When the story first broke a few weeks back that Disney was potentially looking at acquiring a huge chunk of Fox’s film and TV properties, for many fans – who realized this meant that the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises could now be brought into the Marvel fold – it seemed like a dream. Now that dream seems to be becoming reality. A very, very expensive reality.
Following on from reports that Disney was back at the negotiating table with Fox and had gone radio silent – usually meaning that things were getting serious and they didn’t want details leaking out – it now looks as if the two studios could come to an agreement as early as 15 December. That’s next week. As previously reported, Fox would look to hold onto their lucrative news, sports and broadcast network divisions, while Disney snaps up their film and TV properties which will undoubtedly be used to heavily bolster their own digital streaming platform which is set to launch in 2019.
Along with those film and TV properties, Disney would also acquire Fox’s stake in Hulu (to supplement the portion they already own alongside Comcast), Nat Geo and Sky, the distribution rights still owned by Fox for some of the early Star Wars films, and partial ownership of comic publisher Boom! Studios. Current Fox shareholders would retain a stake in the newly trimmed down studio while acquiring shares in Disney in a fixed exchange ratio.
And according to CNBC – the ones who actually broke this rumour initially – all of this could come at an eye-watering price tag upwards of $60 billion. That’s an incredible amount of money, but consider Disney’s most recent history of massive purchases. They bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 and have already made $3 billion of that back off just two Star Wars movies in two years. Similarly, they also acquired Marvel in 2009 for $4 billion, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe alone – ignoring the actual comics publishing side of things or any merchandising – has already earned over $5 billion for them. Forgetting the comic book movie franchises and other properties they would acquire, Fox’s gigantic slate of TV dramas alone would probably help Disney to make a sizeable dent on that $60 billion investment, so this is definitely not bad business.
This is not a done deal though. CNBC reports that its own parent company, Comcast, is also in negotiations with Fox as a potential buyer along with Sony and Verizon Communications. However, it appears that the talks with Disney have moved along the furthest and are the closest to being finalized. This would without a doubt be a massive game-changer in the entertainment business, and some would even say that Disney could be flirting with anti-trust laws with this proposed monopoly. Not that it would dissuade them. Disney has been known to make legislators in Washington look the other way in the past, and with it being rumoured that current Disney CEO Bob Iger is looking to make a run for US President in the near future, it looks like only a matter of time before the House of Mouse actually does rule the world.
Way back in February 2015, Marvel and Sony blew fans’ minds when they revealed that they had struck a surprising co-production deal that would allow Spider-Man (whose film rights were owned by Sony) to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the failed reboot of Amazing Spider-Man, fans were overjoyed at the prospect of Spider-Man finally getting done right on the big screen. As amazing as that sounded though, there was a problem: These same fans were all Peter Parkered out. After an original trilogy starring Tobey Maguire then another two film reboot with Andrew Garfield, many were calling for a different Spider-Man to be given his cinematic due. An Ultimate Spider-Man, to be exact.
In the Marvel Comics universe, their Ultimate imprint was an alternate universe that featured younger, more contemporary versions of their classic characters. It also had its own young Peter Parker… “HAD”, as the young hero would eventually die at the hands of his archnemesis Green Goblin, unmasked and in full view of the public. His death though would inspire Miles Morales, a young boy who also had spider-like abilities thanks to the very same experiment that gave Peter his. Donning his own costume, Miles would become the new Spider-Man to fill the gap left behind by Peter Parker.
Created by writer Brian Michael Bendis as a character his mixed-race daughter could identify with, the half black/half Hispanic Miles Morales would become a beacon of representation in the Marvel universe… and also just one really amazing Spider-Man. His popularity would lead to him being one of the few heroes brought into the mainstream Marvel universe when the Ultimate Universe was destroyed in the Secret Wars event, and he’s even landed his very own cartoon TV series on Disney XD. But still, no movie talk as Tom Holland was cast to play Peter Parker again in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Luckily though, Marvel had a plan. Coming off mega-successes like The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller were tapped to write/produce a new feature-length animated film focusing on Miles Morales. Well, him and a whole lot of other Spider-Men as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was revealed to follow Miles Morales as he somehow discovered of the existence of the many alternate universes in the Marvel universe and all their respective webheads. And thanks to the first trailer for the film dropping at Brazil’s Comic Con Experience (CCXP) over the weekend, we now know that it looks spectacular!
