As reported by Variety, the Saul Zaentz Co is selling its Tolkien rights, which includes films, games, TV shows over eight episodes, live events, merchandise, and theme parks based on The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other Tolkien properties. The rights are set to fetch upwards of $2bn. The Saul Zaentz Co was set up by producer Saul Zaentz who died back in 2017. He was responsible for Oscar-winning films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient....

To celebrate the firm release date, here’s a new teaser: “5012 AD. Mankind is in danger of extinction due to the sudden arrival of aliens to the earth and the machine lifeforms they created,” teases the video description, according to Google Translate and my very, very rusty GCSE Japanese. “As the ultimate weapon, mankind dispatches a new android Yorha unit to Earth,” it continues. “2B, who was newly dispatched to Earth, joins up with 9S, an advanced investigator, and goes on a mission, but in the midst of that, he encounters a number of mysterious phenomena… This is the story of a lifeless android who continues to fight for humanity....

Towards the end of 1982, McConnell formed a company, Ambient Designs, to work on the concept - known as Starquest at this point - with the blessing of the embryonic publisher. One of his first employees was programmer Alec Kercso. “I was in my senior year at UC San Diego when I met Rod,” says Kercso. “At the time most people, and certainly most students, didn’t have a personal computer at their desk and compared to today there wasn’t nearly the number of games out there....

Games that earn a Verified badge meet Valve’s own “very high” standards, as described in detail in a new Steam Community forum post. “Our existing standards for titles to get a Verified or a Playable rating are very high,” Valve explained (thanks, NME). “If a game shows controller glyphs 99 per cent of the time but tells you to ‘press F’ sometimes during gameplay, that’s Playable, not Verified. If 99 per cent of a game’s functionality is accessible, but accessing one optional in-game minigame crashes, or one tutorial video doesn’t render, that’s Unsupported....

Once again, the majority of the console game offers are available at the Boss Deals store, though other gaming and tech retailers are included in the promotion if you want to look elsewhere for some other bargains. The likes of ShopTo, Hughes Direct and The Game Collection are usually worth a look. To get the discount, all you need to do is enter the code ‘PURCHASE15’ at the checkout. Your first stop should be ShopTo, where you can get Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury for £38....

As these are Switch games we’re talking about, naturally, the discounts aren’t as dramatic as we’d usually expect to see. For some of these, though, they’re now at the lowest prices they’ve been so far. Take Astral Chain: dubbed a “platinum-plated masterpiece” in the Eurogamer review, it’s now down to £35. Or, if you prefer your bonkers action game to feature big stompy mechs, you can get Daemon X Machina for £30....

Microsoft, meanwhile, has stopped production of new Xbox One consoles, though said back in 2020 that it would continue to support the Xbox One with first-party games for at least two years. This makes it all the more important that both Sony and Microsoft continue to improve the shaky foundations of their cross-gen upgrade paths, more than a year after PS5 and Xbox Series X/S first arrived. Away from console manufacturers, third-party publishers are also still releasing games across both generations, and will likely continue to do so for at least another year in order to maximise their customer base....

Basto is the game’s biggest region yet and will be filled with new quests, secrets, minigames, and animals to photograph. The update will be added for free from 16th September on Steam, arriving on PlayStation 5 and Switch soon after. Watch on YouTube TOEM - Out on Switch, PS5 and PC September 17th! To access the new region, players will need to complete the main game and then speak with grandma in Homelanda....

You take the role of Serenoa Wolffort, who as a representative of Glenbrook is trying to learn more about the complex politics at play to determine the best course of action in order to ensure lasting peace. While the resource conflict in Triangle Strategy is a fairly simple one, the game presents itself as a political tightrope act. The first three chapters available for preview are very light on actual battles, but full of introductions, both to people and the political climate, and discussions on how best to deal with Hyzante and Aesfrost so there won’t be another war - I don’t like to say it, but I think we know how that will end....

Twitch previously pledged to work with its community to design a new emote for the platform, and, in that spirit, has made the decision to adapt an idea presented by gaming personality Sean Plott. “Create a database of streamer and/or general faces,” Plott suggested in a tweet directed at Twitch yesterday. “Whenever someone types PogChamp, display one of those faces at random. Would give a really nice crowd feel to a chat spamming PogChamp and allow the meaning to be tied to all of us instead....

