Month: March 2020

After the Xbox Series X was announced, one of the first things Microsoft bragged about was the console’s 12 teraflops of GPU power. That’s not a precise benchmark, but it’s a big, impressive number – double that of the Xbox One X, the current most powerful console, and outpacing all but the highest of high-end PC graphics cards. And while we don’t know the PlayStation 5’s specs yet, we can expect it to at least approach the same neighborhood. In simple terms, that level of power means that 4K resolution at 60 frames per second – and 1080p at 120 fps – will likely become the expected level of performance for games going forward. But beyond higher resolutions and better frame rates, what does more horsepower actually mean for next-gen games? I interviewed several people in the industry to get a sense of how that power level might actually impact the games we’ll be playing in the next generation.

Not Just Better Graphics – Better Simulations

As hardware gets more powerful, it mainly enables two things: better graphics and better performance. The performance side is easy to understand – games will load faster, have higher frame rates, and slow down less during demanding spurts of gameplay. “Better graphics,” though, is sometimes a bit harder to grok. Sure, you can just say things will “look better,” but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than just rendering a more photorealistic image.

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A critical part of making games more realistic is better and more powerful simulations. Common real-world things like water, cloth, and hair are notoriously difficult to realistically simulate, but a more powerful GPU means more capability to render those systems without bogging things down.

“Smoke, water, wind – things like that are great for GPU processing,” says Bruce Straley, former creative director at Naughty Dog. A great example of this is hair and fur; even as character faces have become more and more photorealistic in recent years, hair often still looks like clumped, plasticky strings. “It’s always been really difficult to make really good hair. And then hair responding to different environments – hair and water, hair and wind, hair and hair gel, are all reactions that can be processed,” Straley says.

Older hardware is certainly capable of rendering these systems we’re talking about, but if they were too complex – or you had too many of them running in parallel, such as strands of hair blowing in the wind or responding to getting wet – then your framerate would chug down to unplayable levels. Having more teraflops (which is short for trillions of floating point operations per second) means more capability to perform the operations needed to smoothly render these systems in real time.

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“Essentially, more teraflops means more GPU to put to work across the game,” says Elijah Freeman, VP of games at Virtuos, a studio that specializes in porting and remastering games for new systems. “This means a game can do more impressive things at the same time, with fewer compromises. You’ll see much higher framerates, for example. While the current generation of consoles offers you 30 or 60 fps, the next generation will be offering you 4K visuals at 60 fps combined with 1080p at 120 fps. Games are going to look slick and buttery smooth at high resolutions.”

Wider Accessibility To Powerful Tools Means More Great-Looking Games

Power levels like the Series X’s 12 teraflops enable graphical techniques beyond just trying to achieve photorealism that escapes the uncanny valley. Several developers I spoke to pointed to the kind of stylized rendering that Pixar does as being more possible thanks to the hardware-accelerated ray tracing on the Series X.

“Ray tracing is probably the biggest gap between what game graphics can do and what high-end VFX and Pixar and movie graphics can do,” says Bryant Cannon, lead developer at Night School Studio, the developer of Oxenfree and Afterparty. “[With ray tracing], they’re actually stimulating the lights bouncing from light to different surfaces.”

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Ray tracing is used to accurately simulate light, reflections, and shadows, among other things – not just approximate or ‘fake’ them as most games currently do. This technology has been possible in PC games since late 2018, when Nvidia launched its RTX series of graphics cards, but is incredibly demanding on graphics hardware and has yet to be adopted by the gaming industry at large. The Xbox Series X (and potentially the PlayStation 5, which has not yet had all its features announced) will be the first time the technology is available to console developers and players.

“Something like a Pixar rendering system will rely heavily on subsurface scattering for flesh tones and skin,” Straley says. “If you wanted to make something rendered like The Incredibles, where you have light coming through the earlobes of your character – we faked it at Naughty Dog. We had all sorts of ways to simulate it, but it wasn’t real. If now I can write a shader that has subsurface scattering on it and hook into the ray tracing system, then more people are going to be able to do that.”

And that’s what’s really important: while the best developers in the business have always been able to make games look great, these graphical advancements mean you don’t have to be a wizard to pull off those illusions anymore. Small developer teams who currently have to prioritize processing resources for the rendering and simulation systems that are necessary for their game to work now have more resources to spend.

