MoviePass, the too-good-to-be-true theater ticket subscription service/venture capital nightmare, may be returning in some form. Business Insider reports that original cofounder Stacy Spikes has purchased the company back.

Spikes was granted ownership over MoviePass on Monday by a Southern District of New York bankruptcy court judge, with the purchase finalized on Wednesday. Spikes reportedly placed an undisclosed bid to the trustee handling the bankruptcy of Helios and Matheson Analytics, the company's previous owner who purchased MoviePass in 2017 as it struggled to stay afloat.

You can watch our video on MoviePass' demise below.

"We are thrilled to have it back and are exploring the possibility of relaunching soon," Spikes told Business Insider. "Our pursuit to reclaim the brand was encouraged by the continued interest from the moviegoing community. We believe, if done properly, theatrical subscription can play an instrumental role in lifting moviegoing attendance to new heights."

MoviePass imploded in incredible fashion back in 2019, thanks in part to a seemingly wildly unstable business model and subsequent (and dramatic) changes to that business model. These included price surging, removing popular movies from the app (I myself was jilted out of seeing Mission Impossible: Fallout at the last minute), even changing users' passwords to lock them out of the app. The pitch was genuinely astounding: Users originally only had to pay $7 a month to watch as many movies in theaters as they liked. When Helios and Matheson acquired MoviePass in 2017, the company launched a subscription tier for $10 a month to see one movie per day. Subscriber count skyrocketed from 20,000 to 100,000 in two days. At its peak, MoviePass boasted more than 3 million subscribers. Spikes, who says he raised concerns about the company's sustainability, was fired from in 2018.

Like all things too good to be true, this proved wildly unrealistic. After months and months of speculation, Helios and Matheson Analytics shut down MoviePass for good in September 2019.

Weirdly, MoviePass began teasing some sort of comeback earlier this year with a new website with the MoviePass name and featuring a mysterious countdown. It's unclear if this is part of Spikes' plan to revitalize the brand.

It's possible Spikes may have reacquired MoviePass for a comparatively modest sum. In the June 2020 bankruptcy auction for Helios and Matheson assets, Business Insider reports no competitive bids were made. The bankruptcy trustee set a minimum bid of $250,000, but Helios and Matheson listed the estimated value of MoviePass between $1 million and $10 million, according to Variety.

Spikes told Business Insider that he acquired MoviePass for less than the $250,000 minimum amount. Customer data and emails were not part of the sale, he added.

Spikes has launched a new website dubbed iwantmoviepass.com where users can submit their email for future notifications about the service.

In the years since MoviePass' demise, theater chains like AMC have started their own filmgoing subscription plans, like AMC Stubs A-List.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/burned former MoviePass subscriber for IGN.

In celebration of the upcoming holidays, IGN, in partnership with Walmart, is hosting a QVC-style holiday shopping guide stream ahead of Black Friday, that will see our greatest deal experts going through Walmart's complete inventory to help you find the hottest game, movie, TV, toy, and tech gifts of 2021. The best part? You will be able to shop along with us and seamlessly add your favorite items to your own Walmart cart and check-out while watching.

IGN is carrying the stream and, as usual, this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the show, including when it starts, a list of places you can watch it with us, and what you can expect to see.

IGN’s Shoppable Gift Guide Livestream Start Time

IGN’s Shoppable Gift Guide Livestream will take place on Tuesday, November 16 at 3pm PT/6pm ET/11pm GMT. If you are watching from Australia, that translates to November 17 at 9am AEST. The stream will last roughly 1.5 hours.

Where to Watch IGN’s Shoppable Gift Guide Livestream

If you’re interested in watching IGN’s Shoppable Gift Guide Livestream, we’ll be hosting it here and across our many channels on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the deal extravaganza show with us:

• IGN.com (homepage)
• IGN's Facebook Channel
• IGN’s Twitter
• IGN's Twitch Channel
• IGN’s Youtube Channel
• IGN's iOS App
• IGN's Android App
• IGN's PlayStation 4 App
• IGN's Xbox One App
• Roku
• IGN App for Android TV
• IGN for Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• IGN 1 on Samsung TV Plus
• Pluto TV
• Plex Live TV

What to Expect at the Upcoming IGN’s Shoppable Gift Guide Livestream

IGN’s Shoppable Gift Guide Livestream will be hosted by our very own IGN Deals guru Seth Macy and host extraordinaire Brian Altano. They will look through Walmart's expansive list of gift options to present clever and fun ideas that are sure to please even the most Grinchiest of recipients.

Not only will this let you get a jump start on your Black Friday shopping, but these items will go live on Walmart.com as we discuss them so everyone will have a fair shot at securing that which they desire most! As previously mentioned, you won't even have to leave IGN's stream as you will be able to add these items to your Walmart cart and checkout via a shopping platform called Talk Shop.

