In our house I am the master of channels.  I am the one who unsubscribes from services we’re not watching, re-subscribes to services when there is something for us, and makes sure we don’t get signed up until a show we’re interested in has a full season available.

A mere four years ago we were at a point that felt almost like a renaissance of streaming content… we were all stuck inside and in need of something to do and streaming channels were there to deliver.  And then we got a vaccine, decided the pandemic was over, and realized that maybe we didn’t need a subscription to 17 different streaming services.

Meanwhile, all the players who got into the streaming service game, having been lulled by the seemingly effortless success of Netflix, found themselves in a bit of a bind as they found this was not a cheap and easy path to riches even as people began trimming back on their subscription count.  This led to the need to raise prices, which drove even more people to dump their offering.

Still, the strong will prevail and, after some closures and a series of mergers… there are still probably too damn many channels.  More than we can afford to subscribe to continuously, so this is where we are at.

After more of four years of peaks and valleys and industry strife, these are the channels we end up watching.

The Long Haul Keepers

These are the services which we remain subscribed to pretty much always.  They have, on some level, a reason or a proven value to keep them around.

• Netflix

This is the one service we subscribe to continuously and watch most regularly, and it is largely because they throw more content at us than any two or three other services combined.  Sure, a lot of it is garbage, and most of it isn’t for us, but every Friday night they have a selection of content added to their service to choose from.

Add in that they drop a full season at a time so you can binge to your heart’s content and that they have probably one of the best apps by most measures, and you can see why I never bother to put Netflix on the bench.

Finally, their app works.  It is fast, responsive, comprehensible, and doesn’t assume I can read the tiny title card from across the room.  It also skips the “previously” section if I just watched the previous episode and lets me skip the beginning and end credits successfully.

That said, they just announced that they are cancelling my $12 a month plan and enrolling me in a $7 a month plan with ads.  Netflix promises it will just be a couple of ads at the beginning of some programming, but we’ll have to see how it goes.  The other alternative is $18 a month for no ads, and then we’re getting into the “you need to prove your value every month” zone of streaming services.

• Amazon Prime Video

I think it is just called Prime Video honestly, but I always put “Amazon” in there to remind myself that this is part of our Amazon Prime subscription, which is something we keep even when we’re not watching any of their shows.

So, technically, it is the other service we subscribe to continuously, but if my annual Prime member ship was just for it, I would cancel it in a heartbeat.  But I get other benefits from my Prime membership that make it worthwhile, so technically we subscribe to Prime Video.

The problem is that while they occasionally pull off something good… the recent Fallout series is a “prime” example… there otherwise isn’t a lot of new content there, and much of what is new isn’t very good.  If you missed some straight-to-video bad science fiction film, Prime is apparently where they all end up.

It is also very much in the business of bait and switch, where they will get a series from another service like Starz or MGM+ and show you a season… or, in one case, the first season MINUS the final episode… the prompt you to subscribe to that service… through them, of course, so they get a cut… which does not make me happy.  I have gone off and subscribed due to this at times, though I always go directly to that service, like Starz, and contract with them direction so Prime does not get a cut.

This is, in part, out of spite, but also because the Prime Video app isn’t great.  It is not the worst, but it is at best mid-pack.  It is slow, it can be hard to see, browsing for shows is not great, and it is really hit and miss about whether it will let you skip the “previously” or opening credits and just hates when you try to skip the end credits to start another show.  This is likely, in part, to them just showing a lot of content from other services, which they put the minimal effort into adapting to their app.

Finally, despite paying for access to Prime, if I don’t want to get ads during shows, I have to pay extra.  This, as you might expect, irks me and I will not pay their ransom.  The only upside to this is that they don’t show ads on all content, though amusingly some content an ad comes up to tell you the video will be ad free thanks to a specific sponsor, for who an ad then plays.

TL:DR – Not great, but comes with a package I never cancel.

• Apple TV+

Apple is in an interesting niche in that it is just cheap enough and the content is high enough quality that I don’t rush to cancel our subscription.  There isn’t a lot of new content, and they are still wed to the “let’s stretch out people’s subscription time by showing one episode a week because maybe, this time, we’ll have the next Game of Thrones and everybody will need a full week to discuss the show” routine, which I find irksome.

Our house rule is we don’t start watching anything until it is six episodes in.

The app is also not the best.  When you have something selected on scree it makes that item about 5% larger than it was when not selected, so I often have to move the selection a couple of times to see what has focus on screen.  It is a pain in the ass to just go watch the next episode if you stopped at the start of the credits last time you watched a series.  It wants to resume from exactly where you left off unless you fish around in the app to fine the page for the full series that has the episode list.

But the app does at least run pretty well for us.  I will give it that.

And, like I said, there isn’t a ton of new content.  It is the Anti-Netflix, which just throws a constant stream of new content at you.  So we spend a lot more time watching Netflix because we’ll take a chance on an episode or two of something new or watch some potentially bad movie on a Friday night because the commitment feels low and there are many other options if we bail.

• KQED Television

I almost forgot about this.  I give public television a regular monthly payment which gives me access to their regular lineup of shows and whatever they import from the UK via Masterpiece Theater.  We used to have half a dozen public television channels in the SF Bay area that each had their own varied content.  They all got scooped up by KQED in San Francisco over the years.  We almost never watch this these days, unless I want to go back and re-visit one of the Ken Burns documentaries, but technically we’re continuously subscribed.  At least when you stream you are not interrupted by pledge drives every few months.

• Xfinity Stream

Also, I should mention this because, due to the fact that Comcast is our only internet provider option and that they make sure that internet bundles are cheaper if you include cable TV, we still have cable TV at our house.  But on the rare occasion when we want to watch it, we watch it using the app on our Roku Stick.  And, live TV with ads… this is how animals watch TV, right?  Just sitting there and being force to watch whatever is “on” at that very moment?  How did we survive this?

The Frequent Recurring Subscriptions

These are the services that we are often subscribed to, but which get turned off now and then when we run out of content.

• Disney+

I will echo what I have heard many other say, which is if I still had pre-teen children in the house, I would never unsubscribe from Disney+.  It is also the one stop shop for all things Star Wars and the MCU and the entire 35 year life of The Simpsons.

But our daughter is now a college graduate and my nostalgia for the Disney catalog and the other properties they own isn’t all that strong.  So we’re willing to unsub from this one when we’re done with whatever the latest Star Wars series is.  And, because Disney+ is still locked into the “one episode a week” ploy to get people to string out their subscription for an extra month or two, we don’t subscribe until a season is set.

The app itself is pretty good.  It does group up content well enough and is responsive and doesn’t crash on our Roku stick.

• Hulu

Some very decent original content.  Will subscribe when a new season of something is out.  They do adhere to the “one episode a week” thing, so I wait until seasons are complete.  They do also get Fox and FX stuff, and at one point I watched literally all of the available episodes of Bob’s Burgers while also watching all available episodes of Archer, both of which feature H. Jon Benjamin voicing the lead role, which was quite a trip.

The app is okay, though it isn’t well organized.  They like to put the “continue watching” piece of the UI way down the main page and prefer to promote their new stuff, so you really have to bookmark the things you like and go to your personal page to get what you want out of the app.

• Starz

One of the relics of the premium cable channel era, somewhere down the list from HBO and Showtime, its once niche with us is the period piece dramas like The White Queen, The Spanish Princess, and The Serpent Queen get us to subscribe for a while.  They also feature a lot of movies, but everybody has a lot of movies and they are almost never the ones I am in the mood for at any given moment, so somehow that rarely works out.

• Paramount+

We originally came here to watch Yellowstone then found that this is where all of the Star Trek content lives as well as having a cross programming agreement with Showtime, so there is kind of a lot here.  However, we can get a bit burnt out on it as well.  We’ll watch a few seasons of this or that then stop watching for a while, at which point I will turn off the subscription.  But we do return.

• AMC+

This is the channel for all things Walking Dead, which my wife is still into because of the soap opera-like drama.  As I noted previously, after a season or two of zombies, people really became the main enemy, while zombies would only show up when the plot demanded.  Decent channel, not too expensive, and AMC has quite a bit of original content.  When something pops up we’ll subscribe for a while.

The At Need Only Channels

These are the services that we only subscribe to for very specific reasons, then cancel ones we’re done.

• Max

You would think they would be better at this whole streaming things, having been in on that business since the HBO Go app, their first cut at streaming, launched back in 2010.  Then again, the whole thing hasn’t been the same since the end of Game of Thrones.

The old HBO business model was to get people subscribed based on a few prestige series and maybe first access to films that had recently left the theaters, which worked well enough in the age of cable TV and the early days of streaming.  Now films don’t see to be the draw they once were, there are a ton of competitors, and they haven’t quite hit another big winner.

I mean, they can get a show like Succession that gets a lot of awards, but I think Netflix puts out a show about once a month that gets as many or more viewers, and a hit on Netflix will get 5-10x the viewers.

And at one time we would stay subscribed to HBO for years at a stretch.  Now, however, with the consolidation under the Max brand and the removal of back seasons of some shows, and other shows entirely, and their lack of anything really new and good… we went back last to watch season 4 of True Detective and it was okay, but I cancelled the service once we were done

• Peacock

This was an okay service the first few times we have subscribed, and they did a credible job with the Olympics recently.  I mean, I cannot blame them directly for NBC cutting away from the opening ceremonies to watch the US team standing around waiting to get on their boat.  I know the French are… uniquely French I guess… but they’re still more interesting that Snoop Dogg trying to engage random strangers in conversation or Kelly Clarkson repeating “Oooh, look at that” over and over.  And past that, if you wanted to watch very specific competitions, they let you.  So maybe the most accessible Olympics when it came to video.

But beyond the Olympics it has been degrading as a service.  They are going hard on ad revenue with a cheap subscription.  The problem is that I am fully willing to buy the more expensive ad free option, but they now show you the version of the content that has been cut up for ad injection… without the ads.  What this means is that every so often the show pauses for nearly a full second while the server apparently has to decided on the fly whether or not an ad gets played or not, then moves on when the result comes back negative.

That doesn’t sound bad, until you learn just how many ads Peacock thinks they should inject into 30 minutes of television.  It quickly becomes annoying out of all proportion to the actual duration of the interruption.  It isn’t completely unwatchable, but it just pulls me out of the show and makes my brain think, “Oh, here is another place where they would have put an add had I not given then an extra $8 for a month of service.”

