For a beautiful few years, you have near-complete control over what your child plays. You decide what’s allowed and when, what to play together, which gems from the past to share with an excited five-year-old. Then a little more time passes, and suddenly the situation is completely different.

There comes a point where kids are more bothered about playing with their friends than playing with you, which – though natural and healthy, and sometimes actually quite a relief if you’ve ever spent painful hours trying to beat annoying bosses for them- can also be a little bit heartbreaking. When my teen stepson was about six, I got so bored of watching him play the same few levels of various Spider-Man games over and over again that I introduced him to Minecraft, and we had a truly cherishable few months exploring the game together and building weird treehouses and underground vaults and pretending to be scared of the zombies.

Then his wee friends got in on the action, and before too long he wasn’t interested in playing with me any more. A little later, he started getting good enough at Spider-Man that Dad didn’t have to sit there beside him to help through the hard bits. He’d come home full of enthusiasm for ropey-ass YouTube-legend games like Five Nights at Freddy’s that had spread around school like wildfire. He was forming his own individual relationship with video games, totally independent from us. And now, years down the line, he has completely different tastes.

My partner and I both have jobs involving video games. The house is full of them, and we have a pretty eclectic gaming diet. We both get a kick out of digging out lesser-known games with some shining distinction: a surreal story, an interesting art style, an extremely clever mechanic. I love huge role-playing games you can sink into for 100 hours; he likes to jump between several games at once, sampling what each has to offer. Our predilections come together on things like Yakuza and the Souls series and diverge on Nintendo (he doesn’t get it) and survival horror (I am a huge wuss), and neither of us really bothers with online play. Despite all of this, we have somehow managed to bring up a Gamer Boy who almost exclusively plays multiplayer shooters and recently refused to try Assassin’s Creed because “it’s in third-person”. I mean, what do you say to that? It’s like refusing to watch a Ghibli film because “it’s animated”.

Your children are not carbon copies of you, of course, and expecting them to be anything like you is the source of a lot of needless familial stress. But it’s fascinating that despite sharing a passion for video games, the teen and I can find so little common ground these days. For a while we had Destiny, but where I was perfectly happy to play it at the weekend for a month or so every time a new expansion came out, he spent hours pretty much every day rolling the dice for the best guns and gear and becoming a juggernaut in the Crucible. His current dual obsessions are Counter-Strike and Fortnite, both of which make me feel about 3000 years old. (Am I out of touch? No… it’s the children who are wrong.)

It’s rewarding too, though, to see your kids forging their own path. I feel the same way when I watch my stepson dominate a round of Fortnite as I probably would if he were amazing at rugby: slightly baffled, but nonetheless proud.

Streamer, programmer, and speedrunner SethBling is always cooking up fascinating new gaming feats: a machine learning Mario Kart AI, an SNES cartridge that runs mods, an Atari emulator that runs inside Minecraft. His latest creation is a 2D version of Minecraft that runs inside a Minecraft chest.

SethBling showed how it works in a video uploaded over the weekend. In Minecraft, he opens a large chest whose 6×9 inventory space has been converted into a 2D area populated by item icons that can be broken down and crafted into stuff, just like in the main game.

He can move his avatar, represented by a tunic and head, left or right by clicking on a block in that direction. When he runs up against a block of rock or wood he can break it apart and acquire the materials. In an inventory screen within the chest screen, he can even combine those materials into new items, like a wooden pickaxe.

SethBling’s Minecraft within Minecraft even has a little house with a bed inside for when contemplating the nature of simulations within simulations proves too exhausting.

SethBling replicated the “real” Minecraft world within the chest using a special /loot command, which can be downloaded as an add-on to the game. This lets the player control the Armor Stand item from the chest screen and interact with the world outside the chest as if the Armor Stand were the player. Everything around the Armor Stand is rendered inside the inventory screen, and anything SethBling breaks apart or changes in the chest happens in whatever part of the world the Armor Stand currently is.

“It’s honestly a very limited system, but it’s enough to look really cool,” SethBling said in his video. “There’s no mobs or anything although that would be cool to add.” SethBling has also added fully-functioning portals and even an internet browser to the game, so sticking a few enemies in his latest Minecraft simulacrum seems like something he could handle.

Over two years ago, Minecraft’s 1.9 patch introduced what Mojang called the Combat Update – a broad set of changes intended to deepen the game’s fighting experience. Even that revamp has never been perfect, and both the Bedrock edition and the original Java version have their own flaws. Now, the developers are testing a major set of new changes that will unify the combat system in both.

“The combat mechanics in Java Edition have been a controversial topic ever since the 1.9 update,” chief creative officer Jens ‘Jeb’ Bergensten says (via Windows Central). We want the mechanics to be the same across all editions, but simply porting Java to Bedrock or vice versa is not taking us forward. We want to find a system that is flexible and works well across all input devices.”

In the test version of the combat revamp, attacks are faster across the board, and you can simply hold down the button to keep swinging. When you stop attacking, an attack timer starts charging up – at 200%, you perform a special attack (with examples like “crits, sweeping, and knockback”) which offers longer reach.

Weapons are now differentiated by different amounts of reach, and faster weapons will now leave shorter invulnerability timers on enemies. Additionally, shields will no longer have a warm-up delay, and can activate while crouching.

All these changes are available for player testing, and you can find instructions to get the beta going on Reddit.

The beta’s been out long enough for player feedback to roll in, and Bergenstein has responded to some of the most common points of concern. Auto-attack will likely be disabled by default for mouse and keyboard users, but the bigger concern is how to balance mobs against the needs of PvP combat – an issue the team hasn’t fully ironed out yet.

Two of YouTube’s biggest stars Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg and James Charles are linking up for KEEMSTAR’s new Monday Minecraft competition that pits some of the biggest content creators around against each other.

While James Charles had a rather unceremonious start to his Twitch career, no one can keep YouTube’s premier makeup guru down and is firing up his channel again to compete in the event.

Meanwhile PewDiePie is again streaming on his platform of choice Dlive as the two popular creators try to make their way through the brackets of KEEMSTAR’s latest event featuring Minecraft.

“I bet this is a friendship and stream that you didn’t see coming.”

To join up on the surprise collaboration, viewers can join either the sisters or the bros by visiting either other their live feeds.

Fans of PewDiePie will be familiar with his antics that can be caught exclusively on DLive, but those who want to tune into James Charles can find him on his Twitch channel: JCharlesBeauty.

The duo are up against 18 other teams vying for the chance to move onto the next round of the Minecraft Monday’s hotly contested bracket.

Minecraft Monday turns educational

Throughout the stream, the pair seemed to have plenty of chemistry as PewDiePie decided to teach James Charles a few things about playing Minecraft. 

Whether it was James learning how to “helicopter” or them talking about why they named their duo “dick and balls,” there was plenty of hilarious antics from start to finish. 

What are the rules in Monday Minecraft?

Keemstar laid out all that entrants need to know in order to assert their dominance in the Monday Minecraft set of rules.

For every Elimination a team gets +10 on their score, meanwhile a Victory Royale nets a squad +30 to their total. Moreover, the “top two teams” get +20 score while the “top three teams” get +10 score to their name.

Just surviving a game will get someone +2 score, but “whenever a team is eliminated all other remaining teams earn +2 score.”

KEEMSTAR TWITTERThe two YouTubers are doing their best to meme their way to the top of Monday Minecraft.

