The Verge - Entertainments |
- New trailers: Dune, Star Trek: Prodigy, The Last Duel, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and more
- Genki ShadowCast review: a clever but limited capture card
- Blizzard exec calls sexual harassment allegations ‘extremely troubling’
- Super Mario 64 probably won’t be the last million-dollar video game
| New trailers: Dune, Star Trek: Prodigy, The Last Duel, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and more Posted: 24 Jul 2021 02:17 PM PDT  Happy Saturday! Posting the trailers roundup a day early this weekend since I'll be on vacation starting Sunday (and shout out to the reader who said he preferred when we did the roundup on Saturdays, you got your wish at least for this weekend). The internet (or at least the little corner I inhabit) seemed divided into camps this week: people who really like the Apple TV Plus show Ted Lasso and people who... don't. It's OK to not like things! I had a longer rant prepared about how the effort to look cool online seems so exhausting but really, who cares, Ted Lasso has returned for season two and it's still a lovely, warm-hearted show about a bunch of very likeable weirdos. We ended up with a very sci-fi themed roundup this week which was not by design, but happened thanks to several new releases coming out during Comic-Con @ Home. DuneBeautiful people looking wistfully at each other across sweeping landscapes as the wind tousles their hair— the first few seconds of the Dune trailer almost feel like a perfume commercial. But then we get down to brass tacks and the trailer... pretty much tells you the movie's entire plot, as my colleague Chaim Gartenberg noted in a first look. Yes, the sandworm makes an appearance. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the much-awaited and oft-delayed Dune, starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, and Javier Bardem, comes to HBO Max and theaters on October 22nd. Star Trek: ProdigyIn this new 10-episode series, a group of young aliens steals an abandoned Starfleet vessel called the USS Protostar, and are slowly trained in the ways of the Federation by a hologram version of Star Trek: Voyager'd Captain Janeway (with Kate Mulgrew voicing the character she played on the series). Star Trek: Prodigy comes to Paramount Plus this fall. Star Trek: Lower DecksThe popular animated series that pokes fun at Star Trek lore returns for a second season, following the support crew of the USS Cerritos as they work aboard Starfleet's least important ship. Star Trek: Lower Decks has already been renewed for a third season, and while last season took a few episodes to get its footing, the show ended up on a lot of "best of 2020" lists. Season two of Star Trek: Lower Decks also debuts on Paramount Plus this fall. The Last DuelBased on a true story (and a book by Eric Jager), The Last Duel tells the 14th-century tale of the last judicial trial by combat in France. Jodie Comer (looking very different from Eve) plays Marguerite de Carrouges, wife of knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon). She accuses Jacques LeGris (Adam Driver) of rape, which he denies. King Charles VI (Ben Affleck), grants permission for them to settle things with a duel that will determine who is telling the truth. Oh and if her husband loses the duel, Marguerite gets burned at the stake for bearing false witness. Ridley Scott directed The Last Duel, which comes to theaters October 15th. Blade Runner: Black LotusThis is the first trailer for this anime series, just revealed at Comic-Con. Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set in Los Angeles in 2032— so roughly halfway between the Harrison Ford Blade Runner movie and the Ryan Gosling sequel. A replicant named Elle (Jessica Henwick in the English-language version and Arisa Shida in the Japanese-language version) aka Black Lotus, has special powers and is being chased by some scary people. Directed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama, the English version of Blade Runner: Black Lotus comes to Adult Swim and the Japanese version comes to Crunchyroll this fall. UFOJJ Abrams is executive producer on this four-part documentary series that according to Showtime will explore "unsettling theories of a subject that recently reached national headlines," namely a 2017 New York Times article about a secret UFO program at the Department of Defense. UFO debuts on Showtime August 8th.  |
| Genki ShadowCast review: a clever but limited capture card Posted: 24 Jul 2021 08:00 AM PDT A viable option for streamers and gamers on the go The ShadowCast from Genki is a dongle-size video capture card that might provide all that some gamers and streamers need. It's $45, a relatively low price for a no-frills device that can get your console games onto your PC. But it has some limitations. The video quality isn't great, and there's a noticeable amount of lag if you're trying to play along with the stream. These compromises aren't a surprise, considering the ShadowCast costs a fraction of the price of something more capable like Elgato's HD60 S+. You can actually go a bit cheaper than Genki's $45 if you're willing to roll the dice on quality control. Last year we covered an affordable (between $10 and $30, usually) no-brand HDMI capture card that's very similar to this one, and perhaps its port arrangement may be more convenient for you. Unlike the ShadowCast, which plugs into an HDMI port and has a USB-C-in port on its other end, the cheaper alternative has HDMI-in and USB-out, so you can just plug in an HDMI cable you may already own. Genki gets the nod, though, both in terms of build quality and its companion software. I'll get into the latter part below. It's easy to get the ShadowCast up and running on PC or macOS. It'll work with any device with an HDMI-out port, so the PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and some older consoles are covered. That also includes DSLR or mirrorless cameras that you might want to use as a high-end webcam. The ShadowCast has a USB-C port on its other side, which you can connect to your PC with the included six-foot USB-C-to-C 2.0 cable, or your own C-to-A cable. It also works seamlessly with streaming applications like OBS Studio. If you're using the ShadowCast as an interface for a camera, it'll work with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and other popular video conferencing apps. You might need a dongle if your camera doesn't have a full-sized HDMI port. A micro or mini HDMI dongle should get the job done. When I hooked up the ShadowCast to my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II camera to use it as a webcam, it worked well, with negligible latency issues.. It produces far better colors and clarity than a traditional webcam, though in my case, I could only get an image through HDMI by bumping the camera's output resolution down to 720p. That may be an issue with my camera, and not the ShadowCast, so your camera may be able to output to higher resolutions without issue. The ShadowCast's specs are competitive for sub-$50 capture solutions, and its flaws are generally similar, too. It supports up to 1080p input resolution at 30 frames per second, or a 720p image at a faster 60 frames per second. Both modes offer varying levels of graininess, so this device isn't for people aiming to show all of the granular visual details in PS5 games — or really any game — with pixel-perfect representation. Fidelity aside, I noticed that colors from some sample images and footage look less vibrant and have less contrast than I'd see by directly connecting my console to a monitor. Neither flaw is that surprising, given the price. The lag while gaming is another issue. The delay in the incoming video feed is perceivable to the point that it may be game-breaking depending on your preferences. Lag is really only an issue if you're playing strictly through the feed coming in from the ShadowCast; most streamers who want to play and stream at the same time from a console use an HDMI splitter and instead play their games on a screen that has a direct connection to their console, thus avoiding latency. I used the ShadowCast with other cables, as well as USB-C and USB-A ports on two different computers, but the latency issues were the same no matter what. The ShadowCast is a viable but limited option for streamers compared to pricier options. But it's more user-friendly than some other competitors if all you want to do is record yourself talking over gameplay and upload the video to your channel later on. Genki makes that easy to do through its free Arcade app for macOS and Windows 10 machines. More impressively, it works through Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, too. Once your console is connected, you can hit record and chat through your microphone as you play, and the recording will pick up both game audio and your voice. You can take snapshots, too, which is handy if you're making guides for game walkthroughs. /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22736641/genkishadowcastbrowser.jpg) The app on macOS and the browser-based versions offer all of the features above. But on Windows, it'll let you play your games, but you can't record footage or mic audio currently. The macOS app also outputs different types of files than the browser version. On macOS, you'll get an .mp4 file, but the browser-based version outputs a .webm video file that's viewable (and can be converted to .mp4) in VLC Player. It's not a huge deal, but it's an extra step, since you'll likely need to convert it to a more compatible video file format before uploading. Here's a clip recorded through the Genki Arcade software in "Favor Performance" mode, which sets the ShadowCast to 720p at 60 frames per second. Here's a clip recorded through the Genki Arcade software in "Favor Resolution" mode, which sets the ShadowCast to 1080p at 30 frames per second. Genki is also touting that its app and the ShadowCast should appeal to people who casually use their laptops or desktops as a display for their game consoles. There's little reason to do this if you have a nearby TV, since you'll get less latency with a direct connection. This method makes a lot more sense if you're in, say, a hotel with just your laptop, or if you don't own a dedicated TV and the biggest screen you've got is your desktop all-in-one. If those highly specific circumstances describe your situation, this isn't a bad way to go. Whatever your use cases are, Genki claims that its Arcade app has less latency than if you were to run the ShadowCast as a video source through OBS Studio, when tested on a 2020 base model M1 13-inch MacBook Pro. At most, it says the reduction in latency can be up to 50ms, but that it varies and may be less than that. But on my setup, the reduction in latency with the Arcade app wasn't too noticeable. Genki told me that latency can be impacted by factors like whether you're using a laptop that's being charged versus running off the battery, and whether your PC's specs can keep up. In my case, it feels similar to playing games via cloud streaming over a so-so internet connection. Like I mentioned above, that might be a deal-breaker for some, or not a concern for others. If you're skeptical about the ShadowCast, $45 isn't that much to gamble, compared to pricier solutions. I like the companion software (including a web-based solution), which simplifies putting your game on a PC or laptop screen. And as a streaming solution, its video quality is serviceable, so long as capturing high-fidelity footage isn't essential. Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge  |
| Blizzard exec calls sexual harassment allegations ‘extremely troubling’ Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:55 AM PDT  The president of Blizzard Entertainment sent an email to staff calling allegations of sexual harassment at the company "extremely troubling." First reported by Jason Schreier at Bloomberg, J. Allen Brack wrote that "the fight for equality is incredibly important to me," and that he has spent his career fighting against "bro culture." The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed suit against Blizzard and owner Activision Blizzard on Tuesday, alleging a culture of "constant sexual harassment" existed at the company. The complaint describes a "frat boy culture" that included male employees drinking and sexually harassing female employees without repercussions. Brack is named in the complaint as being one of the people at the company who was allegedly aware and enabling of the behavior.
