How Nindies Are Core to Nintendo Switch’s Success

While the first year of the Nintendo Switch’s lineup has been dominated by beloved twists on classic franchises like Super Mario Odyssey and IGN’s Game of the Year The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the system has also been supporting a thriving indie community. Affectionately titled “Nindies,” Nintendo highlighted these games both alongside AAA releases and in their own Direct-style Showcases in 2017, emphasizing Nintendo’s support of indie developers on the Switch isn’t just lip service. It’s as important to the system’s lifespan in ensuring Switch owners have more than enough unique experiences to play.

IGN spoke via email with Kirk Scott, Manager of Business Development at Nintendo of America’s Publisher and Developer Relations department, to take a look at the success and shortcomings of that first year, and what lessons Nintendo is applying to the future of the Switch’s Nindies lineup. IGN also interviewed four indie devs of upcoming Switch titles, two of which IGN can exclusively confirm are coming — Steam early access hit Dead Cells and tower defense/platformer hybrid Aegis Defenders — about the Switch indie ecosystem and their experiences adapting to the new platform.

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Fortnite Servers Down For Maintenance Ahead Of New Update on PS4, Xbox One, And PC

Update: There’s still no exact time for when servers will be back online, but Epic has provided a slightly more in-depth explanation of what the problem is. “During our downtime to upgrade to 2.3, we were performing recommended tasks to resolve a lingering database issue,” a post on Epic’s forum states. “Those tasks ended up causing the database to go into a bad state. After significant consideration, we decided our best option was to restore from a backup at the moment we took the servers down for the patch. Our first restore failed (due to issues *unrelated* with the quality of the backup) and we’re working on a second attempt at the restore. Our Top People are on it and it will be up as soon as humanly possible.” The original story follows.

A new update for Fortnite is scheduled to launch today on all platforms, but players on PC, PS4, and Xbox One are unable to play right now. Maintenance has taken longer than expected, and developer Epic Games says the game will still be down for a period of time as it works to complete the process.

Maintenance began at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM GMT today, January 25. Epic subsequently announced on Twitter, “We’re sorry the update has gone longer than expected. We’re making some changes to the backend systems to handle growth.” It subsequently stated that downtime would continue as it worked on the matter: “Hi all, it is looking like we are going to be down for at least a few more hours as we scale our backend systems.”

In its most recent update, which came just after 7 AM PT, that same estimate was given. “Sorry everyone, it’s looking like the Fortnite servers will be down for at least a few more hours,” it said. “More updates will follow.”

In the meantime, players are unable to get online to play Fortnite’s Battle Royale or Save the World modes. Although not as substantial as the recent map revamp, today’s new patch will make changes to both game modes, with some of the more significant updates coming on the Battle Royale side, where the new Chug Jug item will be added. You can read more about what to expect in our story on the new Fortnite patch notes, or see them in full on the official website. We’ll report back once maintenance is concluded and the update is available.

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Bright’s Critics Are “Disconnected” From Fans, Says Netflix Boss

The recent Netflix movie Bright was the streaming giant’s biggest film to date, both in terms of its budget and audience. But while a record number of viewers watched the sci-fi action thriller, it wasn’t exactly warmly received by critics. Now Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has spoken about the movie’s negative critical response.

Hastings addressed the issue during the streaming giant’s quarterly earnings call and was dismissive of the movie’s bad reviews. “The critics are pretty disconnected from the mass appeal, considering we’re moving internationally at this point” said Hastings, via Variety. “Most of those critical reviews are English language and [from the] US.”

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Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos reiterated Hastings comments. “If people are watching this movie and loving it, that’s the measurement of success,” he said. “And if the critics get behind it or don’t, that’s [just] a select group of social media influencers talking to a specific audience.”

It was confirmed last month that a sequel to Bright is on the way. Stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton are returning, as is director David Ayer. Writer Max Landis is however not coming back, so Ayer will handle script-writing duties himself. The movie currently has no confirmed release date. Click here to find out how GameSpot thinks Bright 2 could be a much better film than the original.

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Monster Hunter World: See The High-End Armor And Palico Gear

Thanks to a variety of factors, Monster Hunter World is likely to be many people’s first experience with the franchise. New gear is desirable in any RPG, but it’s especially important in Monster Hunter, where your progression is tied not to experience points, but the new armor and weapons you’re able to acquire and craft.

Much of that gear is unattainable until you’ve sunk a significant number of hours into the game, honing your skills, taking down challenging enemies, and amassing the necessary resources for crafting. To give you an idea of what kind of armor sets you’ll be able to use once you’ve progressed far enough in the game, we’ve compiled the gallery above. You’ll find images of high-end armor for both your own character, as well as gear for your Palico companion.

