• 108-year-old submarine wreck seen in stunning detail in new footage

    Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 on the seafloor west of San Diego, California. CREDIT: Image by Zoe Daheron, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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    In 1917, two US submarines collided off the coast of San Diego and submarine USS F-1 sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, along with 19 crew members aboard. The horrible accident, whose wreckage was discovered in 1975, represents the US Naval Submarine Force’s first wartime submarine loss. Now, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have captured new footage of the 1,300 feet-deep underwater archaeological site.
    “They were technical dives requiring specialized expertise and equipment,” Anna Michel, a co-lead of the expedition and chief scientist at the National Deep Submergence Facility, said in a statement. “We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve.”

    The high-definition imagining and mapping of the USS F-1 took place during a deep-sea training and engineering mission in February and March. The missions aimed to train future submersible pilots and test the human-occupied vehicle Alvin and autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry. 
    The team captured never-seen-before images and videos and conducted a sonar survey, which essentially consists of mapping a region by shooting sound waves at it and registering the echo. Imaging specialists combined the 2D images into a 3D model of the wreck—a technique called photogrammetry. Using photogrammetry reveals measurements not just of the submarine but of the marine life that over the past century has claimed the vessel as its own. 
    Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 showing the sub’s stern and propeller. CREDIT: Image by Zoe Daheron, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
    “As a Navy veteran, making this dive—together with another Navy veteran and a Navy historian—was a solemn privilege,” said Office of Naval Research Program Officer Rob Sparrock, who was in Alvin when it went down to the wreck. “There was time to contemplate the risks that all mariners, past and present, face. It also reminded me of the importance of these training dives, which leverage the knowledge from past dives, lessons learned and sound engineering.”
    The researchers also investigated a Navy torpedo bomber training aircraft that went down in the region in 1950. After the dives, they held a remembrance ceremony aboard the research vessel Atlantis during which a bell rang once for each of the crew members lost in 1917. 
    “History and archaeology are all about people and we felt it was important to read their names aloud,” said Naval History and Heritage Command Underwater Archaeologist Brad Krueger, who also dove in Alvin. “The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered.”
    #108yearold #submarine #wreck #seen #stunning
    108-year-old submarine wreck seen in stunning detail in new footage
    Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 on the seafloor west of San Diego, California. CREDIT: Image by Zoe Daheron, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In 1917, two US submarines collided off the coast of San Diego and submarine USS F-1 sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, along with 19 crew members aboard. The horrible accident, whose wreckage was discovered in 1975, represents the US Naval Submarine Force’s first wartime submarine loss. Now, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have captured new footage of the 1,300 feet-deep underwater archaeological site. “They were technical dives requiring specialized expertise and equipment,” Anna Michel, a co-lead of the expedition and chief scientist at the National Deep Submergence Facility, said in a statement. “We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve.” The high-definition imagining and mapping of the USS F-1 took place during a deep-sea training and engineering mission in February and March. The missions aimed to train future submersible pilots and test the human-occupied vehicle Alvin and autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry.  The team captured never-seen-before images and videos and conducted a sonar survey, which essentially consists of mapping a region by shooting sound waves at it and registering the echo. Imaging specialists combined the 2D images into a 3D model of the wreck—a technique called photogrammetry. Using photogrammetry reveals measurements not just of the submarine but of the marine life that over the past century has claimed the vessel as its own.  Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 showing the sub’s stern and propeller. CREDIT: Image by Zoe Daheron, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “As a Navy veteran, making this dive—together with another Navy veteran and a Navy historian—was a solemn privilege,” said Office of Naval Research Program Officer Rob Sparrock, who was in Alvin when it went down to the wreck. “There was time to contemplate the risks that all mariners, past and present, face. It also reminded me of the importance of these training dives, which leverage the knowledge from past dives, lessons learned and sound engineering.” The researchers also investigated a Navy torpedo bomber training aircraft that went down in the region in 1950. After the dives, they held a remembrance ceremony aboard the research vessel Atlantis during which a bell rang once for each of the crew members lost in 1917.  “History and archaeology are all about people and we felt it was important to read their names aloud,” said Naval History and Heritage Command Underwater Archaeologist Brad Krueger, who also dove in Alvin. “The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered.” #108yearold #submarine #wreck #seen #stunning
    WWW.POPSCI.COM
    108-year-old submarine wreck seen in stunning detail in new footage
    Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 on the seafloor west of San Diego, California. CREDIT: Image by Zoe Daheron, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In 1917, two US submarines collided off the coast of San Diego and submarine USS F-1 sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, along with 19 crew members aboard. The horrible accident, whose wreckage was discovered in 1975, represents the US Naval Submarine Force’s first wartime submarine loss. Now, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have captured new footage of the 1,300 feet-deep underwater archaeological site. “They were technical dives requiring specialized expertise and equipment,” Anna Michel, a co-lead of the expedition and chief scientist at the National Deep Submergence Facility, said in a statement. “We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve.” The high-definition imagining and mapping of the USS F-1 took place during a deep-sea training and engineering mission in February and March. The missions aimed to train future submersible pilots and test the human-occupied vehicle Alvin and autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry.  The team captured never-seen-before images and videos and conducted a sonar survey, which essentially consists of mapping a region by shooting sound waves at it and registering the echo. Imaging specialists combined the 2D images into a 3D model of the wreck—a technique called photogrammetry. Using photogrammetry reveals measurements not just of the submarine but of the marine life that over the past century has claimed the vessel as its own.  Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 showing the sub’s stern and propeller. CREDIT: Image by Zoe Daheron, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “As a Navy veteran, making this dive—together with another Navy veteran and a Navy historian—was a solemn privilege,” said Office of Naval Research Program Officer Rob Sparrock, who was in Alvin when it went down to the wreck. “There was time to contemplate the risks that all mariners, past and present, face. It also reminded me of the importance of these training dives, which leverage the knowledge from past dives, lessons learned and sound engineering.” The researchers also investigated a Navy torpedo bomber training aircraft that went down in the region in 1950. After the dives, they held a remembrance ceremony aboard the research vessel Atlantis during which a bell rang once for each of the crew members lost in 1917.  “History and archaeology are all about people and we felt it was important to read their names aloud,” said Naval History and Heritage Command Underwater Archaeologist Brad Krueger, who also dove in Alvin. “The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered.”
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  • Atlantis Studio Is A New Team Built Of Former Ubisoft, Ready At Dawn, And Midgar Studios Developers

    Former Ready at Dawn, Ubisoft, and Midgar Studios developers have come together to form Atlantis Studio, a new team that, according to a report from GamesBeat, will focus on making immersive games in Unreal Engine 5.
    The new team will be based in the South of France and is co-founded by Ru Weerasuriya, the former president of Ready At Dawn, who was with that studio on games like The Order: 1886 and Echo VR until the studio was shut down by Meta last year. Joining Weerasuriya is Nico Augusto, and together the two bring years of experience to the formation of Atlantis.
    "We are thrilled to announce the creation of Atlantis Studio in the beautiful South of France region," said Weerasuriya in a statement. "Our vision is to foster a creative and collaborative environment where experienced talent can come together to develop games driven by our common passions."
    Augusto added, "The core team at Atlantis Studio is composed of exceptional and talented individuals. Together, we are looking forward to sharing with everyone the world we are crafting."
    The studio is currently hiring, and according to their website, they are due to announce their debut project "soon," which of course, could mean anything. It could be that we'll learn what the project is during Summer Game Fest, with a trailer ready to help drum up awareness about the studio to try and attract developers to apply. Or it could be that we're waiting months, even years, to find out what Atlantis Studio is cooking.
    #atlantis #studio #new #team #built
    Atlantis Studio Is A New Team Built Of Former Ubisoft, Ready At Dawn, And Midgar Studios Developers
    Former Ready at Dawn, Ubisoft, and Midgar Studios developers have come together to form Atlantis Studio, a new team that, according to a report from GamesBeat, will focus on making immersive games in Unreal Engine 5. The new team will be based in the South of France and is co-founded by Ru Weerasuriya, the former president of Ready At Dawn, who was with that studio on games like The Order: 1886 and Echo VR until the studio was shut down by Meta last year. Joining Weerasuriya is Nico Augusto, and together the two bring years of experience to the formation of Atlantis. "We are thrilled to announce the creation of Atlantis Studio in the beautiful South of France region," said Weerasuriya in a statement. "Our vision is to foster a creative and collaborative environment where experienced talent can come together to develop games driven by our common passions." Augusto added, "The core team at Atlantis Studio is composed of exceptional and talented individuals. Together, we are looking forward to sharing with everyone the world we are crafting." The studio is currently hiring, and according to their website, they are due to announce their debut project "soon," which of course, could mean anything. It could be that we'll learn what the project is during Summer Game Fest, with a trailer ready to help drum up awareness about the studio to try and attract developers to apply. Or it could be that we're waiting months, even years, to find out what Atlantis Studio is cooking. #atlantis #studio #new #team #built
    WCCFTECH.COM
    Atlantis Studio Is A New Team Built Of Former Ubisoft, Ready At Dawn, And Midgar Studios Developers
    Former Ready at Dawn, Ubisoft, and Midgar Studios developers have come together to form Atlantis Studio, a new team that, according to a report from GamesBeat, will focus on making immersive games in Unreal Engine 5. The new team will be based in the South of France and is co-founded by Ru Weerasuriya, the former president of Ready At Dawn, who was with that studio on games like The Order: 1886 and Echo VR until the studio was shut down by Meta last year. Joining Weerasuriya is Nico Augusto, and together the two bring years of experience to the formation of Atlantis. "We are thrilled to announce the creation of Atlantis Studio in the beautiful South of France region," said Weerasuriya in a statement. "Our vision is to foster a creative and collaborative environment where experienced talent can come together to develop games driven by our common passions." Augusto added, "The core team at Atlantis Studio is composed of exceptional and talented individuals. Together, we are looking forward to sharing with everyone the world we are crafting." The studio is currently hiring, and according to their website, they are due to announce their debut project "soon," which of course, could mean anything. It could be that we'll learn what the project is during Summer Game Fest, with a trailer ready to help drum up awareness about the studio to try and attract developers to apply. Or it could be that we're waiting months, even years, to find out what Atlantis Studio is cooking.
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  • Microsoft brings over 50 classic Activision games to Game Pass via new Retro Classics app

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    Microsoft brings over 50 classic Activision games to Game Pass via new Retro Classics app

    Pulasthi Ariyasinghe

    Neowin
    @LoneWolfSL ·

    May 21, 2025 16:40 EDT

    In a surprise announcement, Microsoft today revealed the Retro Classics app, a brand-new resource for Game Pass members that features dozens of classic titles. As is evident by its name, the app specializes in retro classics, and the focus is on Activision-published games that landed back in the 80s and 90s.
    Arriving as a partnership between Xbox and Antstream Arcade, the app is available to all Game Pass subscribers. Considering the age of the games, a wide variety of consoles are listed when sorting, including the original PlayStation. It seems more games are planned for the app too.
    The games have gamepad and keyboard controls, instructions on how to play through them, in-game daily challenges, and even achievements.

    Here's everything included in the launch version of Retro Classics:

    Activision Prototype #1
    Atlantis
    Atlantis 2
    Barnstorming
    Baseball
    Beamrider
    Bloody Human Freeway
    Boxing
    Bridge
    Caesar 2
    Checkers
    Chopper Command
    Commando
    Conquests of the Longbow
    Cosmic Ark
    Crackpots
    Decathlon
    Demon Attack
    Dolphin
    Dragster
    Enduro
    Fathom
    Fire Fighter
    Fishing Derby
    Freddie Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
    Freeway
    Frostbite
    Grand Prix
    H.E.R.O.
    Kaboom!

    Laser Blast
    MechWarrior
    MechWarrior 2
    Megamania
    Pitfall
    Pitfall 2
    Police Quest
    Pressure Cooker
    Quest for Glory
    Riddle of the Sphinx
    River Raid
    River Raid 2
    Robot Tank
    Sky Jinks
    Space Quest 2
    Space Quest 6
    Space Treat Deluxe
    Spider Fighter
    Star Voyager
    Tennis
    The Adventures of Willy Beamish
    The Dagger of Amon Ra
    Thwocker
    Title Match Pro Wrestling
    Torin's Passage
    Trick Shot
    Vault Assault
    Venetian Blinds
    Zork: The Great Underground Empire
    Zork: Zero

    "This initiative is a step in our commitment to game preservation and backwards compatibility, allowing players to experience many timeless games on modern devices," added the company.
    The new Retro Classics app is available on PC, Xbox consoles, as well as all cloud-supported platforms, including Smart TVs, VR headsets, and more as a part of Game Pass.

