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Report: Bend Studio’s Next Game Is a Third-Person Co-op Game; Reveal Set for 2027

It's been seven years since Bend Studio released Days Gone on April 26, 2019, and since then, the studio hasn't released anything new. While it seems that a sequel to…

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Oct 31 • 5:24 PM EDT • Technology • mp1st.com
Mac Studio With M5 Ultra Now Available With 512GB RAM for $22,299

Starting today, the Mac Studio with the M5 Ultra chip can be configured with 512GB of RAM, with U.S. pricing starting at $22,299. Apple promised this option would be coming in late October, and it is now available right on schedule. Apple promised this option would be coming in late October, and it is now available right on schedule.

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Oct 28 • 1:26 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
After experimenting with a PvE mode, Arc Raiders studio Embark says it’s figuring out whether to bring it back permanently

“How we do that without undermining the premise of the game itself?”…

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Oct 27 • 10:53 AM EDT • Technology • videogameschronicle.com
Martin Scorsese blames Seth Rogen for his ‘Cleopatra’ movie being ‘ruined’: ‘It was gonna be really wild’

Martin Scorsese said that his ‘Cleopatra’ movie was moving forward until a Seth Rogen project ‘blew up’ a studio: ‘It was gonna be really wild.’

ew.com logo
Oct 30 • 3:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
The Last Disney+ Original?

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we get going, I wanted to remind readers about how I plan to keep your trust while I add advertising to this newsletter. As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’m running ads now, but the danger is that it could impact my analysis and writing. I have a list of sponsors on my About Page, so if you think I’m biased, you can check out who’s sponsored this newsletter! This is something that I’m not sure anyone else in digital media does (if you’re a writer or media outlet and you do this, let me know and I’ll shout you out!) but it’s something I’d love to see embraced by the entire industry. Sunlight, i.e. transparency, is often the best disinfectant. Okay, on to this week’s issue. We (finally) have another major Disney+ TV show to talk about, so that’s my main focus for today. Plus, we had a lot of new shows come out, including the fourth seasons of The Diplomat and Tulsa King! And Love is Blind! The Lowdown! Also, four (four!) straight-to-streaming films came out this week, featuring a lot of big names and celebrities, so I’m going to look at those. All that, mixed news for the WNBA, Reacher ends its run on the charts, Skydance does well in September viewership, NYU’s Sundance dominance, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of October 12th to October 18th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Disney+’s Porridge Problem Listen, per my headline, VisionQuest isn’t the last Disney+ Original. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s not. They have other MCU shows in development. Well, maybe one: But it sure feels like the end of an era. I’d call it their “porridge too hot” era, to quote myself from The Ringer. I told Ben Lindbergh that Disney+ seemingly couldn’t figure out the right amount of content. In the heights of the Streaming Bubble Era (circa 2019 to 2022), they started releasing an insane amount of TV shows. After their growth slowed, they’re down to two or three shows a year, and that might be down to 1 by 2027. Here’s my TV shows by year chart: Even at the time, I thought Disney was making too many shows (that cost too much). Today? They’re definitely making too few shows (though the budgets are more in check, at least according to the reporting). Porridge too hot, porridge too cold; too many shows, now not enough. Which makes evaluating VisionQuest so interesting. This show didn’t have a great lead-in, whether it be a Marvel Cinematic Universe film (the last non-Sony-produced-Spider-Man flick came out The Fantastic Four from July of 2025) or Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show (the two this year were Wonder Man back in January and _Daredevil: Born Again_in May, both of which underwhelmed). And so far, VisionQuest hasn’t quite recaptured the MCU Originals glory, but it has some signs of sparks. First, it made Samba TV, though at a lowly ninth place. At least it made it, a feat some other Marvel shows didn’t accomplish. (Ironheart landed on the Samba TV charts one week at tenth place, but Wonder Man and Daredevil: Born Again both missed.) VisionQuest also made Luminate, though with only 3.0 and 7.6 million hours. But it missed Nielsen in its first week. The best news might be its 7.8 on IMDb, on 12K reviews so far, great numbers, even for a superhero show. Looking at those numbers, this show will really need to pick up in future weeks—and it may since it’s coming out weekly—or Disney will have another disappointment on its hands. Disney+ binge-released their last few shows to try to boost numbers, but that meant shows like Iron Heart and Wonder Man didn’t last long on the charts. _Daredevil: Born Again’s_last season missed entirely (though it came out weekly). Here’s the Disney+ Originals by totals: And for a fun new look, here are those same shows, rearranged by the years they came out: That really shows that, in addition to Disney+ releasing fewer shows, those shows just don’t hit like they once did. If I had to offer one main explanation, it’s that Marvel Studios moved away from characters who starred in the Avengersmovies (The Scarlett Witch, Vision, Hawkeye, Loki, Falcon, Winter Soldier) to characters who didn’t (Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Iron Heart, Wonder Man, Daredevil). It sounds trite, but more popular IP tends to do better than less popular IP. In Marvel’s case, beloved, decades-old characters trump newer ones. And yes, I think this is a problem for Disney. The failure of Marvel TV shows to linger for weeks on the charts, unlike in 2021 and 2022, explains why Disney’s share of the charts has plummeted: That’s a strategic issue. Yes, these shows are really expensive, but without them, Disney+ will struggle, especially if Disney+ keeps raising prices AND licenses out its shows non-exclusively. My recommendation? Return to the core value proposition, which is Disney+ as “genre HBO”. The goal is six shows a year, coming out weekly, spaced out throughout the year. When a show hits, keep it coming back. Make three to four of those shows Marvel or Star Wars, and fill out the rest with IP swings like Percy Jackson, Goosebumps or something like National Treasure. And make YA-skewing shows like Coven Academy to fill out the schedule. Disney, you can get this porridge just right, er, make the right number of shows. Quick Notes on TV Netflix’s sophomore, er, junior, er, senior season slump abated very, very slightly this week. I speak of The Diplomat, which returned for its fourth season on 15-Oct. Credit where credit is due, this show debuted in April of 2023, and has put out new seasons every year since. Has that helped the viewership? Not really. This season opened to 16.4 million hours, which is down significantly from the first season (21.7 million hours) and down somewhat from the second season (18.0 million hours), but it is up from last year’s 14.2 million hours opening. On Samba TV, it opened to third place; that’s also very good. On Luminate, it opened to 25.0 million hours, which is good, but over thirty million hours is a hit on that platform. Netflix wisely renewed it, since it’s steady and, frankly, Netflix needs hits.1 Paramount+ put out Tulsa King’s fourth season on a Friday. After putting out most of their big, usually-Taylor Sheridan-scripted shows out on Sundays last year, they’ve clearly moved to Fridays going forward. Was this a thought-out strategic change, Netflix mimicry, or a data-inspired move? Tough to say. Fridays are crowded with new movies, but so are Sundays with new shows. Anyways, this one is coming out weekly, and we haven’t seen it hit the Nielsen or Luminate charts yet. But it did make Samba TV at fifth place, which is a good opening. Still, if this doesn’t make Luminate or Nielsen next week, I’d call it a disappointment. Netflix had two unscripted shows hit the charts this week, one a docu-series and one a reality competition show. Tyson is a four-episode docu-series about one of boxing’s most popular fighters, and it made both the Samba TV and Luminate charts, but not Nielsen. That’s a solid run for only four episodes (assuming it didn’t cost an arm and a leg to produce). Netflix’s latest season of Love Is Blind also returned for its eleventh season, which opened to 10.0 million hours, down from previous seasons. It also had 11.0 million hours according to Luminate, roughly in line with the Nielsen numbers. Last issue, I analyzed the triple successes of Below, Carrie and Crystal Lake, noting that all three have done well. I mostly used Nielsen, but all three shows also made Samba TV (see above). Crystal Lake in particular did very well on Luminate, getting 35.0 million hours, top for Peacock among first seasons: The top “show” of the week would have been Thursday Night Football again, at 41.7 million hours. This is still above last year’s game, but it continues the season’s overall downward trend, which happens every year. (Though a big week is coming, based on the news stories I’ve seen.) As I said before, I’ll do a deeper dive on all the October games later this month, with comparisons to previous years. One company is quietly on a roll, when you consider the shows it makes and streams. I speak of Skydance—a point Variety made—noting that it produces Neagley and Reacher for Amazon, along with Paramount+’s Lioness, which means it produced three of the top four shows of September according to Nielsen. By the way, Neagley fell off the Nielsen charts after four weeks, which is a pinch short for how well it started, but it’s still a huge success. (Interestingly, it finished just 7.3 million hours ahead of the cancelled Ride or Die.) The point, though, which I’ve made before, is that Prime Video still has a problem with how many co-productions it buys, most notably _The Boys_from Sony and Reacher/Jack Ryan from Skydance. It’s not a critical flaw—everyone licenses shows—but Amazon still struggles to make its own hits. Reacher finally fell off the Nielsen charts, so here’s its final rank for season four: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… ...An example of the algorithm NOT picking a film… …whether or not Netflix buys shows simply for the movie poster… ...if East of Eden is above the Obliterated Line... ...what four star-studded straight-to-streaming films didn’t chart... ...and a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you want an idea of just how much content you’d get in a full issue, check out this older issue.