Monster Hunter World releases on January 26 for Xbox One and PS4, with a PC release to come later in the year. That’s notable, as recent entries were limited to 3DS. The additional horsepower has allowed for a game with much larger, more beautiful environments to play in. It also does a better job of introducing newcomers to the flow of playing a Monster Hunter game. You can read more about what to expect in our Monster Hunter World review.

Those playing on PS4 will be able to get their hands on some exclusive gear based on Horizon: Zero Dawn. We also know that new Mega Man-themed items are on the way, and if past games are any indications, that won’t be the last crossover content that Capcom releases.

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The 10 Best Teen Titans Go! Episodes

Recently, the first teaser trailer for Teen Titans Go! to the Movies debuted. For fans of the Cartoon Network’s popular Teen Titans Go! cartoon, the feature-length adaption is reason for excitement.

If you aren’t familiar with Teen Titans Go!, the 15-minute program focuses on the misadventures of the characters from DC’s Teen Titans team from the comics. The Titans consist of Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. In previous iterations, the Titans dealt with angst and real emotions while getting in stylized fights with various villains. But the candy-colored Titans of Teen Titans Go! eat pizza and engage in goofy, random humor where they run around all silly and stuff. It’s a delightful and frequently funny cartoon, and not all that long ago it celebrated its 200th episode in a fittingly meta, self-indulgent style.

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Comic Book Reviews for January 24, 2018

It was another big week of comics, as DC released the latest chapter of Doomsday Clock, Marvel launched a new Legion miniseries and paved the way for Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man finale and BOOM! Studios kicked off the promising new series Abbott.

Scroll down to check out our reviews for these and various other new releases, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.

DC COMICS

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Nintendo’s First Smartphone Game Is Shutting Down Only Two Years After Launch

Nintendo’s first mobile game, the Mii-based social networking app Miitomo, is coming to an end. Nintendo announced it will discontinue services for the title on May 9, a little over two years after it first launched.

“We see this app as accomplishing a portion of our goal of getting Nintendo IP (in this case, Mii characters) into the hands of consumers across a variety of environments worldwide,” Nintendo said on its support website. “At the same time, we’ve seen the number of ongoing users for the app decrease. We have decided to discontinue this service so that we can better optimize our operational resources across our entire smart device business.”

Miitomo will be discontinued in all regions simultaneously at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET, after which point players will no longer be able to launch the game. Any Platinum Points you have earned from Miitomo can still be redeemed on My Nintendo, and Sidekick Miis can be saved as QR codes and transferred to the Mii Maker app on 3DS and Wii U. However, players will not be able to formally save any Miitomo content, such as conversations or answers, outside of taking screenshots of it.

Ahead of Miitomo’s shutdown, Nintendo has removed all in-app purchases from the game. The company is also holding a Final Thank You Festival event leading up to its final day. Players will receive 2,000 Miitomo coins and 5 game tickets as a daily login bonus up until the service is discontinued. Nintendo is also running a final Miifoto event from now until April 18 that asks players to create a photo of their favorite Miitomo memories and share it on Twitter. The best entries will be posted on the official Miitomo website.

Miitomo launched for iOS and Android in March 2016 and was notable for being Nintendo’s first game for smart devices. As of October 2016, the app was approaching 15 million downloads, though it wasn’t making very much money. Nintendo has released a handful of other smartphone games after Miitomo, including Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and most recently Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. A Legend of Zelda mobile game is also reportedly in the works.

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10 Craziest Royal Rumble Entrants

WWE’s Royal Rumble is one of the coolest PPVs of the year. The main attraction match starts with two superstars, and every 90 seconds, another wrestler enters the ring. The only way to be eliminated is to get thrown over the top rope and have both feet touch the ground, outside of the ring. The last man standing wins a chance to face the WWE Champion in the main event of Wrestlemania.

One of the most exciting parts of the match is seeing who’s next to enter the ring, as the Rumble can deliver some entrants completely out of left field. However, there have been plenty of surprise entrants that were insane or unimaginable. Going through the 29 previous Royal Rumble matches, here are the 10 craziest entrants, in chronological order.

If videos are more your thing, check out the video version here. Curious to see the winners of the Rumble? We have them all for you here.

Vince McMahon (1999)

Let’s start out by saying that in-context, Vince McMahon being a part of and winning the 1999 Royal Rumble–as far as progressing storyline goes–was brilliant. Now, jumping ahead 18 years and forgetting everything we know about the McMahon/Steve Austin feud, seeing the owner of a wrestling promotion in one of the year’s biggest matches is insane. There is no way that an older man would stand a chance against a bunch of athletes in their prime.

