HBO has released a trailer for Lovecraft Country, the new series from Misha Green (Underground). The trailer shows the show’s main character, Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors, a story-loving young man who goes looking for his “birthright”–a seemingly haunted house in Lovecraft Country.
The show, which is set in Jim Crow-era 1950s America, is executive produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out).
The trailer below shows off the spooky tone of the show, as well as its stellar cast, which includes Abbey Lee, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Courtney B. Vance, Michael K. Williams, and Wunmi Mosaku. This is the show’s second trailer–here’s the first.
It also shows that the show will mix imagined demons with realistic portrayals of racism and police violence. You can watch the full trailer below.
The show is scheduled to debut in August, although an exact date has not been set. It’s definitely on our to-watch list.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga doesn’t have a specific release date (though there’s been some confusion on the subject), but it will be available sometime this year for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The game is already available for preorder at number of retailers, and it comes with a bonus at one of them. Read on for the goods.
No universal preorder bonuses come with the game, but if you purchase it at Best Buy, you’ll get an exclusive steelbook case for free. It’s designed to look like a LEGO Han Solo encased in carbonite, which it pretty neat.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the biggest game yet in the sub-series. It lets you play through the stories of all nine main films, with overhauled levels from the previous games. You don’t have to play them in order, either. The whole thing is laid out in an open-world format, and you can hop around from planet to planet at will, dropping into whatever scene you feel like playing from any of the films.
You take control of characters like Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rey and Finn, as well as villains like Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. Combat has been upgraded with a combo system, as well as enemy health bars replacing the old one-hit-kill fights.
Since LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the last game in the series, The Skywalker Saga represents the first time The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker have appeared in playable LEGO format. Check out our LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga preview for more details.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is one of the highest-paid executives not only in video games, but across the entire entertainment media industry. He made more than $30 million in 2019. One of the company’s shareholders, The CtW Investment Group, is now calling on other stakeholders to vote against a measure that gives the company freedom to pay Kotick high rates.
In a filing with the United States government, The CtW Investment Groups’ director Dieter Waizenegger called on other stakeholders to vote against the “Say-On-Pay” proposal during Activision Blizzard’s upcoming annual meeting scheduled for June 11, 2020.
“Despite repeated low approval votes from shareholders, Activision Blizzard maintains multiple, overlapping opportunities for its CEO to earn outsize equity awards, even when performance-related vesting thresholds have not been met,” the note says. “Despite failing to disclose pertinent information on performance targets for its Short Term Incentive Plan, Activision Blizzard’s proxy statement reveals significant human capital management challenges.”
Waizenegger said in his statement that Activision Blizzard continually finds “multiple ways to unnecessarily enrich its CEO.” The statement mentions that Kotick has received $20 million USD each year over the past four years for stock/option equity alone, before his base salary.
Kotick’s stock/option pay alone is “consistently” larger than the total pay–combining base salary, bonuses, and equity–of Kotick’s CEO counterparts in the games publishing business, Waizenegger said. He added that this level of pay would raise concerns in most circumstances, but it’s especially controversial now after Activision Blizzard laid off more than 800 people in 2019 despite record performance for the company.
“Specifically, over the past four years, Kotick has received $96.5 million cumulatively in combined stock/option awards alone,” he said. “In just 2019, he received over $28 million in combined equity, primarily consisting of options (over $20 million) that are substantially ‘in the money.’ While equity grants that exceed the total pay of peer companies would be objectionable in most circumstances, it is of special concern in this case because Activision Blizzard employees face job insecurity following layoffs of 800 employees in 2019, and typically earn less than 1/3 of 1% of the CEO’s earnings, with some employees, such as Junior Developers, making less than $40,000 a year while living in high-cost areas such as southern California.”
Kotick also has a remuneration deal with Activision Blizzard–the “Shareholder Value Creation Incentive”–that pays him more more when Activision’s stock price does exceptionally well. Increasing stock price is a “laudable goal,” but the compensation level is out of whack, Waizenegger said.
Also in the statement, Waizenegger said Kotick’s “Transformative Transaction” payment scheme is also problematic. This pays Kotick more money when Activision Blizzard’s total market capitalization is increased for a sustained period of time.
“Such incentives should be unnecessary: executives are already well compensated in the event of a merger or other strategic transaction without additional incentives because they typically hold large amounts of vested equity,” Waizenegger said. “Moreover, it is one of the CEO’s core responsibilities to pursue transactions that would be favorable and in the best interest of the company. There is no justification for providing an executive with additional incentives to pursue a merger or similar strategic transaction when that executive has already accumulated substantial holdings through equity grants.”
