The good times were rollin’ at this year’s world-stoppin’ Mardi Gras celebration which brought together beautiful people for authentic NOLA vibes, hip-moving tunes, delicious eats, fancy floats, flowing drinks, and, of course, the baddest (and most beaded) women you’ll ever see.
The centuries-old tradition originated in medieval Europe before arriving in the Americas via French explorers in 1699, with the first celebrations held in Mobile, Alabama and later becoming an iconic cultural spectacle in New Orleans.
“Mardi Gras” is French for “Fat Tuesday,” referring to the last day of indulgence before Ash Wednesday and the 40-day Lenten season.
One of the many amazing things about Louisiana, the first official New Orleans Mardi Gras parade took place in 1837.
Since then, hundreds of thousands people have gathered to party in the streets while building community with “krewes” (private social clubs that organize parades and balls), eating King Cake, and rocking official colors established in 1872: Purple (Justice), Green (Faith), and Gold (Power).
Known as the biggest party in the Big Easy, you can always expect to see some of your fave celebs like Captain America Anthony Mackie with ties to NOLA partaking in the festivities.
Source: Erika Goldring/Getty Images
Have you ever experienced Mardi Gras? If so, how was your experience? If not, what are you waiting for?? Tell us down below and enjoy of gallery of beaded baddies, NOLA darlins’, and jazzy belles who stunned at Mardi Gras on the flip.
Saudi Arabia’s first Hollywood-style tentpole movie “Desert Warrior” is finally set to bow, following a long gestation, with a Zurich Film Festival world premiere on Sept. 28.
The period action epic with a hefty $150 million budget is helmed by British director director Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and features a top notch international cast led by “Captain America” star Anthony Mackie, Ben Kingsley, and Aiysha Hart (“Mogul Mowgli,” “Colette”).
The Zurich gala will be attended by the film’s talents, according to a statement.
Shot in 2021 in a scenic desert area around the site of the futuristic city of NEOM “Desert Warrior,” which is set in at a pre-Islamic 7th century Arabia when Saudi was made up of rival, feuding tribes forever at each other’s throats, has since been caught in a seemingly endless tempest of reshoots, recuts, and infighting.
In the epic Emperor Kisra (Kingsley) has a reputation for being utterly ruthless. So when the Arabian princess Hind (Hart) refuses to become Kisra’s concubine, the stage is set for an epic confrontation after she escapes into the desert and puts her trust in mysterious Bandit (Mackie) with whom she rallies the previously warring tribes to take on Kisra’s enormous army.
“Desert Warrior,” which is produced by Saudi-owned powerhouse MBC Studios with U.S. producer Jeremy Bolt (“Resident Evil”) and Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, has been touted as a testament to Saudi’s ambition to produce high-end content for global audiences.
Amid turbulence following the shoot Rupert Wyatt had been taken off the project by MBC but was subsequently reinstated on the project.
The blockbuster is supported by the Saudi Film Commission through the country’s cash rebate which supports both Saudi and international film productions, and by the so-called Quality of Life program that contributes to fostering the future of Saudi’s film industry.
AGC International, the international sales and distribution arm of AGC Studios, is handling world sales.
