In Red Dead Redemption 2's world, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, a team of detectives hunting down Arthur Morgan and the rest of the Van der Linde gang, is the main antagonist organisation. Now, the real-life Pinkerton company is taking action against Rockstar Games over the way in which Red Dead Redemption 2 uses its name. For its part, Take-Two is claiming fair use with respect to the Pinkerton name.Court documents discovered by The Blast reveal that Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations--the real detective agency founded in 1850--has issued a cease and desist letter to Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive in December.Pinkerton Consulting said Rockstar had a "clear affection" for Pinkerton by using the name in Red Dead Redemption 2. However, the consulting company took issue with its use in the title because it might have led people to believe the real Pinkerton was involved in the game's development. Pinkerton is demanding that Take-Two pay an unspecified lump sum fee or a share of royalties in the future.On the other side, Take-Two says in response that its the use of Pinkertons in Red Dead Redemption 2 is protected under the First Amendment in the United States. "Put simply, [Pinkerton] cannot use trademark law to own the past and prevent creators from including historical references to Pinkerton agents in depictions of the American West," Take-Two said.Take-Two fully acknowledges borrowing the Pinkerton name for Red Dead Redemption 2, but says it does is just one of the "myriad of ways that Red Dead 2 accurately portrays the historical Nineteenth Century American landscape."The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was a real group that played a major role in American law enforcement in the Wild West in the late 1800s. The US government hired Pinkerton agents to track down people like Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid. Take-Two also reminded Pinkerton that Red Dead Redemption 2 was not the first piece of new media to reference Pinkerton, as the movie The Long Riders, the TV show Deadwood, and the Elton John song "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" all reference Pinkertons. In the 2010 game BioShock Infinite, the protagonist is a former Pinkerton agent.Take-Two also points out that the Pinkertons, while a central part of Red Dead Redemption 2's story, only appear in 10 of the game's 106 missions. "The inclusion of Pinkertons in the Red Dead 2 story is neither excessive not exceptional," Take-Two argues."Creative works about the American West are permitted as a matter of law to include such real historical events, figures, and businesses," the company goes on to say. "Particularly where there is no likelihood that consumers will be confused about the source of the creative work, trademark owners should not be permitted to use trademark law to harass authors, chill speech, and diminish the historical tenor of works like Red Dead 2. Historical fiction--television, movies, plays, books, and games--would suffer greatly if trademark claims like [Pinkerton's] could even possibly succeed."Additionally, Take-Two pointed out that Red Dead Redemption 2 uses Pinkerton's original name, Pinkerton Detective Agency, and not the company's current name, Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations Inc." Further still, Take-Two mentioned that Red Dead Redemption 2 uses Pinkerton's historical badge, not the current one.Take-Two said Pinkerton filed its complaint in part because it was trying to profit from Red Dead Redemption 2's enormous success. Indeed, the game is a huge hit; by Take-Two's latest count, it had shipped 17 million copies.Take-Two requests that a judge knock down Pinkerton's request and deny a trial by jury. What's more, the video game company wants Pinkerton to pay Take-Two's legal fees and other expenses related to this case.Approached for comment, Take-Two told GameSpot, "As a practice, we do not comment on legal matters." A representative for Pinkerton could not be reached at press time.Info from Gamespot.com

