Netflix Developing Beyond Good & Evil Movie With Detective Pikachu Director At Helm

Rob Letterman, the director of Detective Pikachu, has been tapped to direct a Beyond Good & Evil movie for Netflix, the streaming company confirmed. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Letterman will helm a hybrid live-action animated feature of the 2003 game, produced by Jason Altman and Margaret Boykin for Ubisoft Film and Television.

The movie is early in development and is currently looking for writers to adapt the game’s story. Beyond Good & Evil became a cult classic in the years following its release, leading up to Ubisoft resurfacing the property with Beyond Good & Evil 2 in 2017 after it had previously been announced in 2008. The game currently has no release date, but won’t be released prior to April 2021.

Netflix has a slew of video game adaptations both in development or currently available on its service, including Castlevania, the Witcher, and the recently announced Splinter Cell animated series–another Ubisoft IP–helmed by the John Wick writer Derek Kolstad.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

After Twitch’s DMCA Music Takedowns, Here’s What Streamers Can Do

Last month Twitch streamers found themselves hit with a wave of DMCA takedown requests for clips that feature licensed music. For creators with hundreds of clips saved featuring various music in the background, this became a huge headache as they were asked to manually remove violating clips, which for some could be as many as hundreds of videos saved.

What Is DMCA?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a federal law that’s become quite infamous with the rise of social media services, particularly YouTube. Essentially, it gives the copyright owners the ability to call out unlicensed use of its products and request they be taken down.

While YouTube creators are familiar with the DMCA Twitch’s situation is unique in that the requests seem to come all at once, very quickly. Twitch’s official Support account acknowledged the takedown requests, but simply advised users to remove those clips. For users with large archives, Twitch says it’s “working to make this easier.”

Twitch’s DMCA Guidelines

Twitch’s guidelines on DMCA states that “It is our policy to respond to clear notices of claimed copyright infringement that fully comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In addition, we will promptly terminate without notice the accounts of those determined by us to be “repeat infringers”.”

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How Does DMCA Affect Streamers?

The DMCA is infamous, but it’s also misunderstood. The Act primarily protects the interests of the copyright holder while also giving protections to digital platforms that would previously be liable for hosting copyrighted content that was uploaded without their knowledge.

“Most people think of the DMCA as something used against infringers,” says David Hoppe, Managing Partner at SF-based Media/Tech law firm Gamma Law. “But actually DMCA takedown requests are not sent to infringers. DMCA takedown requests are sent by copyright owners to sites that have content posted by users, and that content infringes the copyright. This could be a product review on Amazon, an essay posted on Medium or a YouTube video, for example.”

The purpose of the DMCA is to protect those platform owners, like YouTube or Twitch, from liability from the copyright holder, in case a user on the platform posts infringing content. “Any legitimate site will take a takedown request seriously and notify the user to take the content down so that the site will not have the risk of being sued by the copyright owner,” Hoppe says.”

Is there Free Music Twitch Streamers Can Use?

Owning an iTunes MP3 file or a Spotify Premium subscription doesn’t grant you the license to songs from those services. Streamers hoping to avoid a DMCA takedown may have better luck using royalty-free licenses through Creative Commons, or a variety of services that offer royalty-free music for generic use. Some streamers may look into commissioning custom tracks from musicians for exclusive use on their channel.

What Can Content Creators Do If They’re Hit With a DMCA Takedown Request?

Hoppe says that creators, like streamers, can send a counter-notice through the platform and their content will be put back up. “The copyright owner then has a limited time within which to file a lawsuit against the user. So if the creator gets a counter-notice back, they have to decide quickly whether it’s worth escalating to a lawsuit. Otherwise, the content could just stay up indefinitely.”

While platform holders will followthrough with DMCA takedown requests, there are steps creators can take if their content is taken down. However, these extra steps could lead to further litigation.
“The [content creator] will have to evaluate the legitimacy of the takedown request. If there is a credible claim that the creator’s content infringes on the other party’s copyright? If there is no credible basis, then the creator should file a counter-notice, and the site will be required to put the content back up. If it’s a closer call and there could be infringement, then the creator should consult a copyright lawyer and make the decision whether to file the counter-notice and possibly wind up in court.”

