The Verge - Entertainments |
- Target is selling PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles right now (update: sold out)
- This controller turns your Android phone into a portable Xbox
- Blizzard boss details what the studio is doing to ‘rebuild your trust’
- Netflix co-CEO says there will ‘absolutely’ be a second season of Squid Game
- Godzilla and the Titans will reunite in new Apple TV Plus Monsterverse series
| Target is selling PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles right now (update: sold out) Posted: 21 Jan 2022 05:23 AM PST  Update 8:23AM ET, January 21st: Target has sold out of consoles for now. We hope you had some luck on your side today. Target restocked the $499.99 standard PS5 console, and the $399.99 Digital Edition but both are sold out, and now the $499.99 Xbox Series X is available (depending on location, and possible only via the $34.99 per month All Access subscription package). Unlike other retailers, Target doesn't require an account or special subscription to access these restocks, so they'll be dished out on a first-come, first-serve basis. Additionally, there is no queue system in place on the Target store, so your best best is to continually attempt to add the console to your cart and head to checkout as quickly as you can. Another potential avenue you could explore is downloading the Target app on your mobile device, which might just give you the edge you need to snag a console. Don't stress if you happen to miss out, as retailers generally restock at least once a week. We're always on the lookout for the best deals, so make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for bi-weekly highlights of all the best discounts. Don't forget the accessories |
| This controller turns your Android phone into a portable Xbox Posted: 21 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST A good solution for mobile Game Pass games... or at least some of them It seems unlikely that Microsoft will ever make a portable Xbox. Between Sony's failure with the Vita, Nintendo's dominance of the market with the Switch, and Microsoft's device-agnostic business model, there isn't really much need for such a product. That doesn't mean there's no demand for portable Xbox games, though. Microsoft has been pushing cloud gaming hard with Xbox Game Pass, as well as the ability to stream games directly from your own Xbox console to your phone. And even though a surprising number of players are doing this with touchscreen controls — I know people who swear by the touch version of Hades, believe it or not — it's not an ideal setup for most Xbox games. That's why I was interested to try the RIG MG-X, a mobile controller from Nacon. It's an officially licensed Xbox controller that works with just about any Android phone, giving it all the buttons you'd find on a standard Xbox One pad. This should make it a good fit for Game Pass games on the go. Mobile controllers aren't a new idea, and there are solid options for Android out there already like the Razer Kishi — including a recently released Xbox-specific version. The RIG MG-X, though, has an appealingly straightforward design for a product category that can be a little awkward, which makes for a sleeker approach when coupled with the Xbox buttons. It's nice not to have to think about which icons map to which commands; you can just naturally use the same buttons you'd have on a conventional Xbox setup. The controller has a gap in the middle that extends out to clamp around your phone, which connects over Bluetooth. Nacon says it should work with any phone running Android 6 and above with a screen up to 6.7 inches; I mostly used it with a Vivo X70 Pro Plus, which is a giant phone with a 6.78-inch screen, and it works fine. (It does not, however, work with iPhones at all.) This is quite a chunky device, and it's wider than an Xbox controller even before you extend it to insert your phone. That's not necessarily a bad thing — it feels well-built and and I wouldn't have a problem tossing it into a bag when traveling. The use of Bluetooth instead of a USB-C connector is a trade-off I'm okay with, because it makes for a more compatible design and ensures the controller can be used with the phone in a case. It does mean that you have to manually pair with the phone, though, and charge the controller itself over USB-C from time to time; Nacon quotes around 20 hours of battery life. Overall, the RIG MG-X's controls are small but effective. The analog sticks aren't as big as a full-size Xbox controller's, but they're bigger than a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con's and feel more satisfying to use. The face buttons are also quite small but tactile and clicky, while the D-pad is accurate enough despite being a little mushier than I'd prefer. I have big hands and I found the RIG MG-X to have reasonably good ergonomics over time for most games. /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23184163/IMG_1854.jpg) There is one exception, though, when it comes to the triggers. For some reason they're unusually difficult to press in all the way, which is a big problem for games like racers where you need to hold them down a lot. A game like Halo Infinite where you're regularly making individual squeezes to fire weapons is okay, but I was wondering why I was losing so many races in Forza Horizon 5 before figuring out that I didn't have my foot pressed firmly enough on the gas. You can do it, but it takes more force than any other controller I've ever used, and it's not at all comfortable for extended play sessions. It's unfortunate that this isn't a good Forza Horizon 5 controller — you may have heard that it's a pretty good game — but it does work well for most other genres. You can use it for non-Xbox games, of course, whether they're from the Play Store or elsewhere — I played a lot of Fortnite with it, and you even get native Xbox button indicators in the menus. The RIG MG-X is a decent controller with a single big flaw, so just know what you're getting into if you're a fan of racing games. I happen to be one, so that was disappointing for me, and I'd personally go with the Xbox version of the Razer Kishi for that reason. But for lots of other Xbox games, this is a solid solution that gets you closer to a portable Xbox than ever before, and other than the triggers I prefer its design to the Kishi. This month Nacon also announced the MG-X Pro, which looks much more like a standard Xbox controller — hopefully the triggers are better. |
| Blizzard boss details what the studio is doing to ‘rebuild your trust’ Posted: 20 Jan 2022 05:02 PM PST  Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of huge franchises like Diablo and Overwatch, has been under intense scrutiny since California sued parent company Activision Blizzard last summer over allegedly fostering a culture of harassment and discrimination. In an attempt to assure employees and fans that the company is making positive changes, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra published a blog post detailing what it is doing to "rebuild your trust." At the top of the list is that executive and management teams will be measured "directly against culture improvement," which means that their compensation will "depend on our overall success in creating a safe, inclusive, and creative work environment at Blizzard," Ybarra says. He also outlined new full-time roles that have been created to help improve culture, including:
Blizzard has also "tripled" the size of its compliance and investigation teams, shared representation data internally (which was not included with the blog post), set goals for improving those metrics (also not shared), and created an "upward feedback program" for employees to evaluate managers, Ybarra said.
Ybarra's blog about these initiatives arrives under the shadow of Microsoft's massive deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Microsoft appears to have gone into the deal with eyes wide open about Activision Blizzard's recent scandals, and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer even nodded to culture changes to come in an email to staff:
It's also worth noting that Ybarra was a nearly 20-year veteran of Microsoft before he joined Blizzard in 2019. However, there could still be a lot of work to do to address concerns from Activision Blizzard employees. Ybarra was originally put in place as a co-lead of Blizzard alongside Jen Oneal after former president J. Allen Brack left shortly following the lawsuit, but Oneal stepped down just three months after taking the role. During her time as co-lead, Oneal "sent an email to a member of Activision's legal team in which she professed a lack of faith in Activision's leadership to turn the culture around," according to a Wall Street Journal report from November. Additionally, several dozen workers have been on strike for weeks to protest surprise layoffs of QA staffers at Raven Software. And as Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach pointed out, Ybarra's blog doesn't address demands from the ABK Workers Alliance, an employee advocacy group. That said, some Activision Blizzard employees are optimistic about the Microsoft acquisition, according to Bloomberg. Ybarra also tacitly acknowledged Blizzard's lack of recent big releases, a problem that was exacerbated after Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV were delayed in November with no release dates in sight, but it sounds as if we could learn more about the studio's games sometime next week. "We also know we need to deliver content to our players on a more regular basis and innovate both in and beyond our existing games," Ybarra said. "We have some exciting things to announce, and I'll be sharing more next week." Disclosure: Casey Wasserman is on the board of directors for Activision Blizzard as well as the board of directors of Vox Media, The Verge's parent company. |
| Netflix co-CEO says there will ‘absolutely’ be a second season of Squid Game Posted: 20 Jan 2022 04:22 PM PST  Hold on to your jumpsuits — Netflix's wildly popular Squid Game series has been confirmed by the company for a second season. During its fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, Netflix's co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos confirmed that the Korean miniseries is returning. Asked by Nidhi Gupta of Fidelity Management and Research whether the viewers would get a second season of Netflix's most popular series ever, Sarados said there's more grisly action to come. "Absolutely," he responded. "The Squid Game universe has just begun." Previously, Hwang Dong-hyuk confirmed that the series would return, adding that he was in the "planning process." Sarandos didn't elaborate on when the series will return, or what an expanded Squid Game universe would look like. But if the series gets the full Stranger Things treatment, that could potentially expand to gaming and more. (Netflix has repeatedly hammered home that gaming is core to its business strategy moving forward.) Squid Game already has its own merch line and Funko Pop collectibles in the Netflix Shop. A new Bape collaboration is slated to drop Friday. Bring on the games. |
| Godzilla and the Titans will reunite in new Apple TV Plus Monsterverse series Posted: 20 Jan 2022 03:45 PM PST  Though Legendary's Godzilla vs. Kong made waves last summer by debuting on HBO Max and quickly becoming one of the platform's top performing features, the next time we see the titanic monster and his fellow kaiju, they'll be calling new streamer home: Apple Plus. On Thursday, Apple Plus announced that it has greenlit a new live-action series set in Legendary's Monsterverse from co-creators Chris Black (Star Trek: Enterprise) and Matt Fraction, writer of Marvel's Hawkeye run that the recent Disney Plus series heavily draws from. Along with Black and Fraction, Toho's Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita and Safe House Pictures' Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell are set to executive produce. /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23183187/012022_Apple_Lands_Series_Legendarys_Monsterverse_Big_Image_01_big_image_post.jpg.large_2x.jpg) Legendary Set after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, the new untitled series is said to feature Godzilla, a number of the Titans, and yet another human family whose interpersonal dramas audiences are meant to care about even though the literal monsters are what everyone's really interested in. According to Apple, the new human family at the center of this show will have deep, mysterious connections to Monarch, the villainous organization responsible for driving Godzilla and Kong to brawl with one another when last we saw them. Considering how humans have pretty consistently dragged the Monsterverse's features down in the past, the series is going to have to find a way to legitimately make their plots here feel like more than distractions from the good stuff (read: monster fights). But depending on which monsters show up and how they fight, it might be worth slogging through a little bit of ground level human humdrum when the show debuts. Currently, there's been no word on when the new Monsterverse series will begin production. |
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