While teams are obviously working together, the scores for Placements, Surviving, and Victory Royales are evenly split between the members of the team unless someone dies. In that case, the scores will be “awarded to the surviving teammate” to “reflect individual contribution.”

There is NO cross-teaming, feeding, mods or resource packs that grant unfair advantages allowed in Monday Minecraft.

While trash talk is definitely allowed, players must “still conduct [themselves] respectfully.” And Keemstar added a note about Clout chase, saying players shouldn’t be a “sore loser” insted just HAVE FUN!

The hilarity is at an all time high as PewDiePie is screaming memes at the top of his lungs, while the new streamer Charles does the best he can while trying to navigate Minecraft and the technical difficulties of live streaming.

A subset of Pokemon fans are complaining because Game Freak has the audacity to re-use animations in Pokemon Sword & Shield. A portion of the Pokemon fanbase has been very vocal in their dislike that Pokemon Sword & Shield won’t be compatible with every Pokemon currently in the franchise. While past games have allowed players to transfer all of their older Pokemon into the game, Game Freak made the decision to limit the number of Pokemon species to an unspecified number due to the need to animate over 900 Pokemon models and close to a thousand different Pokemon moves in a higher fidelity than what was needed in Nintendo 3DS Pokemon games.

Since the announcement was made, a group of Pokemon fans have turned on the main series game developers Game Freak, claiming that their decision was made out of laziness and greed. To prove their point, fans have occasionally posted videos showing side-by-side comparisons of Pokemon Sword & Shield clips with clips from past games that appear to show Pokemon having the same idle animations and battle animations. Other “fans” have made the claim that Pokemon Coliseum, a game containing a fraction of the Pokemon and released over 15 years ago, actually looks better than Pokemon Sword & Shield.

While some of the disappointment is understandable, there’s a couple of erroneous narratives that are in need of correcting. Game Freak director Junichi Masuda stated that the decision was made to focus on higher fidelity animations for the Nintendo Switch, not that they were crafting all new Pokemon models and animations. While it’s clear that Game Freak is re-using some animations and models, increasing the fidelity isn’t an instant process, as explained in this threadby game designer Miodrag Kovachevic. And while there’s plenty of evidence that Pokemon Sword & Shield will use some new animations, Game Freak director Junichi Masuda noted in a previous interview that they attempted to bring over many of the older models and animations, but the higher fidelity rate led to some models needing to be completely re-made.

In addition, a narrative about Game Freak being “stingy” or “cheap” by not hiring enough developers to work on Pokemon Sword & Shield ignores the economic and business reality that it often takes months to properly on-board a new employee to the point that they can contribute to a high-profile project. Plus, finding skilled developers (like any skilled job) can be a long process, one that can’t be fixed in a matter of weeks or even months. There’s an argument to be made that Game Freak should have hired more developers if they wanted to include all 800 Pokemon, but that decision would had to occur years ago to make an impact on Pokemon Sword & Shield.1COMMENTS

At the end of the day, Game Freak and Nintendo have the right to design and release a Pokemon game with as many Pokemon as they want, and Pokemon fans have the right not to buy it if they feel it doesn’t live up to its standards. However, trying to craft a narrative using a few seconds of video seems disingenuous and doesn’t really help the discourse of the game or the toxicity of the fanbase at all.

Pokemon Sword & Shield will be released on November 19th.

Talks of a new video game based on the popular Evil Dead franchise have been swirling around the Internet for some time, with Bruce Campbell himself confirming such a thing is indeed on the way. Unfortunately, he hasn’t spilled any specifics about the inbound title, but word has been circulating that it is going to be a VR experience. That said, Campbell has spoken once again on the Evil Dead game, only this time he made sure to clarify that whatever it is, it definitely is not going to be available on a virtual reality headset.

Taking to Twitter, Campbell revealed that the Evil Dead game is currently in development for PCand consoles. Of course, he didn’t specify which consoles, but one can imagine it will at least arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. “Hey, groovy gamers, this is a swell time to clarify some incorrect info that might be out there (including from me!): the upcoming Evil Dead video game is being developed for consoles and PC, not VR,” he said. “Sorry for any confusion. Game on!”View image on Twitter

Bruce Campbell✔@GroovyBruce

Hey, groovy gamers, this is a swell time to clarify some incorrect info that might be out there (including from me!): the upcoming Evil Dead video game is being developed for consoles and PC, not VR. Sorry for any confusion. Game on! #MyBoomstickIsTooBigForVR #EvilDeadTheGame4,8481:44 AM – Jul 2, 20191,298 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

As can be seen in the tweet above, Campbell then claimed his boomstick is too big for VR and he also may have revealed the title. Evil Dead The Game wouldn’t be the most groundbreaking title in existence, but it certainly would get the job done. Then again, that is entirely speculation at this point and only time will tell if it is indeed the title.2COMMENTS

Speaking of time, according to Campbell’s comments from earlier this year, we will be seeing the arrival of the Evil Dead game within the next year. “We’ll see more Evil Dead, that’s for sure,” said Campbell. “There is an Evil Dead video game out. A fully immersive video game probably within a year. I’m not sure about the day. There will be variations of that. There won’t be the original Ash anymore. That guy is done.”

Toy Story 4 has officially been released into theaters, with fans of all ages going to see it on the big screen alongside fellow fans with popcorn and candy galore. With the nostalgia out in full force at the movies, gamers will be able to get in on the action in one of the most popular games to exist. How they will be able to do this is through the new Toy Story mash-up that has arrived for Minecraft, and with everyone’s favorite characters all included, it is sure to be a great time for fans.

As noted on the Minecraft website, “Woody, Bo Peep, Buzz Lightyear, and some of the other charismatic characters you know and love have taken a detour to the world of Minecraft! All-new characters from Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story4, Duke Caboom and Ducky & Bunny are also joining the adventure!”

“Explore some of the places you love (Andy’s bedroom!) and maybe are a little afraid of (I still have nightmares about Sid’s bedroom), from the teeny perspective of the toys,” Mojang’s Kelsey Howard said. “Yes, you are indeed tiny, which means you’ll have to climb, jump, and solve puzzles to find your way through an enormous, yet familiar world!”View image on Twitter

Minecraft✔@Minecraft

TO INFINITY AND… right into Minecraft? Explore the big world of Disney’s Toy Story as one of the toys themselves! Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and many others – all in the Toy Story Mash-up pack, now on Minecraft Marketplace!

↣ http://redsto.ne/toystory  ↢2,8501:00 AM – Jun 26, 2019491 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

For those looking to get in on the Toy Story action in Minecraft, the new mash-up is currently available in the Minecraft Marketplace for 1,340 Minecoins. While there, you will also find mash-ups along the likes of Steven Universe, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and much more.1

As for Minecraft itself, the massively popular game is available on PC, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. For more information on the title, check out some of our previous coverage.

What do you think about all of this? Are you excited to check out the new Toy Story mash-up for Minecraft? What other popular movies or television shows would you love to see make their way to the game? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!

—–

Exciting news, Pokemon fans — A Wild Podcast Has Appeared, the official Pokemon podcast of ComicBook.com, is here! Check it out by clicking here or listen below.

On today’s episode, we talk about some changes and surprises possibly coming to Pokemon GO (including Team Rocket?!), PokeFusions are back and just as horrifying as ever, and Christian got hands on with Pokemon Sword & Shield! Make sure to subscribe now to never miss an episode!