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    #microsoft #brings #over #classic #activision
    Microsoft brings over 50 classic Activision games to Game Pass via new Retro Classics app
    When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft brings over 50 classic Activision games to Game Pass via new Retro Classics app Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Neowin @LoneWolfSL · May 21, 2025 16:40 EDT In a surprise announcement, Microsoft today revealed the Retro Classics app, a brand-new resource for Game Pass members that features dozens of classic titles. As is evident by its name, the app specializes in retro classics, and the focus is on Activision-published games that landed back in the 80s and 90s. Arriving as a partnership between Xbox and Antstream Arcade, the app is available to all Game Pass subscribers. Considering the age of the games, a wide variety of consoles are listed when sorting, including the original PlayStation. It seems more games are planned for the app too. The games have gamepad and keyboard controls, instructions on how to play through them, in-game daily challenges, and even achievements. Here's everything included in the launch version of Retro Classics: Activision Prototype #1 Atlantis Atlantis 2 Barnstorming Baseball Beamrider Bloody Human Freeway Boxing Bridge Caesar 2 Checkers Chopper Command Commando Conquests of the Longbow Cosmic Ark Crackpots Decathlon Demon Attack Dolphin Dragster Enduro Fathom Fire Fighter Fishing Derby Freddie Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist Freeway Frostbite Grand Prix H.E.R.O. Kaboom! Laser Blast MechWarrior MechWarrior 2 Megamania Pitfall Pitfall 2 Police Quest Pressure Cooker Quest for Glory Riddle of the Sphinx River Raid River Raid 2 Robot Tank Sky Jinks Space Quest 2 Space Quest 6 Space Treat Deluxe Spider Fighter Star Voyager Tennis The Adventures of Willy Beamish The Dagger of Amon Ra Thwocker Title Match Pro Wrestling Torin's Passage Trick Shot Vault Assault Venetian Blinds Zork: The Great Underground Empire Zork: Zero "This initiative is a step in our commitment to game preservation and backwards compatibility, allowing players to experience many timeless games on modern devices," added the company. The new Retro Classics app is available on PC, Xbox consoles, as well as all cloud-supported platforms, including Smart TVs, VR headsets, and more as a part of Game Pass. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed #microsoft #brings #over #classic #activision
    WWW.NEOWIN.NET
    Microsoft brings over 50 classic Activision games to Game Pass via new Retro Classics app
    When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft brings over 50 classic Activision games to Game Pass via new Retro Classics app Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Neowin @LoneWolfSL · May 21, 2025 16:40 EDT In a surprise announcement, Microsoft today revealed the Retro Classics app, a brand-new resource for Game Pass members that features dozens of classic titles. As is evident by its name, the app specializes in retro classics, and the focus is on Activision-published games that landed back in the 80s and 90s. Arriving as a partnership between Xbox and Antstream Arcade, the app is available to all Game Pass subscribers. Considering the age of the games, a wide variety of consoles are listed when sorting, including the original PlayStation. It seems more games are planned for the app too. The games have gamepad and keyboard controls, instructions on how to play through them, in-game daily challenges, and even achievements. Here's everything included in the launch version of Retro Classics: Activision Prototype #1 Atlantis Atlantis 2 Barnstorming Baseball Beamrider Bloody Human Freeway Boxing Bridge Caesar 2 Checkers Chopper Command Commando Conquests of the Longbow Cosmic Ark Crackpots Decathlon Demon Attack Dolphin Dragster Enduro Fathom Fire Fighter Fishing Derby Freddie Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist Freeway Frostbite Grand Prix H.E.R.O. Kaboom! Laser Blast MechWarrior MechWarrior 2 Megamania Pitfall Pitfall 2 Police Quest Pressure Cooker Quest for Glory Riddle of the Sphinx River Raid River Raid 2 Robot Tank Sky Jinks Space Quest 2 Space Quest 6 Space Treat Deluxe Spider Fighter Star Voyager Tennis The Adventures of Willy Beamish The Dagger of Amon Ra Thwocker Title Match Pro Wrestling Torin's Passage Trick Shot Vault Assault Venetian Blinds Zork: The Great Underground Empire Zork: Zero "This initiative is a step in our commitment to game preservation and backwards compatibility, allowing players to experience many timeless games on modern devices," added the company. The new Retro Classics app is available on PC, Xbox consoles, as well as all cloud-supported platforms, including Smart TVs, VR headsets, and more as a part of Game Pass. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed
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  • Stellar Blade PC blocked by Sony in 130 countries due to PSN not being available, devs apparently weren't aware

    Jaded Alyx
    Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com
    Verified

    Oct 25, 2017

    40,215

    Stellar Blade can be pre-ordered on PC, however as per sony's longstanding policy:

    People are complaining, and it seems the Stellar Blade X account did not know this was going to happen:

     

    Last edited: Friday at 1:42 PM

    NovumVeritas
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    11,131

    Berlin

    Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ? 

    dex3108
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    24,745

    One day Sony will pull out their head from their own ass.

    NovumVeritas said:

    Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ?Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot. 

    Trick_GSF
    Member

    Nov 2, 2017

    1,644

    This thing is so, so dumb.
     

    Linus815
    Member

    Oct 29, 2017

    24,097

    sony is so ass
     

    Dest
    Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
    Coward

    Jun 4, 2018

    16,028

    Work

    Sony has gotta figure this shit out
     

    Audiblee
    Member

    Mar 14, 2025

    1,551

    What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries?
     

    senj
    Member

    Nov 6, 2017

    8,698

    It's a hell of an act, what do you call it?

    "Sony's PC Publishing Strategy" 

    super-famicom
    Avenger

    Oct 26, 2017

    30,601

    New Pope is furious
     

    NeoRaider
    Member

    Feb 7, 2018

    9,166

    Audiblee said:

    What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries?

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    But PSN isn't even required for few months now...

    And this is a 3rd party game. 

    Jawbreaker
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    8,998

    New York City

    Classic. Hope this can serve as a catalyst for breaking down the region blocks.
     

    NovumVeritas
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    11,131

    Berlin

    dex3108 said:

    They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC..
     

    Audiblee
    Member

    Mar 14, 2025

    1,551

    NeoRaider said:

    But PSN isn't even required for few months now...

    And this is a 3rd party game.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.
     

    senj
    Member

    Nov 6, 2017

    8,698

    Audiblee said:

    What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Nobody knows. There does not appear to be any good reason.
     

    Arubedo
    Unshakable Resolve
    Member

    Dec 24, 2018

    1,219

    Sony are the dumbest PC publisher i've ever seen, what even is the point region locking the games when they removed every PSN account restrictions?
     

    cowbanana
    Member

    Feb 2, 2018

    16,364

    a Socialist Utopia

    At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol.
     

    dex3108
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    24,745

    NovumVeritas said:

    Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC..

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros. 

    nsilvias
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    30,114

    cowbanana said:

    At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    oof the first? sony game with denuvo
     

    SirKai
    Member

    Dec 28, 2017

    10,174

    Washington

    This continues to be the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it.
     

    jitteryzeitgeist
    Member

    May 26, 2023

    9,180

    A quiet place

    Sony can't be stopped.

    SirKai said:

    This is the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I can wrap my head around most corporate decisions and at least see the weird MBA bro logic behind them.

    Nothing Sony is doing makes any fucking sense, even with that mindset. 

    Kneefoil
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    4,953

    I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing.

     

    NovumVeritas
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    11,131

    Berlin

    dex3108 said:

    i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Yeah. The price point for this game is also really hilarious. It has the same price when it was released new on Playstation 5. It's fucking dumb. Also using Denuvo and doing this PSN crap, Sony doing everything this will go wait for sale direction or it will bomb.
     

    Polk
    Avenger

    Oct 26, 2017

    6,011

    Audiblee said:

    What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that.
     

    harinezumi
    Member

    Oct 27, 2017

    20,530

    Buenos Aires, Argentina

     

    J-Skee
    The Wise Ones
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    13,287

    NeoRaider said:

    But PSN isn't even required for few months now...

    And this is a 3rd party game.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    They publish it, so they treat it like everything else. It's a smaller that no one really cares about, but Midnight Murder Club is also like this.
     

    Raysoul
    Fat4All Ruined My Rug
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    3,459

    HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!

    A year has passed, GoT and Helldivers 2 are still region locked. Then this happened. 

    dex3108
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    24,745

    Polk said:

    I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's not, they are aware because it was 170 regions up until few months ago when they unblocked 40 countries. 

    andshrew
    Member

    Oct 27, 2017

    2,897

    Audiblee said:

    What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Sony really messed up with all the drama around this last year, so the assumption would be Sony legal say these are the countries we do business in; and those are the only countries we will now sell in whether or not a PSN login is required. 

    Xando
    Member

    Oct 28, 2017

    37,627

    Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game
     

    P40L0
    Member

    Jun 12, 2018

    9,582

    Italy

    super-famicom said:

    New Pope is furious

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Dead!
     

    HardRojo
    One Winged Slayer
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    28,859

    Peru

    Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title.
     

    dex3108
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    24,745

    Xando said:

    Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Because there is actually no PR mess. Nobody questions them from outlets, people who can't play game kinda don't have anywhere big to complain for Sony to notice so they simply don't care. 

    Bishop89
    What Are Ya' Selling?
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    42,737

    Melbourne, Australia

    Sony you buffoons. My god
     

    OP

    OP

    Jaded Alyx
    Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com
    Verified

    Oct 25, 2017

    40,215

    HardRojo said:

    Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Not sure how you got that from the title though.
     

    Letters
    Prophet of Truth
    Avenger

    Oct 27, 2017

    5,199

    Portugal

    What possible reason could there be for this decision? What's the problem with people buying from other random regions? Or lying about location when creating PSN accounts? Does it devalue the data they sell on people or what?

    I'm genuinely curious about the reason from their point of view for such an unpopular decision.

    Kneefoil said:

    I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    How nice of Sony to avoid making players feel sad or upset because of missing out on this one costume. 

    Last edited: Thursday at 1:04 PM

    Fulcrum
    Member

    Nov 7, 2022

    2,088

    I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime.
     

    Arubedo
    Unshakable Resolve
    Member

    Dec 24, 2018

    1,219

    Fulcrum said:

    I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It doesn't require PSN tho.
     

    HardRojo
    One Winged Slayer
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    28,859

    Peru

    Jaded Alyx said:

    Not sure how you got that from the title though.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony.
     

    dex3108
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    24,745

    Jaded Alyx said:

    Not sure how you got that from the title though.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I agree with that post, you should have added "devs apparently weren't aware how dumb Sony is" 

    OP

    OP

    Jaded Alyx
    Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com
    Verified

    Oct 25, 2017

    40,215

    HardRojo said:

    The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Ok fair enough, I just assumed it was obvious since it's a Sony-published title.
     

    Sabretooth
    Member

    Oct 27, 2017

    5,673

    India

    What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us
     

    Fulcrum
    Member

    Nov 7, 2022

    2,088

    Arubedo said:

    It doesn't require PSN tho.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Oh, I misread. Guess I'll find out when it releases. 

    Mobius and Pet Octopus
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    16,813

    Jaded Alyx said:

    Not sure how you got that from the title though.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's how you said it was blocked when it's actually the product doing the blocking. 

    Catchphrase
    Member

    Nov 28, 2023

    2,322

    Sabretooth said:

    What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    AN is Atlantis, clearly
     

    sderttreds
    Member

    Jan 6, 2023

    1,249

    oh what, sony is the publisher? won't really trust them with steam release
     

    chrominance
    Sky Van Gogh
    Member

    Oct 25, 2017

    16,264

    HardRojo said:

    Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I sort of get where you're coming from, and someone who isn't aware of Sony's policies around this could definitely be confused. At the same time: did people actually think 130 countries all decided, independently or in concert, to block Stellar Blade?

    How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING? 

    Greywaren
    Member

    Jul 16, 2019

    13,085

    Spain

    Reset the "Sony fucks things up for no reason" clock once again.
     

    Acidote
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    5,834

    cowbanana said:

    At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol.

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Thanks, I didn't notice that. Removed from the wishlist.
     

    Raysoul
    Fat4All Ruined My Rug
    Member

    Oct 26, 2017

    3,459

    Title should be "In a very baffling decision, Sony doesn't want these countries to play Stellar Blade on PC"
     

    jitteryzeitgeist
    Member

    May 26, 2023

    9,180

    A quiet place

    chrominance said:

    How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING?