This shopping event will be cozy and just generally a "Good Vibes" time and will cover the best and most sought-after game, movie, TV, toy, and tech gifts of 2021.

If you can't wait to get your holiday shopping done, be sure to check out all of IGN's Holiday Gift Guides, including:

• Best gifts for Mom
• Best Marvel and DC gifts
• Best PlayStation gifts
• Best Nintendo gifts
• Best Xbox gifts
• Best toys and collectible gifts

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Playdate, the handheld crank-based gaming device, has been delayed from late 2021 to early 2022.

In an email sent Thursday, Playdate creator Panic explained that the decision to delay the handheld device due to issues with battery life in the first 5,000 units the company received from Malaysia.

Playdate's intended battery life is advertised as eight hours while active and 14 days while on standby mode. Panic stated that some units weren't reaching that goal, and some others were so drained that the device wouldn't power on at all and couldn't be charged.

The good news? Panic is replacing all of its existing batteries with new ones from a different supplier and says they've already received the new batteries and are plenty satisfied with them.

Panic added that factory production will ramp up to full speed again "in just a few weeks," but that logistics requires "late 2021" pre-orders are now aiming for "early 2022."

The worldwide chip shortage plaguing video game and tech companies everywhere is also playing a role, Panic says. To work around what the company has been told would be a two-year delay on the CPU they need, Panic is revising Playdate's main board so it can be used with a more widely available CPU.

Panic says the new board won't change anything when it comes to playing games, and if you've pre-ordered a unit, your place in line hasn't changed. So if you pre-ordered one of the first 1 to 10,000 and 10,000 to 20,000 units, you'll now receive your Playdate in early 2022. Those in line for 20,000 to 40,000 will receive their Playdates in the second half of 2022, and 40,0000 to 50,000 will be shipped in the "late second half" of 2022. Panic says Playdates past the first 50,000 units will "almost certainly" arrive in 2023.

If you're part of the homebrew game development scene and are looking forward to making games for the Playdate, Panic has a couple of estimated release dates for the Playdate Software Development Kit and the web browser-based tool Pulp. Pulp's public beta will arrive in January 2022, and the Playdate SDK will arrive in February 2022. You can read Panic's full blog for more details.

It's been a nightmare for many companies dealing with supply chain issues, especially those looking to launch new hardware. Valve's Steam Deck has been pushed back to February 2022, and Sony has reportedly cut PlayStation 5 production plans down, which will make it even harder to get one in the near future. Even the older Nintendo Switch can't escape, with Nintendo cutting Switch sales forecasts by 6% for the year, Reuters reports.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/old crank for IGN.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MARVEL'S ETERNALS AND MORE MCU CONTENT BELOW

The end credits scene in Marvel's Eternals gave one particular actor some real anxiety over the future of their role in the MCU. Fair warning, below you'll find some major spoilers for both the end credit scene of Eternals and at least one other significant character in the MCU.

The end credits scene in Eternals shows Kit Harington (you know, Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) as a seemingly human version of Dane Whitman AKA Black Knight interacting with an enchanted sword. Before he can touch it, a voice heard from offscreen interrupts Harington.

According to director Chloé Zhao, that voice does indeed belong to the daywalker vampire Blade, played by Mahershala Ali. This makes it Blade and Ali's first "appearance" in the MCU, if you don't count his role as Cottonmouth in Netflix's Luke Cage series. And Ali felt quite anxious about the whole process of establishing the revitalized character from a soundbooth.

“It was really cool, getting to do that,” Ali told Empire. “It was scary. Because, you know, you're talking before you're filming it. I'm pretty particular about my choices, like most actors, and so having to make some choices – even with a line, vocally – this early on, it brought up some very real anxieties. And it made the job real. It's like, ‘Okay, this is happening now’, you know, and that's exciting.”

Despite the anxiety that comes with playing the second version of the character that helped kick off a new era of modern, darker superhero films.

“That Marvel world is obviously the biggest in film, and just to get my little introduction to that – starting with the Comic Con a couple years ago, and now the very early stages of stepping into the shoes of that character – it felt special and really cool,” Ali said. “I’m excited to get going and do more.”

Ali closed out his reflections on Blade by acknowledging that he has yet to don any of the character's iconic clothes, including the leather coat or sunglasses, but that "we're getting there. We're getting close."

The end of Eternals goes way beyond one vampire, though. If you're looking for more spoiler-filled breakdowns of the MCU's future, we've got you covered. Here's one Eternals writer explaining what a Galactus appearance could mean for the MCU, a thorough breakdown of Kit Harington's Black Knight, plus a teaser that may spell the return of Thanos.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/baewalker for IGN.

Earlier this week, Jason Citron, the CEO of Discord, shared an image that appeared to tease that the app would introduce cryptocurrency integration to its popular online chat service. However, Citron has now announced that the company will not be implementing the controversial feature.