Sept. 22: Singer-dancer Toni Basil is 81. Actor Paul Le Mat (“American Graffiti”) is 79. Singer David Coverdale (Whitesnake, Deep Purple) is 73. Actor Shari Belafonte is 70. Singer Debby Boone is 68. Country singer June Forester of The Forester Sisters is 68. Singer Nick Cave is 67. Actor Lynn Herring (“General Hospital”) is 67. Singer Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde is 67. Opera singer Andrea Bocelli is 66. Musician Joan Jett is 66. Actor Scott Baio is 64. Actor Bonnie Hunt is 63. Actor Catherine Oxenberg (“Dynasty”) is 63. Actor Rob Stone (“Mr. Belvedere”) is 62. Actor Dan Bucatinsky (“24: Legacy”) is 59. Bassist-guitarist Dave Hernandez (The Shins) is 54. Rapper Mystikal is 54. Singer Big Rube of Society of Soul is 53. Actor James Hillier (“The Crown”) is 51. Actor Mireille Enos (“World War Z”) is 49. Actor Daniella Alonso (“Revolution,” ″Friday Night Lights”) is 46. Actor Michael Graziadei (“The Young and the Restless”) is 45. Actor Ashley Eckstein (“That’s So Raven,” “Sofia the First”) is 43. Actor Katie Lowes (“Scandal”) is 42. Bassist Will Farquarson of Bastille is 41. Actor Tatiana Maslany (“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” “Orphan Black”) is 39. Actor Ukweli Roach (“Blindspot”) is 38. Actor Tom Felton (“Harry Potter” films) is 37. Actor Teyonah Parris (“Mad Men”) is 37.
Sept. 23: Singer Julio Iglesias is 81. Actor-singer Paul Petersen (“The Donna Reed Show”) is 79. Actor-Mary Kay Place is 77. Musician Bruce Springsteen is 75. Director George C. Wolfe (film’s “Nights in Rodanthe,” stage’s “Angels in America”) is 70. Drummer Leon Taylor of The Ventures is 69. Actor Rosalind Chao (2020’s “Mulan,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) is 67. Actor Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) is 65. Actor Chi McBride (“Hawaii Five-0,” ″Boston Public”) is 63. Steel guitarist Don Herron of BR549 is 62. Actor LisaRaye (“All of Us,” ″Beauty Shop”) is 58. Singer Ani DiFranco is 54. Singer Sam Bettens of K’s Choice is 52. Rapper-producer-record head Jermaine Dupri is 52. Actor Kip Pardue (“The Rules of Attraction,” “Remember the Titans”) is 48. Actor Anthony Mackie (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) is 46. Singer Erik-Michael Estrada of O-Town is 45. Actor Brandon Victor Dixon (“Hamilton”) is 43. Actor David Lim (“S.W.A.T.,” ″Quantico”) is 41. Actor Cush Jumbo (“The Good Fight,” ″The Good Wife”) is 39. Actor Skylar Astin (“Pitch Perfect” films) is 37.
Sept. 24: Singer Phyllis ″Jiggs” Allbut Sirico of The Angels is 82. Actor Gordon Clapp (“NYPD Blue”) is 76. Actor Harriet Walter (“The Crown”) is 74. Actor Kevin Sorbo (“Hercules: Legendary Journeys”) is 66. Singer Cedric Dent (Take 6) is 62. Actor-writer Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) is 62. Drummer Shawn Crahan of Slipknot is 55. Drummer Marty Mitchell (Ricochet) is 55. Singer-guitarist Marty Cintron of No Mercy is 53. Guitarist Juan DeVevo of Casting Crowns is 49. Actor Ian Bohen (“Yellowstone,” “Teen Wolf”) is 48. Actor Spencer Treat Clark (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Animal Kingdom”) is 37. Actor Grey Damon (“Station 19”) is 37. Actor Kyle Sullivan (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 36. Actor Ben Platt is 31.
