Month: March 2021

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A proposed Arizona bill that appeared primed to insert the state in the middle of the ongoing legal battle between Epic and Apple/Google looks to be dead on arrival. Arizona House Bill 2005 was passed over for a vote after support seemed to wane last-minute.

HB2005 was set to come up for a vote last week, but the House passed over it on the schedule. The Senate has reportedly pulled the bill, and its sponsor told The Verge that it won’t be coming back for the rest of the year. That seems to effectively kill the bill for the time being, and if it does come back it could be after the legal dispute has had its day in court.

Lawmakers have suggested industry lobbying may have had an effect. State representative Regina Cobb, who sponsored the bill, said Apple and Google “hired almost every lobbyist in town.” As a result, some votes that had seemed secure suddenly wavered, causing them to pull the bill at the last moment. Similarly, commerce chair J.D. Mesnard said there wasn’t enough support, with some members opposed and others simply feeling “conflicted.”

The proposed bill would have prevented app stores operating in Arizona from forcing developers to use their preferred payment system. That would have been a big win for Epic Games, since it would require Apple and Google to allow Epic to offer its own payment system in the state. It’s one of several state bills advocated by the Coalition for App Fairness, a lobbying group founded by Epic and various other tech companies. Similar bills have been proposed in Georgia, Hawaii, and Minnesota. One such bill failed in North Dakota.

Epic Games is ultimately seeking permission to allow for its own payment methods, and perhaps even to operate its own independent app store within the Apple and Google ecosystems. The legal battle began when Epic Games circumvented Apple and Google’s in-app payment systems, resulting in Fortnite being pulled from both stores. The Epic v. Apple trial will begin on May 3.

As part of a major spending proposal called the American Jobs Plan, President Biden plans to bring broadband internet access to all Americans. This means the 35% of the country currently without access to “minimally acceptable speeds” will finally have modern internet infrastructure in place.

“Broadband internet is the new electricity,” the White House said in a statement. “It is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school learning, health care, and to stay connected. Yet, by one definition, more than 30 million Americans live in areas where there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds.”

Internet has certainly played an even bigger role in everyday life with the pandemic moving many to work-from-home setups that involve daily Zoom meetings, and the new game consoles’ stream of updates and big file sizes for new games mean those with slow speeds have to spend a lot of time waiting around.

The Biden plan will invest $100 billion to tackle this, prioritizing support for networks operated by the government, cooperatives, and non-profits in order to better promote competition. Overall, the plan will be rolled out over eight years and also includes traditional infrastructure projects. It will provide subsidies in the short-term to help those who cannot otherwise afford broadband internet. This plan is separate from the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act proposed by Amy Klobuchar and James E. Cyburn, which itself would cost $94 billion. The FCC is also currently offering subsidies to help people pay for internet during the pandemic.

“Americans pay too much for the internet–much more than people in many other countries,” the White House statement added. “The President is committed to working with Congress to find a solution to reduce internet prices for all Americans, increase adoption in both rural and urban areas, hold providers accountable, and save taxpayer money.”

Even in my own area, which is fairly close to a major city–Pittsburgh–I have exactly one choice for internet provider, which includes a data cap for all but the very top tier. That’s an issue not just for downloading big games, but also using streaming services.

Biden is actually making the announcement in Pittsburgh today, by chance. If successful, the plan could make existing providers have more competitive rates, which would certainly be good for those who spend a great amount of time gaming online.

Midsommar actor Jack Reynor will star on a new sci-fi TV show from Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, it has been announced. The show is called The Peripheral, and it’s an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Cyberpunk author William Gibson.

Reynor joins the previously announced cast that includes Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Gary Carr (Death In Paradise). Reynor is attached to play the brother of Moretz’s character, a former Marine who is now the target of an assassination attempt.

The Peripheral is being produced for Amazon, which is also where Nolan and Joy are bringing their Fallout TV show in partnership with Bethesda.