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Nov 3 • 7:03 PM EST • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com
WWE® & The Walt Disney Company Expand Partnership with Two-Day Takeover of ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex Featuring the John Cena Classic & Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday’-Themed Worlds Collide®

WWE and Disney bring The John Cena Classic and 'Avengers: Doomsday'-themed Worlds Collide to ESPN Wide World of Sports Dec. 14-15. Tickets on sale Nov. 13.

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Nov 3 • 9:29 AM EST • Sports • thewaltdisneycompany.com
Chrishell Stause announces split from partner G Flip

Chrishell Stause and G Flip attend the Los Angeles premiere of 'Girls Like Girls' at Universal Studios AMC at CityWalk Hollywood on June 15, 2026, in Universal City, California. (Amy

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Oct 27 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • kmaland.com
4 Indian-Origin Science Communicators Win Schmidt Awards 2026

4 Indian-origin science communicators win Schmidt Awards 2026 in US. Learn about Aatish Bhatia, Harini Bhat, Anand Varma & Rupsa Chakraborty.

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Oct 29 • 6:53 AM EDT • Science • indianeagle.com
Can Holograms Help Schools Address the Student Mental Health Crisis?

A Staten Island high school is opening a nearly $500,000 wellness studio that will connect students with remote therapists through 3D technology, testing a new approach to school-based mental health care.

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Oct 26 • 5:11 PM EDT • Health • governing.com
Laika has spent 20 years building up to Wildwood

How the stop-motion animation studio blends traditional techniques with modern tech.

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Oct 24 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • theverge.com
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Studio Officially Revealed

Nintendo finally pulls back the curtain

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Nov 2 • 12:42 PM EST • Technology • polygon.com
Ubisoft reportedly seeking to acquire Arkane Lyon from Xbox

Reports suggest Ubisoft is one of three companies looking to buy studio following extension of consultation period

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Nov 4 • 3:35 AM EST • Technology • gamesindustry.biz
Tommy Davidson discusses Irvine Improv show

Tommy Davidson is in the studio live and “In Living Color”

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Oct 30 • 12:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumlocalnews.com
Gang of Dragon developer Nagoshi Studio shutters months after NetEase cut funding

Studio was "officially dissolved by a shareholders' resolution" on October 31, 2026

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Nov 2 • 5:00 AM EST • Technology • gamesindustry.biz
PRG PROJECTS OPENS NEW LONDON STUDIO TO COLLABORATE WITH LIVE ENTERTAINMENT'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY

/PRNewswire/ -- PRG Projects, part of global entertainment technology company PRG (Production Resource Group), today announced the opening of Project Studio, a...

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Nov 2 • 5:00 AM EST • Entertainment • prnewswire.com
Xbox Seeks Partner to Support Arkane Lyon as It Finishes Marvel's Blade, Extends Search for Buyer

Microsoft has said it's exploring the possibility of a company coming in to support Arkane Lyon as it works to finish development of Marvel's Blade, and that it's extending the deadline to find a buyer for the studio.

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Oct 26 • 6:19 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
"This company has been driven into a wall for years" - Life is Strange studio Don't Nod faces unrest while teetering on insolvency

Life is Strange developer Don't Nod - maker of Remember Me, Vampyr, Banishers, Jusant, and many more - is in dire straits.

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Oct 28 • 1:10 PM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Power of Pink: Genetic Testing for Breast Health

Adrienne Russell, Nurse Navigator at Baptist Cancer Center, joined Studio 3 to discuss genetic testing.

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Oct 28 • 10:49 PM EDT • Health • wlbt.com
Utopai Studios Names Former Disney AI Leader Hans Ku as Chief Product Officer

Utopai Studios, the AI-focused entertainment studio, has hired former Disney AI leader Hans Ku as its chief product officer, tapping a Hollywood studio veteran as the company tries to grow its content...

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Nov 2 • 12:48 PM EST • Entertainment • yahoo.com
EA's sale to Saudi-led consortium was "final nail in the coffin" for BioWare, says studio co-founder

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk was fishing when news of the studio's closure broke. Says EA's sale to Saudi-led consortium was "the final nail in the coffin".

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Oct 29 • 11:08 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Ghost of Yōtei Was a Hit But Its Studio Is Already Seeing Layoffs

Ghost of Yōtei is one of Sony's most successful PS5 games

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Oct 26 • 3:12 PM EDT • Technology • polygon.com
'You Can See Everything' surges with $19.5M at box office; 'Clayface' takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • clickorlando.com
Affinity’s creative studio is now available on iPad for free

The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts.

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Nov 2 • 9:00 AM EST • Technology • theverge.com
Former UNC basketball coach Hubert Davis joins TNT Sports college basketball coverage

Davis, who was fired in April, will be part of the network’s game and studio coverage this season.

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Oct 27 • 1:14 PM EDT • Sports • wral.com
Cineverse Nominates Dr. Samrat Ganguly for Election to Board of Directors

/PRNewswire/ -- Cineverse Corp. (Nasdaq: CNVS) ("Cineverse" or the "Company"), an entertainment technology company and studio, announced the nomination for...

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Nov 2 • 9:00 AM EST • Entertainment • prnewswire.com
Ghost of Yōtei Studio Hit by Layoffs Following Complete Edition Launch

Despite Ghost of Yotei's resounding success, an eighth of the team has been laid off.