The latest mashup pack for Minecraft is out now, and it brings Toy Story to the popular sandbox game.

The Toy Story Mash-Up pack adds a number of character skins from the Pixar franchise, including classics like Woody, Buzz, and Bo Peep, as well as new ones from Toy Story 4 such as Keanu Reeves’ Duke Caboom and Ducky & Bunny.

Some of the new locations in the Toy Story Mash-Up Pack include Andy’s bright and colorful bedroom and Sid’s spooky bedroom of horrors. Everything is scaled down to be seen from the perspective of a toy. That puts a new spin on Minecraft as you’ll need to jump and climb around.

The Toy Story Mash-Up Pack is available now on Xbox and PC for $8 USD. Click through the images in the gallery above to get a closer look at the new character skins.

Toy Story is just the latest mega-franchise to come to Minecraft with a Mash-Up Pack. Some of the other notable ones include The Simpsons, Pirates of the Caribbean, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Minecraft remains immensely popular, and Microsoft continues to expand the franchise with new extensions. While Minecraft 2 may not be happening, a new game called Minecraft Dungeons is on the way. Additionally, a Pokemon Go-style AR game called Minecraft Earth is in development as well.

While everyone can’t stop talking about Apex Legends and Fortnite, Minecraftcontinues to be one of the most played games in the world. Microsoft revealed today that the block-building phenomenon still has more than 91 million monthly active players. For comparison, Epic Games said Fortnite has 78 million monthly active players back in September.

Minecraft has ascended into a gaming institution like Pokémon. And now, Microsoft is adding Minecraft to Xbox Game Pass. For $10 per month, you can get Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Crackdown 3, and — beginning April 4 — Minecraft.

“Since its launch in 2009, the Minecraft community has remained one of the most active and passionate in gaming, attracting over 91 million players [each month] of all ages from virtually every country in the world,” Xbox Game Pass marketing boss Parimal Deshpande said. “Those joining through Xbox Game Pass will enter a vibrant, global community that plays across 20 unique platforms like Windows 10, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and mobile.”

More people for Minecraft Marketplace

Minecraft is not free-to-play, but it still seems ubiquitous. But by adding Minecraft to Game Pass, Microsoft could amplify that effect. And it is simultaneously boosting Games while exposing more people to Minecraft’s in-game store.

“Xbox Game Pass players will also gain access to an ever-expanding array of content for purchase via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace,” said Deshpande. “[The Marketplace] contains over 1,000 pieces of content from 60 distinct creators.”

The Minecraft Marketplace is a major focus for Micorosft. It treats it more as an ongoing service. That’s why it’s available everywhere and supports cross-play. And enabling community creators to build and sell content is a part of that. This ensures the game continues to make revenue and players have an abundance of fresh content beyond The Minecraft Team’s frequent updates.

And now Game Pass players can hop into Minecraft without spending any extra money, and they may end up spending cash in the Marketplace instead.

The Minecraft Marketplace once again had a huge month. Fans showed up for 3,320,063 free and premium downloads through the in-game store. That’s down from 4.56 million in January and 10.8 million in December. But year-over-year, downloads increased 791 percent from 372,509 downloads.

That huge growth has come due in part to the attention that Microsoft and The Minecraft Team are giving the service. The developer has added features like search and real-money prices. And the team has also worked to regularly deliver free content to keep people coming back.

All of that has paid off, and now the Minecraft Marketplace’s future seems very bright.

Let’s get to the charts.

Top 10 most downloaded

Click to view slideshow.

1. Legacy Skin Pack by Minecraft

“Get cracking with these starter skins and old favorites brought over from Minecraft editions of yore. Widen your wardrobe, turn out in a tux, or rock it as a croc.”

2. Purple Parrot Party Palace by Minecraft

“A celebration of all things purple parrot party and palace. Master the mechanics of fireworks, armor stands, jukeboxes, and banners. Traverse a jungle island to find a massive parrot temple. Part tutorial and part adventure, this map will make your parrot dance.”

3. Grid Runners by Noxcrew

“Take on Noxcrew’s Grid Runners: a mini-game map made of classic Minecraft challenges where you can craft, mine, and jump your way to victory. Compete against the clock for the fastest times and team up with all of your friends to find out who is the ultimate Minecraft champion. This is a free map created exclusively for Minecon Earth 2018.”

4. Abstraction: Minecon Earth by Jigarbov Productions

“Featuring the logos that were just begging to be played on, MineCon Earth has floating landmasses with a surprising amount of hidden secrets and challenges.”

5. Pet Shop by Pixelheads

“Welcome to Pet Shop. Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk. Cats, hamsters, lizards, poodles, capuchin monkeys, snails, hedgehogs, snakes, German shepherds, parakeets, penguins, rats, piggies, ferrets, koalas, chameleons, and rottweilers.”

6. Luxury Life by Pixelheads

“Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”

7. Dragons by InPvP

“Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider. Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.”

8. Advanced Farming by GameMode One

“Farm your heart out with new machines, vehicles, animals, pets, vendors, characters, and lands to explore. Fully functioning machines and vehicles. New and improved farm animals. Huge custom farm and ranch. A peaceful and relaxing roleplay countryside experience. Progress through the economy and optimize your farm.”

9. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft

“Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worth mash-up. Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, and original music from the show and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld. Believe in Steven.”

10. City Life by Pixelheads

“Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.”

Top 10 highest grossing

Click to view slideshow.

1. Pet Shop by Pixelheads

“Welcome to Pet Shop. Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk. Cats, hamsters, lizards, poodles, capuchin monkeys, snails, hedgehogs, snakes, German shepherds, parakeets, penguins, rats, piggies, ferrets, koalas, chameleons, and rottweilers.”

2. Advanced Farming by GameMode One

“Farm your heart out with new machines, vehicles, animals, pets, vendors, characters, and lands to explore. Fully functioning machines and vehicles. New and improved farm animals. Huge custom farm and ranch. A peaceful and relaxing roleplay countryside experience. Progress through the economy and optimize your farm.”

3. Luxury Life by Pixelheads

“Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!”

4. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft

“Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worth mash-up. Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, and original music from the show and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld. Believe in Steven.”

5. Dragons by InPvP

“Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider. Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.”

6. City Life by Pixelheads

“Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.”

7. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios

“With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!”

8. Dinosaur Island by Pixelheads

“This once-idyllic island has been overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments. Explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island in a completely new adventure on Dinosaur Island.”

9. CampCraft by Blockworks

“A vast wilderness awaits you and your friends in CampCraft. Discover forest animals, ride camper vans, toast marshmallows, sit around the campfire, and set up your own camp.”

10. Shopping Time by Cyclone Designs

“It’s shopping time. Spend emeralds around town to buy furniture, cars, bikes, boats, pets, and much more. Decorate a pre-built house or build your own in a vacant plot and let your creativity and imagination flow.”

Minecraft is still one of the most popular games in the world. It has 91 million monthly active players, according to Microsoft. And now The Minecraft Team is working to ensure the game doesn’t open with any references to its old creator, Markus “Notch” Persson.

In the latest update to Minecraft, the game will no longer say “Made by Notch!” or “The Work Of Notch!” when you first boot up the game. Other messages will continue to show up randomly when you’re loading into the block-building phenomenon. But any reference to Persson is gone from that splash screen.