Now that it is officially 2019, speculation about Avengers: Endgame has started to ramp up considerably. The countdown to April is ticking down day by day and the Captain Marvel movie is just around the corner, so the clues are pouring in from all sides--including this interesting detail shared by Samuel L. Jackson as reported by Entertainment Tonight.When asked about Carol's position within the MCU's power hierarchy, he said, "She's pretty much the strongest character -- in terms of someone with powers are able to do things -- in the Marvel universe. So, for Carol Danvers to be that person and for Brie to become that person, it's gonna be a dynamite thing. I mean, [the Avengers] are up against some really, really tough odds right now--we saw throughout Infinity War--so now we know that we need something that's as powerful as Thanos." We've known Carol's status as one of--if not the most--powerful heroes in the MCU for some time, but Jackson continued, adding this juicy fact. "And at some point, we'll find out how powerful she is and all the things that she's capable of. She's one of the few people in the Marvel universe that can time travel, so…"Now that is very interesting. Over in the comics, there's no real precedent for Carol to have the ability to travel through time--at least, not without some sort of outside force--but time travel has certainly factored into her stories more than once. In fact, at the start of the now iconic Kelly Sue DeConnick run, from which the movie version takes direct inspiration, Carol was sent back in time to her own origin story via a temporal anomaly supercharged by her abilities. So, while she may not literally be able to focus and send herself through the timeline, the energy contained within her has shown that, under the right circumstances, it may have that capacity.However, there is also the lack of clarity regarding Carol's MCU origin that must be considered. Her comics counterpart can get away with a lot, considering the bulk of her abilities boil down to the extremely comic book-y handwave of a sci-fi machine exploding and messing with her DNA--or, at least it did, until her origin story was revised yet again late last year. The MCU version seems to be taking yet another angle on the situation, giving Carol a healthy dose of amnesia and stripping away the ambiguously magical explosion in favor of something a little more medical. If that's the case, it wouldn't be too far a reach to look at the MCU's version of things with a bit more "realism" anchoring things--making the whole time travel angle a bit of a head scratcher.It's certainly possible that Jackson simply misspoke in the interview, or was deliberately planting false information to lead speculators astray. However, giving Carol the ability to time travel would certainly explain why Fury thought to page her at the end of Infinity War in the first place. After all, it's one thing for Carol to be the most physically powerful hero in the universe, but punching things and shooting energy blasts can only do so much when half of said universe has been disintegrated.The other logical explanation, assuming that Jackson wasn't trying to lead fans on a wild goose chase, is that Carol somehow comes into possession of the Time Stone--which may or may not be a bit of a stretch, considering its own set of wildly undefined rules and laws. Is it possible that, somehow, during the events of Infinity War, Doctor Strange sent a copy of the Time Stone back to the 1990s for Carol to find? Or, was the Time Stone in the hands of the Kree Empire at one point or another during Carol's tenure with them? Maybe Ronan the Accuser's quest for Thanos started way before Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 and the Time Stone has been in play for much longer than we'd all originally thought.We've only got three more months to speculate before Captain Marvel officially hits theaters--so fold up those tinfoil hats and start guessing. Info from Gamespot.com

The Sopranos, regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time, is coming back through a prequel movie, and now we've learned about two other actors who will star in it.Variety reports that The Punisher actor Jon Bernthal and Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga will have roles in the movie, though there is no word on what characters they'll play. Bernthal and Farmiga have appeared in mobster media before, with Bernal starring in the Frank Darabont TV show Mob City and Farmiga in Martin Scorsese's Boston mafia movie The Departed.All we know so far about the Sopranos prequel movie, which is called The Many Saints of Newark, is that it's set in the 1960s during the Newark race riots. Sopranos TV show creator David Chase co-wrote the script with another Sopranos veteran, Lawrence Konner.The film is being directed by Alan Taylor, who directed episodes of Game of Thrones and the Marvel movie Thor: The Dark World. Perhaps more relevant to this movie, he also directed episodes of The Sopranos.Alessandro Nivola (Jurassic Park III) will play Dickie Moltisanti in The Many Saints of Newark, but, as mentioned, it's unclear who Bernthal and Farmiga will play. Dickie Moltisanti is the father of Christopher Moltisanti, who was played by Michael Imperioli in the TV series.The Sopranos ran for 86 episodes, from 1999 to 2007. The late James Gandolfini starred as mob boss Tony Soprano, a role for which he earned multiple awards. Nivola told The Associated Press (watch the video above) that Tony Soprano will be in the new movie, but it's unclear who may play him. Whatever the case, the film will go into the history between Dickie Moltisanti and Tony Soprano. Filming begins in April. Info from Gamespot.com