Waizenegger went on to say that Activision Blizzard’s total annual cash incentive plan is “problematic.” That’s because, he argues, Activision Blizzard has failed to fully disclose the specific strategic objectives that Kotick needs to achieve to claim the bonuses.
“Disclosure surrounding the strategic objectives portion is severely lacking and merely cites ‘attracting, retaining, and motivating top talent; cultivating new business opportunities and expanding existing ones; delivering production and development milestones; and increasing productivity,'” Waizenegger said. “We note that three of these objectives are clearly related to human capital management, and that Kotick’s apparent failure to achieve more than half of the targeted performance strongly suggests that Activision Blizzard’s skewed approach to human capital management–lavishing multi-million dollar rewards on the CEO as employees face layoffs–needs to be addressed before it manifests in deeper operational problems.”
Activision Blizzard’s shareholder meeting is scheduled for June 11, 2020. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Activision Blizzard will conduct the meeting virtually.
GameSpot has contacted Activision Blizzard in an attempt to get more information about The CtW Investment Group’s statement.
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Wasteland 3‘s third dev diary is here, and it’s focused in on the consequences of player choice. The video below delves into how player choices will impact the world of Wasteland 3, and what kind of role-playing is possible.
InXile Entertainment studio head Brian Fargo says that reactivity is “the hallmark of a great roleplaying game,” and that a lot of work has been put into making sure that the reactions of the word are “telegraphed”–so you know that events that play out are a direct result of your actions, minor and major.
An example is shown of a scene where you can steal a gun from a poor couple–the gun is going unused, as it has sentimental value to them, but it could be very useful to the player. As Fargo points out, “most players won’t do it”–but the option is there, if you don’t mind being evil in-game.
You can shoot anyone you want throughout the game, and Fargo talks about the challenges of making sure that they can still tell a cohesive story while allowing for this. It involves writing a lot of content that “most players won’t see,” but he says it’s worth it knowing that the world really reacts to the player’s actions.
The previous two Wasteland 3 dev diaries focused on character creation and plot, and they’re both worth a watch if you’re interested in the game. The game’s development has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a slight delay.
Wasteland 3 releases August 28 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
Marvel Studios won’t have to wait much longer until Daredevil can rejoin the MCU. Via Screen Rant, the fan campaign known as Save Daredevil has calculated that only six months remain until the rights to Daredevil transfer from Netflix back to Marvel.
Due to the nature of the contract between Netflix and Marvel, the latter isn’t able to use characters like Daredevil, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones until two years after the cancellation of their respective shows. Netflix canceled Daredevil in late November 2018, meaning Marvel will regain the rights to the character in November 2020.
As Screen Rant points out, Marvel will have also reacquired the rights to Luke Cage and Iron Fist at that point, as both shows were canceled in October 2018. The rights to Jessica Jones and The Punisher will follow in February 2021, with Netflix having canceled its final two Marvel series in February 2019. In less than a year, all five franchises will be back in the Marvel fold.
The question now is when and how Marvel intends to utilize these characters. Will they continue the canceled Netflix shows on a Disney-owned streaming service like Hulu or Disney+? Or will they recast the roles and reboot this particular corner of the MCU? As it is, the connective tissue between the Netflix shows and the MCU movies was limited, to the point where we argued fans should stop pretending the two are connected at all.
Fans were briefly given hope that Daredevil star Charlie Cox might reprise the role in the upcoming third Spider-Man movie. Unfortunately, Cox shot down that rumor, telling ComicBook.com “I hadn’t heard those rumors, but it’s certainly not with my Daredevil. I’m not involved in it.”
Developer Slightly Mad is back in the driver’s seat after surprise announcing Project Cars 3, the next game in its popular racing simulator series. Project Cars became popular with racing aficionados thanks to the high level of detail in the first two Project Cars game.
However, with the new sim, Slightly Mad is working to expand beyond the sandbox with a fleshed-out career mode.
Speaking with GamesRadar, Project Cars 3 production director Pete Morrish says that alongside its highly customizable sandbox, which includes different cars, tracks, and weather conditions that can be mixed-and-matched, there’s also a new career mode designed to help more casual fans.
According to Morrish there’s “a whole metagame, and a whole career system to really support newcomers to the franchise, and those that are maybe further down the continuum towards more casual, more ‘pick up and play’ people, than the usual sim-head crowd.”
The career mode will allow new players to explore a progression system designed to introduce them to different skills, tracks, and cars, and rewards players equally for progressing. Regardless of whether a player sticks with a specific discipline, or tries to become a jack of all trades.