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Oct 26 • 2:57 PM EDT • Technology • dualshockers.com
Hollywood studio to lay off dozens as filmmakers continue LA exodus

Hollywood continues to reel from job cuts as a popular Los Angeles area post-production studio announced a plan to ax more than 80 workers.

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Nov 3 • 7:04 PM EST • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Yakuza Creator's Studio Officially Shuts Down After Backers Desert It

Nagoshi Studio and its expensive gangster drama Gang of Dragon are no more

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Nov 2 • 6:25 AM EST • Technology • polygon.com
'You Can See Everything' surges with $19.5M at box office; 'Clayface' takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday | KMBZ

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
‘You Can See Everything’ surges with $19.5M at box office; ‘Clayface’ takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

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Oct 25 • 1:17 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
Mass Effect Studio Shut Down Because EA “Chose to Invest in Star Wars” Instead

Mass Effect was going toe-to-toe with Battlefront.

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Oct 30 • 12:13 PM EDT • Technology • cbr.com
Canadian BioWare fans are calling on the government to fund the studio

BioWare fans have launched a petition in Canada…

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Nov 4 • 4:47 PM EST • Technology • videogameschronicle.com
Wale and EQT Announce the Third Annual Gifted Week

This year's theme is named after his second studio album, 'Ambition,' and will spotlight the DMV's culture, creativity, and community across sports, art, and service

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Nov 4 • 10:00 AM EST • Entertainment • yahoo.com
‘Fastest entertainment property in history’: GTA VI arrives to test a thin November box office

A24’s You Can See Everything took No. 1 with $11.4 million as studios sat out Halloween. November brings Hunger Games, Focker In-Law, and Rockstar’s 13-years-in-the-making sequel.

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Nov 2 • 9:47 PM EST • Entertainment • fortune.com
Yakuza Creator's Gang of Dragon PS5 Game and New Studio Officially Dead

Dissolved days ago on 31st October

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Nov 2 • 6:00 AM EST • Technology • pushsquare.com
George Cheeks sets Skydance TV leadership across studios, sports, entertainment, news

Skydance TV co-chair and chief content officer George Cheeks has named the leadership team that will work under him across the company's studios business, entertainment, sports and news.

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Oct 29 • 6:16 AM EDT • Entertainment • c21media.net
Elon Musk’s Grok Imagine Releases First Odyssey Episode With Wonder Studios

8 sources compared: Other (4), Western Mainstream (3), Latin American (1). Elon Musk’s Grok Imagine released the first episode of its AI-generated series “The Odyssey,” posting a seven-minute vid...

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Oct 25 • 7:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • newscord.org
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (16%)
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Apple Releases Mac Studio With 512GB of RAM, But It Costs As Much As a Small Car

If you upgrade the storage to 16TB, the Mac Studio's price approaches $30,000.

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Oct 28 • 6:22 PM EDT • Technology • pcmag.com
Tommy Davidson discusses Irvine Improv show

Tommy Davidson is in the studio live and “In Living Color”

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Oct 30 • 12:33 PM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumnews1.com
Kristen Bell’s daughter takes ‘sneaky photos’ of Dax Shepard when actress is out of town: ‘I have a mole on the ground’

Kristen Bell says eldest daughter takes ‘sneaky photos’ of Dax Shepard when actress is out of town: ‘I have a mole on the ground’

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Oct 24 • 11:35 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Mac Studio M5 Ultra 512GB RAM upgrade costs $15,500 on its own

Months after Apple launched the latest Mac Studio, it is finally taking orders for one more configuration, the 512GB RAM M5 Ultra. It's extremely costly.

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Oct 28 • 1:36 PM EDT • Technology • appleinsider.com
Phantom Blade Zero made $223M on Steam and PS5 in five days

Phantom Blade Zero was always going to be a hit. We’ve been banging on about it for months now. Well, the results are in, and Phantom Blade Zero has indeed been a hit. Yesterday, S-Game reported that Phantom Blade Zero has sold 4M copies. As of this morning, our estimates show that Phantom Blade Zero has generated $223M via 4.3M copies sold across Steam (3.1M) and PlayStation (1.2M). This instantly makes Phantom Blade Zero this year’s #10 new 2026 game by premium revenue across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation – and without an Xbox release to boot. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Combined, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong account for 55% of Phantom Blade Zero’s copies sold – 56% of copies on Steam and 50% on PlayStation. But revenue is slightly different. Phantom Blade Zero actually made more revenue outside of China However, due to regional pricing, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong account for a lower share of revenue, 45%. The three countries account for 40% of Phantom Blade Zero’s revenue on PlayStation, and 47% on Steam. This is due to regional pricing, which you can easily check in our platform: Using the $59.99 USD base price as a starting point, we can see that Phantom Blade Zero costs the equivalent of $40.31 in China (-32.8% of the US price) and $41.80 in Hong Kong (-30.3%). So while Chinese culture is at the heart of Phantom Blade Zero (in terms of theme and player base), it’s actually making more money in non-China markets. In fact, markets outside of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan account for $123M in Phantom Blade Zero revenues via 2M copies. Even when we remove revenues from these markets from the analysis, Phantom Blade Zero remains a top 20 new 2026 title by revenue across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe In other words, Phantom Blade Zero is a global hit. It’s not all China – or even majority China, when it comes to revenues. The China spring board helped, but a successful State of Play and – more importantly – positive reviews helped this one land in other markets. Quality sells. China was hyped from the start, but Western players needed more convincing As we wrote back in August, China was always going to show up early for Phantom Blade Zero. Our daily Steam revenue data shows just that, and we can see when S-Game’s banging RPG won over players outside of China: On the day Phantom Blade Zero’s Steam pre-order button went live in mid-August, China accounted for nearly 70% of Phantom Blade Zero’s Steam revenue. The shares hovered around 68% throughout August. This is the hometown-hero effect we’ve covered in the past, with the home market committing first – almost sight unseen – on national pride and a lush-looking trailer alone. Then things get even more interesting. Following the State of Play on August 18, US daily revenue more than doubled (from $72K to $146K), China’s daily take nearly quadrupled ($237K to $892K), and the rest of the world’s revenues also more than doubled. As China spiked so much harder than the others, its share of revenue hardly moved, holding at around 68%. So the by-all-counts-awesome State of Play got non-China markets and the West interested (you can see daily spend jump), but it didn’t move the needle for overall revenue shares. Positive reviews were the Western tipping point. US daily revenue went from $106K on October 25 to $230K when the embargo lifted on the 26th, to $463K on the 27th, to $899K on the 28th. So nearly 8.5x more revenue in four days, boosted by the positive reviews and subsequent word of mouth. When Phantom Blade Zero launched on the 29th, things hit critical mass. On launch day, the US and the rest of the world combined out-earned China for the first time in Phantom Blade Zero’s whole pre-order history. You can see this unfolding pretty nicely in the revenue shifting shares, too. China’s lifetime revenue share sat at 68% in August and was still 65% as late as October 25th, but it dropped to 45% by November 2. Over that same period, the US nearly doubled its share from 10% to 18%, and the rest of the world climbed from 25% to 38%. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe That’s not to say that China sold less – far from it. The West and non-China markets just showed up later, won over by the reviews and word of mouth. However you look at it, Phantom Blade Zero has become one of this year’s highest-grossing premium games. Daily volume seems to be decelerating a bit (which is natural), so subscribe below for more updates on performance. Speaking of performance and deceleration… Gran Turismo 7 is one of PlayStation’s biggest earners While games like Ghost of Yotei, Helldivers 2, Astro Bot, Wolverine (2.7M now, by the way), and even Marathon and Saros tend to get all the headlines (we hold our hand up there, too!), there’s one PlayStation game from the past five years that’s earned more than all of these games: and it’s one that’s rarely talked about in enthusiast circles. Gran Turismo 7, which launched in March 2022, has sold 12.7M copies. This amounts to $840M in revenue, second only to Spider-Man 2’s $1.3B – if we’re talking PlayStation first-party for this generation. Gran Turismo 7 still brings in around 3M players every month (and between 400K and 700K active players per day). It’s also an evergreen seller every year. For example, Gran Turismo 7 generated: $189.7M in 2023 via 2.9M copies $161.3M in 2024 via 2.7M copies $119.1M in 2025 via 1.7M copies This year, Gran Turismo 7 has already sold 1.3M copies, generating $74.7M And there’s more laps to come Every December is comfortably GT7’s biggest month of the year (except launch), and the gap is widening there. December generated 2.1x a normal month in 2023, and by 2025 that had grown to 2.8x. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe As the typical months cool off with age, Christmas always holds strong, so the holiday period is becoming a bigger slice of Gran Turismo 7 yearly revenue. For Gran Turismo 7, the week around Christmas does 3x to 5x a typical week – three years running: Christmas week 2023: $14.7M (4.6x the year’s median week) Christmas week 2024: $9.3M (3.3x) Christmas week 2025: $8.5M (4.6x) These Christmas peaks happened at the full $59.99 (Gran Turismo 7 wasn’t discounted at all in December 2023 or December 2025). And although there was a discount late in December 2024, GT7’s peak week that year still happened at full price. You can really see why PlayStation hasn’t added this one to PlayStation Plus, eh? Say it after me: Subscriptions cannibalise premium revenue! On that note… Let’s take a quick look at how Gran Turismo 7 is doing versus its nearest competitor, Xbox console exclusive and long-running sim racer Forza Motorsport (released in 2023 as a reboot for the franchise, about 19 months after GT7). Forza Motorsport has sold around 1.3M copies across Xbox (75.4% for Xbox console and PC) and Steam (24.6%), grossing $89.9M across those platforms. Launch aligned, and on just PlayStation, Gran Turismo 7 had sold 10.2M copies, generating $676.1M, by that point. In other words, Gran Turismo 7 has sold the same number of copies this year as Forza Motorsport has sold since launch. When all is said and done, Gran Turismo 7’s 2026 revenues will have lapped Motorsport’s lifetime, too. It’s worth noting that Forza Motorsport was not released on last-gen consoles, and under a quarter of Gran Turismo 7’s revenue has come from PS4 consoles. Critically, Forza Motorsport is also on Game Pass, where nearly 7M players have accessed it. Meanwhile, the Forza Horizon series has been performing incredibly in terms of revenue. This year’s Forza Horizon 6 has generated $583.7M across Xbox and Steam despite Game Pass cannibalisation, and last year’s Forza Horizon 5 PlayStation port has generated $383.5M on PS5 alone. So two questions, then: How well is Forza Horizon 6 going to do when it launches on PS5 in January? Hit subscribe to get that in your inbox in January (which is in two months somehow!?) Subscribe 2. Open-world arcade Gran Turismo when? Also, if you like arcade racers, go and play Star Wars Galactic Racer. It rules. Like GOTY material, seriously. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]

