Everyone wants to know when Nintendo is releasing its successor to the Switch, but details are thin on the ground. Recently, some industry observers concluded that Nintendo is unlikely to release the "Switch 2" (as we're calling it) before April at the earliest, because president Shuntaro Furukawa told investors that its current sales forecasts do not include a new console.

I'd be careful reading too much into statements like these. That being said, here is some context:
When Nintendo announced during its FY2016 earnings release (April 2016) that its Switch console (NX) would launch in March 2017, it included the console in its forecast for FY2017.… https://t.co/GYS3VSEvpi

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 9, 2024

However, as Daniel Ahmad--director of research & insights at Niko Partners--argues, such indications don't mean much. He cites Nintendo's forecasts from 2016, opining that while Nintendo did include forecasted Switch sales in its forecast for 2017, the release date for the original Switch was already public at that point. Since the Switch 2 release date is obviously still a secret, it's possible that Nintendo could add such numbers to its forecast at a later date. However, we really don't know one way or another--a point that Ahmad emphasizes.

Switch 2 rumors started swirling earlier this month when Nintendo confirmed that its new console would be announced this fiscal year, which ends in April 2025. So, regardless of when the release announcement finally happens, it's sure to be less than a year, at least according to the current plan. Don't get too excited, though, as the company did confirm that its June Nintendo Direct will not feature the new console.

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Orlando Bloom's professional acting career started with a bang, as he landed the role of Legolas in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings series, a part he's still best known for to this day. Bloom didn't originally audition for Legolas, though. Instead, he first tried out for the role of Faramir.

Speaking to Variety, Bloom said it wasn't until later in the casting process that he became associated with Legolas.

"I had auditioned to play Faramir. I think they were probably just sifting through London and all the cities around the world to try to find these characters. I guess I probably fit the blurb of Faramir at the time. But then I got a callback to put myself on tape initially for Legolas," he said. "And I got another callback to meet Peter and Fran, who had come to London. And then I waited--I was at drama school. The rest is history."

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The Dark Knight returns to TV screens later this year, and you'll want to prepare yourself because things are about to get weird. Batman: Caped Crusader premieres August 1 on Prime Video--it was originally as an HBO Max series in 2021 before it was passed over--and will see Batman fighting crime in a '40s-set period of Gotham. With Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm serving as executive producer, this series is aiming to be a different take on Batman.

Compared to the 1992-95 animated series, there won't be computers or other high-tech gear for Batman to rely on, as he'll be limited by the technology of the period. "We decided to really lean into that in terms of the clothes, the cars, the architecture, and the level of technology,” Timm said to Entertainment Weekly. "Early on, we decided there would be no computers and no cell phones. That changed everything."

Prepare to meet a very different Harley Quinn in Batman: Caped Crusader.Gallery

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Microsoft's shuttering of four of its game studios earlier this month prompted a barrage of negative responses from around the games industry. In a recent town hall, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty made a curious comment, according to The Verge: "We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards."

Some developers on the call expressed surprise at this statement, given that it recently shut down several studios that have a track record of doing just that. For example, last year's Hi-Fi Rush won many awards from a variety of sources, including Best Audio Design (The Game Awards), Best Audio (Developers Choice Awards), and a BAFTA for Animation.

Many observers in the gaming industry were upset when the game's developer, Tango Gameworks, was impacted by Xbox's studio closures. Though the sales data for the game is not public, Xbox representatives issued public statements expressing satisfaction with the game, with VP of Xbox games marketing Aaron Greenberg calling it "a break out (sic) hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations." This came shortly after it was reported that Hi-Fi Rush had undersold.

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Fallout 76's upcoming Skyline Valley update will include a new vault run entirely by ghouls. The announcement was made via a sneak peek video uploaded to Bethesda's Twitter account, in which creative director John Rush gave players a closer look at what kind of content they can expect to see when the update goes live, giving the updated map a stormy new skybox.

"Following the storm to its epicenter, you'll find the mysterious Vault 63. Inhabited by ghouls, this vault is led by Hugo Stoltz, an overseer with a particularly charged personality," Rush said in the video. "He's a friendly example of a new, electrified ghoul type we call The Lost. The Lost dwell in their own skewed reality, unable to communicate outside to others, and will defend themselves against any and all outsiders."