    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Just about every nation on earth agrees on one orange, bloated, stupid thing being awful, but that's about it. 
    #stellar #blade #blocked #sony #countries
    Stellar Blade PC blocked by Sony in 130 countries due to PSN not being available, devs apparently weren't aware
    Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 Stellar Blade can be pre-ordered on PC, however as per sony's longstanding policy: People are complaining, and it seems the Stellar Blade X account did not know this was going to happen:   Last edited: Friday at 1:42 PM NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ?  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 One day Sony will pull out their head from their own ass. NovumVeritas said: Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ?Click to expand... Click to shrink... They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot.  Trick_GSF Member Nov 2, 2017 1,644 This thing is so, so dumb.   Linus815 Member Oct 29, 2017 24,097 sony is so ass   Dest Has seen more 10s than EA ever will Coward Jun 4, 2018 16,028 Work Sony has gotta figure this shit out   Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries?   senj Member Nov 6, 2017 8,698 It's a hell of an act, what do you call it? "Sony's PC Publishing Strategy"  super-famicom Avenger Oct 26, 2017 30,601 New Pope is furious   NeoRaider Member Feb 7, 2018 9,166 Audiblee said: What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries? Click to expand... Click to shrink... But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game.  Jawbreaker Member Oct 25, 2017 8,998 New York City Classic. Hope this can serve as a catalyst for breaking down the region blocks.   NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin dex3108 said: They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC..   Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 NeoRaider said: But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.   senj Member Nov 6, 2017 8,698 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Nobody knows. There does not appear to be any good reason.   Arubedo Unshakable Resolve Member Dec 24, 2018 1,219 Sony are the dumbest PC publisher i've ever seen, what even is the point region locking the games when they removed every PSN account restrictions?   cowbanana Member Feb 2, 2018 16,364 a Socialist Utopia At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 NovumVeritas said: Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC.. Click to expand... Click to shrink... i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros.  nsilvias Member Oct 25, 2017 30,114 cowbanana said: At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... oof the first? sony game with denuvo   SirKai Member Dec 28, 2017 10,174 Washington This continues to be the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it.   jitteryzeitgeist Member May 26, 2023 9,180 A quiet place Sony can't be stopped. SirKai said: This is the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I can wrap my head around most corporate decisions and at least see the weird MBA bro logic behind them. Nothing Sony is doing makes any fucking sense, even with that mindset.  Kneefoil Member Oct 25, 2017 4,953 I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing.   NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin dex3108 said: i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah. The price point for this game is also really hilarious. It has the same price when it was released new on Playstation 5. It's fucking dumb. Also using Denuvo and doing this PSN crap, Sony doing everything this will go wait for sale direction or it will bomb.   Polk Avenger Oct 26, 2017 6,011 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that.   harinezumi Member Oct 27, 2017 20,530 Buenos Aires, Argentina   J-Skee The Wise Ones Member Oct 25, 2017 13,287 NeoRaider said: But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... They publish it, so they treat it like everything else. It's a smaller that no one really cares about, but Midnight Murder Club is also like this.   Raysoul Fat4All Ruined My Rug Member Oct 26, 2017 3,459 HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA! A year has passed, GoT and Helldivers 2 are still region locked. Then this happened.  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Polk said: I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's not, they are aware because it was 170 regions up until few months ago when they unblocked 40 countries.  andshrew Member Oct 27, 2017 2,897 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Sony really messed up with all the drama around this last year, so the assumption would be Sony legal say these are the countries we do business in; and those are the only countries we will now sell in whether or not a PSN login is required.  Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,627 Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game   P40L0 Member Jun 12, 2018 9,582 Italy super-famicom said: New Pope is furious Click to expand... Click to shrink... Dead! 🤣   HardRojo One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,859 Peru Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Xando said: Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game Click to expand... Click to shrink... Because there is actually no PR mess. Nobody questions them from outlets, people who can't play game kinda don't have anywhere big to complain for Sony to notice so they simply don't care.  Bishop89 What Are Ya' Selling? Member Oct 25, 2017 42,737 Melbourne, Australia Sony you buffoons. My god   OP OP Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 HardRojo said: Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not sure how you got that from the title though.   Letters Prophet of Truth Avenger Oct 27, 2017 5,199 Portugal What possible reason could there be for this decision? What's the problem with people buying from other random regions? Or lying about location when creating PSN accounts? Does it devalue the data they sell on people or what? I'm genuinely curious about the reason from their point of view for such an unpopular decision. Kneefoil said: I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing. Click to expand... Click to shrink... How nice of Sony to avoid making players feel sad or upset because of missing out on this one costume.  Last edited: Thursday at 1:04 PM Fulcrum Member Nov 7, 2022 2,088 I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime.   Arubedo Unshakable Resolve Member Dec 24, 2018 1,219 Fulcrum said: I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It doesn't require PSN tho.   HardRojo One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,859 Peru Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I agree with that post, you should have added "devs apparently weren't aware how dumb Sony is"  OP OP Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 HardRojo said: The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ok fair enough, I just assumed it was obvious since it's a Sony-published title.   Sabretooth Member Oct 27, 2017 5,673 India What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us   Fulcrum Member Nov 7, 2022 2,088 Arubedo said: It doesn't require PSN tho. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Oh, I misread. Guess I'll find out when it releases.  Mobius and Pet Octopus Member Oct 25, 2017 16,813 Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's how you said it was blocked when it's actually the product doing the blocking.  Catchphrase Member Nov 28, 2023 2,322 Sabretooth said: What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us Click to expand... Click to shrink... AN is Atlantis, clearly   sderttreds Member Jan 6, 2023 1,249 oh what, sony is the publisher? won't really trust them with steam release   chrominance Sky Van Gogh Member Oct 25, 2017 16,264 HardRojo said: Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I sort of get where you're coming from, and someone who isn't aware of Sony's policies around this could definitely be confused. At the same time: did people actually think 130 countries all decided, independently or in concert, to block Stellar Blade? How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING?  Greywaren Member Jul 16, 2019 13,085 Spain Reset the "Sony fucks things up for no reason" clock once again.   Acidote Member Oct 26, 2017 5,834 cowbanana said: At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Thanks, I didn't notice that. Removed from the wishlist.   Raysoul Fat4All Ruined My Rug Member Oct 26, 2017 3,459 Title should be "In a very baffling decision, Sony doesn't want these countries to play Stellar Blade on PC"   jitteryzeitgeist Member May 26, 2023 9,180 A quiet place chrominance said: How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Just about every nation on earth agrees on one orange, bloated, stupid thing being awful, but that's about it.  #stellar #blade #blocked #sony #countries
    WWW.RESETERA.COM
    Stellar Blade PC blocked by Sony in 130 countries due to PSN not being available, devs apparently weren't aware
    Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 Stellar Blade can be pre-ordered on PC, however as per sony's longstanding policy: People are complaining, and it seems the Stellar Blade X account did not know this was going to happen:   Last edited: Friday at 1:42 PM NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ? (Bad communication)  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 One day Sony will pull out their head from their own ass. NovumVeritas said: Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ? (Bad communication) Click to expand... Click to shrink... They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot.  Trick_GSF Member Nov 2, 2017 1,644 This thing is so, so dumb.   Linus815 Member Oct 29, 2017 24,097 sony is so ass   Dest Has seen more 10s than EA ever will Coward Jun 4, 2018 16,028 Work Sony has gotta figure this shit out   Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries?   senj Member Nov 6, 2017 8,698 It's a hell of an act, what do you call it? "Sony's PC Publishing Strategy"  super-famicom Avenger Oct 26, 2017 30,601 New Pope is furious   NeoRaider Member Feb 7, 2018 9,166 Audiblee said: What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries? Click to expand... Click to shrink... But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game.  Jawbreaker Member Oct 25, 2017 8,998 New York City Classic. Hope this can serve as a catalyst for breaking down the region blocks.   NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin dex3108 said: They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC..   Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 NeoRaider said: But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.   senj Member Nov 6, 2017 8,698 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Nobody knows. There does not appear to be any good reason.   Arubedo Unshakable Resolve Member Dec 24, 2018 1,219 Sony are the dumbest PC publisher i've ever seen, what even is the point region locking the games when they removed every PSN account restrictions?   cowbanana Member Feb 2, 2018 16,364 a Socialist Utopia At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 NovumVeritas said: Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC.. Click to expand... Click to shrink... i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros.  nsilvias Member Oct 25, 2017 30,114 cowbanana said: At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... oof the first? sony game with denuvo   SirKai Member Dec 28, 2017 10,174 Washington This continues to be the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it.   jitteryzeitgeist Member May 26, 2023 9,180 A quiet place Sony can't be stopped. SirKai said: This is the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I can wrap my head around most corporate decisions and at least see the weird MBA bro logic behind them. Nothing Sony is doing makes any fucking sense, even with that mindset.  Kneefoil Member Oct 25, 2017 4,953 I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing.   NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin dex3108 said: i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah. The price point for this game is also really hilarious. It has the same price when it was released new on Playstation 5. It's fucking dumb. Also using Denuvo and doing this PSN crap, Sony doing everything this will go wait for sale direction or it will bomb.   Polk Avenger Oct 26, 2017 6,011 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that.   harinezumi Member Oct 27, 2017 20,530 Buenos Aires, Argentina   J-Skee The Wise Ones Member Oct 25, 2017 13,287 NeoRaider said: But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... They publish it, so they treat it like everything else. It's a smaller that no one really cares about, but Midnight Murder Club is also like this.   Raysoul Fat4All Ruined My Rug Member Oct 26, 2017 3,459 HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA! A year has passed, GoT and Helldivers 2 are still region locked. Then this happened.  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Polk said: I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's not, they are aware because it was 170 regions up until few months ago when they unblocked 40 countries.  andshrew Member Oct 27, 2017 2,897 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Sony really messed up with all the drama around this last year, so the assumption would be Sony legal say these are the countries we do business in (ie. countries where PSN is available); and those are the only countries we will now sell in whether or not a PSN login is required.  Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,627 Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game   P40L0 Member Jun 12, 2018 9,582 Italy super-famicom said: New Pope is furious Click to expand... Click to shrink... Dead! 🤣   HardRojo One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,859 Peru Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Xando said: Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game Click to expand... Click to shrink... Because there is actually no PR mess. Nobody questions them from outlets, people who can't play game kinda don't have anywhere big to complain for Sony to notice so they simply don't care.  Bishop89 What Are Ya' Selling? Member Oct 25, 2017 42,737 Melbourne, Australia Sony you buffoons. My god   OP OP Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 HardRojo said: Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not sure how you got that from the title though.   Letters Prophet of Truth Avenger Oct 27, 2017 5,199 Portugal What possible reason could there be for this decision? What's the problem with people buying from other random regions? Or lying about location when creating PSN accounts? Does it devalue the data they sell on people or what? I'm genuinely curious about the reason from their point of view for such an unpopular decision. Kneefoil said: I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing. Click to expand... Click to shrink... How nice of Sony to avoid making players feel sad or upset because of missing out on this one costume.  Last edited: Thursday at 1:04 PM Fulcrum Member Nov 7, 2022 2,088 I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime.   Arubedo Unshakable Resolve Member Dec 24, 2018 1,219 Fulcrum said: I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It doesn't require PSN tho.   HardRojo One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,859 Peru Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I agree with that post, you should have added "devs apparently weren't aware how dumb Sony is"  OP OP Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 HardRojo said: The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ok fair enough, I just assumed it was obvious since it's a Sony-published title.   Sabretooth Member Oct 27, 2017 5,673 India What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us   Fulcrum Member Nov 7, 2022 2,088 Arubedo said: It doesn't require PSN tho. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Oh, I misread. Guess I'll find out when it releases.  Mobius and Pet Octopus Member Oct 25, 2017 16,813 Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's how you said it was blocked when it's actually the product doing the blocking.  Catchphrase Member Nov 28, 2023 2,322 Sabretooth said: What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us Click to expand... Click to shrink... AN is Atlantis, clearly   sderttreds Member Jan 6, 2023 1,249 oh what, sony is the publisher? won't really trust them with steam release   chrominance Sky Van Gogh Member Oct 25, 2017 16,264 HardRojo said: Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I sort of get where you're coming from, and someone who isn't aware of Sony's policies around this could definitely be confused. At the same time: did people actually think 130 countries all decided, independently or in concert, to block Stellar Blade? How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING?  Greywaren Member Jul 16, 2019 13,085 Spain Reset the "Sony fucks things up for no reason" clock once again.   Acidote Member Oct 26, 2017 5,834 cowbanana said: At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Thanks, I didn't notice that. Removed from the wishlist.   Raysoul Fat4All Ruined My Rug Member Oct 26, 2017 3,459 Title should be "In a very baffling decision, Sony doesn't want these countries to play Stellar Blade on PC"   jitteryzeitgeist Member May 26, 2023 9,180 A quiet place chrominance said: How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Just about every nation on earth agrees on one orange, bloated, stupid thing being awful, but that's about it. 
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  • I Stepped Into the Future of Hyper-Connected Entertainment. It Made Me Surprisingly Emotional

