Entertainment News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Apex Legends’ crossover with the Final Fantasy 7 franchise, teased last month at The Game Awards, is much more than just a handful of skins. Electronic Arts’ collab with Square Enix will bring Cloud’s trademark Buster Sword, Materia drops, and even a Nessie summon to the Apex Games next week, developer Respawn Entertainment revealed Thursday.

Hasbro is giving the venerable board game Trivial Pursuit a modern shot in the arm with a new daily, Wordle-inspired version called Trivial Pursuit Infinite. Like Wordle, Trivial Pursuit Infinite will be a daily challenge — in this case, players answer six rapid-fire trivia questions and, in theory, share their results with friends and family.

A former PlayStation figurehead thinks we're about to hear a lot more about game development budgets going forward in 2024.

You'd think considering the length of time Marvel has been a massive success - both before the MCU was even a thing and after it launched the franchise into the stratosphere - that pretty much every toy and collectible on the market would have teamed up with the creators of Earth's Mightiest Heroes by now, but no. Well, not until now. Youtooz, collectible figures modeled after countless iconic characters, previously didn't have any Marvel characters on its roster, but that changes today.

Disney dropped a blog post today teasing what the House of Mouse has in store for fans across the next 12 months. Among the things the company reaffirmed was that Star Wars Outlaws is indeed coming this year.

Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu has released a new year letter outlining the strategies that the publisher will be adopting going forward. One of those is the application of AI in content development as well as publishing, using AI in conjunction with other technologies. There is also talk of making the development chain more efficient, while on the publishing side there is more effort being put into better collaboration globally in an effort to expand the fan base of Square Enix titles with new games, as well as games from the publisher back catalogue.

Technology continues to evolve rapidly, and the hottest trend is the use of Artificial Intelligence, AI. To start 2024, Square Enix President and Representative Director Takashi Kiryu released a letter sharing his interest in adding more AI processes in developing future games.

If you were intrigued by Star Wars Outlaws, you might have been waiting on a release date. We knew Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment was working on this next big Star Wars game. However, we didn’t know exactly when the game would arrive. Instead, the developers, alongside Ubisoft, simply offered a generic 2024 launch window. Fortunately, we might have narrowed the release window for the game. However, it’s looking to be later this year, so you’ll have to wait a good while.

The upcoming Star Wars Outlaws open-world adventure from Massive Entertainment is easily one of the most exciting projects on Ubisoft’s upcoming slate, but the French publisher has been somewhat sketchy about when the game may launch. The broad release window we’ve been given in 2024, but recent Ubisoft financial statements hinted an early 2024 release may have been pushed back.

Star Wars Outlaws is launching in late 2024, narrowing its release date down to the final few months of the year. That's according to a blog post from Disney Parks, which has since been edited to instead list the game's vague, already-announced 2024 release window.

Star Wars Outlaws has quietly received a new, slightly more specific release window of «late» 2024.

Critically acclaimed role-playing game Baldur's Gate 3 was the biggest selling game on Steam as 2023 came to a close.

The owner of the speedrunning Shiba Inu, Peanut Butter, has revealed the secret behind the good boy's success.

As someone who desperately wanted the highly sought-after Buzz Lightyear toy after seeing Toy Story at the cinema as a kid, I know there's nothing quite like getting physical versions of characters from movies and games you love. Mario Kart has been that for multiple generations, but never more so than right now following the racing sequence from The Super Mario Bros. Movie. No sequel in 2024, nor any news on the next Mario Kart game, but we are getting some new Mario Kart Hot Wheels toys.

After 32 years, Bobby Kotick has retired at Activision Blizzard King, and possibly, from the video game industry as a whole.

Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu has released a new year letter outlining the strategies that the publisher will be adopting going forward. One of those is the application of AI in content development as well as publishing, using AI in conjunction with other technologies. There is also talk of making the development chain more efficient, while on the publishing side there is more effort being put into better collaboration globally in an effort to expand the fan base of Square Enix titles with new games, as well as games from the publisher back catalogue.

It is 2024 in several parts of the world, and game publishers, developers, and creators have begun to share their New Year greeting cards.

Making money online should be a relatively simple process. You provide your goods and services, those interested purchase them, and there’s usually some division of the profits between you and the distributor.

10 best year end deals: As we bid farewell to 2023 and usher in the promising dawn of 2024, it's the perfect time to elevate your auditory experience with the best year-end deals on premium headphones. Whether you seek solace in music, aim for heightened productivity, or simply savour the nuances of sound, headphones have become indispensable companions, offering a private sanctuary amidst the hustle and bustle of life.

