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Gaming giant Electronic Arts reported earnings for its holiday quarter today, and the company performed ahead of expectations. In particular, revenue from EA’s microtransaction bucket–called Live Services–reached nearly $1 billion. Another highlight was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which performed above expectations.

As you can see in the chart below, EA made $993 million from live services during the quarter ended December 31. For the trailing 12 months, EA made $2.835 billion from microtransactions.

EA made a total of $1.593 billion in revenue for the quarter and $361 million in profit, so as you can see, microtransactions are very big business for EA. A major part of EA’s microtransaction revenue comes from the Ultimate Team modes for EA’s sports games, including FIFA, Madden, and NHL.

The publisher also said Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order performed significantly above expectations. EA was modelling sales of 6-8 million copies, but now the company is expecting sales to reach 10 million copies during the current fiscal year ending March 31.

Additionally, EA said Star Wars: Battlefront II performed above expectations as well due in part to the renewed interest in Star Wars overall thanks to The Rise of Skywalker and more.

Moving to a different title, EA said Apex Legends saw higher player engagement during Season 3 than in Season 2, and EA will be looking to build on that momentum for the upcoming Season 4. The company also teased that Respawn will bring Apex Legends to at least one new platform during the year. It’s already confirmed for mobile, but a Nintendo Switch version seems unlikely.

Also during the earnings call, EA re-confirmed its plans to launch a new Battlefield game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The company is planning additional releases as well, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said. “We’ll be ready to lead with some of our top titles,” he said.

The EA earnings call is ongoing, so keep checking back for more…

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In the southwesternmost corner of the overworld map sits a building that houses a slot machine. You’ve seen this sort of mild gambling den in any Zelda game; pull the lever, match three heart pieces and you win. Here, though, row upon row of slots are being played, their skeletal victims under permanent house arrest by the one-armed bandits. The building is, in fact, a bank. Betting on the slots requires you to purchase shares in various enterprises, all of which are owned by the bank that is manipulating the odds; the financial system is a casino and the capitalist always wins. This isn’t your typical Zelda clone.

Lenna’s Inception is a top-down action-adventure that is–ahem–very heavily inspired by the Legend of Zelda. Mechanically it is extremely similar to Link’s early adventures, but thematically and through a couple of mechanical surprises it finds its own voice. The result is a playful and inventive homage to a classic series of games that manages to distinguish itself from its inspirations.

The setup immediately departs from Zelda tradition, with schoolteacher Lenna roped into saving the world after the prophesied hero–and clear Link analogue–succumbs to an unexpected demise in the tutorial dungeon. Elsewhere, an evil banker has imprisoned the prince of the land, archangels are signalling the end times, glitched-out pixels are spreading across the world, and somewhere a mysterious fridge is on the blink. This is weird Millennial Zelda, touched by creepypasta yet restrained enough to not go full internet meme.

My opening paragraph was a little misleading. In my game the bank was to be found in the southwest corner, but in your game–or indeed my subsequent games–it may not be. Lenna’s Inception generates its maps procedurally, shuffling the contents of its world to ensure a new route through the quest each time you start a new game and to allow players to share “seeds” of maps they particularly enjoyed. There’s a daily challenge seed, too, further encouraging the sense of a shared experience.

Experiments with the map generation revealed that it’s not just the overworld being reconfigured. All but one of the dungeons you enter are unique to your playthrough, from the overall layout to the design of individual rooms, from the critical-path boss dungeons to the small secret lairs you might find hidden away behind a bush or a rock. Further still, the key items you collect along the way are shuffled to the extent that one playthrough might hand you the bomb item immediately while the next might make you wait for it until near the very end.

In itself this doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on the quality of the level design, though in general the suspicion is always that a compromise must have been made somewhere, that a procedural level could never be as good as one that was hand-crafted. The trade-off seems acceptable here: We forgo one painstakingly intricate design for the prospect of near-endless hopefully good variations. Certainly the overworld I played through (seed “ystreath” if you want to try it yourself) felt consistent and well-designed–no jarring sections that felt obviously untouched by a human hand. It had a mazelike quality that demanded exploration and was crammed with teases of just-out-of-reach areas I’d have to note to return to later and that in any other non-procedural game I’d credit to smart design.

Dungeon design is mostly solid, with an emphasis on having the right item to allow you to bypass obstacles and finding the various coloured keys to open their respective doors. Save for the final dungeon, they all lack the light puzzle elements you would find in a typical Zelda dungeon, and are poorer for it. The last dungeon, however, takes full advantage of the environment-altering ability of a late-game item to push puzzle design to the fore. Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s the only hand-crafted dungeon in the game. Where the procedural generation truly detracts is in the little side dungeons that throw you into a handful of random rooms, lock the doors until you’ve killed all the monsters, and then reward you with a health or weapon upgrade. They’re not terrible in isolation, but they are all essentially the same and wear out their welcome long before you’ve acquired all the pick-ups they house.

