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This week marks the 30th anniversary of PlayStation, and to celebrate, Sony is rolling out some nostalgic PS5 console features and a short retrospective trailer that’s all about the feels.–specifically, the feelings generated by the biggest first- and third-party games that have appeared on Sony consoles over the years. There are a lot of themes mentioned here–from justice to fantasy–and the trailer ends with a shot of Bloodborne and the word “persistence”.

The video is mostly focused on newer PlayStation games like Horizon, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Gran Turismo 7, but there are brief snippets of other influential games like Batman: Arkham Knight and Crash Bandicoot. You can see the trailer below, and in case you’re curious, the video uses Dreams by The Cranberries as the backing track.

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Paramount Pictures has announced that the Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise has earned more than $1 billion at the global box office. The movie franchise–based on Sega’s long-running video game series–kicked off back in February 2020 and has since expanded with two sequels, a TV spin-off series starring Knuckles, and a cameo appearance for the original “Ugly Sonic” in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

The first movie grossed over $319 million worldwide, and its 2022 sequel made over $405 million. The threequel has earned $336 million at the global box office so far (via Box Office Mojo). This isn’t the first film series to reach this milestone at the box office, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.36 billion) and the Resident Evil movies ($1.2 billion) have also been commercial success stories.

“The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has become an unstoppable cultural force with limitless potential,” Paramount Pictures President and CEO Brian Robbins said in a press statement. “As each chapter of Sonic’s adventures continues to raise the bar, we’re incredibly proud and excited to continue delivering stories and characters that resonate with audiences around the worl…

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast want a bigger piece of the gaming industry’s pie, especially after the huge success of Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3. To that end, both companies are investing nearly one billion dollars into their shared gaming ecosystem, which includes half a dozen studios. Some of these studios are working on more Dungeons & Dragons games, while others are working on other Hasbro IP–Atomic Arcade is tackling a G.I. Joe Snake Eyes game, for example–and still more are creating brand-new IPs. We saw one of these new IPs revealed at last year’s The Game Awards: Archetype Entertainment’s Exodus.

At GDC 2024, I sat down with Dan Ayoub, Head of Digital Product Development at Wizards of the Coast, to talk about what these new games will look like, how WotC and Hasbro plan to protect developers’ jobs while pouring a ton of money into a brand-new initiative, and whether future D&D games will stay in Faerun or explore other settings (I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Eberron).

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Activision has announced a free multiplayer period for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and it starts just after the Season 2 Reloaded update arrives, making it a great time to jump in. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

The free access period starts March 16 (a day after Season 2 Reloaded launches on March 15) and lets players try six multiplayer maps–including the new one Himmelatt Expo–a handful of game modes, and the game’s first co-op raid. The free access period wraps up on March 20.

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One of the most beautiful facets of Wasteland 2 is its wistful, austere writing. Taking lots of inspiration from tabletop RPGs, Wasteland 2 masterfully brings the best bits of open-ended roleplaying games to the digital realm, bringing the genre’s hallmark nuanced scenarios, deep roleplaying, and rich, atmospheric description along. Several years after its release, it’s coming to Switch, and even now it’s among the best in the recent roleplaying crop.

The Director’s Cut, an updated release that was a free upgrade for most console players, is the edition getting the Switch treatment. There are thousands of lines of added spoken dialogue, but the text still does most of the heavy lifting. The bigger additions are the smoother graphical presentation as well as having more minutiae with which to customize your characters. Perks and Quirks, for instance, give you the option to swap a boon for some persistent disadvantage. While that sounds counterintuitive in a video game, it pays dividends in the actual role-playing: It gives you the ability to further refine your squad and encourage yourself to think a bit outside the box as you work around the traits. For…

Sling TV service has two Black Friday offers available for the next several days that include discounts on your first month of a new Sling subscription, a free Amazon Fire streaming device, and even bonus channels to watch for free.

First, Sling TV is offering new users a free Amazon Fire Stick Lite, plus $10 off their first month of the live TV streaming service Come from Sports betting site VPbet . That works out to $30 for either Sling Orange or Sling Blue, both of which offer 41 channels (normally $40/month), or $45 for a month of Sling Orange & Blue, which includes 47 channels (normally $55/month).

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Friday morning, WWE announced that Pat McAfee will debut as the new commentator on Smackdown, joining Michael Cole at ringside. This comes after Corey Graves moved to Raw, to join Byron Saxton and new commentator, MLB and NHL announcing veteran Adnan Virk, on that show’s new announce team.