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“All these things are going to be more accessible to smaller teams,” says a veteran developer with both a technical and creative background (who asked to remain anonymous). “Basically because the machine’s handling so much of the workload. A lot of the stuff that we have to do on our side, for similar effect, is now just given to us.”

That includes things like collisions – on the scale of millions of collisions per frame – or voxel-based systems like Minecraft, but at a significantly higher resolution, that simply wouldn’t have been possible on older hardware. “So you can have vessels that are made out of voxels that have liquid voxels within,” the developer says, “and when exposed to air when they’re busted open, can turn into fire voxels – all these sorts of things that we couldn’t even dream of before.”

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“The reality is we never could get to the point where we could actually do that, and see what that really looks like,” the developer says, “and the results are pretty stunning. So I think what’s going to be easier, for smaller teams in particular, is to experiment with things that we never thought we could experiment with because we just didn’t have an engine for it. We didn’t have the ability to do it. And now just the brute force of this hardware is going to give us that.”

With more power available, developers – especially those on small teams with limited resources – will be able to spend less time optimizing and more time creating content and systems or fixing bugs. “Optimization takes a lot more effort than a lot of people realize,” Cannon says. “The important thing for us is that we get performance by default and we don’t need to spend a lot of time on making sure our game runs as fast as possible.”

The evolutionary nature of the transition between the current and next generation benefits developers too, because the skills they’ve learned and tools they’re used to working with carry over to the new consoles. Essentially, the new consoles are an upgrade rather than a reboot.

“[Through previous generation leaps], I had to relearn a whole new system. You had to learn how the [new] architecture worked,” the anonymous developer says. “Right now everything is kind of an evolution. So things that you know how to do now apply to the next generation, and they compartmentalize the things you’re going to have to learn. Things like ray tracing is something you’re going to have to learn, but it’s not throwing the baby out with the bath water to do it. So it’s really an interesting time because this is the first time that I feel we’re getting that retention or muscle memory that we get to keep going into the next generation with the amount of fire power these systems can give you.”

It’s Not Just About Looks – Gameplay Benefits, Too

We take for granted that many great games were only possible due to advancements in hardware power. Without 3D acceleration, there would be no Quake. Battle royale games like Fortnite and Apex Legends only exist because processors can handle dozens and dozens of players in a game at once.

“The availability of these tools, and this power, means there’s more opportunities for people to play with styles and concepts and ideas,” Straley says. “And hopefully there’s more interesting or wacky ideas that become realized, because I was never able to play with ray tracing or some kind of dynamic global illumination…that now opens up a new opportunity to think about game design differently, or an experience differently.”

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Straley compares the new access to ray tracing to how the Havok physics engine, which is software that could be licensed and integrated into a project that allowed more developers to implement physics in their games when they otherwise would have had to dedicate significant resources to coding a physics system in-house.

“One key area that will almost certainly see improvement is volumetric effects such as smoke, fog, and clouds,” says Freeman. “These are effects that scatter light and have previously been presented in games with mixed results. What makes this all interesting is the effect this might also have on gameplay. Yes, improved smoke effects will be great to look at, but the ability to just barely glimpse an enemy if the light catches them right after you’ve thrown a smoke grenade adds a new level of nuance to playstyles.”

Straley agrees, mentioning that previous and current-generation hardware hasn’t always been able to keep up with the design decisions he and his team wanted to make. “In The Last Of Us, we had an ambient shadow system which we had to downrez significantly, and it sure would be great if we could do that at a higher resolution and get more fidelity in it,” he says. “Something like this makes that more possible.”

Our anonymous developer points to liquid and fire simulations – and the ability to design gameplay systems around those elemental interactions – as something that would be more possible on next-gen hardware.

“For instance, when you can burn water to create gas and see all those effects happening super fast on screen in high resolution – and trying to figure out ways to apply some kind of unique gameplay to that,” the developer says. “Or ways where we can cast light of varying colors, and combine colors of light to open a door, or cast your shadow with other combinations of light to open something or activate something.”

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Better and more realistic water simulation was a common topic with the developers I spoke to. “That’s something that’s really hard to do in real time unless it’s extremely simplified,” Cannon says. “Back when I was at Disney, we were working on a game called Where’s My Water? that had a 2D water simulation, and that was pretty much as far as we can get right now. But if we have a full fluid simulation that can be part of the gameplay somehow, I think that’d be really interesting.”

