The GameCube library is exclusive to Switch 2.Last week Nintendo announced GameCube games would be added to Switch 2's online expansion pack tier at launch.If you haven't already somehow seen it, one of the three games joining the service at launch is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Nintendo Treehouse showcased gameplay footage of this returning title last week, and now this week more footage has been shared on the Nintendo Today mobile app (thanks, Universo Nintendo).Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Earlier this week, Meta landed in hot water for using an experimental, unreleased version of its Llama 4 Maverick model to achieve a high score on a crowdsourced benchmark, LM Arena. The incident prompted the maintainers of LM Arena to apologize, change their policies, and score the unmodified, vanilla Maverick. Turns out, it’s not very competitive. The unmodified Maverick, “Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct,” was ranked below models including OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro as of Friday. Many of these models are months old. Why the poor performance? Meta’s experimental Maverick, Llama-4-Maverick-03-26-Experimental, was “optimized for conversationality,” the company explained in a chart published last Saturday. Those optimizations evidently played well to LM Arena, which has human raters compare the outputs of models and choose which they prefer. As we’ve written about before, for various reasons, LM Arena has never been the most reliable measure of an AI model’s performance. Still, tailoring a model to a benchmark — besides being misleading — makes it challenging for developers to predict exactly how well the model will perform in different contexts. In a statement, a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that Meta experiments with “all types of custom variants.” “‘Llama-4-Maverick-03-26-Experimental’ is a chat optimized version we experimented with that also performs well on LMArena,” the spokesperson said. “We have now released our open source version and will see how developers customize Llama 4 for their own use cases. We’re excited to see what they will build and look forward to their ongoing feedback.”

Palermo is one of the oldest, most historic neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and also one of the fastest growing. There, a former parking garage was recently transformed into Class A office space by ODA, the New York office founded by Eran Chen. The revamped building, OLA Palermo, now boasts workspaces and public retail. Its location at the edge of a beloved public park was capitalized on: a new brewery, terraces, and rooftop spaces all stand to augment the locale’s connection to green space. Aisenson Studio was the local executive architect, and Inscape the landscape architect. From its upper levels, OLA Palermo affords great views of Palermo Hippodrome, one of Argentina’s oldest race tracks. The rooftop terrace affords sweeping views of Palermo. (Alan Karchmer) The city government of Buenos Aires previously bestowed Ámbito Gigena, as the stagnant property was formerly known, to developer BSD Investments. After the transaction, ODA successfully recycled 80 percent of the original parking structure. OLA Palermo has 160,000 square feet of usable space, including 40,000 square feet dedicated to public terraces, dotted by pedestrian paths, cafes, restaurants, retail, and an open-air promenade. Ramps, central to the building’s former use, are now populated with garden beds and ample seating. “This project is a great example of a public-private partnership to create a truly unique typology that will benefit the city and its citizens for decades to come,” Chen said. The architects recycled 80 percent of the original building (Alan Karchmer) The lobby of the office building (Alan Karchmer) The new, large-scale, mixed-use project connects both El Rosedal de Palermo and Palermo Hippodrome with one congruous surface, stitching together previously disconnected parts of the neighborhood. The building’s glass facade reflects the area’s nature back to visitors and pedestrians on the ground plane. Inside, the material palette pulls from existing concrete walls, with added neutral-colored furnishings and plants. Native fauna is interspersed throughout the terraces. (Alan Karchmer) The building is located close by to a large park. (Alan Karchmer) From afar the building stands out for its curves and sculpted concrete, all while seamlessly connecting pedestrians to nature. “We [had] an abandoned concrete infrastructure that [did] not speak at all with its surroundings nor is useful for the city and its inhabitants,” explained Álvaro García Resta, the city government of Buenos Aires’s secretary of urban development, prior to OLA Palermo’s completion. Looking forward, “it won’t be a park made to contemplate,” García Resta added, “it will be a dynamic area, to stroll and explore.”

Looking for help with today's New York Times Wordle? Here are hints, clues and commentary to help you solve today's Wordle and sharpen your guessing game.

