2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the Xbox, and to celebrate the occasion, Bloomberg spoke with more than 20 people involved with the creation of the console. It's a fascinating read that is stuffed with interesting insight, one part of which was that Microsoft wanted to collaborate with Nintendo, and potentially even buy the Japanese company.Former head of business development at Microsoft, Bob McBreen, said Microsoft reached out to a number of companies to discuss an acquisition many years ago, the first of which was Electronic Arts. They said "no thanks," according to McBreen. Nintendo also declined to get acquired, and the meeting apparently did not go so well.Former Xbox executive Kevin Bachus said then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told senior staff they needed to travel to Japan to speak to Nintendo about a potential sale.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Even though it was well advertised long, long in advance that The Office would be leaving Netflix starting New Year's Day 2021, the popular NBC sitcom's move back home to mothership app Peacock has come with some unexpected new pricing tiers that the service has just unveiled geared directly at Office fans.Three very reasonable pricing levels for the streaming service--under the banner "Pick Your Peacock"--have been rolled out and are as follows:There are a few unusual things that leap to mind when looking at this announcement. Chief among them is how most readers will likely need to squint and double back to re-read to understand that paying for access doesn't just get you access to The Office, but also the rest of Peacock's still growing library. The other main thing to notice is that the free tier only gets you access to The Office's first two seasons--which feels a little like getting short changed given that creator Greg Daniels has, starting with Season 3, created "superfan" cuts of episodes.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

It's one of the longest running jokes for Madden fans. A CPU team with a veteran quarterback steps up to the mic during the first round of the draft and picks another QB. The team is filled with holes and they choose not to fill any of them.Madden CPU AI has always been flawed and Madden 21 is no different--but EA hopes to change that. A new update is bringing improved QB draft logic alongside other changes to the only licensed football game."We have added new logic checks that CPU teams will use to guide whether they should even be interested in drafting a QB when they’re on the clock in Round 1," EA said in a statement sent to GameSpot. "Now, teams will evaluate their roster and previous draft picks of the last two years to keep teams from replacing players too soon."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If the ongoing supply issues and resurgence in cryptocurrency mining isn't enough to make grabbing a new graphics card challenging, prices for them might soon be increasing in the US to make stock even harder to come by.The price increase might soon affect numerous GPU manufacturers, as waivers that kept trade tariffs at bay have now expired. President Trump instigated a trade war with China in 2018, which would've increased GPU prices had companies not applied for waivers to prevent it. Those waivers expired, however, this month, meaning tariffs between 7.5% to 25% can now be applied to all PC hardware.ASUS is the only company that has acknowledged this right now, writing to customers to explain why they might encounter higher than expected prices on products.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Netflix just dropped the second trailer for its upcoming sci-fi movie, Outside The Wire, starring Anthony Mackie and Damson Idris as it debuts next week. Mackie plays Captain Leo, a prototype android super solider that needs Idris' Harp to help him break his programming and find his humanity again. Check out the trailer below.Much like the first trailer, there's still that Training Day vibe and chemistry between the two soldiers, but there's also an underlying tension that is about to break loose. This trailer also gives you an idea of what Leo is all about and why his very existence is a secret.Meanwhile, fans of Mackie's Sam Wilson won't have to wait too much longer for him to don the flight suit of the Falcon since The Falcon and The Winter Soldier hits Disney+ in a couple of months. We'll finally see the fate of Baron Zemo and who takes up the mantle of Captain America.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Amazon has revealed which video games were its top-sellers in 2020, and in a year that saw no shortage of excellent titles on offer, Nintendo proved to be a dominant force.Out of the top 10, Nintendo claimed eight spots on the list which saw Animal Crossing: New Horizons take first place. In a year where many people were forced to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic, the relaxing island getaway game proved to be a winner in not one but two slots.Animal Crossing's physical edition was joined by demand for digital downloads sold through Amazon, with that version of the game also ending up in fourth place. Super Mario 3D All-Stars came in second place, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe took the third spot, and Smash Bros. Ultimate claimed the fifth position on the list.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Dungeons & Dragons wouldn't be what it is without dragons. It would just be "Dungeons &," and that doesn't sound very complete, no matter how many Kobolds try to fill that void. WizKids has been producing some dynamite miniatures of famed dragons from the D&D universe, but soon you'll be able to pick up the biggest one yet--Arveiaturace--an extremely detailed and beautiful Red Dragon. But, they're not really that miniature.If you've been traversing Icewind Dale, there is a chance you may have had a random d20 encounter with the ancient white dragon known as Arveiaturace--which is pronounced "Arr-vee-AH-turr-ace" or simpler yet "RV Otter race," which has me picturing something wildly different than an ancient dragon. Known as the White Wyrm to the Ten-Towers, she makes her home on the Reghed Glacier. On her back is the Mysterious Rider, a wizard once known as Meltharond. I say "once" because he's dead. That's right, this giant dragon has a frozen corpse on her back.Gallery Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you're old enough to remember the early 2000s, you probably have fond memories of playing Flash games to while away the hours at your job or at school. As many longtime Flash fans know well by this point, Adobe officially halted support for the longtime multimedia platform back on December 31, citing security flaws and the existence of better tech. However, one prolific Flash developer took an unusual step to preserve their work: porting it to the original Game Boy.That game is Anthony Lavelle's IndestructoTank, and you might have hazy memories of it from your youth, as I do. It's a grounded shoot 'em up similar to Defender or Moon Patrol, only your tank is completely invincible, and your goal is to bounce onto your enemies' heads continuously so you don't run out of fuel. The Game Boy port obviously limits the game's color palette, and the on-screen action is a little bit tighter, but it plays just as I remember.Though the ROM will work on a real Game Boy, for the rest of us, Lavelle has provided an emulator that works in your web browser on his Itch.io page. As a whole, Lavelle exhibits a sense of humor about the demise of Flash in a recent AMA, but it's clear that he still has a lot of love for the platform. Arguably best-known for the puzzle game Shift, he says that Flash is the reason that he got into making games, and there will never be a tool quite like it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