Also, “ad free” did not apply to Olympic coverage, and I am still salty about that.

The Odd Outsiders

Services we have tried once and haven’t really felt the need to return to.

• Acorn & Britbox

I am lumping these two together because they share the same problem, which is the US view of British television after having been raised on US public television cherry picking the very best and putting it on in front of us via Masterpiece Theater.  We think everything produced in the UK is sophisticated and urbane, performed by actors who are veterans of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with performances delivered in that very specific BBC news reader accent, written by over educated graduates of Cambridge and Oxford, which holds a mirror up to life while making historical and literary references that mean we have to keep Wikipedia to hand in order to keep up.

Some of us grew up on a diet of things like I, Claudius and House of Cards and Monty Python and it skewed our perception.

So a pair of channels filled to the brim with British television content seems like heaven.

The problem is that Upstairs, Downstairs or Downton Abby are not the prototypical British programming, the pinnacle to which the island strives; Benny Hill is.  And even that is a huge cut above the average.  There are a lot of simply unwatchable, predictable, crap shows on Acorn and Britbox.

Finding that for every Prime Suspect there are a dozen dreadful police procedurals out there, often hampered for US audiences with incomprehensible UK regional accents and slang, is enough to burst the myth of British television superiority.  You’re just as bad as us at this TV thing and it is a miracle when you can build a season of television on even three hours of actual content.  At least in the US when we crank out mediocre content, we get 8, 10, 16, even 22 episodes out the door.

I’ll go back to letting US public television cherry picking for me, thank you.

So yeah, we’ve been through both of these channels and found that the good stuff we’ve seen already elsewhere and the rest… is usually not the good stuff.

• MGM+

We subscribed to this because of a Prime Video bait and switch with the show Monsieur Spade.  They had some content worth watching, but not enough to keep us subscribed and, lacking another screw job from Amazon, there isn’t anything there we’re dying to watch.  I think all the Bond films are available there… but I also have them all on DVD so I am excused from every having to watch them because there are just right there, I could watch them any time I want.

• Tubi

Technically not a subscription service but a free ad supported venue, one of my nieces that works in Hollywood… I have two such nieces… was working as a producer here so we gave it a try.  Oh man, ads suck, and injected ads suck at least 3x as much because if they don’t have enough ad buys, they will just show you the same damn ad two or three times back to back.

If the future is ad supported, they need to work on that.  It is awful.  Anyway, my niece has another job so I do not feel the need to engage with Tubi anymore.

Conclusions

We wished for a bright future of on demand entertainment where we could select and watch anything we wanted.  But we wished on the monkey’s paw, and as the finger curled down, we were given a patchwork landscape of competing services, shifting content availability, and difficult UIs.

I think the biggest problem is just know what there is out there to watch.  My least favorite thing these days is to sit down on the couch and have my wife ask, “So what should we watch?”  This portends me using the remote to scroll through large sections of half a dozen services to find something that looks good.

This, btw, is why Netflix wins so often for us.  They at least always have something new, something we’re willing to invest at least a bit of time into.  And after about fifteen minutes of my wife vetoing this or that I’m ready to just put anything on so I can stop this futile quest for content.

Using the Roku for streaming helps, as it will search all channels and services for programming and find it.  But you have to know what you are looking for.  If you are doing the streaming equivalent of channel surfing on a Friday night there are just too many places to look.

I know we don’t want to go back to half a dozen channels where you watched what was on or nothing at all, but there was a simplicity to it and a limited scope where you could glance at the TV listings and just decide to read a book or go play a video game.

So what are you watching these days?  Which channel scratches your itch?  And is there any decent new science fiction shows out there?  Is Orphan Black: Echoes any good?  Might have to re-up AMC+ if it is.

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Venu Sports was officially announced in August 2024. The new streaming service promised a variety of sports content from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. There would also be a huge range of live games and events, thanks to partnerships with nearly every major sports association. Fubo immediately took issue with the service, filing an antitrust lawsuit citing “extreme suppression of competition in the U.S. sports-focused streaming market.” Now, they’ve scored the first victory in this battle thanks to a new ruling from a US District Judge.

Fubo has argued that the companies’ massive combined control would create a virtual monopoly over sports services, negatively impacting businesses like theirs and limiting consumer choice. As noted by CNBC it seems U.S. Judge Margaret Garnett believes the case has merit, and she has now temporarily blocked the service from launching. It seems the new service might be in violation of the Clayton Act, which governs mergers and acquisitions.

In her ruling, the judge states, “It appears to the Court that Fubo is likely to succeed on its claims that by entering into the [joint venture], the [joint venture] Defendants will substantially lessen competition and restrain trade in the relevant market,” in her preliminary injunction order.

The service was supposed to launch just weeks ahead of the NFL season and would have been available for $42.99. While this is a significant asking price, the service would have offered a ton of content. As noted by Judge Garnett in court documents, the three companies involved in Venu Sports control roughly 54% of all U.S. sports and at least 60% of all nationally broadcast U.S. sports rights. The judge also suggested that this figure may actually be even higher.

Fubo’s co-founder and CEO, David Gandler, applauded the decision, saying it will “help ensure that consumers have access to a more competitive marketplace with multiple sports streaming options.” Unsurprisingly, the three companies behind the service were less thrilled with the response, with a representative for all three stating, “We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and are appealing it.”

At least until an official ruling or agreement can be reached, it looks like Venu Sports is on hold. Only time will tell if this is temporary, or if Venu Sports will be killed off before it could ever live.

Frozen 3 is coming soon, continuing the story of Elsa and Anna. Let’s look at what we’ve learned so far about the Frozen 3 release date, who’s in it, and what the story might be about.

Frozen 3 release date

Frozen 3 will hit theaters on November 24, 2027. This release date is consistent with its predecessors, as the franchise usually premieres around Thanksgiving.

Frozen 3 cast

Josh Gad who voices Olaf is coming back, as is Idina Menzel, who voices Elsa. Kristen Bell, who voices Anna has not yet publicly confirmed anything but there have been hints about some developments regarding her character in the movie. Given Anna’s key role and new status as Queen of Arendelle after the events of Frozen 2, it seems probable that Bell will reprise her role.

What to expect from Frozen 3

The climax of Frozen 2 gives us intriguing ideas about what may happen in the next movie. The sequel opened up a whole new world of Arendelle and introduced the Enchanted Forest, inhabited by the Northuldra people and elemental spirits.

Elsa now serves as the fifth spirit, uniting humans and magical creatures. The third film could focus on how she would adjust to this given position as the protector of Enchanted Forest.

Anna’s coronation as Queen of Arendelle provides another gripping storyline. In Frozen 3 we might see her development into a leader maintaining equilibrium between royal responsibilities, adventure-seeking spiritfulness, and her love for Kristoff. The bond between the sisters would remain central. Perhaps there’ll be new conflicts to overcome together?

Where to watch Frozen 3

Frozen 3, similar to previous films in the series, is expected to have a wide release in theaters.

Now that streaming subscriber growth has slowed, we’ve noted repeatedly how the streaming TV sector is falling into all of the bad habits that ultimately doomed traditional cable TV.

That has involved chasing pointless “growth of growth’s sake” megamergers and imposing bottomless price hikes and new annoying restrictions — all while simultaneously cutting corners on product quality and staff in a bid to give Wall Street that sweet, impossible, unlimited, quarterly growth it demands.

Executives are not being particularly sensitive about it despite some hard lessons learned during the cord cutting years. On the heels of yet another recent price hike across Disney’s Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN streaming services (some as high as 25 percent), Disney CFO Hugh Johnston proudly declared that the company had “earned” the right to increasingly saddle consumers with price hikes:

“We do feel like we’ve earned that pricing in the marketplace, and we feel positively about that. With that will come scale benefits. The product improvements also should reduce churn and keep our consumers with us as they’re evaluating their options.”

We literally just went through this cycle to with traditional cable, yet the execs clearly haven’t learned a thing. When pressed during Disney’s earnings call on whether this might annoy subscribers, Disney CEO Bob Iger brushed aside those concerns:

“We’re not concerned. The goal is to grow engagement on the platform. And what I mean by that is obviously offering a wider variety of programming.”

The problem is the price hikes aren’t generally running parallel with service improvements. Prices are not only increasing; but product streaming catalogs are in many instances getting worse (see: both Marvel and Star Wars properties recent sag in quality and critical acclaim).

At the same time, users are facing more technical restrictions than ever in the forms of device restrictions or password sharing crackdowns. Staff are simultaneously being cut or asked to do more, with less.

Wall Street and the traditional business press laud this behavior because executives are simply looking to maximize shareholder value over the short term. The price hikes helped Disney streaming efforts reach slight profitability for the first time ever, helping convince execs that they’re somehow inherently owed massive profits now that they’ve staked out a beachhead in the streaming wars.

Of course nobody is owed anything. And there’s something these folks really don’t want to talk about: namely that, just like a traditional television industry destroyed by this exact same behavior by the extraction class, none of this is sustainable.

Wall Street’s need for improved quarterly returns at any cost inevitably leads to a sort of auto-cannibalization of product quality. You can’t deliver improved returns through subscriber growth anymore, so executives start looking at restrictions (fewer simultaneous streams, more ads, surcharges for streaming in 4K, etc.), layoffs, price hikes, production cuts, customer service cuts, and pointless, massive mergers that misdirect energy and attention away from improving product quality.

Financial deregulation has ensured there’s no real foundational interest (or financial incentive) in building lasting consumer trust, brand loyalty, or product quality. The focus is short term stock jumps and tax breaks, with the latter repercussions being somebody else’s problem (most immediately consumers and labor, but ultimately execs that have to come in later and restructure everything after the ship runs aground).

Customers might not balk at higher streaming prices immediately. For many (especially compared to traditional TV) streaming still provides a decent value proposition, and Iger was quick to insist they’re not seeing much churn yet in response to hikes. But this isn’t a cycle in which Wall Street can ever be truly satisfied. And streaming is on an accelerated timeline to what traditional cable experienced.

As you saw with traditional cable, product and brand degradation and continues until users ultimately flock to competing, more affordable options, which usually includes piracy. Piracy rates are already rising again in response to executive decisions, and executives seem poised and ready to blame everything but themselves for file sharing’s growing resurgence.

