The Black Hood Lives Again
While Archie Comics may be best known for their titular, redheaded hero and their comics based on video game icons like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man, the publisher also controls a superhero-themed imprint called Red Circle Comics. Other than a brief partnership with DC Comics, the heroes of Red Circle have lain mostly dormant in recent years. But that's changing in a big way in 2015. Archie is set to kick off a new line called Dark Circle Comics - one that re-imagines The Shield, The Fox, and Black Hood in a darker and more contemporary light.
Report: Blizzard’s Overwatch Still Considering F2P Model
The development team behind Blizzard's recently-announced Overwatch is reportedly still considering which pay model to implement in the team-based shooter.
This is according to an insider at Activision Blizzard, who spoke to a Yahoo Finance Contributor about Overwatch's development process. The insider claims that the decision between making Overwatch completely free-to-play or expansion-based has yet to be made, but emphasizes that players will be able to access the game for free regardless of the final pay model.
According to the report, developers are allegedly pushing for Overwatch to release this year, but senior executives are skeptical that it will release before 2016.
Report: New Hearthstone Expansion to Release This Spring
An alleged information leak has hinted at the release window of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's next expansion pack.
Speaking with an unnamed Activision Blizzard insider, a Yahoo Finance Contributor learned that the next Hearthstone expansion is expected to launch in April. According to the insider, the expansion will focus on Player vs. Environment (PvE) gameplay, and developers have also supposedly been tinkering with a 2 vs. 2 mode.
Additionally, the source claims Hearthstone's numbers are now "off the charts," having passed over 75 million players.
Watch the Super Bowl XLIX Movie Trailers
Hollywood's cranking out new trailers and TV spots for their upcoming movies to air during this Sunday's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX. You can watch what's been released so far below.
Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Ted 2, Terminator Genisys, and Kingsman: The Secret Service are just some of the hot movies expected to air spots. (You can also check out the new TV commercials and product ads for this year's Big Game here.)
We'll update this article with the final movie ads as they become available before, during and after the Super Bowl!
Why Smaller Conventions Are Better For Everyone
You might have read that PAX South 2015 broke some first-year attendance records, namely those of PAX East and PAX Australia. I can tell you from being there, that it certainly didn’t feel that way when I walked into the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio on day one to a tiny queue line that paled in comparison to those I’d seen at PAXs past. It was a concerning sight, but my concern melted away within a couple of hours on the show-floor. Now I want every convention to be PAX-South-sized, for your sake and for mine.
Regardless of its record-breaking attendance numbers, PAX South 2015 had the smallest show floor I’ve ever seen outside of QuakeCon. I could walk from one end to the other in two minutes or less at a leisurely stroll. Sure, it looks underwhelming compared to the spectacle of E3, but it’s a much better experience. How many times have you had 30 minutes to burn before your next panel and felt like you were already late? At PAX South, that’s enough time to walk the floor, find and play at least one cool thing you missed, and get to your panel with time to spare...where you won’t be waiting on a two-hour line for a seat.
Report: Ouya Receives $10 Million in Funding
Ouya, the Android-powered game console that smashed its Kickstarter goal in 2012, has received $10 million USD from Chinese investor Alibaba.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "people familiar with the matter" say the two companies are working together to incorporate Ouya's software and 1,000+ game library into Alibaba's set-top box.
We reached out to Ouya for confirmation, and a spokesperson declined to comment.
In 2012, Ouya closed out it's Kickstarter with nearly $8.6 million pledged -- well above its $950 thousand goal. Check out our Ouya review for more on the console we called "promising... but marred by design missteps."
Check Out New Tech That Could Change Virtual-Reality Gaming
New ways to game and interact with virtual worlds are popping up every day. Across the gaming industry, VR is making a huge impact on the way we experience games and entertainment, and it's just getting started.
Sony's Project Morpheus, Samsung's Gear VR, and of course, the Oculus Rift, are all pushing the limits of virtual reality and how we interact with the everyday world.
5 Ways You Know the Marvel Universe Really Is Ending
Thanks to Marvel's recent Secret Wars announcement, we know that their upcoming event comic centers around the complete destruction of the Marvel and Ultimate Universes and the creation of a new Battleworld in their place. Plenty of mysteries still remain surrounding Secret Wars and what it means for the ongoing fate of Marvel's comics, but New Avengers #29 shed some interesting light on the nature of this epic conflict.
Here are five ways in which that issue built towards Secret Wars and showed us why the Marvel Universe is doomed.
Warning - spoilers ahead for New Avengers #29!
Unlike DC's multiverse, which has been kept locked at a rigid 52 universes for the past several years, Marvel's multiverse includes countless thousands of alternate realities featuring numerous versions of heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc. But throughout the course of Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers run, we've seen entire universes be destroyed as the problem of "World Incursions" has grown.
Tech Fetish Episode 222: The World Really Likes iPhones
This week the Tech Fetish crew gathers to discuss Apple's Q1 profits of $18 billion USD (yup, billion with a "b"); Bill Gates also warning against the dangers of super intelligent A.I.; Spotify's imminent arrival on PlayStation consoles; and an update to the political situation with internet service in the United States.
NOTE: We recorded this episode a bit early (Wednesday), since Alaina's traveling this week. Today, the FCC did decide to reclassify the definition of broadband to 25Mbps down/3Mbps up in the U.S.
FCC Redefines Broadband Internet
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote to increase the definition of broadband internet from 4Mbps to 25Mbps download speed has officially gone through.
At the new FCC standard of 25Mbps/3Mbps, triple the number of households in the United States are now officially without broadband internet – nearly 20%.
Internet service providers can also no longer claim "high-speed" internet if their services fall below the new standard.
The FCC discussed its plans to raise the broadband threshold earlier this month.
While major providers such as AT&T and Verizon have opposed even a slight upgrade in broadband standards, the FCC still feels more could be done.