The Nintendo Switch is entering its eighth year of existence, and while sales remain somewhat steady, overall sales of both hardware and software on the console declined year-on-year from fiscal year 2023 to 2024. That's according to a recent financial report from Nintendo, which broke down the company's performance on a number of levels.

As one slide of the presentation shows, sales of Nintendo Switch hardware declined by 12.6% year-on-year from 17.97 million to 15.70 million, driven primarily by a 37.1% decrease in the amount of vanilla Switches sold. However, the OLED Nintendo Switch slightly increased its sales by 1.1%. Software sales also declined from 213.96 million to 199.67 million, a decrease of 6.7%.

The lifetime sales for the Switch are 141.32 million consoles sold, along with 1.235 billion games sold.

Three decades ago, Speed was a breakout action film for both Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. While Reeves skipped Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997, he reunited with Bullock for The Lake House in 2006. And during a new joint interview with Bullock, Reeves voiced his desire to team with her again.

"I mean, you know--we'd freakin' knock [Speed 3] out of the park," said Reeves during his appearance with Bullock on the 50 MPH podcast, which chronicles the making of Speed.

"There’s no formula. It just is," added Bullock when asked about her on-screen chemistry with Reeves. "Before I die, before I leave this planet, I do think that Keanu and I need to do something in front of the camera. Are we, you know, in wheelchairs or with walkers? Maybe. Are we on little scooters at Disneyland?”

At Marvel's peak in 2021, the studio had four MCU movies in theaters and five shows on Disney+. But going forward, those numbers are a thing of the past. Via Variety, Disney CEO Bob Iger laid out the studio's strategy during an investment call. The new status quo is two Marvel TV series a year, and no more than three MCU movies a year.

Because of last year's Hollywood strikes, Deadpool and Wolverine is the only Marvel movie heading to theaters in 2024. But there are four on the schedule for 2025, including Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, The Fantastic Four, and Blade. Considering the behind-the-scenes turmoil that Blade has already had, it seems possible that could slip into 2026.

Iger emphasized that the slowdown in production is part of an attempt to refocus on the quality of the shows and films, before adding "that's particularly true with Marvel."

Metaphor: ReFantazio--the upcoming RPG from the developers of Persona 3, 4, and 5--has received a substantial news update prior to its release later this fall. The update delves into more of the game's systems, including combat, archetypes, and bonds, as well as offers fans a closer look at some of the game's art and locations.

According to Studio Zero, Metaphor: ReFantazio's combat will be one of its more innovative features and "an evolution in command battle." Rather than traditional turn-based battle, the game will implement a "Fast and Squad" system that allows players to switch between real-time action, or Fast mode, and traditional command based combat, referred to in the game as Squad mode. When in Fast mode, players can use the lock-on, dash, and evade functions while they are exploring, eliminating the need to enter traditional turn-based combat. Studio Zero recommends reserving this function when in an area filled with lower-level enemies you've previous encountered, though it can also be used to gain advantage on an enemy before entering Squad battle.

Squad battle will resemble the more strategic command battle system we've come to expect from Studio Zero, and allows four characters to engage in turn-based combat using their Archetypes and special skills. Based on the description, it seems like Archetypes will play out very similarly to summoning a character's persona in the Persona series, and will allow players to perform powerful attacks that strike enemies' weaknesses. Studio Zero stated the "difficulty level of battles in this game is intentionally made to be high," meaning players should be prepared to enter a lot of strategic battles. Fortunately, the studio shared that the protagonist's fairy companion, Gallica, will have an ability known as Fae Sight, which allows you to understand the strength of the monsters within a dungeon.

After Sony reversed course on its controversial plan to force Helldivers 2 PC players to sign up for a PSN account, the game's community has launched a new operation to flood the Steam page with positive reviews. Originally, news of the PSN requirement saw players protest by flooding the Helldivers 2 Steam page with more than 200,000 "overwhelmingly negative" reviews, drastically changing the game's user scores in a short period.

