Month: November 2019

Ahead of its December 20 premiere on Netflix, The Witcher has been renewed for a second season.

More to come…

We’ve been exploring behind-the-scenes of Google Stadia all month as part of our November IGN First, from how Doom convinced them it could work, to how the controller was designed, to how Stadia is fighting latency. But today, we’re stepping out of Google’s California offices and following them north to Bungie in Bellevue, Washington.

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Apple announced a new 16-inch Macbook Pro on Wednesday, featuring a larger Retina Display, new Magic Keyboard, and is up to 80% faster than any other Macbook Pro.

The new MacBook Pro’s larger screen has a higher resolution of 3,072 x 1,920 pixels, along with having 8-core processors, up to 64 GB of memory, and up to 8GB of VRAM for next-gen graphics.

Other upgrades include longer battery life, a Touch Bar, a six-speaker sound system, Touch ID,  Force Touch trackpad, and the Apple T2 Security Chip.

Apple said the new Macbook Pro was designed for developers and scientists, as well as those in the creative fields, including filmmakers, photographers, and music producers – or anyone who wants a more upgraded Macbook Pro.

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Smart tech is one of the most popular items to pick up during Black Friday sales. Smart speakers are normally a great starting point for homes looking to bring a little technology into everyday life. Smart speakers are particularly attractive as there is a low barrier in terms of costs, and you get a lot for your purchase without the addition of other devices.

Eventually, you can invest in a variety of smart lights, locks, and clocks, all of which can communicate through your WiFi, but it isn’t a requirement to own absolutely everything. Smart tech is flexible, and relatively affordable if you buy it at the right time.

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A UK retailer posted a release date for upcoming Media Molecule game, Dreams, in a tweet that has since been deleted.

According to the now removed tweet, posted by Shopto, Dreams will release on February 14, 2020. Shopto quickly deleted the tweet, but before it disappeared it was picked up by Twitter account @the_marmolade and subsequently signal boosted by notable games account @Nibellion.

Without official word from Sony it’s impossible to say if this is indeed the release date for Dreams, or if Shopto simply made a mistake with its tweet. Retailers often have knowledge of upcoming release dates, but equally often use placeholder dates in their systems for games without official dates. This could be a result of either situation.

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On the November 12 launch day for Disney+, many people had problems accessing the streaming service, resulting in messages about being unable to connect in order to watch shows like The Mandalorian. However, there is a good reason for that. Everyone was trying to get on, and it seemed too much for Disney to handle.

In the 24 hours after the initial launch, 3.2 million people downloaded the Disney+ app according to research firm Apptopia (via Variety). The US represented the bulk of the downloads, coming in at 89%, with Canada at 9% and the Netherlands with 2%. Comparatively, Appotopia estimated that Netflix’s app received 662,000 downloads–globally–with the US, Canada, and the Netherlands accounting for 140,000 for its opening 24-hour period. At the time of this writing, Disney has not disclosed subscriber numbers, but there is a free one-week trial available, and Verizon is giving away one-year memberships.

Launch day for Disney+ was a rough one. Many people reported not being able to access the content on the new service. Some people even ran numerous devices at the same time in order to try and access the service’s most-anticipated original series, The Mandalorian.

However, on day two, Disney+ seems to be working fine. While Disney anticipated a big opening day, they didn’t anticipate what could have been a day with the most-downloaded streaming service app in history.

And many people who have already been surfing the content waves of Disney+ have checked out the first episode of The Mandalorian. In GameSpot’s review, Chris E. Hayner said, “With its first episode, The Mandalorian has made a statement about what a live-action Star Wars TV show looks like. Now, with the remaining seven episodes in Season 1, it needs to make a statement about how a Star Wars plot should unfold over a longer form of storytelling.”

Disney+ is available now.