    Passing through a green warp pipe, I see a colorful mushroom kingdom spreading out in front of me. Almost.  Headset pressed to my face, volume up, I'm actually watching the Super Mario Bros. movie in Apple's Vision Pro from a room in my house, the screen stretched out in 3D.  But I'm feeling a little emotional, sort of a visceral thrill, like a memory. That's because the film's blending with my memories of being at Universal Studios' Epic Universe theme park a few weeks ago, when I was walking around an actual physical Mushroom Kingdom, passing through a real and very large green warp pipe — but in Orlando, Florida.  In the park, it's all walls I can touch, blocks I can tap. Coming back to watch the movie again, in 3D, it now feels a little bit like coming home. Imaginary worlds are expanding… both in my brain, and in the virtual and physical realms. It's happening in movies, in games, in VR and in places like Epic Universe, the biggest new theme park in the US in 20 years, which opens to the public on May 22.  All these immersive worlds are tapping into universes we already have somewhat mapped out in our minds, and by mapping them out even further, creators are laying emotional groundwork for staying more deeply connected in the future.  I'm obsessed with immersive technologies and write extensively about them at CNET; I've been reviewing VR and AR headsets and games for over a decade now. But I'm finding that physical places — like theme parks — can fuel our memories, too, and they begin to blend in strange ways. And that's very much by design. We're living in a hyper-connected state of entertainment, and Epic Universe just feels like the latest, biggest step. "The thirst for things that are live, things that are unpredictable, has only increased now that we're getting all of these franchise-based experiences out there," says Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute in Los Angeles. "Otherwise, that IP is just a thing that you stream that happens to other people in a little box. The next logical conclusion is, well, I would love to go there." The vast new world of Epic Universe is a lot to take in, even without the crowds there. I visited ahead of its opening, intensely curious about the experiences and the technology and what it would all add up to. I saw the future, and also the past. And what I experienced through a frenzied day was that the details, and surprises, were everywhere.  This was my journey there, in the moment itself and remembered from a distance, filtered through the nostalgia that movies, games and immersive tech fill me with now as I look back. I'm going to walk you through what I encountered and put it all into perspective. In this article: A past full of portals Theme parks have been imagining other worlds for years. Disneyland, which dreamed of a series of worlds visited via connected pathways starting from a central hub — a "hub and spokes" model that's mirrored in most major theme parks now — opened way back in 1955. But in the last couple of decades, the ante has been upped, and upped again. CNET/Zooey LiaoParks have gotten more theme-immersive over time: Universal opened Islands of Adventure in Orlando in 1999, where it created mini lands based on franchises like Jurassic Park, Marvel, Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter.  Disney's Animal Kingdom, also in Florida, started with a theme around animals from various continents. It added Pandora in 2017, a section made to feel like you're walking around the alien world from James Cameron's Avatar movies. Disney also has a Toy Story land at Hollywood Studios, opened in 2018, Star Wars-themed lands in both its California and Florida parks that opened in 2019 and Avengers Campus, which opened at Disneyland in 2021.  In a sense, Epic Universe in Orlando is a park full of these extreme-themed locations, connected like magic portals. Four big places, four familiar and deep wells of movie memories to draw from: Nintendo, How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter and classic Universal monsters. Of course, these particular themes are in areas where new movies, games and shows are emerging constantly. A live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie arrives this summer; the Nintendo Switch 2 launches in June; there's a new Harry Potter series for HBO Max that's in the works. These are no accidents. On the other hand, if you have no connection to those intellectual properties, then you might not feel the need to visit. "It becomes kind of a double-edged sword, because you have folks who really love a franchise and will definitely buy a ticket if you're featuring that franchise," says Yu of the Immersive Experience Institute. "And then you have folks who may not be so hot on that, and you still need to appeal to them." Franchises are now made to bleed between film, TV, game and theme park. It's a cross-media world, and our physical presence in a park, playing a role in experiencing something first-hand, can end up making all the other pieces feel more emotionally important. Is there a limit to the immersive theming? Disney hit a wall with Galactic Starcruiser, a multiday self-contained hotel experience that opened in 2022 but closed a year later, something that was aiming high but was way too expensive and too immersive to appeal to many people, not to mention badly timed during a pandemic.Bridget Carey, CNET editor at large and theme park expert, who visited Epic Universe with me last month, experienced the ill-fated Galactic Starcruiser firsthand and felt it was a blend of theme park and video game, but it was an experience that locked you into a commitment — both of time and price.  Large-scale immersive theater experiences aren't always successful, either: Life and Trust, a massive multilevel New York theater event designed to be a spiritual follow-up to the decade-plus run of Sleep No More, closed after only nine months. Yet these types of projects show where immersiveness in parks could expand. "The Starcruiser experience didn't just lean into sci-fi tech for a Star Wars vibe. What made it impressive was the improvisational actors that made the sets and effects more transportive," Carey says. "Universal also is weaving that ingredient into Epic, and I was surprised by the number of human character actors we saw in each land — helping make those robotic dragons and magical creatures have emotional connections with guests."  What's different with Epic compared to how theme parks have already been evolving? In some ways, not as much as you'd think. But it's the more intense focus on immersion, combined with the portals that become the entry gates, that feel new. Universal's marketing is all about wanting you to feel like you're teleporting into these places.The portal gates are made to feel like they're constructed intentionally, waiting for you to make the leap. And I've felt that portal feeling many times before, at home: in VR, where jumping to other worlds almost feels like a ritual — laying out a play space, opening an app, stepping through. All right. Here we go. Into the portals Celestial Park The entrance to Epic Universe begins with a portal. And it has portals all the way through, to the individual subworlds, and even to worlds within those worlds. It's the theme to the whole park. The entrance is the biggest portal of all, called the "Chronos," and it looks sort of like a stargate. It's also just a familiar entrance gate, adorned with symbols to the worlds that await inside,  something of a steampunk galactic theme. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETInside, things are strangely sedate. The first "hub world," Celestial Park, is lovely, beautifully landscaped and chill. So chill that you might wonder where the park excitement is hiding. The gardens and vaguely retrofuture architecture feels a bit like the Star Wars planet Naboo, or even the front part of Epcot that used to be called Future World. There are some rides, but just a few. There's an ornate domed carousel, and an interactive water fountain. There's also the park's best roller coaster, a massive twin beast called Stardust Racers, where two trains appear to race as they barrel roll over each other.  The dual coaster has a design that feels both inspired by the lore of an Atlantis lost world and fantasies of Jules Verne. Look closely and you can find an Easter egg: the flux capacitor from Back to the Future — a Universal property that used to have its own ride — flickers on the back of each coaster car. There's no promise of time travel, but the ride accelerates to speeds that feel as intense as Velocicoaster, Universal's notorious Jurassic World-themed ride. Celestial Park feels like a world between worlds. It's the place where the portals to every other world live. Celestial Park's got a lot of good food, relaxing restaurants and calming fountains. I could see this being the place where Universal has future festivals, pop-up experiences. It's also a centering space, a reset point, a rest stop between dives into other worlds. It clears your mind before you head into the next hyper-immersive place.  "The future of the attractions industry isn't one-size-fits-all. It's about creating moments that feel personal, unforgettable and emotionally resonant, regardless of the scale."
    Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA
    Are centering places like this key to the future of more intense immersive experiences? In my early days of going to VR installations, there was a big focus on the onboarding process, as well as a decompression space where you'd be able to rest and be in your own thoughts for a while. The more stimulation we have, the more we need a way to remove ourselves from it. "For an immersive spectacle to work, it's really got to be all encompassing, but that also means what's on the outside needs to be thought through, too," says Noah Nelson, founder of the immersive entertainment site No Proscenium. "There's a whole art to path making, and while I'm not sure if we need to go the full 'chill room at the rave' route, there is something to be said for an 'ontological crossfade' from one 'reality' into another." All around the edges of Celestial Park, golden gates beckon with statues stacked on top. These are the other worlds, and entering them, you definitely feel the strong crossfade. Super Nintendo World Coin fountains and castle decorations surround Nintendo's portal, and the moment you head in, you ride an escalator. It's a warp pipe, with light beams shooting off to the sides. Then you're inside a familiar castle, Mushroom Kingdom portraits on the walls. Exiting it, you're looking out at a multilevel vista of moving blocks, Yoshis and bouncing creatures: It looks just like a level map from a Super Mario game.  It's made to overwhelm and dazzle you. The paths seem to go everywhere: down, up, to the sides and who knows where else. You descend into it, sinking into the immersion. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETSuper Nintendo World already exists in Universal's Tokyo park and in Universal Studios Hollywood, but Orlando's layout is larger and extends through an additional portal tunnel into a subworld of Donkey Kong that's full of palm trees, banana piles and a mine cart coaster that runs in and out of an ancient temple. That moment in the Super Mario Bros. movie where Mario and Peach go to Donkey Kong's kingdom and see all the looping paths everywhere? It's sort of that feeling, but smaller. If you buy a Power-Up Bandfrom Universal, you can pair it with your phone and bop it against blocks and surfaces everywhere in the land, unlocking scores in mini games you can track on the Universal app. The bands also work as tappable NFC-enabled Amiibo for the Nintendo Switch, giving unlockable extras. I keep thinking that Nintendo could expand that park-to-Switch relationship further, maybe even with the Switch 2.  There aren't that many rides here, but they are memorable. A calmer Yoshi ride moves slowly around the Mushroom Kingdom's edges, more of a young kid's ride or even a way to take in the vistas without walking. And Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge is also surprisingly slow moving for a racing ride, but it's because you wear augmented reality head visors, tethered to your car, that float images of video game opponents all around you. The goal is to shoot flying turtle shells at opponents by turning your wheel and pressing buttons. The best parts feel like you're almost living inside the game itself — a dark tunnel where Rainbow Road floats.  The tech feels old now compared to home headsets like the Apple Vision Pro or Meta's Quest 3 — it is, since it was made for similar rides back in 2021 — but it's also the only AR ride in this park, or nearly anywhere else. And I think future rides could go a lot further. It reminds me instantly of the remote-control Mario Kart toys that Nintendo made to work with an AR-enabled Switch game called Mario Kart Live, which I drove around my home during the pandemic in 2020. Switch 2 games and connected toys could in the future further expand these rides. The Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness ride is the best of the bunch: The coaster's hidden ride mechanism makes it seem like you're on cartoonishly broken tracks, but you're not. The cart flies off them, jumping gaps, leaping into space, making what seem like impossible turns, and it's full of surprises. It's not loaded with visible tech: Its magic tricks are subtler.  "The thirst for things that are live, things that are unpredictable, has only increased now that we're getting all of these franchise-based experiences." 
    Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute
    While there are little corners to explore around Super Nintendo World, like extra Power-Up Band challenges and little Nintendo Easter eggs, I want more. I want the Power-Up Band minigames to feel even more game-like. I want crazy levels of extra things to find. Maybe that can still come. Nintendo's rumored to make an expansion to Super Nintendo World, possibly adding a Zelda-themed Hyrule area to time with a future Zelda movie Universal is releasing in 2027. Pokemon is also a rumored expansion focus.  The possibilities seem endless, but the cost and planning of building areas that feel timeless and popular enough to work is a whole other challenge. This space filled with Mario and Donkey Kong echoes lots of existing games, and probably games to come. When I played Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World on the Switch 2, I couldn't help thinking about Super Nintendo World all over again. And that's clearly the point: They reflect each other.
    A Photo Tour Inside Epic Universe
    See all photos Franchises are now made to bleed between film, TV, game and theme park. It's a cross-media world, and our physical presence in a park, playing a role in experiencing something first-hand, can end up making all the other pieces feel more emotionally important. The same way I watch movies about the UK nostalgically after I've traveled there, I watch the Super Mario Bros. movie and play Super Mario games after I visited Epic Universe. "Epic Universe is a powerful example of how immersive storytelling, cutting-edge technology, and bold vision are shaping the future of themed entertainment," says Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA, the Global Association for the Attractions Industry. "It reflects a growing demand from guests for deeply integrated, multisensory experiences that transport them into entirely new worlds with characters from some of the world's most popular movies and video games." How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk Entering the portal into the world of How to Train Your Dragon, you're greeted with an expanse of water, massive carved statues and bridges beyond. Wide skies, flying rides: This is the Isle of Berk, and it's full of dragons, water and people roleplaying as characters from the films. It's the most wide-open feeling world in the park, inviting you to seemingly wander in any direction. It's the biggest, and has the most rides and shows, too. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETI didn't grow up with these movies, but I could see the crowds who did, and waited in line for a chance to pet a robotic Toothless dragon in a stable. Chances to meet dragons are everywhere: One, puppeted by somebody inside, proudly struts around, guided by Viking handlers.  In one corner, if you're patient, a baby dragon emerges for photo opps: This is Dart, a self-powered robot that's so convincingly animated that it hypnotized me in my tracks — it has a feel similar to Boston Dynamics' robot dogs, but turned into cartoon form. Disney isn't putting free-roaming robots into its parks yet, although it's test-driving Nvidia-powered BD-0 droids that should be making more appearances in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge eventually.  "The BDX droids are just the beginning," Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, said when the droids were shown off at an Nvidia conference in March, referring to AI advances to come via Google DeepMind and Nvidia. "This collaboration will allow us to create a new generation of robotic characters that are more expressive and engaging than ever before."  Meanwhile, Universal is already doing that with its little Dart appearances. Dart shows the future: animated and free-walking, and acting alongside real human actors that make it feel like the world has come alive.  Drone dragons wheel overhead, too — not during my initial visit, but they'll be there on park opening. Other robotic dragon tails poke out of nests. One ice-breathing dragon pokes its head out from behind a wall.  The dragon moments continue in a lavish show called The Untrainable Dragon, which blends screens and actors and dragons that look like a combination of puppeting and robotics. Toothless wheels overhead during the show, and the emotional scale of it all made me cry.  "For an immersive spectacle to work, it's really got to be all encompassing ... there's a whole art to path making."
    Noah Nelson, founder of the immersive entertainment site No Proscenium
    In this land, the rides almost feel secondary. A wheeling, tame sky ride called Dragon Racer's Rally was fine for kids, maybe not worth it for adults. A water-blasting boat ride called Fyre Drill was fun, but similar to a ride I've tried at New York's Legoland. But the family coaster here, called Hiccup's Wing Gliders, is the best thing to try: It's fast, zips over water and around the island, and has other dragons to see. It's a story experience as much as a thrill ride, like Hagrid's Magical Creatures coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure.Berk doesn't have interactive features like Power-Up Bands or wands, but it has plenty of other merch. It's also, I think, about just feeling happy and free. It feels loose, like a festival. And maybe more of a Disney-type place than any other part of Universal. "The sheer number of dragon animatronics exposed to the outdoors was impressive — both in the ride and peppered across the landscape. But what really amps up the emotion and whimsy is the music from John Powell's soundtrack, which got me bawling happy tears on the coaster," says Carey. "Universal leans hard into movie scores throughout each portal to activate your emotions quickly — which stands out from Disney's choice to use more subtle, natural-sounding background tracks. But I think that's where Epic got it right. People want the music to have that connection." What I remember most from this world, as I portaled back out, was the dragons, whether they were drones, robots or puppets. All of the dragons.  Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic The Harry Potter portal gate leads into a subway exit, with a wall full of French posters. Around a corner, there's a massive arch. And through that arch is a wide city street, shops everywhere, hints of a skyline in the distance. The Ministry of Magic's recreation of 1920s Paris hits me on a grander, more detailed scale than any of the other worlds.  Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETThe buildings loom high. The city's farther-off attractions poke above rooftops. It feels like we've teleported. Take the previous Wizarding World areas at Universal and imagine them even bigger, and you have this. Windows in storefronts are interactive, if you have a wand you've purchased from a shop. Wave it in a certain pattern to make magical things happen. Finding the windows is a little game in itself. Some windows have interactive paintings that speak to you, too. In the middle of the city square is a circus tent, hosting Cirque Arcanus, a live theater spectacle that looks like it's impossibly tucked into this tent, with an immersive show blending magic tricks and screens. Deeper inside, the main show seems to take place inside the suitcase of Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies. Different creatures emerge from shadows and dimensional windows, made of a mix of high-res displays, puppets, robotics and stage magic.  Down one end of the Paris streets is the only ride: a showstopping experience called the Battle for the Ministry of Magic. We pass through a MetroFloo station, entering yet another portal that flashes green smoke as we end up on the other side in a massive recreation of the Ministry of Magic from the Harry Potter movies, but now in modern-day London. I don't realize until I get home days later and rewatch the movies how spot-on this recreation is: Much like Disney's Rise of the Resistance ride, it feels like you've been beamed right into a film.  The Ministry of Magic ride itself, down endless corridors of talking portraits and interactive details you might linger on during what could be seriously long waits, is an elevator you sit in as it leaps and glides through a journey involving Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dolores Umbridge and things that seem real and virtual at the same time.  "Universal leans hard into movie scores throughout each portal to activate your emotions quickly ... People want the music to have that connection."
    Bridget Carey, CNET editor at large
    Universal says this ride has a whole new mechanism technology — it reminds me of both the Gringotts and Forbidden Journey rides at Universal's other parks, but more like you're watching a magical theater experience unfold. It's the most eye-popping ride in the park. I wished I could floo-hop over to the other Wizarding World sections at Universal's other parks. You can't: This park is miles from the others, and misses out on the magic train connection. Dark Universe Through another portal that looks embedded in a gnarled mountain of rocks and roots, we pass into a cemetery, tombstones everywhere, leading to a haunted-looking European village. In some ways the most intimate of the four worlds, this lurking gothic zone, themed to house Universal's classic monsters, feels like a permanent version of Universal's Halloween Horror-themed events.  Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETThe path snakes around a series of rides and taverns, with details like menacing statues and a cart full of body parts in bottles. You'll see actors here that play various roles: a mad violinist plays a tune and spins through the square. The Invisible Man peers through bandages and insults your intelligence. At The Burning Blade Tavern, a pub at the end of the path that has a burning windmill above it, actors play the roles of monster hunters. The biggest draw here is a decaying mansion that houses Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, a ride that throws all of Universal's monsters into animatronic form. The ride's built on the same arm structure as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey: You feel like you're being propelled through rooms where werewolves, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein's monster and Dracula battle each other. The vibe is more video game and comic-infused than something truly scary. Still, it's the most animatronics-filled experience in the park — Frankenstein's monster towers above me in the preshow room, stepping forward as if he's about to walk right toward us.  One other roller coaster, Curse of the Werewolf, is weirdly lacking in any actual werewolves, and felt tamer than I expected. And my visit, during the day, didn't seem to fit the horror style of the surroundings.  At night, and with plenty of role-playing actors around, Dark Universe could take on whole new dimensions. This part of the park feels like the biggest leap into an unknown, and could use even more building out to add in extra thrills. But what I felt the most in this subdued, ominous-feeling part of the park was the promise of roleplay. What if I stayed longer and tried to follow the violinist? What if the Invisible Man tried to recruit me for a mission? What does Ygor have to tell me if I seek him out? If I go to the pubs and lurking corners, will I find more mysteries to unravel? As a doorway to the oldest part of Universal's history, could Dark Universe be a permanent way to explore the weird horrors of Halloween all year long? I'd like to stick around here for dinner after dark and see what happens. The future beyond Epic On my way home again, thinking ahead to my next visit around the time of the park's opening day, I wondered about what Epic Universe represents for the future of where amusement parks and immersive entertainment are heading, and what it could also mean for all the games, movies, shows and toys that connect to them. Theme parks are conceived years ahead of time, slowly emerging into completion. Epic Universe is here in 2025, but its ideas were birthed back in 2019 and intended for 2023, delayed because of the pandemic. What we're seeing now is the bleeding edge of large-scale theme parks, but not necessarily a sign of what the future holds.  It's hard to keep large-scale things in business, so I often think about the future of immersive entertainment as coming from smaller productions. There have been a ton of contained immersive ticketed attractions in the last decade that give the I've-been-to-a-park experience, often at a lower cost.  My mind turns to Meow Wolf, a growing collective that makes hallucinatory installations that have mysteries and parts that unlock extras on a phone app. One of Meow Wolf's next locations, in New York, looks to add even more mixed reality and interaction.  Meow Wolf's founders say that smaller indoor spaces can build out higher levels of next-level interaction beyond what Universal or Disney can do.  "We see them as sort of scratching the surface," Meow Wolf's Vince Kladubek tells me, speaking about parks like Epic Universe. "When you have a dedicated indoor space, you have far more possibilities than when you're in an outdoor theme park land. We're really honing in on the capabilities that are now possible when you have a fixed indoor space in bringing this mixed-reality experience forward." "Epic Universe is a powerful example of how immersive storytelling, cutting-edge technology and bold vision are shaping the future of themed entertainment."
    Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA
    And while these smaller interactive experiences emerge, it's rare to see a completely new theme park open in the US — the last one was Disney's California Adventure in 2001. Disney and Universal have been locked in a back-and-forth competition for decades, one-upping each other with new immersive ideas, licensing deals and park upgrades, but Disney has no new US park planned. Instead, Disney is focused on specific park upgrades — a Monsters, Inc. area for Hollywood Studios, new Cars and Villains lands for Magic Kingdom, an Encanto and Indiana Jones expansion to Animal Kingdom, more Avengers rides at California Adventure. New parks are opening overseas, though: Universal has a UK park in development, and Disney just announced a deal to open a theme park in Abu Dhabi. Universal's next steps beyond Epic are already in the works, but in lots of smaller pieces. A horror-themed permanent Universal attraction, called Universal Horror Unleashed, opens in Las Vegas this August. Its four haunted houses should feel like the ones in Universal's seasonal horror night fests, but year-round. Universal also has a kid-focused, smaller park that's opening in Frisco, Texas next year. "We're seeing
    #stepped #into #future #hyperconnected #entertainment
    I Stepped Into the Future of Hyper-Connected Entertainment. It Made Me Surprisingly Emotional
    Passing through a green warp pipe, I see a colorful mushroom kingdom spreading out in front of me. Almost.  Headset pressed to my face, volume up, I'm actually watching the Super Mario Bros. movie in Apple's Vision Pro from a room in my house, the screen stretched out in 3D.  But I'm feeling a little emotional, sort of a visceral thrill, like a memory. That's because the film's blending with my memories of being at Universal Studios' Epic Universe theme park a few weeks ago, when I was walking around an actual physical Mushroom Kingdom, passing through a real and very large green warp pipe — but in Orlando, Florida.  In the park, it's all walls I can touch, blocks I can tap. Coming back to watch the movie again, in 3D, it now feels a little bit like coming home. Imaginary worlds are expanding… both in my brain, and in the virtual and physical realms. It's happening in movies, in games, in VR and in places like Epic Universe, the biggest new theme park in the US in 20 years, which opens to the public on May 22.  All these immersive worlds are tapping into universes we already have somewhat mapped out in our minds, and by mapping them out even further, creators are laying emotional groundwork for staying more deeply connected in the future.  I'm obsessed with immersive technologies and write extensively about them at CNET; I've been reviewing VR and AR headsets and games for over a decade now. But I'm finding that physical places — like theme parks — can fuel our memories, too, and they begin to blend in strange ways. And that's very much by design. We're living in a hyper-connected state of entertainment, and Epic Universe just feels like the latest, biggest step. "The thirst for things that are live, things that are unpredictable, has only increased now that we're getting all of these franchise-based experiences out there," says Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute in Los Angeles. "Otherwise, that IP is just a thing that you stream that happens to other people in a little box. The next logical conclusion is, well, I would love to go there." The vast new world of Epic Universe is a lot to take in, even without the crowds there. I visited ahead of its opening, intensely curious about the experiences and the technology and what it would all add up to. I saw the future, and also the past. And what I experienced through a frenzied day was that the details, and surprises, were everywhere.  This was my journey there, in the moment itself and remembered from a distance, filtered through the nostalgia that movies, games and immersive tech fill me with now as I look back. I'm going to walk you through what I encountered and put it all into perspective. In this article: A past full of portals Theme parks have been imagining other worlds for years. Disneyland, which dreamed of a series of worlds visited via connected pathways starting from a central hub — a "hub and spokes" model that's mirrored in most major theme parks now — opened way back in 1955. But in the last couple of decades, the ante has been upped, and upped again. CNET/Zooey LiaoParks have gotten more theme-immersive over time: Universal opened Islands of Adventure in Orlando in 1999, where it created mini lands based on franchises like Jurassic Park, Marvel, Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter.  Disney's Animal Kingdom, also in Florida, started with a theme around animals from various continents. It added Pandora in 2017, a section made to feel like you're walking around the alien world from James Cameron's Avatar movies. Disney also has a Toy Story land at Hollywood Studios, opened in 2018, Star Wars-themed lands in both its California and Florida parks that opened in 2019 and Avengers Campus, which opened at Disneyland in 2021.  In a sense, Epic Universe in Orlando is a park full of these extreme-themed locations, connected like magic portals. Four big places, four familiar and deep wells of movie memories to draw from: Nintendo, How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter and classic Universal monsters. Of course, these particular themes are in areas where new movies, games and shows are emerging constantly. A live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie arrives this summer; the Nintendo Switch 2 launches in June; there's a new Harry Potter series for HBO Max that's in the works. These are no accidents. On the other hand, if you have no connection to those intellectual properties, then you might not feel the need to visit. "It becomes kind of a double-edged sword, because you have folks who really love a franchise and will definitely buy a ticket if you're featuring that franchise," says Yu of the Immersive Experience Institute. "And then you have folks who may not be so hot on that, and you still need to appeal to them." Franchises are now made to bleed between film, TV, game and theme park. It's a cross-media world, and our physical presence in a park, playing a role in experiencing something first-hand, can end up making all the other pieces feel more emotionally important. Is there a limit to the immersive theming? Disney hit a wall with Galactic Starcruiser, a multiday self-contained hotel experience that opened in 2022 but closed a year later, something that was aiming high but was way too expensive and too immersive to appeal to many people, not to mention badly timed during a pandemic.Bridget Carey, CNET editor at large and theme park expert, who visited Epic Universe with me last month, experienced the ill-fated Galactic Starcruiser firsthand and felt it was a blend of theme park and video game, but it was an experience that locked you into a commitment — both of time and price.  Large-scale immersive theater experiences aren't always successful, either: Life and Trust, a massive multilevel New York theater event designed to be a spiritual follow-up to the decade-plus run of Sleep No More, closed after only nine months. Yet these types of projects show where immersiveness in parks could expand. "The Starcruiser experience didn't just lean into sci-fi tech for a Star Wars vibe. What made it impressive was the improvisational actors that made the sets and effects more transportive," Carey says. "Universal also is weaving that ingredient into Epic, and I was surprised by the number of human character actors we saw in each land — helping make those robotic dragons and magical creatures have emotional connections with guests."  What's different with Epic compared to how theme parks have already been evolving? In some ways, not as much as you'd think. But it's the more intense focus on immersion, combined with the portals that become the entry gates, that feel new. Universal's marketing is all about wanting you to feel like you're teleporting into these places.The portal gates are made to feel like they're constructed intentionally, waiting for you to make the leap. And I've felt that portal feeling many times before, at home: in VR, where jumping to other worlds almost feels like a ritual — laying out a play space, opening an app, stepping through. All right. Here we go. Into the portals Celestial Park The entrance to Epic Universe begins with a portal. And it has portals all the way through, to the individual subworlds, and even to worlds within those worlds. It's the theme to the whole park. The entrance is the biggest portal of all, called the "Chronos," and it looks sort of like a stargate. It's also just a familiar entrance gate, adorned with symbols to the worlds that await inside,  something of a steampunk galactic theme. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETInside, things are strangely sedate. The first "hub world," Celestial Park, is lovely, beautifully landscaped and chill. So chill that you might wonder where the park excitement is hiding. The gardens and vaguely retrofuture architecture feels a bit like the Star Wars planet Naboo, or even the front part of Epcot that used to be called Future World. There are some rides, but just a few. There's an ornate domed carousel, and an interactive water fountain. There's also the park's best roller coaster, a massive twin beast called Stardust Racers, where two trains appear to race as they barrel roll over each other.  The dual coaster has a design that feels both inspired by the lore of an Atlantis lost world and fantasies of Jules Verne. Look closely and you can find an Easter egg: the flux capacitor from Back to the Future — a Universal property that used to have its own ride — flickers on the back of each coaster car. There's no promise of time travel, but the ride accelerates to speeds that feel as intense as Velocicoaster, Universal's notorious Jurassic World-themed ride. Celestial Park feels like a world between worlds. It's the place where the portals to every other world live. Celestial Park's got a lot of good food, relaxing restaurants and calming fountains. I could see this being the place where Universal has future festivals, pop-up experiences. It's also a centering space, a reset point, a rest stop between dives into other worlds. It clears your mind before you head into the next hyper-immersive place.  "The future of the attractions industry isn't one-size-fits-all. It's about creating moments that feel personal, unforgettable and emotionally resonant, regardless of the scale." Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA Are centering places like this key to the future of more intense immersive experiences? In my early days of going to VR installations, there was a big focus on the onboarding process, as well as a decompression space where you'd be able to rest and be in your own thoughts for a while. The more stimulation we have, the more we need a way to remove ourselves from it. "For an immersive spectacle to work, it's really got to be all encompassing, but that also means what's on the outside needs to be thought through, too," says Noah Nelson, founder of the immersive entertainment site No Proscenium. "There's a whole art to path making, and while I'm not sure if we need to go the full 'chill room at the rave' route, there is something to be said for an 'ontological crossfade' from one 'reality' into another." All around the edges of Celestial Park, golden gates beckon with statues stacked on top. These are the other worlds, and entering them, you definitely feel the strong crossfade. Super Nintendo World Coin fountains and castle decorations surround Nintendo's portal, and the moment you head in, you ride an escalator. It's a warp pipe, with light beams shooting off to the sides. Then you're inside a familiar castle, Mushroom Kingdom portraits on the walls. Exiting it, you're looking out at a multilevel vista of moving blocks, Yoshis and bouncing creatures: It looks just like a level map from a Super Mario game.  It's made to overwhelm and dazzle you. The paths seem to go everywhere: down, up, to the sides and who knows where else. You descend into it, sinking into the immersion. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETSuper Nintendo World already exists in Universal's Tokyo park and in Universal Studios Hollywood, but Orlando's layout is larger and extends through an additional portal tunnel into a subworld of Donkey Kong that's full of palm trees, banana piles and a mine cart coaster that runs in and out of an ancient temple. That moment in the Super Mario Bros. movie where Mario and Peach go to Donkey Kong's kingdom and see all the looping paths everywhere? It's sort of that feeling, but smaller. If you buy a Power-Up Bandfrom Universal, you can pair it with your phone and bop it against blocks and surfaces everywhere in the land, unlocking scores in mini games you can track on the Universal app. The bands also work as tappable NFC-enabled Amiibo for the Nintendo Switch, giving unlockable extras. I keep thinking that Nintendo could expand that park-to-Switch relationship further, maybe even with the Switch 2.  There aren't that many rides here, but they are memorable. A calmer Yoshi ride moves slowly around the Mushroom Kingdom's edges, more of a young kid's ride or even a way to take in the vistas without walking. And Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge is also surprisingly slow moving for a racing ride, but it's because you wear augmented reality head visors, tethered to your car, that float images of video game opponents all around you. The goal is to shoot flying turtle shells at opponents by turning your wheel and pressing buttons. The best parts feel like you're almost living inside the game itself — a dark tunnel where Rainbow Road floats.  The tech feels old now compared to home headsets like the Apple Vision Pro or Meta's Quest 3 — it is, since it was made for similar rides back in 2021 — but it's also the only AR ride in this park, or nearly anywhere else. And I think future rides could go a lot further. It reminds me instantly of the remote-control Mario Kart toys that Nintendo made to work with an AR-enabled Switch game called Mario Kart Live, which I drove around my home during the pandemic in 2020. Switch 2 games and connected toys could in the future further expand these rides. The Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness ride is the best of the bunch: The coaster's hidden ride mechanism makes it seem like you're on cartoonishly broken tracks, but you're not. The cart flies off them, jumping gaps, leaping into space, making what seem like impossible turns, and it's full of surprises. It's not loaded with visible tech: Its magic tricks are subtler.  "The thirst for things that are live, things that are unpredictable, has only increased now that we're getting all of these franchise-based experiences."  Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute While there are little corners to explore around Super Nintendo World, like extra Power-Up Band challenges and little Nintendo Easter eggs, I want more. I want the Power-Up Band minigames to feel even more game-like. I want crazy levels of extra things to find. Maybe that can still come. Nintendo's rumored to make an expansion to Super Nintendo World, possibly adding a Zelda-themed Hyrule area to time with a future Zelda movie Universal is releasing in 2027. Pokemon is also a rumored expansion focus.  The possibilities seem endless, but the cost and planning of building areas that feel timeless and popular enough to work is a whole other challenge. This space filled with Mario and Donkey Kong echoes lots of existing games, and probably games to come. When I played Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World on the Switch 2, I couldn't help thinking about Super Nintendo World all over again. And that's clearly the point: They reflect each other. A Photo Tour Inside Epic Universe See all photos Franchises are now made to bleed between film, TV, game and theme park. It's a cross-media world, and our physical presence in a park, playing a role in experiencing something first-hand, can end up making all the other pieces feel more emotionally important. The same way I watch movies about the UK nostalgically after I've traveled there, I watch the Super Mario Bros. movie and play Super Mario games after I visited Epic Universe. "Epic Universe is a powerful example of how immersive storytelling, cutting-edge technology, and bold vision are shaping the future of themed entertainment," says Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA, the Global Association for the Attractions Industry. "It reflects a growing demand from guests for deeply integrated, multisensory experiences that transport them into entirely new worlds with characters from some of the world's most popular movies and video games." How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk Entering the portal into the world of How to Train Your Dragon, you're greeted with an expanse of water, massive carved statues and bridges beyond. Wide skies, flying rides: This is the Isle of Berk, and it's full of dragons, water and people roleplaying as characters from the films. It's the most wide-open feeling world in the park, inviting you to seemingly wander in any direction. It's the biggest, and has the most rides and shows, too. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETI didn't grow up with these movies, but I could see the crowds who did, and waited in line for a chance to pet a robotic Toothless dragon in a stable. Chances to meet dragons are everywhere: One, puppeted by somebody inside, proudly struts around, guided by Viking handlers.  In one corner, if you're patient, a baby dragon emerges for photo opps: This is Dart, a self-powered robot that's so convincingly animated that it hypnotized me in my tracks — it has a feel similar to Boston Dynamics' robot dogs, but turned into cartoon form. Disney isn't putting free-roaming robots into its parks yet, although it's test-driving Nvidia-powered BD-0 droids that should be making more appearances in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge eventually.  "The BDX droids are just the beginning," Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, said when the droids were shown off at an Nvidia conference in March, referring to AI advances to come via Google DeepMind and Nvidia. "This collaboration will allow us to create a new generation of robotic characters that are more expressive and engaging than ever before."  Meanwhile, Universal is already doing that with its little Dart appearances. Dart shows the future: animated and free-walking, and acting alongside real human actors that make it feel like the world has come alive.  Drone dragons wheel overhead, too — not during my initial visit, but they'll be there on park opening. Other robotic dragon tails poke out of nests. One ice-breathing dragon pokes its head out from behind a wall.  The dragon moments continue in a lavish show called The Untrainable Dragon, which blends screens and actors and dragons that look like a combination of puppeting and robotics. Toothless wheels overhead during the show, and the emotional scale of it all made me cry.  "For an immersive spectacle to work, it's really got to be all encompassing ... there's a whole art to path making." Noah Nelson, founder of the immersive entertainment site No Proscenium In this land, the rides almost feel secondary. A wheeling, tame sky ride called Dragon Racer's Rally was fine for kids, maybe not worth it for adults. A water-blasting boat ride called Fyre Drill was fun, but similar to a ride I've tried at New York's Legoland. But the family coaster here, called Hiccup's Wing Gliders, is the best thing to try: It's fast, zips over water and around the island, and has other dragons to see. It's a story experience as much as a thrill ride, like Hagrid's Magical Creatures coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure.Berk doesn't have interactive features like Power-Up Bands or wands, but it has plenty of other merch. It's also, I think, about just feeling happy and free. It feels loose, like a festival. And maybe more of a Disney-type place than any other part of Universal. "The sheer number of dragon animatronics exposed to the outdoors was impressive — both in the ride and peppered across the landscape. But what really amps up the emotion and whimsy is the music from John Powell's soundtrack, which got me bawling happy tears on the coaster," says Carey. "Universal leans hard into movie scores throughout each portal to activate your emotions quickly — which stands out from Disney's choice to use more subtle, natural-sounding background tracks. But I think that's where Epic got it right. People want the music to have that connection." What I remember most from this world, as I portaled back out, was the dragons, whether they were drones, robots or puppets. All of the dragons.  Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic The Harry Potter portal gate leads into a subway exit, with a wall full of French posters. Around a corner, there's a massive arch. And through that arch is a wide city street, shops everywhere, hints of a skyline in the distance. The Ministry of Magic's recreation of 1920s Paris hits me on a grander, more detailed scale than any of the other worlds.  Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETThe buildings loom high. The city's farther-off attractions poke above rooftops. It feels like we've teleported. Take the previous Wizarding World areas at Universal and imagine them even bigger, and you have this. Windows in storefronts are interactive, if you have a wand you've purchased from a shop. Wave it in a certain pattern to make magical things happen. Finding the windows is a little game in itself. Some windows have interactive paintings that speak to you, too. In the middle of the city square is a circus tent, hosting Cirque Arcanus, a live theater spectacle that looks like it's impossibly tucked into this tent, with an immersive show blending magic tricks and screens. Deeper inside, the main show seems to take place inside the suitcase of Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies. Different creatures emerge from shadows and dimensional windows, made of a mix of high-res displays, puppets, robotics and stage magic.  Down one end of the Paris streets is the only ride: a showstopping experience called the Battle for the Ministry of Magic. We pass through a MetroFloo station, entering yet another portal that flashes green smoke as we end up on the other side in a massive recreation of the Ministry of Magic from the Harry Potter movies, but now in modern-day London. I don't realize until I get home days later and rewatch the movies how spot-on this recreation is: Much like Disney's Rise of the Resistance ride, it feels like you've been beamed right into a film.  The Ministry of Magic ride itself, down endless corridors of talking portraits and interactive details you might linger on during what could be seriously long waits, is an elevator you sit in as it leaps and glides through a journey involving Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dolores Umbridge and things that seem real and virtual at the same time.  "Universal leans hard into movie scores throughout each portal to activate your emotions quickly ... People want the music to have that connection." Bridget Carey, CNET editor at large Universal says this ride has a whole new mechanism technology — it reminds me of both the Gringotts and Forbidden Journey rides at Universal's other parks, but more like you're watching a magical theater experience unfold. It's the most eye-popping ride in the park. I wished I could floo-hop over to the other Wizarding World sections at Universal's other parks. You can't: This park is miles from the others, and misses out on the magic train connection. Dark Universe Through another portal that looks embedded in a gnarled mountain of rocks and roots, we pass into a cemetery, tombstones everywhere, leading to a haunted-looking European village. In some ways the most intimate of the four worlds, this lurking gothic zone, themed to house Universal's classic monsters, feels like a permanent version of Universal's Halloween Horror-themed events.  Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETThe path snakes around a series of rides and taverns, with details like menacing statues and a cart full of body parts in bottles. You'll see actors here that play various roles: a mad violinist plays a tune and spins through the square. The Invisible Man peers through bandages and insults your intelligence. At The Burning Blade Tavern, a pub at the end of the path that has a burning windmill above it, actors play the roles of monster hunters. The biggest draw here is a decaying mansion that houses Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, a ride that throws all of Universal's monsters into animatronic form. The ride's built on the same arm structure as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey: You feel like you're being propelled through rooms where werewolves, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein's monster and Dracula battle each other. The vibe is more video game and comic-infused than something truly scary. Still, it's the most animatronics-filled experience in the park — Frankenstein's monster towers above me in the preshow room, stepping forward as if he's about to walk right toward us.  One other roller coaster, Curse of the Werewolf, is weirdly lacking in any actual werewolves, and felt tamer than I expected. And my visit, during the day, didn't seem to fit the horror style of the surroundings.  At night, and with plenty of role-playing actors around, Dark Universe could take on whole new dimensions. This part of the park feels like the biggest leap into an unknown, and could use even more building out to add in extra thrills. But what I felt the most in this subdued, ominous-feeling part of the park was the promise of roleplay. What if I stayed longer and tried to follow the violinist? What if the Invisible Man tried to recruit me for a mission? What does Ygor have to tell me if I seek him out? If I go to the pubs and lurking corners, will I find more mysteries to unravel? As a doorway to the oldest part of Universal's history, could Dark Universe be a permanent way to explore the weird horrors of Halloween all year long? I'd like to stick around here for dinner after dark and see what happens. The future beyond Epic On my way home again, thinking ahead to my next visit around the time of the park's opening day, I wondered about what Epic Universe represents for the future of where amusement parks and immersive entertainment are heading, and what it could also mean for all the games, movies, shows and toys that connect to them. Theme parks are conceived years ahead of time, slowly emerging into completion. Epic Universe is here in 2025, but its ideas were birthed back in 2019 and intended for 2023, delayed because of the pandemic. What we're seeing now is the bleeding edge of large-scale theme parks, but not necessarily a sign of what the future holds.  It's hard to keep large-scale things in business, so I often think about the future of immersive entertainment as coming from smaller productions. There have been a ton of contained immersive ticketed attractions in the last decade that give the I've-been-to-a-park experience, often at a lower cost.  My mind turns to Meow Wolf, a growing collective that makes hallucinatory installations that have mysteries and parts that unlock extras on a phone app. One of Meow Wolf's next locations, in New York, looks to add even more mixed reality and interaction.  Meow Wolf's founders say that smaller indoor spaces can build out higher levels of next-level interaction beyond what Universal or Disney can do.  "We see them as sort of scratching the surface," Meow Wolf's Vince Kladubek tells me, speaking about parks like Epic Universe. "When you have a dedicated indoor space, you have far more possibilities than when you're in an outdoor theme park land. We're really honing in on the capabilities that are now possible when you have a fixed indoor space in bringing this mixed-reality experience forward." "Epic Universe is a powerful example of how immersive storytelling, cutting-edge technology and bold vision are shaping the future of themed entertainment." Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA And while these smaller interactive experiences emerge, it's rare to see a completely new theme park open in the US — the last one was Disney's California Adventure in 2001. Disney and Universal have been locked in a back-and-forth competition for decades, one-upping each other with new immersive ideas, licensing deals and park upgrades, but Disney has no new US park planned. Instead, Disney is focused on specific park upgrades — a Monsters, Inc. area for Hollywood Studios, new Cars and Villains lands for Magic Kingdom, an Encanto and Indiana Jones expansion to Animal Kingdom, more Avengers rides at California Adventure. New parks are opening overseas, though: Universal has a UK park in development, and Disney just announced a deal to open a theme park in Abu Dhabi. Universal's next steps beyond Epic are already in the works, but in lots of smaller pieces. A horror-themed permanent Universal attraction, called Universal Horror Unleashed, opens in Las Vegas this August. Its four haunted houses should feel like the ones in Universal's seasonal horror night fests, but year-round. Universal also has a kid-focused, smaller park that's opening in Frisco, Texas next year. "We're seeing #stepped #into #future #hyperconnected #entertainment
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    I Stepped Into the Future of Hyper-Connected Entertainment. It Made Me Surprisingly Emotional
    Passing through a green warp pipe, I see a colorful mushroom kingdom spreading out in front of me. Almost.  Headset pressed to my face, volume up, I'm actually watching the Super Mario Bros. movie in Apple's Vision Pro from a room in my house, the screen stretched out in 3D.  But I'm feeling a little emotional, sort of a visceral thrill, like a memory. That's because the film's blending with my memories of being at Universal Studios' Epic Universe theme park a few weeks ago, when I was walking around an actual physical Mushroom Kingdom, passing through a real and very large green warp pipe — but in Orlando, Florida.  In the park, it's all walls I can touch, blocks I can tap. Coming back to watch the movie again, in 3D, it now feels a little bit like coming home. Imaginary worlds are expanding… both in my brain, and in the virtual and physical realms. It's happening in movies, in games, in VR and in places like Epic Universe, the biggest new theme park in the US in 20 years, which opens to the public on May 22.  All these immersive worlds are tapping into universes we already have somewhat mapped out in our minds, and by mapping them out even further, creators are laying emotional groundwork for staying more deeply connected in the future.  I'm obsessed with immersive technologies and write extensively about them at CNET; I've been reviewing VR and AR headsets and games for over a decade now. But I'm finding that physical places — like theme parks — can fuel our memories, too, and they begin to blend in strange ways. And that's very much by design. We're living in a hyper-connected state of entertainment, and Epic Universe just feels like the latest, biggest step. "The thirst for things that are live, things that are unpredictable, has only increased now that we're getting all of these franchise-based experiences out there," says Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute in Los Angeles. "Otherwise, that IP is just a thing that you stream that happens to other people in a little box. The next logical conclusion is, well, I would love to go there." The vast new world of Epic Universe is a lot to take in, even without the crowds there. I visited ahead of its opening, intensely curious about the experiences and the technology and what it would all add up to. I saw the future, and also the past. And what I experienced through a frenzied day was that the details, and surprises, were everywhere.  This was my journey there, in the moment itself and remembered from a distance, filtered through the nostalgia that movies, games and immersive tech fill me with now as I look back. I'm going to walk you through what I encountered and put it all into perspective. In this article: A past full of portals Theme parks have been imagining other worlds for years. Disneyland, which dreamed of a series of worlds visited via connected pathways starting from a central hub — a "hub and spokes" model that's mirrored in most major theme parks now — opened way back in 1955. But in the last couple of decades, the ante has been upped, and upped again. CNET/Zooey LiaoParks have gotten more theme-immersive over time: Universal opened Islands of Adventure in Orlando in 1999, where it created mini lands based on franchises like Jurassic Park, Marvel, Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter.  Disney's Animal Kingdom, also in Florida, started with a theme around animals from various continents. It added Pandora in 2017, a section made to feel like you're walking around the alien world from James Cameron's Avatar movies. Disney also has a Toy Story land at Hollywood Studios, opened in 2018, Star Wars-themed lands in both its California and Florida parks that opened in 2019 and Avengers Campus, which opened at Disneyland in 2021.  In a sense, Epic Universe in Orlando is a park full of these extreme-themed locations, connected like magic portals. Four big places, four familiar and deep wells of movie memories to draw from: Nintendo, How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter and classic Universal monsters. Of course, these particular themes are in areas where new movies, games and shows are emerging constantly. A live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie arrives this summer; the Nintendo Switch 2 launches in June; there's a new Harry Potter series for HBO Max that's in the works. These are no accidents. On the other hand, if you have no connection to those intellectual properties, then you might not feel the need to visit. "It becomes kind of a double-edged sword, because you have folks who really love a franchise and will definitely buy a ticket if you're featuring that franchise," says Yu of the Immersive Experience Institute. "And then you have folks who may not be so hot on that, and you still need to appeal to them." Franchises are now made to bleed between film, TV, game and theme park. It's a cross-media world, and our physical presence in a park, playing a role in experiencing something first-hand, can end up making all the other pieces feel more emotionally important. Is there a limit to the immersive theming? Disney hit a wall with Galactic Starcruiser, a multiday self-contained hotel experience that opened in 2022 but closed a year later, something that was aiming high but was way too expensive and too immersive to appeal to many people, not to mention badly timed during a pandemic.Bridget Carey, CNET editor at large and theme park expert, who visited Epic Universe with me last month, experienced the ill-fated Galactic Starcruiser firsthand and felt it was a blend of theme park and video game, but it was an experience that locked you into a commitment — both of time and price.  Large-scale immersive theater experiences aren't always successful, either: Life and Trust, a massive multilevel New York theater event designed to be a spiritual follow-up to the decade-plus run of Sleep No More, closed after only nine months. Yet these types of projects show where immersiveness in parks could expand. "The Starcruiser experience didn't just lean into sci-fi tech for a Star Wars vibe. What made it impressive was the improvisational actors that made the sets and effects more transportive," Carey says. "Universal also is weaving that ingredient into Epic, and I was surprised by the number of human character actors we saw in each land — helping make those robotic dragons and magical creatures have emotional connections with guests."  What's different with Epic compared to how theme parks have already been evolving? In some ways, not as much as you'd think. But it's the more intense focus on immersion, combined with the portals that become the entry gates, that feel new. Universal's marketing is all about wanting you to feel like you're teleporting into these places. (Also, the new rides are a whole lot of fun.) The portal gates are made to feel like they're constructed intentionally, waiting for you to make the leap. And I've felt that portal feeling many times before, at home: in VR, where jumping to other worlds almost feels like a ritual — laying out a play space, opening an app, stepping through. All right. Here we go. Into the portals Celestial Park The entrance to Epic Universe begins with a portal. And it has portals all the way through, to the individual subworlds, and even to worlds within those worlds. It's the theme to the whole park. The entrance is the biggest portal of all, called the "Chronos," and it looks sort of like a stargate. It's also just a familiar entrance gate, adorned with symbols to the worlds that await inside,  something of a steampunk galactic theme. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETInside, things are strangely sedate. The first "hub world," Celestial Park, is lovely, beautifully landscaped and chill. So chill that you might wonder where the park excitement is hiding. The gardens and vaguely retrofuture architecture feels a bit like the Star Wars planet Naboo, or even the front part of Epcot that used to be called Future World. There are some rides, but just a few. There's an ornate domed carousel, and an interactive water fountain. There's also the park's best roller coaster, a massive twin beast called Stardust Racers, where two trains appear to race as they barrel roll over each other.  The dual coaster has a design that feels both inspired by the lore of an Atlantis lost world and fantasies of Jules Verne. Look closely and you can find an Easter egg: the flux capacitor from Back to the Future — a Universal property that used to have its own ride — flickers on the back of each coaster car. There's no promise of time travel, but the ride accelerates to speeds that feel as intense as Velocicoaster, Universal's notorious Jurassic World-themed ride. Celestial Park feels like a world between worlds. It's the place where the portals to every other world live. Celestial Park's got a lot of good food, relaxing restaurants and calming fountains. I could see this being the place where Universal has future festivals, pop-up experiences. It's also a centering space, a reset point, a rest stop between dives into other worlds. It clears your mind before you head into the next hyper-immersive place.  "The future of the attractions industry isn't one-size-fits-all. It's about creating moments that feel personal, unforgettable and emotionally resonant, regardless of the scale." Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA Are centering places like this key to the future of more intense immersive experiences? In my early days of going to VR installations, there was a big focus on the onboarding process, as well as a decompression space where you'd be able to rest and be in your own thoughts for a while. The more stimulation we have, the more we need a way to remove ourselves from it. "For an immersive spectacle to work, it's really got to be all encompassing, but that also means what's on the outside needs to be thought through, too," says Noah Nelson, founder of the immersive entertainment site No Proscenium. "There's a whole art to path making, and while I'm not sure if we need to go the full 'chill room at the rave' route, there is something to be said for an 'ontological crossfade' from one 'reality' into another." All around the edges of Celestial Park, golden gates beckon with statues stacked on top. These are the other worlds, and entering them, you definitely feel the strong crossfade. Super Nintendo World Coin fountains and castle decorations surround Nintendo's portal, and the moment you head in, you ride an escalator. It's a warp pipe, with light beams shooting off to the sides. Then you're inside a familiar castle, Mushroom Kingdom portraits on the walls. Exiting it, you're looking out at a multilevel vista of moving blocks, Yoshis and bouncing creatures: It looks just like a level map from a Super Mario game.  It's made to overwhelm and dazzle you. The paths seem to go everywhere: down, up, to the sides and who knows where else. You descend into it, sinking into the immersion. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETSuper Nintendo World already exists in Universal's Tokyo park and in Universal Studios Hollywood, but Orlando's layout is larger and extends through an additional portal tunnel into a subworld of Donkey Kong that's full of palm trees, banana piles and a mine cart coaster that runs in and out of an ancient temple. That moment in the Super Mario Bros. movie where Mario and Peach go to Donkey Kong's kingdom and see all the looping paths everywhere? It's sort of that feeling, but smaller. If you buy a Power-Up Band ($40) from Universal, you can pair it with your phone and bop it against blocks and surfaces everywhere in the land, unlocking scores in mini games you can track on the Universal app. The bands also work as tappable NFC-enabled Amiibo for the Nintendo Switch, giving unlockable extras. I keep thinking that Nintendo could expand that park-to-Switch relationship further, maybe even with the Switch 2.  There aren't that many rides here, but they are memorable. A calmer Yoshi ride moves slowly around the Mushroom Kingdom's edges, more of a young kid's ride or even a way to take in the vistas without walking. And Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge is also surprisingly slow moving for a racing ride, but it's because you wear augmented reality head visors, tethered to your car, that float images of video game opponents all around you. The goal is to shoot flying turtle shells at opponents by turning your wheel and pressing buttons. The best parts feel like you're almost living inside the game itself — a dark tunnel where Rainbow Road floats.  The tech feels old now compared to home headsets like the Apple Vision Pro or Meta's Quest 3 — it is, since it was made for similar rides back in 2021 — but it's also the only AR ride in this park, or nearly anywhere else. And I think future rides could go a lot further. It reminds me instantly of the remote-control Mario Kart toys that Nintendo made to work with an AR-enabled Switch game called Mario Kart Live, which I drove around my home during the pandemic in 2020. Switch 2 games and connected toys could in the future further expand these rides. The Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness ride is the best of the bunch: The coaster's hidden ride mechanism makes it seem like you're on cartoonishly broken tracks, but you're not. The cart flies off them, jumping gaps, leaping into space, making what seem like impossible turns, and it's full of surprises. It's not loaded with visible tech: Its magic tricks are subtler.  "The thirst for things that are live, things that are unpredictable, has only increased now that we're getting all of these franchise-based experiences."  Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute While there are little corners to explore around Super Nintendo World, like extra Power-Up Band challenges and little Nintendo Easter eggs, I want more. I want the Power-Up Band minigames to feel even more game-like. I want crazy levels of extra things to find. Maybe that can still come. Nintendo's rumored to make an expansion to Super Nintendo World, possibly adding a Zelda-themed Hyrule area to time with a future Zelda movie Universal is releasing in 2027. Pokemon is also a rumored expansion focus.  The possibilities seem endless, but the cost and planning of building areas that feel timeless and popular enough to work is a whole other challenge. This space filled with Mario and Donkey Kong echoes lots of existing games, and probably games to come. When I played Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World on the Switch 2, I couldn't help thinking about Super Nintendo World all over again. And that's clearly the point: They reflect each other. A Photo Tour Inside Epic Universe See all photos Franchises are now made to bleed between film, TV, game and theme park. It's a cross-media world, and our physical presence in a park, playing a role in experiencing something first-hand, can end up making all the other pieces feel more emotionally important. The same way I watch movies about the UK nostalgically after I've traveled there, I watch the Super Mario Bros. movie and play Super Mario games after I visited Epic Universe. "Epic Universe is a powerful example of how immersive storytelling, cutting-edge technology, and bold vision are shaping the future of themed entertainment," says Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA, the Global Association for the Attractions Industry. "It reflects a growing demand from guests for deeply integrated, multisensory experiences that transport them into entirely new worlds with characters from some of the world's most popular movies and video games." How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk Entering the portal into the world of How to Train Your Dragon, you're greeted with an expanse of water, massive carved statues and bridges beyond. Wide skies, flying rides: This is the Isle of Berk, and it's full of dragons, water and people roleplaying as characters from the films. It's the most wide-open feeling world in the park, inviting you to seemingly wander in any direction. It's the biggest, and has the most rides and shows, too. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETI didn't grow up with these movies, but I could see the crowds who did, and waited in line for a chance to pet a robotic Toothless dragon in a stable. Chances to meet dragons are everywhere: One, puppeted by somebody inside, proudly struts around, guided by Viking handlers.  In one corner, if you're patient, a baby dragon emerges for photo opps: This is Dart, a self-powered robot that's so convincingly animated that it hypnotized me in my tracks — it has a feel similar to Boston Dynamics' robot dogs, but turned into cartoon form. Disney isn't putting free-roaming robots into its parks yet, although it's test-driving Nvidia-powered BD-0 droids that should be making more appearances in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge eventually.  "The BDX droids are just the beginning," Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, said when the droids were shown off at an Nvidia conference in March, referring to AI advances to come via Google DeepMind and Nvidia. "This collaboration will allow us to create a new generation of robotic characters that are more expressive and engaging than ever before."  Meanwhile, Universal is already doing that with its little Dart appearances. Dart shows the future: animated and free-walking, and acting alongside real human actors that make it feel like the world has come alive.  Drone dragons wheel overhead, too — not during my initial visit, but they'll be there on park opening. Other robotic dragon tails poke out of nests. One ice-breathing dragon pokes its head out from behind a wall.  The dragon moments continue in a lavish show called The Untrainable Dragon, which blends screens and actors and dragons that look like a combination of puppeting and robotics. Toothless wheels overhead during the show, and the emotional scale of it all made me cry.  "For an immersive spectacle to work, it's really got to be all encompassing ... there's a whole art to path making." Noah Nelson, founder of the immersive entertainment site No Proscenium In this land, the rides almost feel secondary. A wheeling, tame sky ride called Dragon Racer's Rally was fine for kids, maybe not worth it for adults. A water-blasting boat ride called Fyre Drill was fun, but similar to a ride I've tried at New York's Legoland. But the family coaster here, called Hiccup's Wing Gliders, is the best thing to try: It's fast, zips over water and around the island, and has other dragons to see. It's a story experience as much as a thrill ride, like Hagrid's Magical Creatures coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure.Berk doesn't have interactive features like Power-Up Bands or wands, but it has plenty of other merch. It's also, I think, about just feeling happy and free. It feels loose, like a festival. And maybe more of a Disney-type place than any other part of Universal. "The sheer number of dragon animatronics exposed to the outdoors was impressive — both in the ride and peppered across the landscape. But what really amps up the emotion and whimsy is the music from John Powell's soundtrack, which got me bawling happy tears on the coaster," says Carey. "Universal leans hard into movie scores throughout each portal to activate your emotions quickly — which stands out from Disney's choice to use more subtle, natural-sounding background tracks. But I think that's where Epic got it right. People want the music to have that connection." What I remember most from this world, as I portaled back out, was the dragons, whether they were drones, robots or puppets. All of the dragons.  Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic The Harry Potter portal gate leads into a subway exit, with a wall full of French posters. Around a corner, there's a massive arch. And through that arch is a wide city street, shops everywhere, hints of a skyline in the distance. The Ministry of Magic's recreation of 1920s Paris hits me on a grander, more detailed scale than any of the other worlds.  Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETThe buildings loom high. The city's farther-off attractions poke above rooftops. It feels like we've teleported. Take the previous Wizarding World areas at Universal and imagine them even bigger, and you have this. Windows in storefronts are interactive, if you have a wand you've purchased from a shop. Wave it in a certain pattern to make magical things happen. Finding the windows is a little game in itself. Some windows have interactive paintings that speak to you, too. In the middle of the city square is a circus tent, hosting Cirque Arcanus, a live theater spectacle that looks like it's impossibly tucked into this tent, with an immersive show blending magic tricks and screens. Deeper inside, the main show seems to take place inside the suitcase of Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies. Different creatures emerge from shadows and dimensional windows, made of a mix of high-res displays, puppets, robotics and stage magic.  Down one end of the Paris streets is the only ride: a showstopping experience called the Battle for the Ministry of Magic. We pass through a MetroFloo station, entering yet another portal that flashes green smoke as we end up on the other side in a massive recreation of the Ministry of Magic from the Harry Potter movies, but now in modern-day London. I don't realize until I get home days later and rewatch the movies how spot-on this recreation is: Much like Disney's Rise of the Resistance ride, it feels like you've been beamed right into a film.  The Ministry of Magic ride itself, down endless corridors of talking portraits and interactive details you might linger on during what could be seriously long waits, is an elevator you sit in as it leaps and glides through a journey involving Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dolores Umbridge and things that seem real and virtual at the same time.  "Universal leans hard into movie scores throughout each portal to activate your emotions quickly ... People want the music to have that connection." Bridget Carey, CNET editor at large Universal says this ride has a whole new mechanism technology — it reminds me of both the Gringotts and Forbidden Journey rides at Universal's other parks, but more like you're watching a magical theater experience unfold. It's the most eye-popping ride in the park. I wished I could floo-hop over to the other Wizarding World sections at Universal's other parks. You can't: This park is miles from the others, and misses out on the magic train connection. Dark Universe Through another portal that looks embedded in a gnarled mountain of rocks and roots, we pass into a cemetery, tombstones everywhere, leading to a haunted-looking European village. In some ways the most intimate of the four worlds, this lurking gothic zone, themed to house Universal's classic monsters, feels like a permanent version of Universal's Halloween Horror-themed events.  Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNETThe path snakes around a series of rides and taverns, with details like menacing statues and a cart full of body parts in bottles. You'll see actors here that play various roles: a mad violinist plays a tune and spins through the square. The Invisible Man peers through bandages and insults your intelligence. At The Burning Blade Tavern, a pub at the end of the path that has a burning windmill above it, actors play the roles of monster hunters. The biggest draw here is a decaying mansion that houses Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, a ride that throws all of Universal's monsters into animatronic form. The ride's built on the same arm structure as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey: You feel like you're being propelled through rooms where werewolves, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein's monster and Dracula battle each other. The vibe is more video game and comic-infused than something truly scary. Still, it's the most animatronics-filled experience in the park — Frankenstein's monster towers above me in the preshow room, stepping forward as if he's about to walk right toward us.  One other roller coaster, Curse of the Werewolf, is weirdly lacking in any actual werewolves, and felt tamer than I expected. And my visit, during the day, didn't seem to fit the horror style of the surroundings.  At night, and with plenty of role-playing actors around, Dark Universe could take on whole new dimensions. This part of the park feels like the biggest leap into an unknown, and could use even more building out to add in extra thrills. But what I felt the most in this subdued, ominous-feeling part of the park was the promise of roleplay. What if I stayed longer and tried to follow the violinist? What if the Invisible Man tried to recruit me for a mission? What does Ygor have to tell me if I seek him out? If I go to the pubs and lurking corners, will I find more mysteries to unravel? As a doorway to the oldest part of Universal's history, could Dark Universe be a permanent way to explore the weird horrors of Halloween all year long? I'd like to stick around here for dinner after dark and see what happens. The future beyond Epic On my way home again, thinking ahead to my next visit around the time of the park's opening day, I wondered about what Epic Universe represents for the future of where amusement parks and immersive entertainment are heading, and what it could also mean for all the games, movies, shows and toys that connect to them. Theme parks are conceived years ahead of time, slowly emerging into completion. Epic Universe is here in 2025, but its ideas were birthed back in 2019 and intended for 2023, delayed because of the pandemic. What we're seeing now is the bleeding edge of large-scale theme parks, but not necessarily a sign of what the future holds.  It's hard to keep large-scale things in business, so I often think about the future of immersive entertainment as coming from smaller productions. There have been a ton of contained immersive ticketed attractions in the last decade that give the I've-been-to-a-park experience, often at a lower cost.  My mind turns to Meow Wolf, a growing collective that makes hallucinatory installations that have mysteries and parts that unlock extras on a phone app. One of Meow Wolf's next locations, in New York, looks to add even more mixed reality and interaction (it's themed like an interdimensional arcade).  Meow Wolf's founders say that smaller indoor spaces can build out higher levels of next-level interaction beyond what Universal or Disney can do.  "We see them as sort of scratching the surface," Meow Wolf's Vince Kladubek tells me, speaking about parks like Epic Universe. "When you have a dedicated indoor space, you have far more possibilities than when you're in an outdoor theme park land. We're really honing in on the capabilities that are now possible when you have a fixed indoor space in bringing this mixed-reality experience forward." "Epic Universe is a powerful example of how immersive storytelling, cutting-edge technology and bold vision are shaping the future of themed entertainment." Jakob Wahl, president and CEO of IAAPA And while these smaller interactive experiences emerge, it's rare to see a completely new theme park open in the US — the last one was Disney's California Adventure in 2001. Disney and Universal have been locked in a back-and-forth competition for decades, one-upping each other with new immersive ideas, licensing deals and park upgrades, but Disney has no new US park planned. Instead, Disney is focused on specific park upgrades — a Monsters, Inc. area for Hollywood Studios, new Cars and Villains lands for Magic Kingdom, an Encanto and Indiana Jones expansion to Animal Kingdom, more Avengers rides at California Adventure. New parks are opening overseas, though: Universal has a UK park in development, and Disney just announced a deal to open a theme park in Abu Dhabi. Universal's next steps beyond Epic are already in the works, but in lots of smaller pieces. A horror-themed permanent Universal attraction, called Universal Horror Unleashed, opens in Las Vegas this August. Its four haunted houses should feel like the ones in Universal's seasonal horror night fests, but year-round. Universal also has a kid-focused, smaller park that's opening in Frisco, Texas next year. "We're seeing
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  • Play Indiana Jones or Lara Croft in the new TTRPG Outgunned Adventure