Operation: Clean Up is attempting to reverse that protest, and players have even begun sharing this initiative as if it were one of the Major Orders that appears every week in Helldivers 2. "Helldivers, should you choose to accept this major order, please consider reversing your Steam review. Arrowhead has worked very hard to make this game special, and you the player have shown both Sony and Arrowhead that your voice matters too," the Reddit post reads.

"Let us restore Helldivers 2 on Steam back to its former glory. And let us restore this community back to normal. Please reverse any negative reviews you left for any other games that Arrowhead or Sony has worked on. Let's do better as a community and not do that again."

Netflix‘s breakout hit Wednesday has started production on its Season 2 and has added a dozen actors to its cast. Filming has begun in Ireland on the series, produced by Tim Burton, with Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams as she attends and investigates the inner-workings of Nevermore Academy.

The new backdrop is a change from the first season, which was primarily shot in Romania. Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán are returning as Morticia and Gomez Addams, respectively. Isaac Ordonez and Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo are also back as Wednesday's brother Pugsley, and Deputy Ritchie Santiago.

Fan-favorite Thing delivered new scripts to cast members on set and is the main character on Netflix's newly launched Tik Tok channel, aka "Thing Tok," dedicated to all things Wednesday from Thing's unique perspective.

Xbox is shutting down four of its studios, including Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Ghostwire: Tokyo developer Tango Gameworks.

As shared by IGN, Xbox executive Matt Booty sent out a company-wide email detailing upcoming studio layoffs. "These changes are not a reflection of the creativity and skill of the talented individuals at these teams or the risks they took to try new things," said Booty in the email. "I acknowledge that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams across ZeniMax and Bethesda that bring our games to market. We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games."

Arkane Austin will be closing and Redfall's most recent update will be the last one ever for the game as its development comes to a close. Booty said that the servers will remain online, and Arkane Austin confirmed that those who purchased the premium editions of the game will be eligible to receive credit.

Whether it was the mutant powers of X-Men '97 or the star power of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Disney+ added almost 8 million subscribers in the US and Canada for the company's last quarter ending March 30. That helped offset smaller decreases internationally for the streaming service.

Disney also boasted that entertainment streaming--Disney+ and Hulu--was profitable during the company's second-quarter results for fiscal 2024. This specific division saw a $47 million operating income after losing $587 million a year ago for this same quarter.

Domestically, Disney+ now has 54 million subscribers, compared to 46.1 million at the end of December. Worldwide, the streaming service sits at 153.6 million subscribers after previously being at 149.6 million. It's a positive upswing for the House of Mickey Mouse after Disney+ lost 1.3 subscribers following a price hike last quarter.

Netflix's The Witcher recently started production on its fourth season, which marks a turning point for the series. Henry Cavill stepped aside from the leading role as Geralt of Rivia, with The Hunger Games' Liam Hemsworth taking over the part for the show's final two seasons. While fans haven't yet seen Hemsworth in action as Geralt, his co-star, Freya Allan, is hopeful that the show's viewers will give him a chance to prove himself.

"I don't want to speak for him, but from what I've understood, I feel like he's really wanting to try and bring the heart," Allan told Collider. "He's been training. I feel sorry for him, honestly, because, number one, that fan base can be very attack-y, and it's not an ideal situation to be in taking up someone else's role. But I'm really excited to see what he does. And he's such a lovely guy. I just hope that people give him the time of day, you know?"

Allan, who plays Princess Ciri on the series, also spoke about where her character arc will go in the upcoming season.

2023 was one of the best years for cinema in its post-pandemic era, but between blockbuster hits like Barbie and Oppenheimer, the most profitable film was The Super Mario Bros. Movie. According to Deadline's estimates, The Super Mario Bros Movie was the highest-grossing Illumination movie of all time with its $1.36 billion take at the global box office, and once production, advertising, and several other costs were removed, its final gross was an impressive $559 million.

As Deadline noted, the film's production cost was $100 million and that fee was split 50-50 between Nintendo and Illumination's parent company Universal Pictures. Advertising is estimated to have cost $150 million alone, while residuals, distribution expenses, and other vital parts of the movie business saw that overall figure rise to $400 million to make the movie.

Other successful elements of the campaign to drive audiences to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie included partnership deals with McDonald's and 7-Eleven, integration in a Nintendo Direct livestream, and several other promotional takeover events.

Diablo Immortal will receive its second new class since launch on May 23, and it's another brand-new addition to the franchise--the Tempest.

Described by Blizzard as warrior-priests hailing from the Cold Isles, a region to the north of Sanctuary's western continent, Tempests are chosen among the pure of heart and trained in the art of "blade-dancing, wavewalking, and seafaring." Using the power of the storm itself, Tempest's dual wield swords and daggers that can move and morph like water to both maneuver around the battlefield and damage enemies.

A new 2.5D cinematic trailer gives fans their first look at the class, and while it's mostly an animated cutscene, there is a snippet of gameplay footage at the end. It shows the Tempest using their weapon to bring the might of a stormy sea onto their foes, lashing enemies with water whips, pulling them together in whirlpools, and dashing through them as if they were water.

Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment and Tencent have announced the cancellation of the upcoming "premium cooperative multiplayer game" that the companies were building together. Codenamed Kestrel, the game was in the "early concept stage" of development.

Tencent, the Chinese internet giant, was co-financing and co-publishing the game. Development began in November 2023 after a reboot when the project was known as Vanguard.

A "small team" was working on the latest iteration of the game prior to its cancellation, Remedy said.

While it's always been possible to use Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service on the Valve Steam Deck, it's now a whole lot easier thanks to new tools from Nvidia, as picked up by IGN. The latest update from the hardware giant includes a script to automate configuration on the Steam Deck, as well as adding support for gamepads when playing in a browser.

Setting up GeForce Now on a Steam Deck will now require a lot less messing around, thanks to a new script from Nvidia designed to automate the process. The script will automatically install Google Chrome to a Steam Deck, then add all the settings and configuration needed to easily stream games from GeForce Now.

The script is still in beta so it may not work flawlessly straight away, but it should still streamline the process for players who want to get game streaming set up on the Steam Deck. The script can be found through the GeForce Now downloads page. As pointed out by Nvidia in its blog post, the script will also easily enable players to play games from their non-Steam libraries, like GOG or the Epic Games Store, through the cloud.

Nintendo has confirmed that it'll hold a June Nintendo Direct once again this year, but don't expect to see a teaser for the Switch 2 during this livestream. On X/Twitter, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed the showcase and how it'll be focused on titles arriving for the Switch in the latter half of 2024.

"We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation," Shuntaro posted.

While a look at the Switch successor is off the table, this Nintendo Direct will at least give owners of the current console a closer look at the games coming to the system. Currently, Nintendo's lineup includes remasters of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (May 23) and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (June 27), and April's Nintendo Indie World showcase had games like Steamworld Heist 2, Europa, and Antonblast confirmed to launch later in the year.

The Fallout 4 next-gen upgrade finally released this April in the wake of a renewed wave of interest in the franchise thanks to Amazon's TV adaptation, but not all players are satisfied with the update. Digital Foundry has now gone through all the changes across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, to see where the update shines, but mostly where it falls flat.

While the update is focused on consoles, it notably added 21:9 ultrawide support on PC, but the feature has plenty of bugs, and generally is not as well-implemented as it could have been. Parts of the UI have simply been stretched from the standard 16:9 version, while other UI elements have visual bugs in the ultrawide view.

On console, the PS5 comes out the winner, with more meaningful improvements out of the upgrade. Bethesda's patch notes say consoles get two main graphics modes out of the update: the standard performance mode, which runs at 4K and 60fps with standard graphics settings, and a 4K 30fps mode running the equivalent to the PC's ultra preset. You can also choose to toggle 1440p and 120Hz modes.

Nintendo has announced that the successor for the Switch will be revealed within this fiscal year, which ends in April 2025.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa took to the Nintendo's Japanese Twitter account, saying, "We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015."

He also said that there will be a Nintendo Direct presentation this June showcasing content for the latter half of 2024, but it won't contain any information about the Nintendo Switch successor.

