Myanmar’s “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingyas is continuing, a UN envoy says after visiting refugees.
Top S Korean politician resigns over rape
Ahn Hee-jung, once seen as a possible future president, said he was guilty of “foolish behaviour”.
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Video Game Group Confirms White House Meeting This Week
[UPDATE] The ESA said in a statement today that it hopes to have a “fact-based conversation” with White House officials this week to discuss “video game ratings, our industry’s commitment to parents, and the tools we provide to make informed entertainment choices.”
“Video games are enjoyed around the world and numerous authorities and reputable scientific studies have found no connection between games and real-life violence,” the ESA said. “Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States. Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation. The upcoming meeting at the White House, which ESA will attend, will provide the opportunity to have a fact-based conversation about video game ratings, our industry’s commitment to parents, and the tools we provide to make informed entertainment choices.”
The original story is below.
During a White House press briefing last week, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Trump will meet with “members of the video game industry” to discuss video game violence in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. At the time, the ESA–which represents some of the industry’s major publishers–said it had not heard about any meeting with the White House. Now, the ESA has confirmed it will attend a White House meeting this week, but there are still quite a few unanswered questions about what will happen and who will attend.
In a statement to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, the ESA suggested its conversation with White House officials will extend beyond video games alone. “Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation,” the group said.
The ESA did not say if representatives from any of its members will attend the White House meeting this week. Some of its members include huge, powerful gaming companies such as Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts, among many others. At the very least, we would expect ESA president Michael Gallagher to attend the meeting.
On the other side, we don’t know if President Trump himself will meet with the ESA or if it will be Vice President Mike Pence or other elected officials. We have contacted the ESA in an attempt to get more details about this week’s White House meeting.
After the Parkland shooting, Trump hosted a meeting at the White House to discuss school safety, and among the subjects that came up were the level of violence in video games and movies. In his White House meeting in February, Trump said he has heard from “more and more people” that “the level of violence in video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”
After the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden met with members of the video game industry executives such as then-EA CEO John Riccitiello to discuss the link between violent video games and gun violence as part of a wider task force into gun control measures. Gallagher, the ESA president, was also at this meeting.
Disney Gaming Boss Promoted To Head Of ESPN
ESPN has a new president, and he comes from a gaming background. The Disney-owned sports network announced today that James Pitaro will take over for John Skipper as ESPN’s president. Skipper stepped down last year, citing a substance addiction problem.
Pitaro, who is ESPN’s eighth president since the network launched in the ’70s, previously served as chairman of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. Before that, he was president of Disney Interactive, which ran Disney’s video game business. Pitaro will report directly to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
“Jimmy is a talented and dedicated leader with the right strategic vision, relentless drive and passion for sports required to lead the stellar ESPN team at this incredibly dynamic time,” Iger said in a statement. “Jimmy forged his career at the intersection of technology, sports and media, and his vast experience and keen perspective will be invaluable in taking ESPN into the future. I also want to extend my utmost thanks to George Bodenheimer for serving as Acting Chair of ESPN these past few months; he is a true industry pioneer and helped make ESPN the undisputed leader in sports.”
Disney has scaled back its gaming efforts in recent years. In 2014, Disney Interactive laid off around 700 people as part of a sweeping reorganization. The layoffs were a part of Disney’s move to combine its mobile game business and its social game business. In 2016, Disney canceled its Disney Infinity series and closed developer Avalanche Software.
At the time, Pitaro said, “We have modified our approach to console gaming and will transition exclusively to a licensing model. He said the toys-to-life category was failing to see growth, and this, combined with “high development costs,” led to a “challenging business model.”
Oscars 2018 Had Worst Viewership Ever
The numbers are in, and this year’s Academy Awards broadcast was a huge letdown in terms of total viewership. According to Entertainment Weekly, the 2018 Oscars telecast was the least-viewed in the prestigious awards show’s history. This year, 26.5 million people tuned in, down significantly from 32.9 million last year. While the numbers are down, the Oscars remains TV’s biggest awards show in terms of viewership, beating the Grammys and the Golden Globes, which pulled in audiences of around 19-20 million people this year.
The big-time dropoff this year could have something to do with its biggest winning films performing poorly at the box office. Best Picture winner The Shape of Water made only $57 million at the US box office since it came out in December. Gary Oldman won Best Actor for Darkest Hour, which made only $55 million domestic. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, whose actors Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell picked up wins for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, made only $52 million in the US. I, Tonya, which starred Allison Janney who won Best Supporting Actress, has only made $28.9 million domestic.
This was the first Oscars since The New York Times‘ industry-shaking expose on Harvey Weinstein and his alleged sexual misconduct. Host Jimmy Kimmel commented on the Time’sUp and MeToo movements in his monologue, saying, “What happened with Harvey and what’s happening all over was long over due. We can’t let bad behaviour slide any more.”
For more on the 90th Academy Awards, you can check out GameSpot’s roundup of all the winners here.
Oscar Viewership For Past 20 Years:
2018: 26.5 million
2017: 32.9 million
2016: 34.4 million
2015: 37.2 million
2014: 43.7 million
2013: 40.3 million
2012: 39.3 million
2011: 37.9 million
2010: 41.7 million
2009: 36.3 million
2008: 32.0 million
2007: 40.1 million
2006: 38.9 million
2005: 42.1 million
2004: 43.5 million
2003: 33.0 million
2002: 41.7 million
2001: 42.9 million
2000: 46.3 million
1999: 45.6 million
1998: 55.2 million
Fortnite Battle Royale Forbidden Dance Locations
Find out how to complete every challenge this week in Battle Royale.
Black Panther Cracks the Top 10 Domestic Grossing Movies of All Time
With Black Panther crossing the $500 million mark this weekend at the domestic box office, it joins a select group of films to push past that milestone.
All top 10 highest grossing films domestically have made over $500 million, with Black Panther being the latest to cross this mark. Find out where it falls — and what the rest of the top 10 is — in the gallery below.
The top 10 films and their unadjusted domestic grosses:
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens — $936,662,225
- Avatar — $760,507,625
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Anniversary Special Is a ‘Love Letter’ to the Franchise
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Anniversary Special will celebrate 25 years of Saban’s Power Rangers.
A Boom! Studios press release reveals the oversized anniversary special comic will feature standalone stories of fan favourite Ranger teams including the original team, which debuted back in 1993.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Anniversary Special Main Cover by Steve Morris
Rainbow Six Siege Doubling Down on Banning Racist, Homophobic Language
Rainbow Six Siege is making changes to the systems in place to ban those using racist and homophobic language, as well as other hate speech, in game.
A Reddit post details the punishments, ranging from 2 days to permanent bans, which will be applied case-by-case depending on the severity of the infraction.
The post states the language taken action against is explained in the games Code of Conduct to be “Any language or content deemed illegal, dangerous, threatening, abusive, obscene, vulgar, defamatory, hateful, racist, sexist, ethically offensive or constituting harassment is forbidden.”