The Verge’s entertainment section collects the latest news from the worlds of pop culture, music, movies, television, and video games. Whether you want to know what to watch on Netflix or how to make the most of your streaming service budget, the entertainment section acts a reliable source. There’s simply too much to read, watch, hear, and play. Let us be your tour guide.
Bjooks has published several coffee-table books exploring musical instrument design, the history of Roland, the world of guitar pedals, and more. Its latest covers the evolution of drum machines from 1959’s Wurlitzer Side Man to modern oddities from Erica Synths. There’s only two days left to back it on Kickstarter, though.
Paramount Games Studio puts all of Paramount and Skydance’s development teams under one brand. Weirdly, it will still be making two titles set in Disney universes: Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and an untitled Star Wars game, Variety reports.
There will also be a new AAA title announced at Summer Game Fest Live later today.
Telemundo’s live feed on Peacock will apparently be the first commercial deployment of the efficient Dolby AC-4 codec by a streaming platform, promising immersive stadium sound that shouldn’t overload the network. Peacock will also be streaming the World Cup in 4K and 1080p HDR, according to Dolby spokesperson Andrea Villarreal.
Update and correction: Peacock will stream the games in 4K and 1080p HDR, but won’t offer personalized audio controls as previously stated.
Quilty claims to predict box office success.
The streaming service’s new multiplayer FIFA title — part of its burgeoning library of TV games — launches on June 11th, coincidentally the same day the World Cup kicks off. Netflix also has the US rights for the next two women’s World Cups starting in 2027.
The Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez cancelled an AI animation collaboration with Amazon last week following massive backlash. A new project by two Pixar alums, premiering at Tribeca Film Festival this weekend, shows that not every use of the tech is about fast, cheap slop.
The company just raised $250 million in November against a $2.45 billion valuation — already a staggering jump from its roughly $500 million valuation in 2024. Now it’s more than doubled its valuation to $5.4 billion in just over six months, suggesting that investors haven’t been scared off by looming lawsuits.
The original lightsabers in Star Wars were hacked together from antique camera parts, so it’s fitting that folks are still going back to basics to build new ones. As lightsaber home-build videos are exploding right now on TikTok, it’s fun to see Home Depot embrace it. Sure, you can still buy something fancy directly from Disney, but the best lightsabers in the world have always been built by fans.
Young people do hate AI. “Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me,” 20-year-old director of A24’s horror hit Backrooms told The Australian. “To me, generative AI feels less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot.” Read more about Backrooms on The Verge:
The previous boss, Gabriel Aul, announced his retirement in February with Saxs Persson, once the EVP of the Fortnite ecosystem at Epic, taking over, Business Insider reports.
[Business Insider]
According to the Steam page for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis:
AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.
Crystal Dynamics tells Eurogamer that “we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted.”
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PlayerUnknown Productions is restructuring to a “smaller team” and stopping work on Prologue: Go Wayback, the survival roguelike launched in early access last year.
The studio plans to release one more update and then bring the game out of early access and make it free. It’s “investigating” refunds for people who already bought it.
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Netflix’s next animated series, Dealies, sounds like a weirdo version of Superstore. But it’s especially interesting as its co-creator Joe Bennett was behind both Scavengers Reign and Common Side Effects. No word on when it’ll start streaming.
The idea of a pedal with swappable, console-style effects cards isn’t new. But they don’t normally use actual video game console carts. There’s even a synth cart that you control with an N64 controller. Sadly, the base unit is currently sold out on the Console Pedals Etsy shop.
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Along with announcing when Pokémon Champions will arrive on iOS and Android, The Pokémon Company revealed the signature abilities of Mega Raichu X and Y, which will become playable in Champions after receiving free in-game rewards.
According to Variety, “Amazon execs were concerned that [Martin] Gero’s take on the series would not have broad appeal beyond the franchise’s already dedicated fanbase.” Gero formerly wrote, produced, and directed episodes of all three of the original Stargate series and was set to lead Amazon’s reboot as writer and showrunner.
It was great to see how motion capture was used by the cast of the upcoming God of War Laufey game in Sony’s behind-the-scenes video. Jack Quaid was especially in character for his portrayal of Phranque, a sentient gelatinous cube. 10/10, no notes.
The slasher movie-turned-game series is back with a full-on sequel that launches in 2027. It has a new setting and characters, but the same interactive film format.
The second season of Marathon, Bungie’s highly stylized extraction shooter, starts today. It’s called Nightfall and will be available for everyone to play for free from June 2nd to June 9th, so now’s the time to see if Bungie’s doing enough to keep Marathon alive in the long run. Bungie has the best gunplay in gaming, so here’s hoping.
The franchise has been on quite a run between the SH2 remake and the excellent F, and Townfall looks like it’ll add a new flavor to the horror. It launches on September 24th.
Try the demo ahead of the game’s full release on September 25th. Hopefully Capcom’s strong 2026 run continues.
Survival game Dune: Awakening is getting a port, and will be hitting the PS5 on September 22nd. It’ll include an all-new single-player mode when it does.
We got a look at a dinosaur survival game called The Lost Wild: True Fear Is Primal. It looks like all my Jurassic Park video game dreams come true. It’s slated for PS5 in 2027, and I will be seated.
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was scheduled to launch in 2026, but during Tuesday’s State of Play show, it got a release date of February 12th, 2027. Like Fable, seems it’s steering clear of Grand Theft Auto VI.
Kemuri: Hunt the Unseen, which comes from The Evil Within artist Ikumi Nakamura, is heading to the PlayStation 5 in 2027. The first gameplay trailer offers a glimpse at its characters zipping around the city and battling paranormal creatures.
Bancho the Chef tells the story of how Bancho, the intense chef from Dave the Diver, learned his craft. No word when it will be available, but it’s in the works for PS5.
Sony showed a reveal trailer for Rayman Legends Retold, a 3D reimagining of the 2013 platformer. It launches August 27th. You can watch the trailer below.
If Wolverine was too bloody for you, we also got a new look at Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, the 2D fighting game that might be the ideal way to test Sony’s new fight stick.
Here’s what you can expect from the game, which has the full title Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!:
Pressed into the service of the newly-incarnated buff anime elf, you’ll speed your magic delivery truck to complete objectives across two worlds, running over pedestrians, sending them to another world as Truck-kun, and helping Carissa power up a Galactic Gate with the stars you generate together.
It’s coming to PC and Xbox on July 29th.
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The show, which will run for more than 60 minutes, begins at 5PM ET. First up, Sony is promising a “closer look” at Marvel’s Wolverine, which launches on September 15th.
The revenue will help Yacht Club Games stay afloat after Mina’s lengthy development, per Bloomberg. The game rules, I highly recommend it — it’s also one of the highest-reviewed games of the year.
