Month: January 2019

Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has revealed the company is developing a standalone console. Exact hardware and software specs haven’t been announced yet, but Bell has provided a few details.

The first mention of the console came via Twitter, when Bell tweeted, “The Mad Box is coming.” Bell told Variety that the Mad Box will probably release in about three years and support up to 120 frames-per-second for virtual reality play. “It will support most major VR headsets and those upcoming and the specs will be equivalent to a very fast PC two years from now,” Bell wrote. “We’re in early talks with manufacturers of components so we can’t say much more right now other than we have the designs specced out in detail.”

When it comes to games on the console, Bell wrote, “We think exclusives are ‘exclusionary’ but given that we’ll be shipping a cross platform engine to all developers it will be their choice. As of now we have no plans to pay developers ‘incentives’ to exclude other hardware vendors.” He further explained that Slightly Mad Studios thinks “the industry is a little too much of a monopoly or a micro oligopoly,” and The Mad Box aims to bring some healthy competition to the console race, which for years has pretty much exclusively been a three-way battle between Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation, and Nintendo’s hardware.

Bell added that early design builds for the Mad Box will be revealed in about four to six weeks. The Mad Box is planned to release worldwide and be competitively priced in comparison to other upcoming consoles. “We have multiple investors already offering the required funding for us to see the product to completion, but it’s still early days and we’re looking at the best offers right now,” Bell wrote.

2018 saw numerous changes to a lot of gaming hardware, including consoles. Some were good, and others not so much. Check out our report cards for more detailed accounts.

GameSpot 2018 Report Cards

• Xbox One Report Card For 2018: Year In Review
• PlayStation 4 Report Card For 2018: Year In Review
• Nintendo Switch Report Card For 2018: Year In Review
• VR Gaming 2018 Report Card: Here’s A Review Of How The Year Went
• PC Report Card For 2018: Year In Review

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 launches on Jan. 17, and the second voyage of the CBS All Access series brings us closer to the original show than ever before, with the introduction of Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Captain Pike.

IGN has an exclusive first look at the new key art for the sophomore season, featuring Spock and Pike alongside returning favorites including Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Commander Saru (Doug Jones), Ensign Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), and his lost love Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), and Michelle Yeoh’s former Mirror Universe Emperor Philippa Georgiou (now a recruit in Starfleet’s covert Section 31).

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What better way to ring in the new year than with a bunch of new TV shows and movies to binge? Amazon Prime Video is adding a bunch of new titles to its library to kick off 2019, including some very exciting films.

Among the movies coming to Prime this month is 2006’s Alpha Dog, Escobar: Paradise Lost, and Fahrenheit 11/9. Additionally, Golden Globe nominee Eighth Grade, which was released in 2018, will arrive on the service on January 13. The most exciting new addition just might be the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, though, which was added to Prime on January 1.

As for new TV show additions, the most notable arrivals are of Amazon Prime Video originals. New seasons of Informer and The Grand Tour arrive in January, plus a brand-new series called Four More Shots Please. Additionally, the Prime Video original film Beautiful Boy arrived on January 4.

You can take a look at everything Amazon Prime Video is adding in January below. Make sure you also take a look at Netflix and Hulu’s offerings for the month.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video in January

January 1

• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Alpha Dog (2006)
• Brazil (1985)
• Breaking Big, Season 1
• First Civilizations, Season 1
• Frontline, Season 36
• GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II (2018)
• Going to War (2018)
• Jane Eyre (2011)
• Nova Wonders, Season 1
• Reprisal (2018)
• Rwanda: The Royal Tour (2018)
• The Art of the Shine (2018)
• The Jazz Ambassadors (2018)
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

January 3

• Leave No Trace (2018)

January 4

• Beautiful Boy (Prime Original movie)
• Sherlock Gnomes (2018)

January 11

• Informer (Prime Original series), Season 2

January 12

• Final Score

January 13

• Eighth Grade (2018)

January 16

• The Debt (2010)

January 18

• The Grand Tour (Prime Original series), Season 3

January 19

• Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

January 25

• Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)
• Four More Shots Please! (Prime Original series), Season 1

January 29

• Endeavour, Season 5

A new in-game event is set to kick off in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate soon. This week’s Spirit Board event is titled Classics, and as its name suggests, it revolves around old-school video game characters.

Throughout the weekend, characters from the NES, Famicom, and the Famicom Disk System–such as the Balloon Fighter and Donkey Kong Jr.–will appear much more frequently on the Spirit Board. You’ll also have a chance to get a handful of Legend-class Spirits during the event, including Donkey Kong & Lady, Sukapon, and the NES incarnation of Link.

On top of that, defeating retro characters during the Classics event will net you even more Snacks than usual, which you can use to further level up your Spirits. The event is scheduled to begin at 10 PM PT on January 3 (1 AM ET / 6 AM GMT / 5 PM AEDT on January 4) and will run until the same time on January 6.

Classics follows last week’s Mario Time event, which was themed around characters from the Mario series. Unlike other events in the game thus far, it also featured a handful of exclusive Super Mario Party Spirits: Dice Block, River Survival, and Golden Dash Mushroom. These weren’t previously available to get in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and there’s no word yet on if they’ll reappear in the game.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched for Nintendo Switch last month and quickly set new sales records for the series. The game has also been a critical success; GameSpot awarded it a 9/10 in our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate review and selected it as one of our 10 best video games of 2018.