Injustice Animated Movie Officially Announced by DC, Warner Bros.
New EA Studio Dedicated to Open World Action-Adventure Will Be Led by Ex-Monolith Productions VP
EA has hired ex-Monolith (Shadow of Mordor) vice president Kevin Stephens to head a new studio focused on an open-world action-adventure game, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
Stephens worked as head of Monolith Productions for a little over eight years, after a five-year stint as vice president of development at WB Games, and a decade on the engineering team at Monolith before that. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/10/10/6-funny-orc-moments-in-middle-earth-shadow-of-war"] The Seattle-based studio, currently unnamed, will potentially allow remote workers to supplement in-house employees. “We're still figuring out a lot of foundational questions," says Samantha Ryan, EA senior vice president and group general manager. Ryan was previously president at Monolith Productions, working with Stephens there and at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in the late 90’s. "How big? What games? How fast to grow? Kevin and I both know how important it is to get the foundations of any studio 'right' and he'll take his time to figure it all out. When you rush, you don't give yourself time to be thoughtful. Why rush?”Stephens’ credits include engineering work on F.E.A.R., Condemned, plus the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War games.
Ryan declined to say whether the new studio will work on a previously established IP or a new one, GamesIndustry reports. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ea-next-gen-games-teaser&captions=true"] It’s another move in EA’s recent (and growing) list of acquisitions and new partnerships. In the past few months, EA has purchased Super Mega Baseball developer Metalhead Software, DiRT and Project Cars developer Codemasters, and Glu Mobile, the latter of which cost a cool $2.1 billion. EA reportedly plans to share more details about the new studio this fall, GI.biz says.New EA Studio Dedicated to Open World Action-Adventure Will Be Led by Ex-Monolith Productions VP
EA has hired ex-Monolith (Shadow of Mordor) vice president Kevin Stephens to head a new studio focused on an open-world action-adventure game, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
Stephens worked as head of Monolith Productions for a little over eight years, after a five-year stint as vice president of development at WB Games, and a decade on the engineering team at Monolith before that. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/10/10/6-funny-orc-moments-in-middle-earth-shadow-of-war"] The Seattle-based studio, currently unnamed, will potentially allow remote workers to supplement in-house employees. “We're still figuring out a lot of foundational questions," says Samantha Ryan, EA senior vice president and group general manager. Ryan was previously president at Monolith Productions, working with Stephens there and at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in the late 90’s. "How big? What games? How fast to grow? Kevin and I both know how important it is to get the foundations of any studio 'right' and he'll take his time to figure it all out. When you rush, you don't give yourself time to be thoughtful. Why rush?”Stephens’ credits include engineering work on F.E.A.R., Condemned, plus the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War games.
Ryan declined to say whether the new studio will work on a previously established IP or a new one, GamesIndustry reports. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ea-next-gen-games-teaser&captions=true"] It’s another move in EA’s recent (and growing) list of acquisitions and new partnerships. In the past few months, EA has purchased Super Mega Baseball developer Metalhead Software, DiRT and Project Cars developer Codemasters, and Glu Mobile, the latter of which cost a cool $2.1 billion. EA reportedly plans to share more details about the new studio this fall, GI.biz says.Say Goodbye to Internet Explorer
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HBO Max is Getting a Little Cheaper with Ads
A cheaper, ad-supported version of HBO Max will launch in the first week of June for $10 a month, the company announced today.
"We plan to supercharge HBO Max's growth this year with the launch of the ad-supported HBO Max," WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said during today's Upfront.
The only major difference between the ad-supported tier and the regular tier ($15 a month) is access to day-of releases like Godzilla vs Kong. Those on the cheaper, ad-supported tier will not be able to watch Same-Day Premieres, as WarnerMedia refers to the simultaneous release. A WarnerMedia representative told IGN that customers will not be able to make a one-time purchase for a film that hits HBO Max's premium account on the same day it's in theaters. It's only available via the no ads plan.
WarnerMedia executives have touted the cheaper tier for months. After launching at $15 a month (on par with HBO’s cable subscription and earlier streaming services like HBO Now), executives acknowledged that it might be too expensive for many Americans. As HBO Max starts its global expansion, having a cheaper tier that is more inline price wise with Netflix or Disney+ plays to HBO Max’s advantage. At this time, WarnerMedia is only planning to launch HBO Max without ads outside of the US, however pricing internationally could end up being more flexible ,IGN has learned.
“The team feels really good about their momentum,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said during an earnings call in March. “We haven’t seen our best days.”
Up until today, details about what an ad-supported version of HBO Max looked like remained pretty unknown. We knew ads wouldn’t play before or during HBO originals, like The Nevers, Sex and the City, or The Sopranos, according to WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar. We also knew that ads would feel light, as Kilar also noted during an analyst day earlier this year.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/30/hbo-max-streaming-service-review"]
But that’s it. We didn’t know what those ads would look like on television sets, mobile, or desktop. We didn’t know how often they’d play, or if they would be the same ad over and over again (a la Hulu).
Now, there’s a new world of uncertainty for HBO Max and WarnerMedia. Today’s news, alongside a flurry of other announcements made during WarnerMedia’s annual Upfront presentation to advertisers, comes just two days after AT&T announced it was spinning off WarnerMedia. The entertainment company is merging with Discovery (home of Guy Fieri and the Property Brothers) in a deal valued at $43 billion. The goal is to create a super entertainment company.How this deal affects HBO Max overall is still unknown. It’s likely that we won’t know what HBO Max becomes for a little while longer. For now, however, people who wanted HBO Max but didn’t want to spend $15 a month can now get it for slightly cheaper — as long as they don’t mind dealing with ads.