Stephen King has published over 60 novels in his 50-year career as the most recognizable name in horror. Most of King's books are standalone works, though he has penned a few series, including The Dark Tower. By far King's longest story, The Dark Tower comprises eight books released over a 30-year stretch starting in 1982. In 2007, Marvel began adapting The Dark Tower into comic books. Although the adaptation was eventually canceled before reaching its proper conclusion, fans of original novels will still find lots to love in what was released. Publisher Gallery 13 recognized this and re-released the comics in hardcover omnibus format late last year. All three of The Dark Tower comic omnibuses are on sale for steep discounts at Amazon.

• The Dark Tower: Beginnings Omnibus -- $49 ($100)
• The Dark Tower: Gunslinger Omnibus -- $45 ($100)
• The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three Omnibus -- $51 ($100)

The Dark Tower series features a compelling mix of high fantasy, science fiction, and horror. But at its most basic premise, The Dark Tower is a traditional hero's journey. Set in the post-apocalyptic Mid-World, the story follows Roland Rechain's quest for the eponymous tower and the Man in Black, a powerful dark sorcerer. The novels often jump across time periods and different worlds, but the graphic novels, for the most part, are more linear, which gives them a more intimate reading experience that can be interesting to both longtime readers and Dark Tower newcomers.

The Dark Tower: Beginnings Omnibus may be of particular note for longtime fans of the series. Essentially a prequel, this hardcover omnibus contains five graphic novels chronicling Roland Deschain of Gilead's coming-of-age story that led to him becoming the last gunslinger. It covers and expands upon Roland's backstory as alluded to in flashbacks and conversations throughout the series. Although King himself didn't write the comics, he served as the creative supervisor on the project. Clocking in at 800 pages, The Dark Tower: Beginnings Omnibus is only $49. Considering it was still selling for $100 at times earlier this year, this is a pretty awesome deal.

The popularity of Amazon's Fallout TV show has reinvigorated excitement for the beloved series of RPGs, and that's particularly good if you want to jump into some online multiplayer mayhem in the Wasteland. You can join the other vault-dwellers in Fallout 76 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S for just $6, thanks to a deal from StackSocial.

Traditionally, the Fallout games have been single-player affairs, but Fallout 76 turns the experience into a shared-world RPG you can play with friends. It also includes other players who might be less than friendly, as well, and includes some of the base-building features that developer Bethesda Softworks introduced in Fallout 4. StackSocial's keys were provided by Bethesda.

X-Men '97 is nearing the end of its first season on Disney+, but if you can't get enough of Marvel's merry mutants, you should check out the comic book series that bridges the gap between the original animated series and this new revival. Preorders for the physical edition of the prelude X-Men '97 comic series are live now at Amazon for $16 ahead of its November 26 release. But if you can't wait that long, there is a way to start reading today.

Dubbed X-Men '97: Great X-Pectations and written by Steve Foxe--though Charles Dickens would probably be pleased with the allusion to his classic novel--the four-issue arc features art by Salva Espin and Matt Milla as well as eye-catching lettering by Joe Sabino.

Vin Diesel's first appearance as Richard B. Riddick in 2000's Pitch Black helped establish him as a movie star, and led to the franchise's first sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, in 2004. Since then, the pace of the franchise slowed down considerably, with only a single sequel, Riddick, following in 2013. But now, after an 11-year hiatus between films, Riddick is going back in front of the cameras this summer.

Via Variety, the fourth film in the franchise, Riddick: Furya, is finally set to begin production in August. No other cast members have been announced for the film, but Diesel will be reunited with David Twohy, who wrote and directed the three previous Riddick movies. Diesel is producing the movie alongside Samantha Vincent, Thorsten Schumacher, Lars Sylvest, and Joe Neurauter.

The story for the fourth film will finally bring Riddick to his homeworld, Furya, where he discovers that he is not the last of the Furyans. However, the other Furyans are locked in an ongoing battle with a monster for their survival. And if that plot sounds familiar, it's because Riddick also fought monsters in the first and third films.