Sept. 25: Polka band leader Jimmy Sturr is 83. Actor Josh Taylor (“Days of Our Lives,” “Valerie’s Family”) is 81. Actor Robert Walden (“Lou Grant”) is 81. Actor Michael Douglas is 80. Model Cheryl Tiegs is 77. Actor Mimi Kennedy (“Dharma and Greg”) is 76. Actor Anson Williams (“Happy Days”) is 75. Actor Mark Hamill is 73. Actor Colin Friels is 72. Actor Michael Madsen is 66. Actor Heather Locklear is 63. Actor Aida Turturro (“The Sopranos”) is 62. Actor Tate Donovan (“The O.C.”) is 61. TV personality Keely Shaye Smith (“Unsolved Mysteries”) is 61. Actor Maria Doyle Kennedy (“Orphan Black,” ″The Tudors”) is 60. Actor Jason Flemyng (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” ″The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”) is 58. Actor-singer Will Smith is 56. Actor Hal Sparks (“Queer as Folk”) is 55. Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones is 55. Actor Bridgette Wilson-Sampras (“The Wedding Planner,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer”) is 51. Actor Clea DuVall (“Heroes”) is 47. Actor Robbie Jones (“One Tree Hill”) is 47. Actor Joel David Moore (“Avatar”) is 47. Actor Chris Owen (“American Pie” films, “October Sky”) is 44. Rapper T.I. is 43. Actor Lee Norris (“One Tree Hill,” “Boy Meets World”) is 43. Actor-rapper Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) (“Atlanta,” ″Community”) is 41. Actor Zach Woods (“Silicon Valley,” ″The Office”) is 40. Actor Jordan Gavaris (“Orphan Black”) is 35. Actor Emmy Clarke (“Monk”) is 33.
Sept. 26: Country singer David Frizzell is 83. Actor Kent McCord (“Adam 12”) is 82. “The Weakest Link” host Anne Robinson is 80. Singer Bryan Ferry is 79. Actor Mary Beth Hurt is 78. Actor James Keane (“Bulworth,” TV’s “The Paper Chase”) is 72. Singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos is 70. Country singer Carlene Carter is 69. Actor Linda Hamilton is 68. Singer Cindy Herron of En Vogue is 63. Actor Melissa Sue Anderson (“Little House on the Prairie”) is 62. Singer Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl is 62. TV personality Jillian Barberie is 58. Guitarist Jody Davis of Newsboys is 57. Actor Jim Caviezel (“Sound of Freedom,” “The Passion of the Christ”) is 56. Actor Tricia O’Kelley (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) is 56. Actor Ben Shenkman (“Royal Pains,” “Angels in America”) is 56. Actor Melanie Paxson (“Descendants”) is 52. Singer Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men is 52. Music producer Dr. Luke is 51. Jazz trumpeter Nicholas Payton is 51. Singer and TV personality Christina Milian is 43. Actor Zoe Perry (“Young Sheldon”) is 41. Singer-songwriter Ant Clemons is 33.
Sept. 27: Actor Kathleen Nolan is 91. Actor Claude Jarman Jr. (“The Yearling”) is 90. Singer-guitarist Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive is 81. Actor Liz Torres (“Gilmore Girls”) is 77. Actor A Martinez (“LA Law,” ″Santa Barbara”) is 76. Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (“Pearl Harbor”) is 74. Actor-opera singer Anthony Laciura (“Boardwalk Empire”) is 73. Singer-actor-director Shaun Cassidy is 66. Comedian-podcaster Marc Maron is 61. Singer-guitarist Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind is 60. Actor Patrick Muldoon (“Melrose Place”) is 56. Singer Mark Calderon of Color Me Badd is 54. Actor Gwyneth Paltrow is 52. Actor Indira Varma (“For Life”) is 51. Singer Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down is 46. Bassist Grant Brandell of Underoath is 43. Actor Anna Camp (“The Mindy Project,” ″True Blood”) is 42. Rapper Lil’ Wayne is 42. Singer Avril Lavigne is 40. Bluegrass musician Sierra Hull is 33. Actor Sam Lerner (“The Goldbergs”) is 32. Actor Ames McNamara (“The Connors”) is 17.
Sept. 28: Actor Brigitte Bardot is 90. Actor Joel Higgins (“Silver Spoons”) is 81. Actor Jeffrey Jones is 78. Actor Vernee Watson (“Bob Hearts Abishola,” “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”) is 75. Writer-director-actor John Sayles is 74. Guitarist George Lynch (Dokken) is 70. Actor Steve Hytner (“Seinfeld”) is 65. Actor-comedian Janeane Garofalo is 60. Country singer Matt King is 58. Actor Mira Sorvino is 57. TV personality and singer Moon Zappa is 57. Actor Naomi Watts is 56. Country singer Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town is 55. Country singer Mandy Barnett is 49. Rapper Young Jeezy is 47. Actor Peter Cambor (“NCIS: Los Angeles”) is 46. TV personality Bam Margera (“Jackass”) is 45. Actor Jerrika Hinton (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 43. Guitarist Luke Mossman of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats is 43. Musician St. Vincent is 42. Comedian Phoebe Robinson (“What Men Want”) is 40. Drummer Daniel Platzman (Imagine Dragons) is 38. Actor Hilary Duff is 37. Actor Keir Gilchrist (“United States of Tara”) is 32.
Captain America’s protagonist, Anthony Mackie has a charisma that is of great influence to New Orleans’ dwellers without putting on the superhero shield. Anthony Mackie in collaboration with GAF, the biggest roofing producer in America, is helping New Orleans residents who are still recovering from natural calamities.
Some of these disasters include Hurricane Ida which occurred in 2021 as well as the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe of 2005. Instead of proper roofs, many homes have blue tarps. Safe and secure housing matters a lot to Mackie. In his younger days, Anthony spent summers working at his family’s roofing firm in New Orleans where he was born.
He now helps GAF fix or replace five hundred roofs across the Gulf Coast region and fifty of them fall within the neighborhoods located in the 7th Ward where he grew up. Mackie also feels like he has deep ties to New Orleans. “It’s the best city ever,” he admitted. By this year 1911, it was a melting pot for cultures. The Spanish-French heritage along with African and Indian roots make it different from any place else in this country.
Mackie says, “I love my city. I love the people in my city. I love the neighborhood that I came from.” He also adds, “I was born in the 7th Ward, I grew up in the 7th Ward, right now I live in the 7th Ward and I hope to die in the 7th Ward cuz that’s my city.”
Later he carries on saying that what he does there is afforded by the things that “I do as a superhero in the movies but it’s really because I love my city and I feel like if you love something you do for it and take care of it.”
Mackie’s efforts show that real-life heroes don’t have to possess superpowers and they can still make a difference. Because the only thing they need is a profound love towards their communities and a willingness to lend a helping hand.
Since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie has popped up as former pilot (and Steve’s ever reliable bestie) Sam Wilson. Last we saw Sam, he’d finally accepted his role as the new Captain America in TheFalcon & the Winter Soldier, which was all the way back in 2021.
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Next year, Sam will headline his first solo film in Captain America: Brave New World, which follows on from that miniseries. Talking to Radio Times, the actor acknowledged he was fond of working on that show, which paired him with Sebastian Stan’s ex-cyborg assassin Bucky Barnes. “I was actually excited to do a second season, just so me and Sebastian can get paid to hang out,” he stated. “Because it’s like me, him and Daniel Brühl [as Zemo]. It’s kind of like the perfect storm of happiness. […] Anything I can do to hang out with a dancing Daniel Brühl makes me very happy.”
Brave New World’s full cast hasn’t been officially revealed, but Mackie confirmed neither Bucky or Zemo will be popping up here. (Bucky will be featured in Thunderbolts while Zemo’s next appearance is a big question mark.) Since FalconSoldier is a fairly key part of Sam’s evolution, he’s admitted headlining a movie without those two doesn’t entirely feel the same. “When they decided to go back to the movies, it is what it is, but I don’t have my friends anymore. It kind of dampens it a little bit.”
Major supporting characters often pop in and out of the MCU a somewhat regular cadence—see Hawkeye and Jane Foster as two of many examples. There are some, though, who feel like they should be around more often than they are, and their absence often highlights how much a particular entry isn’t entirely working. There’ll be some familiar faces in Brave New World (like Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres), but given how FalconSoldier ended with the promise of Sam and Bucky as a dynamic duo, it’s a bit of a shame we won’t get to see that play out on the big screen.
Captain America: Brave New World is expected to hit theaters on February 14, 2025.