As you find new items–such as a spring that enables you to bounce over gaps or a cigarette lighter that lets you melt ice–you can unlock new regions of the map or return to previous areas to find secrets in classic Zelda fashion, a facet of the genre that is as inherently compelling here as it so often is, even if the execution is slightly off. The random order in which items are acquired does have a tendency to flatten out the experience. Some items have multiple uses, lending a degree of redundancy that diminishes the impact of obtaining a new piece of gear. Still, it’s rewarding to nab a new ability and start mulling over all the possibilities, the new places you can now explore. It’s a high that never diminishes.

Perhaps as a consequence of the non-linear item progression, fighting regular enemies doesn’t require you to use items other than your sword. They can be damaged by several of your items–the lighter sets things on fire and does useful damage over time while the bow, hammer, axe and bombs can all be effective–but there isn’t a single enemy that, for example, must be staggered with the hammer before taking damage from your sword. With little variation it’s sufficient to mash the attack button in order to survive any non-boss encounter.

Bosses themselves are smartly designed even if they hew closely to the Zelda archetype. The rule of threes applies here, as each boss requires you to perform the same set of steps three times in order to beat it. And each one demands the use of a certain ability you’ve picked up, though the precise execution tends to not be telegraphed. Quite a few of the bosses had me puzzling things out for several attempts before the eureka moment hit and I knew exactly what I had to do. Fortunately in such instances, death isn’t a hassle and you find yourself respawning in the chamber before the boss room.

The procedural aspects of Lenna’s Inception lay a solid foundation upon which to build. On top you’ll find a handful of NPC quests to follow, some of which test your lateral thinking as you chuckle along with the mischievous sense of humour of the writing. Moments of oddness abound. I found what the game described as a “urine potion” before cheerfully informing me that I would have to drink it to discover what effect it had. My first follower companion was a chicken that would relentlessly peck enemies to death. My last was a librarian who could hurl books with pinpoint accuracy. At one point I donned a growth tunic and ran around as a giant Lenna until she couldn’t fit through the door to escape the dungeon. Surprises like these are scattered throughout the entire game and are never less than a joy to discover. There’s even an option to play the entire game with either 8-bit or 32-bit graphics.

Lenna’s Inception is a lighthearted Zelda-style adventure fuelled by levity and a taste for the bizarre. At its heart, though, it’s a testament to the powers of procedural generation. On balance it gains more than it loses, delivering an endlessly rearrangeable, replayable quest that suffers only slightly from the lack of a guiding human touch.

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Now that the trailer dropped for Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge–the upcoming animated movie from Warner Bros.–everyone is wondering exactly when the movie will be releasing. Sadly, it’s a bit of a ways away, as the straight-to-video home release isn’t out until this April.

While it will be a bit of a wait until Scorpion’s Revenge releases digitally on April 12 on Movies Anywhere and on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 28, the details for the upcoming home release are out. Both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray versions of the movie will come with digital copies as well, as long as you don’t mind waiting a week to see the movie.

From the looks of the trailer, the movie will tell the origin story of Scorpion, who was once Hanzo Hasashi, a man murdered by Sub-Zero who comes back to life for revenge, like the title suggests. However, the official synopsis for the movie is a bit more broad: “Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge spotlights the once-in-a-generation tournament between the champions of Outworld and Earthrealm–a competition that will ultimately determine the fate of Earth and all its citizens. Lord Raiden, protector of Earthrealm, must gather the greatest fighters of his realm to defend it from the evil Shang Tsung in the battle to end all battles–Mortal Kombat!”

The press release for Scorpion’s Revenge has an MSRP listing of $40 for the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, $25 for the Blu-ray Combo Pack, $20 for the DVD, and $20 for the digital purchase. As mentioned, the 4K and Blu-ray Combo Packs also come with digital copies of the movie. At this time, you cannot pre-order the movie.

Below, you’ll find the special features for Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, everything listed below is available on the 4K UHD Combo Pack, the Blu-ray Combo Pack, and for the digital versions.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge Special Features:

• From Epic Game to Extreme Animation – Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon and the filmmakers reveal the creative process behind adapting the best-selling game to an all-new animated film.
• The Weapons, Wardrobe and World of Mortal Kombat Legends – The artists reveal the design challenges of animating the world of Mortal Kombat, from authentic armor to wildly imaginative weapons and fantasy settings.
• The Savage Sound Design of Mortal Kombat Legends – This hard-hitting audio exploration reveals the art of designing the sonic language of the fight scenes.
• Mortal Kombatants – Dive deep inside the cast of characters to reveal their unique abilities, signature moves and backstories.
• Filmmaker Commentary – Producer Rick Morales and screenwriter Jeremy Adams sit down for an insightful audio commentary that reveals the process of creating a compelling animated film based on one of today’s most popular fighting games.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge arrives digitally on April 12 and to 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 28.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

The second episode of Star Trek: Picard, “Maps and Legends,” spends quite a bit of time on the decommissioned Borg Cube we saw briefly teased at the end of Episode 1, “Remembrance.” Two episodes in, we’ve learned a lot more about the location–it’s a Cube that’s only partially active, cut off from the Borg Collective, and being studied and worked on by the Romulan Free State, the government of what’s left of the Romulan people.

