Month: February 2021

The game-streaming platform Google Stadia is making a big change, announcing that it will no longer develop games. In a blog post from industry veteran and head of Stadia, Phil Harrison, the executive said Google is focusing on fleshing out Stadia’s technology and will back away from actually developing games for it.

“Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games,” the statement said. “Over the coming months, most of the SG&E team will be moving on to new roles. We’re committed to working with this talented team to find new roles and support them.”

Google’s game-making studios in Los Angeles and Montreal are closing as part of this news, according to Kotaku. Around 150 developers are said to be impacted. According to the report, Google is trying to place the affected developers in new positions within Google.

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The PlayStation 5 launch title Bugsnax from developer Young Horses is selling extremely well, it appears. Co-founder and president of the studio, Philip Tibitoski, revealed on Twitter that Bugsnax has already exceed the launch sales of the studio’s previous game, Octodad, despite Bugsnax being free for PlayStation Plus subscribers for a good amount of time.

“The team at Young Horses is so grateful for everyone’s support,” Tibitoski said.

Bugsnax was free on PS5 for PlayStation Plus members until January 4, so Tibitoski is presumably referring some combination of PS4 sales, non-Plus members, and those who bought it after the free period ended. There is no word on how many free copies the game shifted during its PlayStation Plus promo period. Neither Sony nor developers typically share those details for competitive reasons.

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Actor Dustin Diamond, best known for his portrayal of a lovable nerd on popular ’90s NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell, has died in hospice according to TMZ. It was recently revealed in mid-January that Diamond had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. At that time, he was taken to a Florida hospital a few days after reportedly feeling unwell.

Diamond came to fame with his role of Samuel “Screech” Powers on Saved by the Bell–the role of best friend and sidekick to the show’s main character and offered comic relief as a kind-hearted geek. The actor’s declining health was likely a reason for Screech not having a presence in the recent Peacock revival series. Aside from Diamond and Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding), many familiar faces returned to the series including Mario Lopez (Slater), Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack), and Tiffani Thiessen (Kelly).

Diamond never quite broke away from being known as Screech, but he embraced a similar comic-relief geek role on reality shows including Celebrity Boxing 2 and Celebrity Fit Club. He also had a short-lived side career as a musician, performing with alt-metal band Salty The Pocketknife, which released a self-titled album in 2006.

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A new Max Raid event is now underway in Pokemon Sword and Shield. All February long, certain Fighting- and Psychic-type Pokemon will be appearing more frequently in Max Raid dens across both games, including Gigantamax Machamp and Gigantamax Orbeetle.

Specifically, players will be more likely to encounter Machamp, Lucario, Falinks, Gothitelle, Reuniclus, and Orbeetle in Max Raid Battles this month. As previously mentioned, Gigantamax forms of Machamp and Orbeetle will also be appearing more frequently. Gigantamax Pokemon are typically incredibly rare to find outside of events like this, making this a good opportunity to add them to your collection if you haven’t yet.

Before the new event Pokemon can begin appearing in your game, you’ll first need to refresh your Max Raid dens. You can do so either by activating the Y-Comm to connect your game online, or by going into the Mystery Gift menu and selecting Get the Wild Area News. This Max Raid event will run through February 28.

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Move over GameStop–Costa Rica-based online sportsbook and casino Bovada is currently taking bets on who will play Harry Potter in the live-action TV series that is reportedly being discussed over at HBO Max. Bovada is taking bets on specific actors and also the hypothetical future actor’s age range.

As of this writing, the odds are looking most favorable for James McAvoy (X-Men: Apocalypse) or Tom Hiddleston (Avengers: Infinity War), and also an actor between the ages of 30 and 40. The current dark-horse bets are a teenaged actor between the ages of 13 and 16, and also for Daniel Radcliffe himself to reprise the role. Given how early days the series is, literally anything can happen at this point–but it’s best to temper expectations as The Hollywood Reporter recently indicated that the series is, as of this writing, only being discussed in “early-stage exploratory meetings.”

Something the series–and Harry Potter fans alike–will have to contend with is the fact that author J.K. Rowling has since the series of books and films concluded proven to be a controversial figure. Rowling remains a powerful steward of her franchise, despite becoming polarizing with recurring comments about gender and identity.

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Marvel has released a mid-season trailer for its kooky, stylish new smash hit WandaVision. The episodic Disney+ extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a weird (in a good way) mash-up of sitcoms past and present while also in the margins hinting at some pretty weird (in a strange way) conspiracies taking place in the MCU. Check out the new trailer below to learn what further questions we should all be asking while we all keep watching.

Episode 4, which aired last week, offered some answers, a few clues, and the beginning of some of the questions broached in the trailer above. With five more episodes to go through to March 5, so far it’s been kicking off MCU Phase 4 with an exciting bang.

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Just like its first year–which we detailed in our Year 1 recap—Apex Legends Year 2 (February 4, 2020 – February 3, 2021) was a transformative period for developer Respawn’s battle royale game. The final days of Year 2 will see the start of Season 8: Mayhem, which adds playable character Fuse, remakes Kings Canyon for a third time, and implements the 30-30 Repeater, a bolt-action rifle, to the general loot pool. But before that arrives, it’s worth looking at just how much Apex Legends has evolved in the past year.

“I think a big part of [Year 1] was just actually getting comfortable with and getting to learn what it is to make a live service game and build a relationship with the community,” team director Steven Ferreira told me when talking about how Respawn’s strategy for Year 2 was informed by the battle royale’s first year. “And that was always the plan, but like any well-laid plan, it’s not really real until you actually get into it, and then things change. I think that first year was definitely figuring out what was the right balance in terms of how much content could we actually make in a healthy and sustainable way.”

He continued: “How much content was the community looking for? What types of things were they looking for? How did it influence our creative process in terms of making sure that we weren’t locking things in so early that we couldn’t react to the community’s feedback, season to season? So I think we’ve really started to hit a stride and hit a sweet spot in terms of being able to find a balance of what we’re building, how we build it, and in a way that feels like a partnership almost with the community and including them in that process as well.”

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