Catch a sneak peek of the upcoming #Fallout76 Skyline Valley update from Creative Director Jon Rush, complete with a tour of the new extended map, electrified ghouls, and more! https://t.co/DuA7gBrAHn pic.twitter.com/HCF4MJCMQy

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) May 9, 2024

The preview trailer shows the player-character interacting peacefully with Hugo and observing some of the other peaceful ghouls within Vault 63 before stepping outside and being attacked by a horde of The Lost, each of whom dons a Vault 63 jumpsuit and appears to be crackling with electricity.

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Actor Orlando Bloom has said he didn't want to be in the 2004 movie Troy, in which he played the role of one of the main characters, Paris. Speaking to Variety, Bloom said many people love the film-- which also stars Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Peter O'Toole, and Diane Kruger--but he doesn't have fond memories of making it.

"For me playing that character was just like [slits throat]. Am I allowed to say all of these things? I didn't want to do the movie. I didn't want to play this character," he said.

Bloom said the movie was great, but he didn't understand how he was supposed to play his character. "It was completely against everything I felt in my being. At one point it says Paris crawls along the floor having been beaten by somebody and holds his brother's leg. I was like, 'I'm not going to be able to do this.' One of my agents at the time said, 'But that’s the moment that will make it!' And I completely fell for that line of an agent."

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The latest inductees to the Strong Museum's Video Game Hall of Fame have been revealed, as groundbreaking mystery, controversial (at the time) survival-horror, and retro classics are being honored. Asteroids, Myst, SimCity, Ultima, and Resident Evil have been recognized for their cultural impact, and join other landmark games like Barbie Fashion Designer, The Last of Us, and Wii Sports in the museum.

Nominees that didn't make it into the Hall of Fame this year included several iconic games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Metroid.

For the winners, the Strong Museum made a strong case as to why they were picked over the other nominees. Asteroids' unique combination of challenging gameplay and audio-visual design earned it a spot in the Hall of Fame, while the immersive design of Myst coupled with its use of new technologies helped secure it a place in the history books.

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Warner Bros. Discovery has once again commented on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's financial performance, which came in below expectations. CEO David Zaslav said during a briefing, as reported by VGC, that the poor performance of Kill the Justice League brought down the company's entire Studios division, which encompasses not just games but also the film and TV divisions.

Zaslav said Kill the Justice League had a "disappointing" release, going on to note that this latest quarter was always going to be a tough one due to comparisons to last year. That's because Hogwarts Legacy was released in February 2023 and went on to put up massive sales numbers. In fact, Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game overall in the US for the entirety of 2023, beating out even Call of Duty: MW3.

Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels put things into perspective further, saying the difference in financial performance between Hogwarts Legacy and Kill the Justice League led to a "$200 million impact" to the company's bottom line during the quarter.

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Luka Doncic is an NBA All-Star currently leading his Dallas Mavericks against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference playoffs semifinals. But that's not stopping the guard from getting in time with Overwatch 2. In fact, he's not just playing the FPS; he's pretty dominant at it, too.

Spotted by Dexerto, Doncic revealed in an Instagram story--screenshotted below--that he's reached a top-500 rank in Overwatch 2 as a tank. His picture also showcases that he hit this milestone on an Alienware laptop, which makes sense for a professional basketball player who travels a ton. Doncic and the Mavericks are currently in Oklahoma City, with the second game of their best-of-seven series taking place tonight.

NBA star Luka Doncic shared this story on Instagram on May 8, showing that he was ranked top-500 as a tank in Overwatch 2.

By no means is Doncic the only NBA player or professional athlete who likes to play video games (though no one may be better than him at Overwatch 2). For instance, Kevin Durant appeared as an operator in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and has even expressed interest in creating an esports team some day. Meanwhile, Durant's teammate on the Phoenix Suns, Devin Booker, just got an operator skin in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone.

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Someone nuked Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer's camp in Fallout 76 earlier this week, but the culprit behind the attack says it wasn't personal.

"I’ve been planning to catch him for a while now to see if he would agree to a fight," user real1090jake told Kotaku.

Lmao someone nuked Phil Spencer’s camp in Fallout 76 pic.twitter.com/DxfcIdH8ob

— Sam (@Sam_Snydes) May 9, 2024

Spencer has come under fire recently in response to mass layoffs, changes regarding the exclusivity of certain Xbox titles, and most recently, several high-profile studio closures at Xbox. But according to the player behind the attack, the nuking of Spencer's Fallout 76 camp was unrelated to Spencer's recent controversies. Instead, the player simply set his sights on the Xbox boss after finishing the game's main quest and running out of things to do.