But this isn’t Microsoft trying to erase Notch’s contributions from the game. His name still shows up in the credits. But Microsoft no longer seems interested in celebrating him, either. While that may have more to do with establishing Microsoft as the sole owner and operator of Minecraft, it seems likely that the company does not want to associate with Notch’s edgelord shitposting behavior.

Microsoft deserves the credit for saving Minecraft from its creator

Microsoft purchased Minecraft and developer Mojang from Notch for $2.5 billion in 2014. Since then, Microsoft has worked to transition the game into a live service with cross platform capabilities and a thriving, community-supported marketplace.

Notch, meanwhile, has turned into a lonely, bizarre internet creep. Despite having billions of dollars and a Beverly Hill mansion with towering candy dispensers all along one of its walls, he spends time trying to provoke people on Twitter.

He regularly makes bigoted remarks and claims to believe in conspiracy theories like QAnon, which isn’t worth explaining. It’s likely that he doesn’t care about what he’s actually saying. He just wants to trigger snowflakes.

And that is the person that Microsoft saved Minecraft from. Notch released Minecraft 10 years ago, but it’s still most popular among young kids. When children grow interested in the game, it’s inevitable that some will want to learn who is making it.

One option is to tell children that it is like a holy text that came to us from aliens.

zara tustra@zarawesome

son: this minecraft game is great dad

dad: it is indeed son

son: who made it?

dad: no one. it came from space23.9K6:35 AM – Dec 7, 2018Twitter Ads info and privacy6,033 people are talking about this

But Microsoft is solving this by taking ownership over Minecraft on a cultural level. Microsoft is the company that released the Xbox One Adaptive Controllerto make games more accessible for disabled people. And now it’s the company that is tearing Notch out of Minecraft while continually building the game up. In the decades to come, Microsoft will get the credit for establishing Minecraft as a time-tested pop-culture icon.

And as a parent, that is such a relief.

2019 is the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, one of the biggest games in the world. As part of its ongoing celebration, publisher Microsoft revealed today that lifetime sales of Minecraft have surpassed 176 million copies across consoles, PC, and mobile. It also said that developer Mojang is working on a new game in the beloved franchise. No, it’s not Minecraft 2. But it has the potential to be bigger than that.

Minecraft Earth is a free-to-play augmented reality game for iOS and Android that transports the familiar block-building gameplay into the real world. You’ll gather resources, fight against mobs (Minecraft’s deadly monsters), and interact with other people’s creations. Mojang will launch a closed beta this summer, and you can sign up for it here.

In a blog post, Microsoft said Minecraft Earth is using the company’s Azure Spatial Anchors AR tracking technology and integrates with its backend platform PlayFab.

If the worldwide success of Niantic’s Pokémon Go is anything to go by, Minecraft Earth should have no trouble finding a dedicated audience — just think of the millions of children who grew up with the original game. Minecraft is also known for having absurdly creative players who build the most intricate sculptures, and giving them the tools to put their creations into AR is an exciting prospect.

It’ll be a busy summer for Mojang. In addition to running the Minecraft Earth beta, the developer will be preparing to host its annual Minecon livestream (which use to be a physical conference) on September 28.

That’s usually the time where Mojang reveals big new updates about Minecraft, and assuming Minecraft Earth isn’t out yet, perhaps we’ll hear more about the new mobile game as well.

Above: Hard to believe that the game came out in 2009.Image Credit: Mojang

A strong but complicated legacy

Before Fortnite took the crown, Minecraft was gaming’s biggest pop culture phenomenon, leading to the creation of spinoffs, a boatload of toys, and other miscellaneous merchandise. More than 91 million people still play the game every month. A lot of streaming and YouTube personalities built their careers off creating videos that chronicle their Minecraft adventures.

The game’s ubiquity is one big reason for its success. While Minecraft originally launched on PC, it’s now available on practically every modern platform, including virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. The Minecraft Marketplace, where players can sell their fancy builds, also provides fresh content on a consistent basis.

Most of this expansion came after Microsoft bought the game and Mojang from original creator Markus “Notch” Persson for $2.5 billion in 2014. As GamesBeat PC Gaming editor Jeff Grubb wrote in March, the reclusive developer has turned into a “bizarre internet creep” who regularly espouses conspiracy theories on social media.

But with the recent removal of Notch’s name from Minecraft’s splash screen (he’s still in the credits), Microsoft has been slowly trying to distance itself away from him. And that’s for the best, especially as the company prepares to launch another potentially lucrative version of the game.

The Minecraft Marketplace had another huge month thanks to its Spring Sale. Players zipped into the store for 7,409,421 downloads. That’s approximately double March’s 3,705,978 downloads.

For the Spring Sale, Microsoft invited fans to get up to 75% off the various items in the Marketplace. It ran from April 19 through April 21, and seems like another big success for building the Minecraft Marketplace brand.

Here’s how the download and revenue charts sorted out:

Top 10 most downloaded

Click to view slideshow.

1. City Living by Noxcrew

Get the full lifestyle experience with luxury apartments, office buildings, and even vehicles you can drive. Pick your perfect home or take in the sights. Customize your world with brand new models, blocks, and textures. Comes with 30 free skins.

2. Pet Shop by PixelHeads

Welcome to Pet Shop! Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk!

3. Dragons by InPVP

Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider! Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.

4. Luxury Life by PixelHeads

Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!

5. Springtime by CubeCraft

Spring is here! Dress up as a cute Easter bunny or choose from a variety of pastel colored outfits – even onesies!

6. Dinosaur Island by PixelHeads

Overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments, explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island.

7. City Life by PixelHeads

Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter, or take your dog for a walk.

8. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft

Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worthy Mash-up! Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, original music from the show, and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld.

9. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios

With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!

10. Dreamlife by Shapescape

Welcome to your Dreamlife! Get a tan at the beach, go shopping at the city mall with your friends, relax at the pool, or tear up the neighborhood in your own monster truck. Dress up fancy, sporty, or casual with our 12 included free skins.

Top 10 highest grossing

Click to view slideshow.

1. City Living by Noxcrew

Get the full lifestyle experience with luxury apartments, office buildings, and even vehicles you can drive. Pick your perfect home or take in the sights. Customize your world with brand new models, blocks, and textures. Comes with 30 free skins.

2. Pet Shop by PixelHeads

Welcome to Pet Shop! Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle, or take a snake for a walk!

3. Dragons by InPVP

Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider! Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.

4. Luxury Life by PixelHeads

Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions, and decorate with furniture!

5. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios

With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and minigames around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!

6. Steven Universe Mash-Up by Minecraft

Steven enters the Minecraft universe in this Diamond-worthy Mash-up! Contains Steven Universe themed skins, textures, original music from the show, and all your favorite locations, from Beach City to Homeworld.

7. Dinosaur Island by PixelHeads

Overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments, explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island.

8. The Nightmare Before Christmas by Minecraft

A nightmare? Before Christmas? Enjoy this themed pack by Minecraft.

9. City Life by PixelHeads

Cruise through the big city in City Life! Chase down a bandit in your police car, save the day as a firefighter or take your dog for a walk.

10. Advanced Farming by Gamemode One

Farm your heart out with new machines, vehicles, animals, pets, vendors, characters, and lands to explore. This peaceful and relaxing roleplay countryside experience also includes custom sounds and music!