After the big success of 2018's Mission Impossible: Fallout, director Christopher McQuarrie is signing on to write and direct two sequels, according to a new report. Not only that, but Variety's report claims the sequels will shoot back-to-back so they can be released sooner to capitalise on the hype surrounding the franchise right now.According to the report, the first would premiere in summer 2021 with the next one following a year later. McQuarrie seemingly confirmed the news on Twitter. Missions: Accepted#MissionImpossible — Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) January 14, 2019Shooting back-to-back is not new for movies, as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were shot one after the other so they could be released in 2018 and 2019. All three of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies were shot in the manner, too.Mission Impossible: Fallout, which starred a 56-year-old Tom Cruise, was a massive success commercially and critically. It made more than $791 million worldwide, which represented the biggest box office performance in the history of the Mission Impossible series. It was also well-received by critics, notching a franchise-best 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes; it was heralded as one of the best action movies of 2018.Summer 2021 and Summer 2022 pic.twitter.com/V6SNvZx2La — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) January 15, 2019According to Variety, the first of the sequels may start shooting in 2019. Cruise is currently filming the Top Gun sequel, while McQuarrie is keeping busy too, as he's set to direct the new Rainbow Six movie Without Remorse starring Michael B. Jordan.Presumably Cruise will return for the two Mission Impossible sequels, but there is no word yet on the story or what other actors may join him.Info from Gamespot.com

The latest couch gag for The Simpsons was all about Thanos. The opening sequence of Season 30, Episode 12 that aired on Sunday saw Thanos from The Avengers movie series snap his fingers and turn Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Bart into dust.Maggie is spared, and she cutely hops up onto the couch and sits peacefully next to Thanos, destroyer of worlds. We also see that the Soul Stone is actually Maggie's pacifier. The Simpsons family got unlucky here, as four of the five non-animal family members got snapped away when the world average is one in two. Here's the sequence:Disney is buying most of Fox's assets, including The Simpsons, so there probably aren't any legal issues with Thanos popping up in Springfield.We'll see Thanos next in Avengers: Endgame, which comes to theatres in April. It's expected to close out the current Avengers storyline, and the film should deliver some reveals and surprises given how Avengers: Infinity War wrapped up.Info from Gamespot.com

Update 3: In a surprising announcement, Fortnite studio Epic Games announced that it had teamed up with Improbable to create a $25 million fund aimed at encouraging developers to leave Unity in favour of other platforms. Epic and Improbably created the fund to give cash to developers who abandon Unity for other game-development tools. Epic, of course, owns and operates the very popular Unreal Engine, which competes directly with Unity."To assist developers who are left in limbo by the new engine and service incompatibilities that were introduced today, Epic Games and Improbable are together establishing a US $25,000,000 combined fund to help developers transition to more open engines, services, and ecosystems," Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and Improbable executive Herman Narula said in a joint statement. "This funding will come from a variety of sources including Unreal Dev Grants, Improbable developer assistance funds, and Epic Games store funding."It continues:"We believe we are at the beginning of an unprecedented age of inclusive online games that become parts of our everyday lives. Enabling this will take much more than Epic or Improbable; it will take a vastly more mature, broad-based industry to enable this future: a community of companies connected by values such as fair and openly disclosed business terms, respect for developer choice, and full interoperability between platforms, software, and services. We encourage others with a similar vision to reach out, so we can find ways to make it come sooner."You can read the full statement here.Update 2: Unity has now responded with a blog post of its own that disputes Improbable's account of the situation and states emphatically, "Improbable's blog is incorrect."Unity offers a detailed breakdown of what's happened over the past year-plus, though it starts out by clarifying, "Projects that are currently in production or live using SpatialOS are not affected by any actions we have taken with Improbable. If a game developer runs a Unity-based game server on their own servers or generic cloud instances (like GCP, AWS or Azure), they are covered by our EULA. We have never communicated to any game developer that they should stop operating a game that runs using Improbable as a service."It goes on to explain the background of the situation, claiming that despite discussions between the two sides, "Improbable chose an approach which doesn't involve partnering with Unity, but instead involves making unauthorized and improper use of Unity's technology and name in connection with the development, sale, and marketing of its own products. More than a year ago, we told Improbable in person that they were in violation of our Terms of Service or EULA. Six months ago, we informed Improbable about the violation in writing. Recent actions did not come as a surprise to Improbable; in fact, they've known about this for many months."Unity explains that, two weeks ago, it turned off Improbable's Unity Engine license keys, saying it didn't take the matter lightly but that Improbable had "left us no choice. This was the only course of action to protect the integrity and value of our technology and Unity developers.""We believe that even though Improbable is violating our EULA, game developers should never pay the price for that," Unity said. "We have been clear with Improbable that games currently in production and/or games that are live are unaffected, and we would have expected them to be honest with their community about this information. Unfortunately, this information is misrepresented in Improbable's blog."Unity's blog post goes on to provide further details and discuss changes to its EULA. You can read about that in full here. The original story follows.A dispute between Unity and the developer of the middleware SpatialOS is impacting developers. Studios have had to pull their games due to the conflict, and SpatialOS developer Improbable has strong words for Unity's approach.In a blog post, Improbable explained that a change in Unity's terms of service puts SpatialOS games in breach of the license terms. In fact, it suggests that Unity clarified directly to the company that the change in the TOS was specifically to disallow services like theirs to work in the Unity engine. It says Unity also revoked the license due to another breach in an unspecified manner. Other engines remain unaffected.[Update 1: Improbable has now published another blog post in which it accepts some of the blame alongside Unity but suggests the problems are deeper and could have involved any company. It proposes that the games industry "might need to consider making some changes which hugely increase the rate of innovation and the collective success we could all experience." It doesn't outline any specific solutions, instead seemingly seeking to initiate a dialogue on the subject.]Going forward, Improbable says it is attempting to negotiate with Unity, and is offering development support to those who use the SpatialOS tech in the meantime, including opening an emergency fund. It's also looking into moving to a different engine as a last resort."This is an action by Unity that has immediately done harm to projects across the industry, including those of extremely vulnerable or small scale developers and damaged major projects in development over many years," the company said. "Games that have been funded based on the promise of SpatialOS to deliver next-generation multiplayer are now endangered due to their choice of game engine. Live games are now in legal limbo."All customers who entered into a relationship with us and Unity previously did so on the good faith understanding that the terms they signed up to, sometimes years ago, would allow them to be successful and not carry additional charges."Indie developers like Spilt Milk and Vitor de Magalhaes have made announcements on Twitter of their projects going on hiatus, pending a resolution to the conflict.Info from Gamespot.com

Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming this month at long last, finally wrapping up the trilogy. The series has become known for its complex story and hidden endings that tease future events, and this installment is being especially guarded about its conclusion. So guarded, in fact, that Square Enix has detailed plans to release the epilogue as a post-launch patch.In a series of tweets, Square Enix noted that a few different free game updates will come on and around launch day. The first, scheduled for release alongside the game on January 29, will be the typical bug fixes along with a "Memory Archive" story recap. A second patch, on Wednesday, January 30, will add an epilogue video. Finally, on Thursday, January 31, a third patch will add a secret video.The epilogue will be viewable to anyone who has finished Kingdom Hearts 3, while the secret video requires finishing the game along with various criteria that will scale by difficulty level. No word on what these videos will be about, other than that they will "enhance player's enjoyment of the world of Kingdom Hearts."Traditionally, these epilogues and secret videos have shed more light on events that happened concurrently with other storylines, or teased future characters. Since this is the conclusion of the trilogy, it's hard to say what it might reveal--but the story of Kingdom Hearts has plenty of room for more sequels, even if this trilogy comes to a proper conclusion.The epilogue and secret movies have come up before, when the game leaked and spoilers began circulating online. At the time, director Tetsuya Nomura specifically asked fans not to spoil the two movies, since they represent the game's "biggest spoilers." His statement said because they want to save the surprise, these two movies wouldn't be available before release. Now we know for certain that he was referring to these post-launch patches.Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of our most anticipated games of 2019, and definitely the one with the longest wait. Kingdom Hearts 2 came out 13 years ago, and while there's been no shortage of spin-offs, fans have been eagerly waiting for the conclusion of the story. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.Info from Gamespot.com