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Paramount Pictures has released a new trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel to the spooky series created by John Krasinski. Day One follows characters played by Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o and Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn as they experience the day the aliens came to Earth and the trials and turmoil that immediately followed in New York City.

A Quiet Place: Part II began with an unsettling flashback of the day the aliens came to Earth, but Day One is entirely about the arrival of the evil creatures. For anyone just catching up, the aliens in the A Quiet Place series are blind but have extremely good hearing, prompting people to do whatever they can to stay quiet. In Day One, people are only just learning this, with deadly results.

Djimon Hounsou, who appeared in A Quiet Place: Part II, also stars in Day One. There are multiple sequences with Nyong'o and her little cat in the trailer, and we can only hope the little fuzzball survives.

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Earlier this year, Disney's ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox announced plans to launch a new sports streaming service later this year. And that was just the beginning for Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. Both companies have jointly announced that a new streaming bundle is on the way that will feature Disney+, Hulu, and Max.

The announcement touts that this streaming bundle will feature programming from several of both companies' most prominent brands including "ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight, Warner Bros., and many more."

CNBC is reporting that Disney will be the distributer of this bundle, and pay Warner Bros. Discovery a percentage of the subscription fees. A price for the new bundle hasn't been revealed, but it will have options for ad-free streaming and a lower price for all three services with ad-supported plans. ESPN+ will not be included with the bundle.

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In January, WWE reached a $5 billion dollar deal with Netflix to bring Monday Night Raw to the biggest streaming platform in the world in January 2025. That contract calls for WWE to receive $500 million a year, with opt out and extension clauses worked into the deal. The one major problem with the new arrangement is that WWE's Raw deal with USA was up in September, potentially leaving the company's flagship show without a home for months.

Via Deadline, that problem has now been solved. Monday Night Raw is staying on USA through the end of 2024, which should allow WWE to have a seamless transition for Raw's upcoming run on Netflix. Per the report, WWE will receive $25 million for extending the deal a few months with USA.

Despite Raw's pending departure, USA isn't out of the WWE business in 2025. Smackdown is moving back to USA in October after its stint on Fox. That deal is worth $1.4 billion for WWE across five years. Additionally, WWE's developmental brand, NXT, will be moving to The CW in October.

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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has passed a new milestone, as it is now Nintendo's best-selling game of all time--if you don't count one particular bundled game from the Wii era. According to Nintendo's latest financial report, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 61.97 million units in total as of March 31, 2024. The only other Nintendo game that has done better is Wii Sports at 82.90 million units sold, but considering that the game was bundled in with a Wii console, it is in a different category entirely.

In comparison, the rest of Nintendo's top-performing games include various titles across multiple platforms. Five Switch games are on the list, the Wii is in second place with four games, and the DS is in third place with a single entry, according to Nintendo:

The 10 best-selling Nintendo games as of March 31, 2024

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe -- 61.97 million
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons -- 45.36 million
• Mario Kart Wii -- 37.38 million
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate -- 34.22 million
• Wii Sports Resort -- 33.14 million
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild -- 31.85 million
• New Super Mario Bros. DS -- 30.80 million
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii -- 30.32 million
• Wii Play -- 28.02 million
• Super Mario Odyssey -- 27.96 million

In case you're wondering where Pokemon is on that list, the previous two generations of the game would still crack the Nintendo top 20 easily--Pokemon Sword and Shield have 26.27 million lifetime sales so far while Pokemon Scarlet and Violet currently sit at 24.92 million--and other notable entries include Wii Fit, Nintendogs, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

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Nintendo is discontinuing the Switch's integration with Twitter on June 10. This means players will no longer be able to post screenshots directly from their Switch.

On Nintendo's FAQ page, the company provided more details on the changes. Some specific games, such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and both Splatoon 2 and 3, will be impacted. In Super Smash Bros., the ability to post from the Switch's album to Smash World in the Nintendo Switch Online smart device app will be removed.

In Splatoon 2, players will no longer be able to post to Twitter from the mailbox in Inkopolis Square. Additionally, characters that appear and posts displayed in Inkopolis Square will be replaced by data already prepared within the game's software.

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Warner Bros. Discovery has reported results for the quarter that ended March 31 with Q1 total revenues totaling $9.95 billion. Global streaming subscribers were at 99.6 million at the end of Q1, up 2 million in Q4.

The company is the combination of Discovery, Inc. and AT&T's former WarnerMedia wing, and is just over two years old. The merging created a colossal pile of debt having WBD pay down $1.1 billion of it in Q1 2024 with $43.2 billion remaining. It also created some controversy in how some programming was being marketed towards which demos.

“We are pleased with our progress in the first quarter as evidenced by strong results in important KPIs. We delivered meaningful growth in our streaming business with a nice acceleration in ad sales, generating nearly $90 million in positive EBITDA for the quarter," David Zaslav, President and CEO of WBD said in a statement.

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Senua's Saga: Hellblade II releases on May 21, and some people online have criticized Xbox for not doing enough--in their eyes--to promote the game ahead of launch. Aaron Greenberg, a longtime marketing executive for Xbox, has responded to this, saying a global paid media campaign for the game just began on May 8.

This promotional campaign is live now on YouTube, HBO/Max, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Samsung, and more. Additionally, Xbox is hosting a "creator event" to help promote the game right now in Iceland.

Greenberg said Microsoft has more promotional activities in the works for Hellblade II, including ads for the game in movie theaters, with particular brands, and via Amazon's Fire TV platform, among other places.

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When Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year, some players assumed this meant that the next installment in the Call of Duty franchise would hit Game Pass on day one of its release. But according to a new report, that may not be the case. Per the report, Microsoft has had "internal debates" about whether to put Call of Duty's latest releases on Game Pass. Call of Duty is one of the top-selling video game series in the world, and there is apparently concern that placing the next title on Game Pass will only hurt its revenue stream.

Per the report from The Verge, Microsoft has considered another increase of the price of Game Pass Ultimate. Since a final decision hasn't been made, "[it] could mean we still see a future Call of Duty release appear in most versions of Game Pass."

Microsoft placed a large bet on Game Pass to close the gap between Xbox and PlayStation 5 this generation, and that wager has fallen well short of the goal. Not only are Xbox console sales far behind PS5, but Game Pass subscriptions are also declining. Game Pass itself has been blamed for negatively impacting sales of games like Hi-Fi Rush. That goes a long way towards explaining why Microsoft and Activision might think twice before risking the same downward trend for Call of Duty.

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Devolver co-founder Mike Wilson has publicly distanced himself from DeepWell DTx, a game publisher and developer he co-founded in 2022 to explore medically therapeutic games, Game Developer reports. In a recent LinkedIn post, Wilson says that he had nothing to do with the game DeepWell just released, claiming other developers had also asked to have their names removed from the project.

"I feel compelled today to let my industry friends know that I left DeepWell late 2023, along with almost all of the games industry colleagues I brought to that company," Wilson said on LinkedIn. "[I] have absolutely nothing to do with the game they released today on the Quest store (which they called Zengeance) and which my colleagues also asked to have their names removed from."

DeepWell's debut game Zengence (which was misspelled in Wilson's post) was released last week on the Meta Quest store. The game uses breathwork as input, with players required to hum into the microphone to master the action title. "Zengence isn't your typical meditation or fitness game," the description reads. "This is positive mental health at full throttle."

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After two years in early access, Stunlock Studios' vampire survival game V Rising has reached its 1.0 full release. The milestone update includes a difficult new endgame zone, including new enemies and boss, and plenty of other upgrades through the rest of the game.

An action-survival RPG that sees you playing a vampire in their rise to power, V Rising has tasked you with becoming the next Dracula. Now, in the 1.0 update, Dracula himself will make an appearance in the endgame area Ruins of Mortium. After laying low to gather power after his defeat at the hands of the Church of the Light, Dracula will emerge again as a boss to be defeated if the player wants to claim total dominion over the lands of Vardoran. Dracula's Legion will also appear as a new enemy defending the endgame area.

On top of the brand-new content, a number of improvements have been made to existing regions in the game including visual upgrades, new content to be discovered, and even a new lighting engine. A new type of encounter has been added to the world in the form of traveling cargo caravans, which you can intercept to claim the precious loot inside.

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