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Nov 3 • 12:39 PM EST • Technology • alineaanalytics.substack.com
Matt Damon and David Letterman make blink-and-you-miss-it cameo on “The Gilded Age” season 4 premiere

The Hollywood heavyweights went through a lot of back-and-forth with studios to make it happen.

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Nov 2 • 9:30 AM EST • Entertainment • yahoo.com
BioWare Co-Founder Says EA's Acquisition Was 'Final Nail In The Coffin' For The Mass Effect Studio

Greg Zeschuk left the studio after Mass Effect 3, but still weighed in on the company's closure earlier this month following EA's acquisition by private equity

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Oct 28 • 8:43 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
'Spider-Man' Remains Atop Weekly U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through Oct. 30

Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues its reign atop of the Official Film Chart, securing a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the U.K. home entertainment sales chart in its third week of release. Amazon MGM Studios’ Masters of the Universe bowed No. 2 in its debut. Nicholas Galitzine takes on the role of … Continue reading "‘Spider-Man’ Remains Atop Weekly U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through Oct. 30"

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Oct 30 • 11:24 AM EDT • Entertainment • mediaplaynews.com
Deep dive
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Best Foods for Brain Health: Cocoa Powder, Sardines, More

New research shows diet is an essential way to boost brain health, but which foods are the most effective? TODAY nutrition and health expert Joy Bauer stops by Studio 1A to share the best foods to improve cognitive health, mental resilience and memory function — and some of them may surprise you.

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Nov 4 • 9:24 AM EST • Health • today.com
Virtua Fighter Crossroads adds Lionel Rafale

Publisher SEGA and developer RGG Studio have released a new trailer for Virtua Fighter Crossroads introducing returning fighter Lionel Rafale.

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Oct 29 • 11:06 AM EDT • Technology • gematsu.com
An introspective Kirk Franklin is no longer apologizing with 'I Am What I Am' album

Kirk Franklin is back with his new album, "I Am What I Am," out Friday. His 14th studio project and first double album, 14 tracks are divided between contemporary music and traditional, live-recorded...

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Oct 30 • 11:40 AM EDT • Entertainment • stamfordadvocate.com
'You Can See Everything' surges with $19.5M at box office; 'Clayface' takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday | KNSS Radio

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
As local post-production dwindles, a Burbank studio makes cuts

Southern California's post-production industry has been reeling from an unprecedented industry contraction, partly due to the flight of filming to other states and countries.

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Nov 3 • 4:05 PM EST • Entertainment • latimes.com
Denise Cumella Receives 2026 Global Recognition Award for Leadership in Business Book Publishing

The Boss Books founder Denise Cumella received the 2026 Global Recognition Award for leadership after helping over 800 authors publish their sto...

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Nov 2 • 4:39 AM EST • Business • markets.businessinsider.com
Sony’s Bend Studio Reportedly Plans a 2027 Reveal and Possible Release for Its Third-Person Co-Op Game, Despite Starting the Project Only in Mid-2025

According to a fresh rumor, the next game by Sony's Bend Studio is a third-person co-op game due to be revealed and possibly released in 2027.

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Nov 1 • 12:30 PM EST • Technology • wccftech.com
EA shuts down legendary game studio BioWare after recent high-profile disappointments, controversies
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Oct 28 • 4:09 AM EDT • Technology • nypost.com
Disney plans thousands of layoffs, targeting 20% cost savings

Some of Disney’s operations, which include theme parks, TV channels and the movie studio, will be affected disproportionately.

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Nov 3 • 5:08 PM EST • Entertainment • latimes.com
Side expands presence in China, opens new studio and acquires art outsourcing provider Roboto Entertainment

Roboto Entertainment founder Andrea Cordella appointed global head of art and studio head for new Chengdu office

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Oct 26 • 10:33 AM EDT • Entertainment • gamesindustry.biz
'Dune', 'Godzilla' and more. See the popcorn buckets stealing the show

Popcorn at the movies continues to have a pop culture moment. Studios are outdoing themselves with ever-extravagant popcorn buckets to accompany upcoming blockbuster films.