The people aboard the Cube refer to it as the Artifact, and they both live and work there. Parts of the Artifact are safe, but some are still actively Borg, and it sounds like it’s possible to be attacked and even assimilated into the Borg Collective in certain areas of the Cube, if you’re not careful.

We don’t get much information about exactly what the Romulans are up to on the Artifact, though. Soji mentions the idea that part of the operation is salvaging the Cube and selling what it yields. We also see Soji’s work on the Cube with former Borg drones; the Romulans refer to them as “The Nameless,” and in Episode 2, “Maps and Legends,” we see Romulan doctors removing the former drones’ Borg implants. Soji tells one such drone that they’re now free, so it seems part of the operation on the Artifact is to save drones from the Borg Collective, perhaps to reintegrate them into society.

Still, even though we’ve seen Soji and others seemingly helping drones and other workers hanging around on the Artifact, we don’t know what the goal of the work on the Borg Cube actually is. This is the Romulans, after all–the secretive, arrogant, militaristic race that had been in various stages of conflict with the Federation for years. Even though the Romulan Star Empire is gone, thanks to the destruction of Romulus 14 years before Star Trek: Picard begins, it seems unlikely that the new Romulan Free State is just using the Borg Cube to make some cash from salvage, or to make some scientific discoveries.

That viewpoint is bolstered by the fact that Laris explains the Romulans have an aversion to artificial intelligence when she’s telling Jean-Luc about the Zhat Vash. If the Romulans aren’t fans of synthetic lifeforms, they’re definitely going to have some general qualms about the Borg, a race that assimilates other cultures by forcing them to become partially cybernetic. Those feelings might help drive the Romulans to want to free Borg drones from the Collective, like we see in Episode 2, but it seems more likely that they wouldn’t want anything to do with a Borg Cube–unless there was some advantage in it.

So what could they be doing? The Borg are a formidable foe thanks to their technology, and they came close to destroying the Federation on more than one occasion. Borg Drones and ships capable of adapting to phaser fire so that it can’t harm them, for instance. The Romulans might be hoping to salvage some of that tech in order to bolster their own military capabilities and again become a power in the quadrant. Borg technology could offer a lot of serious advantages to the Romulans, especially if they’re still hoping to take on the Federation; the Borg were probably the adversary who came closest to defeating the Federation.

And in Episode 2, we know that the destruction of Romulus didn’t wipe out all the old vestiges of militaristic Romulan society. The Tal Shiar, the Romulan Empire’s secretive and powerful intelligence agency, still exists and is even operating on Earth. Romulan spies working with the Zhat Vash have infiltrated Starfleet. The Romulans are still formidable, even in their current state and lacking a homeworld. And it seems likely that a lot of Romulans blame the Federation for abandoning them when their planet was destroyed–and are eager for revenge.

The fact is, right now, we just don’t know what the Romulans want or what they might be hoping to gain from the Artifact. We know that two former Borg drones from other Star Trek series, Hugh from The Next Generation and Seven of Nine from Voyager, are going to appear on Picard at some point in the future. Given the other elements of artificial life that have been a big part of the story up to now–android clones of Data’s technology in Soji and Dahj, the attack on Mars by synthetics, and now the salvage operation on the Artifact–we can expect the Borg to play a big role of some kind as Star Trek: Picard goes forward.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

Warning: Spoilers! During episodes of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman, each of the CW/DC shows pitted its heroes against the Anti-Monitor–an evil being trying to destroy the multiverse. And because this massive event contained every hero–and some villains–from CW’s Arrowverse, of course there will be some Easter eggs and references to other DC properties from movies to forgotten TV shows to comic books.

In our video of the best Easter eggs from Crisis on Infinite Earths, there are references to Batman 66, Batman 89, Superman II, Batman: The Animated Series, Lucifer, Smallville, Constantine, the Justice League movie, Green Lantern, Super Friends, Kingdom Come, Birds of Prey, and more. You can also check out the full list of 63 Crisis on Infinite Earths Easter Eggs here, and read about how the Crisis on Infinite Earths finale completely changes DC’s Arrowverse for the better.