also a small detail, but the camera for the first-person perspective is set a little lower than Leon’s actual eye level. If the camera is at the same eye level as Leon – who is quite tall himself – the Ganados (enemy villagers) will appear smaller. The Ganados approach and attack Leon from a low, forward posture, so if you get too close to them, you end up looking down at them which strips away the intensity.

Resident Evil 4’s VR mode launches for PSVR 2 on December 8th.

Wikipedia has released its top articles of the year, and numero uno is one on ChatGPT. In a morbid twist, “Deaths in 2023” came in second.

Finally, India’s vast English-language speaking population just can’t log-off — articles on the 2023 Cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League come next in the ranking. You can see the full list of popular Wikipedia articles below.

The reveal of GTA VI was always going to be a moment. The events preceding the game’s initial reveal were, itself, a moment when the trailer got leaked, forcing Rockstar to release it earlier than intended.

In the 48-ish hours since then, the debut trailer for GTA VI has already eclipsed the first trailer of its predecessor, amassing more views in that short time than the GTA V trailer could get in 10 years.

Damn.

I expected nothing less, even though the actual trailer is only 90 seconds long. The trailer looks great, and good news: Digital Foundry is “inclined to believe” that the footage “is representative of the actual game,” Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter writes in a written analysis.

IGN published a big piece today about the “soul-crushing” mood at Bungie following recent layoffs and the delay of the game’s next big expansion.

While the studio, which is owned by Sony, remains independent, IGN reports that if Bungie misses some financial goals “by too great an amount,” Sony can dissolve Bungie’s board and take over.

That 10 percent number translates to about 40 jobs, including part of the company’s playlist curation team, sources told Bloomberg.

Spotify announced layoffs affecting 17 percent of its staff earlier this week.

Shortly after Geoff Keighley announced Valve will give away 100 Steam Deck OLEDs during the event, Lenovo piped in with a giveaway for its competing handheld: the Legion Go. The company will hand out 100 free devices during The Game Awards, which you can enter to win starting tomorrow at 7:30PM ET.

“You’ll get 9 characters, 15 weapons, 1 Stage, 20 in-game unlocks, the ability to see the future, and an Adventure,” developer Poncle wrote in an FAQ about the new Emergency Meeting DLC. “One of those answers is an Impostor.”

The DLC will cost $2.49, according to a press email, which is just a tad more expensive than the $1.99 price for the previous two expansions.

Emergency Meeting launches on PC and Xbox on December 18th and on mobile and Nintendo Switch “soon.” While you wait, you can check out the new story mode “Adventures” launching today.

Digital Eclipse is continuing its interactive documentary series with an upcoming collection about game designer and noted llama enthusiast Jeff Minter. The studio previously made Atari 50 and The Making of Karateka, and the new release will feature 42 different — and very trippy — classic games when it launches in 2024.

There’s a new “cinematic trailer” for Epic Games’ forthcoming Lego Fortnite experience, and while the trailer doesn’t have actual footage from the game, seeing all the Lego-ified Fortnite characters running around is pretty delightful.

The experience launches on Thursday, so we won’t have to wait too long until we can play it ourselves.

The giveaway will include the most expensive 1TB model of Valve’s updated handheld, which costs $649. You can enter for a chance to win during The Game Awards on December 7th from 7:30PM ET to 11:00PM ET.

Google brought hundreds of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to its TV platforms this year. They’re already deeply integrated with the Google TV interface, and now Google has crammed a bunch of them into a “Free TV Channels” app that appears on the homescreen of older Android TV products like the Nvidia Shield. There’s no escaping FAST content.

In other news, the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) was briefly cracked to allow custom OS installations. It’s already been patched, and even if you haven’t updated your device, the process of taking advantage of said exploit is a real doozy.

The Access controller, which is designed to offer a more accommodating way for people with disabilities to play PS5 games, is now widely available to buy for $89.99 / €89.99. To mark the occasion, Sony has put out a video featuring some of the people it consulted with on the project, showing the different configurations the controller can be used in.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted in favor (78.33 percent to 21.67 percent) of the agreement negotiated last month with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that represents the studios.

The new deal runs through June 30th, 2026, following the first time in 63 years that the unions for actors and writers were on strike at the same time.

SAG-AFTRA:

The deal includes more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefit plan funding, along with outsized gains to the traditional residuals formulas. It offers a new compensation model for performers working in streaming, with a substantial bonus on top of existing residuals structures, plus compensation escalation for principal and background actors. Additionally, the deal establishes detailed informed consent and compensation guardrails for the use of AI, hair and makeup equity, meaningful protections for the casting process, sexual harassment prevention protections and more.

Apple announced collaborative playlists for Apple Music at WWDC, and while it appeared in some iOS 17.2 betas, it’s not present in Tuesday’s iOS 17.2 release candidate, 9to5Mac reports. Barring an unexpected surprise, you shouldn’t expect to see collaborative playlists in the final release.

Apple’s iOS 17 website still says the feature is coming “later this year,” but at this rate, I doubt that’s going to happen.

Especially in a post One Piece world, there’s always some hope of Netflix’s live-action anime / manga adaptations exceeding everyone’s expectations.

But judging from the looks of the wigs and special effects featured in the new trailer for Robot Communications’ upcoming spin on Yu Yu Hakusho, we might be in for another clunker.

Netflix has released a trailer for its new crypto documentary, Bitconned, about the rise and fall of Centra Tech, a scam that was part of the wave of initial coin offerings in 2017. The blowback from the scheme caught DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather, who had promoted it — they were fined by the SEC. Ray Trapani, one of the co-founders, appears to be a key narrator of the Netflix documentary.

The system, Bethesda Game Studios Creations, “combines Skyrim’s existing Mods, Creation Club items and all-new Creations under a single Creations menu available for players to browse today in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition,” according to Bethesda’s blog post. If you become a “verified creator,” you can earn a cut for Creations sold in the game.

I’m guessing this system (or something like it) will come to Starfield when the studio officially ads mods to the game “early next year.”

The upcoming game puts a modern spin on the classic run ‘n’ gun, with its latest trailer highlighting the roster of playable characters and some revamped maps. Contra: Operation Galuga comes from Konami and WayForward, and will be available for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PS5, PS4, and PC in “early” 2024.

My everlasting search for a new Sonic game that isn’t soul-crushing or a technical mess may have come to an end but there’s a catch: it’s only available on Apple Arcade.

Sonic Dream Team, which Polygon makes sound like a better version of Sonic Superstars, launches today on Apple Arcade.

Also coming today to Apple Arcade is another dream game, Disney meets Animal Crossing sim Disney Dreamlight Valley: Arcade Edition, along with Puzzle & Dragons Story and Turmoil+.

Despite Rockstar releasing the GTA VI trailer early following a leak, it still managed to rake in 72 million views and counting. PC Gamer points out this makes it the most-viewed non-music video on YouTube in the 24 hours following its release — a record previously held by MrBeast.

It’s also getting close to dethroning BTS’s “Dynamite” music video, which currently holds the record for getting the most views on all of YouTube in 24 hours.