Citron thanked those who responded to the original tweet on Wednesday night and to those who shared their perspectives. Citron says that the company has "no current plans to ship this internal concept," noting that the company is going to protect users from spam, scams, and fraud, promising that more details will be shared soon.

"Web3 has lots of good but also lots of problems we need to work through at our scale," Citron tweeted.

Thanks for all the perspectives everyone. We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now we're focused on protecting users from spam, scams and fraud. Web3 has lots of good but also lots of problems we need to work through at our scale. More soon.

— Jason Citron (@jasoncitron) November 11, 2021

Based on the final sentence, which refers to "Web3," it appears the company has not completely ruled out implementing cryptocurrency or NFTs in the app. For those wondering, "Web3" refers to an iteration of the internet that is crypto-based.

Of course, this is not the first time Discord has tried to gauge interest with users on its thoughts on this subject. Before Citron teased a crypto wallet coming to Discord, an image went viral on Twitter where a user screenshotted a now-expired Discord survey that focused on NFTs and Web3.

In recent weeks Blockchain and NFTs have become a hot topic in the gaming industry; major gaming publishers EA, Epic Games, Square Enix, and Ubisoft have either expressed interest, support, or confirmed it was planning to develop Blockchain games and NFTs.

In contrast, this October Valve implemented a new rule that bans Blockchain games that issue NFTs or cryptocurrency from its digital game distribution platform Steam.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

You can now put Twitch on your Nintendo Switch. The streaming app is now available for download on the Nintendo Switch eShop.

I've checked out Twitch on my Switch (I'll never get tired of that rhyme), and it performs pretty admirably, all things considered. The app can only be used to view streams on Twitch and not stream directly from the Switch itself.

The home menu will feel familiar to anyone used to navigating through Twitch's recommendations or your subscriptions, but it doesn't look like you can type into a streamer's chat directly from the Switch. Instead, you'll need to scan a QR code, which opens up a streamer's chat as a webpage on your phone, which seems more manageable than using the Switch's digital keyboard.

Twitch joins the lineup of other streaming apps that eventually arrived on the Switch, including Hulu, YouTube, and Funimation. Heck, there's even Pokemon TV, but still no Netflix.

Don't forget to check out IGN's guide to Nintendo Black Friday deals so you can stay on top of the best Nintendo holiday gaming bargains. Just don't expect to get your hands on the new Switch N64 controllers until next year.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Details have seemingly been leaked about two new Xbox exclusives from Compulsion Games (We Happy Few) and Obsidian Entertainment (The Outer Worlds), the former of which is described as a single-player "southern gothic adventure."

According to Windows Central, Compulsion's first game with Microsoft is codenamed Midnight. It is reportedly a third-person game set in a dark and fantastical world. The protagonist, seen below in the middle section of the concept art, is a dark-skinned woman with braided hair. The picture on the right shows a harpy creature going through various stages of transformation. The picture on the left looks like it could be a harpy nest.

Midnight apparently draws its inspirations from America's deep south and is a "coming of age" story. It is also a solely single-player game. It apparently won't be ready for an official reveal or launch until the next few years, however. Last month, the We Happy Few developer mentioned that it was working on a new third-person, story-driven title and Midnight certainly seems to fit the bill.

The second game comes from Obsidian Entertainment, codenamed Pentiment. A 12-person team is developing this game and is led by Josh Sawyer, who previously worked on Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity. GamesBeat's Jeff Grubb said that Pentiment draws inspiration from games like Disco Elysium and will be a narrative RPG rather than a combat-focused one.

The game is reportedly a murder mystery set in the 16th Century in which players will be able to investigate and accuse other characters in the game. However, these accusations have consequences; if you're wrong, then a snowball effect occurs. The game will slowly unfold into a full-blown conspiracy. The team is also reportedly experimenting with several different gameplay mechanics, but some might not make it into the final product. Grubbsays Pentiment is aiming for a 2022 launch.

If correct, it means Obsidian is very busy right now – the studio is also working on Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Marvel Comics just kicked off the latest volume of Venom, and the Lethal Protector is undergoing another huge status quo change as a result. The Venom symbiote has a brand new host, but who is it this time?

Read on to learn the identity of the new Venom, but beware of spoilers for Venom #1 ahead!

The new series builds on the fallout of the recent King in Black crossover, which ended with Knull being destroyed and Eddie taking his place as god of the symbiotes. Unfortunately, Eddie tends to have the worst luck this side of Peter Parker, so he's not able to enjoy his new lot in life for very long before everything goes south again.

As the new series opens, Eddie is spending more and more time in space cleaning up the damage caused by Knull's rampage. He even has a quartet of symbiote drones dubbed John, Paul, George and Ringo, similar to Tony Stark's Iron Legion in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Unfortunately, Ringo is taken over by another mind, one who slaughters a ship full of Skrull refugees and warns Eddie his death is fast approaching.