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Oct 30 • 4:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Best Early Black Friday Mac Deals: Save Hundreds on MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and More

We're getting closer to Black Friday, which lands on Friday, November 27 this year. In the lead-up to the shopping holiday, we're tracking a few lowest-ever prices on Apple's most popular Macs, including the M5 MacBook Air, MacBook Neo, and the new Mac mini and Mac Studio. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

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Nov 3 • 10:55 AM EST • Technology • macrumors.com
Apple reveals pricing for Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM

When Apple announced the new M5 Max and M5 Ultra configurations of the Mac Studio in August, it said a...

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Oct 28 • 1:40 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
From impulse purchase to pocket studio: The M-Vave FM-1

M-Vave's cheap FM-1 pocket synth has exploded as a community firmware playground.

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Oct 26 • 7:00 AM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com
Disney's Pixar names Jonathan Garson president as Jim Morris steps back

Nov 4 (Reuters) - Pixar Animation Studios said on Wednesday that veteran Jonathan Garson will become president on January 4, replacing Jim Morris, who will step back from day-to-day leadership

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Nov 4 • 7:09 PM EST • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Animals Starves while the Kardashians Miss the Charts Again

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we get going, I’d like to offer congratulations to Jonathan Funke, whose suggestion “midflicks” won the poll for what I should call straight-to-streaming films which aren’t big or cinematic enough to go to theaters but seem too expensive for a TV movie. It’s so useful a term, I just used it last week! Now I just need to add this term to my data dictionary! Okay, on to this week’s issue. We’re starting out looking at Netflix/Ben Affleck’s latest crime thriller, Animals. I’ll also look at Disclosure Day heading to Peacock (it did better than you’d remember in theaters...) and a new movie based on toys. Plus, a long-time streaming flop returns for its eighth season...will it finally chart? (No.) Will anyone at Disney care? Probably not. All that, plus another look at new shows landing on streaming on 1-Oct from Reelgood, what streamer hasn’t had a film make the Luminate charts since August, Reacher’s long run on the charts, M_onster: The Lizzie Borden Story’s_ short run, the top shows in 2026 according to Samba TV, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. And I mean that last part: putting this week’s issue together, I assembled OVER 25 images, most of which are bespoke looks I made just for this report. Really, publishing articles like this takes the work of writing two articles: one is the narrative and the other is making charts/graphs. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the week of October 5th to October 11th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Film - Netflix’s Latest Star-Studded Thriller Goes For Glory The tempting angle for anyone writing about streaming film this month, like yours truly, is to ask, “Is this why Dan Lin lost his job at Netflix?” Take Animals, the Ben Affleck-starring-and-directing, Artists Equity-produced crime thriller that opened on 9-Oct. (Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson are also in it.) If it did really well, then one could argue that Lin has another success on his resume. If it underperformed, then it’s another example of a Netflix underperformance this year. So where did Animals fall? Kinda in the middle, but that means it’s more “not a hit” than “big hit”. On Nielsen, it opened to 12.0 million hours, and here’s how that stacks up for 2026 films so far this year: Obviously, that’s not great. It’s both under my 15 million opening bar for “fine” for a Netflix film and 20 million bar for “great” opening. It did a bit better on Samba TV, getting to first place. That’s very, very good, though again, looking at the Nielsen data, it probably means that it was a light week overall. Luminate’s data is a bit closer to Samba TV’s, tied for 17th all time for single weeks since May of 2024: To top it off, no one seemed to like it. It has a 33 on Metacritic and only a 5.7 on IMDb. Both of these numbers could have been impacted by the stories about Affleck’s comments about using AI to make the film. Given the controversy, the film might not have been as bad as the ratings suggest, but it’s also not a bullish sign. All to say…yeah, on net this film isn’t a point in Dan Lin’s favor. At this point, Netflix’s slide has been long enough—going on since February—that I’m almost tempted to lower the bar for what a “hit” is on streaming. Post-February of 2026 or so, it seems like straight-to-streaming films just haven’t hit the same heights as they did from 2022 to 2025. Before we head onto the “Quick Hits” for film, I want to shout out a fellow newsletter whose articles I’ve been loving this year, LA Material, a new LA-based news outlet. For just a highlight of my favorite articles since July... I loved this article on Ghost Town, a group on Venice that clears homeless encampments. As a Los Angeleno, obviously I adore their articles on LA parking issues. Their article on illegal parking tickets got the City Council to address the issue! Also check out their article on people parking in medians. Check out their deep dive on what went wrong with the LA Jazz Festival and how it fell apart, or what’s wrong with USC’s finances. Finally, they wrote up a voter guide on voter guides for the LA General Election. So meta! In search of a city? L.A. Material is an independent news outlet covering the people, politics, culture and glorious chaos shaping Los Angeles. L.A. Material brings you intel on the city you can’t get anywhere else. From exploring how Reddit short stories became Hollywood’s hottest commodity to reporting on the survival jobs keeping entertainment workers afloat. And answering, once and for all, why the AMC Burbank escalator is always broken. Through their newsletters, podcast, videos, events, and member community, L.A. Material is designed to help Angelenos connect to Los Angeles and each other. Sign up now for the free weekday newsletter. Quick Notes on Film Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, came to Peacock on 9-Oct, and I’ll admit that, after pulling its stats, I did a pinch of a double take. As I wrote throughout my deep, deep, deep dive on summer box office/Obsession/Backrooms/IP/superheroes, oftentimes the film media discusses films as “flops” or “misses” or “hits” without clarifying what they specifically mean. Since Disclosure Day didn’t make $250 million in the US or $500 million globally, it was definitely a disappointment by Spielbergian standards, who is the highest-grossing director of all time, and arguably even more ahead in adjusted grosses. But it did make $245 million globally on a $115 million budget, so it isn’t as big of a miss as I remember. That’s still probably not enough to break even in the theatrical window, when you factor in marketing costs…but it’s close. And it grossed a lot more even in the US than some titles with about ten times more coverage. Anyways, lots of preamble to say this one only did 4.5 million hours according to Nielsen, so it did make the charts, but on the low end. Here’s how it stacks up to other Peacock titles: Apple TV (née +) followed up their “success for them” Mayday with Matchbox The Movie. This one doesn’t look like a success even for them, but at least it’s not a miss. Apple/Skydance clearly tried to take advantage of the success of Barbie at the box office—let’s greenlight all the toy properties!!!—but of course, this didn’t make it to theaters. And it stars John Cena, who, as I argued earlier this summer, NEEDS to get his movies back in theaters. Anyways, this one has mixed-to-bad numbers. It missed the Samba TV and Nielsen charts in its first week, but did make Luminate with 7.1 million hours. That’s just enough to not be an outright miss, and about half what Mayday did earlier this summer. Speaking of Apple Studio’s Mayday, it ended up lasting five weeks on Luminate, which isn’t bad for Apple TV. On Nielsen, it had a three-week run, racking up 13.5 million hours total. Again, like Matchbox, the issue is the budget; I doubt that this viewership earned enough to justify that budget. Also, to be clear, neither of these films are “midflicks”; both should have gone to theaters. Toy Story 5 is not hanging around on the streaming charts on Disney+, so it’s not as leggy as either Zootopia 2 or Moana 2, and definitely not in the same class as Encanto. (It did make all the money at the box office, so Disney is going to be fine…) The Breadwinner on Netflix (from Sony) is down to 3.9 million hours in its third week. It only lasted for one week on the Samba TV charts. Netflix’s Doing Life had a smaller-than-normal binge release curve bounce, only going to 7.1 million hours from 6.0 to start, but it made Samba TV at fifth place in its second week. The Netflix documentary, The Widower: Til’ Death Do Us Part, also had a small binge release curve bounce to 6.5 million hours, but did make a second week on Samba TV. Meanwhile, Netflix’s Unabomber fell off after two weeks on Nielsen—which is not great at all—and Demon Slayer fell off after just one week. Over on Luminate, the two smaller titles The Swan: Behind the Mirror and Kill. Bury. Print both fell out of the Luminate top ten charts. The story of library film at the first of the month is the arrival of the Ice Age films on Netflix. Now, here’s a small example of optimizing your library that even Netflix could do better. Say you want to rent/license a new film series from Disney**.** A streamer could pay a big paycheck and then drop each Ice Age film on the exact same day of the month, the fourth of October. That’s one choice. In contrast, the streamer could have released each film one week apart, and make each one a mini-event for folks watching Ice Age films. Or even roll them out monthly. Netflix opted for the former strategy, and as a result, only three of the films made the Nielsen charts this week. The “Miss of the Week” goes to Tubi’s YA-ish horror film_, R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2_, which didn’t even make the Luminate charts like Tubi films usually do, or, should I say, “used to”? Tubi films, most of which are straight-to-streaming, used to reliably make the Luminate film charts (which only covers straight-to-streaming films), but a Tubi film hasn’t made it since August. The first Pumpkinhead got 1.4 million hours last year according to Luminate. As I wrote about this film before, it seems to be a bit muddled in terms of age: too scary for young kids but probably not scary enough for older kids. Speaking of Luminate, Netflix’s latest doc about a comic (expect more docs about comedians all month), Who Is Martin Mull?, flopped, getting just 200K and 700K hours according to Luminate. Three other film/special misses belonged to Hulu, including a standup special, Jamie Foxx: Take Care of Yourself, Neon’s latest horror film, Hokum, which made $17 million in the US, and a Family Guy Halloween special. (That last one was only 22 minutes, so it’s not a surprise it missed.) Finally, another Netflix standup special missed the charts, Mojo Brookzz: I Know You Lying missed too. I can confirm last week’s misses, most notably Paramount+’s Jackass: Best and Last, MUBI’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and HBO Max’s Evil Dead Burn. Television - I Can’t Visualize Nothing: The Kardashians Story Normally, in the mini-dive essays that open the Streaming Ratings Report, I focus on shows that do well or, at the very least, make the charts. Why? Because as I’ve said time and again, I can’t visualize nothing like, say, the Kardashians’ TV shows. Here’s the TV debuts chart for this week with a missing spot for The Kardashians, whose eighth season just landed on Hulu:

