spinoff
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'Control' is getting a co-op spin-off game
It seems a bigger-budget sequel is in the works as well.
Netflix is making a live-action prequel series to 'The Witcher'
'The Witcher: Blood Origin' will delve into the origins of the first Witcher.
'Minecraft Dungeons' will arrive in April 2020
Game developer Mojang last year unexpectedly announced that it was working on Minecraft Dungeons -- a blocky take on classic dungeon crawlers. Now we know when we can finally expect it to land. Initially slated for 2019, Microsoft now says the game will be arriving on Xbox One, PC, Switch and PS4 in April next year.
Alphabet's Loon could provide internet in Kenya this year
Alphabet's internet-delivering balloon service, Loon, expects to begin commercial service in Kenya sometime this year. The company just received approval from Kenyan officials to begin flying and testing over the country, and a Loon spokesperson said commercial service could be available in the coming months.
MoviePass to spin out from its parent company amid legal woes
If you're in any way familiar with Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY for short), you probably know it only as the owner of MoviePass -- and the company would unsurprisingly like to change that perception. Its board has greenlit a preliminary plan to spin out a subsidiary, MoviePass Entertainment Holdings, that would take control of the shares of both MoviePass Inc. and HMNY's other movie-related assets. The firm isn't shy about the reasoning: it has "become synonymous" with MoviePass ever since taking control of it at the end of 2017, and it believes its "market perception" might improve by spinning out the subscription movie offering. In other words: MoviePass has overshadowed its other businesses, and it wants to remove that close association.
Google spins out its self-driving car division
Google isn't wasting much time validating rumors that it's shaking up its self-driving car efforts. The internet giant is spinning out its self-driving project as a new company, Waymo, with current division head (and Hyundai veteran) John Krafcik as its CEO. It'll still have access to the resources of Google's parent company Alphabet, but it'll act more as a "venture backed startup," Krafcik said in a press conference. Appropriately, there's much more talk of turning autonomous vehicle tech into a practical business.
Sony's lucrative image sensor division is now a separate company
Sony is transforming one of its most successful businesses, image sensors, into a brand new company called Sony Semiconductor Solutions. All of its chips will be produced under the new company, but Sony said in a statement that "image sensors are a primary area of focus." The division will be carved away from Sony's devices group as part of a larger reorganization, and the rest of the group (storage and batteries) will be folded into other operations. Sony emphasized that the new company will operate "alongside existing Sony group companies," and start operating by April 1, 2016.
AMD spins off Radeon graphics into new division
AMD has formed a new Radeon graphics division and put its highly-regarded CTO, Raja Koduri, in charge. The Radeon Technologies Group will run quasi-independently of AMD with the goal of recapturing market share from NDVIDIA and "staking leadership positions in new markets such as virtual and augmented reality," according to CEO Dr. Lisa Su. Koduri is a key figure in the graphics industry who developed the first DirectX 9 graphics cards. He later helped Apple build its Retina program during a tenure as graphics CTO before returning to AMD in 2013.
Sharp said to be spinning off its smartphone LCD business
Sharp is still in financial trouble despite shifting more of its attention to mobile displays, and it appears ready to take some drastic action to keep itself afloat. Nikkei, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal all claim that the Japanese firm is planning to spin off its smartphone LCD division. The move will reportedly happen during the company's current fiscal year (by next March), and the WSJ believes that it could be announced before Sharp unveils its restructuring plans in May. The corporation will only say that it's still considering its reorganization options. If the spinoff talk is true, though, this shows just how tough it is to survive in the mobile display business if you aren't a powerhouse like LG or Samsung -- even some of Japan's LCD giants had to form an alliance to stay in the game.
'Star Wars' first spinoff is 'Rogue One'; Episode VIII due in 2017
Because every movie must have its own cinematic universe, Disney is expanding the reach of Star Wars -- as we expected when it purchased Lucasfilm a few years ago. While we wait for Episode VII to arrive later this year (the most recent teaser trailer is after the break), today at a shareholder meeting Disney's CEO Bob Iger announced details for two more movies. The first Star Wars movie taking place outside of the core saga will be Rogue One. It's written by Chris Weitz (Antz, About a Boy), directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), and so far has cast actress Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything). It's scheduled for release December 16, 2016, while the next big Star Wars saga film, Episode VIII will arrive the following spring. Written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), it's coming to the screen on May 16, 2017. This strategy has been (mostly) well executed for the Marvel movies, we'll find out soon if Disney can recapture the magic of the original trilogy.
The Daily Grind: Would you buy a spinoff game based on an MMO?
It's not really fair to call Hearthstone purely a spinoff of World of Warcraft, since World of Warcraft itself is a spinoff of the original RTS games, but it's close enough for consideration. Nor is it the only game to have an odd sort of related spinoff game; City of Heroes had some HeroClix figures, Star Wars Galaxies had a card game, Final Fantasy XI has had characters show up in a number of crossover video games and card games, and so forth. For some people, the whole point of playing an MMO is that you aren't playing a board game or a card game or whatever else the spinoff focuses upon. But there's also a certain appeal in playing with characters and locations you recognize from the online game you play extensively. So would you buy a spinoff game based off an MMO? Have you done so in the past? If so, what sort of game would you want to play? 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!
Nokia Siemens Networks sells off its optical business, swings focus to LTE
Nokia Siemens Networks has long been eager to shed as much weight as it can (unfortunately, including some staff) in a bid to turn around a business full of legacy hardware. The next on the chopping block, however, is a big one: the optical networking division. NSN has struck a deal to sell the fiber-focused group to Marlin Equity Partners and spin it out as a separate company. While the price of the deal isn't public, we're glad to hear that the 1,900 workers affected by the shift should keep their jobs if the agreement closes as promised, in early 2013. NSN chief Rajeev Suri makes no bones about the handover's goal -- it's to let his company concentrate on LTE and other thriving businesses while giving the optical group a second chance through Marlin's investment, if all goes well. We're left with an NSN that's considerably smaller than what we knew from its glory days, but it could be worth the hurt pride if the company stays standing.
Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden sequel heading to Kickstarter
We get a new Call of Duty game every year, but how often do we get a continuation of 1994's Barkley Shut Up and Jam!? Indie dev Tales of Game's Studios is trying to up that frequency with a soon-to-be-announced Kickstarter for (deep breath) The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 – Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie – Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa.Tales of Game's is responsible for Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, the 2008 fanmade RPG parody of the original SNES basketball game. The studio says it will be aiming to secure funding for the story of "X114JAM9, an amnesiac baller with no recollection of his past and no concept of his incredible b-ball destiny." Players will explore a non-linear world and find out if they "have the courage, vigor and sagacity to slam with the best." Probably?The Kickstarter is set to go live later this month, and Tales of Game's promises more information on its Twitter account soon. We hope Charles Barkley is involved in this silliness, if only so we can see someone explaining the whole thing to him.
Alibaba spins out Aliyun team with $200 million investment, pep talk
You can imagine that the team building Alibaba's Aliyun mobile OS must have hurt feelings following Google's accusations that Aliyun is just a corruption of Android. Alibaba chief Jack Ma is keen to restore some of that wounded pride, at least on the surface. The CEO has used a since-confirmed staff memo to spin out Aliyun as a separate entity that will "safeguard the healthy growth" of the platform and Alibaba's mobile strategy. It's not solely an instance of tough love, either: Alibaba is putting $200 million into the new firm and will use executive Wang Jian as a link between the two sides, having him serve as the CTO for both companies. With that in mind, Ma's ultimate intentions aren't clear. While the separation may be a sign of a tighter focus on software, it also reduces the impact for Alibaba if anything drags Aliyun down -- and either motivation would be helpful for a company devoted to the web before anything else.
Intellectual Ventures launches Kymeta spinoff, promises slim satellite broadband hotspots
Intellectual Ventures is best known for its tendency to sue everyone, but it's going some distance to mend that bruised image through a newly spun out company, Kymeta. The startup hopes to improve the quality of satellite broadband through mTenna-branded, Ka-band hotspots made from metamaterials -- substances that can boost and manipulate a satellite signal while occupying virtually no space, leading to self-pointing transceivers that are just a fraction of the size of what we use today. That still amounts to equipment the size of a laptop running at a peak 5Mbps, although it's small enough that Kymeta sees hotspots reaching individual customers who want access from a boat, a car or the field. We'd just advise against tossing out the MiFi too quickly. Kymeta doesn't expect the hotspot to be ready before late 2014 at the earliest, and that leaves many questions about how much of a hit we'll take to the pocketbook.