What is it with OnePlus and not making it perfectly obvious there is a deal going on when you look at the price? Like another ongoing OnePlus deal, there’s a deal on the OnePlus Nord N30 5G (the OnePlus budget phone to beat), but you won’t see any fancy slashes through the price. There’s just a thin blue line at the top that tells you that you can enter the code SPRING25 to save $70 on the phone. Once you see it, it is very obvious, but if you’re the type to zero in on the price, you could easily miss the fact that the budget $300 can now be gotten for just $230 instead. This is one of the best phone deals on the market for today if you want to spend the least amount of money possible on a phone. Tap the button below to check it out yourself or keep reading to see if the Nord N30 5G has enough power to fulfill your needs. The big question that has to be on your mind before buying a $230 phone is simple: Can it actually function? Our OnePlus Nord N30 5G review says “yes.” Our reviewer was not only able to play Marvel Snap on the phone, but was able to do so for a full hour and not totally drain the battery. It’s the kind of real world technical test that can tell you even more than other positive stats, such as the 120Hz refresh rate screen. The OnePlus Nord N30 5G also has a headphone jack, if that matters to you. Related It’s worth noting that the review wasn’t 100% positive, as our reviewer found the camera to work less well in dark lighting, but if you’re used to older phones or are coming from another budget phone, you’re probably not going to find this as much of an issue as our reviewer did. Check out the review and take a look at our pics yourself to help make the decision easier. If you want one of the best budget phones you can buy today, go ahead and take a look at this deal on the OnePlus Nord N30 5G. If you enter the code SPRING25 upon checkout you can get the $300 phone for just $230, saving you $70 in the process. Just tap the button below to get the offer. Then, go check out our favorite budget headphones and earbuds to pair with your new phone. Editors’ Recommendations

In ‘Dinner,’ Meera Sodha’s story of reclaiming her appetite will definitely spark yours. Her recipe for Fennel and Dill Dal aptly distills the overall vibe: fresh takes on comforting classics, mostly plant-based, altogether crowd-pleasing.

Just what we need Turbulent global economy could drive up prices for Netflix and rivals "... our members are going to be punished." Scharon Harding – Apr 11, 2025 5:23 pm | 24 A scene from BBC's Doctor Who. Credit: BBC/Disney+ A scene from BBC's Doctor Who. Credit: BBC/Disney+ Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Debate around how much taxes US-based streaming services should pay internationally, among other factors, could result in people paying more for subscriptions to services like Netflix and Disney+. On April 10, the United Kingdom's Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee reignited calls for a streaming tax on subscription revenue acquired through UK residents. The recommendation came alongside the committee's 120-page report [PDF] that makes numerous recommendations for how to support and grow Britain’s film and high-end television (HETV) industry. For the US, the recommendation garnering the most attention is one calling for a 5 percent levy on UK subscriber revenue from streaming video on demand services, such as Netflix. That’s because if streaming services face higher taxes in the UK, costs could be passed onto consumers, resulting in more streaming price hikes. The CMS committee wants money from the levy to support HETV production in the UK and wrote in its report: The industry should establish this fund on a voluntary basis; however, if it does not do so within 12 months, or if there is not full compliance, the Government should introduce a statutory levy. Calls for a streaming tax in the UK come after 2024's 25 percent decrease in spending for UK-produced high-end TV productions and 27 percent decline in productions overall, per the report. Companies like the BBC have said that they lack funds to keep making premium dramas. In a statement, the CMS committee called for streamers, “such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+, and Disney+, which benefit from the creativity of British producers, to put their money where their mouth is by committing to pay 5 percent of their UK subscriber revenue into a cultural fund to help finance drama with a specific interest to British audiences." The committee's report argues that public service broadcasters and independent movie producers are "at risk," due to how the industry currently works. More investment into such programming would also benefit streaming companies by providing "a healthier supply of [public service broadcaster]-made shows that they can license for their platforms," the report says. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has said that it will respond to the CMS Committee's report. Streaming companies warn of higher prices In response to the report, a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement shared by the BBC yesterday that the "UK is Netflix's biggest production hub outside of North America—and we want it to stay that way.” Netflix reportedly claims to have spent billions of pounds in the UK via work with over 200 producers and 30,000 cast and crew members since 2020, per The Hollywood Reporter. In May 2024, Benjamin King, Netflix's senior director of UK and Ireland public policy, told the CMS committee that the streaming service spends "about $1.5 billion" annually on UK-made content. Netflix's statement this week, responding to the CMS Committee's levy, added: ... in an increasingly competitive global market, it's key to create a business environment that incentivises rather than penalises investment, risk taking, and success. Levies