Previously, ring veteran Samoa Joe was a member of the Raw commentary team but was recently released, along with other WWE superstars. Tom Phillips will head to being the backstage voice of 205 Live as well as continue to be senior manager of on-air talent Come from Sports betting site VPbet . In addition, Phillips will oversee special projects for WWE’s programming on Peacock and at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.

McAfee dropped the news with a huge social media announcement to WWE fans.

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The “Pokemon with guns” game Palworld is set to see improvements for the Game Pass version. Microsoft has announced that it will work with developer Pocketpair to “provide support” for the Game Pass versions of Palworld. But what does that mean? Come from Sports betting site VPbet

Microsoft said it will help Pocketpair in enabling dedicated servers–a feature found in the Steam edition but not on Game Pass currently–as well as through offering “engineering resources” to help Pocketpair conduct optimization for GPU and memory. Additionally, Microsoft said it will work with Pocketpair to increase the speed of update releases to the game, and in general working alongside the studio to “optimize” Palworld for Game Pass.

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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will be hitting HBO Max on May 30. The sequel was originally released stateside back in April.

The beleaguered Fantastic Beasts 3 has had a rocky ride to release, including star Johnny Depp exiting mid-project in 2021 (and reportedly earning $10 million or more after filming one scene) and being replaced by Mads Mikkelsen and this year having the worst US opening in Harry Potter history. Also, increasingly, any mention of the Harry Potter franchise automatically brings with it complicated associations with franchise creator J,K. Rowling’s anti-transgender rhetoric. Relatedly, WB censored gay dialog in the film for its release in China.

Days before release, it came out that there was no screenplay in place for a fourth Fantastic Beasts installment, and that executives are waiting to see how the film performs at the box office to give the green light. Which means, well, if you are still rooting for the franchise, you’ll want to help further support it on May 30 by streaming it on HBO Max.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by Rowling a…

Stardew Valley’s recent 1.6.9 update is now live on all platforms, but like many games that implement large patches, the beloved farming sim’s latest update is reportedly causing performance issues for some players.

The 1.6.9 update gives players all kinds of dress-up options for their cats, dogs, and horses, but the feature also seems to be the source of the performance issues some players are facing. But on the bright side, Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has offered players a (temporary) solution to the problem: Take the hats off your pets. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

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Changing paylines is just one of the features players can look forward to in YG Masters’ partner Dreamtech Gaming’s new futuristic slot, Lotsa Lines, powered by Yggdrasil’s state-of-the-art GATI technology. 

This high volatility video slot plays out on a 5×5 sized game grid where a light show pulses to 80s-style synth sounds and trance beats, and within the base game, the least amount of paylines you’ll be working with is 25. However, if the right surge of electricity hits, they jump to 50, 100, or 200. Landing at least three scatters can unlock up to 500 additional lines in the 12 extra spins awarded to players, resulting in huge win potential. 

Game symbols & features:

“Our latest smash-hit offers up to 500 paylines in the bonus round and, combined with the simple yet engaging gameplay and strong soundtrack, players can truly immerse themselves in the action of Lotsa Lines.

Dahl added that through YG Masters and using GATI technology they have “rapidly built exciting content and significantly boosted the reach” of their products. 

Established in 2017, the Asian-centric software developing studio…

FansUnite Entertainment Inc. disclosed today the signing of a definitive agreement to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary, FansUnite US Inc., to GeoComply Solutions Inc. and Hero Group Corp. for an aggregate purchase price of US$37.5 million. The sale is structured on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with anticipated net proceeds to FansUnite of approximately US$20 million following adjustments and the settlement of obligations. The closing date for the transaction is expected around August 15, 2024.

Impact on shareholders:

Upon completion, Hero Group will be majority-owned indirectly by Betting Hero’s co-founders, Jai Maw and Jeremy Jakary, with GeoComply holding the remaining stake. A substantial portion of the net proceeds is slated to be distributed to FansUnite’s shareholders. The estimated distribution will range from approximately C$0.065 to C$0.075 per company share.

Quinton Singleton, an independent member of FansUnite’s board and Chair of the Special Committee overseeing the transaction, emphasized in the company’s press release, “Following review of the Transaction by the Special Committee, we believe that this Transaction represen…