The film features some jaw-dropping visuals and I absolutely love the little touches of the classic comic frames jammed into the action. For now, this film is a completely standalone entity. However, we don’t know which Peter Parker it is that shows up at the end of the trailer, and with the whole multiverse angle I wouldn’t be surprised if Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse teased some connection to Tom Holland’s live-action MCU version at some point. Can you imagine how fans would lose their minds if this movie proves popular enough to have Miles make the transition from animated to live-action to show up next Holland’s webslinger and the rest of the Avengers somewhere down the line? We have been told that after the still-untitled Avengers 4 that the MCU was getting shook up in a big way, and the existence of alternate universes would definitely do that.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will be directed by Bob Perschietti (Puss in Boots, The Little Prince) and stars the voice talents of Shameik Moore, Liev Schreiber, Mahershala Ali and Brian Tyree Henry. It is scheduled for release on 14 December 2018.
I’m starting to think that the Game Awards might rival the Critical Hits awards, what with the show having access to an amazing online infrastructure, oodles of cash and developers who don’t leave flaming bags of dog crap on their front porch whenever we ask for interview opportunities. Maybe, but not really. Nice try Geoff Keighly, but you have a long way to go before you’re taken as seriously as we are over here in the Critical Hit awards show kitchen where we hand out dodgy Chinese chocolates to the biggest winners of the year.
That being said, this year’s Game Awards was a great show. Plenty of announcements, plenty of trailers and at least one instance of a game developer telling the Oscars to go f*** themselves. Our kind of show! In case you missed the show, worry not. Here’s a list of trailers from the various announcements, in case you weren’t ready to wake up at 3 in the AM to stream the event:
World War Z
Vacation Simulator
Accounting +
From Software’s Shadows Die Twice
In The Valley Of The Gods
The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild – The Champion’s Ballad
SoulCaliber VI
Fortnite Battle Royale 50 v 50 team mode
Bayonetta 1 and 2 for Nintendo Switch
Bayonetta 3
Death Stranding
Witchfire
Sea of Thieves release date trailer
Dreams
GTFO
Metro: Exodus
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
So…2018 looks fun, right?
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If there’s one game that I’m looking forward to in 2018, it’s a title which doesn’t revel in blood, guts and gore. Rather, it’s a game of creation, fuzzy logic and fleeting glimpses of imagination. Media Molecule’s Dreams is that game, a project whose hefty ambitions have resulted in it spending plenty of time in development.
I’m not exactly surprised. Little Big Planet from Media Molecules was an absolute behemoth when it came to giving fans options to create their own content within the confines of that game, and that was years ago. Time has passed, technology has improved and the software injected into these machines is more malleable than ever.
Dreams is all about creation. It’s about shaping your dreamscape, of using the power of the mind to create new worlds to explore. At the 2017 Game Awards, Media Molecule had a new look at Dreams debut. Check it out below:
That’s a lot more surreal than I was expecting, even more so than the original E3 2016 reveal of Dreams. It looks like Media Molecules is aiming to create a game for everyone, by giving players the tools to create interactive experiences within Dreams that range from Galaxian simulators to good ol’ PLEASE HUG ME DAMMIT games for its main character who craves a decent night’s escape from reality.
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I kinda dig that. A PlayStation 4 exclusive, Dreams can be played with a regular controller or the PS Move controllers.
Guys! GUYS! GUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS! A new Devil May Cry is coming! Glorious day! Fantabulous! Splendifferictacular! I can’t wait to play a new Devil May Cry…
…HD Collection.
DAMMIT I GOT ALL HYPED UP FOR NOTHING. Apologies to all three of my nipples, we’ll have to save the excitement-rubbing for later. Back to the meat of the story then: Devil May Cry, a franchise that redefined action on various consoles, is coming back with a vengeance. Next year March 13 according to VG247, the original trilogy of Demons with tear ducts will hit PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
That means that players will get to play 2001’s Devil May Cry originale and it’s superb super-awesome 2006 demon-slaying sequel Devil May Cry 3, which introduced Dante’s blood brother Vergil and the meme that launched a thousand ships. That also means that players will have a chance to play Devil May Cry 2, a game which usually elicits howls of anguish from fans.