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Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

This Classic FPS Will Be Free Next Week During QuakeCon

QuakeCon is one of gaming’s longest-running conventions, and while you might have to watch the festivities from home this year, you’ll at least get something for your troubles.

Starting August 7, if you have a Bethesda.net account and you watch QuakeCon, you’ll get the PC version of Quake on the Bethesda launcher for free, according to reputable Twitter user Wario64. Additionally, if QuakeCon hits its first fundraising goal of $10,000–which seems fairly likely–you’ll also receive a free copy of Quake II, the misleadingly-named sci-fi follow-up to Quake.

QuakeCon was confirmed to be a digital-only event back in late June, and it runs from August 7 to 9. You can check the rest of the schedule on the event’s website, which includes a Representation in Video Games panel, a Doom Eternal panel, a look at the upcoming Dishonored tabletop RPG, and, of course, the grand finals of the Quake World Championship. There will probably be game announcements too, perhaps related to upcoming Bethesda games like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop. Don’t expect too many details on Starfield, though.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Halo Infinite’s Multiplayer Will Be Free-To-Play And Run At 120 FPS

Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer component will be free-to-play and will support 120 FPS on Xbox Series X. 343 Industries announced this on Twitter, stating that more details about the game’s multiplayer will be shared at a later time.

Halo Infinite’s campaign was shown off during the Xbox event earlier in July, but 343 Industries has yet to show any footage of the game’s multiplayer component or offered details beyond confirming that the multiplayer will be available at launch. Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently said that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer was “special” and the team worked alongside professional Halo players to fine-tune the experience.

In a recent blog post, 343 Industries developers said that Halo Infinite might not have a multiplayer beta due to the difficulties of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same post, 343 Industries said that the team is going with a more ‘classic’ art style for the game, but the studio has heard the complaints that the game looks “flat, simplistic, and plastic-like,” after the single-player demo was criticized for its visual fidelity. The studio also said that the game will not feature real-money loot boxes the way Halo 5: Guardians did, but the game is expected to have microtransactions in some form.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Halo Infinite Multiplayer Is Free to Play, 343 Confirms

Following a leak, 343 Industries has confirmed that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer will be free-to-play and will support 120fps on Xbox Series X.

Halo’s Twitter shared the news, saying “Halo is for everyone. We can confirm #HaloInfinite multiplayer will be free-to-play and will support 120FPS on Xbox Series X. More details will be shared later!”

Screenshot_2020-07-31 (2) Halo on Twitter Halo is for everyone We can confirm #HaloInfinite multiplayer will be free-to-pla[...]

Earlier today, Smyths Toys leaked the news in its listing for Xbox Series X, highlighting the free-to-play news, 120 FPS, and “greatly reduced load times.”

While we have yet to learn much more about Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, we did learn much more about its campaign at the Xbox Games Showcase, where 343 confirmed it will be running at a locked 60 FPS.

Halo Infinite will also be more of a platform than a standalone entry, and this move to free-to-play only reinforces that this is what Halo will look like for the foreseeable future.

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343 Industries’ confirmation of Halo Infinite’s free-to-play future follows its open discussion on the community’s mixed response on the latest Halo’s graphics and visual style, a possible multiplayer beta, and microtransactions.

Halo Infinite will be released alongside the Xbox Series X in Holiday 2020, but will also be available on PC and Xbox One.

For more, be sure to check out more info on Halo Infinite’s villain and story, as well as why this new entry is the perfect jumping on point for those new to the Halo franchise.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who can’t wait and is so excited he just can’t hide it. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Umbrella Academy Season 2: Everything We Need In Season 3

Netflix’s Umbrella Academy ended on a major cliff hanger. Here’s what we want from Season 3.

Netflix’s Umbrella Academy is really something special. With its weird, surreal, and occasionally incredibly bleak take on superhero stories, it manages to feel like it’s in a genre all its own. It’s not quite deconstructing the comic book movie, but it’s certainly not something you’d ever see spin out from the likes of the MCU. Instead, Umbrella Academy feels like a cape and cowl take on something like the Addams Family–and for that, we can’t help but love it.