Warner Bros. has tapped Peter Sollett to direct the big-screen adaptation of Minecraft, Variety reports. Sollett is known for films like the critical hit Raising Victor Vargas, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and Freeheld.The adaptation has been in the works since WB acquired the movie rights to the popular game in 2014. Various directors have been in talks at different points, including Shawn Levy and Rob McElhenney. Each had a different idea for the film, from a Goonies-style adventure to something more off-the-wall. Steve Carell was also said to be in talks to star as well.Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, is listed as one of several producers on the film, and has been heavily involved in the story direction. Mojang COO Vu Bui said in 2015 that the company didn't want this to be seen as the definitive Minecraft story, because the building game is all about making your own. "We don't want any story that we make, whether it's a movie or a book, to create some sort of 'this is the official Minecraft, this is how you play the game' thing," Bui said. "That would discourage all the players who don't play in that way. When coming up with a story [for the movie], we want to make sure it is just a story within Minecraft, as opposed to the story within Minecraft."This adaptation will follow a teenage girl and her friends as they attempt to save the blocky Overworld from the Ender Dragon.Minecraft currently boasts 91 million monthly active players, which even tops the success of Fortnite. It has already spawned a variety of adaptations and licensing, from books and collectibles to Telltale's Minecraft Story Mode.Info from Gamespot.com

Aquaman is doing big business. The superhero movie has now passed $1 billion at the global box office, making it one of the most successful movies in the history of cinema. After yet another weekend near the top of the box office charts, it's now made $1.02 billion worldwide.Only 36 other movies have made $1 billion at the box office, according to Forbes.Aquaman is now the second-biggest DC Comics movie ever, surpassing The Dark Knight ($1.004 billion). It's still behind The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion), however. As Entertainment Weekly reminds us, ticket prices have been rising over the years, which may inflate figures.In the United States and Canada, Aquaman has pulled in $287 million, which is below the domestic box office hauls of Wonder Woman ($412.5 million), Suicide Squad ($325.1 million), and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330.3 million). The film is performing far better internationally; it's made $300 million in China alone. All told, the movie has pulled in $732 million from overseas markets.Aquaman the fifth movie released in 2018 to pass $1 billion at the global office; the others were Avengers: Infinity War ($2.045 billion), Black Panther ($1.346 billion), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($1.309 billion), and Incredibles 2 ($1.242 billion).Director James Wan responded to the news of Aquaman passing $1 billion, thanking the cast and crew of the film for the incredible achievement. He also said Jason Momoa's performance as Aquaman will help the character become the "gold standard for this character for generations to come." You can read all of his tweets below.A few things to say...Firstly, this movie wouldn’t be what it is without the astonishing achievement of everyone involved, from the head of departments to every single crew member, who demanded upmost excellence in helping design and create this cinematic experience. — James Wan (@creepypuppet) January 13, 2019Secondly, I’ll forever be indebted to Jason for turning Aquaman into one of the coolest, cinematic superheroes ever, and becoming the gold standard for this character for generations to come. — James Wan (@creepypuppet) January 13, 2019Huge THANK YOU to my amazing cast — Amber, Patrick (my rabbit foot), Nicole, Yahya, Willem, Temuera, Dolph, Ludi, Michael — for breathing life and wonder into our beloved characters. — James Wan (@creepypuppet) January 13, 2019Finally, but most importantly — massive LOVE and THANK YOU to the fans and audiences around the world. Humbled by the way you’ve embraced Aquaman, and how it has resonated on a global scale. — James Wan (@creepypuppet) January 13, 2019 Info from Gamespot.com

As rumoured, Maroon 5 will perform at the halftime show of Super Bowl LIII, the band confirmed today. It was also announced that Travis Scott and Big Boi will be the supporting acts for the big game taking place in Atlanta, Georgia early next month.This confirmation comes after reports that Jay-Z, Cardi B, and Rihanna said no to performing at the Super Bowl as a show of solidarity with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick made headlines when he kneeled during the National Anthem in protest of the racial inequality in the United States, and he hasn't played professionally since 2017. Scott told Billboard that he only agreed to performing at the Super Bowl if the football league agreed to make a donation to an organisation fighting for social justice. Scott himself donated $500,000 to Dream Corps.#SBLIII pic.twitter.com/dWKJQDS9ap — Maroon 5 (@maroon5) January 13, 2019Super Bowl LIII will be broadcast on CBS and and streamed on CBSSports.com on Sunday, February 3. CBS and GameSpot are sister companies. Some of the biggest names in music and entertainment have performed at Super Bowl halftime shows over the years, including Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen just to name a few.In other news, EA Sports typically releases a "Super Bowl" edition of the latest Madden game at a lower price and with some extras packed in, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more.Info from Gamespot.com

