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Amazon surprise releases 'Jack Ryan' season two a day early
In a move that is surprisingly rare, Amazon Prime has decided to release the new season for one of its flagship shows a few hours early. Season two of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is available now, so fans don't have to wait until 3AM to binge. If you're avoiding trick or treating, then it might make for a good watch, plus it gets Amazon's series out of the way of Apple TV+ and its flood of content -- quality notwithstanding -- that will launch tonight. Series star John Krasinski announced the release on his Twitter account this afternoon, so you can watch it right now -- and in 4K if you have the right hardware. Season two also features Wendell Pierce, Michael Kelly and Noomi Rapace. Netflix pulled a similar stunt for Orange is the New Black a few years ago, we'll see if this remains a rare event, or if streamers decide to give binge watchers a break on staying up late to see everything first.
Elder Scrolls early access starts this Sunday at the crack of dawn
If you're looking to log into The Elder Scrolls Online's early access period as soon as humanly possibly, prepare to get up at the crack of dawn this Sunday. A Reddit user has posted ZeniMax's schedule for the five-day jump (beginning at 7:00 a.m. EDT on Sunday, March 30th), the three-day head start (7:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 1st), and the wide release (7:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 3rd). Note that these dates and times are for PC players. ESO's console versions will launch in June.
Shroud of the Avatar enters Release 2 of early access
Last month, Portalarium's upcoming crowd-funded title, Shroud of the Avatar, entered the first phase of early access for backers of the game. Now the game is winding up for Release 2 of its early access program, and players will find that a number of new features have been added since Release 1 launched in December. Included among these features are the new municipality of Kingsport, which players can explore as they please, and a bevy of quality-of-life features like a "list inventory," improved character customization, and jumping. But perhaps the most-anticipated feature of Release 2 is the introduction of crafting. The press release notes that this release includes only "the very first stages" of the game's crafting system, focusing on "refining and production for smithing, tailoring, and carpentry." Players will be able to find "more than 100 recipes" alongside chests full of crafting resources scattered throughout the game world. Other facets of the crafting system, such as resource gathering, item repair, and equipment enhancement, will be rolled out in subsequent releases. For now, though, Shroud of the Avatar backers can jump into New Britannia to check it all out for themselves while the rest of us watch and wait. [Source: Portalarium press release]
The Daily Grind: Do you like staggered or modular launch schedules?
Regardless of your feelings toward Kickstarter or crowdfunding in general, you have to admit that it's starting to have an impact on the way games are made. More specifically, two of the larger crowdfunding projects -- Shroud of the Avatar and Star Citizen -- are doing away with a traditional launch date in favor of a staggered release schedule. Star Citizen has already released a playable piece of pre-alpha content, and just yesterday we learned that Shroud of the Avatar's initial client will be available as early as next month. What do you think about these newfangled rollouts? Do you like the opportunity to see games in their raw, pre-beta states, or do you prefer to wait on a more traditional or feature-complete release day? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
LittleBigPlanet Vita launch trailer has mini-games for all to enjoy
LittleBigPlanet Vita officially launches September 25, but already a few intrepid fans have slaved over strategies and painstakingly outwitted various retailers into selling them copies ahead of release – or there was just a misunderstanding and some stores put out the game early.On the PlayStation Blog, Tarsier Studios community coordinator Simon Rosenkotter says he hopes these players are enjoying the game, but warns the servers won't go live until tomorrow, so online play is still blocked until then. Sony has given the go-ahead to retailers to sell the game early, so check your local stores.To satiate early players and the jealous masses, above we have the LittleBigPlanet Vita launch trailer, showing off the mini-games in the game's Arcade option.
Super Monday Night Combat accidentally hits Steam, dev rolls with it
Super Monday Night Combat is live and free to play on Steam right now, even though it's technically still supposed to be in beta. The launch came as a surprise to developer Uber Entertainment, but it's decided to embrace the release, and Super Monday Night Combat is now a thing that you can play. Uber Entertainment's Ekanaut explains what happened on the official forums:"We did a bunch of invites over the weekend and there was some wonkiness on how the messaging went out with lots of confusion which resulted in more silliness. We decided to just open it up. There will be an announcement about it on Steam soon."Wonkiness leads to confusion; confusion leads to silliness; silliness is the path to a speedy Steam release. So, surprise! Go play some Super Monday Night Combat, because you totally can.
BioWare taking SWTOR queues 'seriously'
Stop us if you've heard this one before: Hugely anticipated MMO struggles to balance lengthy launch queues with long-term server and community stability. Yes, BioWare is slogging down the same slippery supply and demand slope that many AAA MMOs have trod before, and a report at Eurogamer suggests that the lines have only just begun. There were 140 servers open for business this past weekend (a pre-launch period in which BioWare staggered waves of invites to legions of early release customers), and more are being added due to queue times approaching two hours. With Star Wars: The Old Republic's actual launch day looming tomorrow, BioWare's Jeff Hickman did his best to deflect criticism and soothe the impatient rumblings of disgruntled players. "While we can't promise that there won't ever be queues, we can promise you that we are taking this matter seriously and constantly reviewing them to make sure that they are manageable and reasonable," he said.
Amazon bumps up SWTOR shipping schedule
If you pre-ordered your copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic from Amazon and are fretting over being locked out of the game until you receive your copy, fret no more. The online retailer has issued a statement saying that it's going to ship BioWare's new sci-fi MMO earlier than expected due to the change in the title's release schedule. Amazon says that customers need take no action, as order updates and shipping times will be handled internally and posted to your account order page. The company has also published a handy list of receiving dates that correspond to your selected shipping method, and you can find that and more on Amazon.com. [Thanks to Brady for the tip!]
Eddie Murphy's Tower Heist gets fast-tracked to Comcast VOD, $60 saves a trip to the theater
Perhaps you're not a fan of sticky floors, armrest sharing or simply other people. Well, crowd-averse Comcast subscribers at least will have the chance to watch one Hollywood release from the comfort of their home while it's still in theaters. According to The LA Times, Eddie Murphy's Tower Heist will be out to view on-demand a mere three weeks after its November 4th release. It's not the first time we've seen premium advance video-on-demand, the main difference being, at $60, Comcast's experiment looks to be double the price for half the wait. Now if we could just afford that 155-inch screen...
Firefox 6 breaks out ahead of schedule, gets official August 16th
It looks like the sly fox is ready to make its worldwide debut a few days early. In typical Mozilla fashion, a complete build of Firefox 6 is now unofficially available for your downloading pleasure, three days ahead of schedule. If you're looking for a major facelift to the desktop edition, you won't find one here -- most of the new features aren't cosmetic. Perhaps most visibly, you'll find the domain name of the page you're parked on highlighted in the address bar. On the Android side, version 6 makes much bigger promises, like a "fresh visual style in Chrome Gingerbread," enhanced image scaling, and, perhaps most importantly, it's "faster and uses less memory." We've downloaded the desktop version of the browser ourselves, and we've found the release quite snappy. If you're not afraid of a little pre-release downloading, you can catch the (desktop) fox at the source links below. And as per usual, please let us know how it's treating you.
Firefox 5 slips out ahead of schedule, gets official June 21st
Mozilla promised a faster refresh cycle for its wily web browser, following the release of Firefox 4, and it's made good on that promise. We got word this morning that the final version of Firefox 5 is now available for download on Mozilla's ftp server, just 12 weeks after the last re-up. The latest incarnation brings with it support for CSS animation and a more easily accessible do-not-track setting -- now available at the top of the privacy pane -- but won't see much in the way of GUI enhancements. Of course, if you want to play it safe, and avoid any last-minute tweaks, you can always hold off until version 5 gets official, but what's the fun in that? If you've already got your hands on the sly fox, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. [Thanks, Haseeb]
Flyer Friday: Best Buy starts selling HTC's seven-inch slate today
We thought HTC's Flyer wasn't going on sale until May 22nd, but it appears a certain big box retailer has changed its plans. Our tipsters have told us that stores with the device in stock have started selling it today, May 20th, despite the somewhat confusing text you see in the picture above. So, if you're pining for a $500, seven-inch slab of silky smooth Sense 3.0, head on down to the local Best Buy and grab one yourself. [Thanks, Anonymous]
DirecTV's $30 per rental premium video on-demand service launches Thursday
If the actual trip to the movie theater was the only thing preventing you from checking out Adam Sandler, Brooklyn Decker and Jennifer Aniston in Just Go With It, you can still check it out before it arrives on Blu-ray or DVD starting Thursday thanks to DirecTV's new premium video on-demand service. The Hollywood Reporter mentions Sony's flick will be the first one on the service and is already available for preordering on the new Home Premiere service, available only to customers with the satellite company's HD DVRs, which is about 6 million people. As far as DRM, HDMI is required but only a "digital watermarking technology" is mentioned. The next several flicks planned for the service include The Adjustment Bureau (Universal), Cedar Rapids (Fox) and Hallpass (Warner Bros.); they will be available for two weeks at a $29.99 pricetag, in 1080p with 48 hour viewing windows. Movie theater owners don't seem thrilled by the new service, we guess the next question is whether or not you are -- the poll is after the break.