Season 2 is now available to be watched in full, so if you haven’t finished all 10 episodes, go and do that first because we’re about to get into some serious spoiler territory here. Consider this your final warning.

The season ended, not unlike Season 1, on a major cliffhanger with some seriously dire implications for the future of the Hargreeves family. And though a Season 3 pick up has not yet been confirmed, we’re fully prepared to get our hopes up. So much so that we’ve already formulated a list of exactly what we hope Season 3 will cover, if it does indeed get made.

More Lila

Lila’s introduction opened a whole world of possibility for the Umbrella Academy universe. In total, 43 mystery children were born on October 1, 1989, to women who were not actually pregnant and so far, only 8 of them, including Lila, have been uncovered. We want to know more of Lila’s story, see her actually connect with the rest of the time, and hopefully, usher in a whole new quest for the Hargreeves kids to find more people like themselves.

More Ben

Ben’s cliffhanger ending was a huge question mark for the finale. Ghost Ben is no longer, but now there’s a new Ben in 2019 and he doesn’t recognize any of his former siblings. We obviously want to know why this is happening–did the fact that Ben’s ghost moved on back in the 1960s change something? Or was it one of the other little disruptions that shifted everything around? But more importantly, we want to see more Ben just in general, especially when it comes to his powers.

In the comics, Ben is known as The Horror and his abilities have to do with summoning eldritch beings into existence through his skin–but we never get much in terms of specifics or logistics since he’s already dead by the time the story begins. In the show, we’ve only seen Ben’s powers manifest as tentacles sprouting from his chest. We’re dying to see what else he can do–and actor Justin H. is, too.

In speaking with GameSpot, he admitted Ben’s powers are something he’s excited to explore. “I’ve thought about it a lot, especially as all the other siblings’ powers continue to evolve and grow, I’m so curious to see how Ben’s will continue to evolve and grow as well.” He continued, “I mean, the tentacles is a primary way in which these interdimensional beings manifest themselves from its body, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s limited to that, per se. And I think other types of monsters, creatures, interdimensional beings, will be able to manifest themselves in the future.”

Here’s hoping.

The Sparrow Academy?

In the new 2019, there is no Umbrella Academy. Instead, Reginald is still alive and has what’s known as The Sparrow Academy, led by this alternate version of Ben. This is totally uncharted territory for the story. The Sparrow Academy isn’t directly based off of anything in the comics, so we can’t even begin to guess what might be going on, which means we’re absolutely dying to know what the deal is.

Is it just us or did Sparrow Academy Ben have an extremely threatening vibe?

Perhaps one of the strangest unresolved stories in Season 2 is the blink-and-you-miss-it reveal that Sir Reginald Hargreeves is, in fact, an alien–and not like, a Kryptonian-style humanoid alien, like Season 1 had implied. This version was a full-on monster. This wouldn’t be a huge surprise for fans coming from the comics, where Reginald’s alien origins were revealed relatively early on. But, given how much the show is able to deviate and do new things apart from the source material, we’re betting it’s not going to be a direct adaptation of Reginald’s story from the books.

So, we need to know, what is Reginald’s deal? Will the siblings ever learn the truth? If he’s an alien in this version of events, does that mean there could be more aliens out there?

Harlan’s powers

Though considerably less ominous than the Sparrow Academy and the whole alternate 2019, the stinger with Harlan and Sissy back in the 1960s does raise some red flags. Harlan now has to deal with the abilities Vanya inadvertently gave him, and he’s doing so with absolutely no help, in a world that already doesn’t understand him.

Showrunner Steve Blackman spoke with GameSpot about the origins and potential future for Harlan’s story. “He’s a kid who is on the autism spectrum–I have a son on the spectrum. So it’s something close to my heart. I wanted to have a character that bonded with Vanya, without having verbal communication, that there was another kind of connection with them. And then I wanted to take it to the next level, where the connection became even much more dramatic because it was connected by her inadvertently giving some of her power to him, and him not understanding or not being able to voice that.”