diminish competitiveness and penalise audiences who ultimately bear the increased costs. Adam Minns, executive director for the UK’s Association for Commercial Broadcasters and On-Demand Services (COBA), highlighted how a UK streaming tax could impact streaming providers' content budgets. "Especially in this economic climate, a levy risks impacting existing content budgets for UK shows, jobs, and growth, along with raising costs for businesses,” he said, per the BBC. An anonymous source that The Hollywood Reporter described as "close to the matter" said that "Netflix members have already paid the BBC license fee. A levy would be a double tax on them and us. It’s unfair. This is a tariff on success. And our members are going to be punished." The anonymous source added: “Ministers have already rejected the idea of a streaming levy. The creation of a Cultural Fund raises more questions than it answers. It also begs the question: Why should audiences who choose to pay for a service be then compelled to subsidize another service for which they have already paid through the license fee. Furthermore, what determines the criteria for ‘Britishness,’ which organizations would qualify for funding ... ?" In May, Mitchel Simmons, Paramount’s VP of EMEA public policy and government affairs, also questioned the benefits of a UK streaming tax when speaking to the CMS committee. “Where we have seen levies in other jurisdictions on services, we then see inflation in the market. Local broadcasters, particularly in places such as Italy, have found that the prices have gone up because there has been a forced increase in spend and others have suffered as a consequence," he said at the time. Tax threat looms largely on streaming companies Interest in the UK putting a levy on streaming services follows other countries recently pushing similar fees onto streaming providers. Music streaming providers, like Spotify, for example, pay a 1.2 percent tax on streaming revenue made in France. Spotify blamed the tax for a 1.2 percent price hike in the country issued in May. France’s streaming taxes are supposed to go toward the Centre National de la Musique. Last year, Canada issued a 5 percent tax on Canadian streaming revenue that’s been halted as companies including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, and Spotify battle it in court. Lawrence Zhang, head of policy of the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think tank, has estimated that a 5 percent streaming tax would result in the average Canadian family paying an extra CA$40 annually. A streaming provider group called the Digital Media Association has argued that the Canadian tax “could lead to higher prices for Canadians and fewer content choices." "As a result, you may end up paying more for your favourite streaming services and have less control over what you can watch or listen to,” the Digital Media Association’s website says. Streaming companies hold their breath Uncertainty around US tariffs and their implications on the global economy have also resulted in streaming companies moving slower than expected regarding new entrants, technologies, mergers and acquisitions, and even business failures, Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TVRev, pointed out today. “The rapid-fire nature of the executive orders coming from the White House” has a massive impact on the media industry, he said. “Uncertainty means that deals don’t get considered, let alone completed,” Wolk mused, noting that the growing stability of the streaming industry overall also contributes to slowing market activity. For consumers, higher prices for other goods and/or services could result in smaller budgets for spending on streaming subscriptions. Establishing and growing advertising businesses is already a priority for many US streaming providers. However, the realities of stingier customers who are less willing to buy multiple streaming subscriptions or opt for premium tiers or buy on-demand titles are poised to put more pressure on streaming firms’ advertising plans. Simultaneously, advertisers are facing pressures from tariffs, which could result in less money being allocated to streaming ads. “With streaming platform operators increasingly turning to ad-supported tiers to bolster profitability—rather than just rolling out price increases—this strategy could be put at risk,” Matthew Bailey, senior principal analyst of advertising at Omdia, recently told Wired. He added: Against this backdrop, I wouldn’t be surprised if we do see some price increases for some streaming services over the coming months. Streaming service providers are likely to tighten their purse strings, too. As we’ve seen, this can result in price hikes and smaller or less daring content selection.   Streaming customers may soon be forced to reduce their subscriptions. The good news is that most streaming viewers are already accustomed to growing prices and have figured out which streaming services align with their needs around affordability, ease of use, content, and reliability. Customers may set higher standards, though, as streaming companies grapple with the industry and global changes. Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She's been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK. 24 Comments

Protestors gathered in March outside the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationChip Somodevilla/Getty Images The Trump administration aims to cut funding for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by more than $1.6 billion relative to last year, according to an internal budget document obtained by New Scientist. The cuts would include the elimination of the agency’s office focused on climate and weather research. “Trump’s budget plan for NOAA is both outrageous and dangerous. They’re wholly destroying critical offices,…

Social media videos show the rotary systems apparently detaching from the helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images 2025-04-11T21:31:15Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? A tourist helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York City on Thursday, killing six people. A former military helicopter pilot told BI the helicopter's rotary system appears to have failed. Helicopter crashes are more common than airplane accidents, but main rotor detachment is rare. There are a lot of questions swirling after a tourist helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York City on Thursday, killing Siemens Mobility executive Agustín Escobar, his wife, and three children.The pilot, who the National Transportation Safety Board said on Friday had about 788 hours of total flight experience, also died.The 21-year-old Bell 206 helicopter, registered N216MH and operated by New York Helicopter, plummeted into the river off the New Jersey shoreline at around 3:15 p.m.It crashed upside down after what appears to have been a midair breakup. The aircraft was owned by Louisiana-based Meridian Helicopters, LLC, whose website says it sells, refurbishes, and leases helicopters. Meridian didn't return an email or phone message from BI.Former military helicopter pilot Brian Alexander told Business Insider that the accident appears to have been a result of a "catastrophic mechanical failure" involving both the main and tail rotors.He said no cause is confirmed and people should wait for the NTSB's investigation before jumping to conclusions. Alexander also is a partner at aviation accident law firm Kreindler & Kreindler.While Thursday's helicopter crash could spark renewed fears amid a recent spat of airline accidents, the cause is unlikely to be related.Why did the helicopter crash?Videos posted on social media show the helicopter's rotary systems apparently detached mid-flight, falling into the water after the aircraft's main body had already crashed."It's hard to say which came first," Alexander said. "There appears to be spinning, which would suggest a tail rotor issue, but you can't rule out a main rotor detaching first and hitting the tail rotor."The spinning he's referring to is the helicopter fuselage as it fell into the Hudson, which he said means the tail rotor likely failed at some point.He explained that without a tail rotor, the helicopter would "spin like a top" due to the torque created by the main rotor as it produces lift and thrust. Either or both systems failing could lead to an accident."If you lose your main rotor, meaning it's detached, you have no lift, you're done," Alexander said. "There's nothing you can do at that point; you're just a falling object."He said a helicopter that loses just a tail rotor is a severe situation, but it can still be flown — though with great difficulty. The Bell 206 helicopter took off from the downtown Manhattan Wall Street Heliport in New York at about 2:50 p.m. for a sightseeing flight. Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images Alexander said that losing power is typically a more surmountable issue. In a scenario where the helicopter's engine failed, and the blades were still attached, the aircraft could auto-rotate to descend to land.NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy said on Friday that part of the wreckage had been pulled from the river, but dive teams are still retrieving components, including the main and tail rotors.She said the agency "does not speculate" on probable cause and still needed to gather the sunken components, conduct witness interviews, and gather records like maintenance logs.Why did the rotors apparently detach?Alexander said that there are several reasons the helicopter rotors could detach, like mechanic error or a transmission issue.He also said the mast — which connects the main rotor hub to the transmission — could have disconnected entirely."Someone on the maintenance side maybe didn't tighten a bolt up, or a part just failed," he said, emphasizing that any cause is still unknown. "I'm sure that's what [investigators] will be looking at." Debris near the crash site. Divers are still retrieving the rotor systems, per the NTSB. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images This wouldn't be the first time a helicopter owned by Meridian and operated by New York Helicopter experienced a system malfunction.In 2015, the tail rotor driveshaft on another one of the company's Bell 206 helicopters detached, which caused a loss of control and hard landing in New Jersey, according to the NTSB.The pilot, who was the sole occupant, was uninjured.The driveshaft transmits power from the transmission to the tail rotor. However, the NTSB determined that the one installed was "unairworthy."Meridian told the NTSB that the driveshaft was purchased at auction by the helicopter's previous owner after the same helicopter experienced a separate hard landing in 2010.Inspectors found the driveshaft had been repainted, corrosion had been removed, and the serial number did not match known records — meaning they could not determine if it was the same driveshaft that was attached to the helicopter during the 2010 hard landing.The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the 2015 crash was the "deliberate concealment and reuse" of a faulty driveshaft "by "unknown personnel."New York Helicopter didn't answer calls from BI; its president declined to comment to The Wall Street Journal.How often do helicopters crash?While helicopters are generally safe so long as safety procedures are followed, they have a comparatively higher crash rate than commercial airplanes because of their riskier complex systems and operating environment. Helicopters have more moving parts, require more adjustments, rely on auto-rotation to emergency land rather than glide, operate at lower altitudes, and commonly fly in less controlled airspace.