Minecraft is now 10 years old, and Microsoft held an anniversary event last month to celebrate. That included a free level that helped push the Minecraft Marketplace to 9,412,745 downloads in May. That’s a huge result that’s ahead of the 7.4 million downloads for April.

As part of the anniversary, the Minecraft Team worked with community dev Blockworks to release a free map called “10 Years of Minecraft.” That map alone composed 4,059,094 of May’s downloads.Recommended Videos

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In “10 Years of Minecraft,” players get to experience a virtual walkthrough of the game’s history. In certain parts of the world, you can see what the game looked like when it began, get a look at all of the mobs, and interact with various Redstone machinery.

Let’s get to the charts, which only include paid content this month. Obviously, “10 Years of Minecraft” would top the list if it included free content as well.

Top 10 most downloaded

 6. Lucky Block Race10

 5. Furniture Shapescape

1. City Living by Noxcrew

Get the full lifestyle experience with luxury apartments, office buildings, and even drivable vehicles. Pick your perfect home, or take in the sights. Customize your world with brand new models, blocks, & textures. Comes with 30 free skins.

2. Furniture: Modern by Spark Squared

Decorate your home with over 350 furniture options. Mod your living room, bedroom, kitchen, and even your garden! Design your dream house like never before.

3. Dragons by InPVP

Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider! Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.

4. Pet Shop by PixelHeads

Welcome to Pet Shop! Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle or take a snake for a walk!

5. Furniture by Shapescape

Take your creative building and roleplaying to the next level by bringing some new furniture into your home! Load up the moving truck with all your latest purchases from the warehouse, drive home and live the luxury life.

6. Lucky Block Race by Volcano

The classic we all love is here and is better than ever! Race with your friends in the fun-packed Lucky Block Race. The rules are simple; if you’re the luckiest, then you’re our winner!

7. Luxury Life by PixelHeads

Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!

8. City Mash-Up by Everbloom Studios

With over 1,000 hand-detailed rooms, there are stories, secrets, and mini-games around every corner. Build with the city’s full texture pack in your own worlds or take on any role you can imagine!

9. Dinosaur Island by PixelHeads

Overrun by prehistoric beasts after the scientists lost control of their genetic experiments, explore and discover the hidden mysteries of this intriguing island.

10. Zombie Apocalypse by Pixelheads

The Zombie Apocalypse is here! Explore a run-down, overgrown city taken over by cyborg zombies. To survive, you must scavenge for food and weapons, and fight off the zombies.

Top 10 highest grossing

 6. Furniture Shapescape

 5. Pet Shop

1. Furniture: Modern by Spark Squared

Decorate your home with over 350 furniture options. Mod your living room, bedroom, kitchen, and even your garden! Design your dream house like never before.

2. Lucky Block Race by Volcano

The classic we all love is here and is better than ever! Race with your friends in the fun-packed Lucky Block Race. The rules are simple; if you’re the luckiest, then you’re our winner!

3. Dragons by InPVP

Take one of six dragons to the skies and become a legendary dragon rider! Surprise your enemies with custom attacks. Shoot fireballs and drop TNT. Explore three huge castles and the beautiful custom landscape.

4. City Living by Noxcrew

Get the full lifestyle experience with luxury apartments, office buildings, and even drivable vehicles. Pick your perfect home or take in the sights. Customize your world with brand new models, blocks, & textures. Comes with 30 free skins.

5. Pet Shop by PixelHeads

Welcome to Pet Shop! Choose between 17 lovely pets. Explore a town and earn coins by collecting poop or by catching stray animals. Play fetch with dogs, trim a poodle or take a snake for a walk!

6. Furniture by Shapescape

Take your creative building and roleplaying to the next level by bringing some new furniture into your home! Load up the moving truck with all your latest purchases from the warehouse, drive home and live the luxury life.

7. Epic Sky Block by Razzleberries

A lone island in the sky brings the most extreme survival challenge ever. With no resources, only skill and wit can save you from a certain demise!

8. Luxury Life by PixelHeads

Luxury Life is a world where you role-play life as a billionaire. Cruise the streets in a sports car or any of the 10 other vehicles, explore luxurious mansions and decorate with furniture!

9. Mineville Hotel Resort by InPvP

It’s time for a vacation. You deserve it! Join us today at the beautiful Hotel Resort, where all your wishes will come true. Enjoy an all-inclusive trip (free breakfast)!

10. Millionaire’s Luxury Boat by Nitric Concepts

Sail into your new luxurious mansion with a multi floor yacht! Explore the town or sail the seas with 6 colors of jet skis to fit your style. Inhabit the coastal mansions or build your own dream house over the ocean.

Spider-Man: Far From Home producer Amy Pascal speaks on the decision to update classic characters for the big screen.

The new Spider-Man trilogy hasn’t been shy about taking classic characters and reworking them for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was somewhat of a risk for Sony and Marvel Studios, but co-producer Amy Pascal believes it’s paying off.

Pascal told ComicBook.com that these vintage Spider-Man characters, which were originally creations of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, were made to change with the times. In switching things up, Pascal believes she is merely following the lead of comic book creators who have put their own spin on the wall-crawler’s supporting characters:

“I think that they’re the great thing about what Stan and Steve did, is that they are characters that can be reinterpreted. It’s 1962, it’s a long time for something to remain fresh, and yet it’s been able to. I think that’s because just like all of the artist who did all of the various spectacular, amazing, ultimate, everything have been able to reinterpret these kind of classical characters. We’re able to do that, too.”

While Pascal didn’t grow up reading comics, she admits she quickly fell in love with the character of Peter Parker after Sony producer Avi Arad began developing a Spider-Man film at Sony in the late ’90s:

“Oh, you think I was born a comic book nerd? I was not. Avi Arad, when he first brought Spider-Man to Sony, which was in the late ’90s, I’m like, ‘I like that Peter Parker character,’ because I could relate to Peter Parker. I understood him. He’s just a normal kid with the same problem, money problems, love problems, family problems, the same stuff that everybody has. I could completely relate to him.”

Marvel Studios has updated a number of characters for the MCU, ranging from Doctor Strange’s Wong to Black Panther’s M’Baku. Although the characters weren’t entirely overhauled, key changes were made so they would better translate to the big screen.

Michael Keaton’s Vulture further proved that Marvel Studios can revitalize a character. Not only did the studio manage to make Adrian Toomes grounded and relatable, but he was also a far cry from the sometimes corny villain he was in the comics. Now, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio seems set to do the same. It’s likely Quentin Beck will end up becoming a villain in Spider-Man: Far From Home but, with the trailers touting him as an ally of Peter Parker, it appears there will be layers to him.NEXT: Spider-Man: Far From Home: 15 fan theories

Based on early reviews, Gyllenhaal gives a standout performance, and most of this can probably be contributed to the changes to his characterization. Given these reactions, Sony and Marvel Studios will likely continue to alter characters. Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 2.

If it isn’t entirely obvious from our years and years of coverage, we here at CinemaBlend are big fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Going back to 2008, the movies have continued to delight and surprise, and while some titles are better than others, each one has provided its own special flavor to the franchise that we’ve been able to appreciate in its own way. Of course, there are still many debates among the staff, from best villain to strongest hero, but one big question has always stood out among them all: what’s the best Marvel Studios film?

In order to get to the bottom of this everlasting conflict, our superhero podcast HeroBlend has spearheaded a little endeavor. A few weeks back we sent out a survey to interested members of our staff and had everyone rank the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe from best to worst. While no two rankings ended up being the same (seriously, you’d be surprised by the variety), we were able to average the results and determine our democratic picks.