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

 Ant Group Co. finished a procedure to remove controlling stakeholders almost a year after billionaire Jack Ma promised to cede his dominance of the Chinese finance giant. As part of the process, the People's Bank of China granted an application to remove any controlling shareholders at Ant's Chinese payment platform Alipay, according to a statement from the central bank. The bank now lists Ant's Alipay as a firm without an actual controller. 

ABC's multi-city New Year's Eve special and new music from the K-pop act TVXQ are some of the new television, movies and music headed to a device near you.

An upcoming city builder asks the hard, important questions we all like to ask sometimes: What if penguins built a city? Wouldn't that be cool? United Penguin Kingdom says that yes, in fact, that would be pretty cool. You can try it for free, today, via a demo version on Steam called United Penguin Kingdom: Huddle Up, which includes about an hour and a half of gameplay covering the first year of a penguin settlement.

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Since the very first game in series, there have been many unique and creative characters that live in Hyrule, including those in the latest entry, . Some of these special NPCs may only have a few lines, yet they are compelling enough that they can leave people wanting to know more about their backstories. In some cases, a character may even have quite a bit of time with Link but still deserves more of a story arc or even a spin-off title.

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2023’s coming to a close… but even as we shut the book on an incredible 12 months of gaming, we can look forward to even more delights coming in the year ahead. 2024 promises a generous helping of returning icons and new delights, opening the year with the salvo of The Last of Us II Remastered (Jan 19), Tekken 8 (Jan 26) and Helldivers II (Feb 8).

Sony has announced January 2024’s PlayStation Plus Essential games.

PlayStation Plus subscribers have several games to look forward to in January, with free Essential games including A Plague Tale: Requiem, Evil West, and Nobody Saves the World. Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the lineup on Wednesday. Players can download the trio of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games beginning Tuesday, Jan. 2.

The world of artificial intelligence keeps developing at an exponential rate. Just a few months ago, we saw multimodal large language models (LLM), that were capable of generating responses in voice as well as images. Now, we have AI models that can even generate videos from simple text prompts. Technically, there was only one such AI model accessible to the public by Runway, but now we have another. Pika Labs, the AI firm, has launched its AI video generator, Pika 1.0, and has opened its waitlist to the public.

is almost assuredly going to be a marquee release when it eventually comes out, and the wait for it may be grueling, but another upcoming fantasy RPG may ease the suspense: . The last game in Bethesda's iconic series,, has proved to be perennially popular, and has become notorious for how many times it's been re-released. Its follow-up,, was perhaps prematurely announced, and is still not expected for many more years. While there aren't any games that scratch the exact same itch as a Bethesda RPG, Obsidian Entertainment's is poised to fill an adjacent niche.

Another year is almost over, and as the last days of December wind down, we're taking a look back at what's been a monumental year for the video game, entertainment, and tech industries.

Move over Mean Girls, we have a new Christmas dance in town! A Christmas-themed video recently went viral on the internet and it is a dance-off between a group of girls and a flock of chickens. Dubbed the ‘chicken dance' by netizens, this video is both entertaining and hilarious and people on social media cannot have enough of it. It is being shared across platforms and so far, we have seen it on TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and even in WhatsApp group chats. So, where did this video come from, who made it, and why is it going so viral? Let us find out.

Best 10 small laptops: Are you a student or a professional looking for a small and compact laptop? With too much traveling, small laptops have become a necessity for all your work on the go. Small laptops have gained popularity for their portability and sleek design. These lightweight devices are characterized by their smaller form factor, making them ideal for users on the go. Despite their compact size, modern small laptops boast impressive performance capabilities, catering to a wide range of tasks from productivity to entertainment. We have made a list of 10 best small laptops including models like Acer Chromebook, ASUS VivoBook , Dell Latitude 3000, and more that you can take a look at and see if they will serve you well.

Obsidian Entertainment's sci-fi roleplaying The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition is the free game available this Christmas day on the Epic Games Store. You have until tomorrow at 5 PM to unlock it permanently in your library.

Quordle 699 answer for December 24: It's Christmas Eve, and the perfect time to enjoy the festivities with your family. But before you fully dive into the holiday spirit, there's a puzzle waiting for you. Imagine the disappointment of losing your winning streak just a day before Christmas! Don't let it happen to you. Today's puzzle is a chance to either start fresh or make your streak even better. Even if yesterday's puzzle was a bit easy, today brings an entirely new opportunity, but it will not be a walkover. Don't be deceived by the apparent simplicity. Take a look at the Quordle hints and clues right now to figure out a systematic way to tackle the puzzle. And if you need any help, just scroll to the bottom and check the solutions too.