In addition to starring alongside Florence Pugh in Midsommar, Reynor recently appeared with Tom Holland in the Russo Brothers movie Cherry.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Peripheral will feature a lot of the stuff that Nolan and Joy have become known for, including multiple timelines and cyber-technology. The William Gibson novel The Peripheral was originally published in 2014.

In other news about Amazon, the company recently hired Preacher and Doctor Who director Wayne Che Yip to direct multiple episodes of its Lord of the Rings series.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

With the film’s release still months away, James Gunn is slowly releasing new footage from his Suicide Squad reboot-but-not. With one major trailer and one TV spot already released in the last week, Gunn revealed a second TV spot on Twitter with a few yet-unseen clips.

While the TV spot re-uses some (admittedly fantastic) clips from the full trailer, such as King Shark straight up eating a man, it also features some new footage. If you watch closely, you can catch a clip of Captain Boomerang throwing a neon-glowing boomerang, a close-up of Harley Quinn biting into an apple in the rain, and a brief clip of Idris Elba’s Bloodsport brandishing a very sci-fi looking weapon. Catch the whole thing below.

Where the full feature trailer really highlighted the comedy baked into Gunn’s take on the Suicide Squad, the new TV spot looks to be more about the action–and there’s plenty of that to go around. Like the full trailer, the TV spot also features Steely Dan’s Dirty Work in the background, promising that the soundtrack on The Suicide Squad will be just as good as Gunn’s GoTG movies.

The Suicide Squad is due to release on August 6 this year in theatres and on HBO Max. In the meantime, Gunn’s comments about killing off characters have given fans plenty of time to speculate about who will survive to the end of the film. The movie’s place in the DC cinematic canon is already a little murky given its relationship to the earlier Suicide Squad–though given how poorly that one was received, it wouldn’t be surprising if Warner decided to go ahead with a new canon.

Earlier in March, Microsoft started testing its updated Chromium-powered Edge browser for the Xbox Series X, giving access to users in the Alpha Skip Ahead group, as reported by The Verge. Now, one tester with access to the upgraded browser has shown the console running both Discord and Google Stadia.

According to The Verge editor Tom Warren who posted the short videos on Twitter, the browser is still a bit buggy in its beta iteration. Discord, for example, won’t allow mic input for users going through the Series X’s browser, but everything else works as expected.

Warren also posted a short clip of Google Stadia running through the console’s browser, which included him firing up Destiny 2. While the clip doesn’t show the game actually running, it seemed to load up fine on the Series X.

While playing games in Stadia through a browser on a console may seem like a roundabout way to access them, Stadia has some exclusives that the Xbox doesn’t, and having access to both will save gamers from having to re-buy the same game on different platforms.

Microsoft hasn’t revealed when the new browser will be getting a wider release on the Xbox Series X, but gamers who are part of the Alpha Skip Ahead testing group can go ahead and have a play with it now.

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Warner Bros. has delayed its upcoming video game adaptation Mortal Kombat, the studio has confirmed to GameSpot. The news was first reported by Variety. You won’t have to wait long, though, as the date has only been pushed back by a week.

Originally set to premiere in theaters and on HBO Max on April 16, Mortal Kombat will now premiere on April 23. Warner Bros.’ blockbuster VFX extravaganza Godzilla vs Kong releases tomorrow, so it seems like the studio is looking to space out its releases just a little bit more.

Further, Variety notes, Warner Bros. is crossing its corporate fingers that capacity restrictions on movie theaters will begin to relax across the country as more and more people receive vaccinations. At this stage, even a week could mean millions in ticket sales as more people are allowed into theaters at a time.

With Mortal Kombat now an extra week away, that gives us extra time to scour trailers for every single Easter egg. We have a list of every Mortal Kombat character to make the jump from game to film, too. You might notice Johnny Cage missing from that list, and there’s a good reason for that, the director says. Despite that, Mortal Kombat won’t deviate far from the games.