At the opening of last night’s 2023 edition of The Game Awards, host Geoff Keighley hyped the event as an evening “to recognize outstanding creative work in games in 2023.” But as the night went on, the luminaries who were being awarded for their “outstanding creative work” seemed like they weren’t given much time to actually speak about said work.
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The Game Awards is held at the end of every year, ostensibly to celebrate and award the labor that goes into the video games we spend countless hours enjoying. As at most awards shows, it’s customary for winners to give a bit of a speech, thanking those who helped make their game, and thus the award, possible. But this year it felt like time was cut short for most developers. Some have speculated that The Game Awards was worried someone might mentionthe serious labor issuesfacing the industry, or yet scarier, the current conflict in Gaza, thus inviting that most dreaded of phenomena: controversy. Whatever the reason, it was a night that always felt too out of time for the people it was ostensibly supposed to be about.
Throughout the night, orchestral music floated in very soon after most award winners began speaking. That might be a good policy for keeping such a stacked event moving, but when you consider just how much time was devoted to celebrities, muppets, and conversations with high-profile developers like Hideo Kojima (who Aftermath estimates gobbled up as much time as 13.5 of the night’s truncated winner speeches would have), it’s not hard to feel like The Game Awards failed to prioritize its time well. And many awards, probably most, went without anyone coming up on stage at all, getting just quick, cursory-feeling readouts of the winners from Keighley or his cohost before it was time to cut to another ad break, announce a new game, or invite a celebrity onstage.
After a year of constant, highly public layoffsacross the industry, ushering developers offstage while granting celebrities all the time they could ask for feels uniquely out of step. Running large events relying on commercial support is no easy task, but surely there must be a better way to schedule things out so that, in Keighley’s own words, we can actually “recognize outstanding creative work.”
Attendees report a large, ominous teleprompter message reading “Please Wrap It Up,”” which as Javier Cordero pointed out on Twitter (presently known as “X”), was even on display while people from Larian Studios tried to talk about what developing the game meant to them while they accepted the most prestigious award of the night: Game of the Year.
The speech of Larian’s Swen Vincke brought tears to the eyes of his team members in the audience. He talked about what Baldur’s Gate 3 meant to the team, how it was the team’s pandemic project and how they lost Jim Southworth, lead cinematic artist on Baldur’s Gate 3, to cancer just last month. This was easily one of the most human moments in the nearly four-hour onslaught of non-stop commercialism, but hey, Please Wrap It Up, right?
Another odd moment came when CD Projekt Red took home the award for Best Ongoing Game. After being introduced by actor Anthony Mackie, who spent a chunk of time bantering with the audience (to everyone’s confusion) and plugging season two of Twisted Metal on Peacock. But when Gabriel Amatangelo and Paweł Sasko actually got on stage to collect their award, they were given scant time before the music started up.
This morning, Geoff Keighley himself recognized that, “while no one was cut off,” the music indeed felt like it came in too quickly.
But, as Axios’ Stephen Totilo shared, it’s not like the “wrap it up music” was automated. “I can confirm” he wrote on Twitter, “there was manual control of when to start the 30-second countdown to the ‘please wrap it up’ sign, manual control of when to make it flash. Was tweakable.”
Celebrities are entertaining and ads do pay the bills necessary to keep a show running, but hopefully future Game Awards shows will allocate developers as much time as Gonzo the muppet was given to talk about the work they and their teams put in to earn their recognition. Give folks time to enjoy their deserved moment in the spotlight, or else let’s just call The Game Awards what it is: Winter E3.
Allegedly Marvel Studios will delay Ryan Reynolds Deadpool 3 and replace the release date with Captain America 4.
Next year Marvel is set to ramp up their Cinematic timeline and build up the next installments of the Avengers franchise. Reportedly Ryan ReynoldsDeadpool 3 will be a major building block for the MCU and feature the return of Hugh Jackman. Jackman will once again dawn the Wolverine monicker alongside his real-life bestie. Fans have waited years for the film to release and it is set to arrive on May 3, 2024.