What? Massively OP’s MJ gets to explore a new land in Guild Wars 2 on launch day? Is the MMOverse coming to an end?! No! Instead, it’s more like ArenaNet releasing Janthir Wilds as a slightly early birthday present for her. And how could she not fully appreciate such a gesture? Join us live at […]

Folks watching (or attending) Warframe’s TennoLive at TennoCon 2024 received a Saryn Prime to add to their arsenal, and it’s time for Massively OP’s MJ to take her for a spin! MJ might even get to help some friends out in their adventures. Is this frame destined to become one of her favorites? Or will […]

A new level cap in Final Fantasy XIV means that MOP’s Chris has some catching up to do for some of his alt jobs, and since he’s feeling the urge to do some tanking, that’s just what he’ll be up to! Join him and his crew today at 2:00 p.m. EDT for another round of […]

Good afternoon. Have you met Mr. Nibbles yet? No? Well, neither has Massively OP’s MJ. But Today’s V Rising plan is to accomplish just that. And then she’ll go clear out the other bosses of Act I. She definitely won’t be sidetracked by building her castle… really. Tune in live at 2:00 p.m. and see […]

The Steam Deck’s competitors, whether they’re the old guard Ayaneo family, the luxe Asus ROG Ally X, or the shapeshifting Lenovo Legion Go, usually share the same attack line: they can play more of your games. The Deck’s compatibility issues aren’t nearly as issue-some as they were at launch, but between its Linux-based SteamOS and its relatively mild processing power, but it is true that beefier Windows handhelds will more likely cater to your entire cross-launcher library.

Unless, that is, you get something else to run them for you. Streaming games on the Steam Deck has emerged as a nifty workaround for the portable PC’s lingering compatibility woes, making even officially unsupported games playable. Usually with much better performance, too, as the actual rendering work is done remotely – what you see on the Deck’s screen is basically a video feed of that remote device’s display output, with your control input beamed the other way via a low-latency connection. And because you’re not using SteamOS or the internal hardware to actually run the game, it’s not bound by their limits.

Read more

The Steam Deck’s competitors, whether they’re the old guard Ayaneo family, the luxe Asus ROG Ally X, or the shapeshifting Lenovo Legion Go, usually share the same attack line: they can play more of your games. The Deck’s compatibility issues aren’t nearly as issue-some as they were at launch, but between its Linux-based SteamOS and its relatively mild processing power, but it is true that beefier Windows handhelds will more likely cater to your entire cross-launcher library.

Unless, that is, you get something else to run them for you. Streaming games on the Steam Deck has emerged as a nifty workaround for the portable PC’s lingering compatibility woes, making even officially unsupported games playable. Usually with much better performance, too, as the actual rendering work is done remotely – what you see on the Deck’s screen is basically a video feed of that remote device’s display output, with your control input beamed the other way via a low-latency connection. And because you’re not using SteamOS or the internal hardware to actually run the game, it’s not bound by their limits.

Read more

Reddit may be the last social media platform you’d likely consider in promoting and advertising your livestreams, but the popular discussion website may help your channel grow beyond your initial expectations.

There is an untapped advertising potential on Reddit especially for small streamers. Although the platform is generally designed as an avenue for community discussions, you may also use this social platform to your advantage as a rising content creator.

If you’re interested to know some effective ways to advertise your brand on Reddit, but you’re not really sure how to go about it— we’ve got you covered. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Know your platform

First of all, you must keep in mind that every social media platform is different. It has its own varying strengths and weaknesses when it comes to doing self-promotions.

What works on YouTube, for instance, doesn’t exactly work on Reddit. The same goes for Twitch strategies on Twitter. You don’t need to pressure yourself too much, as it takes time to learn them all. Give yourself some time as you venture into Reddit promotions.

Join communities for self-promotion

Although quite rare, there are a few subreddit dedicated to aspiring livestreamers who may freely advertise their streams and channels. At the same time, it serves as an avenue for interested viewers to discover new content creators to watch.

Some good examples are the r/vgstreams Subreddit, where members can choose to promote individual streams and r/twitchstreams, the home of good Twitch Content. Both communities are always looking out for fresh, new streamers, hence you’ll fit right in! Don’t forget to post your best clips and highlights to be discovered.

Be creative

If you’re planning to post on communities for self-promotion, better grab the chance and give it your best shot. Don’t just attach a simple link to your channel. The rest of the community must know what kind of streams you offer (Variety content, Valorant gameplays, etc.) so make sure to add a brief description in the text post.

You may also choose to add some more helpful information, such as your usual stream schedule or your in-game user ID if you’re looking for new friends to play with.

Tell your intentions

One way to be more engaging with the community is to let them know your intentions behind your stream. For example, state in the description box if you’re looking for new people to chat with and play in a few games as well. Playing with a new audience is a great goal to set if you’re looking for new friends and possible new followers or subscribers.

If you’re working your way to hit Twitch Partner status or becoming an affiliate, be honest with your goals as you invite new people to watch your stream. Be vocal with your appreciation for the possible help, so thank them in advance if they ever decide to drop by and tune in!

Be lowkey

The truth is: most Redditors wouldn’t willingly join a Subreddit that’s only full of self-promotion. Similarly, the majority of Subreddit communities tend to restrict advertisement spams and have strict rules about self promotion of content.

With that in mind, a simple post linking to your Twitch channel will likely end up being buried over hundreds of other Redditors who are doing the same thing. It won’t be an effective advertising strategy at all.

What you can do, however, is to be discreet and lowkey in advertising your content. You may create funny memes or posts that may end up being viral in the particular subreddit— and add a credit link in the comment section below that redirects to your channel.

Find ways to promote

While a blatant link to your channel is a practice that’s generally frowned upon, you may still find various ways to self-promote on Reddit if you’re patient enough.

For example, the r/Twitch subreddit has a Promote Yourself menu in the sidebar where community members can post redirect links to places other than Reddit. This includes links to your YouTube or Twitch channel, or direct gameplay videos.

If you participated in any ongoing contest or competition, you may also promote your entry in the same section. You might even gain some more votes if you do so.

Put out quality content

Typically, most Redditors do not hop on Reddit to browse stream or channel suggestions. If anything, they’d be checking a variety of interesting content. You can use this to your advantage by consistently putting out a series of quality content (not limited to funny/crazy clips or memes) and adding your channel details to your profile.

If a number of users find your content enjoyable, they might just check out your channel and videos if they know you are also a streamer. This is a great opportunity to be discovered on Reddit, as normal stream links won’t get many attention or clicks typically.

Be active on your niche’s subreddit

Most games such as PUBG, Valorant, or League of Legends have their own dedicated Subreddit. You can opt to post there after doing something relevant and impressive— like a new personal best in a speedrun or an insane combo of gameplay.

In general, people are often annoyed by content creators who desperately shove their content down others’ throats. You wouldn’t want to leave an impression of selling something to your new audience. Instead, show the world how you’re passionate about what you are doing.

Be a part of the community

Regardless of what gaming or niche community you join on Reddit, it’s important to be a part of the said community first before you act on personal and promotional endeavors. If you join the group with the intention of doing nothing but self-promotions, chances are you’d most likely get on the bad side of the members.

Integrate yourself with the community by upvoting other posts, actively commenting and taking part in discussions, and if possible— give out community awards.

Network with other content creators

When it comes to establishing your online brand, nothing beats forming a connection with fellow content creators.

Connecting with other streamers on Reddit may just present an opportunity for you to be invited as a part of their stream team or meet their community. This serves as a great way to start building your own community with like-minded individuals.

If they’re established streamers, they might even give you a few tips and tricks as you begin your career in the industry.

Make use of Flairs

In case you missed it, Flairs serve as tags that appear on posts or beside usernames within a subreddit. Not all Subreddits allow Flairs though, so make sure to check the communities you’ve joined thus far. For instance, members may display their Twitch channels as flairs on the r/Twitch subreddit.

As people see your posts or conversation replies, they can easily see the link to your Twitch channel. They might check out your content once you’ve triggered their interest enough.

Tap the help of others

If you have already established quite a solid following, you can ask your mods or loyal fans to make the promotion for you on Reddit.

This may be in the form of having them share your best clips, ask them to say something worthwhile about your videos, and basically just influence other people to check out your content.

Having other people attest to the quality of your content offering is sometimes better than doing a self-promotion.

Be careful not to overdo it

If you decide to post funny or interesting clips on niche communities or game-specific subreddits, consider it as a great way to get more exposure.

People on Reddit typically want to see new and exciting stuff on the daily, which includes brilliant Twitch clips. However, if you make it appear as though you’re just posting content to convince new viewers to check out your channel—  it might just turn out to be a major turn-off.

Hence, avoid adding “For more great clips, follow me on my Twitch channel!” onto the post. Remember, this is not YouTube or any other social platform that encourages that kind of practice. Like we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s best to be discreet.

Keep an eye out for Megathreads

Some Subreddits do Megathreads for people to share who they are currently watching or interesting new streamers to check out— such as r/Twitch’s monthly megathread titled “Who have you been watching this month?” and “Streamer Recommendations.”

This is considered as a great for small streamers to get their name out there. People can share the streams they’ve discovered that month and support new streamers at the same time.

Although you are free to promote yourself on these lists, it’s better to have someone else say a good word for you. Someone who can attest by the quality of your offerings.

Bottomline

As a small creator, we understand that it’s important to do whatever you can to increase channel growth. This includes trying self-promotion tactics on platforms we’d least expect, like Reddit.

Fortunately there is an untapped advertising potential on the popular discussion website, especially for small streamers. Just make sure not to do scummy things!

The post How to Promote and Advertise your Streams on Reddit appeared first on CTRL+Zed.

Starting out a career on various live streaming platforms can be rather rough and challenging, especially if you’re beginning from scratch in the most popular ones.

For instance, Twitch had approximately 9.52 million active streamers as of February 2021. YouTube Gaming raked over 100 hours of watch time and more than 40 million gaming channels, and over 800 million people use Facebook Gaming to play various connected games.

Carving a name for yourself with these humongous numbers can turn out to be more of a struggle than you’d initially expect it to be.

If you want to achieve success and results in the streaming industry, you must become an efficient strategist. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen overnight. It requires time, patience, and a bit of luck for the odds to be on your side.

A Strategist?

First off, let’s talk about being a Strategist when it comes to doing self-promotions.

There are dozens to hundreds of different ways to promote your content and channel on the internet― but it doesn’t really guarantee solid results. What works for some may sadly not turn out well for you. You may learn from the best streamers to date but once you apply the same tips to your content, it may not turn out the same way you’d expect.

