Entertainment

So, remember how Duke and Duchess of Sussex were supposed to do some podcasting for Spotify? They did a rumored $20 million deal for... one podcast?

Now I, for one, respect the hustle here. (I will also do one podcast for $20 million. Or even $10 million.) Bill Simmons, the head of podcast innovation (?) at Spotify, however, feels differently.

Our sister pub does a deep dive on Jim Cramer’s whole... thing:

In the business of Jim Cramer, there is the man and the character. Where one ends and the other begins isn’t really clear. In one sense, he is CNBC’s Mickey Mouse, probably the cable channel’s most recognizable piece of IP. That comes in handy when it wants to upsell to its most loyal viewers. The channel’s investing club, in which Cramer talks more about his picks, costs nearly $400 a year. The CNBC Pro subscription has a slightly more affordable $300 annual fee. Then there are all of Cramer’s books (including Jim Cramer’s Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich) and a $20 “United States of Cramerica” shirt.

S.H.Figuarts is making a figure of Jamiroquai — a criminally underrated British jazz-funk artist who blessed us with bangers like “Canned Heat,” “Seven Days in Sunny June,” “Traveling Without Moving,” and “Return of the Space Cowboy.” I can’t wait to see full stop-motion recreations of “Virtual Insanity,” as the figure also comes with the music video’s signature black couches.

Conveyor belts sold separately.

The Microsoft Theater and Xbox Plaza in LA are being renamed the Peacock Theater and Peacock Plaza as of July 11, in a “groundbreaking partnership.” Here is a rendering of the new branding on the theater, which Go90 Scale of Doomed Streaming Services enthusiasts might note is located right next door to the Crypto.com Arena. [Businesswire via NBC LA]

There will soon come a time when Tears of the Kingdom sickos will weep for they will have no more mind-blowing machines to engineer. But by Hylia, that day is not today.

The GBA version of Fire Emblem will be available to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members on June 23rd. This was my first Fire Emblem; I might have to give it a whirl for the nostalgia.

The Directors Guild of America has already approved a tentative new labor contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and encouraged members to ratify it by vote.

But ahead of the voting deadline on June 23rd, a number of directors including Lilly Wachowski have begun speaking out about why they’ve cast “no” ballots, namely: some concerning language in the proposed contract relating to “generative” AI that definitely seems like it could be exploited in nefarious ways.

Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.

At least that’s what it looks like in the new trailer FX just dropped ahead of What We Do In The Shadows’ premiere next month. It might not be the taste of vampirism that he truly craves, but it’s certainly one he’s earned at this point.

Github’s Christina Warren (a former tech reporter and notable Friend of The Verge) takes a dive into Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit, which is a translation layer that allows Windows DirectX 12 games to run near-natively on Apple silicon. Tom wrote it up when it was announced, but now people are using it — and there’s a ways to go, but the promise is there.

For those who’ve been patiently waiting for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget to hit Netflix, summer and fall might be a bit disappointing. But come December 15th, it’s nugget time.

What the hellllllll

(For more, read this fun piece at Wired by Verge alum Megan Farokhmanesh)

As of today, Zound Industries is officially called the Marshall Group following its acquisition of Marshall Amplification. Zound had used the British amp manufacturer’s branding for its headphones and speakers for over a decade.

Check out my March interview with Marshall Group CEO Jeremy de Maillard for more details on the merger.

A full trailer, release date, and what sounds like preorders are coming tomorrow, tweets series creator J. Michael Straczynski. Here’s everything else we know about Babylon 5: The Road Home.