You'll have two fewer options to watch Netflix starting later this year. The company has announced plans to stop supporting the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS starting on June 30, 2021. And if you didn't already have the app on those devices, now it's too late.In a statement, Nintendo gave word that Netflix removed its app from the Wii U and 3DS eShops on December 31, 2020. If you downloaded it in the past, you can re-download the applications and use them until support is discontinued on June 30.Netflix functionality is mostly ubiquitous, so you should have no trouble finding other devices with which to watch the service. But the pending absence of it on Nintendo devices is a reminder that years into the Nintendo Switch lifecycle, Netflix still hasn't come to the console. The console/handheld hybrid does support some other video streaming apps, such as Netflix competitor Hulu.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Activision has followed through on its promise to nerf the DMR, which was causing some issues and headaches in the battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone.The newest patch is now live, and it reduces the headshot damage of the DMR 14 while also increasing recoil to deliver an overall nerf to the weapon. The Type 63 has also been nerfed with the same adjustments through the patch notes.The Mac-10, meanwhile, sees its headshot multiplier decreased, while players using dual pistols will discover more hip fire spread and a decreased damage range. All of these nerfs and adjustments are specific to Warzone, not Black Ops Cold War.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Sundance Film Festival has canceled all of its 2021 drive-in screenings in Southern California as the region continues to see a record-breaking surge in COVID-19 cases. In December, the festival reacted to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by announcing the typically Salt Lake City-based event would instead go virtual with "satellite screens" at drive-ins and independent theaters across the country."The safety and well-being of our audiences, community, and staff is the most important thing to Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival," the festival said in a statement provided to Variety. "In consideration of the overall public health situation in the Los Angeles area and the trajectory of the spread of the virus there, the health guidelines, and crisis the hospital systems are facing we will be pivoting our planned drive-in screenings to our online platform."In a separate letter distributed to filmmakers obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, festival programmers point to a "significant spike in COVID-19 cases" for the cancelation, adding, "It is deeply unfortunate that Southern California, and Los Angeles County in particular, is now one of the worst hit parts of the country."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you have been playing Monster Hunter World: Iceborne lately and have been running into issues with a bugged delivery quest, we have good news for you! Iceborne version 15.11's patch update is now live and will squash those bugs.In the previous version of Iceborne, 15.10, delivery quests would disappear from the list at the Resource Center when playing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in offline mode. This bug made it impossible to complete these quests, which was a pretty significant drag on the Monster Hunter experience. If you play in online mode, those quests should reappear anyway, but with the 15.11 update, even players who want to remain offline will no longer see delivery quests up and vanish on them.The bug was originally discovered by Twitter user JalBagel, a Monster Hunter speedrunner, during a charity stream back in early December. He noticed that while playing with an offline mod on Steam, the delivery quests were disappearing. This was noticeably strange since JalBagel knew that prior to the game's Movie Event Quest update, delivery quests were not going missing.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Director Robert Rodriguez has been keeping busy recently, with his action-packed Mandalorian episode, co-showrunner duties on the upcoming Boba Fett spin-off series, and his hit Netflix kids movie We Can be Heroes. The filmmaker has also found time to oversee a 4K UHD version of his iconic '90s collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, From Dusk Till DawnThe vampire action movie was released in 1996, with Rodriguez directing Tarantino's script. The movie co-starred Tarantino alongside George Clooney, Salma Hayek, Harvey Keitel, and Juliette Lewis. In a new interview with Forbes, Rodriguez revealed the 4K version will be released for the movie's 25th anniversary this year."I actually just finished a color correction for a 4K version," he said. "It looks gorgeous. It was cool to see. I can't wait for that to come out to celebrate the anniversary."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly's new game, Outriders, has been delayed again. The Square Enix-published shooter will no longer release in February, and is now scheduled for release on April 1. That is not a joke."We will spend this extra time fine tuning the game and focusing on delivering a fantastic experience at launch. Thanks for hanging tight a little longer. We appreciate your patience!" the developer said in its message posted on Twitter.While Outriders will no longer release in February, the developers are releasing a free demo for the game on February 25 that showcases its first few hours. All four character classes will be available in the demo for both single-player and co-op. Additionally, progress from the demo will carry forward to the full game, People Can Fly said.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Nintendo is holding a new Spirit Board event in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this week. The event kicks off tomorrow, January 7, and it introduces a handful of new Spirits based on the recent Zelda spin-off, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.Three new Age of Calamity Spirits are making their debut as part of the event: Age of Calamity Impa, Master Kohga, and the Diminutive Guardian. All three will be appearing randomly throughout the event, and defeating them will net you extra gold as well as unlocking them for your own use.The Age of Calamity Spirit event begins at 10 PM PT on January 7 and runs until the same time on January 12.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com