Before we get into that, however, we want to get you in on this action too. Below you’ll find an exact copy of the same survey we sent out to our staff, and we’d love it if you would share your opinions on this great debate as well. We’ll then follow up by covering the final results of rankings in an upcoming episode of HeroBlend!

Now that you’ve done that, let’s dive into the rankings, shall we?

22. The Incredible Hulk

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was still trying to figure out what it wanted to be back in 2008, and while the franchise quickly made some interesting moves by foregoing a simple origin story when making The Incredible Hulk, in retrospect it’s not exactly their best effort. It has some good parts, and is a decent treatment of the character, but it’s also a mixed bag tonally, and doesn’t exactly have the most complex plot.

21. Thor: The Dark World

Sequels are usually a great opportunity to expand on characters and the specific worlds in which they live, but Thor: The Dark World is sadly a bit of a misfire. While it’s ultimately redeemed by its bonkers third act – which is a crazy amount of fun – this isn’t exactly the most exciting Marvel adventure, and it also notably has the weakest villain featured in the franchise to date (we’re still not entirely clear on what it was that Malekith and his Dark Elves were trying to ultimately accomplish).

20. Iron Man 2

There is no question that the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t be what it is today without Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, but to paraphrase the genius/billionaire/playboy/philanthropist, Iron Man 2 is an example of a franchise running before it’s ready to walk. There is no denying the importance of this chapter, especially because it brought both War Machine and Black Widow to life for the first time, but its story is definitely messy as a result of too many plotlines competing for attention in the narrative.

19. Captain Marvel

After more than a decade in existence, Marvel Studios tried to shake up the traditional origin story in the making of Captain Marvel, and while the movie doesn’t fully work in that respect (ultimately still including a number of the traditional tropes and narrative moves), it’s also a blockbuster with some really big surprises. Brie Larson is most definitely a rad addition to the franchise, adding a great dose of spunk and charisma to the cosmic and Earthbound hero, and we’re immensely excited about what kind of future adventures we’ll soon see the character take on.

18. Iron Man 3

Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe offered up the opportunity for blockbusters to start melding the superhero characters with a wide variety of different genres, and Iron Man 3’s take on a noir detective story is a lot of fun, and packs more than a few significant twists. It’s a smart look at Tony Stark – is he the hero, or is it all about the suit? – and features some of the best one-liners in the MCU canon.CLOSE AD

17. Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Expectations were crazy high for Avengers: Age Of Ultron back in 2015 – so high, arguably, that it never had a chance of fully reaching them – but the film is still an epic, thrilling, and fun example of super blockbuster storytelling. Both Scarlet Witch and Vision make for compelling and important new additions to the franchise, and it’s legitimately impressive what kind of threat the titular villain and his army of robots pose for Earth’s mightiest heroes.

16. Thor

Thor was a bit of a gamble for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being a very out-there story being told as the franchise’s fourth feature, but it also provided a solid start on the big screen for one of the most important characters in the canon. It’s a film that was vitally important in establishing the tonal approach for almost every title that followed it, and it made some of the best early casting decisions in the brand’s history by bringing unknowns Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston into the fold (not to mention the star power of Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, and Idris Elba, among others).

15. Ant-Man And The Wasp

Given the nature of their powers, Ant-Man and The Wasp are characters who are best suited to star in “smaller” adventures, and Ant-Man And The Wasp delivers a super fun and fantastic one that wonderfully goes to all kinds of weird places. Picking up where they left in their first movie, Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly make for an awesome, kick-ass duo, and Peyton Reed does some delightful things with the action while utilizing the special growing and shrinking abilities.

14. Doctor Strange

Prior to the release of Doctor Strange, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was exclusively a science-fiction-based franchise, but the introduction of Benedict Cumberbatch’s titular hero totally changed the game. Featuring some awesome supporting performances from Tilda Swinton and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the movie is a mind-bender of the highest order, and features some of the most insane and beautiful visuals we’ve seen in modern blockbuster filmmaking. Even after multiple rewatches it’s still not entirely clear how the film was able to pull off some of its most bombastic sequences.

13. Ant-Man

Being one of the original Avengers, Ant-Man was one of the first films developed by Marvel Studios, and while it took an extra minute to arrive (and had a few behind-the-scenes issues), it’s still one of weirdest and best origin stories we’ve seen from the franchise. Under other circumstances a blockbuster about a shrinking hero who can control ants might not fly, but the special Marvel magic – not to mention the endless charisma of Paul Rudd – make this one a winner.

12. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

Audiences were left asking some big questions about the Guardians of the Galaxy following their big screen debut, and through thoughtful care and his excellent filmmaking abilities, James Gunn delivered yet another awesome story for the titular team with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It’s still kind of nuts that we live in an era when a ridiculous comic book character like Ego The Living Planet can be brought to the big screen (and played by Kurt Russell, no less), but that’s the world we live in now, and along the way we’re also getting excellent stories with deeply-felt themes about family.

11. Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America has arguably had the strongest run thus far in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it all started with his fantastic debut in Captain America: The First Avenger. The period storytelling gives it a style totally unto itself, with Joe Johnston perfectly recapturing the magic he previously generated with The Rocketeer, and Chris Evans immediately elevated the character beyond the simple boy scout/propaganda tool he could have been depicted as. It’s also extra fascinating to watch when you know the direction that the hero goes in as his big screen arc continues.

10. Black Panther

Ryan Coogler took on one of the greatest challenges so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by introducing the nation of Wakanda, and he not only successfully pulled it off, but crafted one of the most complex and philosophically intriguing chapters we’ve seen yet within the franchise with Black Panther. It’s crazy rare to see a blockbuster where both the hero and villain’s perspectives carry comparable weight and deserve equal consideration, and the Black Panther/Killmonger conflict brings just that – and on top of it all it’s fantastic to see how the simple addition of Vibranium can spice up an action sequence.

9. Iron Man

Marvel Studios movies have obviously come a long way in the last 11 years – explaining why only two titles in this Top 10 come from pre-2012 – but that being said Iron Man is still a phenomenal delight. Not only is Robert Downey Jr.’s charisma just totally off the charts, and the visual effects surprisingly spectacular, but even at the very start of everything the brand was upending expectations about what a big screen superhero story could be (we’ll never forget the way it tore down the secret identity concept with its final line). It’s a film we’re excited to watch every time we start a few franchise rewatch.

8. Captain America: Civil War

It was once thought that Marvel Studios would save all of its big team-up adventures for its Avengers movies, but then Captain America: Civil War came along in 2016 to blow minds. It’s honestly remarkable how the film perfectly plays on the developing arcs of both Cap and Iron Man, putting them on opposite sides of a smart and considered philosophical conflict, and on top of that it makes fantastic use of its broad ensemble of characters. These blockbusters are all crazy juggling acts, it’s amazing to see the way it manages to keep all of the balls in the air without missing a beat.

7. The Avengers

The Avengers is the picture-perfect definition of a game changer. Prior to 2012 it wasn’t entirely clear if the grand Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment would actually pay off, but Joss Whedon, armed with a very clear personal love for the characters and their history, put together a blockbuster that wonderfully highlights the greatest aspects of all of them – both when they are in extreme conflict and working together. It goes without saying that the franchise wouldn’t be what it is today if this one didn’t work, and its 45 minute-long third act action sequence remains as one of the best spectacles we’ve seen in modern cinema.