Straley echoes that point too. “What I’m doing with the water still becomes a design decision,” he says. “Am I using the water as a mechanic in a puzzle game, or an obstacle in a platforming game? Versus ‘wow that water looks really good.’ It always comes down to design decisions. We have all of this power, but the choices are what we do with it, and how do we make games more compelling and the experiences richer, and not necessarily more realism.”

Bigger, More Vibrant and Lived-In Worlds

For bigger teams who can spend time optimizing, we’ll likely see some even more impressive environments in games.

“The increased power and speed of consoles like the Xbox Series X will mean worlds many times bigger than we’ve seen before, and with more stuff in them too,” Virtuos’s Freeman says. “You’ll also be able to move around them much quicker, whether that’s driving in a high-speed sports car or flying around on a dragon, perhaps with no loading screens at all.”

That last point will be thanks to the next-gen consoles’ SSDs, which have significantly faster data transfer rates than the spinning-disc hard drives found in the current generation. That mostly just means faster saving and loading times, but it can have an effect on gameplay too.

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“Having an SSD, the actual gameplay implication that I think of first is world streaming,” Cannon says. “That’s something that’s really hard to do seamlessly, especially with a studio of our size, and having a solid state drive where we can be pretty sure that the level is going to load in seconds, we can have a streaming world that doesn’t really impact our performance too much and it doesn’t have too many design problems when it comes to hiding the loading from the player.”

Beyond being bigger and loading faster with reduced pop-in, game worlds will also have the capacity to feel more vibrant and alive than ever before, because better simulations will play into how those worlds are populated too.

“There is always more we can do with simulation that we couldn’t do before,” Cannon says. “For example, wanting to make a game with a really big crowd, and every person in the crowd is rendered at a very high resolution. That’s maybe something that couldn’t be done gameplay-wise that we can do now.”

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In Night School’s underworld bar-hopping game Afterparty, every character in each scene has an AI that has them walking around, doing various actions, and getting drunk. Cannon says that the original plan was for all those bar-dwelling demons to have their own individual simulated level of drunkenness, with their animations changing based on how drunk they are.

“We realized that a) it wasn’t that important to the gameplay to have everything simulated like that. And b) it was having a pretty big effect on our performance, and the frame rate was suffering because of it. So we decided to scale that down,” he says. “But if we were to make this game on the Xbox Series X or the PS5, then maybe we would’ve been able to have all of that simulation playing out [without sacrificing performance]. Even though it didn’t have a big effect on the gameplay – it was more of an aesthetic thing – it would have made the bar feel even more alive and dynamic.”

Realism Isn’t Everything

It’s important to remember that while the Xbox Series X promises an impressive level of performance, it will take a while for developers to make use of all of that power. On top of that, Microsoft’s plan for every first-party Xbox game to be playable on the original Xbox One – at least for the first year or two into the new generation – means developers will still need to make games that are capable of running on that older hardware with the graphics settings turned down. So gameplay that depends on complex simulations might not be in the cards right away.

“It’s going to take some time before any studio – especially small studios – is comfortable releasing their games on only new hardware,” Cannon says. That’s due in part to the fact that there won’t be nearly as many next-generation consoles out there as there are older ones for several years at least, which means fewer people would be able to buy and play a next-gen-only game.

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Whether it’s higher resolutions, photorealistic graphics, stylized lighting, or massive, dynamic worlds, it’s clear that next-generation hardware will enable games to be more realistic than ever before. Of course, realism isn’t everything. It’s about how developers can put that power to use to enable their creativity in different ways.

“I don’t necessarily need more realism,” Straley says. “I don’t want a realistic plumber. I don’t want Ron Jeremy in a plumber’s outfit trying to make a jump. But I want Mario, and I want him to jump how the designers have decided to make him jump.” Fortunately, realism isn’t the only leveled up feature developers can offer with the power of next-gen.

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Bo Moore is IGN’s Executive Editor of Tech. Follow him on Twitter @usebomswisely where he frequently tweets about his cats.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sidequests will match the quality of the game’s main story missions, according to director Tetsuya Nomura in an interview with Famitsu.

Set to release next month, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is just the first part of an unknown number of Final Fantasy 7 Remake games. Rather than guiding players through the entire story of the original 1997 game, this remake will only include the Midgar section of the original game. That’s only a handful or two of hours in the original, but we know Square Enix and Nomura are working to beef up this section of the game with new explorable areas, additional bosses and side quests.

