Game of Thrones Ratings: S8, E5 Is Most Watched Episode Ever
Game of Thrones' penultimate episode, "The Bells," set a new record for the series across all HBO platforms (linear, HBO GO, and HBO NOW) with 18.4 million viewers this past Sunday.
"The Bells" surpassed "The Long Night," the episode that aired a couple weeks ago and featured the much-anticipated Battle of Winterfell, which held the previous series high of 17.8 million viewers.
Furthermore, "The Bells'" 9:00pm airing reached a time-period high for Game of Thrones with 12.5 million viewers, exceeding the 12.1 million viewers that the season seven finale earned in 2017.
Star Wars Movie From Game of Thrones Creators Is Next in Line
Disney has revealed that the next Star Wars film to be released after the Skywalker Saga concludes will be from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Talking on an investor call earlier today, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the next film will be the mystery project written Benioff and Weiss. It will release in 2022, meaning a three year gap for the series that has seen annual releases since 2015’s The Force Awakens.
“We’re hard at work already,” Igor said
“But we felt three years was the proper amount of time to not only take a breather and reset, but to gear up for the next film’s release.”
From the launch of the new film, the schedule will be a pre-Christmas weekend release every other year, putting the first three releases at December 2022, 2024, and 2026. It is unclear if Disney will alternate between two concurrent Star Wars projects as they have with the current trilogy, or if all three of the upcoming films are part of a single story.
SteamWorld Quest Coming to PC This Month
SteamWorld Quest is getting a PC release on Steam later this month.
Image & Form’s latest game in the SteamWorld series will be released on Steam on May 31, just five weeks after its Nintendo Switch exclusive launch back on April 25.
The PC release will support Windows, macOS, and Linux, so all Steam users will be accounted for.
No further platforms have been announced, but previous SteamWorld games have been available on PlayStation consoles, too, so a PC launch may eventually lead to a wider release later on down the line.
Our SteamWorld Quest review offers glowing praise for the card-based RPG, noting the amount of choice and flexibility its systems offer. As such, it's one of the best Switch games you can pick up right now, and should be just as good on PC later this month.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Has an Online Social Hub
Welcome to start of our IGN First for the month of May, all about Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint! Over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you exclusive inside peeks at this survival-focused follow-up to Ghost Recon Wildlands. Up first, we’ve got details about a part of Breakpoint that hasn’t been revealed yet: the hideout.
Called Erewhon, this village in a hidden cave on the main island of the Auroa archipelago is the shelter of a group called the Homesteaders. This multipurpose hideout acts as your central hub for story progression, a place to evaluate your objectives around Auroa, and even an online social hub where you can coordinate and meet up with other players for co-op and PvP.
Batman: Hush – Exclusive Movie Trailer Debut
IGN has the exclusive first trailer for Batman: Hush, the next feature-length DC Universe Original Movie from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. You can watch it in the player above or embedded below.
Coming to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital later this summer, Batman: Hush is inspired by the acclaimed 2002-2003 storyline written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams, and colored by Alex Sinclair.
Batman: Hush centers on a mysterious new villain known only as Hush, who uses a rogues' gallery of villains to destroy Batman’s crime-fighting career as well as Bruce Wayne’s personal life, which has been further complicated by a relationship with Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
Disney Has Acquired Hulu
Disney has reached a deal with Comcast that will give the company majority control of Hulu for $5.8 billion.
Per Variety, Comcast's NBCUniversal will keep licensing content to Hulu through 2024, while retaining a 33% stake in the streaming provider. Over the next five years, NBCUniversal has the right to either cancel some of its existing content or offer it "on a nonexclusive basis for a reduced licensing fee." Disney can buy out NBCUniversal's remaining 33% share in 2024 for an evaluation price of $27.5 billion.
Bob Iger, Disney's chairman, and CEO said, "We are now able to completely integrate Hulu into our direct-to-consumer business and leverage the full power of The Walt Disney Company’s brands and creative engines to make the service even more compelling and a greater value for consumers."
World of Warcraft Classic Release Date Announced
Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft Classic will be released for PC and Mac on August 27, 2019, and that a collector's edition with a statue of Ragnaros will be released that celebrates WoW's 15-year anniversary.
On August 27, players will be able to return to Azeroth as it was during the Drums of War update (patch 1.12) and all will have the honor of once again being able to "assemble a 40-player raid to take on the fiery hazards of Molten Core; fight for their faction in the ongoing world PvP struggle between Southshore and Tarren Mill; muster a realm-wide war effort to open the gates of Ahn’Qiraj; and much more."
Following its release, WoW Classic will receive updates over multiple phases that will be released in a similar fashion to the original's order and all of this and more will be included with existing World of Warcraft subscriptions at no additional cost.
World of Warcraft Classic Is More Than Just Nostalgia
World of Warcraft Classic is launching on August 27th for anyone with a WoW subscription and closed beta testing begins for a select few on May 15th. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a prefabricated level 40 character at a preview event in Irvine, California. The ensuing hours of laughter and high jinks reassured me that WoW Classic has much more to offer than just nostalgia.
WoW Classic is a faithful recreation of the illustrious MMO as it existed in patch 1.12 circa 2006. There are a few modern amenities like a somewhat enhanced suite of graphics options, modern server architecture, and access to Battle.net social features but otherwise what’s here is as true as possible to the more-than-decade-old source material.
Super Mario Maker 2 Nintendo Direct Announced
Nintendo has announced a "roughly 15-minute" Super Mario Maker 2 Nintendo Direct for tomorrow, May 15, at 3pm PT/6pm ET/11pm BST.
No further information was given besides the announcement on Twitter, but with Super Mario Maker 2 releasing on June 28, we will undoubtedly know a lot more about the sequel to 2015's Super Mario Maker for the Wii U very soon.
Game of Thrones: George R.R. Martin Debunks ‘Absurd’ Book Rumor
George R.R. Martin has shot down a suggestion that he has completed the final two books in the Song of Ice and Fire saga and has been withholding them until HBO’s Game of Thrones concludes.
According to Entertainment Weekly, several media reports have quoted actor Ian McElhinney, who played Ser Berristan Selmy in Game of Thrones up until season 5 in 2015, talking at a fan convention about the as-yet-unreleased books. “George has already written Books 6 and 7, and as far as he’s concerned there only are seven books,” he allegedly said. “But he struck an agreement with David and Dan, the showrunners on the series, that he would not publish the final two books until the series has completed.”