Twitch launched the change back on 15th July, but only in Argentina, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and Taiwan. Other countries were “on the way in the coming months”, with Australia, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Chile and Peru added on 15th August. From 15th September, that change will come to the UK, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and elsewhere, totalling 117 countries. Notably, the US still does not have this change, though perhaps another update will hit on 15th October....

Ugly Sonic, as you’ll no doubt be aware, was the original design for Sonic in the 2020 film before fans complained. His dodgy teeth and human eyes were removed, eventually leading to a decent film and better sequel. But now he’s back and… uglier than ever before. Honestly, it’s terrifying. He appears more than once in the new Disney+ film, which features an older Chip and Dale - one cartoon, the other CGI - as they aim to relive their glory days....

New documentation from the CMA states that its statutory deadline to publish the final report will be 1st March, 2023. As such, the final deadline for all parties’ responses regarding this investigation will be in February. Between that time and now, the CMA will be conducting meetings with the main and third parties involved with this acquisition, issuing questionnaires and verifying the information provided. Meanwhile, in January (and only if required) the CMA will notify all relevant parties of its provisional findings and possible remedies....

Following last month’s launch of the Hearth & Home update, the majority of the development team behind the hit indie Viking game started working on the Mistlands, Iron Gate Studios said in a blog post on Steam. The focus here is more on adventure and exploration than on building, Iron Gate said. There’s no footage, but Iron Gate shared an in-progress screenshot of Mistlands, below: “… please keep in mind that this is not a final version, and that the landscape will likely change quite a bit before we figure out just exactly what the Mistlands will look like,” Iron Gate stressed....

In a series of new messages posted to his Twitter this afternoon, Baker admitted his earlier “You can hate. Or you can create.” message about his new business venture “might have been a bit antagonistic”. But while the messages strike a more humble town, Baker did not comment on whether his relationship with VoiceverseNFT would still continue. Here’s Baker’s new comments in full: “I always want to be a part of the conversation, even if sometimes that finds me in the midst of a loud one,” Baker wrote....

“The world doesn’t revolve around you” is the greatest truth you will ever be told. Countless yesterdays passed millenia before your birth, and tomorrow will come whether you are there to see it or not. Of the approximately 8 billion people alive today, the percentage that will never know you existed is so high, under any other circumstances you would round it to 100 percent. Even on the immensely wider scale of humanity itself, we are not as important as we like to think we are....

The well-received Blood Angels versus Tyranids turn-based strategy game launched on PC last month and, as someone who has finished the campaign and dipped their toe into skirmish mode, it’s in dire need of new factions and more variety. In a post on Steam, developer Black Lab Games said new factions are coming. In fact, this is the most common request from players. “Everybody has a favourite faction and wants to be able to deploy their preferred units on the battlefields of the 41st millennium,” Black Lab Games said....

Essentially, players can watch specific Twitch streams to earn exclusive items to be used in-game. However, fans were frustrated and posted negative reviews for the game on Steam. “In order to get these items… you have to watch hours and hours of inane Twitch streamers prattling on instead of actually playing the game you paid for. They also are timed so if you miss them you miss them forever,” wrote one review....

This isn’t a run-and-gun kind of weapon however, nor does it have enough range to be one you’ll want to take down the sniper lines. What it lacks in its close and long-range effectiveness though, it makes up for in strong medium range combat, and as such is a strong option for your time in Warzone 2.0. In order to help emphasise a more careful and calculated playstyle, on this page we’ll explain how to unlock the FTAC Recon, as well as recommend a set of attachments, perk package and equipment that’ll help you build the best FTAC Recon loadout....

Once upon a time, this ensemble from Call of Duty eSports team LA Thieves basically allowed wearers to become one with the shadows thanks to its all-black design (bar a red embossed “LA” on the chest). However, it has now been given a colourful little update by Activision. So, yes, we will be able to see you now. As Ishraq reported earlier this month, this skin by LA Thieves was labelled “Roze 2....