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Speaking with Famitsu and translated by IGN Japan, Nomura said these side quests will be equal in quality to the main quests of the game.

“The sub-quests have been made in exactly the same way as the main story quests,” Nomura said. “Initially, the development team also wanted to create a large volume of content, but it was not possible to do all of it, so we are doing as much as we can while maintaining the quality.”

“So it’s as much as you can manage while maintaining quality?” Famitsu asked Nomura.

“Yes,” Nomura said. “There was even more, but I thought that volume of content would never be finished.”

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Based on Nomura’s comments, it would seem that the team had plans for a larger number of side quests but opted to reduce the number of side quests to ensure the ones included matched the quality of the main story missions.

Translations online seem to indicate that Nomura is saying the sidequests are as large as the main quests, but our translation from IGN Japan does not indicate that was the intention of what he originally said. The size of the sidequests, in scope or length, does not seem to be what Nomura was discussing with Famitsu but rather, he was speaking to the idea that the development team favored qualitative side quests over a larger quantity of side quests.

We’ll all find out what these side quests look like, both in quantity and quality, when the game is released next month on April 10. The game will be released exclusively on PS4. If you’re waiting to play it elsewhere, you’ll have to wait until at least 2021. In the meantime, check out our latest thoughts on the game after a recent hands-on preview and now that a demo is out for the game, check out our guide on how to get the demo’s secret ending.

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You can control both Cloud and Barrett in the demo and the game but one character you won’t be able to control in the game is Red XIII. That’s not the only big change from the original. Sephiroth will show his face far sooner in the remake and you can read about how the team behind the game decided to include the One-Winged Angel so soon in the game’s story this time around.

While you’re waiting for the game to be released next month, start making some space on your PS4 now because the game will seemingly be 100 GB. Check out the Final Fantasy 7 Remake opening movie after doing that to put you in your feels.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

 

 

If you’re looking to upgrade your gaming laptop, there’s an outstanding deal for you. Currently the Alienware m15 laptop equipped with powerful RTX 2070 graphics is down to $1399. That’s alot of firepower for the price, and it weighs under 5lbs to boot. Better yet, upgrade the screen to a gorgeous 4K OLED panel for $200 more. You can also save alot of money on a 13″ Apple MacBook Pro, fighting controllers and fightsticks, and Razer keyboards.

Alienware m15 15″ 1080p 144Hz Intel Core i7-9750H RTX 2070 Laptop with Dual 512GB SSD for $1399

Use code “AW950OFF”

This is one of the best prices we’ve seen for an RTX 2070 equipped laptop, regardless of brand. The Alienware m15 is the newly designed 15″ laptop and weighs only 4.8 pounds, which is remarkable given its payload. We reviewed the m15 and highly recommend it. It’s easily one of the best laptops you can get in terms of build quality and under-the-hood power.

• Use code “AW950OFF” to get it at Dell for $1399.99

Super Upgrade: Alienware m15 15″ 4K Ultra HD 3840×2160 OLED 1ms Intel Core i7-9750H RTX 2070 Gaming Laptop with Dual 512GB SSD for $1599

Use code “AW950OFF”

Upgrade to a very rare and very awesome 4K Ultra HD 3840×2160 display for only $200. We reviewed a very similar OLED equipped model less than a year ago (with inferior specs) with a price tag of $2800 and we LOVED it. This deal won’t stick around.

• Use code “AW950OFF” to get it at Dell for $1599.99

Alienware Aurora Intel Core i7-9700 GTX 1660 Ti Gaming Desktop for $829.99

The GTX 1660 Ti is actually quite powerful; it’s comparable to a GTX 1070 and can easily run any game out there at up to 1440p resolution.

• Use code “AWR8420OFF” to get it at Dell for $829.99

HORI Nintendo Switch Fighting Stick Mini: Street Fighter II Edition for $53.96

This fight stick is officially licensed by both Nintendo and Capcom and features Cammy and Chun-Li artwork. It’s great for games like Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Mortal Kombat 11, and more, but note that it won’t work for Smash Bros.

• Get it on Amazon for $53.96

HORI PS4/PS3/PC Fighting Commander for $24.97

For fighting games, some people prefer a fightstick with joystick, but others prefer a controller layout with D-pad. If you’re in the latter camp, the best one for the PS4 is almost 40% off today. It features a 6-button layout, Turbo button, and R/L toggle switch.