I’ve personally never played the middle game in the first trilogy, although most fans regard it as a middling bastard child that almost killed one of Capcom’s best franchises thanks to its sheer awfulness. Hold my root beer while I get my gimp suit, because I need to experience this pain for myself so that I can understand what y’all have gone through.
It’s not the first time that Devil May Cry popped it original trilogy onto a newer console, as the first HD Collection hit PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 way back in the dark ages of 2012. A more innocent time, before loot boxes and one wherein the only true problem in in the industry was EA’s propensity to make online portions of its game locked to a console thanks to a special code that came with each new purchase of a hot game.
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Ah, the good ol’ days. Anyway, March 13 then for anyone who has an interest in achieving S-rank scores in bludgeoning demonic beasties. That’ll set you back an RRP of $29.99. I’ll update with local pricing as soon as I get it.
Minecraft, the cleverly named blocky game that’s about both mining and crafting is still unfathomably popular. Millions of people play the game regularly, including my own children who’ve made it so that I’ve bought the game half a dozen times on a number of platforms.
That was meant to become moot with the new Minecraft Bedrock Edition, which was supposed to unify the games across platforms. Ditching the series convoluted naming scheme, and known plainly and simply as Minecraft, the new version was supposed to make everything better, allowing people from different platforms to play together. It’s done that, but it’s also split the community on Xbox One.
On that platform, the game is available in two flavours: The original now deprecated Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, and the newer Minecraft based on the Bedrock Edition. Only it seems that people vastly prefer the older version. One of the biggest problems for most is that the new Bedrock version appears to be a straight port of the Windows 10 version of the game, without the console-specific control tweaks that made the game manageable on the Xbox One.
“The UI is atrocious. Commands have been added, but are limited. Some items aren’t in the creative inventory. The big servers are laggy. You get no starting coins for microtransactions. Sprint flying is much slower. I lost all my skins, textures, and mash-up packs. EXTREMELY buggy. All wooden tools and crafting tables require oak wood. IT’S JUST PE MINECRAFT ON XBOX!!!! IT IS SUPER BUGGY!!! I CAN’T CONNECT WITH FRIENDS!!! Over all, it feels like an unfinished game. Mojang should have just updated the first Xbone edition to have new textures, servers, realms, infinite world size, and microtransactions with earnable or starting coins. Big downgrade in many areas.”
And another:
“I played this version in beta and it was NOT ready for a public release. There are numerous problems that went unaddressed or were flat out ignored. To list a few: -Frame rate is extremely unstable and drops considerably -This version is not optimized for redstone and more complicated devices produce massive amounts of lag. I also want to point out that redstone in general received a HUGE downgrade in this version compared to the previoua console version with the engine seemingly unable to handle lots of redstone activating at once, odd timing bugs, and various other removed features. -The new crafting interface is unoptimized for a controller and cumbersome to move through because you have to go through each square individually. -Movement and block placement are somewhat laggy and nowhere near the standard that the original console version set. Overall, this version is a rushed and massive downgrade from the previous console.”
And another:
“i had a survival world that ive spent atleast 400 hours in, and the transfer changed the terrain and the whole entire world itself and i lost all progress and it wont let me change it back…… and because i transfered it to this new version, i dont have that save anymore and im literaly thinking of just uninstalling this outrages game…..
the game itself is glitchy and has so many bugs that i cant even play the game…… it laggs and has at times delayed my screen….. unlike the xbox one edition that is smooth and not glitchy or laggy”
Reddit is equally awash with threads calling the game as it stands a mess. 4J Studios was responsible for the older versions of games, taking platform strengths and weaknesses into account when tailoring the game to each platform. It appears they are no longer involved in the process, and the Minecraft team is attempting to a one-size-fits-all approach.
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At least Xbox players are able to play the older version of the game. The Nintendo Switch version is set to transition to the Bedrock version next year, allowing Switch, Xbox One and PC players to play together – but if it’s in the state it’s currently in, players may not want that update.