GamesReviews.com is giving away a ton of Xbox games this holiday season and you can win! We’ve had a great time here on the Xbox front, with Daniel and Kevin posting a ton of great Xbox content over the past 12 months. We’ve had the privilege of reviewing a ton of great games, a few of which we have highlighted below!

I love city-building sims during every step of play — from laying down the foundations to planning a city grid, upgrading the complexity of buildings, and handling the bureaucratic elements of the late game. I’ve spent late nights playing Frostpunk and Timberborn, sucked into the fine balance of evading total town collapse. That said, if you had told me a week ago, “You’re going to spend about an hour making a settlement — and then you’re going to start over, again and again,” I’d have balked. But Against the Storm, the roguelite city builder that just came out of early access on Dec. 8, proves this formula is not only sensible, it’s fantastic.

Welcome to Polygon’s final weekend deal collection of 2023. While we won’t have another weekend post for you all until Jan. 6, 2024, we’ve got plenty of awesome discounts below to carry you through the new year. For instance, the Epic Games Store Holiday Sale is offering a sitewide 33% discount on games, in addition to offering a new, free game every day through Jan. 10, 2024. But just in case Epic doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you can also check out the holiday sales happening at Steam and Fanatical too.

Firewall Zero Hour and Firewall Ultra developer First Contact Entertainment is the latest studio to announce its closure. The studio is exclusively focused on AAA VR games, but has cited the lack of support and high expenses as the reasons for closing down. First Contact Entertainment first opened its doors 8 years ago.

Versus Evil, the indie publisher perhaps best known for games like Stoic's The Banner Saga trilogy and Obsidian Entertainment's Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, is shutting down, with former employees saying parent company tinyBuild has laid off the entire team.

is now out in theaters and many potential viewers want to know more about the “” that has helped earn the movie an R rating. Here’s what you need to know about the and whether and/or in the film. For audiences concerned about the level of nudity in the movie, here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to see.

The Garfield Movie is getting its own video game.

First Contact Entertainment is a studio specializing in VR games, and it is behind titles like Firewall: Zero Hour and Firewall Ultra. It has announced that it will be shutting down by the end of the year.

First Contact Entertainment, the team behind VR games like 2018's Firewall: Zero Hour and this year's Firewall Ultra on PSVR 2, has announced it is closing, as reported by Gematsu. After almost eight years as a studio, it will shut down at the end of the year. It cites a lack of VR support within the industry. 

Sony has been testing the waters with different hardware this year, including the PlayStation Portal and the PS VR2. In an interview with the Financial Times, Eric Lempel, the head of global business at Sony Interactive Entertainment, reveals how some of these projects have been faring.

Aquaman's James Wan looks to be making a movie based on one of H.P. Lovecraft's most iconic horror stories, The Call of Cthulhu – which, in turn, is going to be adapted into a video game. 

China is once again looking to impose tighter regulation on its video game market.

South Park: Snow Day received a new trailer yesterday, offering a better look at the game and its charming PvE content before closing out with a release date. Currently, the launch is slated for March 26, 2024, so we've still got a few months to go before we can enjoy what this enchanting take on South Park has to offer. 

Firewall Zero Hour and Firewall Ultra developer First Contact Entertainment is the latest studio to announce its closure. The studio is exclusively focused on AAA VR games, but has cited the lack of support and high expenses as the reasons for closing down. First Contact Entertainment first opened its doors 8 years ago.

Firewall and Solaris Offworld Combat series developer First Contact Entertainment will shut down after nearly eight years of operation, the studio announced.

As my esteemed colleague Rich Stanton put it, it has now been [0] days since restricted military documents have been leaked in the War Thunder forums. As reported by Task and Purpose, this latest incident relates to the M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a tracked AIFV that first went into service with the US military in 1981.

As revealed by the recent Insomniac leaks, one thing Sony is quite concerned about going forward is the viability and competitiveness of their PlayStation Plus service, which they believe could be one of the things most affected by Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. So, how does Sony plan to fortify PS Plus against Microsoft and the growing threat from Game Pass? Thus far, Sony has resisted the Game Pass approach of putting first-party titles on PS Plus on Day 1, and it seems that’s not going to change. That said, according to new documents unearthed from the Insomniac leak, they do have some other plans.

