Quantic Dream Reportedly Suing Two Publications Over Negative Coverage
Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream is allegedly suing French media outlets for negative press coverage of working conditions at the studio.
Kotaku reports the developer is suing French newspaper Le Monde and the website Mediapart after they published reports earlier this year on overworked staff and a work environment that allegedly fostered racist, sexist, and homophobic behavior. The third outlet, a website called Canard PC has received two "threatening letters" from Quantic Dream, but has suffered no legal action as of yet.
Marvel Studios Won’t Have a Hall H Panel At Comic-Con this Year
Marvel Studios won't be hosting a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018.
Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige confirmed to Screen Rant the company will be skipping out on Hall H this summer. “We’re going to do um, of course, Marvel will have a presence
," Feige said. "Marvel Studios will have a presence there only in that there will be 10th-anniversary materials and a 10th-anniversary panel. Not doing Hall H this year."
Feige did not give a reason for the decision, as Marvel Studios usually has a strong presence at Hall H. It has hosted some of its biggest panels there. However, it seems fans will still have a 10th-anniversary MCU panel to look forward to.
Detroit: Become Human Demo Releasing Tomorrow
Detroit: Become Human has gone gold and to celebrate the milestone, developer Quantic Dream is releasing a new demo for the game tomorrow.
Per the PlayStation Blog, the demo will be available for download on April 24 via the PSN Store. You'll get to play the first scene of the game, Hostage, which has been shown off at various events previously.
You'll assume the role of an android named Connor, who's sent to save a kidnapped girl taken hostage by another android on a rooftop.
In an odd twist, you will also be able to utilize an extended Amazon Alexa Skill named CyberLife, which will help guide you throughout the investigation. The skill will also help you alter your decisions to get different endings.
Amazon Reportedly Making a Home Robot
Amazon is reportedly making a home robot at its Lab126 hardware R&D centre - the developer behind the Echo, as well as the Kindle, and the Fire tablet range.
Bloomberg reports that the project, code-named Vesta for the Roman goddess of the hearth, the home, and domestic life, is being overseen by Gregg Zehr, president of Lab126.
Amazon has reportedly increased the number of hires for the project, which will form part of a "smart team of doers that work passionately to apply cutting edge advances in robotics and software to solve real-world challenges" in order to "transform" their customers' experiences in ways they "can’t even imagine yet."
Unreleased Mario Racing Game Revealed
It's been revealed that Nintendo cancelled a planned DS game called Mario Motors, in which players sculpted their own car engines.
Seaman creator Yoot Saito revealed the aborted project in a talk at the Reboot Develop Conference (per Eurogamer), explaining that he'd been inspired by a DS demo in which players sculpted metal using the stylus tool.
After pitching the idea to Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto, Saito set out to create a game where players would create their cars' engines in similar fashion, with different shapes offering different abilities.
Detroit: Become Human Makes Your Choices Feel Organic
When I asked the team behind Detroit: Become Human how many endings the game has, they struggled to give me an answer. Adam Williams, one of the lead writers at Quantic Dream, said “that depends how you define an ending.” Writer/Director David Cage thought about it and said, “I don’t know, a lot.” They said there might be a number floating around somewhere in an email, but they didn’t know it off by heart. I asked David what makes Detroit different from a Telltale game, too, and mentioned how gamers had been burned by the ‘every choice matters’ sales pitch we keep getting from publishers. He told me the script was over 4,000 pages long, that there are hundreds of variants when it comes to the ending, and that the game was a nightmare to QA test because of all the permutations.
New Doom Movie Reportedly In Development
It seems a new Doom movie is in the works.
An NBC/Universal spokesperson confirmed to Variety the film is being handled by Universal 1440 Entertainment, which produces non-theatrical projects. That means there's a chance the new Doom movie could appear directly on a digital platform such as Netflix, or it may also be direct-to-DVD.
Last week, Actress and singer Nina Bergman also tweeted she's signed on to appear in the film. “Wow, I’m doing the next Doom movie with Universal Pictures!," Bergman said. "I just signed all the paperwork. I get to go back to Bulgaria again and work with some of my favorite people. This movie with a super cool director AND my new record coming out, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world."
Westworld Has a Surprising Thor: Ragnarok Connection
Season 2 of Westworld premiered yesterday, and if you tuned in, you may have recognised a familiar face, and not just because you saw it in the first season. There's a Thor: Ragnarok connection between one of the actors in Westworld, and it's none other than the third Hemsworth brother, Luke.
At the end of the first season, we saw Hemsworth's Ashley Stubbs, head of park security, being surrounded by the Ghost Nation hosts. His return in season two was confirmed ahead of the premiere, but in the 16 months between seasons, Hemsworth took to the stage in Asgard as part of a troupe of actors reenacting The Tragedy of Loki, playing the god of thunder, alongside Matt Damon as Loki, and Sam Neill's Odin.
Fortnite Streamer Breaks His Own Viewership Record
Popular Fortnite streamer, Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins, has broken his own viewership record, peaking at 667,000 concurrent viewers at an exhibition event in LA.
ESPN reports that Blevins participated in the event at the new Esports Arena at the Luxor Resort and Casino, breaking his previous viewership record of 600,000 set last month, when he was joined by Canadian rapper Drake on a stream. The event was streamed on Twitch, so it's another milestone for the platform, although there's still a way to go before it catches up to the Fortnite stream on YouTube that drew in 1.1 million viewers.
The Witcher TV Show Will Be 8 Episodes Long, Likely Released in 2020
Netflix's upcoming Witcher series will have an eight-episode first season, is likely to air in 2020, and will be filmed in Eastern Europe to maintain the original Polish novels' aesthetic.
Writer Lauren Hissrich - who was co-executive producer on Marvel's Daredevil show - shared the news on Twitter, following a Netflix event in Rome:
"Yes! I know, I know,
may not seem like enough for you," she said, "but creatively, it's the right call. The episodes can be tight, action-packed, rich in character and story, without lagging in the middle of the season."