The Final Destination horror movie franchise is getting a reboot. According to The Hollywood Reporter, film company New Line has started working on a new Final Destination movie, with Saw writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan attached to write the story.The new movie is described by THR as a "re-imagining" of the Final Destination series, but plot details are under wraps for now.The first Final Destination premiered in 2000, starring Devon Sawa and Ali Larter. It was a huge hit, making $112 million globally against a budget of only $23 million. Unsurprisingly, New Line went on to make four sequels, which together have made nearly $700 million worldwide.In the first Final Destination, a group of teenagers are about to get on an airplane, when one of their friends has a vision that the plane goes down and they all die. They get off the plane, only to watch it go up in flames after take off. Because they were supposed to die, the force of Death goes after them, killing them off one by one in horrific, gruesome fashion.This same setup is used in the four sequels, though the circumstances are changed. It is a highly repeatable formula, which must have made studio executives happy. Presumably the new movie will be similar in structure and tone, but nothing has been announced as of yet.There is no word yet on when the new Final Destination movie might come to theatres. We also don't know who will star in it or who may direct. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.The most recent entry, Final Destination 5, was released in 2014.Melton and Dunstan were announced as the writers of a God of War movie for Sony, but that was back in 2012, and things could have changed since then. Info from Gamespot.com

HBO's titanic hit series Game of Thrones is coming back for its eighth and final season this spring. Before the premiere of the new season of True Detective, HBO aired a brief video showing three of the four remaining Starks, which the series has followed, then revealing the April 14 premiere date for Season 8.In the video, which you can watch above, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) are in the crypts below their home of Winterfell, when everything freezes over. Winter is here, and it's going to be a challenge for everyone in Westeros.As you probably remember from the end of Season 7, the Night King reanimated one of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons--who died in the north--and it is now a part of the undead army, trying to head south. The only thing in the army's way was The Wall, which the reanimated dragon burned down, giving the White Walkers an opening to invade.However, we won't know what's in store for the Starks--as well as the villains we love to hate like Cersei Lannister--until this spring, when HBO releases the final episodes in this story, for now. Hopefully, Bran can make it to the Stark family reunion because as every Game of Thrones fan knows, people you love tend to die.It's been pretty quiet when it comes to the final season of Game of Thrones, but we do know a few things. The premiere of the new season will mirror Season 1 in various ways, so it may be a good time to go back and rewatch the show before the April premiere. The final battle for the new season is the largest in the series to date and most brutal as well. Additionally, there is a Game of Thrones prequel on the way, which has cast a few actors and a director.Game of Thrones returns to HBO for its final season on April 14 at 9 PM ET / PT.Info from Gamespot.com

It appears the next big battleground for gaming might be in the streaming world. Yet another major company, Verizon, is reportedly launching a game-streaming service of its own to presumably compete against what could be similar offerings from companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, and others.According to The Verge, Verizon is launching a game-streaming service called .... Verizon Gaming. The platform is reportedly already being alpha-tested with the Nvidia Shield device. In the future, it'll be rolled out for Android smartphones, according to the report. It'll support an Xbox One controller paired wirelessly with the Shield or Android device, apparently.More than 135 games are currently up and running with the current testing phase, including Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption II, God of War, Battlefield V, and and many others. The current testing period is focused on making the experience as smooth as possible, the report said.There is no word yet on a release date or pricing for Verizon Gaming; as mentioned, it sounds like it's still very early days for the platform.Whatever the case, it is becoming clear that game-streaming could be a very big deal in the gaming world, and perhaps sooner rather than later. While OnLive might have been a failure, the fact that companies like Verizon, Microsoft, Sony, Amazon, EA, and others are now investing in game-streaming suggests that it might be time now that streaming has enough resources and momentum behind it to actually catch on in earnest.The appeal of game-streaming is that you don't need powerful, expensive hardware to play games at home or on the go. Instead, streamed games run on hardware at data centres and then get streamed to (theoretically) whatever device you might have. Physical games and gaming hardware like Xbox and PlayStation consoles are not likely to vanish anytime soon, as internet availability and speed is not consistent or reliable around the world.Microsoft is known to be working on multiple new Xbox consoles, while Sony has said it may release a PlayStation 5. Nintendo, for its part, has said it may eventually exit the hardware market, but that may not happen soon, if it ever does.Streaming is already commonplace and accepted for movies, TV, and music--so it was always seemingly only a matter of time before games caught up.For more on the new game-streaming platforms coming out, check out the news stories below.MicrosoftMicrosoft's New Game Streaming Service xCloud AnnouncedElectronic ArtsEA Has 1,000 People Working On A Ridiculously Ambitious-Sounding New TechnologyGoogleHow Assassin's Creed Odyssey On Google's Project Stream WorksAmazonAmazon Is Launching A Game-Streaming Service, Report SaysInfo from Gamespot.com