Audio accessories brand pTron has introduced its Jazz Series of Soundbars, featuring the pTron Jazz and Jazz Pro models. The statement from the company says these soundbars aim to revolutionize the entertainment experience, whether you're watching movies, gaming, or listening to music. The series offers powerful audio performance that immerses users in every beat and dialogue. With a sleek design and compact size, the soundbars seamlessly fit into any living space.

We’ve seen subscription services come into play a lot more these past few years. Microsoft has been pushing its Xbox Game Pass subscription service quite heavily. They not only expanded the service to be more accessible to a wide variety of devices but also filled it with games. One of the significant challenges that Sony will have is the first-party content that Microsoft puts out on Game Pass at launch. However, it appears that Sony is looking to expand their PlayStation Plus subscription service further to gain a larger audience. 

Polish games firm Bloober Team is partnering with entertainment firm Skybound on an as yet undisclosed project.

The folks over at Bloober Team are throwing together a new title, but this time, the franchise is through one of the IPs by Skybound Entertainment. It’s been unveiled that the development studio has partnered up with Skybound Entertainment for this next big game release. However, that’s about all we know right now about the game. With Bloober Team known for delivering horror gameplay experiences, it would be hard to see the studio partnered up with an IP not centered around a horror storyline. 

Bloober Team is developing a licensed game for Skybound, the entertainment company best known for its The Walking Dead franchise.

Microsoft has appointed Jill Braff as head of Bethesda/ZeniMax studios.

Bloober Team — the Polish game development studio best known for its work on horror games like Layers of Fear, The Medium, and even the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, has confirmed that it has another new project in the works. 

It's been a strong year sales-wise for Sony, as the PlayStation 5 has now reportedly sold over 50 million units as it enters its fourth year on the market.

Excellent news for fans of Blizzard Entertainment's grim fantasy role-playing game (RPG) Diablo 4. In a fresh new hotfix released for the game yesterday (December 20), it was announced that drop rates for Uber Unique items from endgame boss Echo of Duriel will be doubled.

Bloober Team, the prolific horror studio behind The Medium and the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, has teamed up with Skybound Entertainment, best-known as the creators of The Walking Dead franchise, for a new licensed project.

Bloober Team, the studio behind Silent Hill 2 Remake and The Medium, has announced today it has signed a deal with Skybound Entertainment, the company founded by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert.

PS5's November 2023 was Sony's biggest November for PlayStation sales to date, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Head of Global Business has said.

We learned in November that Valve was working on a new feature that will enable Steam users to mark individual games in their games as "private," preventing everyone else in the world from knowing it's there. That feature has now gone live in the latest Steam client beta, which also includes changes to the Steam shopping cart that will make purchasing gifts for other people a whole lot easier.

By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.

After a 32-year career, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is officially stepping down next week, with his last day at the company being Friday, December 29. Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced a series of key leadership changes as it works to bring Activision Blizzard into Xbox's fold.

It is now official: In a farewell message to employees, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed that he will be leaving the company.

In a new Inside Blizzard blog post, President of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Ybarra reflects on the past year of Blizzard games, celebrating the company's cultural growth and community achievements throughout 2023, while looking ahead to 2024.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will officially leave the company on December 29, it’s been confirmed.

Bobby Kotick has confirmed that he'll be stepping down as CEO of Activision-Blizzard-King on December 29, with no direct replacement planned to take his place.

Perhaps the most controversial executive in the history of the video game industry is stepping down by the end of the year. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has long been a divisive figure for his aggressive and abrasive style, but his image took an even worse beating when he was personally implicated in the workplace misconduct allegations that roiled Acti-Blizz back in 2021. Despite that, he hung on, negotiating the $69 billion sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft. Throughout the process Microsoft and Xbox boss Phil Spencer have remained mum on what Kotick’s fate may be once the sale was completed.

By Tom Warrenand Ash Parrish

Layers of Fear and The Medium developer Bloober Team is set to develop a game based on an IP owned by Skybound Entertainment, after a licensing and publishing agreement was signed by the two companies.

Bloober Team has signed a licensing and publishing agreement with Skybound Entertainment to create a game based on intellectual property owned by Skybound Entertainment. It is code-named “R” and expected to launch in 2025.

Overwatch 2 developer Blizzard Entertainment is "actively working towards" giving away new heroes to all players, not just those who buy a premium battle pass.

By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

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