The Verge’s entertainment section collects the latest news from the worlds of pop culture, music, movies, television, and video games. Whether you want to know what to watch on Netflix or how to make the most of your streaming service budget, the entertainment section acts a reliable source. There’s simply too much to read, watch, hear, and play. Let us be your tour guide.
The servers for Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles, which launched in 2024, will close down on October 30th, Kotaku reports. The shutdown follows an earlier announcement that the game would “progressively transition away from blockchain functionality.”
The German licensing organization GEMA filed suit in January of 2025. The court found that Suno didn’t have the rights to train its models on artists represented by GEMA, and now it has to disclose any “illicit revenue” and pay unspecified damages. The company can still appeal the ruling.
If you’re one of the folks who picked up a Virtual Boy headset for the Switch, Nintendo has a solid update coming your way: on August 4th two unreleased games are launching for subscribers, along with the option to adjust colors. Meanwhile, Super Mario Sunshine is being added to the Gamecube classics collection on August 13th.
Big Hops, an indie 3D platformer that launched earlier this year, was a blast solo, but now you can play the entire game co-op on Steam as part of a beta. As many as eight people can play at once, and it looks chaotic and wonderful.
The full launch of Big Hops Together update will happen on August 9th.
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In an SEC filing, EA said that as of today, it had obtained “all regulatory approvals required to complete the Merger.” The deal, announced in September, is expected to close “on or about the close of trading” on August 4th.
[EA]
A show almost canceled as a tax write-off before it ever aired is now canceled, according to Variety, despite Variety’s report that it was renewed in March.
Our S1 review mentioned that “by the end of the season, you get the sense that Simon and Slattery could go on to become one of Marvel’s more novel riffs on a superhero team,” and a source in today’s report says the show’s characters could pop up elsewhere in the currently-under-renovation-MCU.
You’ll find the feature in the three-dot menu next to tracks on your playlists. Now you can remind yourself of how you discovered a song, or leave a message to someone you’re sharing the playlist with. Playlists have always felt impersonal compared to a mixtape or mix CD. This closes the gap slightly.
Christopher Nolan’s three-hour movie has had additional 70mm IMAX showtimes added, which are now scheduled to run through September 16th.
After experiencing the movie in both standard widescreen and IMAX, our reviewer Charles Pulliam-Moore wrote that “By shooting The Odyssey completely in 70mm, Nolan crafted a film whose size and visual detail could make it feel immersive in ways that most modern features aren’t.” Might be worth getting a ticket, even if AI bots aren’t much help.
Apple recently started allowing alternative app marketplaces in Brazil following a long legal dispute, during which Epic originally announced that the store would be launching in the country.
The store will have Fortnite and Rocket League Sideswipe, Epic says.
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Microsoft said Thursday that it’s been rolling the app out “over the past month” to supported TVs running Hisense’s VIDAA OS. The company announced earlier this year that the app was on the way.
The Xbox app is also available on select Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, and LG TVs.
The musical puzzler Lumines is making a return to smartphones with a new version billed as a remaster. It follows the excellent Lumines Arise from last year, and is available now on both Android and iOS; it’s a free download but costs $7.99 to unlock the full version.
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Brandon Klayme was wrongly convicted for possession of child pornography after the investigation botched his Kik username, “fus_ro_dah,” in reference to Bethesda’s Skyrim videogame. The real suspect’s username — “fus__ro_dah” — included one additional underscore, a “subtle mistake that changed the course of my life,” Klayme said.
The iconic media player of the Napster generation has partnered with Deezer to power Winamp’s own “premium music subscription service,” which is set to launch in the first half of 2027. The new Winamp Player will combine Deezer’s music catalogue with users’ local music libraries, internet radio stations, podcasts, and more. And yes — the interface will be “highly customizable.”
In the process of getting through his thoughts, he does a pretty good riff about the people who say they “make” stuff with AI. As for Musk’s version of The Odyssey, Johnson says, “I’m excited for the Cyclops to have two eyes.”
The satellite radio company is rolling out a $5 / month (or $49 / year) Sports Pass that offers access to “every live game and event SiriusXM carries,” including all home and away NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL broadcasts. It will also include 24 local sports talk stations when the plan launches on September 1st.
This time around, Jumanji’s avatars, played by Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, escape the game in “demo mode,” before a family jumps into their bodies to fix things. The trilogy’s final film is set to release in theaters on December 25th.
Kavinsky, aka Vincent Belorgey, was found in his home in Paris on Tuesday, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. He was most well known for the song Nightcall, which was produced with Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and featured in the movie Drive as well as the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack.
In 2024, the BBC reports it broke the record for the most Shazamed track ever when he performed it with Belgian singer Angèle during the closing ceremony for the 2024 Olympic Games.
The trailer for Michael B. Jordan’s The Thomas Crown Affair remake remake is out, and it looks to be as sexy, heisty, and suave as the 1999 Brosnan/Russo version. The Oscar winning actor directs as well as stars, with Adria Arjona and Kenneth Branagh along for the ride.
Illustrators, authors, and musicians are optimistic about their chances in court, if not about the future of AI.
“Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action,” Double Fine founder Tim Schafer says in a statement. “Our transition to becoming an independent company also means becoming a size that we can sustain.”
Double Fine was one of four studios Xbox sold off as part of its recent restructuring, and the studio gets to keep its games.
EQL just officially launched, and, for this writer, it’s one of the most exciting games in years. (Yes, even though the original EverQuest came out in 1999.) You can play the game now if you’re willing to wait through launch queues, which don’t currently seem too bad. For more on EQL, check out my retrospective and Kallie’s interview with the developers.
[Daybreak Games]
The outage, which lasted for nearly a day, blocked people from playing some digital and disc games. You can read Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet’s full explanation on X, but here’s a key part of it:
What happened. Late last night, a licensing service that sits outside of XBOX, but which XBOX depends upon, began failing. This caused some sign-in scenarios to fail, and it caused many scenarios that require an entitlement check to also fail, such as listing out your Full Library and launching games that you own. It also affected several of our publishing and store partners who depend on those same systems which is why some of you saw issues in specific games and not others.
The streamer just put out the first trailer for Below, a limited series about a sea monster in a small fishing village, which also includes Josh Hartnett doing a serviceable Newfoundland accent. It starts streaming on October 8th.
The new remake of Halo: Combat Evolved is out today, and it’s an excellent reimagining of an FPS classic. But it also comes at a very weird time for the Xbox brand and Microsoft’s gaming ambitions. You can check out my full review below.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s unusual move demanding ABC renew its broadcast licenses early is part of a “broader pattern” in a “campaign to punish speech disfavored by the Trump administration,” over a dozen bipartisan former high-ranking officials charge. Several of them recently warned Carr was abusing the News Distortion Policy.
While season 3 sure seemed like a finale, Ted Lasso is nonetheless back on Apple TV next week. The upcoming season sees Ted taking charge of a new women’s football team, and it’s coming just in time for those of us suffering through post-World Cup withdrawal.
It’s rare for game studios to talk about unreleased projects, which is why it’s so cool that Cyan has put out this trailer for a cancelled Myst title dubbed “Anglerfish.” It’s a glimpse into what could have been — though the good news is that the studio says another Myst spinoff, codenamed “Mudfish,” is currently in development.
Netflix continues to add live events to its programming lineup, and next up is a chance for fans to go up against darts champion Luke Littler. It’s streaming on October 30th.