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming

Prior to the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, it wasn’t entirely clear if the world was ready for yet another film about the wall-crawler – specifically because the hero had already been featured in two other separate franchises. Fortunately Spidey’s first solo film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe totally changed everybody’s mind by offering up a fresh, funny, and exciting new take on the high school-aged character. Not only is Tom Holland perfect in the lead role, but Michael Keaton’s Vulture is one of the best villains we’ve seen in the canon thus far – managing to somehow both be sympathetic and scary.

5. Thor: Ragnarok

As reflected in the rankings above, Thor didn’t have the greatest run when it came to solo movies prior to 2017, but Taika Waititi totally changed that pattern in the best way with Thor: Ragnarok. It required stripping away everything the character loves, including his father, his hammer, and even his hair, but the reinvention works perfectly, and it’s shocking just how funny the film is. It’s also arguably the best depiction of Hulk we’ve seen on the big screen to date, with the big green monster not only finding a voice, but also doing quite a lot of exciting smashing.

4. Guardians Of The Galaxy

Prior to 2014, nobody knew who the Guardians of the Galaxy were, but James Gunn worked his magic and now they are some of the most popular heroes around the globe. How? Because Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the best space operas ever committed to celluloid. The writer/director took some liberties with the source material, brought together some bizarre misfit heroes, and put together one of the best MCU casts, and end result was two-plus hours of delightful fun unlike anything any other comic book movie had previously attempted. Marvel took an absolutely massive swing with this property, but wound up hitting a home run on the first pitch.

3. Avengers: Infinity War

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started teasing the arrival of Thanos all the way back in 2012, and while some thought it was building too much hype to possibly pay off, Avengers: Infinity War proved all doubters wrong. Taking the spotlight in the 2018 blockbuster, the Mad Titan proved to be every bit the formidable and dangerous foe that audiences were promised, and the results are incredible and epic – all building to one of the most devastating endings in blockbuster history. The scope of the film is remarkable, not to mention the careful treatment of its absolutely massive ensemble, and it is amazing how it highlights just how much we’ve grown to care about these characters over the years.

2. Captain America: The Winter Solider

Joe and Anthony Russo never directed a blockbuster before taking on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, let alone an action movie, and that’s a stunning fact in retrospect. The movie’s plot channels 1970s conspiracy thrillers in the best way, crafting a wonderful mystery surrounding its two eponymous characters, but what truly makes the film standout is its endless series of insane and pulse-pounding action sequences that make you want to leap out of your chair every five minutes. After this debut, it was a surprise to nobody that Marvel trusted the brothers with three of their most ambitious projects ever.

1. Avengers: Endgame

It should have been an impossible task distilling 11 years-worth of films into one epic blockbuster, but the craftsmanship in the making of Avengers: Endgame is second to none – which explains why our staff has ranked it as the best Marvel Studios film we’ve seen so far. It’s not only an immensely satisfying experience for fans who have been following the franchise from the beginning, it’s also just a ridiculous crowd-pleaser in every respect. It’s hilarious; it’s tear-jerking; it’s thrilling; and it’s endlessly surprising. It’s everything you want it be after 22 movies, and makes our imaginations run wild thinking about what the next 22 movies might bring to the big screen.

How does our list compare with yours? If you haven’t already, go back to the top and take our survey, and stay tuned for more of our Marvel Cinematic Universe coverage here on CinemaBlend!

Disney re-released Avengers: Endgame this past Friday, presumably as part of a push to outperform Avatar at the global box office. In an effort to incentivize fans to revisit the film, directors Joe and Anthony Russo attached spoiler-y treats at the end of the credits. Even Captain America actor Chris Evans is urging fans to re-watch the film. But even with these boosts, the final Avengers installment may not reach the numbers it needs to in order to beat James Cameron’s box office behemoth.

Avatar pulled in $2.79 billion worldwide, earning most of its money overseas. According to Deadline, only 34% of the film’s lifetime gross came from the U.S. and China, contrasting starkly with Endgame‘s 53% U.S./China haul. Avatar‘s near-mythic number sent box office analysts, critics, and other industry experts reeling and, at the time, seemed impossible for other films to top. And it still might be.

That belief still holds. Even now, against a glut of superhero movies fighting for its coveted status, Avatar remains a formidable opponent. Only about $30 million stands between Avengers: Endgame and that close-but-not-that-close crown, but without substantial hauls overseas, its victory isn’t guaranteed. Nor is it likely. No matter how badly Robert Downey Jr. wants it to be. As charming and persuasive as he might be, he may not even be able to influence enough viewers to make a box office thrashing possible.

The Avengers: Endgame re-release is largely a domestic push, but it will also play in Mexico, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Spain, Russia, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand. Avengers: Endgame has no shot at beating Avatar‘s huge numbers in a lot of key countries, including France, Japan, Germany, Russia, and Italy. Also, it’s not re-releasing in China, so that extra potential money is off the table.

Here’s the thing: When Avatar hit theaters back in 2009, it was an absolute sensation. Screenings sold out quickly and frequently (even weeks into the film’s release), and it seemed to be all people were discussing. James Cameron’s revolutionary technology stunned, thrilled, and enthralled audiences, many of whom probably took the beauty at face value without realizing how special it was. Even knowing that everyone and their mom had seen the movie and were going back for seconds, I didn’t expect its box office numbers to climb as high as they did.

Personally, I’d watch Endgame over Avatar any day, but my opinion doesn’t mean anything when I’m staring up at the piles of cash obscuring the sun.

Whether or not you think the extra content is worth it, you could also just re-watch the movie because it’s a good movie. That seems to be what many are doing, anyway. We will see if Endgame can make enough to dethrone the unofficial Dances With Wolves remake. Who knows? It may surprise us all and completely destroy the competition. Either way, it fought the good fight.

It’s also possible Disney could decide to bring Avengers: Endgame back again for a double feature with The Lion King later this summer, or bring it back again for one last play over Labor Day weekend. There are more options.

Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters with new footage, so get your tickets now if you’re eager to see it end a 10-year reign.

Bless his heart to 3000, but Chris Evans is not the person to go to for Avengers: Endgame timeline continuity questions. And he really won’t know what to say when you ask if Steve Rogers went “Alabama” with Peggy Carter‘s niece, Sharon Carter. However, Evans did land on some nice compliments for the Marvel Cinematic Universe storytellers, and Don Cheadle jumped in with a decent enough timeline explanation. Also, the Russo Brothers provided a longer explanation on the Steve/Peggy front.

First, the Captain America star joined Don Cheadle (Rhodey/War Machine) and Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye/Ronin) at ACE Comic Con. A fan stepped up to ask Chris Evans about the Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter reunion at the end.

Steve returns the Infinity Stones to their original timelines and then chooses to stay in the past to live his life with Peggy, finally getting that dance. It was a beautiful bookend to their storyline in Captain America: The First Avenger. But it also confused some fans, like this one, who noted:

Like, was he then therefore Peggy’s husband in this universe and kinda went Alabama with her niece?

The crowd laughed. Jeremy Renner quipped, “Lotta strange things happen in ‘bama.”

