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.
CD Projekt Red revealed a new trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, which will feature a new story and cast of characters set in the same futuristic metropolis of Night City. The 10-episode anime will premiere on Netflix on October 20th.
That’s according to an email seen by The Hollywood Reporter. They’re seemingly visible versions of the voluntary “Transparency Tags” that Apple Music introduced in March. Apple doesn’t say how it will enforce the labels, but it did clarify what they’ll apply to:
“Content providers will be required to include AI Transparency Tags in any instance where AI was used to create a material portion of the content, including tracks that are AI platform generated.
There seems to be some egregious (but unconfirmed) AI slop in art book Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Movie, judging by images shared by The Artbook Collector. That any editor allowed this to be included is embarrassing enough, but why even use AI concept art on a project that was rolling in money?
After Ryan Hurst was forced to step away from the leading role in Amazon’s God of War TV series due to an injury, Bautista will be taking over, Variety reports. Bautista was recently rumored to be in talks for the role.
Amp Crash is the latest from the proud lunatics at Death By Audio and Rainger FX.
Plenty of incredible artists have stepped behind the Tiny Desk at NPR’s DC headquarters, from Juvenile and T-Pain to Soul Glo, Tyer the Creator, and even the cast of Sesame Street. But Weird Al Yankovic has now joined the illustrious list of performers invited back for multiple sets.
Felicia Day and company just cleared the $5.7m Kickstarter record for film set by the Veronica Mars movie project. The Guild: Ren Faire’d continues the adventure for the Knights of Good who concluded their original web series in 2013.
YouTube is “close an agreement with several partners” though hasn’t signed any deals yet, according to Bloomberg.
Netflix has been paying YouTube creators, including Alan Chikin Chow, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, to post their videos on Netflix the same time they hit YouTube, Bloomberg recently reported.
Following his breakout success in theaters, director Kane Parsons has returned to YouTube with a new Backrooms short called Everything Must Go. It’s basically like a visit to the surreal set from the film, and the short is also included in both the theatrical re-release and the impending Blu-ray version.
Horizon Hunters Gathering was announced earlier this year, but developer Guerrilla Games has been “working to reboot the game since June” after negative test feedback, according to Bloomberg. The live service elements are apparently being removed, marking yet another live service stumble from Sony. Jason Schreier, who reported the Hunters Gathering news for Bloomberg, has a rundown of Sony’s mostly-failed live service efforts in his video for the story.
As of late, PlayStation has been focusing more on the types of premium single-player games it’s known for. But the next single-player Horizon title “remains years away from completion,” Bloomberg says.
Update: Added Schreier’s video.
Beginning today, Xbox Insiders will be able to “view, sort, and delete local game saves that aren’t currently in use,” according to a blog post about a few new features in testing. Your saves will remain backed up in the cloud.
The changes are designed to get you playing the latest Call of Duty faster, though some of the details differ based on what platform you’re on. Activision’s blog post has the rundown.
Modern Warfare 4’s beta kicks off Friday for people who preordered, and an open beta starts the Friday after. The full game launches on October 23rd. A new multiplayer trailer debuted today ahead of the beginning of the beta.
The sci-fi series was a pleasant surprise when it premiered on Apple TV last year, and for season 2 the show is getting a whole bunch of new cast members, adding the likes of Steve Buscemi and Severance star Tramell Tillman. No word yet on when it’ll start streaming.
I already knew that the film — the latest from Laika, the stop-motion studio behind the likes of Kubo and the Two Strings and Paranorman — looked great. But the latest trailer has me convinced that Wildwood is also going to wreck me. We’ll find out when it hits theaters in October.
Midjourney isn’t the only one getting into body scanners, and Neko Health has touted long lists of potential clients and investors ahead of the US launch. Now it says the SoHo location at 300 Lafayette Street is nearly ready to open, with seven scan rooms for its “non-invasive and radiation-free” $499 check.
The feature, which initially launched on iOS, offers preset playlists for running. It’s available to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden on both mobile platforms, Spotify says.
Few brand deals make more sense than the new Mean Girls and Clueless DLC coming to The Sims 4. The collection drops on August 27th and features a bunch of new fashion options, though sadly I don’t think Cher’s high-tech closet is included.
Spector, known for working on games like Deus Ex and System Shock, says he has three games he still wants to make. But “the game business has changed and it’s just not as much fun for me anymore” and there are new developers who “deserve their time in the sun.”
[LinkedIn]
The US military has offered all kinds of incentives over the years to bait reenlistment, from training to sizable cash bonuses and extra time off. The commander of the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion in Georgia got a little more creative: offering a 4-day pass to specifically coincide with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI. But anyone who’s played GTA knows this should be a 30-day pass.
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, which featured classic characters from the series and launched in 2021, will become unavailable to download on August 20th and will be fully shut down on September 3rd, Konami says.
Symphony of the Night composer Michiru Yamane worked on the game, and we interviewed her back when it came out.
[Castlevania -Grimoire of Souls- Official Website]
The digital version will still launch on September 24th, but the physical release has been moved to October 15th, Remedy says. The game has also gone gold.
Nvidia’s cloud gaming service can now stream more than 5,000 PC games directly in the Mozilla browser, joining existing support for Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Opera GX. It’s the latest effort to get GeForce Now onto as many screens as possible, following its expansions to Linux and Amazon Fire TV this year.
It’s rolling out a new membership program to a group of randomly selected members, who will gain access to rewards based on how many years they’ve been subscribed to the service. Some perks include a one-year Instacart Plus membership, free Pizza Hut pizza, and a 25 percent discount on the NBCU Shop.
And Shadow, Sora, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, and even Joker from Persona 5. They’re joining Fortnite as part of a new gaming-themed season, Override, that launches on August 20th. You can get a preview of what’s to come in a new trailer and a slick video featuring what’s in the battle pass.
HBO just confirmed that It: Welcome to Derry is returning. Season 2 “takes place in 1935 during the Great Depression and centers on the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammo and end up facing unimaginable horror.” No word on when it will premiere.
After saying to This Week in Videogames that he would have been “happy to replace her with AI,” Sacco says CEO Matthew Karch emailed her and “apologized unreservedly for the awful way he spoke about me in the press.” You can read her full statement below.
Sacco, a former lead writer on the recently-announced Rideshare “Stimulator”, had claimed that “Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development.” CEO Matthew Karch denied that Saber “replaced any writers with AI.” The game uses AI for voices, music, and missions, according to its recently-updated Steam page.
