Amazon Prime Annual Fee Increasing Soon for U.S. Customers
Amazon Prime is getting a 20% price hike in the next few months in the U.S.
Variety reports the annual subscription cost will rise from $99 to $119 per year. The new price will take effect beginning on June 16 for existing U.S. Prime customers based on their renewal period, while new members will start paying $119 on May 11. Amazon last raised the price back in March 2014.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky cited higher shipping expenses and spending on digital content as the main reason behind the price hike. “It’s really nothing more than looking at the state of the program, and the high benefits it’s delivering,” Olsavsky said. “There’s all kinds of new features we’ve continually added to the Prime program. It’s much different than it was in 2014.”
Norway Files Formal Complaint Against Several Games Publishers
The Norwegian Consumer Commission (NCC) has filed a formal complaint against Valve, Sony, Nintendo, and EA for breach of EU consumer law regarding the right of withdrawal.
Europe's consumer legislation offers customers a 14-day window following any purchase, to change their mind and receive a refund on return. The complaint states that the four companies are in breach of the legislation, saying that Nintendo "is in breach of the right of withdrawal by not accepting cancellations of pre-orders before the launch date," while EA, Valve, and Sony "are in breach of the right of withdrawal by not getting express consent from the consumer and his acknowledgement that he thereby loses his right of withdrawal".
Nintendo Switch Online Services Will Be Explained in More Detail Next Month
Nintendo has announced that it will be sharing more details on the Switch's online service next month.
The news comes from the company's earnings report, which stated that further information on the console's paid subscription service, which offers a "richness of online features that allows
to continuously enjoy Nintendo Switch" will be made available in "early May."
The service was set to launch last year but was delayed and pushed back to September 2018. Earlier this year, Nintendo's managing executive officer, Shinya Takahashi, said that the online service will be just "one component" of the company's plan to "diversify" how its games are played, and how it will encourage more people to play them, adding that it would be "worth the wait."
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Special Editions Revealed
Square Enix has revealed the special editions for Shadow of the Tomb Raider across all platforms, as well as season pass details and pre-order bonuses.
The details of the Standard, Digital Deluxe, Croft, and Ultimate editions were unveiled today, for all platforms, with players who pre-order the latter three getting early access to the game by a full 48 hours.
Opinion: Infinity Shows Marvel Comics at its Best
Note: this article contains no spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War beyond what's been shown in the trailers.
Every MCU movie has drawn some level of inspiration from Marvel's comics, and Avengers: Infinity War is no exception. This latest sequel borrow heavily to the 1991 miniseries Infinity Gauntlet, which also explored what happens when Thanos acquires the ultimate power in the universe. But the film also owes a clear debt to a more recent Marvel crossover, 2013's Infinity. It's exciting to see Infinity exerting such a heavy influence on Marvel's movies. After all, that story showcases the modern Marvel Comics at its very best.
Infinity was basically one act in Jonathan Hickman's larger Avengers saga, one that eventually culminated in 2015's Secret Wars. That said, it's a story that stands perfectly well on its own. It tells a very ambitious, two-pronged tale as one group of Avengers head into space while another remain on Earth to fend off an invasion by Thanos and his Black Order. It's that latter element where the Infinity War movie seems to be drawing most of its inspiration. Infinity was the story that introduced readers to Thanos' Black Order, powerful minions determined to help their master achieve his goal of dominating empires and wiping out every last one of his children. Infinity even features an invasion of Wakanda as a major set piece, just as Infinity War does.
How Avengers: Infinity War’s Ending Compares to the Comics (Spoilers!)
Warning: full spoilers for the Infinity Gauntlet comic and the Avengers: Infinity War movie! Read on at your own risk!
As promised, Avengers: Infinity War saw some of Earth’s mightiest heroes meet their end. But rather than wait for the second half of the story to hit in 2019, we’re looking to the comics to examine just how permanent those deaths really are.
Now, it’s important to note that Infinity Gauntlet only loosely inspired the events of Infinity War and its story is really, really different from the movie. The only major common factors are that Thanos is up to no good with the Infinity Gauntlet and the heroes have to stop him.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Hands-On Preview
In 2013’s iteration of Tomb Raider, Lara Croft was driven by urgency, and most of her decisions were reactive. She responded to drama, or conflict, or struggle only because she had to, not because she was driven to by her ambitions. Five real-world years later, in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft has evolved into someone who’s narcissistic, and destructive, and obsessed with finding the next treasure, or the next artifact that defines her importance. She’ll go far enough to ignore her allies, even if it means starting a war - even an apocalypse - all by herself, because the race to win is more important than anything else.
With that, I think the title of 2018’s addition to the Tomb Raider franchise makes a lot more sense than it did to me initially. This is seemingly intended to be Lara Croft’s darkest story, with the beloved protagonist realizing there’s a human cost to what she previously thought just involved ‘raiding tombs’, and that destruction follows her for a reason. According to the Narrative Director at Eidos Montreal, an increase in drama and tension with her allies was a huge focus of the game, too. This is the Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the dive into the darker parts of her personality, and the confrontation of how her flippant attitude toward messing with historically, culturally significant artifacts can influence everyone, not just her alone.
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PlayStation 4 Worldwide Shipments Reach 79 Million
Sony's fiscal results for the last financial year have been released and the company has confirmed that its worldwide shipments of PlayStation 4 consoles have reached 79 million.
Sony announced its intention to increase worldwide PS4 shipments to 78 million in its forecast last year. Since then, the company has shipped 19 million units, which is a decrease of one million, year-on-year.
For the upcoming fiscal year, Sony forecasts 16 million PS4 hardware sales, predicting a decrease of 3 million units from last year.
Avengers: Infinity War’s Surprise Returning Character Was Recast
The villainous Red Skull -- whose fate has been unclear since he disappeared in a Tesseract-induced glow at the end of 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger -- makes a surprise return appearance in Avengers: Infinity War. But that’s not original actor Hugo Weaving playing the character this time around.
The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand succeeds Weaving in the role of the Hydra leader-turned-Soul Stone keeper on the planet Vormir. In addition to playing“Aaron” on AMC’s hit zombie TV series, Marquand is also a master of celebrity impressions (as seen here and here). Marquand certainly captures enough of Weaving’s voice and delivery in Infinity War to make this new version of Red Skull tough to differentiate from the original.