LEGO Universe lets pre-order customers start extra early
Anticipation for LEGO Universe has been building ever since the foundation was laid for the game. Considering the way in which players have assembled for the game's release, it seems no surprise that the team behind the game has put together something special for launch. We had known that there would be an early access event to allow players to start piecing things together, but now it seems that an even earlier release is being opened up for "Founders" to start playing -- one that starts this weekend. Starting at 10:08 a.m. EDT on Friday, October 8th, the pre-order customers known in community terms as "Founders" will be able to log in and start playing the game, allowing them full access over the weekend. If you can't wait until then and still haven't pre-ordered, however, you aren't out of luck yet, as the official announcement encourages players to visit the nearest LEGO store to pre-order the game and get a special mini-figure. LEGO Universe players will have to keep their eyes peeled for further instructions, as the end of the week is quickly approaching, and it promises quite a set of experiences.
An early release for City of Heroes Going Rogue
City of Heroes players had been looking forward to August 17th for quite some time, ever since it was announced as the release date for the game's new expansion, Going Rogue. It looks like they got their treat a day early, however, as Issue 18 has gone live today. Issue 18 is the patch that coincides with the expansion, and sure enough, players who have pre-purchased the expansion are reporting that they do indeed have full access to all of the expansion content. The official word from Paragon Studios is that the "soft launch" was done as a part of extended maintenance in order to facilitate a smoother launch day process.. Either way, there's no indication that the game is rolling back the live push, nor does it seem likely for a few hours of early release. The patch is quite large, so City of Heroes players are advised to start downloading early -- and as soon as it's done, they can start enjoying Going Rogue just a bit ahead of schedule. [Thanks to Skystreak for the tip!]
MPAA dangles early HD VOD releases, in exchange for closing that pesky analog hole
Moving beyond day-and-date releases via internet and HD video-on-demand, movie studios may be ready to move towards regularly putting movies online ahead of the DVD release date for a premium price -- that surveys say some of us are willing to pay -- but prepare to have your analog hole plugged again. The MPAA petitioned the FCC earlier this month to lift the existing ban preventing cable and satellite providers from remotely disabling analog outputs on their set-top boxes via selectable output controls (SOC). In a bit of ICT redux, the movie studios haven't said definitively that they will use the technology, but insist on having the ability to force anyone wanting to view high definition movies to only see them through an HDCP-protected HDMI output to a compatible TV. The failure of AACS and BD+ to prevent high quality copies isn't a deterrent to the MPAA's push, so while ICT has gone unused on Blu-ray and HD DVD, we're still too fond of our component outs, switchers and homemade cables -- and too wary of a future change in policy -- to support any changes in the law.
PSP-2000 in Europe before Japan
The PSP-2000, argh, PSP Lite will arrive in Europe before launching in Japan ... and yes, we're as shocked as you. Our Sony über-love of perfect quotations David Reeves says the PSP Lite will release in Europe early September at a €169 price, phasing out the old system. The system is not expected in Japan until September 20, sweet Mary Queen of Scot is Europe getting something early?Well, this is where things get a little tricky. Yes, Europe will get it early, but there's also a marketing maneuver being used in Japan in regards to the PSP Lite. Turns out the Crisis Core edition of the PSP will release in Japan on Sept. 13, a week before the the official PSP Lite does. The special edition unit will only have 77,777 made. But, now we're just getting picky, let's enjoy the moment for Europe. Yay for Europe, for once you don't have to wait months after everyone else.
