Hearthstone Garners About $20 Million Monthly
Blizzard's free-to-play digital card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft reportedly brings in $20 million every month.
Research group SuperData (via GameSpot) says Hearthstone is dominating the digital CCG space, thanks in part to its release on smartphones. The firm claims that move alone boosted monthly revenues by 31%.
If accurate, that figure makes Hearthstone a bigger monthly earner than Dota 2, which SuperData reported earlier this year as bringing in $18 million per month. Exact figures for Hearthstone have been hard to come by, since Activision Blizzard has only bundled its figures with Heroes of the Storm and Destiny in its financial reports. Altogether, the three games have brought in more than $1 billion.
The Shield and Downton Abbey Actors Join 12 Monkeys
The second season of 12 Monkeys will see actors Jay Karnes and Brendan Coyle joining the cast.
Entertainment Weekly reports Karnes, known for his work on The Shield, will portray an FBI agent in the 1940s called Robert Gale. While looking into a group of murders, Gale sees a connection to James Cole, reckoning he's from a different time.
Meanwhile, Coyle will pop up in the Season 2 premiere as Dr. Benjamin Kalman. The Downton Abbey actor is playing a former Markridge bioengineer who deeply regrets the role he played in the creation of the deadly virus.
For more on the second season, be sure to check out IGN's Comic-Con coverage of 12 Monkeys. The show is scheduled to return early next year on Syfy.
Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex Renewed
Showtime has announced that Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex have been picked up for fourth seasons.
Both shows are set to start production next year on their fourth seasons, with 12 one-hour episodes planned for each series. “Both Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex are signature series for Showtime,” said company president David Nevins.
“They are emblematic of what Showtime stands for — quality, premium programming that you cannot find anywhere else on television. We’re so proud to continue offering both series across all our platforms.”
Every Destiny: The Taken King Screenshot From Gamescom
At Gamescom this year, Bungie revealed Destiny's largest raid ever,"King's Fall," will be part of The Taken King expansion, and The Taken King will also include a "ton of new exotics."
Bungie also revealed a revamped leveling system coming to Destiny that will replace the light system currently in place in favor of a more traditional level-building experience that will involve mission completion, raids, and completing bounties.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Multiplayer Beta Info Blowout
Update: Treyarch has lifted the lid on a slew of new details regarding its upcoming multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
The beta will feature a total of three maps, including Hunted, a big game hunting lodge set in the Ethiopian mountains, Combine, a research facility placed in the middle of the Egyptian Sahara, and Evac, an Singapore-set evacuation zone.
The various modes featured in the beta will include: Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Demolition, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, and Search & Destroy.
On top of that, Treyarch detailed Black Ops 3's new Specialists, which will also be available to players when the beta kicks off on PS4 next week. There are eight in total, including Ruin, who comes equipped with Gravity Spikes and the speed burst ability Overdrive.
Stephen Colbert Talks Dropping His Character for Late Show
"I will do my best to answer your questions in ways that do not destroy the jokes on my show," new Late Show host Stephen Colbert said at the top of a Q&A panel for the TCA Press Tour. Colbert, there to promote his debut as the new face of CBS late night on September 8th, then began to discuss the act of dropping his ultra-right wing Colbert Report parody character for his new high profile gig as David Letterman's successor.
"I promise you, if you're wondering who the real Stephen Colbert is, there's a supercut online of me laughing, me breaking character the entire time," Colbert remarked. "That's me. I'm laughing at our jokes. What I do with the show is we do the show for each other all day, and it's my job and my privilege and my responsibility to translate to you, the audience at home, what we already did for each other. That guy who can't stop laughing? That's the real Stephen Colbert. I can't wait for him to be the only guy you see."
App Store Update: August 11
Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Tap Sports Football – (Freemium)
Glu Games' Tap Sports brand gets applied to the NFL for the first time, and not a moment too soon! The new season's getting under way, after all.
Firefox Version 40 Adds Windows 10 Support, Improves Security
Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that plays nice with Windows 10.
There's plenty to read up on in Firefox version 40.0's release notes, but the most notable implementations include Windows 10 support, as well as a few design changes to reflect the OS' own look and a way to preserve your search engine of choice, regardless of whether Firefox or Microsoft Edge is the default browser.
Other changes in the update improve upon the overall security, which includes the updates made to Firefox 39 that added more file protection.
WWE 2K16 Gallery Shows Off the Squared Circle of Life
New gameplay details for 2K's upcoming WWE 2K16 came out of Gamescom last week, including the news that the WWE 2K16's roster will top out at over 120 unique playable characters.
Among the playable characters are two versions of the T-800, the cybernetic organism played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 Terminator and 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The option to play as the Terminator in WWE 2K16 will be open for gamers who pre-order a copy before its October 27 release date.
Podcast: The Digigods get serious with discussions on Kurt Cobain and brownies
From their secluded home-theater compound, film critics Wade Major and Mark Keizer mix insightful commentary with irreverent banter, covering the latest DVD and Blu-ray news and new releases of the week, including studio, independent, television and special-interest titles.
Digigods Podcast, 08/11/15 (MP3) -- 32.6 MB
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