Nintendo has revealed the most-played Nintendo Switch games of 2018 in Europe, and the title at the top of the list probably will not surprise you.The news feed on the console in Europe reveals the most-played Switch game of the past year was Epic's free-to-play battle royale game, Fortnite. Rounding out the top five were all Nintendo-made games: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The only reason Super Smash Bros. Ultimate isn't near the top is probably because it only just launched in December. Nintendo didn't share any numbers about specific play-time hours, so we don't know the gaps between the different games.Still, it's not all that surprising that Fortnite is No. 1 given the game's immense global popularity. As mentioned, this chart is only for Europe. It doesn't appear that Nintendo published similar most-played lists in the US or other parts of the world.NintendoEverything first reported this news. The top 20 most-played games for Nintendo Switch in Europe can be seen at the bottom of this post. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella responded to the news, saying he expects Fortnite's massive success to have an impact on the wider industry in 2019. Specifically, he said the way in which the game's massive success propelled gains for hardware and microtransaction spending in 2018 may be hard to replicate, especially in the first half of 2019.Nintendo announces Fortnite as the most played game on Switch in 2018. One of 2019's biggest market challenges will be meeting the comparable $ volumes set by Fortnite and its impact across all platforms in HW, MTX and ACC last year, particularly in 1H. Won't be easy. — Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 13, 2019Most-Played Switch Games Of 2018 In EuropeFortniteThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildSuper Mario OdysseySplatoon 2 Mario Kart 8 DeluxeFIFA 18MinecraftPokemon: Let’s Go, PikachuPokemon: Let’s Go, EeveeXenoblade Chronicles 2 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Rocket League Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom BattlePokemon Quest Stardew ValleyDragon Ball Xenoverse 2Octopath TravelerSuper Smash Bros. UltimatePaladinsSuper Mario PartyInfo from Gamespot.com

It's been a major week for Destiny, both inside and outside of the game. Destiny 2's Niobe Labs puzzle proved too difficult, so the Bergusia Forge was unlocked manually by Bungie rather than fans. And then Bungie and Activision split up, with the former gaining full control of the franchise. Now it's Friday, and that means Xur is ready for a visit. Here's where to find him and what he's selling from now until the weekly reset on January 15.This Xur appearance is no different than any other one. This week, Xur is located in The Tower. Spawn there and head left (east on the map) until you reach the hangar. Take another left and head past the Dead Orbit area, and then head up a set of stairs on the left to find him hanging out near a landing pad.In terms of his item lineup, Xur has the typical slate: three Exotic armor pieces (one per class) and one Exotic weapon. The weapon is the enjoyable fusion rifle Merciless, which reduces the weapon's charge time as you fire it without securing a kill.For armor, Hunters get the Young Ahamkara's Spine gauntlets (damage with abilities enhances tripmines), Titans get the Doom Fang Pauldron gauntlets (improves the Sentinel Shield and grants Super energy when you get void melee kills), and Warlocks get the Crown of Tempests (arc ability kills reduce their cooldown).Merciless (Exotic fusion rifle) -- 29 Legendary ShardsYoung Ahamkara's Spine (Exotic Hunter gauntlets) -- 23 Legendary ShardsDoom Fang Pauldron (Exotic Titan gauntlets) -- 23 Legendary ShardsCrown of Tempests (Exotic Warlock helmet) -- 23 Legendary ShardsAs noted above, the Bergusia Forge is now available to Annual Pass owners, marking the final big addition of the Black Armory DLC. Development on the game will continue, and Bungie claims its plans are "unchanged," so the previously outlined update roadmap will stay the same.Info from Gamespot.com