Panasonic spins off Sanyo DI Solutions, keeps the digital camera OEMs happy
Panasonic and Sanyo have only been life partners for about a year and a half now, but already the relationship has created a bundle of joy -- of a sort. Hot on the heels of some less-than-chipper financial news comes word that Panasonic is spinning off a portion of Sanyo. Sanyo DI Solutions is the name for the new creation, which will represent the company's efforts in producing OEM digital cameras -- cameras that get slapped with other manufacturers' labels before being sold as such. According to AV Watch, Panasonic's ownership had put a strain on Sanyo's fragile manufacturing partnerships, partnerships that can now bear beautiful, rebadged fruit. Sanyo DI Solutions will start with 10 million yen in capital and will go fully independent on July 1st. Hopefully it remembers to call home from time to time.
Samsung Display spinoff officially launches as 'the world's largest display manufacturer'
Just as planned, Samsung has formally separated from its display business, which will begin solo operations "in earnest" April 3rd. The newly created -- and still 100 percent Samsung Electronics owned -- Samsung Display comes into existence immediately as "the world's largest display manufacturer" with 20,000 employees and five production facilities around the world. New president Donggun Park reiterated the company's stance that this move will better allow the display unit to stay ahead of the market, although what that might mean in LCDs, OLED or any other new technology isn't clear yet. Competitor LG has had a separate LG Display unit since 1999, which was originally a joint venture with Philips before that company sold all of its shares in 2008. As you can see from the new logo above not a lot has changed so far, but we'll see what "customized products" it can develop in the future.
Samsung shareholders approve spin-off of LCD business
It's been less than a month since Samsung confirmed that it would be spinning-off its LCD business into a separate company, and it looks like things are proceeding along speedily. The company's shareholders have now approved the spin-off, paving the way for the tentatively-titled Samsung Display Co. to come into existence on April 1st. Samsung Electronics will have a 100 percent stake in that company, and the current executive vice president of its LCD business, Park Dong-gun, will take on the position of president in the new firm. All of that, Samsung says, is being done in an effort to make the company more nimble and able to respond to its clients' needs more quickly.
Samsung spinning off LCD business
When the Korea Exchange asked Sammy about rumors of an impending spin-off of its LCD business, the firm said it was a move it was considering. Well, consider it done -- today Samsung announced it would be launching Samsung Display on April 1st, 2012 with $6.6 billion in its coffers. The move is still waiting for shareholder approval, but Donggun Park, executive vice president of Samsung's LCD business, seems optimistic. "The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients' needs more swiftly." This decision comes just months after Sammy agreed to take Sony's stake in S-LCD, turning the former display partnership into a fully owned subsidiary. Hit the break for the official (machine translated) press release.
Netflix backtracks on Qwikster, will keep DVDs and streaming under the same URL
The Netflix Contrition Tour 2011 continues today, as the company announced today that it won't be spinning off DVD-by-mail rentals into a new company called Qwikster. While the plan for DVD operations to be separated internally appears to still be under way (no word yet on the promised videogame rental option), for customers things will stay the same, with one login and one website. While the retreat will probably prompt even more speculation about the company's true plans, CEO Reed Hastings has issued yet another apology to customers, admitting Netflix may have moved too fast this time. Another sticky issue that's not so easily dealt with is the recent pricing change that took effect last month. While many speculated at the time about what percentage of customers would see higher prices as a result, spokesperson Steve Swasey reveals it affected about half of the company's subscribers. For the rest who had signed up for the $7.99-streaming only package (an option selected by the overwhelming majority in the quarter before the change) prices didn't go up at all. We have our own ideas about what the pricing should be, but it seems Netflix has finally realized not all customers got the message that it's a streaming company now, and tacking DVDs onto its new primary offering for only $2 extra just didn't work. Since all that uproar Netflix has announced a few new / expanded content deals for its streaming service, with Discovery and exclusive rights to previous seasons of The Walking Dead from AMC. But with renewed competition from the likes of Blockbuster and Amazon only time will tell if it can do enough to stop the subscriber bleeding. The Netflix Q3 earnings report is due October 24th -- think that will be an interesting call to listen in on?