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Oct 27 • 6:17 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com
It Sure Looks Like BioWare Had A Big N7 Day Blowout Planned Before It Was Shut Down

The Mass Effect studio was shuttered weeks before its annual celebration would have taken place

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Nov 3 • 10:00 AM EST • Technology • kotaku.com
Council releases Heritage Hour presentations

The Floral City Heritage Council, in partnership with the Floral City Public Library and Sherif Shaalan Studios, has released four documentary-length videos of the library’s popular Heritage Hour presentations.

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Oct 28 • 10:21 AM EDT • Entertainment • chronicleonline.com
Yakuza Series Creator Toshiro Nagoshi's Studio Has Officially Shut Down Before Releasing a Game

Yakuza series creator Toshiro Nagoshi’s studio has officially shut down before it had the chance to release a game.

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Nov 2 • 4:07 AM EST • Technology • ign.com
Spotlight on Business: Indoor entertainment park and music production studio

This week's Spotlight on Business highlights a new indoor active entertainment park and a professional recording and music production studio.

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Oct 28 • 8:27 AM EDT • Entertainment • kaaltv.com
James Gunn would ‘bend over backwards’ to bring Margot Robbie back as Harley Quinn

The DC Studios co-head, who was Robbie’s director on “The Suicide Squad,” fears the actress may have moved onto other things.

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Oct 30 • 9:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Thief: The Dark Project Remastered launches December 3

Thief: The Dark Project Remastered, a modern revival of the 1998 classic from Looking Glass Studios, will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam, E…

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Nov 2 • 10:21 AM EST • Technology • gematsu.com
An ex-bookkeeper spent $375 to launch a sewing business: 'I hadn't felt so sure about something like that in a long time'

Eric Lugo runs Stitch Lab ATX, a sewing studio that offers group classes and events to teach basic sewing skills.

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Oct 24 • 10:00 AM EDT • Business • cnbc.com
George Cheeks Unveils Skydance TV Leadership

Skydance TV’s Co-Chair and Chief Content Officer Cheeks has named his ten top executives across the company’s studios business, entertainment, sports and news.

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Oct 28 • 4:24 PM EDT • Entertainment • deadline.com
Kingdom Come: Deliverance Developer Hit by 'Serious' Cybersecurity Incident

Warhorse Studios — the developer behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance, its sequel and an upcoming Lord of the Rings RPG — has been hit by a “serious” cyberattack.

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Oct 27 • 7:35 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Apple Creator Studio gets powerful new AI features using OpenAI models

Apple Creator Studio updates have today been announced, with what the company describes as “powerful new AI features” using a...

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Oct 27 • 9:26 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
SAP wants Joule to run business workflows, not just answer questions

Joule Work and Joule Studio will bring together agent creation, orchestration and business context, with new interoperability and governance features designed to coordinate agents across applications and providers.

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Oct 27 • 4:05 AM EDT • Business • cio.com
Netflix’s Leadership Shake Up…Explained