Alongside the new Career Mode, Project Cars 3 will bring back community events where players can compete in daily, weekly, and monthly challenges for additional bonuses and progression. “[Project Cars 3] wants you to get good. It wants you to enjoy racing and discover what we love about it. And that’s what we’re ultimately trying to share,” Morrish says.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the show has opted to find a new identity for Batwoman rather than recast Rose’s role of Kate Kane, a cousin of Bruce Wayne, following the circulation of a leaked casting call in a Batwoman Reddit forum.
Decider picked up on the since-deleted callout searching for an actor to portray the new character, identified in the listing as “Ryan Wilder” (though it is not clear whether this is a placeholder name), a woman in her mid-20s who “is about to become Batwoman.”
“She’s likeable, messy, a little goofy and untamed. She’s also nothing like Kate Kane, the woman who wore the batsuit before her,” the notice reads, per the outlet.
“With no one in her life to keep her on track, Ryan spent years as a drug-runner, dodging the GCPD and masking her pain with bad habits,” it continues. “A girl who would steal milk for an alley cat could also kill you with her bare hands, Ryan is the most dangerous type of fighter: highly skilled and wildly undisciplined. An out lesbian. Athletic. Raw. Passionate. Fallible. And very much not your stereotypical All-American hero.”
Rose has not confirmed the exact reason for her sudden exit from the series, though some reports have suggested that friction arose on set after Rose became unhappy with the long hours required for the lead role on the 20-episode season.
Our review of Batwoman’s first season finale was full of praise, so hopefully, the right person will be found in order to propel the show into a great second season.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
New details have been revealed about Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Expansion Pass, including the release date of the first content pack, the Isle of Armor, which will launch on June 17.
The Pokemon Company has revealed a new trailer for the entire Expansion Pass, giving us a better look at the new features coming to the game with the two DLC packs, The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra.
Aside from the release date, we were also introduced to two new Pokemon from the Regi family – Regieleki (electric-type) and Regidrago (dragon-type). We were also introduced to Galarian Slowbro, a poison/psychic type with a new move, Shell Side Arm, which is unique to this form. We also learned more about the Galarian forms of the original legendary birds that we were introduced to earlier this year: Galarian Articuno is psychic/flying, Galarian Zapdos is fighting/flying, and Galrian Moltres is dark/flying.
The Isle of Armor will bring Gigantimax forms of all three final evolution starter Pokemon – Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon, adding powerful new G-Max moves to their skillset. You can check out the new Gigantamax Forms in our Pokemon Sword and Shield Wiki. The Isle of Armor will also add in Pokemon that did not appear in the main game, such as Azurill and Chansey. A series of new Pokemon will also be brought to the game across the Expansion Pass, including new legendaries such as Kubfu, Urshifu and Calyrex.
You can check out a huge set of new screenshots from the Expansion Pass in the gallery below:
We’re still yet to learn about the release date for The Crown Tundra, the frosty second expansion pack which was revealed back in January.
The expansion pass marks a new step for the Pokemon franchise – which has previously preferred to release new versions of the same game, or semi-sequels. We think this is a very good next step. We awarded Pokemon Sword and Shield a 9.3 review, and since named it one of the best Nintendo Switch games.
Simon Pegg has shared an update on how the Mission: Impossible 7 team is aiming to get back into production by September, several months after filming was halted due to coronavirus (COVID-19).
Speaking to Variety, Pegg, who plays tech expert Benji Dunn in the franchise, confirmed that a September restart is currently “the plan” for the Christopher McQuarrie-directed movie. “That will begin with the outdoor stuff,” he revealed. “That feels fairly doable, and obviously there will be precautions put in place.”
Pegg noted that the large-scale shoot would likely present some challenges along the way, as he suggested that logistics would need to be figured out for shooting certain scenes, especially when the action moves indoors. He jokingly remarked that fight scenes would need to be shot “five feet apart.”
“People that are involved in any close proximity stuff, it will have to be determined that they’re safe to do that,” he explained to the outlet. “I don’t know what the testing situation is, how that works, or whether they’ll be able to be tested regularly.”
First assistant director Tommy Gormley further addressed the complexities of shooting the film’s “stunt scenes” and “crowd scenes” in a separate interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today show, though he also displayed confidence in the production picking up in September and running right the way through to April/May next year.
“This is our challenge,” he said. “We are not a chamber piece movie. We do spectacle, and that is what people expect of us. If we have the protocols in place and we break down all the procedures very carefully… we will get it going again.
“We hope to visit all the countries we planned to and look to do a big chunk of it back in the UK on the backlot and in the studio,” he added. “So September through to end April/May is our targets. We are convinced we can do this.”
Amid these shifts and delays in production, Paramount Pictures pushed back the release of Mission: Impossible 7 from July 23, 2021, to November 19, 2021. Mission: Impossible 8, previously scheduled for wide release on August 5, 2022, has also now been pushed to November 4, 2022.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
