Entertainment

The start of this carriage dispute even nixed a US Open viewing session on a screen at New York’s Hudson Yards. While DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers miss the services they pay for and Venu Sports remains on hiatus, both sides point fingers over the blackout.

Disney / ESPN:

...we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs.

DirecTV:

Disney is again taking an anti-consumer approach, demanding that customers from DirecTV and other TV distributors be forced to pay for channels they don’t watch...

AB 1836, which requires studios to get express consent from dead performers’ estates before producing digital replicas of them, passed the state Senate yesterday, reports Variety.

The bill’s passage yesterday came days after California’s legislature passed AB 2602 with similar consent requirements for living actors. SAG-AFTRA released a statement calling the bill a “legislative priority” and encouraging Governor Gavin Newsom to sign it.

Itsuno says he will “start developing a new game in a new environment” beginning next month. He has directed some of Capcom’s most well-regarded games, including most of the Devil May Cry games, Power Stone 2, and, most recently, Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Check out Andrew Webster’s 2019 Verge interview with Itsuno, where he talked about his approach to Devil May Cry 5.

Netflix is about to look back at the history of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon with a six-episode series premiering September 25th. Just after Netflix signed a 10-year $5 billion dollar deal with WWE in January, McMahon was accused of sex trafficking and abuse and resigned as executive chairman of its parent company, TKO.

The series covers McMahon’s transformation of WWE from a small, regional business into a global entertainment powerhouse, and the explosive sexual misconduct allegations that led to his eventual resignation.

It’d be tough for me to recommend a $1,000 Ayaneo Kun over a $800 Asus ROG Ally X, but one particular sticking point may go away — you can buy it (and the fairly weak Ayaneo Next Lite) directly from Best Buy, making potential returns easy.

Ayaneo has lovely build quality. While its PC handhelds haven’t nailed battery and affordability yet, it’s one to watch!

The creator of “One Million Checkboxes” has shared some heartwarming stories about the creative ways that teens interacted with the now-shuttered website. Check out the below video, this X thread, or Eieio’s blog for some feel-good Friday vibes about concealing URLs in binary and creating pixelated Rick-Rolls.

As spotted by Aftermath, Supper Mario Broth, a wonderful X account about obscure Nintendo facts, has some important new rules for their posts.

In a post on X, Nintendo’s Japanese support account says the company will no longer offer New 3DS repairs because it has “run out of parts necessary for repairs.”

Nintendo Japan also plans to stop repairing the regular 3DS and 2DS once it runs out of parts. It recently stopped fixing the Wii U as well.

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon was already huge (runtime-wise) when it hit Apple TV Plus back in March, but with “48 minutes of new, never-before-seen footage,” the new Director’s Cut that has just hit the streamer (right on time for Labor Day weekend) is even bigger.

Mike Uyama has handed things off to director of operations Matt Merkle, who is now the majority owner of Games Done Quick, per a press release.

Uyama said last year that he planned to step away due to health reasons — he discussed that decision with my colleague Ash Parrish — but that plan was put on hold in part because of a health scare Merkle experienced.

The upcoming stop-motion film Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will include some creepy new tech in the form of a robotic garden gnome named Norbot.

We know the PS5 Pro is real and developers have been getting ready for it for months, but now Dealabs claims to have seen the packaging for the new console. It has created a sketch that shows it’s similar to the PS5 Slim, and this particular PS5 Pro model lacks a disc drive. An announcement is rumored for next month.

If you know anything about the PS5 Pro you can reach me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01

The Valorant-like shooter where you control two bodies will be available to play for free on Steam starting September 3rd.

Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova was the highlight of Deadpool & Wolverine, and this new behind-the-scenes VFX breakdown shows off how crucial her performance was to making the movie’s disgusting take on telepathy work.

Bloomberg reports that Chris Barrett, a Bungie director who had been with the studio since 1999, was fired earlier this year after the investigation revealed multiple complaints filed against him by female employees for “inappropriate behavior.” According to the report, he made comments about female employees’ attractiveness and allegedly suggested his status within the company could help further their careers.

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone is open to it. Per a statement given to IGN:

One time we were playing and someone said ‘what if there was a Pam skin in Fortnite?’ And it kind of became a meme for us, like we were imagining us all playing as a squad with identical Pam skins. It was just a silly fun idea.

Then someone asked me if I would collab with Fortnite and I mentioned the Pam thing. There’s nothing official in the works or anything like that, but yea we would find it amusing and fun if we were able to play as Pam (or any other Stardew character, really) someday.

Epic Games spokesperson Alex Fong declined to comment.

Update: Epic declined to comment.

Starting today, you can stream your Discord friend’s gameplay from your Xbox and even call them directly from the console.