According to ScreenRant, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike may cause the movie to be delayed once again. However, the film has wrapped principal filming, and small reshoots are all that’s left. So it’s a small chance the delay could be avoided.
Furthermore, Insiders suggest we will see several of the former Fox Marvel characters in the film.
The film could be the cameo-heavy movie leakers claimed Dr. Strange would be. The film hasn’t officially been delayed but the rumors also suggest Marvel has a solution to keep the May 2024 release date. Anthony Mackie’s upcoming outing in his first solo Captain America film could replace Deadpool 3. Captain America: Brave New World starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford is allegedly done filming and could be ready to go by May. From COVID-19 to actor strikes Marvel hasn’t caught a break in a very long time.
Additionally, If we see a few more delays we might not get the next Avengers movie until 2030.
Anthony Mackie said it was “intimidating” to have screen legend Harrison Ford join the cast of the upcoming film “Captain America: Brave New World.”
“I was so fucking nervous I couldn’t remember my lines. He’s Harrison fucking Ford,” Mackie, who plays the title role in the flick, told IndieWire.
But Ford’s wit put everyone at ease.
“There is this aura about him. But he dispels that really quickly because he’s such a cool guy,” Mackie said. “He’s everything a movie star should be. He would say, ‘Let’s shoot this piece of shit.’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah, let’s shoot this shit.’”
“We spent a good bit of time together,” he told IndieWire. “Ross and Cap have always had that relationship, where they were friends and they respected each other, but they always bumped heads. That’s their relationship in the storyline.”
Ford will continue in the role within the MCU, as he’s also set to appear as Ross in “Thunderbolts.”
Ford, who turns 81 next week, is currently appearing on the big screen in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the fifth and final film in the franchise, and is likely to nab at least one and possibly two Emmy nominations later this month for his roles on “Shrinking” and “1923.”
“Captain America: Brave New World” is set for release next summer, while “Thunderbolts” will hit the big screen in December 2024.
When Anthony Mackie makes his big-screen debut as Captain America in the upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World”, he’ll be joined by Marvel newcomer Harrison Ford.
Ford is stepping into the role of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, played by the late William Hurt in previous MCU features.
Speaking with Inverse, Mackie admitted that working with the 80-year-old screen icon was a nerve-racking experience — until Ford set him at ease.
“The first day was so intimidating,” Mackie recalled.
“I was so f**king nervous I couldn’t remember my lines. He’s Harrison f**king Ford. There is this aura about him,” he continued.
“But he dispels that really quickly because he’s such a cool guy. He’s everything a movie star should be,” Mackie added. “He would say, ‘Let’s shoot this piece of shit.’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah, let’s shoot this shit.’”
While plot details for the upcoming Marvel feature are being kept top secret as usual, Marvel has confirmed that Ford’s character is president of the United States.
“We spent a good bit of time together,” Mackie explained of the dynamic between the characters. “Ross and Cap have always had that relationship, where they were friends and they respected each other, but they always bumped heads. That’s their relationship in the storyline.”
“Captain America: Brave New World” is scheduled to hit theatres on May 3, 2024.
Mackie recently sat down with Inverse to talk a little bit about why the title was changed. When asked exactly why it happened, he had the following to say:
I have no idea. They were like, ‘We’re changing the title.’ I was like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ So that was it.
Fans assume the shift could have something to do with the negative associations the “new world order” has with various conspiracy theories that share that same name, but Marvel has made no public statements about the change — and clearly they didn’t give Mackie a reason either.
Whatever it is call, this will be the fourth Captain America movie, and the first to star Anthony Mackie since he assumed that superhero monicker during the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The film also stars Danny Ramirez, Carl Lumbly, and Harrison Ford, who will replace the late William Hurt as General “Thunderbolt” Ross — now President “Thunderbolt” Ross. The movie will also include several returning actors from The Incredible Hulk, who have not appeared in the MCU in well over a decade; Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, and Tim Blake Nelson as the Leader. Julius Onah, who previously directed The Cloverfield Paradox and Luce, is directing the film.