Disney+ offers a wide variety of movies and shows from Disney’s catalog, including loads from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One notable omission, though, is the popular character Spider-Man. And sure enough, the wallcrawler won’t be joining the streaming service, as Disney+ head of content and marketing Ricky Strauss says the company has no plans to pursue it.

“We love our friends at Sony, but we don’t have any plans to have the live-action Spider-Man movies on Disney+” Strauss told The Verge. “We will have all the Spider-Man animated shows that we did so they’ll be on there under the Marvel banner. But who knows what can happen in the future?”

The two Spider-Man films, Homecoming and Far From Home, represent a relatively large hole in the MCU. Aside from being one of Marvel’s most popular characters, Homecoming builds Spidey’s relationship with Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) that becomes a key emotional beat in Infinity War and Endgame. Far From Home served as an epilogue to Endgame, showing how characters in the Marvel universe move on after those massive events.

At the same time, it’s unsurprising. Sony owns the film rights to Spider-Man films, and Marvel had to broker a deal to use the character in the first place. Earlier this year that deal appeared in jeopardy for future films, but was saved for a third movie–with a little personal advocacy from actor Tom Holland.

Strauss does note that there is Spider-Man content on the service. Disney+ even has a dedicated Spider-Man section that can be found in its Search page. That includes animated Spider-Man shows from various eras, including the 1990s Spider-Man animated series, the team-up Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, and the Ultimate Spider-Man series in 2011.

The Star Wars movies are some of the biggest titles available on Disney+, which finally launched this week. All but two of the 10 movies released to date are available to stream right now–and they have the added bonus of being in 4K, most for the first time ever.

The original trilogy, the prequels, The Force Awakens, and the spin-off Rogue One are all on Disney+ in 4K Dolby Vision HDR. Of these, only the latter two have been released in the format before. So for fans making do with the Blu-ray releases of the first six movies, it’s time to check them out looking better than they ever have. In addition, the movies have Dolby Atmos sound, meaning they will sound amazing too.

Earlier this year, it was rumored that Disney was working on a 4K Blu-ray box set, but with these new versions of the movies now on Disney+, it seems unlikely that we’ll see that any time soon. And in case you were wondering, these are the Special Editions of the classic trilogy, with all George Lucas’s digital additions, not the original theatrical versions. In addition, there has been one notable change to the notorious confrontation between Han Solo and Greedo in A New Hope.

Fans can find a wealth of Star Wars content on Disney+–check out GameSpot’s guide to everything available to watch right now. One of the biggest releases is The Mandalorian, the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV show. The first episode is available now, and you can read GameSpot’s review and check out our guide to all the Easter Eggs in the episode.

CM Punk is the best in the world at what he does best, and that’s wrestle–and talk on the mic. When the wrestler left WWE in 2014, it was a shock to fans, and we never thought we’d see him again. Well, he’s returned to WWE now, as a commentator for the FS1 show WWE Backstage.

WWE Backstage’s Renee Young made the big reveal on the November 12 episode of the weekly series. “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour played, and CM Punk walked out and said, “It’s as simple as this. Just when they think they’ve got the answers, I change the culture. I’ll see you here next week.”

Punk left WWE in 2014 after the Royal Rumble. He stated he was retiring from wrestling–which led him to a career in MMA with UFC for a brief stint–and in November of that year, the infamous Art of Wrestling podcast with Colt Cabana dropped where Punk opened up about his departure from the company–which included Punk being fired on his wedding day.

Seeing Punk involved with WWE again is a shock and a welcome surprise, as no one thought he’d return at this point. Punk will be back on WWE Backstage as a special guest commentator and analyst next week.

There’s no news at this time for how long this gig will last, but hopefully, this will be a longer-term deal. Aside from his incredible talents in the ring, Punk is known for his mic skills, including the infamous “pipe bomb” segment from 2011, where the wrestler sat at the entrance ramp and unleashed all his grievances with WWE.

WWE Backstage airs on FS1, Tuesdays at 11 PM ET.