Month: January 2021

Warner Bros. is in the planning stages for a live-action Harry Potter TV show. This is according to The Hollywood Reporter, which says the program is in “early development” for the streaming service HBO Max.

A Harry Potter TV show had been rumored for years, but this is the first time we’re learning about some of the specifics. THR says executives from Warner Bros. have taken meetings with potential writers who are pitching “various ideas” for the show.

Don’t get too excited yet, however, as it sounds like it’s still very early days. “Sources say broad ideas have been discussed as part of the early-stage exploratory meetings,” the report said.

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Even with the recent announcement that Netflix has surpassed 200 million subscribers worldwide, a new study has revealed that streaming services are in danger of losing customers due to an overabundance of choice.

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In 2020 alone, there were three new streaming services (HBO Max, Peacock, and Quibi) released, though Quibi ended up being the first major casualty in The Great Streaming Wars. Even with Quibi’s $2 billion demise, the demand for streaming is showing no signs of slowing down with the new Discovery+ platform joining the fray in January and Paramount+ set to launch in March.

While streaming appears to be at an all-time high, a recent study from professional service network Deloitte (per the Los Angeles Times), revealed that the overwhelming amount of streaming platforms and shows available may be causing customers to cancel their subscriptions and seek out something new. Deloitte’s survey, which consisted of 1,100 participants, showed that “46% of respondents canceled at least one streaming service in the last six months,” according to the LA Times, which is a major rise from only 20% who said the same in a similar January survey.

The majority of participants (62% to be exact) said they canceled a particular service after finishing a TV series or movie. “Churn” is the term used to describe this phenomenon in Hollywood. Deloitte’s data suggests that streaming providers are going to have a difficult time keeping subscribers as competition in the space increases. According to the LA Times, “streaming subscribers reported having an average of five services in October, up from the three they reported having before the COVID-19 pandemic,” but this increase also seems to indicate that viewers are more willing to cancel a service once they’ve seen the show or movie that initially prompted them to sign up.

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In an interview with the LA Times, Deloitte’s Media and Telecom Leader Kevin Westcott said, “the competition for the streaming services is shifting to a different level. Over the last few years, the focus was on having exclusive, original content. In 2021, it’s going to come down to the user experience, and do you feel like a special VIP for being a member.”

While Netflix is currently winning the war with its 200 million (and growing) subscriber base, Disney+ is catching up with an impressive 86.8 million of its own since launching in late 2019, with Peacock making a push with 26 million subscribers in under a year. And with so many services vying for subscribers, streamers are going to have to get creative to keep their audiences active. Disney+ will attempt to keep Marvel fans hooked all year long with an ambitious slate of original TV shows set in the MCU, with WandaVision’s weekly release schedule rolling right into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s March release date, followed by Loki in May. Amazon has also experimented with a weekly release schedule for some of its shows, including Season 2 of its breakout hit The Boys and its upcoming Robert Kirkman animated superhero series Invincible.

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Looking ahead, Netflix has an ambitious lineup of at least 70 original movies releasing in 2021, while HBO Max rocked the film industry by announcing that 17 of its theatrically-released movies in 2021 will drop simultaneously on HBO Max for a one-month exclusive window.

What do you think of the results from the study? Do you cancel a particular streaming service after you finishing binging a show or watching a movie? Let us know in the comments.

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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

A Resident Evil fan has released a concept video of what Resident Evil 7 could look like with the series’ original fixed camera angles – and we’re now hoping it becomes a fully-fledged mod.

YouTuber Enveloping Sounds has used a free camera mod to find fixed positions for the camera around Resident Evil 7’s Baker Mansion location, and another mod that depicts the game’s hero Ethan with a head for third-person mods. With some smart editing of both visuals and background sound effects, they’ve been able to show off an alternate reality version of Resident Evil 7 that didn’t even begin using Resi 4’s over-the-shoulder view, never mind 7’s first-person approach – and you can watch the video below (kindly provided by Enveloping Sounds).

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Sadly, this is just a concept right now. “Just to be clear, this is not an actual realized playable ‘mod’,” Enveloping Sounds tells IGN. “This is more of just a concept that I created using the free camera tool and spliced scenes together to show what COULD be.” So… any enterprising mod makers want to make this a reality?

Enveloping Sounds has previously given the same treatment to the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes, transplanting the original versions’ locked cameras into the shiny new games. Those earlier videos got a lot of fans of classic Resi in the comments wishing the new games had followed the original style. Seeing 7 – a game never designed to even be seen in third-person – presented this way is a very interesting follow-on  experiment. I’d say it’s a successfu one too.

In other Resi news, the much-rumoured Resident Evil 4 remake has reportedly seen a partial reboot and an internal delay, which may be in part due to it feeling too traditional. We also learned that Resident Evil Village will be released on May 7, and will seemingly be a successor to Resi 4. It will also come with a new multiplayer mode, RE:Verse.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Konami has announced a corporate restructure that will consolidate many of the company’s internal departments on February 1st. According to an official translation of the announcement, this means that the company’s three “production divisions” will be dissolved, though its “production departments” remain unchanged.

According to financial professionals, this is a move that will have an unclear impact on the company’s gaming operations. Analyst Daniel Ahmad suggests that this restructure is similar to the one that Konami undertook in 2015, and that the company is not “shutting down” their gaming operations, as fans have often accused it of doing in recent years. Others noted that companies like Sega and Square Enix have gone through similar restructures in the past.

While it’s true that Konami doesn’t release that many games these days, it still owns some of the most beloved gaming franchises in the world, including Metal Gear and Castlevania. For context, the last major Castlevania game was Lords of Shadow 2, which came out in 2014. Metal Gear has fared a bit better, with 2018’s Metal Gear Survive releasing without longtime director Hideo Kojima at the helm. Kojima left the company years ago due to a dispute over the production of Metal Gear Solid V.

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Another week is here, and if there’s anything to sweeten the blow of heading back to work, it’s good deals on games, controllers, and more. As we head into the last full week of January, we’re already spotting some very nice discounts, including a $40 markdown on the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, courtesy of our friends at CNET. Borderlands 3 is the cheapest we’ve seen as part of Best Buy’s latest Deal of the Day, and GameStop is running a very nice sale on statues and figures with characters across games and anime. Here’s a look at the deals that caught our eye today:

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