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that Thursday's helicopter was flying in the Special Flight Rules Area at the time of the crash, where there is no air traffic control support. Emergency response teams at the scene of the helicopter crash in New York City on Thursday. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images Data from the US Helicopter Safety Team shows there were about 90 helicopter accidents in 2024, 13 of which led to 30 collective fatalities.An Associated Press report said at least 32 people were killed in helicopter crashes in New York City between 1977 and 2019.Five people died in 2018 when a helicopter crashed and flipped upside down in the East River. A year later, a helicopter crash-landed on the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper, killing the pilot.The accidents have sparked restrictions on things like flight paths and landing spots to improve safety.Alexander said that while helicopter crashes are more common, complete main rotor detachment is rare. "Everything about this is unusual," he said. "You just don't see something like what we all saw." Recommended video

The biggest movie in the world right now sends its characters on a journey through a building-block world full of zombies, talking pigs, and magical artifacts. A Minecraft Movie has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in theaters around the globe since it opened last weekend, not only outperforming expectations by double but smashing them like a bunch of pixelated wooden blocks in the videogame it’s based on. The film, with its PG rating, was aimed at tween boys, and they have responded in droves, filling theaters and turning viewings into cacophonous interactive events.This huge audience, and audience reaction, underscores the fact that Minecraft is the most popular game in history — and it’s not even close. The game’s 200 million active players, mostly young men and boys, log in daily to virtually “mine” blocks and build creations of their own making, either with friends or solo; it’s sometimes compared to a tricked-out digital version of Legos. Still more Minecraft fans don’t play at all but rather interact with the game by watching other people play in YouTube vlogs or Twitch livestreams. Players can explore and create in the game’s essentially infinite landscape, as well as go on traditional gaming quests to defeat enemies. Since Minecraft was first released in 2009, it’s become a staple of both gaming and YouTube culture, spawning a massive community of fans and an entire cottage industry of influencers who’ve built their careers playing it. It’s no surprise that its jump to the big screen has been a smash, relying on the Gen Z players who grew up on the game.So why do people love it so much? What’s with all the literal blockheads? How do you even play Minecraft? Let’s find out.The huge, simple, fun, and free world of MinecraftMinecraft is the brainchild of Swedish developer Markus Persson, who launched the game to instant success; its two 2009 test releases drew in thousands, then millions of players. Gamers were compelled by its unique design: rudimentary blocky visuals that manifested in a simplistic landscape of objects like boxy trees and chunky rocks, and characters with big square heads. They found endless possibilities from being able to shape the world however they wanted. Where most other popular games of the aughts were focused on battle or strategy, Minecraft was about worldbuilding, quite literally. You could construct the landscape to your heart’s content. You didn’t need to know anything about gaming either — you just enter the scene and start digging. This helped attract an especially young fanbase, kids who weren’t too far removed from playing with actual Legos.Before the official version even launched in 2011, Minecraft had already garnered 16 million players and spawned not one but two fan conventions. Gamers flocked to construct anything and everything, from intricate detailed rooms to entire massive cities and even a replica of Earth. The game also features other ways of playing — mainly adventure quests — and includes a variety of creatures, animals, and characters to make things more interesting. But the ultimate goal, as Polygon writer and Minecraft expert Cass Marshall explained to Vox, is “to build cool stuff.”Cosplayers at the first Minecon in 2010. Fandom/WikiOne of the key aspects of Minecraft’s staying power and continued growth — allowing it to remain interesting to existing fans while bringing in new ones too — is that it’s extremely easy to modify, and there are millions upon millions of mods to be had. Sites like Curseforge and Modrinth let players browse hundreds of thousands of mods to upgrade or alter the way they play the game. Crucially, the vast majority of these mods are free, making Minecraft one of the most accessible games around. Anyone can get started, and hooked players are able to keep upping their game. You can pursue your own aesthetic, try your hand at city planning, or form communities of players and work on an even bigger project with your friends. “I personally like mining and digging tunnels,” Marshall said, describing the “tock-tock-tock” sound of the pick that brings them so much joy. Most players, they said, “have their world where they have their own soothing hobbies.” Indeed, players have praised it as a mental health aid. It’s pro-social, too: Researchers have touted Minecraft’s potential as a social engagement and community-building tool. Plus, the game has been around for so long that it’s evolved a nostalgic appeal for older players, while also being a fully native franchise for Gen Z — a game they grew up with.It all adds up to a mega-franchise whose community has taken on an identity outside of the game. In 2014, Persson sold Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, exiting