    Last year, Italian games studio Two Little Mice struck a deal to have Swedish tabletop publisher Free League distribute the Ennie-winning game Outgunned, which lets gaming groups play out heist or action movies like Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible. As part of that deal, Free League just released the first book in Outgunned’s genre line, Outgunned Adventure, which focuses on pulp films like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and Tomb Raider.

    The standalone book uses Outgunned’s Director’s Cut RPG system, which has players roll between two and nine six-sided dice and score successes based on how many land on the same face. As the name suggests, characters are meant to be outmatched by dastardly villains they need to face through shootouts and fast talking. Failure is common, but PCs can “fail with style” — for instance, getting lost while searching for something might mean the players find something they weren’t expecting. Being too noisy on an infiltration might just lead to an exciting fight with a dangerous enemy they hoped to avoid.

    The core rulebook includes 10 new roles, like Scoundrel, Technician, and Captain. Those combine with action movie tropes to provide a wide range of character options. You’ll explore ancient temples, run from traps, and fight on top of trains, while searching for treasure and solving mysteries. GMs looking to start playing quickly can pick up the Fall of Atlantis three-part campaign — Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire is another major influence on the game — and an Adventure Director Screen, which provides a quick rules reference. The print books come with PDF copies, fulfilled through DriveThruRPG.Like the base game, Outgunned Adventure was the product of a highly successful crowdfunding campaign, raising more than €480,000 last summer. Two Little Mice has also just kicked off a campaign for its next genre book, Outgunned Superheroes. It has already raised more than €224,000, and high pledge levels include other Outgunned products, including the Action Flicks setting books and the John Wick-inspired World of Killers.
    #play #indiana #jones #lara #croft
    Play Indiana Jones or Lara Croft in the new TTRPG Outgunned Adventure
    Last year, Italian games studio Two Little Mice struck a deal to have Swedish tabletop publisher Free League distribute the Ennie-winning game Outgunned, which lets gaming groups play out heist or action movies like Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible. As part of that deal, Free League just released the first book in Outgunned’s genre line, Outgunned Adventure, which focuses on pulp films like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and Tomb Raider. The standalone book uses Outgunned’s Director’s Cut RPG system, which has players roll between two and nine six-sided dice and score successes based on how many land on the same face. As the name suggests, characters are meant to be outmatched by dastardly villains they need to face through shootouts and fast talking. Failure is common, but PCs can “fail with style” — for instance, getting lost while searching for something might mean the players find something they weren’t expecting. Being too noisy on an infiltration might just lead to an exciting fight with a dangerous enemy they hoped to avoid. The core rulebook includes 10 new roles, like Scoundrel, Technician, and Captain. Those combine with action movie tropes to provide a wide range of character options. You’ll explore ancient temples, run from traps, and fight on top of trains, while searching for treasure and solving mysteries. GMs looking to start playing quickly can pick up the Fall of Atlantis three-part campaign — Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire is another major influence on the game — and an Adventure Director Screen, which provides a quick rules reference. The print books come with PDF copies, fulfilled through DriveThruRPG.Like the base game, Outgunned Adventure was the product of a highly successful crowdfunding campaign, raising more than €480,000 last summer. Two Little Mice has also just kicked off a campaign for its next genre book, Outgunned Superheroes. It has already raised more than €224,000, and high pledge levels include other Outgunned products, including the Action Flicks setting books and the John Wick-inspired World of Killers. #play #indiana #jones #lara #croft
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    Play Indiana Jones or Lara Croft in the new TTRPG Outgunned Adventure
    Last year, Italian games studio Two Little Mice struck a deal to have Swedish tabletop publisher Free League distribute the Ennie-winning game Outgunned, which lets gaming groups play out heist or action movies like Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible. As part of that deal, Free League just released the first book in Outgunned’s genre line, Outgunned Adventure, which focuses on pulp films like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and Tomb Raider. The standalone book uses Outgunned’s Director’s Cut RPG system, which has players roll between two and nine six-sided dice and score successes based on how many land on the same face. As the name suggests, characters are meant to be outmatched by dastardly villains they need to face through shootouts and fast talking. Failure is common, but PCs can “fail with style” — for instance, getting lost while searching for something might mean the players find something they weren’t expecting. Being too noisy on an infiltration might just lead to an exciting fight with a dangerous enemy they hoped to avoid. The $51 core rulebook includes 10 new roles, like Scoundrel, Technician, and Captain. Those combine with action movie tropes to provide a wide range of character options. You’ll explore ancient temples, run from traps, and fight on top of trains, while searching for treasure and solving mysteries. GMs looking to start playing quickly can pick up the $21 Fall of Atlantis three-part campaign — Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire is another major influence on the game — and an Adventure Director Screen, which provides a quick rules reference. The print books come with PDF copies, fulfilled through DriveThruRPG.Like the base game, Outgunned Adventure was the product of a highly successful crowdfunding campaign, raising more than €480,000 last summer. Two Little Mice has also just kicked off a campaign for its next genre book, Outgunned Superheroes. It has already raised more than €224,000, and high pledge levels include other Outgunned products, including the Action Flicks setting books and the John Wick-inspired World of Killers.
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