Captain America: Brave New World is scheduled to open in theaters on July 26, 2024.
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PlayStation expanded beyond the console in 2022.Illustration: Angelica Alzona
The decision-makers behind Sony’s console juggernaut spent a lot of 2022 putting down railway for 2023 and beyond, dumping money and time into growing the PlayStation brand beyond the funky-looking device in your entertainment center. The company wants the PlayStation name to be ubiquitous, and that has meant expanding not just in the form of video game acquisitions and new services, but bringing the PlayStation line into new mediums and markets. So, while Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök bookended the PlayStation 5’s 2022 on the video game side, the brand was busy throughout the year.
Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg brought Nathan Drake and Sully (or people going by those names) to the big screen in 2022.Photo: Sony Pictures
PlayStation becomes a movie and TV brand
PlayStation Productions, Sony’s film and television subsidiary dedicated to putting out adaptations based on the company’s video games, released its first project this year in the form of the Uncharted movie. Featuring Spider-Man star Tom Holland as a vague amalgamation of Nolan North’s original interpretation of Nathan Drake and his own version of Peter Parker if he was slightly more stoic, the film also has Mark Wahlberg as a character who shares his name (and little else) with Nate’s father figure, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. The movie is, at best, aggressively fine. It took a critical beating, but did rake in over $401 million globally at the box office. Sony has plans to make Naughty Dog’s cinematic action game series into a full-blown movie franchise.
Whether any of the above will be any good remains to be seen, but Sony is making deals to put PlayStation characters on more screens and subscription services. The company has clearly decided that PlayStation games aren’t enough, and that they can instead be the origin point for an expanded universe that ties into the games its first-party studios are putting out. Speaking of…
Sony and Naughty Dog released The Last of Us a third time with its PS5 remake.Screenshot: Naughty Dog / Kotaku
PlayStation movies and TV get re-released tie-ins
Putting an Uncharted movie in theaters and a Last of Us show on TVs is one piece of Sony’s new business model, but the company is also pairing these live-action adaptations with re-releases of the source material. Just a week before the Uncharted film launched, Sony released the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which brought both Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy to PlayStation 5, a console they were readily playable on through backward compatibility. Oddly enough, this only included the last two games in the series, rather than the three games that preceded them. But it was an Uncharted product that people could buy after seeing the movie, or even before, as it included a free ticket to the film.
The Last of Us Part I, a remake of the 2013 original, launched in September to both praise for the source material and the technical upgrade the release brought to it, as well as a slew of criticism surrounding its $70 price point. The remake carried a cloud over it after a Bloomberg report exposed internal politics at Sony surrounding the project, which began under a PlayStation support studio before gradually becoming a Naughty Dog product. The whole situation stinks to high heaven, but it did conveniently fit into Sony’s business model of making its games into an extended universe. Now, there will be a (near) full-price Last of Us game on store shelves when the HBO show premieres on January 15.
God of War came to PC this year, but its sequel only came to consoles.Screenshot: Sony Santa Monica / Kotaku
PlayStation continues to expand beyond consoles and to PC
Both of these re-releases were part of a PlayStation initiative to get more of its games on PC. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves brought the series (again, just the last two games, rather than any of the foundational ones that came before) to PC for the first time in October, and The Last of Us Part I will bring Joel and Ellie’s story to a computer near you in March. But it wasn’t just Naughty Dog’s games that got PC love, as God of War, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Marvel’s Spider-Man and its Miles Morales spin-off also launched on PC in 2022.
All that being said, we still have yet to see PlayStation release its first-party games on both its consoles and PC simultaneously. God of War launched four years late on PC this year, but its sequel, Ragnarök, only came to PS4 and PS5 in 2022. It’s been heartening to see Sony make more strides in the space, but hopefully in 2023 we see a more immediate commitment to bringing its games to those who play on PC.
