Wednesday, June 29, 2022

The Verge - Entertainments

The Verge - Entertainments

Pokémon Go developer Niantic cancels four projects and lays off more than 80 people

Posted: 29 Jun 2022 03:04 PM PDT

pokemon go mewtwo
Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Niantic, which has been trying to replicate the massive success of Pokémon Go with other mobile AR games, is laying off 8 percent of its workforce and canceling four projects, as reported by Bloomberg.

"We recently decided to stop production on some projects and reduce our workforce by about eight percent to focus on our key priorities," Niantic VP of communications Jonny Thaw said in a statement to The Verge. "We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Niantic and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.

"This means we can focus on our most important priorities, including Pokémon Go and a select set of new experiences, as well as the Lightship platform. This increased focus, as well our strong core business, puts us in a position to weather the broader economic uncertainty many companies are facing and continue investing in the future of AR."

According to Bloomberg, the changes mean Niantic is canceling Transformers: Heavy Metal, a game made in partnership with Sleep No More creator Punchdrunk, and two titles codenamed Blue Sky and Snowball. About 85 to 90 people are being let go.

Pokémon Go has proven to be an enduring hit despite being nearly six years old, but other AR games haven't had quite as much success. Niantic has recently shut down AR games based on the Catan and Harry Potter franchises, and Microsoft shut down Minecraft Earth last year. That said, Niantic still seems committed to making new games — its adorable game Peridot is in a soft launch, and the company just announced an NBA title.

Netflix is bringing Cameron Diaz out of retirement for a new movie with Jamie Foxx

Posted: 29 Jun 2022 02:23 PM PDT

Image: Netflix

Cameron Diaz is set to star alongside Jamie Foxx in a new Netflix original film, officially ending Diaz's retirement (which some of us at The Verge apparently never got the memo on). Foxx teased the new film, titled Back in Action, in a tweet containing an audio call between him, Diaz, and Tom Brady, whose retirement from football notably lasted a whole 40 days.

In a press release, Netflix doesn't reveal much about the upcoming film other than that it's an action-comedy directed, produced, and written by Seth Gordon, the director behind Horrible Bosses. Beau Bauman of Central Intelligence will serve as a producer, and Neighbors' Brendan O'Brien is helping out with the script. Netflix says the premise of the film will remain "under wraps" and that production will begin later this year. Diaz last appeared in the 2014 remake of Annie, in which Foxx also starred. The pair previously had roles in the 1999 sports drama Any Given Sunday.

While Netflix currently has 74.58 million subscribers in the US and Canada and about 222 million worldwide, the platform reported losing subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. In May, a survey revealed that more long-term subscribers were quitting Netflix, with 3.6 million people unsubscribing from the platform last quarter.

As Netflix looks to lure in new subscribers (and keep its existing ones locked in), a film with names as big as Diaz and Foxx could help do that. Netflix's Project Power, which also stars Jamie Foxx, managed to rake in 75 million viewers upon release in 2020. Last year, Netflix released Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds and also has The Gray Man coming out next month, starring Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling.

Outside of bolstering its content, Netflix plans on rolling out a cheaper, ad-supported tier later this year to counter some of its recent rate hikes. It's testing ways to crack down on password sharing in select countries, and it's also exploring livestreams.

Nerf’s Gjallarhorn rocket launcher from Destiny is truly gigantic — preorders begin July 7th

Posted: 29 Jun 2022 01:09 PM PDT

Image: Bungie

If you were worried that the real-life foam firing version of the infamous Gjallarhorn rocket launcher from Destiny would be disappointingly kid-sized, you can put those fears to rest: Bungie has just revealed what an actual blaster looks like — and when fans can get it.

Preorders for the over 4-foot-long, 1:1 scale blaster will begin July 7th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and existing Gjallarhorn owners get dibs. If you're looking to purchase the prop-grade Nerf LMTD blaster, you need to unlock it in-game in the Destiny 2 Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack before July 7th at 9AM PT before you can join the "virtual waiting room" for your purchase. So, you've got just over a week. If there are any left, Bungie will put them up for sale beginning July 21st.

Now for some bad news: the price has gone up $25 without explanation. It'll now be $185 instead of the $160 that Bungie announced last December. And there's no word yet on even a rough estimate of when it might ship. A previous Nerf LMTD product took over a year to arrive. Others are still inbound.

You also shouldn't expect this Gjallarhorn to fire rockets that split into multiple darts like we'd hoped. In a larger reveal on Bungie's website, the designers have clarified that you'll load a shell that houses three of Nerf's large Mega darts, and you'll see those three Mega darts simultaneously leave the barrel. Admittedly, that makes a lot more sense for Nerf physics and safety constraints than firing off a rocket.

"With that shell, we're shooting three of those MEGA darts at once, which gives that visual sense of the Wolfpack Rounds swirling and flying through the air towards your target," says Nerf senior project engineer Justin Saccone. You get three of those Mega shells and nine darts in total.

The reloading mechanism sounds really cool:

We wanted to integrate how it reloads in the game so the entire top housing of the Blaster itself shifts forward, it opens the loading bay just like it does in the game, you pop the shell in just like the animation, and then you pull it back and you're ready to blast off a burst of three MEGA darts, which is super awesome. It's the first time at NERF that we've ever done an easily reloadable MEGA dart shell that fires multiple MEGA darts at once.

Unfortunately, Bungie and Hasbro haven't provided any photos or video of that mechanism in action, so you'll have to use your imagination for now. They also don't say how the priming mechanism works — and there's been no hint at its range or power.

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