He continued, “And then we locked in the element at the end where we are to wonder what happens next. Clearly he still has some abilities and hopefully there’s something there we may or may not address in Season 3, if we are lucky to get it.”

Klaus continuing to confront his addictions

Klaus’s struggles with drugs and alcohol came to a head back in Season 1 after his traumatic experience in Vietnam, but Season 2 saw him completely fall off the wagon once more. Both instances were directly related to his doomed love affair with Dave–but actor Robert Sheehan doesn’t believe Klaus’s road to recovery will be linear, nor will it be a simple instance of love conquering all.

“I think he’s probably always going to be battling with drugs now,” Sheehan told GameSpot. “I have friends in my life and they function, they’ve got great jobs, some of them, but they battle on a daily basis whether or not they’re going to take drugs. It’s a tough thing and I think it points to something more deeply ingrained. But I suppose love is a great, probably a great cleanser of those things, a great helper because ultimately you start living for someone else or something else. You start to put something else bigger than yourself.”

Vanya joining the family (and exploring her sexuality)

Vanya has always been on the outskirts of the Hargreeves family thanks to Reginald’s deliberate attempts to ostracize and alienate her, but at the end of Season 2 we finally see her start to really join the fold. We want to see this trend continue with Vanya becoming more and more a part of the team, connecting with her siblings, and fostering meaningful relationships with them as they move forward.

We’d also like to see Vanya continuing to explore her sexuality, which was one of the new elements introduced in Season 2 with her romance with Sissy. Steve Blackman said that Vanya’s sexuality was something he and actor Ellen Page spoke at length about. “I would talk with Ellen Page about telling really honest stories about what it is to be queer. And that’s why that story was very grounded. […] We want to tell all kinds of love stories. And I don’t want to put any limits on it, as we go forward in future seasons.”

Destiny’s Children having some fallout

Klaus’s cult, Destiny’s Children, may have felt like a running gag throughout the season–and, let’s be honest, it mostly was–but we’d still like to see some genuine consequences spin out of that debacle in the future, especially considering the last remaining Swede apparently joined them.

It could be a continued gag–after all, the timeline would probably be a little bit screwed up for pop culture considering Klaus was spouting off Backstreet Boys and TLC lyrics decades before either band was actually performing those songs–or it could be something much more serious. Who knows, maybe the entire Sparrow Academy situation happened because Klaus really screwed up the landscape of modern pop music.

A successful love story

Perhaps more than any of their individual powers or dysfunctional quirks, the Hargreeves family is defined by their complete inability to find meaningful connections with other people. Allison has arguably gotten the closest with not one but two marriages, but something always gets in the way, whether it’s self sabotage and secret keeping or the sci-fi wackiness and drama of time travel. The Hargreeves siblings seem to be doomed to never find love.

But that might not be the case forever. Blackman explained that, though their emotional ineptitude and shortcomings are major parts of their characters, he doesn’t think happiness is totally off the table in the future. “I would love for one of them to have a successful relationship. I think it is earned. I think it is time,” He said. “I think Sissy and Vanya were about a successful relationship, if not for one having to return to her time period. I think they would have had a lovely romance, lasting for years to come. The same with Klaus and Dave, but their circumstances were so much more complicated. So I do not think it is inherent in the Umbrella Academy, to have not that successful romances, I think it is just that so much gets in the way.”

At least one sentient monument fight

One of the weirdest hallmarks of the Umbrella Academy comics series is its penchant for the heroes to be put up against sentient monuments and landmarks. In the first series, Apocalypse Suite, the kids were made to fight the Eiffel Tower–piloted by a version of Gustauve Eiffel who was both a zombie and a robot.

Later, in Umbrella Academy: Dallas, they have to fight the Lincoln Memorial after it came to life.

According to Steve Blackman, pulling off a fight like that in live action is a dream of his. “I do love the fight in Eiffel Tower in the very beginning with the kids, the Eiffel Tower is such a great visual. It would be sort of needing a lot of money to pull it off,” he laughed. “I still feel so inspired by that material. I would love to bring something like that life. I don’t know if I ever could, but that would be fun to try.”