the company he founded just in time to avoid associating Minecraft with the anti-trans, sexist views he soon began expressing. By that point, Minecraft had a whole other life on early YouTube, spawning endless networks of “Let’s Play” game vloggers who filmed themselves playing the game. Known as Minecraft YouTube, this community created its own fandom separate from that of the game, while also boosting the game’s visibility. These Minecraft video creators also easily found success on streaming platforms like Twitch, which allow fans to watch their favorite gamers play in real time. Ashray Urs, founder of streaming platform Streamlabs, told Vox that over 3 million players had streamed Minecraft content “tens of millions of times” since the site launched in 2014, and that the company’s data shows Minecraft remains one of the most consistently streamed games on Twitch and YouTube Gaming. “It started with the game, but the real cultural influence came from the communities these creators fostered around their gameplay and interaction with the IP,” Urs said of the game’s status as an incredibly popular intellectual property. “When someone says they’re a ‘fan’ of Minecraft, they might be fans of the game, but they could also be fans of the creators who elevated its popularity, or the transformative fanworks that emerged from the game’s near-limitless constructive mechanics.” That energy built and built for over a decade — until it came spilling out (literally in some cases) at A Minecraft Movie.Gen Z grew up with Minecraft — and vice versaOne big reason for A Minecraft Movie’s success is the power of memes. Perhaps you’ve heard Gen Z loves memes? A Minecraft Movie spawned memes from fans starting the moment the first trailer dropped in November. While many in the fandom were initially skeptical, gamers later realized how much of the movie seemed to be fan service aimed at diehard players. Like the audience for Barbie, fans were eager to see new life injected into a beloved childhood product. And when the movie opened, they were ready to unleash their pent-up excitement. There’s inherent power and fun in a big online movement coalescing offline, and Minecraft has always been a game that encourages social connection. The chance to congregate around a movie whose lore they were already steeped in may have given Gen Z boys, whose social lives were turned upside down by the pandemic, a novel communal opportunity. Videos of the intense interactive crowds quickly went viral once the film opened, which made going to the movie something of a meme in and of itself. One of the biggest memes to come from A Minecraft Movie is “chicken jockey,” in which a zombie kid rides a chicken (something that happens in the actual game too, if quite rarely). Clips of the fan reaction to this standout moment — teens standing, hoisting one another on shoulders, yelling out the line, often accompanied by popcorn throwing and at least one actual chicken — have appeared on TikTok, and received a lot of discussion from somewhat bewildered adult onlookers. The in-theater uproar has several things in common with the GentleMinions trend of 2022, where groups of young men attended screenings of Minions: The Rise of Gru in full suits and ties. Yet again, male Gen Z fans of a family-friendly franchise showed up to the theater in full interactive mode. As with the Minions film, those viewers are the ones driving the box office turnout and embracing the film as a community event. The geek culture appeal of both Minecraft stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa probably shouldn’t be overlooked as a factor of the movie’s success, either; both actors have long resumes of fandom-friendly content (like Black’s villainous turn in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the previous reigning video game movie, or Momoa’s Aquaman), and both seem to have fully embraced the spirit of Minecraft as meme.Then there’s the actual film, in which our heroes are Minecraft players who find themselves transported from the real world into the game world, here called the Overworld. To escape, Black’s creator Steve, Momoa’s cynical and competitive Garrett, and audience stand-in kid Henry (Sebastian Hansen) go on a Wizard of Oz-like quest, dodging various mobs of zombies, bees, and llamas along the way. It’s all very wholesome for a movie that’s spawned such raucous audience participation. As Polygon’s Tasha Robinson puts it, “Garrett learns how to be vulnerable and drop his swaggering pretense of superiority. Steve learns to accept other humans as friends. Henry learns that some people actually like it when he crafts stuff.” Like The LEGO Movie, another massive hit based on the very kid’s game that Minecraft is often compared to, the narrative offers a deconstruction of what it means to be a Minecraft player. That said, it’s a bit hard to hear the moral that real life is better than virtual reality over the sound of children screeching and hurling movie concessions into the void.The film, now the most profitable game movie in history, has set the property on yet another upward trajectory; just as YouTube opened up a whole new avenue for Minecraft-related content and fandom, Hollywood will too. Just don’t expect this shift to change the fundamental nature of the game beloved by so many millions of people. “I’d imagine we’ll be getting more movies, maybe an animated show, more spin-offs — but Minecraft itself remains eternal,” Marshall said.“No matter what people do with the game, it retains that boxy, pixelized aesthetic that makes it unmistakable,” Urs agreed. “Maybe your only interest in Minecraft is through that particular Minecraft YouTuber you like, or that parody song stuck in your head, but at the end of the day, it all goes back to the game. That’s how you build a cultural phenomenon, block by block.”See More: