Month: August 2020

Activision boasted a big second quarter in its financial results, driven in part by the rapid growth of its free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone. The spin-off from last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reached more than 75 million players to date, according to the company’s second-quarter 2020 financial report.

That’s the first updated player count we’ve heard since it was riding high on its explosive first month with 50 million players. The growth over the last few months has been slower since its debut, but that’s not surprising in itself, and another 25 million is still a huge success.

The success of Warzone has had a knock-on effect with Modern Warfare as well. Activision Blizzard said that Modern Warfare has added more players outside of a launch quarter than ever before, mostly due to players upgrading from Warzone. The company has already specified that Warzone will continue to evolve with content from future Call of Duty campaign releases.

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Nintendo is giving Switch players another chance to win My Nintendo Gold Points. The company is hosting online competitions in two of its Switch games this month: the stretchy-arm fighter Arms and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

First up is the Arms North American Open August 2020, which takes place this Saturday, August 8. The top player will win a prize package that contains download codes for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, its Fighters Pass Vol. 2, and Splatoon 2. The rest of the top four, meanwhile, will take home 2,500 My Nintendo Gold Points, which is equivalent to $25 USD in Switch Eshop credit.

The following week, Nintendo will host the Mario Kart 8 North American Open tournament. That competition runs from August 14-16, and the top eight players each day–based on the total amount of points accumulated–will win 2,500 Gold Points. You can learn more about both competitions on Nintendo’s website.

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Microsoft has changed “Xbox Live” to “Xbox online services” in the company’s service agreement. The service has also been amended to refer to “Xbox consoles” instead of “Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles.” The changes are effective starting October 1.

The change comes after Microsoft has been making tweaks to Xbox Live, removing the option to buy yearly and six-month subscriptions for Xbox Live Gold. This makes it only slightly cheaper to buy Xbox Live Gold instead of buying Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

GameSpot has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

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If you’ve been dying to get a closer look at the PS5’s key accessories–like the new DualSense controller–Sony has you covered. As first spotted by Twitter user Wario64, the company recently added 3D renders of upcoming PS5-related items, including the DualSense, the Pulse 3D Wireless Headset, the Media Remote, and the HD Camera.

While there’s not a lot else to say about these items–except that we can now confirm that they do indeed have a third dimension–the models are quite snazzy. Sony recently revealed that your old DualShock 4 will not work with PS5 games, though it can be used to play PS4 games.

This is apparently due to PS5 games taking advantage of the DualSense’s new features, particularly haptic feedback. A new report also suggested that Sony’s next big PS5 event will be later in August, though plans could change. Additionally, if you were wondering why the PS5 is so much bigger than its predecessors, that’s due to the fact that it generates far more heat than the PS4.

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However much you think you hate the 2011 Green Lantern movie, you’ll never hate it as much as Ryan Reynolds himself does–but, hey, sometimes hate can be a beautiful (and hilarious) thing. At least he’s nothing if not a great sport about it. Even massive box office failures can have silver linings.

The actor took to Twitter to release his very own Reynolds Cut of the movie, and it’s–well, just take a look to see for yourself.

Clocking in at just under 30 seconds–only about 15 seconds of which are actually from the Green Lantern movie–we have to say that this is definitely the most perfect version of the film currently available. It opens with a scene from Deadpool 2, in which the Merc with a Mouth goes back in time to murder Reynolds before he could make the movie. From there, it hits every critical beat, including Hal’s dad dying in a horrific explosion (to establish his tragic past), zipping around like Iceman from Top Gun (to establish who he is before he learns a valuable lesson about life and heroism–a total jerk), and finally getting clowned on again and again by various intensely CGI’d aliens (to humble him, naturally). That’s what we in the business like to call a hero’s journey.

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Ryan Reynolds continued his years-long mockery of his Green Lantern movie by posting a new social media video that not only re-edits the notorious 2011 flop but also manages to poke fun at Snyder Cut fans, Dwayne Johnson, and even Tom Cruise.

“I’m not playing Hawkman in Black Adam. Although I generally do whatever the hell @TheRock tells me to do,” Reynolds posted Tuesday, tagging Johnson, who is his co-star in Hobbs & Shaw and the upcoming Netflix action film Red Notice.

(Johnson, as IGN audiences should know, will play Shazam nemesis Black Adam in an upcoming film about the DC Comics antihero.)

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Reynolds continued, “I would however love to be in Zack Snyder’s Justice League movie and I’ve heard I may already be in it? #SnyderCut”

The Deadpool star then posted a followup message proclaiming, “Here’s the secret Reynolds Cut of GL you all haven’t been waiting for. In order to make it as great as possible we made some judicious cuts.”

The attached video shows footage of Reynolds’ “death scene” from Deadpool, a wildly cut down version of 2011’s Green Lantern, a quick glimpse of Tom Cruise in Top Gun, and finally Reynolds’ Hal Jordan inserted into the ending of 2017’s Justice League.

Here’s the secret Reynolds Cut of GL you all haven’t been waiting for. In order to make it as great as possible we made some judicious cuts. pic.twitter.com/B2tUelctr8

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 4, 2020

While Reynolds’ Green Lantern won’t really be in The Snyder Cut, which will debut on HBO Max next year, that doesn’t mean fans have seen the last of the Emerald Knight in live-action.

HBO Max is developing a Green Lantern series that will boast “cinematic production values” and will feature the ring slinger’s archenemy Sinestro.

And for more on Zack Snyder’s Justice League, watch this clip of Henry Cavill’s Superman in his black costume, read why Zack Snyder refuses to use a “single frame” of Joss Whedon footage in The Snyder Cut, and learn why The Snyder Cut is not part of the DCEU.

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Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, Valorant, and more, has announced that all teams will be taking a week off, with the majority being off during the week of August 10. Some teams will be staggered to ensure that games and servers continue to run smoothly during the time off.

“As game developers, we’re all hyper aware of the effects of crunch and project-based deadlines,” Riot Games said. “We owe it to ourselves and to you to prioritize our health as a team (well, many teams) so we can bring you new experiences long into the future.”

Riot Games also said that update and game release schedules will be shifted to accommodate for the time off, to ensure it isn’t “just cramming more into the following week.” The studio will be announcing the schedule changes for its individual games over the next few days.

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QuakeCon is this weekend, and along with news about all things Bethesda, you can save on a bunch of games in the publisher’s back catalog on just about every platform. The Nintendo Switch Eshop has joined a pretty big Xbox Store sale and PC sale at GOG with its own deals on Bethesda games. Admittedly, the Switch’s sale is much smaller, simply because there aren’t very many Bethesda-published titles on Switch. That said, you can still save on the solid ports of Doom (2016), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and more until August 10.

More Nintendo Switch game deals

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — $49.94 ($60)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — $51 ($60)
• Super Mario Odyssey — $49.94 ($60)
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze — $49.94 ($60)
• Kirby Star Allies — $50 ($60)

All eight games in the Switch’s QuakeCon Sale are 50% off. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Doom, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are down to $30, while Wolfenstein: Youngblood Deluxe edition is $20. Yes, those prices are higher than you’ll find on other platforms, but if you wanted to check out any of them in handheld mode, we’ve never seen them at better prices.

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A popular CoD feature is making its way to Call of Duty Mobile. The Gunsmith, which allows you a great deal of customization over your weaponry, will be hitting the game starting with the next season.

The Call of Duty Mobile Twitter announced the feature with a short trailer showing it off. In it, we can see a gun being fitted with a variety of attachments, from scopes to barrels and grips. The trailer also promises that the swappable equipment will give you a greater degree of finesse over your weapons’ stats, like accuracy and range. Finally, it promises more stickers and cosmetic customization.

Activision had previously teased this feature in a separate tweet, saying “Customization is the future.” The feature has long been requested by the community for several months, which makes sense as the Mobile incarnation has been importing popular features from its PC and console siblings.

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