Sony paid a lot of money for Bungie, but Destiny 2 will remain multiplatform.Image: Bungie
Outside of the AAA space, Sony also acquired Savage Game Studios, whose founders previously worked on mobile hits like Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, in an attempt to kickstart a new mobile gaming division. The studio is apparently at work on a new project for phones and tablets based on an established PlayStation IP.
The PlayStation VR2 will launch next year, but won’t be usable with old PSVR games.Image: Sony
PlayStation VR2 seems like an upgrade, but with caveats
Sony kicked off 2022 by announcing its second virtual reality headset, aptly named the PlayStation VR2. It sounds like a meaningful upgrade from the original PlayStation VR headset Sony released in 2016, with an impressive-sounding OLED, 4K resolution display, dedicated controllers so you won’t have to use your old PlayStation Move wands anymore, and a single-cord setup that will make using the whole thing more manageable. However, as news has come out about the device, things have gotten a bit more troubling.
The most egregious drawback Sony has confirmed is that original PlayStation VR games won’t be compatible with the PSVR2 headset. Senior Vice President of Platform Experience Hideaki Nishino said on the PlayStation Podcast that this is because “PSVR2 is designed to deliver a truly next generation VR experience,” citing much of the new headset’s tech as being incompatible with old PSVR games. Regardless of whatever explanation Sony has to offer, it’s a bummer that the PlayStation 5 seemed to be developed with more future-proofing in mind and now we’re dealing with backward compatibility issues again. So if you want to keep playing your old PSVR games, don’t throw your old headset out.
PlayStation Plus now has tiers, and whether you’ll get much value on them depends on where you live.Image: Sony
PlayStation Plus launches new tiers with new problems
PlayStation Plus, Sony’s long-running subscription service for playing games online and collecting a vast array of “free” games, saw a revamp this year that put it more in-line with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. It doesn’t seem like it’s gotten the same resounding love as its direct competitor, though. PlayStation Plus now has multiple tiers, which each have different included features and perks.
The cheapest is Essential, which is basically just what PlayStation Plus has been for years: online play, sales, cloud storage, and a few free games each month. The second tier is called PlayStation Plus Extra, which includes all of the above, as well as an on-demand library of PlayStation 4 and 5 games. The most expensive tier is PlayStation Plus Premium, which adds a streaming library of classic games from across all the PlayStation consoles, and even the PlayStation Portable.
The PlayStation 5 is two years old now, but the console is still relatively difficult to find due to supply chain issues that are expected to last well into 2023, if not longer. But as we get further away from the original launch and demand starts to calm down, it’s become marginally easier to track down and buy a PS5 of your own. Brick-and-mortar stores are still hit or miss, but Kotaku had a bit more luck finding the box on digital storefronts. So hopefully by the time Spider-Man 2 launches next year, those still looking for a PlayStation 5 won’t face a massive ordeal.
The PlayStation 4 is nine years old and still got most of Sony’s big games in 2022.Image: Sony
The PlayStation 4 hangs on a little bit longer
That being said, Sony still wasn’t quite ready to let go of the PlayStation 4 in 2023. The company’s biggest games this year, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and God of War Ragnarök, all launched simultaneously on the PS4 and PS5 and were pretty alright experiences on the last-gen console. You know, if you’re cool with your PS4 sounding like it’s ready to take off on a flight across the Atlantic.
But looking forward, it seems 2023 will be the year Sony really starts to leave the old system behind. That’s a respectable ten years of service since its original 2013 launch, and PlayStation Studios now seem squarely focused on the PS5. Spider-Man 2, the VR spinoff Horizon Call of the Mountain, and Insomniac’s take on Wolverine were all announced as PS5 exclusive, so hopefully as this transition takes root, the PS5 becomes more readily available next year.