To know which strategies work best for your goals, you must brace yourself for a trial and error process. You’re the only one who can figure out which strategies work for your channel. After all, it’s the one fool-proof way for you to discover which promotion tactics work best. This will save your precious time and effort from being wasted.

With that in mind, here are 20 beginner-friendly tips to help you get your live streams discovered:

1. Know your platform’s strength and weaknesses

With a number of social media platforms you can choose to promote your streams, it’s important to keep in mind that each has its own different set of strengths and weaknesses.

What works for one platform doesn’t particularly work perfectly for another, and vice versa. With this in mind, you must consider finding out the pros and cons of your chosen platform. Having this knowledge will help you make the most out of your strategies.

Accordingly, you should be mindful of your platform’s community guidelines. Some platforms are strict when it comes to self-advertising, such as the popular anonymous discussion website Reddit. You wouldn’t wanna be flagged for violating the rules at some point.

2. Figure out your selling point

Ask yourself questions like, what sets you apart from the thousands of other aspiring streamers? What makes your streams unique from the rest? Once you figure this out, you can use that as your selling point.

This will give your viewers a solid reason why they should continue supporting you in your career. For new audiences, they’ll likely turn to be one of your followers if they find your content fit to their tastes.

If you’re a naturally bubbly person with lots of charm, this can just be your selling point. If you’re someone with god-like skills on par to that of pro eSports players, you can use it to your advantage in enticing new viewers.

3. Do creative promotions

Simply attaching a link to a text post wouldn’t entice new viewers to check out your content. If anything, you’ll just garner a bad reputation as a possible spammer or promotion bot.

Add a human touch to your promotions by using your in-game clips or video footages to promote your channel. Make sure to post it around, not just on one platform, to see if it gets you initial traction.

Instead of opting for plain text posts, you are most likely to get attention with photo and video posts. Feel free to run wild with your creativity!

4. Host or raid other similar channels

Regardless of your chosen platform, there are dozens to hundreds of other streamers who are offering the same content as you. You can use this to your advantage by hanging out in their streams and host or raid them once you’re done with yours.

In particular, Twitch raids are considered as a good strategy to promote small streamers. Once you become more active in this endeavor, you will get to know more people. Eventually, your fellow streamer might decide to come by, host and raid you in return for your favors.

Networking is always a great strategy especially in the streaming industry. Instead of treating others as your competition, you can view them as potential friends who may help you grow your channel.

5. Help others

Aside from posting nothing but gameplays, you may also play the role of an in-game analyst or strategist which can then help others― especially  beginner players.

You can conduct research to give excellent game tips and share it on forums and other platforms. By helping others, you are also increasing your chances of getting discovered as a content creator by like-minded individuals in the community.

This will also give you the branding of being a reliable streamer, hence new viewers might just drop by your live streams to see if you have any new information or tips/tricks to share.

6. Make friends

Nobody wants to support a streamer acting all-mighty and snob, especially if you’re just starting out in the industry. As a small streamer, make it your goal to make friends in your every livestream.

You don’t have to search far. You can simply treat your viewers as your friends, so your promotion strategies will not be self-centered. Forming a connection with your audience is another way to make new friends.

Who knows, these new friends may just be your very first donators or solid, loyal followers at the peak of your career.

7. Promote on Social Media

Being active on social media is a great way to promote your streams. For instance, there are quite a number of retweet bots on Twitter that will automatically retweet your promo tweets if you use their hashtag. In particular, using the #supportsmallstreamers hashtag is ideal for beginner streamers.

You may also opt to browse other game-specific hashtags on the platform to find some interesting posts from fellow enthusiasts. Engage with their posts, such as giving it a react or a reply.

Doing so will give you a chance to be discovered by other gaming enthusiasts and like-minded individuals in your niche.

8. Rely on word-of-mouth promos

Every streamer wants to establish a good reputation for themselves. Having a favorable reputation will most likely invite new viewers to check out your content and at the same time keep your loyal supporters around.

We’ve already mentioned the importance of promoting on social media and networking with other streamers, hence you may rely on them to do the promos for you as long as you’ve established quite a nice reputation as a small streamer. For starters, be friendly and engaging and don’t be rude!

The last thing you’d want is to deal with the internet’s notorious cancel culture, especially in the early stages of your career.

9. Consider less-saturated games

With thousands of other aspiring streamers, it will be quite a challenge for someone new to the scene to break into a saturated category. Starting with games such as Fortnite and Overwatch will be considerably difficult for new streamers to gain their traction.

With that in mind, it’s not really a bad idea to consider less-saturated games such as indie titles and the like. A smaller game might have less average viewers compared to titular ones, but its tight-knit community will likely help you grow your channel faster.

More like-minded people will check out your channel naturally, simply because they can find you as opposed to being buried under hundreds of other streamers in mainstream games.

10. Host giveaways

One good way to get your name out there is to do giveaways for your chosen community. This will maximize possible exposure for your channel.

For example, you can choose to have a gaming headset, gift cards, or in-game character skins up for grabs. Have your audience share your post if they want to participate in the raffle. This will likely get your channel more known in the community.

You may even use a unique hashtag, such as your channel name + “Giveaway” for easier tracking of participants. It will also be a great strategy for branding.

11. Set clear goals and work on achieving them

To be a successful streamer, you must set clear goals for your streaming career and carefully come up with a plan that’ll help you achieve results. Aspire to maximize your channel’s audience reach from day one. Outlining your main objective will help you focus on what you prioritize for your channel or wish to achieve, either impressions or engagements.

Howevr, you must not set unrealistic goals if you’re barely starting out in your journey. Make sure your goals are attainable— so you can measure your progress from time to time to see if you are getting there.

It may also help to put a time frame on your objectives, so you’ll have a grasp on the time you need to achieve such goals. Do not be too harsh on yourself, okay?

12. Stick to a consistent schedule

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Another way to be discovered by new audiences is to follow a consistent streaming schedule. If you follow an exact time and day when you’ll be online and live, it’s easier for your followers to check out your livestreams every time.

You can also share your stream schedule on social media as a way of self-promotion. Interested viewers will then have an idea what time or what day of the week should they tune in for your streams.

Once you’ve set up a schedule that works, considering your other day to day activities, do your best to stream consistently. The last thing viewers want is to follow a content creator that’s prone to disappear every once in a while.

13. Study other streamers

If you feel like you’re not gaining any engagement despite your promotion efforts, it might help to check out other streamers and figure out what makes them successful in the industry

In general, gaming streams follow a standard proven format but other categories are still pretty open to various approaches. This gives content creators a bit of freedom to think about their strategies.

Regardless, it doesn’t hurt to check out what approach other successful streamers follow. You might learn a thing or two from their broadcasts, which may just lead your content to be discovered! Quality live streams are what viewers appreciate the most.

14. Prioritize your branding

If you use clunky overlays or poor-quality graphics for your streams, this might have a negative effect on your branding as a content creator. Bad branding is something you’d want to stray away from, especially if you’re aiming to make it among the streaming A-listers.

Keep in mind that first impressions are important. These elements are usually what your viewers see first before they even see you and your gameplays/content.

Hence, having seamless scene switching transitions, a personalized logo and other animated effects will undoubtedly impress your viewers. Score those awesome points and take them away!

15. Be genuine

A good rule of thumb as a streamer is to just be yourself. As you do the stuff you like such as playing games or talking to your audience, it’s also ideal that you have fun while doing it.

The adage ‘fake it until you make it’ only gets you so far. Trust us, your viewers can recognize whether you’re truly passionate about what you do or you’re just forced into doing it.

Having genuine intentions in your streaming endeavors can entice new audiences into checking out your other content and channel. Watching a genuine talent is considerably a breath of fresh air on the internet, so make it a goal to become one!

16. Be proud of your work

Viewers tend to stay away from self-deprecating streamers, especially when they make it seem like they’re not proud of their content. Never say something like “my gameplay is trash,” or something along those lines. It only shows possible insecurities and an inferiority complex.

Your streams are a product of effort and hard work, hence it deserves any attention it gets. Try to be proud of your content instead of dragging your spirits down.

If an aspiring streamer doesn’t have any pride in what they post, chances are no one else will. Instead of wallowing in self pity, you can say “Check out my recent stream, I worked really hard on it” instead. The tone commands more respect from  your audience.

17. Make use of live notifications

Live notifications are there for a reason, where your followers will get an alert whenever you go live. This can help you build your brand in the long run.

Don’t forget to remind your viewers to stay updated with live notifications during your broadcasts. Mention it whenever you have breaks in between gameplays, or whenever you need to feel the gap for IRL streams. For instance, typing !notify in the live chat notifies a viewer regarding a streamer’s particular live streams on Facebook.

If you want to wait for organic promotions when viewers are going to promote in your place, it might  take an enormous time as a small streamer. Most likely, you may even get bored before this happens.

18. Be a part of the community

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Explicitly doing self-promotions on any platform can be generally considered rude. However, you can do your part by becoming a part of the community first before you do any promotion.

Remember to be an active, positive member of the particular community you are aiming to join. This will give you the chance to be a part of the conversation easier.

If you’ve built a positive reputation for yourself, chances are more people are likely to check out your channel and content for themselves. They might even decide to give you a follow or a donation if they’re feeling generous.

19. Do all necessary preparations

Every streamer must aim to impress their viewers. This doesn’t have to be solely in the form of having expensive, state-of-the art equipment, as you can impress your viewers by doing a little bit of preparation.

Before you go live, make sure that everything around you is in order. Your connection must be ideally stable as you wouldn’t want to deal with network connectivity problems in the middle of your stream.

You can set up a work area that’s exclusive for your streaming activities, jot down key things you want to follow in your stream, and set specific timings as a structure for your entire broadcast. A little bit of preparation on your part can save you.

20. Give your viewers a reason to come back for more

Once you figure out what makes you unique and different from the rest— there’s no stopping you from using that as your trump card.

Remember what League of Legends’ K/DA recently sang? “You look like you could use some more.” This exact mantra will help you give your viewers a solid reason to keep tuning in to your livestreams.

Think of what you can offer your viewers that other streamers don’t have, and work on enhancing that. Merely interacting with your live audience won’t suffice. You must also work on finding other ways to strengthen those connections and relationships.

Self-promotion on Discord

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We would’ve added Discord as a part of the 20 tips mentioned above, but the opportunity present in the platform calls for a separate header for an extensive discussion.

In particular, the instant messaging and digital distribution platform has a number of servers designed for your self-promotion needs. Once you join these servers and read their community guidelines, you can distinguish whether or not channel links and advertising posts are allowed on the said server.

Some servers are more lax than others— which is something you need to keep in mind. The last thing you’d want is for your account to be flagged for violating a clear house rule.

Nowadays, Discord has become one of the most important platforms for aspiring streamers to be discovered by the community. Once you’ve built a decent number of audiences, you may even create and manage a Discord server of your own.

Most A-listers in the gaming/streaming community have a server for their audience to hang out in, which provides a great avenue for a beginner like you to promote your content and channel.

Unsolicited Self-Promotion

In general, unsolicited self-promotion is generally discouraged for beginner streamers. Doing bad self promos can ruin your reputation before you’ve even made a name for yourself.

There’s no rulebook to clearly distinguish bad self promos, but what you can do is to word and compose your promotion posts better.

For instance, don’t lurk on other established streamers’ live broadcasts and have an approach that suggests a tone of self-pity. Instead, try to ask them for good tips to follow if you’re aiming to become an affiliate or partner of your chosen live streaming platform.

It’s also not good to force others into following you back, even if you’ve followed them. Remember that it’s entirely up to them if they want to stay updated with your content. What you can do is to ask them to check out your channel if they have the time in a nice, polite manner.

Bottomline

At the end of the day, it’s not forbidden to self-promote as long as you don’t violate any community guidelines.

Solely depending on your channel’s organic growth is generally slow, which is pretty much the same thing for every streamer out there— unless you happen to go viral in a day or are extremely talented.

A little self promo never hurt nobody, just make sure to do it as polite and proper as you can.

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Featured image from Blinkx_ on Twitch

The post Self-Promotion for Streamers: 20 Tips for Getting Your Streams Discovered appeared first on CTRL+Zed.

One thing to keep in mind if you want to become a successful Twitch streamer is: you’re not solely limited to doing game streams.

One genre that’s gaining traction on the popular live streaming platform is Just Chatting, where streamers talk to their audience and do anything under the sun (which includes dancing or singing).

If you’re aiming to stream IRL content on Twitch, here are some beginner-friendly tips to keep in mind:

1. Find a way to fill in the gaps

For many aspiring streamers, it’ll be quite a challenge to talk nonstop for hours especially if you only have a limited audience at present. To avoid awkward pauses and gaps, it’s best to prepare a list of possible topics to talk about ahead of time.

Search about relevant, trending topics that you believe would entice more viewers to join the conversation. Getting your audience engaged in a conversation is key if you want to broadcast long Just Chatting streams.  You can also choose to prepare talking points, not necessarily a script but a short guide on ready content threads.

2. Build a show

Think of your Just Chatting broadcast as a TV show, assigning different segments so the livestream has solid structure. Most viewers wouldn’t want to watch hours-long live broadcasts that’s very random and unorganized.

When preparing for your stream structure, consider your intended schedule so as not to overextend or run short of segments for your stream of the day. However, do keep in mind that these plans are subject to change once you go live.

If you happen to stumble across technical difficulties or any problems, adjust your plans accordingly.

3. Be consistent

When it comes to Just Chatting streams, you need to establish your branding as a Twitch streamer as early as you can. This will help you distinguish and make yourself unique especially with hundreds of other aspiring streamers on the platform.

Hence, make it a goal to keep everything consistent— from your tone of voice to banner overlays and logos. Like many other things in life, consistency is key.

4. Be creative with titles

Stream titles are often overlooked by many content creators, but it’s actually one important element that can help your Twitch career take off at some point. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your stream titles!

For instance, make it intriguing enough to convince people to click and check out your video. Be funny and witty! Don’t stray away too much and make it irrelevant to what you’re actually doing in your live stream though.

5. Pick a good thumbnail

Before you select your stream thumbnail, it’s ideal to ask the opinion and comments of others first. Your goal should be selecting a strong thumbnail image that will stand out from the crowd.

Remember that there are hundreds of other Just Chatting streams on Twitch. It’s easy for new, potential viewers to scroll past your live broadcast if you don’t make your thumbnails compelling enough.

6. Just keep talking

There will come a point in your Just Chatting stream where you’ll feel like you’ve run out of things to talk about. Don’t worry, that’s just normal. Plenty of other content creators in the same category also feel the same way.

One solution to this predicament is to just always be talking. Aside from preparing a list of possible topics to talk about, you can keep your stream going by interacting with your viewers by asking questions, telling personal funny stories, or sharing what happened to your day.

7. Don’t shoo away lurkers

There’s no need to feel self-conscious if an overwhelming amount of your viewers end up lurking in your livestream. This is actually quite normal among many content creators, with the majority of their audience preferring to chill and lowkey lurk in the background as streamers do their thing (whether Just Chatting or play video games).

Although reminding them to be active in the chat or to give your channel a follow is ideal, be careful not to overdo it. The last thing you’d want is to force your audience into doing stuff all for the benefit of your channel growth.

8. Master the art of improvisation

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Just Chatting on Twitch has a very improvised nature compared to traditional gameplay streams. When doing streams under this category, aspiring streamers are allowed to do anything they want on camera as long as it follows the platform’s Terms of Service.

It features a great opportunity for new talents to stand out with their extraordinary improv skills. At the same time, it also gives a way to stay more connected with one’s growing following.

9. Use clips for promotions

If you have funny highlights and interesting moments from your Just Chatting streams, simply save a clip and use it to promote your channel across social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.

This is a great way to lure new and interested viewers to check out your live broadcasts, as you are showing them some of the footage they might witness when they decide to tune in.

You may also include some behind-the-scenes (BTS) footage of your Just Chatting streams.

10. Befriend other Just Chatting streamers

Instead of considering other streamers in the same category as your rivals, you should instead consider them as possible friends who can help you succeed in the industry.

Keep an eye out for other Twitch streamers with similar content, you may even learn a thing or two from them. Making friends with other Just Chatting streamers on Twitch may just give you the right connections you need to succeed in the platform.

11. Do self-promotions

Remember: you’re not solely limited to promoting on Twitch alone. Social media is a great tool to widen your audience reach and increase your online presence— hence you should use it to your advantage.

Be creative in promoting your scheduled Just Chatting streams on your social media accounts like Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter. Keep in mind that you only have one shot at making a good first impression as a content creator on the internet. For instance, you may attach a current taken selfie (if you’re comfortable) or fun video clips.

12. Reach out to your community

Keep engaged with your audience even after your streams are over. You may choose to take the conversation and discussion in a private Discord server or on Twitter where you can still keep in touch with some of your loyal followers.

Engaging with your viewers as much as possible is a great way to form a lasting connection with them. By giving them your precious time, they may just find a good reason to keep supporting you in your career.

13. Showcase your talents

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If you have hidden talents, Just Chatting streams prove to be a great avenue for you to showcase your skills and share them with the world! This includes Photoshop editing, drawing and Illustrator skills or playing musical instruments.

You may also jump on the trend of Mukbang (eating) or cooking shows, where streamers eat large quantities of scrumptious food in front of the camera and engage with their viewers while finishing their meal.

If you’re a pop culture aficionado, you might also consider doing streams about movie, book, or game reviews. Fellow like-minded individuals are most likely to check out your streams if you shoot your shot well.

14. Be genuine

As the adage goes, fake it ’til you make it— however, faking your interest and enthusiasm in “talking” would just bring up more problems on your part as a Just Chatting streamer in the long run. Keep in mind that you’ll have to talk quite a lot in your livestreams, usually for hours.

If you’re aiming to be successful in the industry, start by being genuine in front of the camera. Let your audience feel your sincerity in your streaming endeavors. Being interactive is a great strategy, hence try to talk more about yourself if you’re just starting your career.

Viewers who watch new streamers with a relatively small viewer count are typically those who want interaction or connection with someone new. Tell some interesting stuff about yourself, your hobbies or goals. More people will likely be compelled to jump in the conversation if you do.

15. Ignore malicious trolls

Let’s face it, there is no end in sight for Twitch trolls. Every streamer on the platform gets their fair share every now and then, and beginner streamers are not exempted to their nuisance.

As a content creator, you must learn to roll with it and practice the art of ignoring trolls in your chat. You have the option to mute/ban if necessary, especially if things start to go awry. It’s easier said than done but you mustn’t let these online trolls get to you.

Being a Just Chatting streamer where you have to adlib most of the time and go with impromptu discussions, don’t let a troll ruin your online conversation with your audience. Choose to ignore malicious live comments, as they don’t deserve any of your attention or time anyway.

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Featured image from inzaynia on Twitch

The post 15 Tips for your Just Chatting Twitch Streams appeared first on CTRL+Zed.

Everybody has several games that mean quite a lot to them. For me, one of these games is Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. I not only grew up with this game, but I also have a lot of memories of this game. Outside of that, I also met some amazing friends through the community behind this game. I even did several speedruns of this game, and I’m an active member of the community. Now, color me surprised that 25 years after the release of this game, we got new fan-made content for this game. Not just fan made content in the style of fan patches to solve bugs with the game, a whole new level and promises of a level editor to create even more new custom content. This blew me off my socks and in today’s article I want to talk about it. So strap in and let’s get ready to play new content for one of the best Indiana Jones games ever made.

The new level – SED

There is a speedrunning discord server for this game. Well, it was a speedrunning discord server but for a few years now, this server has grown into a server of people who appreciate this game. If you want to join this discord, here is an invite link. When the server started to grow, several modders joined our server. One of these modders is going under the name of Urgon (currently) and what we didn’t know is that he was decompiling the whole game. Not only that, he was creating a level editor based upon an existing level editor.

This existing level editor is for Star Wars Jedi Knight & Mysteries of the Sith. Those games used an engine that formed the basis for the Jones3D engine. While he was developing that editor, he tested his skills by creating a new level. So, basically, parts of this new level are tests of the new level editor and what you can do with it.

Now, information about this new level and the download link can be found at this GitHub repository. If you want to download the actual level, you have to go to this page and click the green button named “Code”. In that dropdown, you can choose “download zip”. You’ll need that later if you want to install/play this custom level. Now, if you read the pre-mod or the installation instructions for this level, you might feel overwhelmed if you aren’t very technically inclined. That’s why two community members wrote two special tools to aid you in preparing your game.

You might ask yourself, like Klamath did in at the end of our stream of this custom level, why are there two tools for basically the same? Well, let me tell you the history about it. When I wanted to play the custom level, I had a bit of trouble myself while figuring out the tutorial. I also found that the required steps were quite a lot to do. So, I decided to start writing a PowerShell script that did all the steps. I announced that in the Indy3D discord that I was writing this. When I almost completed my tool, the_Kovic dropped his version of the tool.

Personally, I didn’t want to throw my work out the window and continued finishing my GUI version. When I finished, I didn’t convert my tool to an EXE and left it just as a script file you could run using a command line or a code editor. The next day, Kovic released a GUI version of his tool and I gave some feedback on his tool. In the days after that, I created an EXE version of my tool and we both kept adding features in our tool. He wrote his tool in C#, which is a bit friendlier to create an EXE. If I didn’t release my first version as a script only and converted it to an EXE, I think it might have been less overwhelming for people.

That said, Kovic thanked me for creating my tool since like he said on our stream: “It put my butt into gear to create a tool and write a GUI, which I normally don’t write“. On top of that, our tools aren’t meant to compete with each other. I can’t write C# and Kovic can’t write PowerShell. And it would be a shame to just delete work because somebody else was quicker or made their tool more user-friendly first. The result now is that we both have two very strong tools with a very similar, maybe even completely the same, feature set.

Outside a different choice of coding language, the biggest differences between both our tools are under the hood. In Kovic’s tool, you get more files than in my tool when you download the tool. And that’s because to prepare your game for custom levels, you need to extract several files in the resource folder. The tool used for extraction has a bug where instead of extracting the folders of the archive into the resource folder, it extracts them into separate folders, like if you would extract a zip file. Kovic packs a modified version of this extraction tool so that part of the process goes a bit faster. In my version, the tool just downloads the latest official versions of the tool and prepare the game that way.

In the end, both our tools give you the same end result. They prepare your game to install custom levels and play them. If you want to try out the_kovic’s tool, you can find the latest version on this releases page. If you want to try our my tool, you can find it on this releases page. Feedback to our tools is always welcome! If you find an issue or if you have an idea, feel free to hit us up, and we will look into it.

Earlier I talked about a stream of the level we did. Klamath, the_Kovic and me did a live stream where we played through this level. Now, I have to emphasize that release of this level is an impressive technical achievement. Creating a level for a 3D game isn’t easy and requires a lot of work. It’s even more impressive when you know that not everything is documented about the engine, and you have to decompile a lot of it. In the next part of this article, I’m going to talk about the level itself and critique it.

If you don’t want spoilers, I’d advise you to skip that section for now and come back later. Now, I want to say that I start reviewing the level in a moment, but this feedback is mostly meant for people who want to make new custom content. What did this new level do right and wrong if you look at it as a player who doesn’t know the technical background of this level? This isn’t meant to break down the amazing work the modders did to make this work.

Reviewing the new level

Editorial note: this review will spoil quite a lot. If you don’t want to get spoiled, you have to skip this section of the article. This isn’t a walkthrough of the level either. Some sections are skipped, I’m only going to talk about the sections I want to talk about.

The new level takes place 25 years after the ending of the original game. Indy returns to his Canyonlands dig site. You are set loose at the tent where Sophia picked Indy up with a helicopter to start the Infernal Machine adventure.

In terms of new content, there isn’t a lot new to see. Some ladders are missing and some parts of the level are blocked off. Also, all treasures are missing that you would usually find in the level.

Before I continue, I want to mention that some parts of this level are made quite difficult on purpose. The developer wanted to give us the feeling we were young kids again, playing this game for the first time, and have us figure out the new puzzles by ourselves. Yet, finding a correct balance between difficulty and unfair is a very fine line to thread. Personally, I think that in some sections, the developer crossed the line into unfair level design.

When running on the top section, you notice that there are some new voice lines. These voice lines are made possible with a voice cloning AI tool that was trained on lines from Doug Lee, the original voice actor for this game. The new voice lines sound amazing, and if you didn’t know better, you’d think that Doug Lee came back to record the new lines. In most cases, these voice lines really fit Indy’s personality and fit right into the game.

We come to our first snag when we want to go to the new content. I can understand not seeing the shovel and being confused, since it’s hanging at the jeep on top. And you know what’s even more confusing, the other side of the jeep model has a shovel in its texture! Anyhow, when you pick up the shovel and dig up the Infernal Machine part, it’s clear that you need to break a wall. Here comes one of the worst parts of this level. The location of this cracked wall is insanely well hidden. It’s in one of the last places you’d look, and several of the first players ran around for hours upon hours in Canyonlands before it was found. And when it was found, it made us annoyed.

It’s a clear example of how players who are used to the level, overlooking the obvious. The wall you need to break has an actual cracked wall texture, but it’s behind something you can’t see through. I think it would have been fine if the location, where it is at, had a bigger ledge so you’d notice it somewhat instead of just having to go on a wild goose chase.

Now, we enter the new area. We come to a big open space where the next set of puzzles are. The first puzzle is actually a jumping puzzle. Now, I highly advise you to not play this level if you haven’t played through most of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Not that there are spoilers, but because some of the jumps in this level are straight up difficult and not what you really expect from this game. Kovic calls it “Kaizo Jones” for a good reason.

There are some small platforms and not having the look key working is going to be a pain in this section. Since, there are some moments where you need to be able to free look and not being able to see beneath or above you will make things a lot more tricky. After you finished these jumps, you might start to notice that the developer of this custom level added some details. Like, the rope bridges are gently moving in the wind. This is something that isn’t present in the original game. It’s a new “COG” script that makes that possible.

These cog scripts are a blessing for custom content. Since, this game isn’t hardcoded at all, so if you learn how to write these cog scripts, you can basically write new mechanics as well. It’s insane what possibilities there are going to be in the future for this game. I hope there is going to be good documentation so that custom level creaters know what’s possible and what’s impossible with the level editor.

While you are exploring this area, you notice that it’s huge. This also explains why it takes quite a while to load this level. Currently, modders are looking into why it’s running so slow. Since, we don’t really know if it’s the level size or something else slowing down the loading of this level.

So, after jumping around the central column, you’ll arive at the shed. Here you notice you can actually enter the shed from the top. Kovic explains it quite well during the stream. If you want to hear some technical explanations on how this level works, I’d advice you to watch our stream. Since there is a lot of interesting development talk in there. Later, Kovic and myself had a contest in trying to quote voice lines from the main game. We got close to 200. Kovic won that because I said a line he already said.

After you picked up everything from this shed and climbed outside, you experience another new mechanic of this game. It’s a mechanic that gets backported from Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb. The fact you can use your whip to go over a zipline.

After you returned and struggled with getting across the other bridge, you will encounter other parts of this level. Here you’ll encounter two voice lines that straight up lie to you. The first voice line is that you need more force, explosives to break a rock that’s blocking your way forwards. Here is the issue with that, you get an explosive barrel later. You need to find an extremely hidden swim tunnel in the water. It’s not the only hidden thing in the water, so investigate behind and underneath rocks quite well. Since, these puzzles in this water border in the unfair territory. What makes that explosive voice line even more evil is that there is a box of TNT in the shed earlier. But what’s the second voice line that lies to you?

Well, that is after you made your way past said boulder. You find a minecart and interacting with it, Indy says that it will run with gasoline. And there is still gasoline left in the shed. Sadly, you can’t pick it up anymore. Now, this is a red haring, you don’t need this minecart at all.

By now, you have learned that this level likes to break the rules of how the main game is designed. You’ll have to think outside of the box sometimes to beat this level. But, for some jumps, you need to use your knowledge of what’s possible and impossible to progress. This makes it quite tricky sometimes to progress. And this brings me to a conclusion we also said on stream. I think that the issue is that people expected a more tame level than what we actually got and that might turn some people off. But, I’m so glad that the quick save system exists in this game. So, abuse the quick save system and make multiple saves since you’ll need them if you aren’t a veteran player of this game.

Anyhow, let’s get back into the flow of the level. After we completed the lever puzzle, we go back towards to the huge open area and take the lift to a new location. What follows is a totally new area where it’s a good thing if you saved up on health packs and you have a great sense of direction.

So, the short minecart ridge comes to an end. It doesn’t take long before you find yourself into a watermaze. This watermaze is unfair in my honest opinion. Klamath had a tricky time solving it and he had to use almost every health pack to get through it. Without Kovic pointing out the right tunnel, I think it would have made the stream quite a bit longer. There was supposed to be a minecart section instead of this swimming maze, but the developer had a hard time making the minecart section to work and he gave up and made this swimming maze.

Now, I’m all fine with this swimming maze, but the map glitches out at certain parts. I have a mediocre sense of direction and I wanted to rely on the map. The map doesn’t always render the tunnels correctly. You sometimes swim off the map or “in nothingness”. Sadly, I have to draw my own map. I wish I still had it, since it would make for a nice screenshot here… But I threw it out but me and my clumsiness… I knocked over my waterbottle over it.

After the swimming maze, we get a new section of “Kaizo Jones”. Where we get some extremely tricky platforming. Here is where you need to use the look key again and be sure you are playing in 4:3. If you are playing in another resolution like 16:9 or 16:10, this will also be one of the moments where you don’t see all the information.

The block puzzle that follows, feels right out of Tomb Raider. The initial reviews of this game called out this game as a Tomb Raider clone. While, this game does the formula a whole lot differently. We even talked about that during the stream. In terms of theming, Infernal Machine is a lot better. Tomb Raider feels like obstacle courses. But that’s thanks to a different engine and control style. If you want to hear the whole discussion, you can watch the stream from this point. Excuse Kovic’s internet being spotty while he was replying.

After the block puzzle, a new path opens in the swim maze. Then, some platforming comes. Something I love is how there is even a troll hidden inside the platforming. It caught me off guard and made me smile. This platforming section was also love to do. It felt like a real test on how well I know the game. This platforming section feels a lot better put together and feel less cryptic on where you need to go next. You really start to notice that the developer was getting more used to the level editor and made better puzzles. The moment of having to use the whip to swing over the gap while the platform underneath you was breaking was amazing.

After that, we get into the finale of this level. We jump into a portal and we land in a playable area which is shown at the end of Shambala, the 4th level in the original game. That area that’s shown to you after you have beaten the Ice Guardian. The path that takes you to Palawan Lagoon. It was possible to explore that using cheats and modified saves, but now it’s in a level for real. Exploring the little house at the end brings us to something you totally don’t expect this custom level to do. You’ll find a parchment inside with a riddle and at the end you notice something in red saying: “MAT -> ZIP”.

