Steam Purges Developer’s Games After Manipulated Review Scores
Insel Games has had its games purged from Steam after the developer was discovered manipulating review scores with fake accounts.
A Reddit post claiming that the company's CEO was threatening to fire employees if they didn't buy the game and leave positive reviews on Steam caused Valve to investigate.
In an update today, Valve said that it had "identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the publisher of this game.
Splatoon 2 Is the First Switch Game to Sell 2 Million Copies in Japan
Splatoon 2 was released for the Nintendo Switch last July and of all of the console's stellar titles so far, it's the first to sell 2 million copies in Japan.
Siliconera reported the figure, courtesy of Famitsu's sales tracker. Since its release on July 21, 2017 to February 11, 2018, the game has sold 2,016,182 copies, not including digital sales.
THQ Nordic Buys Saints Row, Metro, Dead Island Publisher
THQ Nordic - publisher of de Blob, which is getting a Switch remaster later this year - has bought Koch Media, which owns the Saints Row, Metro, and Dead Island franchises, in a €121 million deal.
Koch Media itself runs Deep Silver (Dead Island and Metro publisher), Volition (Saints Row developer) and Dambuster Studios (Homefront: The Revolution developer), all of which will come under the THQ Nordic umbrella.
There are no plans to restructure following the acquisition, nor any "cost saving measures" on the horizon, suggesting that layoffs are unlikely.
Tessa Thompson on an All-Female Marvel Movie
Tessa Thompson says she's "hopeful" that Marvel might make an all-female movie in the future.
Speaking on the red carpet of her latest movie Annihilation, the Thor: Ragnarok actress said that there's definitely "an interest" in spotlighting women in Phase 4.
"I'm not Marvel so I can't make it happen," she told IGN, "but I can tell you that Marvel is hugely collaborative, I think our even our Thor
movie was basically the product of conversations they'd had with Chris
and with Mark
about what they wanted to do next. I think
Kevin Feige is really excited by the idea, and if you look at what's happened already in Phase 4 with me and
Valkyrie and our story, and then in Black Panther the women rule supreme.
Natalie Portman on Getting Back in That Amidala Makeup for SNL
Natalie Portman has opened up on what it was like to get back into her Padme Amidala make-up in the recent sequel to her 2006 rap on Saturday Night Live.
"It was really fun," Portman told IGN on the red carpet for her latest flick, Annihilation. "It was at like 3 in the morning so I was so out of it. I was literally focused on keeping my eyes open...it was a great experience."
In the rap, Portman is reprising the mean girl persona she famously debuted in 2006. "Say something bout the motherf***ing prequels b***ch," she says. "Say something f***king nice about Jar Jar Binks!"
NBA Star LeBron James Producing House Party Remake
NBA star LeBron James is producing a a remake of the 1990 comedy House Party.
Variety reports James will be producing the project alongside his SpringHill Entertainment partner Maverick Carter. The script will be penned by Stephen Glover and Jamal Olorim, writers on FX's Atlanta. The movie doesn't have a director attached yet and a release has not been set.
The original House Party starred hip hop duo Kid ‘n Play, and follows a high-schooler throwing a house party while his parents are away on vacation. The rest of the cast includes Paul Anthony, Bowlegged Lou, B-Fine, Robin Harris, Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, and A.J. Johnson
Call of Duty: Sicario 2 Director to Helm Activision Movie
Activision Blizzard Studios' Call of Duty movie may have found its director.
Variety reports Sicario 2: Soldado director Stefano Sollima is in talks with the studio to helm the film adaptation of the video game franchise. A release date for the movie has not been set yet as it's currently without a distributor and writer.
Activision Blizzard Studios’ presidents Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyk are producing alongside Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick. Though plot details for the Call of Duty film are being kept under wraps, Sher and van Dyk plan are planning a Marvel-style Call of Duty movie universe.
Legislation Proposed in Hawaii to Limit Sale of Loot Boxes
Lawmakers in Hawaii have proposed a series of bills that target the sale of loot boxes in video games.
The Hawaii Tribune Herald reports the legislation aims to address potentially exploitative monetization like loot boxes which can lead to players harboring gambling addictions.
Two of the bills, if passed, will stop sales of games in which players under the age of 21 can use real money to buy randomized rewards. How exactly this could be regulated is not clear.
Another set of bills would see games with purchasable loot boxes or other random rewards feature labels to disclose as such as well as display the probability rates for prizes.
Venom’s 30th Anniversary Celebrated With Variant Covers
Marvel is celebrating Venom's anniversary with special variant comic book covers.
Eddie Brock, who was transformed into super-powered anti-hero Venom, has been a Marvel staple for a long time. In preparation for Venom's 30th anniversary, Marvel is introducing special variant covers to celebrate key moments from the character's storied history. The first of the variants will hit comic shops on March 7, with the rest available before the month's end.
The variant covers will feature art by artists such as Mark Bagley, Mike Perkins, Francesco Francavilla, Ron Lim, Inhyuk Lee, and many more. Here's a look at some of the upcoming covers!
Here's a full list of all the comics with variant covers, as well as the artists creating them:
Metallica Frontman Cast As Cop Who Caught Ted Bundy
Metallica frontman James Hetfield has been cast as Officer Bob Hayward, the cop who caught serial killer Ted Bundy, in Voltage Pictures' Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.
While this is Hetfield's first dramatic role, he's worked with director Joe Berlinger before on the Metallica documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Berlinger also wrote the book Metallica: This Monster Lives.
Deadline reports that Hetfield will be playing Officer Bob Hayward in the thriller, the Utah trooper who arrested Bundy in 1975 after pulling him over and discovering burglary tools and pantyhose in Bundy's Beetle.