According to the DFEH complaint, "male employees would play video games during work, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and make numerous jokes about rape." Women were subjected to numerous sexual advances and comments, the lawsuit states, including groping and other forms of harassment:
Activision Blizzard executive Fran Townsend sent an email to staff the same day as Brack, according to Schreier, but with a different tone, saying the lawsuit presented an "untrue picture" of the company, adding that it was "meritless." Her comments echoed an official statement released by the company that called the DFEH lawsuit "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California," and said the suit included "distorted, and in many cases, false descriptions of Blizzard's past." Activision Blizzard didn't immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday.  |
| Super Mario 64 probably won’t be the last million-dollar video game Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:00 AM PDT  Earlier this month, a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1,560,000 at auction, a staggering price that nearly doubled a record set just two days before by a similarly pristine copy of The Legend of Zelda. The auctions could mark just the beginning of even more eye-poppingly large video game sales. It seems very likely that Mario's first 3D adventure won't be the last game to command a million-dollar sum. "I think we'll see more million dollar games, probably sooner rather than later," Chris Kohler, editorial director at Digital Eclipse, a developer that works on rereleases of classic video games, tells The Verge. Collecting and selling stuff — both physical and virtual — for expensive prices has become a popular trend. Pokémon cards are massively popular. Some NFTs, a form of digital collectible, have sold for millions of dollars. And people have been pouring huge amounts of money into assets like cryptocurrencies and GameStop's stock. Video games continue to be hugely popular — more than half of Americans turned to video games during the pandemic — and retro games have already had a recent history of becoming collectors' items. Just over a year ago, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. claimed the record of being the most expensive video game ever by selling for $114,000, a figure that was huge at the time but is less than a tenth of what Super Mario 64 just auctioned for. Kohler expects that the next game to break the million-dollar threshold could be a very early printing of The Legend of Zelda, like what sold this month, or another Super Mario Bros. Danielle Smith, owner of Nerdy Girl Comics, agrees. "I think that the market has kind of spoken for itself and that Mario is king and Zelda is queen of video games," she said. Smith also said that Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis could potentially be a valuable title. That's not only because of his cultural cache right now: "Sonic the Hedgehog sealed is really hard to come by," she said. It's not just Sonic. People who are coming into collecting top-notch games may find that supply is much lower than it is in other collectibles markets. "I think that we are going to continue to see record breaking sales [in games]," said Deniz Kahn, president and founder of Wata Games, the company that evaluated both The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64 for quality before they were listed for auction. "At the end of the day, there's just simply not enough supply of these high end, high grade, sealed, vintage video games to satiate the demand." That's slightly different than other collectible categories. "Over the last few years there have been a lot of people who have started collecting other areas, like comics or coins or cards, and their markets are very mature," he said. In comics, "at this point all of the copies of Action Comics #1 have been flushed out of attics into collectors' hands. People in the [gaming] hobby — collectors, investors — we're all realizing that the populations of these sealed games are so incredibly low when you compare them to, say, sports cards or comic books," he added. "There aren't hundreds of these in high, perfect grade out there. In some cases, there's one, or 10, or five." Another thing that may be driving up prices is that the games are selling at public auction, meaning that everyone can see the price of an eventual sale. Before that, according to Kahn, "when a five figure video game sale would occur, which was a big deal four or five years ago, I knew about it and maybe 10 other guys knew about it. It all happened behind closed doors." All of the recent record holders have been sold on Heritage Auctions, and the games sold have been graded for quality by Wata Games on a 10-point scale similar to what's used for comics. According to Kohler, the partnership between Wata and Heritage makes it safer for people to have confidence that the game they're bidding on is of the quality that's advertised. "You're not just buying it from shadyguy123 on eBay," he said. "You know you're buying from Heritage Auctions." "The sales that occur [on Heritage] are now almost an indicator of health," Kahn said. "It's a pulse on the market." The person who bought the million-dollar Super Mario 64 hasn't come forward publicly, so it's unclear exactly why they dropped such a huge amount of money on the one game. But Valarie McLeckie, consignment director of video games at Heritage Auctions, said that those who have been buying ultra-rare games are driven by nostalgia. "The types of people who are buying these games are seeking mint-condition examples of the games they played as a kid," she said in an email. Kahn speculates that for some, Nintendo 64 games may hit that nostalgia sweet spot that encourages them to buy. "I think [for] the generation that's really heavily getting involved in alternative assets, the Nintendo 64 era, for example, resonates a lot more with that demographic," he said. "I think that might also be the reason that we're all very surprised that the first million-dollar-plus video game was a Nintendo 64 game. I don't think anyone could have predicted that. But it goes to show the power of emotion and nostalgia and how much of a role that plays despite all the other factors that drive demand." These record-breaking sales could have a positive impact on video game preservation, which is already a challenging problem due to the way technology changes and decays. If more people try to sell their video games to get in on the market, treasures that had been buried could see the light of day. "What I think that people do not understand is that so much stuff, even to this day, gets thrown in the trash," Kohler said. "If there's one really great beneficial impact that something like this is going to have — especially because it passed that magical million dollar number where everybody, the mainstream news, is all paying attention to it — the beneficial impact this has is [that] fewer people will throw away their video games."  |
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