There is some meta gaming now going on. You’ll need to make a hard save and exit your game. You’ll need to go to your resource folder & then open the MAT folder. In there you’ll need to rename “SED.MAT” to “SED.ZIP”. You’ll also need to enter the password for the zip, since you get a new cog script to continue the level, which you need to place in your cog folder. In there, there is another surprise. But, that’s something I’m not going to spoil. But, be sure that Kovic is playing with that surprise and maybe I’m going to dig into it. PS, the next paragraph is in white with the right spelling of the password:

Marcus

The way the level ends is bittersweet. If you solve the final puzzle, something special happens and you can beat the level. You could argue that the ending of this level is “lazy” or “creative”… But, it’s an amazing way to wrap up the story in one level with a nice bow.

At the start of the custom level, I felt that it was quite rough around the edges and it had some moments that felt badly designed. In terms of game design that is. If you look at it visually and level flow wise, I personally think that this level would fit right into the original game as a final challenge. But, the further you go into the level, the more you start to notice that the developer of this level is getting used to the tools and the editor and more polished puzzles and area’s are coming through. You notice the journey of the developer and see it becoming better and better.

I want to give a big congrats to everybody who was involved in releasing this custom level. It’s a blast to play and I can’t wait to see more custom levels. The stream I did with this level was one of the best streams ever and it was also quite a lot of fun to write the tool to help people play this custom level. I’m curious what you think about this custom level and/or the content of this article. Feel free to drop something in the comment section down below.

And with that, I have said everything I wanted to say about this for now. I want to thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to welcome you back in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

One of the announcements during TennoLive 2024 was that this year’s Dog Days summer event in Warframe would allow players to also earn pearls for assists! So now, Massively OP’s MJ doesn’t have to try and snipe kills from her friends. (Let’s be real: They are more likely sniping from her!) Either way, this means […]

It’s easy like Sunday morning on OPTV’s Eorzea Sunday, as MOP’s Chris and his crew will be leaping in to the random draw that is the daily roulettes of Final Fantasy XIV… though the Trial run could prove to be spicy. Either way, tune in today at 2:00 p.m. EDT for some friendly banter during […]

It’s been a tad bit since Massively OP’s MJ was able to make a little progress toward crafting her own personal planet in Planet Crafter. But now that she moved to a valley with resources just strewn about, she’s hoping to make a bigger dent in it. Perhaps she’ll even get to making a rocket! […]

With a little bit of grinding, Massively OP’s MJ was able to make it high enough to finally enter the newest dungeons in AdventureQuest 3D. But just before she could embark on those adventures, something completely new was tossed in her way. Now she wants to investigate a surprise waiting for her in the daily […]

Cozy huts. Witchy things. Farming. The game Spellfarers seems to tick a lot of boxes for MOP’s Chris. Also, it’s free-to-play. So all told, it’s worth a quick peek! Join him today at 2:00 p.m. EDT as he peers in to this newly released early access multiplayer life sim! What: Spellfarers Who: Chris Neal When: […]

Twitch could be considering a further wave of redundancies.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the streaming giant is demonstrating slowing user growth, intimating more cuts may be ahead.

If true, these cuts will come on top of layoffs in March 2023, October 2023, and January 2024, during which at least 900 people were let go.

Read more

Streaming giant Twitch has updated its policies on sexual harassment.

Twitch said it was "making some clarifications to our sexual harassment policy and sharing more about a new AutoMod category designed to flag chat messages that may contain sexual harassment."

"While our policy remains largely unchanged, these updates are designed to make the policy easier to understand," the team explained.

Read more

About Poppo Live | Earn Using Poppo Live

Poppo Live operates as a live streaming platform, driven by a noble mission to bring together people from various countries, fostering genuine connections and nurturing a delightful and engaging entertainment hub. Their ultimate aim is to help countless regular individuals achieve their dream of becoming online stars through dedicated and ongoing endeavors.

What Can I do On Poppo?

Jude Law and a group of newcomers are here for a brand-new rendition of Star Wars.

Let’s dive into everything we know about the Star Wars: Skeleton Crew release date, cast, and what we can expect from this story. Also, take a peek at the trailer above.

Move over Olympics, there’s a new game in town. If you’ve been eagerly waiting to watch your favorite die-for-money, get-killed-for-sport game show (I know I have), then we’ve got great news in store for you. Also, have a look at the date announcement above — for a little peek at what’s to come.

Read on to find out everything we know about the Squid Game season 2 release date, plot speculations, and cast additions.

Squid Game season 2 release date

Mark your calendars, because Squid Game Season 2 is scheduled to premiere on December 26, 2024. This Christmas gift from Netflix comes more than three years after the first season debuted in September 2021.

Squid Game cast

Season 2 will feature a mix of familiar faces and new additions to the cast. Returning stars include Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun (Player 456), Lee Byung-hun as the Front Man, Gong Yoo as the Recruiter, and Wi Ha-jun as Hwang Jun-ho.

New cast members joining the series include Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Park Sung-hoon, Jo Yu-ri, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Lee Jin-uk, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, and Won Ji-an.

What to expect from Squid Game season 2

In the first season, we were introduced to Seong Gi-hun, a divorced chauffeur and gambling addict struggling with debt. He, along with 455 other cash-strapped contestants, accepted an invitation to compete in a mysterious survival game with a grand prize of 45.6 billion won (approximately $38 million USD). The games, based on traditional Korean children’s games, turned deadly as losers faced fatal consequences.

After surviving the brutal competition and emerging as the winner, Gi-hun was left traumatized and conflicted about using his newfound wealth. The season ended with him making a last-minute decision to stay in Korea and confront the game’s organizers, rather than boarding a flight to see his daughter in the United States.

Now clearly, season 2 will follow Gi-hun’s quest for answers and justice.

According to the official synopsis, “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway.”

Gi-hun’s pursuit of the truth will not be easy — how is that fun? The synopsis continues, “But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.”

Can we expect another round of intense, life-or-death games, possibly with Gi-hun participating once again? This time with the goal of exposing and destroying the organization from within, of course.

Front Man is back, so maybe we’ll be seeing more of the game’s inner workings and hierarchy. We may learn more about his backstory and how he came to oversee the games after being a previous winner himself.

New cast members are joining, so it’s very likely that fresh characters will bring their own stories and motivations to the series. These new players will likely face the same brutal challenges and moral dilemmas that made the first season so compelling.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk has promised that the new season will be worth the wait. Enough said.

Where to watch Squid Game season 2

Squid Game Season 2 will be exclusively available on Netflix. As with the first season, it’s likely that all episodes will be released at once, for you to binge-watch.

Netflix has also announced that a third and final season of Squid Game is planned for release in 2025, so you have even more to look forward to in the future.

FAQs

We’re back with a new list of movies to catch up on this weekend. We have a long-awaited Zendaya starrer and a very interesting horror movie. 

The best new streaming movies this week

• Tarot
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Knox Goes Away
• Borderless Fog
• Challengers

Tarot – August 1, Netflix

• Release date: May 3, 2024
• Genre: Horror
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Spenser Cohen
• Cast: Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, Jacob Batalon, Humberly González, Wolfgang Novogratz, Larsen Thompson

A group of friends carelessly breaks a sacred rule during a tarot card reading, unknowingly unleashing an evil entity trapped within the cursed cards. As they start dying one by one in mysterious and frightening ways, they realize they’re in a desperate race against time. Each friend faces their nightmare based on the tarot card they drew.

The movie aims for suspense and scares, relying heavily on jump scares and an eerie atmosphere.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – August 2, Hulu

• Release date: August 2, 2024 
• Genre: Action, Adventure
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Wes Ball
• Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Eka Darville, Travis Jeffery

Set 300 years after the previous films, this movie shows a world where apes have become the dominant species and humans are considered wild creatures. A young chimpanzee named Noa starts a dangerous journey to rescue his clan after they’re kidnapped by a tyrannical ape ruler named Proximus Caesar.

Along the way, Noa befriends a human girl who can speak and a wise orangutan who teaches him about the legendary ape leader Caesar.

Knox Goes Away – July 26, Max

• Release date: March 15, 2024 
• Genre: Crime, Thriller
• Rating: R
• Director: Michael Keaton
• Cast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, Marcia Gay Harden, James Marsden, Suzy Nakamura, Joanna Kulig, Ray McKinnon

Michael Keaton stars as Knox, a skilled hitman diagnosed with dementia. As his memories begin to slip away, Knox’s estranged son Miles shows up at his door, covered in blood after killing his teenage daughter’s adult abuser. Desperate to help his son before losing his mind completely, Knox uses his criminal expertise to cover up the crime.

With a detective closing in and his mind deteriorating, Knox races against time to protect his son and possibly find redemption.

Borderless Fog – August 1, Netflix

• Release date: August 1, 2024 
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
• Rating: TV-MA
• Director: Edwin
• Cast: Putri Marino, Yoga Pratama, Lukman Sardi, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin, Yusuf Mahardika, Kiki Narendra, Siti Fauziah

This Indonesian thriller follows Detective Sanja, a skilled investigator from Jakarta, as she’s assigned to a perplexing case in the remote border region between Indonesia and Malaysia.
The case becomes more complicated as it ties into human trafficking operations and corruption among local officials.

Adding to the intrigue is the presence of a malevolent forest spirit that seems to be influencing events. Sanja must navigate unfamiliar territory, both literally and figuratively, as she investigates a series of gruesome murders.

Challengers – July 29, MGM Plus

• Release date: April 26, 2024 
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Rating: R
• Director: Luca Guadagnino
• Cast: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, Darnell Appling, Bryan Doo, Shane T Harris, Nada Despotovich

Set in the high-stakes world of professional tennis, this movie centers on a love triangle between three characters. Zendaya plays Tashi, a former tennis prodigy whose promising career was cut short by an injury. She’s now married to Art, a once-gifted player now struggling on the pro circuit. The third point of the triangle is Patrick, Art’s childhood friend and former tennis rival.

The narrative jumps between different periods, revealing how their relationships and tennis careers have intertwined and complicated over the years. As Art and Patrick face off in an important tournament, with Tashi coaching her husband, past tensions and unresolved feelings resurface.

What was new and worth watching over the last month

Here’s a quick roundup of our previous lists, if you missed them. Also, if you’re in the mood for something else this weekend, we have a list of streaming shows to cater to that.