Gillberg (1999)

During the ’90s, WWE’s main competitor, WCW, had an unstoppable beast known as Goldberg. WWE had a parody version of that wrestler named Gillberg, who was small, clumsy, and silly. During 1999’s Royal Rumble, Gillberg entered the battle royal as entrant #9. However, he only lasted seven seconds in the match before being tossed out. Interestingly enough, his entrance was longer than his time spent in the ring.

Chyna (1999)

Here is the only entrant on the list that’s not crazy because it was “mind-boggling.” In 1999, Chyna won a Corporation vs. Degeneration X rumble, and her prize was the coveted #30 spot at that year’s Royal Rumble. Chyna was the first woman to ever appear in a Rumble. She lasted 35 seconds but also eliminated the “World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry. Chyna returned to the Rumble in 2000 at the #17 spot and lasted 37 seconds. She led the way for other future female Rumble contestants like Beth Phoenix and Kharma.

Drew Carey (2001)

Easily, the most bizarre and worst entrant into the Royal Rumble happened back in 2001. The fifth entrant in that year’s match was none other than the star of The Drew Carey Show, Drew Carey. He was at the PPV to promote an improv comedy show, and somehow, he got to be a part of the Rumble. Carey stood in the ring for roughly three minutes, watching everyone else fight. Then, Kane came to the ring, and Carey offered him a bribe. Kane didn’t take it, so Carey eliminated himself. Confusingly, in 2011, WWE inducted Carey into the Hall of Fame.

Jonathan Coachman (2005, 2006)

While he may work now at ESPN, at one time, Jonathan Coachman was a part of WWE. He served as a backstage interviewer, worked on the commentary team, and was even the Raw interim general manager. During his commentary years, Coachman got two chances to win the Royal Rumble. Both times, he wore shirts reminding the crowd who he was. And both times, he did not do well.

Hornswoggle (2008)

Back in 2008, Hornswoggle entered the Royal Rumble at #9. This character tended to be the answer to questions like “who is Vince McMahon’s illegitimate child?” and “who is the Raw anonymous general manager?” Instead of getting right into the ring, Hornswoggle hid under it. Later on, he actually entered the ring, only to be double-teamed quickly. His partner in crime, Fit Finley, was watching backstage, rushed to the ring to help Hornswoggle out, and got both of them disqualified in a convoluted mess of storytelling.

Ricardo Rodriguez (2012)

2012 was a really weird year for the Royal Rumble, with quite a few puzzling entrants. The sixth person to enter that year’s Rumble was none other than Ricardo Rodriguez, Alberto Del Rio’s ring announcer. Rodriguez drove towards the entrance ramp, much like Del Rio did; however, Rodriguez wasn’t driving a high-class automobile. He was driving a beat-up car that was barely running. Rodriguez ended up eliminating Justin Gabriel with the help of Mick Foley, but he was eliminated by Santino Marella after two minutes.

The Entire Announcing Team (2012)

Moving forward with the 2012 Royal Rumble, we had not one, not two, but all three members of the announcing team get spots in that year’s main event. Jerry Lawler got his named called first at #12. He lasted 43 seconds before being eliminated by Cody Rhodes. At #17, Booker T left the announcer table to enter the ring, and the five-time champ lasted almost five minutes. Sadly, the Hall of Famer was eliminated by Dolph Ziggler. For both of these men, their involvement in the Rumble wasn’t too far out of left field since they were both former wrestlers.

Then… Michael Cole’s name was pulled.

Michael Cole (2012)

While he was part of the announcing team, Michael Cole deserves his own special spot on this list. Cole has been a part off WWE for years as a backstage interviewer, announcer, and the spokesperson for the anonymous Raw general manager. During the 2012 Rumble, he entered the ring at #20. Cole was a heel during this time, so the boos coming from the crowd were all part of the plan. Cole wore full collegiate wrestling attire and danced around the ring for a minute, until Kharma came to the ring. Cole, who was frightened, began to eliminate himself, but he was quickly pulled to the floor by Booker T and Jerry Lawler from the outside. The 2012 Royal Rumble wasted four spots of contestants that never had a chance of winning.

El Torito (2014)

Finally, in 2014, El Torito, the third member of Los Matadores, rushed to the ring as entrant #20. Unlike Hornswoggle back in ’08, El Torito had no fear, as he ran full speed to the ring. He ended up eliminating dancing sensation Fandango during his almost two minutes in the ring. He became one of the 12 eliminations at the hands of Roman Reigns.

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