Crunchyroll to Partner With Sumitomo for New Anime
Sumitomo Corporation and the popular anime distributor Crunchyroll are joining forces to produce animation that will be delivered all around the world.
According to the announcement, this "strategic partnership" will serve as "a joint venture for investing in new anime productions." Naturally, Crunchyroll will be handling distribution, which will thereby extend to international markets.
"With this partnership, the voice of worldwide anime fans can reach anime production studios directly through the Crunchyroll platform, which I believe will produce fascinating anime for a worldwide audience as a result," Sumitomo General Manger and Corporate Officer of Media Iehisa Nakamura said.
The Craziest Feature Cut From Halo 4
The Kinect was almost considered as a key part of the Halo 4 experience, according to the game's creative director Josh Holmes, who who sat down to speak with IGN for episode two of IGN Unfiltered (premiering tomorrow morning at 9am Pacific).
"The craziest idea was when someone suggested using Kinect voice interaction with Cortana throughout the course of the experience," said Holmes when asked what the craziest feature that never made into Halo 4 was. While he admits it was an amazing idea, he had doubts as to whether or not he and his team could have pulled it off all the way.
He does offer an interesting counter-point though (mild Halo 4 plot spoiler ahead):
Microsoft Revenue Drops $1.8 Billion From Previous Quarter
Microsoft released its financial results for the first quarter of the 2016 fiscal year, and the company saw a loss of $1.8 billion USD from the results of the last quarter. The company reported revenue of $20.4 billion for Q1 2016, compared to $22.2 billion previously.
The only Xbox mention in the release came with the announcement that Xbox Live "monthly active users grew 28%" to 39 million. That number does not represent a high-point for the service, but instead represents growth over the same period last year.
Last quarter, the Xbox division remained a shining beacon for Microsoft, showing revenue growth of 27%. Its chief console competitor, Sony's PlayStation 4, continues to lead the sales charts.
Game Scoop!: Games that Didn’t Quite Make Our Top 100
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN's weekly video game talk show.
Last week IGN published our selections for the top 100 games ever made. We last produced a list like this way back in 2008, so it wasn't easy. Now Game Scoop! is discussing the many, many amazing games that had to be cut from the list. Watch the video above or download the podcast below.
Download Game Scoop! Episode 363
Or subscribe in iTunes and never miss an episode.
Windows 10 Fall Update Coming in November
Windows 10's first major features update, also known as Threshold 2, is reportedly set to release next month. It was previously scheduled to release in October, but was later pushed back.
According to Paul Thurrott, the update will release under a new name, the "Windows 10 Fall Update", but there's no specific release date for it outside of a vague November launch. Winbeta, however, is saying it'll arrive on Monday, November 2, though even this has yet to be confirmed.
Power Rangers Movie Casts Its Black Ranger
Lionsgate has cast Ludi Lin to play the Black Ranger in 2017's Power Rangers movie.
A post on the film's official Instagram account announced that its team of Mighty Morphin heroes is coming together, as Lin joins Naomi Scott as the Pink Ranger and Dacre Montgomery's Red Ranger, whose casting was revealed just yesterday.
DC Launching 6 New Comics In January
DC released their full lineup of solicitations for January 2016 this week. Look for half a dozen new series to debut that month, including a new Green Lantern series and the final volume of the Injustice: Gods Among Us saga.
New Series:
- Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #1
- Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #1-2
- The Legend of Wonder Woman #1
- Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1
- Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Deadshot/Katana #1
- Swamp Thing #1
New Creative Teams:
- Tom Taylor and Robson Rocha on Batman/Superman #28
Amazon’s One-Hour Delivery Service Comes to San Francisco
Amazon has announced that Prime Now, its one-hour delivery service, is now available in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Through the service, Amazon Prime members can receive items from milk all the way to laptops within an hour of placing their order online.
Customers in "most" San Francisco and San Jose neighbourhoods can use the service today, with coverage expanding to more neighbourhoods through Silicon Valley over the next 24 hours. To see if your neighbourhood is currently eligible or receiving the service soon, you can enter your ZIP code in the Prime Now app, available on both iOS and Android.
In the Bay Area, Prime Now is available from 8am to midnight, seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free and one-hour delivery is available for $8.
Sony Reveals PlayStation Experience Exhibitors and Games
Sony has named a number of publishers, developers, and games that will be at the PlayStation Experience 2015.
A post on the PlayStation blog reveals that companies such as Square Enix, EA, Naughty Dog Software, Double Fine Productions, Ubisoft, Activision, and Disney (amongst many others!) will have dedicated booth spaces at the community event.
Meanwhile, the blog post also confirms some of the games that will be playable:
- Amplitude
- Assault Android Cactus
- Blind
- Chasm
Real Ghostbusters Get 3D Animated
The 1980s cartoon The Real Ghostbusters has gotten a 3D animation homage.
The studio Zim Animation (as reported by Nerdist) made a shot-for-shot recreation of the cartoon intro theme, including the Ray Parker Jr. theme song that was borrowed from the films. You can see the intro, as well as a side-by-side comparison, below:
The Real Ghostbusters ran for seven years starting in 1986, and loosely followed the film series with the same characters--Egon's wall of hair notwithstanding. The "real" was added so as to avoid confusion with Filmation's "Ghost Busters," based on a 1970s live-action TV show.