Avengers: Infinity War made history by earning an estimated $630m (£457m) worldwide on its opening weekend.
That's way ahead of the previous first weekend record of $542m set by The Fate of the Furious last year.
And the new Avengers movie, in which Marvel superheroes unite to battle Thanos, hasn't opened in China yet.
It is also likely to take the all-time North American opening weekend record after making an estimated $250m. Star Wars: The Force Awakens took $248m.
Industry tracker Exhibitor Relations made the estimates and official figures will come out later on Monday, but they rarely vary significantly from the estimates.
Infinity War, directed by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, cost between $300m and $400m to make.
Actors including Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman and Chris Pratt, star in the sequel, the first of two parts. The conclusion is set to be released in May 2019.
The films with the all-time top five opening weekends are all sequels and spin-offs.
Top five global opening weekends
Film
Takings
Release
Avengers: Infinity War
$630m
2018
The Fate of the Furious
$542m
2017
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
$529m
2015
Jurassic World
$526m
2015
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
$483m
2011
Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds congratulated the Avengers on their success by posting a letter supposedly written by Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) to Deadpool, rejecting his request to join the Avengers.
Reynolds wrote: “From a guy who never knows when to quit, I'm glad you guys never did. Congrats #Avengers.”
From a guy who never knows when to quit, I’m glad you guys never did. Congrats #Avengers.
Avengers: Infinity War comes 10 years after the release of Iron Man, which kicked off a series of high-profile superhero films.
The first Avengers came out in 2012. It held the previous record opening for a Marvel film, making $207.4m domestically. Age of Ultron, the second Avengers feature, debuted with $191m.
Thanks to Spider-Man: Homecoming, there's been a lot of confusion about the Marvel Cinematic Universe's timeline but it turns out that Avengers: Infinity War may have finally cleared things up for us…
Spider-Man: Homecoming kicks off with a flashback to the events of The Avengers and that's followed by a title card reading “8 Years Later.” That immediately confused fans as it would mean Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, and Black Panther all took place in 2020, something which doesn't make a lot of sense when The Avengers was supposed to take place in 2012 and the MCU moves in real-time.
However, things are cleared up in Avengers: Infinity War when Iron Man's conversation with Doctor Strange reveals that Loki and the Chitauri's invasion of New York took place six years ago. That places this movie in 2018 as there's no way Spider-Man: Homecoming was set two years after this one.
This means Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s title card should have read “4 Years Later” instead of “8 Years Later.” How that oversight came to pass isn't clear but it could be more Sony's doing than Marvel Studios. Either way, it's nice to have things clarified because this is something which has been bothering fans since last year! What did you think of Avengers: Infinity War? Sound off down below.
It looks like Final Fantasy 15’s road-tripping boys have gotten a wee bit lost on their way to a wedding or a fight or a chocobo race. They’re so lost, in fact, that they’ve managed to drive right out of Eos and enter the considerably more blocky world of Minecraft. They’ve dragged some pals along, too, including those of the more monstrous persuasion.
Premium skin packs aren’t the most tempting of offers for a game that’s so customisable and already contains more player-made skins than you could hope to use, but you do admittedly get a fair amount of bang for your buck here. If you’ve got the Windows 10 version of Minecraft, you’ll be able to add Noctis and pals—all 43 skins—for a measly $2.99.
Honestly, the image of Prompto riding a pig has already sold me on this, and I don’t even play Minecraft these days. But if you’d rather use characters from other Final Fantasy games, there are plenty of free alternatives. There are some skins from 15 in there, too.
China’s gaming giant is working on challengers to two enormous Western games: Minecraft and Hearthstone
Tencent is looking to knock Minecraft off the throne with a sandbox game of its own: Handcraft Planet.
For weeks, the company had a dedicated countdown web page in the lead-up to Monday’s unveiling of the new game in Beijing.
Tencent bills this new world-building game, in which players can build virtually anything with Lego-like blocks, as a “next-gen” sandbox game.
From what can be gathered from the teaser, the game resembles Minecraft in both gameplay and aesthetics. But how exactly this new game is a step-up from Minecraft remains unclear, though we should discover more once testing begins in the third quarter.
In China, Minecraft is published by China’s second largest gaming company NetEase, which says it has some 60 million registered users in the country.
Unlike the original Minecraft which was priced at US$6.99, Minecraft’s Chinese edition is available for free in Apple’s App Store.
