Entertainment

Bajaria joined in 2016 and became chief content officer in 2023. Peter Rice, a former Disney and Fox exec, will take over the role, Variety reports.

As reported by Variety, the newly listed Skydance (SKYD) currently has a market cap of around $40 billion, which is less than half of the sum of the $77.7 billion and $11 billion market caps that Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance had before their merger.

The Mummy: Book of the Dead debuts in theaters in exactly one year: October 15th, 2027. The date was moved up earlier this year from a planned May 2028 release.

Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers’s extremely popular ‘Las Culturistas’ podcast will stream on Hulu and Disney+ beginning on November 18th. As Disney competes with other major streamers for podcasts, this is their biggest acquisition yet.

The “Crows” scene from the upcoming stop-motion fantasy film is less than two minutes long. Wildwood production designer Nelson Lowry told Variety it’s “the largest and most complex film” Laika has ever done. It comes out in theaters next week on October 23rd.

In January 2024, the label announced a major cost-cutting initiative that is expected to run through 2027. As another round of layoffs is expected, several executives are leaving, including Tunji Balogun, Chairman and CEO of Def Jam Recordings; Nicole Wyskoarko and Sam Riback of Interscope Geffen A&M; Ben Mortimer, President of Polydor Label Group; Rebecca Allen, Chief Artist and Strategy Officer at Universal Music Group UK; and Mark Crossingham, Managing Director of UMG Ireland.

The broadcaster announced that viewers in the UK and US can now watch a 24-hour news feed via the BBC News YouTube channel, with plans to expand access to Poland, Kenya, Australia and Nigeria soon. This is part of the BBC’s plan to access broader and younger adiences via YouTube’s platform as its traditional license-paying TV broadcast market continues to decline.

The new paid Expansion Pass adds content in waves: first, some Three Houses-themed weapons that are available today, then new playable characters and outfits coming this holiday season, and finally new stories featuring four characters that will launch in 2027.

The collection celebrating Xbox’s 25th anniversary includes games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Minecraft Dungeons, and Gears of War: Reloaded. Microsoft says you can also play some of the free games on Xbox Series X/S with Xbox Play Anywhere.

The video platform has reportedly been in discussions with publishers in recent months. The feature could launch as soon as next year, and YouTube has considered bundling it with its $16-per-month Premium subscription. Still, after launching a music streaming service this feels like an obvious next step for YouTube to compete against Spotify.

As spotted by Kotaku, some people are posting videos showing strange visual issues with the updated launcher that agents wrote code for. Right now, the launcher is in preview.

The classic mode just launched in July, but Riot Games says that most players have “gone back to other parts of League.” The mode is being shut down in January 2027, but Riot says it has a “goal” of bringing it back “likely as an event mode with adjustments and additions.”

007 First Light is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on March 18th, 2027. The very good James Bond game launched on other platforms in May, though shortly before that, developer IO Interactive said it would come to Switch 2 “later this summer,” so it’s a bit late.

The team at Puzzmo are celebrating their third anniversary, and as part of that they’re releasing a bunch of experimental games, including a version of solitaire where you can see other players around you. It’s sort of like reading in a library: you’re doing a solo activity, but in the comforting presence of like-minded folks.

A man named Mike Smith was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison, and a fine in excess of $8 million, for creating an AI system that faked billions of streams and earned him millions in royalties. Wired’s Kate Knibbs explains how Smith pulled it off, how he got caught, and what this case means for the internet’s growing slop problems.

Apple has confirmed that its extremely stressful thriller Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is getting a second season, though there aren’t any details on when it might be streaming. Along with Margo’s Got Money Troubles, the series is part of a new trend of shows exploring platforms like OnlyFans from different perspectives.

The Greatest is an eight-episode series premiering November 4th that looks at the life of one of the greatest sportsmen to ever grace the Earth. Jaalen Best stars as Ali, and Michael B. Jordan is an executive producer.

RedLynx, which made the Trials games, is being closed down, while 70 jobs have been “impacted” at Ubisoft Singapore, which made Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, Eurogamer reports.

The hard-to-explain game, which was recipient of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at this year’s Independent Games Festival Awards, is launching October 29th on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Android, and iPhone. It initially released in April on Steam. It’s weird, but definitely worth checking out.

Steam Frame Hub reports that the Steam Frame kernel source code includes branches referencing a “Plano” device and says the headset will have a resolution of 3552 × 3840 per eye (higher than the Frame) and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip (same as the Frame). Valve watcher Brad Lynch speculates that it could be Valve “just trying to prototype headsets with this optical stack based on what’s already lying around.”

The new on/off toggle, arriving by the end of the year, lets you exclude “AI-generated tracks, albums, and the related artists” from search results. Deezer also launched an AI music detection tool earlier this year, after a surge in AI song uploads on its platform.

Druski, a comedian and actor, will host on November 7th, according to Puck and Variety. He has more than 6 million subscribers on YouTube, 13.6 million followers on Instagram, and 15.6 million followers on TikTok.

Greta Gerwig’s take on The Magician’s Nephew looks promising, though it might have a bit too much CG for my taste. The film debuts February 12th in theaters and will stream starting April 2nd.

The show will star Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel as the leads, but a source tells Variety they will play new characters, not Dana Scully and Fox Mulder.

GamesBeat is reporting the timeline, citing “four industry sources familiar with the studio’s plans.” That would be much quicker than the PC launch for GTA V, which came out more than a year and a half after the game’s console release.