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Well, I had a simple article planned for this week. Called “Whoa, I Missed It!”, I’d take a gander at a few important-but-under-the-radar stories I didn’t cover while I wrote about all things “Skydance. (Formerly known as “the saga of Netflix trying to buy Warner Bros., but not Discovery, then Paramount-Skydance bought all of Warner Bros. Discovery”.) Alas, that article will have to wait. Netflix made news. Ironically, my “Whoa, I Missed It!” article would have mostly been about “content” strategy decisions, which is also what today’s article is about. But instead of the entire industry, this article will only cover Netflix’s decision to upend their film and TV content teams. Just that! So that’s the full topic of the day. I’m going to tackle the issue in the opposite direction of the way “stuff” flows: uphill. We’ll start at film, then move onto TV, and then onto the CEOs themselves, and the strategy questions that still remain. But we start with the numbers driving this. Let’s dive in. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Netflix Upends Their Corporate Hierarchy I’ve got a lot of thoughts, but we’ll start with the most common response to yesterday’s article. Let’s Talk Stock Price More than one person, responding to what I published two days ago, pointed out that, well, actually, the thing driving Netflix’s actions is this: In short, stock price! Even if Netflix isn’t obsessed with their own share price—they probably are, but, for the record, my strategic advice to every CEO is to absolutely ignore stock prices, which will, ironically, probably help the stock price long-term—most everyone thinks they are. By the way, I prefer market capitalization to stock prices, because it’s a more apples-to-apples way to compare companies: But there’s an even better way to look at it, and it kinda casts some doubt on the entire push here: price-to-earnings. I have a long list of articles that I wish I had written, and chief among them is an article titled, “Am I Still a Netflix ‘Bear’?” meaning someone who thinks Netflix’s stock is overvalued. As of last summer, Netflix had solved their biggest problem—which for me (circa 2019) was the lack of free cash flow—but their stock was CRAZY overvalued. That’s this chart here: Why did Netflix’s stock price increase to a price-to-earnings ratio of 50 last summer? What financial metric changed so quickly? Nothing. Given that, historically, mature entertainment companies average 10 to 20, with 16 being the average, that increase made little sense. Netflix’s stock swoon these last eight or so months wasn’t irrational; the stock price rise last year was. So if you want a really hot Netflix take, here it is: Netflix’s stock price has been going down because the financial industry recovered its senses, not because of any strategic mistake. Yes, that would imply that cleaning house may have been a mistake. That’s why the charts yesterday are so important, because they show that Netflix did have a strategic problem (a lack of hits) and that’s what they moved to address. (One could also argue the industry drastically overrated Netflix’s growth prospects, but that’s a financial industry problem, not a Netflix strategy problem per se. Some growth estimates are just crazy. *cough* AI *cough*) Now, the last time Netflix’s stock price crashed—circa 2022—it gave them an opening. I’d argue Netflix insiders knew they needed to expand post-COVID-19 crisis, adding advertising, cracking down on password sharing, and dabbling in sports. But if they had done that when their stock price was high, it would give folks a reason to second guess their strategy. (Arguably, last year, when Netflix pursued the Warner Bros. merger, it gave the industry a chance to review their business.) Instead, after the 2022 fall, they had the opening to make strategic changes. We may see Netflix pivot again following this latest slide. For example, the “binge versus weekly” conversation is alive and well again. Same for expanding into theaters even more. And adding both linear channels and streaming bundles. And maybe more either social, user-generated, vertical, or creator content. But the first shift came with who is making the content calls. A Message from Our Sponsor Last winter Pulp Fiction was on Netflix. For those same 90 days, it was also free, with ads, on Pluto TV and the Roku Channel. That is not a glitch, and it is not rare. The title has run on 20 different US streaming services since 2019, across 80 separate windows, and for more than 600 of those days it sat on a paid subscription service and a free ad-supported one at the same time. Almost nobody can see this, because when a title leaves a service, the record that it was ever there tends to leave with it. Reelgood keeps that record, dated to the day rather than the month: 4MM+ movie, show and episode titles across 300+ services globally, with timestamped arrivals, departures and moves across SVOD, AVOD, TVOD and vMVPD. Licensing teams price against every prior window. Rights teams check what a licensee actually delivered, and when. Pick a title you think you know: data.reelgood.com/title-availability Film - Dan Lin Want to know why I don’t opine on individual film or TV executives, especially new hires? Dan Lin. As I always caution, it’s really, really, really tough to predict which executives will succeed in new roles and which won’t. The successful head of co-production/finance partner, Rideback, Lin was considered for the head of DC Studios job before taking the job as the head of Netflix. By all accounts at the time, this was a smart hire. (That’s my read of the news coverage anyways.) But now that Netflix has fired Dan Lin, we got a slew of news stories about how he was doing a terrible job. In sports media, Bryan Curtis, new Substack writer/podcaster from The Ringer, calls this the “now you tell us” story, when you only hear the bad news after a star athlete leaves a sports team. In this case, now they tell us that Dan Lin was bad with talent after he got kicked out the door. So was Dan Lin a flop? It’s actually tough to say. While film moves faster than TV, even two years isn’t really enough time to evaluate a person’s output. The new head hasn’t really taken control. As Emily Horgan noted, it takes much longer than two years to produce animated films, so yeah, it’s definitely too early to judge in that domain. As for live-action films, I just published an article by Brandon Katz called “Netflix’s Summer of Bummer”, but I’d point out Netflix had a bad summer two years ago too. Arguably, their best summer came from KPop Demon Hunters last year and Happy Gilmore 2, the latter of which I saw credited to Lin. Then, the stories came out that Dan Lin clashed with talent, both Ben Affleck and Greta Gerwig, classic “now they tell us” factoids to explain his firing. This may have been true, but also should have been expected given that he was given the mandate to bring budgets back in check, especially after Rebel Moon. So if he made folks upset, well, that’s what he was hired to do! But also, he was described as “well-liked” at his hiring! In that case, I’m a bit sympathetic to Lin, since he may have been undercut by senior leadership, as often happens. Basically, a CEO hires a subordinate to be their “bad cop” and keep budgets in check, but then when talent complains, the CEO ends up undercutting them. That’s how I think you end up with a Narnia movie as expensive as any of the other flops, along with a film executive the town no longer likes. As a result, I think that Netflix is now executing a classic “hire the opposite” move by hiring Peter Rice. This phrase comes from my experience following football and basketball coaching decisions, where teams generally hire the opposite of who they just had. If you have an offense-minded head coach, hire the defensive guy. Or in college football, if you have a strong recruiter, then you pivot to an “X’s and Os” type of guy. Or in pro basketball, if you have a very analytically minded coach, you hire the player-friendly guy. I see that here. After dropping Scott Stuber—arguably a talent-friendly executive with lax budget control—Netflix hired the business guy to keep costs in check. Now Netflix is pivoting back to Peter Rice and presumably a more talent-friendly regime. (Disney, by the way, has done this twice: hiring business guys to succeed talent-friendly Bob Iger. It didn’t work out last time.) When it comes to Peter Rice…we’ll see! Maybe he works out, but maybe he doesn’t. I’d actually say the biggest problem is that Netflix still hasn’t solved its “IP Problem”, in that they don’t own much IP, so they just have a lower hit rate. The new executive won’t solve that. (Though buying Lionsgate would help.) Share “Content” - Bela Bajaria I almost published yesterday’s article after this column, but ended up flipping the order, because it told the story so well. So if you want the data for why Netflix is looking at TV to fix their problems, it’s in that article, this graph in particular: I know I just wrote that it’s often hard to judge executives, but Bajaria ran TV for six years and film for three and a half more. That’s more than enough to judge hit rates, and Netflix needs more hits. That’s the story. Since 2023, Netflix hasn’t had as many hit shows as it used to, and many of its previous power house TV shows have ended their runs (Stranger Things most of all). Also, many shows from 2020 to 2022 probably pre-dated Bajaria’s tenure. (That said, one thing may have been outside of Bajaria’s control, which I explain below.) Let’s lump some content strategy thoughts about Netflix and TV into one place: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Why I partially blame Squid Game for Netflix’s latest troubles… What is “the football trap”... Why it might not be the TV shows or films’ fault at all… What change I don’t think Netflix will make... How Bela Bajaria evolved Netflix’s TV strategy in smart ways… Whose departure likely submarined Bajaria’s final few years… One sneaky explanation for Netflix’s content struggles... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.

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Oct 24 • 3:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (11%)
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PRG PROJECTS OPENS NEW LONDON STUDIO TO COLLABORATE WITH LIVE ENTERTAINMENT'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY

PRG Projects, part of global entertainment technology company PRG (Production Resource Group), today announced the opening of Project Studio, a new collaborative space in central London that expands the company's custom engineering and technology integration capabilities, bringing its technical expertise closer to the creative teams shaping the future of live entertainment.

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Nov 2 • 5:00 AM EST • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com
Developers, Creators, And Fans Remember BioWare: ‘I’ve Been Trying To Replicate That Feeling For Almost My Whole Life’

The Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio may be gone, but its legacy and impact remain

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Nov 2 • 3:39 PM EST • Technology • kotaku.com
Fitness studio Swoot with nightclub-inspired classes to open second location Uptown

The upbeat, boutique fitness studio Swoot plans to open a second location this weekend in Uptown New Orleans, near Loyola and Tulane universities.

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Nov 4 • 10:30 AM EST • Entertainment • nola.com
"Camposoto" Health Center / Estudio Suárez Corchete

Completed in 2026 in San Fernando, Spain. Images by Fernando Alda. The plot is located in a relatively consolidated area of urban expansion, integrated into a block designated for public facilities within a...

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Oct 24 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • archdaily.com
The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel Name, Logo, Officially Revealed as Bethesda Marks 40th Anniversary

Bethesda Game Studios has officially announced the subtitle for The Elder Scrolls 6. The long-awaited follow-up to Skyrim will be called Sentinel, making its official title The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. A logo has also been revealed. Both come as part of a video message from longtime franchise director Todd Howard as Bethesda celebrates its 40th anniversary.

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Nov 3 • 10:02 AM EST • Technology • ign.com
Small-business owner shares lessons on passion, research & earning customer trust

Cantrece Jones founded Acuity Design Group in 2008 and opened Aura Plant Studio more than four years ago. She said the businesses have grown gradually, with the plant shop expanding into commercial installations and event rentals as well as retail.

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Oct 26 • 1:43 PM EDT • Business • news4jax.com
How Tim Moore Built Vū Technologies Into a Global Virtual Production Business

Tampa's Vū Technologies raised $23 million, then sold its studio operations to focus on building virtual production systems for others.

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Nov 2 • 10:07 AM EST • Business • tbbwmag.com
Five new businesses coming to Hunt Valley Exchange, including Dunkin’ and indoor golf simulator

Five businesses are coming to Hunt Valley Exchange in northern Baltimore County, including a Dunkin’, indoor golf simulator studio, Indian restaurant and wine and spirits store.

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Oct 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • wmar2news.com
Angel Studios bans nudity, sex scenes, profanity in sweeping new 'Angel Promise'

Angel Studios, the faith-friendly entertainment company behind box office successes such as Sound of Freedom and The King of Kings, is establishing permanent content standards designed to protect its

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Oct 29 • 7:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • christianpost.com
Utopai Names Former Disney AI Leader Hans Ku as Chief Product Officer

Utopai Studios, the AI-focused entertainment studio, has hired former Disney AI leader Hans Ku as its chief product officer

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Nov 2 • 12:48 PM EST • Entertainment • variety.com
Apple is adding an AI chatbot to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

The new AI assistant can draft and restructure content in Pages, while organizing data in Numbers.

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Oct 27 • 9:50 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
From 'Dune' to 'Avengers: Doomsday,' see collectibles coming to theaters

Popcorn at the movies continues to have a pop culture moment. Studios are outdoing themselves with ever-extravagant popcorn buckets to accompany upcoming blockbuster films.

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Nov 2 • 12:58 PM EST • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
It Really Sounds Like The Mass Effect 5 Team Had Figured It All Out Before The BioWare Shutdown: ‘I’ve Rarely Seen A Group So Good At Working Together’

The studio had a notoriously tumultuous development streak before its closure

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Oct 27 • 9:25 AM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Pokemon UNITE to end service on March 23, 2027

The Pokemon Company and developer TiMi Studio Group will end service for free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Pokemon UNITE on March 23, 2027, the companies announced.

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Oct 27 • 1:25 AM EDT • Technology • gematsu.com
Pop-up dance fitness with Lacey Cook

TUNKHANNOCK — En Pointe Dance Studio in Tunkhannock is hosting the second of two special pop-up Adult Dance Fitness classes on Nov. 17 at 7:40 and 8:30 p.m., cost is

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Nov 3 • 10:30 AM EST • Entertainment • susqcoindy.com
'You Can See Everything' surges with $19.5M at box office; 'Clayface' takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
Final Screen Tests for Next James Bond Under Way in London

Screen tests for the next James Bond have begun in London. Jack Lowden and Callum Turner lead the field, while Amazon MGM Studios says…

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Oct 24 • 2:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • northeasttimes.com
Amazon debuts the Alexa Photo Frame and Echo Time smart clock, plus other upgraded devices

Amazon's other new decides include an upgraded Echo Dot, an Echo Studio with visual intelligence features, and the Echo Show 16.

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Oct 28 • 10:34 AM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Hollywood studio to lay off dozens as filmmakers continue LA exodus
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Nov 3 • 7:04 PM EST • Entertainment • nypost.com
Ernie Johnson, the best to sit in a sports studio, made ‘Inside the NBA’ must-see TV

For more than three decades, Johnson helped turn "Inside the NBA" into a 21-time Sports Emmy Award winner.

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Oct 29 • 5:47 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com
'You Can See Everything' surges with $19.5M at box office; 'Clayface' takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • news4jax.com
Arc Raiders devs say that using generative AI voice acting was necessary as actors "would just go crazy if they had to read all of that"

In a new video released by Embark Studios, audio director Bence Pajor spoke on the process of using generative AI and how he believes it was a benefit for VA's.

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Nov 3 • 10:34 AM EST • Technology • eurogamer.net
'You Can See Everything' Surges With $19.5M at Box Office; 'Clayface' Takes No. 1

NEW YORK (AP) — DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. But the biggest success story in theaters remained A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything,” which pulled in $19.5 million in its ...

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • usnews.com
Apple Updates Creator Studio With New Tools and AI Features

Apple today announced a new update to its Creator Studio suite of apps, adding a number of additional features and tools across Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Amongst the new features, Final Cut Pro for Mac now includes built-in MotionVFX, which was previously a third-party content maker. The integration brings over thousands of effects, plug-ins, transitions, templates, titles and motion graphics tools, including rotoscoping, tracking, and color grading.

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Oct 27 • 9:36 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Side Acquires Boutique Art Studio Roboto Entertainment in Creative Services Push

Leading games services provider, Side, today acquired the boutique games art studio, Roboto Entertainment, strengthening its global art capabilities and ...

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Nov 1 • 11:56 PM EST • Entertainment • en.antaranews.com
'You Can See Everything' surges with $19.5M at box office; 'Clayface' takes No. 1

DC Studios scored a modest, R-rated win with “Clayface,” landing a $24 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. But the biggest success story in theaters remained A24’s...

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Oct 25 • 1:16 PM EDT • Entertainment • stamfordadvocate.com
BRE Committee Tours Gateway Studios

Chesterfield rehearsal facility has hosted top tier entertainment On Oct. 21, members of the Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) Committee toured Gateway Studios & Production Services (GSPS), a rehearsal facility…

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Oct 29 • 9:38 AM EDT • Entertainment • stlpartnership.com
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