One reason could be that in China, Minecraft is far from the cultural phenomenon that it is in the US. While it ranks among the top paid iPhone apps in the US, in China it ranks only 346th among free apps, according to App Annie.
Handcraft Planet is one of three sandbox games that will be published by Tencent this year, but two of them are being developed by studios in the West: Robocraft is from the UK’s Freejam Games, while Ylands is by Czech developer Bohemia Interactive.
Handcraft Planet is Tencent's new sandbox game. (Picture: Tencent)
In addition to taking on NetEase in the sandbox genre, Tencent is also looking to tackle NetEase in card games.
This year Tencent is publishing the video game version of the classic card game Magic: The Gathering. Currently the most played online card game is Hearthstone by World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment, which is published in China by NetEase.
China’s gaming market is increasingly looking like a duopoly between Tencent and NetEase. The two giants together published about 80 percent of the country’s top 50 mobile games during the first quarter of 2018, according to the China Gaming Industry Report.
The event started in 2014, but this is our second year at The RDS, and our first event as an Official Minecraft Community Event, partnered with Mojang and Microsoft.
What was the inspiration to start it?
The inspiration came from watching the kids playing the game at home. There were similar events in other countries that were hugely popular, but there was nothing in Ireland. We spotted the gap and we set up the first event in Galway in 2014.
What exciting things can people look forward to?
We have a fantastic mix of fun and games, education and inspiration! From Build Battle Tournaments to On-Stage Challenges and Meet and Greets, our events have something for every Minecraft fan.
What opportunities are on offer for those attending?
Attendees get the opportunity to meet the YouTubers that they watch on their phones, tablets and TVs every day – this has always been a huge incentive for people to attend but we try to offer a complete Minecraft experience for all attendees!
Who will be speaking?
We are lucky enough to be bringing Dinnerbone and LadyAgnes over from Sweden, who are two of the Mojang team that actually develop Minecraft itself. We also have a great selection of the top Microsoft Educators who use Minecraft every day to teach and inspire children around the world. There will be nine world-famous Minecraft YouTubers who will be answering questions from the guests, as well as Anne McCormack, author of the book Keeping Your Child Safe on Social Media: Five Easy Steps.
What tips would you give to people attending to get the most out of it?
Grab a free show guide as you enter, which shows the full day’s schedule, and then plan what talks, meet and greets and stage shows you want to see. There is a lot to see and do, so you will need to plan carefully!
How can people book tickets / when does it usually sell out?
Tickets are available Ticketmaster and we advise everyone to book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment!
Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?
We have a great selection of Official Minecraft Merchandise available, some of which you can only purchase at our events, so this will be a great souvenir of what we hope will be a fantastic weekend for everyone that attends.
AROUND 50,000 Minecraft players have been exposed to a computer virus that wipes a machine's hard drive and deletes backup data and programs.
The malicious software is attached to the downloadable “skins” that can change the look of a player's character in the game.
These add-ons are available on the Minecraft website, potentially putting the game's entire user base of 74million players in harm's way.
Cyber-security software-maker Avast told The Sun that it's been in touch with Minecraft developer Mojang, and is working to fix the exploit.
The company says it blocked 14,500 infection attempts in the last ten days alone.
Avast notes that Minecraft's largest demographic of 15 to 21-year-old players (who account for 43 per cent of its user base) are particularly susceptible to the hack.
“The bad actors may have looked to capitalize on a more vulnerable group of unsuspecting users that play a game trusted by parents and guardians,” said the company.
We've reached out to Mojang with questions concerning the nature of the attack, and how long the company was aware of it. We will update this article with its response.
Users can spot and evade the virus in a number of ways.
Firstly, don't download any Minecraft skins from the game's website until the threat is dealt with. Three of the dodgy outfits can be seen above.
Users may also get unusual, sweary messages in their Minecraft account inbox. Some of the identified examples include:
“You Are Nailed, Buy A New Computer This Is A Piece Of S***.”
“You have maxed your internet usage for a lifetime.”
“Your a** got glued.”
And you may have also been affected if you notice your computer suddenly started playing up or you get an error message related to disk formatting.
To keep yourself protected, Avast recommends scanning your machine with an antivirus software that will detect the malicious files and remove them.
In some cases, you may even have to re-install Minecraft.
And in more extreme circumstances, where your machine has already been infected with the malware, data restoration is recommended.