Walking Dead Midseason Finale Ratings Are the Lowest Yet
The Walking Dead’s Season 9 mid-season finale was officially the lowest rated mid-season finale in series history.
Per Variety, Sunday’s “Evolution” episode netted 5.1 million viewers and a 2.0 Nielsen rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic. This is down from Season 8’s mid-season finale, which brought in 7.9 million viewers and a 3.4 rating: this marks a 35% decrease in total viewers, and 41% decrease in the demographic.
The highest mid-season finale ratings are held by the Season 5 episode, which brought in 14.8 million viewers, and earned a 7.6 rating.
Fortnite Surpasses 200 Million Players
Fortnite now has more than 200 million players, making it among the most-played games in the history of the medium.
The new statistic, which comes from Bloomberg, represents a 60 percent increase in players since Epic Games shared information back in June. The following month, Epic Games was valued at up to $8 billion, and a new investment deal made back in October valued the company at nearly twice that number.
Guacamelee! 2: New Character Skins and Challenge Level Enter the Fray
Guacamelee! 2 is available now on PlayStation 4 and PC, and is receiving two new DLC packs over the next couple of weeks featuring additional playable character skins as well as a new challenge level.
Revealed through the PlayStation Blog, Guacamelee! 2 will add the Three Enemigos character pack for $3 tomorrow, which gives you the chance to play as the bosses El Muñeco, Uay Pek, and Jaguar Javier instead of hero Juan. The characters are designed to change how you approach the game as a whole, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and come with additional trophies.
SpongeBob SquarePants Creator Stephen Hillenburg Dies
Creator of the ever-popular SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon series, Stephen Hillenburg, died on Monday at the age of 57, according to a tweet from Nickelodeon.
The cause of Hillenburg's death was ALS, which he announced he had been diagnosed with last year.
Nickelodeon released a statement about Hillenburg's passing, saying, "We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away following a battle with ALS."
December 2018 Games With Gold Features Dragon Age, Never Alone
Microsoft has revealed December 2018's Xbox Games With Gold.
Headlining the roster is BioWare’s 2011 fantasy RPG, Dragon Age 2. Also coming to Games With Gold next month is Never Alone, the side-scrolling adventure game from 2014 developed in partnership with the Alaskan native community. The other two games for December are the original Xbox's Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Xbox One's first-person puzzle game, Qube 2.
Here’s when each title will be available for Games With Gold subscribers next month:
- Qube 2: Dec. 1 - 31 (Xbox One)
- Dragon Age 2: Dec. 1 - 15 (Xbox 360, Xbox One via backward compatibility)
- Never Alone: Dec. 16 - Jan. 15 (Xbox One)
Netflix to Adapt Roald Dahl Books into Animated Event Series
Netflix will be creating multiple original animated event series based on the beloved works of Roald Dahl, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and The BFG.
Announced by Netflix and the Roald Dahl Story Company, these new series will "remain faithful to the quintessential spirit and tone of Dahl while also building out an imaginative story universe that expands far beyond the pages of the books themselves."
Netflix will adapt the Roald Dahl universe of stories as a new slate of animated event series. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and The BFG are just a few of the titles from the author's beloved and award-winning library that will be reimagined for a new generation pic.twitter.com/ODO6cjqja1
Nintendo Gets Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Pirates Banned from YouTube
Nintendo has responded to widespread Super Smash Bros. Ultimate piracy by issuing copyright strikes resulting in multiple YouTube takedowns and bans, according to reports from USGamer and Newsweek.
YouTube channels Dystifyzer and Crunchii were banned entirely from the platform after being hit with a number of copyright strikes by Nintendo. The channels had been spreading leaked tracks from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's soundtrack and reached YouTube's three-strike threshold that results in full terminations of channels and accounts associated with the strikes.
Fortnite Item Gifting Now Live for a Limited Time
Fortnite will be adding the long-requested option to send gifts to your friends with the release of the 6.31 update, but only for a limited time.
Announced by The Fortnite Team, item gifting will be available on all platforms for one week following the update, except for iOS devices because "Apple's policies prohibit it."
Sending a gift to a friend is as simple as choosing an item in the Item Shop and selecting "Buy As A Gift."
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame Announced for 2019
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame for PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC. It will arrive digitally and in stores on all platforms on Feb. 26, 2019, except for the Switch retail version which will follow on March 26, 2019.
"The alien monster invaders have left Bricksburg in ruins," reads the game's official description. "It is now up to Emmet and a host of heroic characters to go beyond their world and save their friends from the strange inhabitants of the Systar System. Journey into outer space, discover new worlds, and test your Master Building skills."
How Thor Influenced Kenneth Branagh’s Artemis Fowl
When Artemis Fowl first came out in 2001, the world was in its early phases of Harry Potter hysteria, and the tale of a 12-year-old criminal mastermind who gets pulled into the secret underground world of fairies, dwarves and trolls quickly followed in Potter’s footsteps to become a bestselling series. But when director Kenneth Branagh took on the daunting task of adapting the beloved Eoin Colfer novel for Disney, he didn’t look to his experience with Harry Potter to help guide him; instead, he drew heavily on his work in adapting Thor.
Despite the surface-level comparisons that are easy to draw between the popularity of Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter, the comparison to Branagh's interpretation of Thor actually is more fitting. For his part, Colfer has always pushed back against any comparisons to the Potter stories, instead telling Publishers Weekly back in 2001 that his children’s book was “Die Hard with fairies.” Watch the first trailer for Artemis Fowl below: