Warner Bros. is in the planning stages for a live-action Harry Potter TV show. This is according to The Hollywood Reporter, which says the program is in "early development" for the streaming service HBO Max.A Harry Potter TV show had been rumored for years, but this is the first time we're learning about some of the specifics. THR says executives from Warner Bros. have taken meetings with potential writers who are pitching "various ideas" for the show.Don't get too excited yet, however, as it sounds like it's still very early days. "Sources say broad ideas have been discussed as part of the early-stage exploratory meetings," the report said.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

A well-known site that specialized in selling cheats for the popular online game GTA Online has shut down following "discussions" from publisher Take-Two. As reported by Eurogamer, LunaCheats now contains a single text message, saying that the site will "immediately cease all maintenance, development, and distribution of our cheat menu services." The message goes on to say that the site will donate all proceeds of its hacks to a charity designated by Take-Two.Despite being released almost a decade ago, GTA Online continues to maintain its position as one of the most popular games in the world. GTA Online will get a standalone release for PS5 and Xbox Series X sometime in the second half of 2021, with special content exclusive to those versions of the game.Popular online games like GTA Online have always had their cheaters, but big-name video game companies have been mounting legal campaigns against major cheating sites over the past few months, with Call of Duty cheaters being a particular focus. Activision shut down the notable cheats site GatorCheats with a series of cease-and-desist letters, but that didn't stop a team from getting removed from a $250,000 Call of Duty tournament after being caught cheating. Recently, both Riot and Bungie sued cheat-peddlers for Destiny 2 and Valorant.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Capcom's free Monster Hunter Rise demo is being delisted from the Nintendo Switch eShop very soon. The demo will only be available to download and play until 1 AM PT / 3 AM ET on February 1, giving you only a few more days to try it out if you haven't yet.The demo encompasses four quests: two training missions that explain the game's controls and mechanics, and two proper hunts. The "beginner" hunt asks you to slay the Great Izuchi, one of the new monsters debuting in Rise, while the "intermediate" hunt sends you off to slay the returning Mizutsune. The demo also lets you sample the Wirebug and the Palamute, which we thought were game-changing additions to the series.The demo supports both local and online play with up to three other players. To take advantage of the latter feature, you'll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. If you don't have one of those, however, Nintendo is currently offering a free seven-day trial to the service for a limited time.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Popular Twitch streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has some choice words for parents in an interview with The New York Times: Listen to, and more importantly, teach your kids.Ninja was asked several questions by the publication about a number of things in his life, from his plans to transition to voice acting to his comments a few years ago about not playing games with women. One question, in particular, was centered around the behavior of the kids who frequent his livestreams. When asked what could be done to mitigate the oftentimes infantile and inflammatory comments made in the chat, which inevitably tend to devolve into some form of derogatory or racial slurs, Ninja said it "all comes down to parenting.""But it all comes down to parenting," Ninja said. "You want to know who your kid is? Listen to him when he's playing video games when he thinks you're not. Here's another thing: How does a white kid know he has white privilege if his parents never teach him or don’t talk about racism?"Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Hitman 3 might be a game about assassinating the depraved rich in increasingly creative ways, but Agent 47 isn't the only silent killer lurking around its baroque levels. As discovered by Kotaku, Hitman 3 contains a throwaway line that acknowledges the existence of the real-world coronavirus pandemic, which throws the world of the game into stark relief.In the game's Dubai level, your target Carl Ingram may say the following line: "I bet the people with coronavirus get more tranquility than this." As Hitman 3 players know, this makes the lavish parties and social events in the game even more suspect: They're clearly in violation of social distancing guidelines, with no masks to be seen. Let's hope they've all been vaccinated.Hitman 3 isn't the only game to mention coronavirus to come out in the year-plus since the outset of the pandemic. Assassin's Creed Valhalla made headlines for including a note that mentions COVID-19 in one of the game's modern-day segments. Considering that people are playing video games a lot more since the outbreak of COVID-19, it's unclear if people want to be reminded of the dismal reality we're living in in their popular entertainment. Still, these are small mentions, so they're not exactly hitting you over the head with it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

It's a new week, and that means Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and the battle royale game Warzone are being updated once again with new playlists and store bundles.Activision outlined everything that's new in both games in a blog post, and you can see all the important announcements right here.Black Ops Cold WarFor Black Ops Cold War, developer Treyarch is adding the 3v3 Gunfight playlist on January 28. This time, however, it has a special twist: it's snipers only. Two teams of three square off with random sniper loadouts. First team to win six rounds wins the game. The supported maps include Game Show, ICBM, KGB, and U-Bahn.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Last of Us TV show adaptation is having some of its creative team set down stronger roots with HBO--according to The Hollywood Reporter, writer and executive producer Craig Mazin has extended his overall deal with WarnerMedia outlets for an additional three years. In addition to currently working on The Last Of Us alongside video game company Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann, Mazin was also the creator and showrunner of HBO's Chernobyl.Recently, there was a personnel change on The Last of Us with Russian director Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole) stepping in to replace Chernobyl director Johan Renck, who dropped out due to a scheduling conflict. Details are still sparse on the adaptation, with no release date or cast announcement made so far after news of the series first came out last year. However, Mazin has previously said that the series will introduce characters and events not featured in the games--while also not retconning anything that's already been established there.Fans have speculated the stretch of time between The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II could be fertile ground for the series to get into. The gap between these two games is addressed in the second game in certain flashback scenes--but there's still plenty we don't see during this period.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Scavengers Studio, the developer behind the battle royale Darwin Project and the upcoming narrative-focused game Season, is the subject of a report at GamesIndustry.biz that describes the studio as a toxic work environment that was particularly hostile and demeaning to women employees.In the report, nine anonymous current and former employees of the studio describe a culture of bullying and sexism that was introduced and perpetuated by the company's co-founders, Simon Darveau and CEO Amélie Lamarche. The report cites Darveau as the main instigator of most of the behavior, including one incident where he groped multiple women employees at a workplace party, leading several of them to quit the studio. It also accuses Darveau of other bizarre and childish behavior, such as stealing alcohol from neighboring workplaces, openly making fun of the company's sexual harassment policies, or outright screaming at employees during meetings.Though Darveau and Lamarche are singled out in the report, the culture of sexism went far beyond their conduct alone. One employee described a particularly egregious incident where a person suggested that the main character of Season, Abby, should play the guitar. Another person remarked that such a feature wouldn't be "realistic" because the guitar is too complicated for a woman to play, suggesting that Abby should play a ukulele instead.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

A panel of video game industry veterans who worked at the three main console companies are getting together for a special interview later this week. Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime will be joined by ex-Xbox executive Robbie Bach and former PlayStation higher-up Jack Tretton for a special chat during the New York Game Awards festivities. The interview will take place on January 26 starting at 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET, and you can watch it live on Twitch.Industry Icons? Frenemies? Mensches? Whatever … join @Robbie_Bach, @theJackTretton and me in a spirited talk benefiting @NYVGCC and leading into @NYGameAwards. Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 6:30p ET/3:30p PT. @Twitch pic.twitter.com/jbvn9P74sk — Reggie Fils-Aime (@Reggie) January 25, 2021Given the history and experience of each of the panelists, it should be a fascinating interview, though it's too soon to say for sure if it'll deliver any juicy news nuggets or anything like that.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Medium is one of the first Microsoft published titles that will be exclusive to the company's new consoles, with developer Bloober Team assuring fans that the horror with run well on the Xbox Series S.In an interview with VG24/7, lead designer Wojciech Piejko and producer Jacek Zięba spoke about the experience of playing The Medium on Microsoft's less powerful Xbox Series S. The pair agreed that the experience was identical, and that only small graphical differences really separate the two in almost indistinguishable ways."Yeah, so the graphics are still nice because we've got a really cool graphic art style and I love the art style of the game," said Piejko. "It's in lower resolution, but it's still the same great experience."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Composers Jesper Kyd and Sarah Schachner, who both worked on the music for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, will drop two new soundtrack albums this Friday on Spotify that are comprised of previously unreleased songs from the open-world Viking adventure, Game Informer reports.Titled Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Sons of the Great North (Kyd) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Twilight of the Gods (Schachner), the two albums offer 61 songs that will transport players all across England to further flesh out Valhalla's soundscape and world.Composed by the BAFTA Award-winning Kyd, who has also done the music for Assassin's Creed's Ezio Trilogy, Sons of the Great North packs two-and-a-half hours of music that Kyd said "reflects the brutality of the era infused with the spirituality of Norse mythology," according to Game Informer. The album is 29-tracks long of "previously unreleased" music with natural environmental sounds punctuated by live instruments and "mixed with a modern electronic approach which gives the score a unique sound," Kyd said.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Iconic video game designer Hideo Kojima is calling for world peace. In an interview during his acceptance of the New York Game Awards' Legend Award, Kojima said the world remains divided, just as it was before he and his team made Death Stranding.Part of the reason he wanted to make Death Stranding was to help bring people together. During the planning stages of Death Stranding, Kojima remarked that the world was becoming increasingly divided and people were becoming isolated from one another, and he observed that this trend has only continued in the time after Death Stranding was released.In the future, Kojima said he hopes people can make peace and come together.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

John Boyega and Robert DeNiro are set to star in the upcoming Netflix feature The Formula from director Gerard McMurray, according to Deadline. McMurray (2019's The Twilight Zone, The First Purge) has the distinction of having directed Burning Sands, one of the streaming platform's first original features--then much more untested waters in 2017. No release date or other casting information has been announced.The Formula is a drama-heist about a Formula One racer who becomes a getaway driver "to save the only family he has left." Jason Michael Berman is executive producer, with Sam Shaw and Buppie Productions' Ephraim Walker on as co-producers.Neither Boyega nor DeNiro hardly need further elaboration on their resumes, but Boyega recently starred in Steve McQueen's excellent Amazon Prime Video anthology film series Small Axe, about the real-life experiences of London's West Indian community and is set between 1969 and 1982. Boyega stars in the installment titled "Red, White, and Blue," about the true story of Leroy Logan, who "at a young age saw his father assaulted by two policemen, motivating him to join the Metropolitan Police and change their racist attitudes from within." Boyega also recently made headlines for speaking publicly about his dissatisfaction with the direction the Star Wars trilogy he starred in took.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans can add two new Nintendo Switch controllers to their collections next month. The adorable controllers featuring Tom Nook and Isabelle are available to preorder now at Amazon for $25 each. Both controllers release on February 14, and Prime members can get release-day delivery just in time for Valentine's Day. Tom Nook controller $25 See at Amazon Isabelle controller $25 See at Amazon The Tom Nook controller is blue and features a graphic of the entrepreneurial raccoon, while the Isabelle controller is yellow to match the fan favorite's hair.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft has dropped a new update for Rainbow Six Siege on the PC test servers that adjusts Ranked and tweaks operators, among other things. The full patch notes for Y5S4.3 are outlined below.The leading features of this latest update center around tweaking the game's many operators. Ash's Breaching Round explosive has had its area of effect reduced to two meters, down from 3.5 meters previously. Buck's shotgun ammo capacity has been increased from 26 to 31. Meanwhile, a number of other operators--including Ela, Kali, Lesion, Lion, and three others--have had certain pieces of equipment removed, like the angled grip from Melusi's MP5.The patch also makes a small but notable tweak to Ranked: increasing the cancelation time. Now, disconnected players will have more time to rejoin matches. Furthermore, certain exploits that let players end the first round before it started, which effectively prevented the other team from canceling the match, have been fixed.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com