The moderator said that’s a time continuity question and joked that no one up there was qualified to answer. But Chris Evans did his best to answer, with backup from Don Cheadle:

Chris Evans: You know, I’m not sure if I can give you those answers. … But you know what, look, that’s weak as shit if I’m like I don’t know… But ask the writers! [laughs]. I mean, look, I mean there’s a lot of things you can question about the time continuum. But if there’s anything I’ve learned about working with Marvel, they don’t leave stones unturned. They really don’t. I at times might share some of the questions, but anytime I’ve kind of asked the question of people, there’s always an answer. There’s always someone who kind of explains it to me.

Don Cheadle: And then you immediately forget what they said.

Chris Evans: And then I forget it. And then I come onstage, and then I say ‘Hey, ask Don Cheadle what it’s like to be Don Cheadle!’

Don Cheadle: Steve exists on multiple planes and time is not just a straight line. There’s multiple timelines.

Actually, that was a fine enough answer on its own. Thank you, Don Cheadle. I’m no expert, but isn’t the running explanation that Steve created a new timeline? Or a “branch reality,” as the Russos put it? See their full explanation below.

Watch Chris Evans attempt to answer the question around the 24:00 minute mark of this helpful fan’s ACE Comic Con video:

Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely even said it was “always our intention” that Steve Rogers was the father of Peggy’s two children. They added “there are time travel loopholes for that.”

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo also explained what happened to Fox 5 DC:

Joe Russo: The way that it would work, right, is that when Captain America goes back, he would create a branch reality. OK? Now he would exist in that branch reality with a second Captain America who was frozen in ice.

Anthony Russo: Peggy understood that he was dead at that point in the storytelling because Cap went back to a point in time where nobody knew he still was alive, frozen in ice.

Joe Russo: Now what’s also a story for another time is, of course, if he created a branch reality, he would then have to use a Pym Particle to come back to this reality to hand that shield off.

A story for another time? When do we get to see that?

The Endgame writers also tried to explain the Avengers/Spider-Man “plot hole”that stumped the Far From Home cast. Best not to ask the actors technical questions and save those for the writers, the director, or Kevin Feige himself. Make the MCU boss talk about going ‘bama with Peggy’s niece!

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters in a re-release, in advance of Spider-Man: Far From Home opening this Tuesday, July 2.

Lucifer fans, it’s time to lower the pitchforks. It wasn’t long after Netflix announced that the 10-episode Season 5 would be the series’ last that some attempted to spark up renewal efforts on social media, and now it appears that all those efforts and future efforts will be in vain.

Disappointed parties needn’t worry, though, as Lucifer‘s executive producer Ildy Modrovich assured fans that things are different this time around. In a lengthy statement via Twitter, she explained how this cancellation differs from the last, and why it’s ok (although she is torn) that the series is actually going to go away for real this time.

Straight from the horse’s mouth, it appears that there’s no use in trying to bring Lucifer back from the dead a second time. The good news is that Ildy Modrovich and others are grateful Netflix was upfront about this information, and that there’s now plenty of time to figure out the correct way to draw this series to a close over its next ten episodes.

Which, as many Lucifer fans may remember, is a luxury that wasn’t afforded to the former Fox drama the first time it was cancelled. Now an intentional series finale can be plotted out, which will at the very least be more satisfying than when it initially ended on a cliffhanger. It’s still not as satisfying as a Season 6 renewal, of course, but the best case scenario any cancelled series can hope for.

It’s also a situation that could’ve happened in this most-recent season as Season 4 delivered a pretty big cliffhanger in its season finale that would’ve left Lucifans incredibly frustrated had Season 5 never happened. It appears as though viewers did all they could to ensure that renewal happened, by the way, as a third party report said Season 4 was one of May’s most-binged shows on Netflix.

And right now, it appears that the major players in the Lucifer camp are thankful for how generous Netflix has been. Ildy Modrovich’s message was shared by series star Tom Ellis specifically, who hoped he could help clear up some of the “confusion” that has plagued the show’s loyal fanbase ever since the renewal.

Now, whether or not this means Tom Ellis isn’t as upset about Lucifer being cancelled again we can’t say. We do know that when Ellis spoke to CinemaBlend, he felt the story wasn’t done yet. Whether he was thinking one more season would do it or he was hoping for a bit more we can’t be sure of, but at least he and the crew have plenty of time to figure out this final act this time.

Details on Lucifer Season 5 are still scant at the moment, but CinemaBlend will keep an eye out for details and report on the major reveals as they come. In the meantime, be sure to stick with us for all the latest news in in television and movies.

The superhero movie landscape looks a lot different than it did at the beginning of the decade. For one thing, back then, the film rights to properties like X-Men and the Fantastic Four still belonged to 20th Century Fox, a studio a long ways away from being owned by a certain Mouse House. As such, the chances of seeing these Marvel characters share screen time with those in the Marvel Cinematic Universewasn’t possible.

However, evidently at one point Fox was considering making its own Avengers-level crossover superhero movie. During his recent appearance on Fatman Beyond, screenwriter Zack Stentz, who co-wrote both X-Men: First Class and Thor, was asked which of his movies that he’s written that will never come out is his favorite, Stentz answered:

My ex-partner and I, when we were working at Fox and working on X-Men: First Class, we did a secret movie for them that, I can’t tell you what the plot was, but I can tell you that it used all of the characters, all of the Marvel characters that Fox had at the time in 2011. It used the X-Men. It used the Fantastic Four. It used Daredevil. It used Deadpool. Daredevil was still at Fox at the time. And it was a really cool freakin’ script. We almost had Paul Greengrass directing it, which would’ve been so cool, but he had another project to do instead. It didn’t end up going, but it was a script I was really proud of and it would’ve been really good.

Man, this takes me back. While the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool were obviously Fox-only Marvel characters up until the Disney transaction went through, it’s easy to forget that Daredevil was also part of that group for a long time. The Man Without Fear only starred in one movie, and while Fox tried to get a reboot off the ground by 2012, that fell through and the rights went back to Marvel, paving the way for the Daredevil Netflix series.

Having Paul Greengrass direct this Fox crossover movie also would have been a cool choice, as the man had proved his action mettle with The Bourne Supremacyand The Bourne Ultimatum. Going off the loose time frame Zack Stentz laid out, I suspect Greengrass turned down this opportunity in favor of directing Captain Phillips, which went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among other accolades.

Had Fox moved forward with this movie featuring the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool and X-Men, this might have placed the Fox Marvel franchise on a higher pedestal. Granted, the X-Men film series has been chugging along steadily for nearly two decades, which includes the surprise success of Deadpool, but along with Daredevil barely getting a chance to shine, the Fantastic Four movies didn’t fare particularly well, with the 2015 reboot ending up a critical and commercial bomb.CLOSE AD

Perhaps new life could have been breathed into all these characters had they been able to join forces in such an epic tale, although I worry introducing Deadpool here might have resulted in the character not being adapted as well as he was in 2016. It’s also a good bet that this movie would have taken the X-Men down a much different path than they are now.

Fast-forwarding to now, all of these properties now rest under Marvel Studios, and while the plan is to keep Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool around, it’s expected that the Fantastic Four and X-Men will are rebooted down the line. Daredevil was cancelled over a month after Season 3 premiered, and it remains to be seen if we’ll ever see Charlie Cox’s version of Matt Murdock again or if the character will be rebooted again to better fit within MCU continuity.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates concerning Marvel’s plans for any of the above characters on the big or small screens. Those of you who are curious about what the MCU has lined up next can look through our comprehensive guide.