Stephen King’s IT Scores Huge Opening Night
Stephen King's IT has had quite the successful Thursday night showing.
The horror film grossed an impressive $13.5 million on opening night. This is the third-highest Thursday night showing in 2017, coming in behind only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's $17 million opening and the live-action Beauty and the Beast's $16.3 million gross, the latter of which crossed the $1 billion mark.
IT now has the largest opening for any horror movie, September release, R-rated film, and any Stephen King film adaptation. Paranormal Activity 3 previously held the record for biggest preview night for a horror film, having made $8 million in 2011 ahead of its $52.5 million
How an Emergency Fix Saved Rocket League’s Servers
Rocket League developer Psyonix Studios was caught off guard by the game’s early success. And that popularity put quite a strain on the servers, according to design director Corey Davis.
On the second episode of IGN Expert Mode, Davis revealed there was a surprising solution to keeping the servers up for Rocket League at launch.
How Code Vein Is Dark Souls Done Differently
During our visit to Bandai Namco Studios in Tokyo last month, Code Vein director Hiroshi Yoshimura took us through his vision for his upcoming action-RPG. The masterminds behind the God Eater series, Yoshimura and his team have always excelled at cinematic action games, and Code Vein marks the studio’s next attempt at evolving the genre.
In our making of video, Yoshimura and the Code Vein team talk about Code Vein’s gothic-kissed set up, the companions you'll play with and the bond you’ll form with them, and the super-flexible Blood Codes, which are Code Vein’s version of RPG jobs. You’ll also learn what Code Vein takes from the Dark Souls series...and what it chooses to leave behind.
Halo Backwards Compatibility Releases Taking ‘Extra Time’
The Xbox One backwards compatible releases of Halo CE Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, and Halo 4 will be taking more time to arrive, but we are promised they are getting closer.
In the latest installment of the Halo Community Update on Halo Waypoint, there is the "obligatory mention of the Halo back-compat releases."
"The Xbox back-compat team is hard at work on final polish and we continue to work closely with them and evaluate all four games for launch," reads the statement. "We're taking extra time to ensure the experience lives up to fan expectations but I hear we're making great progress and release should be getting closer."
Charitable Veterans’ Fund Call of Duty Endowment Coming to UK
The Call of Duty Endowment charitable fund is coming to the UK and aims to aid charities in helping armed forces veterans find employment.
The programme was founded in 2009 by CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick. It's co-chaired by former NATO Commander and National Security Advisor General James L. Jones, and is led by Dan Goldenberg, a veteran and captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
The fund has already been successful in the US, with over £19 million being used to place over 37,000 veterans in jobs with an average starting salary of £42,000.
To aid the shift to the UK, Activision has announced The Call of Duty Endowment Double Duty Calling Card for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Admittedly it's not a very catchy name, but essentially it's an animated Calling Card which comes with three rare supply drops. All proceeds from these digital items go towards the Endowment programmes.
IGN UK Podcast #399: Longshots and Lies
Just before our big 400th episode, we use this week to introduce you all to the newest IGN UK video man, Simon Cardy. Cardy gives us a deep look into his mad personal IMDB Top 150 list which he has dubbed, Si-MDB...
Gav and Cardy have also dabbled with Madden's new single player story mode and Dale is keen to expose the truth after last week's PODCAST OF LIES.
IGN UK Podcast #399: Longshots and Lies
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Destiny 2: Raid, Xur and More Events Dated In New Roadmap
Bungie has released a Destiny first month roadmap, telling us when we'll be seeing Xur again, taking on the new Leviathan Raid, and more.
Revealed on the Bungie Blog, the image reveals that two of the most asked-about events will begin next week. Firstly, the game's first Raid - which allows teams of six to take on Destiny's hardest, most esoteric challenges - will begin on Wednesday, September 13.
That will be followed by the first appearance of exotic item vendor and tentacle-faced mysteryfreak, Xur on Friday, September 15 (and will be returning every Friday for the foreseeable future).
The Rationale Behind the Newest Hearthstone Nerfs
Team 5 recently announced a number of nerfs designed to address the prominence of Druid in Hearthstone right now, and in a surprise move also took the opportunity to make a few other changes. To find out a little more about the thinking behind the adjustments, I caught up with senior designer Mike Donais and game designer Dean Ayala for a chat.
IGN: It’s great to see you guys address the Druid concern quite quickly. I think it’s much appreciated by the community. I was looking at the latest Vicious Syndicate report this morning and it was saying that 30% of the overall meta is Druid and that climbs to almost 40% at Legend ranks. Can you give me a look behind the scenes at how the team identifies something has to be done, then gets things in motion? How did you decide which cards to hit and what was the testing process like?
Leto ‘Blinded’ Himself For Blade Runner 2049
Jared Leto rid himself of his sight in order to play Niander Wallace in Blade Runner 2049.
The villainous Wallace happens to be blind, and in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (via ET), Leto revealed he wore special contact lenses that made his eyes look opaque and restricted his sight while on set. This meant he had to be guided around the set during the entire shoot.
"We all heard stories about Jared, how he transforms into the characters," Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve told the WST, "but even this didn’t prepare me for what was to come."