Back on Earth, Eddie's son Dylan is struggling top deal with his absentee father. After fleeing an impostor pretending to be Eddie, Dylan reunites with his real father at a motel, only for the two to be attacked by a mysterious military squad. In the resulting chaos, Eddie is killed in an explosion and Dylan is forced to do the one thing his father forbade - bond with the Venom symbiote.

Dylan becomes the latest in a long line of heroes and villains to bond with Venom, though he has the distinction of being the first teenage Venom. What could go wrong when an angry, hormonal teenager wields one of the most powerful weapons on Earth?

The good news is that Eddie isn't dead. While his human body is destroyed, his mind has become unstuck in time. He sees glimpses of events to come, including a meeting with Kang the Conqueror and the rise of a new symbiote named Bedlam (who may or may not be the villain controlling Ringo). Eddie is ultimately dragged forward to the distant future, where his reconstructed body is greeted by a mysterious being named Meridus.

This looks to be the start of an ongoing status quo for Venom, with Dylan coming to terms with his new powers on Earth while Eddie makes sense of his plight at the far edge of time. If Kang's words are any indication, he may be stuck there for a long, long time.

For more on the kooky history of the Venom franchise, brush up on the strongest symbiotes in the Marvel Universe and see the 30 biggest WTF Venom moments.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

IGN can exclusively reveal the introductory trailer for Spider-Man in Marvel's Avengers, which shows off Crystal Dynamics' take on Peter Parker for the first time.

The trailer is a cinematic rather than straight gameplay, but gives us an idea of Spider-Man's acrobatic moveset, web shooting abilities, and all but confirms web-swinging and wall-crawling across the game's environments:

The cinematic sees Peter ambushing and taking on a group of A.I.M. soldiers that have taken hostages, before being joined by the entire Avengers line-up. Square Enix hasn't yet confirmed who is providing the voice of Peter Parker in this incarnation of the character.

Arriving as part of the With Great Power expansion for PlayStation owners of the game – due for release on November 30 – Spider-Man will be the 9th playable hero in the multiplayer game. The
expansion sees Peter Parker discover A.I.M. plans to make its robot army invincible, before joining forces with the Avengers.

Spider-Man was announced as a PlayStation-exclusive character before release, but it's been a very long wait for the character to be added, with Crystal Dynamics repeatedly reconfirming that he would arrive.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

Activision has issued an apology after 'insensitive' uses of the Muslim holy text, the Quran, were included on the floor of a Call of Duty Vanguard Zombies map. The images have now been removed from the game.

Following the launch of Call of Duty: Vanguard, a number of players noticed that the game contained various pages from the Quran scattered across the floor of a Zombies map. The pages of the holy text were positioned in a way that allowed players to step on them while engaging in gunfights. Putting a copy of the Quran on the floor is considered a disrespectful act, and the scattered pages caused an outcry, with some even calling for a boycott of the game.

Call of Duty has pages of the Qur'an on the floor for people to step on.

I usually make excuses for people whenever they make a mistake, but this one feels intentional. I really hope that I'm wrong.

Either way, this has to be corrected. It's shameful and embarrassing. https://t.co/RimPRtSePI

— Osama Dorias (@osamadorias) November 10, 2021

As noted in a tweet by CharlieIntel (below), the publisher has since apologized for including the content on the map and has said that it will look to address the issue with those responsible in order to stop similar situations from happening in the future. "Call of Duty is made for everyone," says Activision in its statement.

"There was insensitive content to the Muslim community mistakenly included last week, and has since been removed from the game. It should never have appeared as it did in-game. We deeply apologize. We are taking immediate steps internally to address the situation to prevent such occurrences in the future."

Activision has issued a statement apologizing for #Vanguard Zombies including insensitive references to Muslim community. Activision says that the references have been removed from the game already. pic.twitter.com/Mu0hXwt9pY

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) November 11, 2021

Since uncovering the material, a number of players have spoken out across social media in support of the Muslim community over the issue. Following Activision's statement, game developer Rami Ismail gave his thoughts on the topic. "It's good to see an apology for the absolutely unnecessary and needless inclusion of Quran texts that people can walk over," said the developer in a tweet.

It's good to see an apology for the absolutely unnecessary and needless inclusion of Quran texts that people can walk over. https://t.co/pFV482c22s

— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) November 11, 2021

This isn't the first time in recent years that the franchise has been called into question over cultural insensitivity. In 2019, the BBC reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had seen a wave of negative reviews on Metacritic where users claimed that the game was trying to rewrite history and promote anti-Russian propaganda. At the time, Activision stated that the game did not represent real-world events.

For more on Call of Duty: Vanguard, make sure to check out our review of the game's campaign, where we awarded it a 7/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.