• Get it on Amazon for $24.97

Newest Apple MacBook Pro 13″ Retina Display Laptop for $1499.99

Save $300 off MSRP. This particular model features a 13″ Retina Display with Tru Tone, Touch Bar and Touch ID, 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz), 8GB of memory, 256GB SSD, Intel Iris Plus 655 graphics, and four Thunderbolt ports.

• Get it on Amazon for $1499

Apple AirPods 2 Wireless Earphones for $129.98

Today, the AirPods have dropped back down to $129, which is the lowest price that we saw on Black Friday. These are truly wireless earphones with no cord connecting the two ear pieces. It also includes a charging case.

• Get it on Amazon for $129.98

Apple AirPods Pro for $234.98

The price of the AirPods Pro is back down to what we saw on Black Friday. These AirPods feature built-in active noise cancellation, but despite that that they boast a longer play time on a single charge than the vanilla AirPods. Other features include three sets of silicone tips for customized fit, a sweat and water resistant outer shell, and a wireless charging case that can provide an additional 24 hours of battery life.

• Get it on Amazon for $234.99

2019 65″ Vizio M658-G1 4K HDR QLED Smart HDTV with Bonus $200 Dell eGift Card for $649.99

The Vizio M-series QLED TVs are one of the best values you can get if you’re looking for a TV that’s fully HDR capable. The new Vizio M-series Quantum TVs utilize the same “Quantum Dot” technology used in Samsung QLED TVs. This particular model is the best M-series TV that Vizio offers: it features a wide color gamut, full-array backlight with 90 local dimming zones and 600 nits of brightness for excellent HDR image quality. Dell gift cards carry a 90-day expiration and can be used on anything at Dell.com.

• Get it at Dell for $649.99

Planet Earth II/Blue Planet II in 4K for $29.03

Almost never has this price dropped this low. If you own a 4K TV, you owe it to youself to get this fantastic ultra high-definition depiction of life on Earth. The footage for these two films are direct 4K transfers and the camera techniques employed are downright incredible. If anything, these are some of the best reference footage you can get to wow your friends.

• Get it for $29.03 on Amazon

Razer Huntsman Gaming Keyboard for $79.99

This is the best Razer keyboard (besides the Razer Huntsman “Elite” which adds a palm rest) and it’s almost 50% off starting today. This keyboard features a matte aluminum top frame, opto-mechanical keys, Chroma RGB LED backlighting, and fully programmable macros.

• Get it on Amazon for $79.99

Nintendo Switch Video Game Deals:

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons + $10 Best Buy Credit for $59.99
• Battle Chasers: Nightwar for $14.99 on Amazon
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for $19.99 at Gamestop
• Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition for $39.99 at Gamestop
• Dragon Ball FighterZ for $14.99 at Nintendo eShop
• God Eater 3 for $29.99 at Gamestop
• Just Dance 2020 for $17.99 at Gamestop
• Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden for $9.99 at Gamestop
• Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for $24.99 on Amazon
• Our World is Ended for $19.99 at Gamestop
• Pokemon Sword for $49.49 on Amazon
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI for $14.99 on Amazon
• Slay the Spire for $7.99 at Gamestop
• Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales for $19.99 at Nintendo eShop
• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition for $49.99 on Amazon

PS4 Video Game Deals:

• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown for $19.99 on Amazon
• Batman: Arkham VR for $11.99 on Amazon
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for $19.99 at Gamestop
• Borderlands 3 for $23 on Amazon
• Control for $29.99 at Gamestop
• Death Stranding for $44.99 on Amazon
• Doom Eternal for $49.94 on Amazon
• Dragon Ball FighterZ for $19.99 on Amazon
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition for $14.99 on Amazon
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo for Free at PlayStation Store
• Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $29.99 at PlayStation Store
• Man of Medan for $14.92 on Amazon
• Nier Automata: GOTY Yorha Edition for $19.99 at PlayStation Store
• Shadow of the Colossus for Free for PS Plus Members
• Slay the Spire for $7.99 at Gamestop
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $39.97 on Amazon
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint for $14.99 on Amazon
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 for $4.99 at Best Buy
• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition for $14.99 at PlayStation Store
• World War Z for $14.99 on Amazon

Xbox One Video Game Deals:

• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown for $19.99 on Amazon
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for $14.99 at Gamestop
• Borderlands 3 for $22.49 on Amazon
• Doom Eternal for $49.94 on Amazon
• Dragon Ball FighterZ for $19.92 on Amazon
• FIFA 20 for $24.99 on Amazon
• Gears 5 for $24.99 on Amazon
• Injustice 2: Legendary Edition for $14.99 on Amazon
• Man of Medan for $13.49 on Amazon
• Need for Speed Payback for $4.99 at Microsoft
• Red Dead Redemption 2 for $30 on Amazon
• Slay the Spire for $7.99 at Gamestop
• Sonic Mania for $9.99 at Microsoft
• The Outer Worlds for $35 on Amazon
• The Outer Worlds for $29.99 with Xbox Live Gold
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint for $14.99 on Amazon
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 for $4.99 at Best Buy
• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition for $19.99 on Amazon

PC Video Game Deals:

• New Free PC Games with Twitch Prime Membership
• Death Stranding for $47.99 at Green Man Gaming (code “PAYDAY20“)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 for $47.99 at GMG (code “PAYDAY20“)
• Doom Eternal for $47.99 at GMG (code “PAYDAY20“)
• The Outer Worlds for $47.99 at GMG (code “PAYDAY20“)
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot for $47.99 at GMG (code “PAYDAY20“)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for $47.99 at GMG (code “PAYDAY20“)
• Resident Evil 3 for $43.79 at Green Man Gaming
• Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition for $14.99 at Humble
• Nier: Automata Game of the Yorha Edition for $19.99 at Humble
• Celeste for $6.79 at Steam

______________________________

Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends 25% of his pay on stuff he posts.

Welcoooome to Nintendo Voice Chat! Episode 500 is nearly upon us, so it’s time to put in some prep work! To get ready for the big show, Casey DeFreitas is joined by Peer Schneider, Brian Altano, and Zach Ryan to pick the top five Nintendo systems of all time. Then, stick around for a conversation about IGN’s update to the Top 25 Nintendo Switch Games list.

In the news, hear about multiplayer finally coming to Mario Kart Tour, an update on Bloodstained’s promised roguelike mode, and more. Finally, it’s time for your questions on yet another installment of Question Block.

Timecodes!

• 00:00:00 Welcome!
• 00:02:41 Let’s rank the Nintendo consoles!
• 00:20:45 Updating the best Switch games list
• 00:29:15 News time!
• 00:45:35 Games out this week
• 00:50:57 What we’re playing
• 00:53:35 Question Block

Games out this week:

• Murder by Numbers – 3/5, $15
• Ibb & Obb – 3/5, $15
• Afterparty – 3/6, $20
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX – 3/6, $60

What we’re playing:

• Casey: Rune Factory 4 Special, Smite, Murder by Numbers
• Peer: Ibb & Obb
• Zach: Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
• Brian: Hollow Knight

 

Finally, NVC shirts and sweatshirts are now available at the IGN Store! Use the code nvc10 to get 10% off your purchase of NVC clothes. Multiple styles and colors are available. It’s not just IGN merch though. The store also has Star Wars shirts and officially licensed Nintendo shirts too, among other designs.

NVC is available on your preferred platform!

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple iTunes
• Stitcher
• Podbay
• PlayerFM
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You can also Download NVC 497 Directly Here

You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at nvc@ign.com and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We’re all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

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Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

In light of UA and MGM’s decision to delay the release of the James Bond film No Time to Die from April to November, the question is whether other studios will follow suit and postpone their upcoming movies due to the spreading coronavirus. According to a new report, the short-term answer appears to be no.

“Currently, Disney is adamant that they’re not moving the May 1 release date of Black Widow, and Universal is officially not changing their May 22 release for F9,” Deadline reports.

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IGN reached out to all the major studios to inquire about whether they were planning on shifting their release dates but none of them had responded as of time of publish.

Deadline claims there had been rumors among distributors that Disney would shift the release of Black Widow to the November 6 slot currently occupied by another Marvel title, The Eternals, and then push the latter film to 2021. But, according to Deadline, “Disney is telling its exhibition partners that they’re staying the course with their current release slate.”

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Likewise, Warner Bros. is reportedly not moving the release dates for Scoob! (May 15) or Wonder Woman 1984 (June 5) nor is Paramount postponing the May 22 opening of SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run.

Of course, no one knows how widespread or threatening COVID-19 will be by November, but until then the film industry will continue to observe the situation and hope audiences still head to theaters.