Find Me Falling – July 19, Netflix

• Release date: July 19. 2024
• Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance
• Rating: TV-MA
• Director: Stelana Kliris
• Cast: Harry Connick Jr., Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Clarence Smith, Athina Roditou, Antonis Katsaris, Andreas Phylactou

Set against the stunning backdrop of Cyprus, this romantic drama follows John Allman, a famous but burnt-out rockstar seeking solitude. He purchases a cliffside house, hoping for peace, but instead discovers it’s a notorious suicide spot. As John grapples with this morbid revelation, he reconnects with Sia, a local doctor and former flame.

The film interweaves themes of second chances, family dynamics, and the healing power of music, all while John tries to prevent more tragedies at his new home. The story promises a unique blend of romance, personal redemption, and unexpectedly dark undertones in a picturesque Mediterranean setting.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – July 22, Netflix

• Release date: March 22, 2024
• Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Gil Kenan
• Cast: Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Dan Aykroyd, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt

This latest installment in the beloved franchise sees the Spengler family relocating to New York City. They join forces with the original Ghostbusters team to face a chilling new threat. An ancient evil entity named Garraka, capable of freezing the entire world, has been unleashed.

The film promises a mix of nostalgia and fresh energy as the multi-generational team races against time to prevent a new Ice Age. Expect a blend of spooky comedy, state-of-the-art special effects, and callbacks to the original films.

The Commandant’s Shadow – July 18, Max

• Release date: June 13, 2024
• Genre: Documentary
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Daniela Völker
• Cast: Hans-Jürgen Höss, Kai Höss, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Maya Lasker-Wallfisch

This documentary tells the story of Rudolf Höss, infamous commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, from the perspective of his descendants. The film centers on Hans Jürgen Hoss, Rudolf’s son, now in his late 80s, as he reflects on his childhood spent living next to the concentration camp.

Interwoven with Hans’ story is that of his own son, Kai, a pastor grappling with his family’s notorious history. The documentary also features Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, an Auschwitz survivor, and her daughter Maya, exploring how trauma is passed down through generations on both sides. Through intimate interviews and archival footage, the film examines guilt, denial, and the ongoing impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations, raising profound questions about how we confront and process historical atrocities.

Love Lies Bleeding – July 19, Max

• Release date: March 8, 2024
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
• Rating: R
• Director: Rose Glass
• Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Orion Carrington

This neo-noir thriller takes place in a gritty New Mexico town in the year 1989 and revolves around Lou, who is a gym manager involved in an endless cycle of violence and small-town boredom. However, her life turns dramatically when Jackie, a bodybuilder heading to Las Vegas for a contest comes into her life. The two quickly become heavily attracted to each other — this blossoms into an affair based on mutual goals, steeped in desire.

This film promises a gritty, visceral exploration of passion, power, and what one can do to escape circumstances.

Femme – July 23, Hulu

• Release date: December 1, 2023
• Genre: Thriller
• Rating: N.A.
• Director: Sam H. Freeman
• Cast: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay, Antonia Clarke, Moe Bar-El, Nima Taleghani, John Leader, Aaron Heffernan

This psychological thriller tells the story of Jules, a talented drag performer whose life is ruined by a brutal homophobic assault. Preston, his attacker, meanwhile struggles with the fact that he himself is gay. Seizing this opportunity, Jules initiates a sexual relationship with Preston, initially motivated by revenge.

However, as their intimacy deepens, the lines between vengeance, attraction, and understanding begin to blur. The film explores complex themes of identity, masculinity, and the cyclical nature of violence, all while maintaining a taut, suspenseful atmosphere.

Move over Olympics, there’s a new game in town. If you’ve been eagerly waiting to watch your favorite die-for-money, get-killed-for-sport game show (I know I have), then we’ve got great news in store for you. Also, have a look at the date announcement above — for a little peek at what’s to come.

Read on to find out everything we know about the Squid Game season 2 release date, plot speculations, and cast additions.

Squid Game season 2 release date

Mark your calendars, because Squid Game Season 2 is scheduled to premiere on December 26, 2024. This Christmas gift from Netflix comes more than three years after the first season debuted in September 2021.

Squid Game cast

Season 2 will feature a mix of familiar faces and new additions to the cast. Returning stars include Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun (Player 456), Lee Byung-hun as the Front Man, Gong Yoo as the Recruiter, and Wi Ha-jun as Hwang Jun-ho.

New cast members joining the series include Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Park Sung-hoon, Jo Yu-ri, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Lee Jin-uk, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, and Won Ji-an.

What to expect from Squid Game season 2

In the first season, we were introduced to Seong Gi-hun, a divorced chauffeur and gambling addict struggling with debt. He, along with 455 other cash-strapped contestants, accepted an invitation to compete in a mysterious survival game with a grand prize of 45.6 billion won (approximately $38 million USD). The games, based on traditional Korean children’s games, turned deadly as losers faced fatal consequences.

After surviving the brutal competition and emerging as the winner, Gi-hun was left traumatized and conflicted about using his newfound wealth. The season ended with him making a last-minute decision to stay in Korea and confront the game’s organizers, rather than boarding a flight to see his daughter in the United States.

Now clearly, season 2 will follow Gi-hun’s quest for answers and justice.

According to the official synopsis, “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway.”

Gi-hun’s pursuit of the truth will not be easy — how is that fun? The synopsis continues, “But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.”

Can we expect another round of intense, life-or-death games, possibly with Gi-hun participating once again? This time with the goal of exposing and destroying the organization from within, of course.

Front Man is back, so maybe we’ll be seeing more of the game’s inner workings and hierarchy. We may learn more about his backstory and how he came to oversee the games after being a previous winner himself.

New cast members are joining, so it’s very likely that fresh characters will bring their own stories and motivations to the series. These new players will likely face the same brutal challenges and moral dilemmas that made the first season so compelling.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk has promised that the new season will be worth the wait. Enough said.

Where to watch Squid Game season 2

Squid Game Season 2 will be exclusively available on Netflix. As with the first season, it’s likely that all episodes will be released at once, for you to binge-watch.

Netflix has also announced that a third and final season of Squid Game is planned for release in 2025, so you have even more to look forward to in the future.

FAQs

We’re back with a new list of movies to catch up on this weekend. We have a long-awaited Zendaya starrer and a very interesting horror movie. 

The best new streaming movies this week

• Tarot
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Knox Goes Away
• Borderless Fog
• Challengers

Tarot – August 1, Netflix

• Release date: May 3, 2024
• Genre: Horror
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Spenser Cohen
• Cast: Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, Jacob Batalon, Humberly González, Wolfgang Novogratz, Larsen Thompson

A group of friends carelessly breaks a sacred rule during a tarot card reading, unknowingly unleashing an evil entity trapped within the cursed cards. As they start dying one by one in mysterious and frightening ways, they realize they’re in a desperate race against time. Each friend faces their nightmare based on the tarot card they drew.

The movie aims for suspense and scares, relying heavily on jump scares and an eerie atmosphere.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – August 2, Hulu

• Release date: August 2, 2024 
• Genre: Action, Adventure
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Wes Ball
• Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy, Eka Darville, Travis Jeffery

Set 300 years after the previous films, this movie shows a world where apes have become the dominant species and humans are considered wild creatures. A young chimpanzee named Noa starts a dangerous journey to rescue his clan after they’re kidnapped by a tyrannical ape ruler named Proximus Caesar.

Along the way, Noa befriends a human girl who can speak and a wise orangutan who teaches him about the legendary ape leader Caesar.

Knox Goes Away – July 26, Max

• Release date: March 15, 2024 
• Genre: Crime, Thriller
• Rating: R
• Director: Michael Keaton
• Cast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, Marcia Gay Harden, James Marsden, Suzy Nakamura, Joanna Kulig, Ray McKinnon

Michael Keaton stars as Knox, a skilled hitman diagnosed with dementia. As his memories begin to slip away, Knox’s estranged son Miles shows up at his door, covered in blood after killing his teenage daughter’s adult abuser. Desperate to help his son before losing his mind completely, Knox uses his criminal expertise to cover up the crime.

With a detective closing in and his mind deteriorating, Knox races against time to protect his son and possibly find redemption.

Borderless Fog – August 1, Netflix

• Release date: August 1, 2024 
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
• Rating: TV-MA
• Director: Edwin
• Cast: Putri Marino, Yoga Pratama, Lukman Sardi, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin, Yusuf Mahardika, Kiki Narendra, Siti Fauziah

This Indonesian thriller follows Detective Sanja, a skilled investigator from Jakarta, as she’s assigned to a perplexing case in the remote border region between Indonesia and Malaysia.
The case becomes more complicated as it ties into human trafficking operations and corruption among local officials.

Adding to the intrigue is the presence of a malevolent forest spirit that seems to be influencing events. Sanja must navigate unfamiliar territory, both literally and figuratively, as she investigates a series of gruesome murders.

Challengers – July 29, MGM Plus

• Release date: April 26, 2024 
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Rating: R
• Director: Luca Guadagnino
• Cast: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, Darnell Appling, Bryan Doo, Shane T Harris, Nada Despotovich

Set in the high-stakes world of professional tennis, this movie centers on a love triangle between three characters. Zendaya plays Tashi, a former tennis prodigy whose promising career was cut short by an injury. She’s now married to Art, a once-gifted player now struggling on the pro circuit. The third point of the triangle is Patrick, Art’s childhood friend and former tennis rival.

The narrative jumps between different periods, revealing how their relationships and tennis careers have intertwined and complicated over the years. As Art and Patrick face off in an important tournament, with Tashi coaching her husband, past tensions and unresolved feelings resurface.

What was new and worth watching over the last month

Here’s a quick roundup of our previous lists, if you missed them. Also, if you’re in the mood for something else this weekend, we have a list of streaming shows to cater to that.

Find Me Falling – July 19, Netflix

• Release date: July 19. 2024
• Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance
• Rating: TV-MA
• Director: Stelana Kliris
• Cast: Harry Connick Jr., Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Clarence Smith, Athina Roditou, Antonis Katsaris, Andreas Phylactou

Set against the stunning backdrop of Cyprus, this romantic drama follows John Allman, a famous but burnt-out rockstar seeking solitude. He purchases a cliffside house, hoping for peace, but instead discovers it’s a notorious suicide spot. As John grapples with this morbid revelation, he reconnects with Sia, a local doctor and former flame.

The film interweaves themes of second chances, family dynamics, and the healing power of music, all while John tries to prevent more tragedies at his new home. The story promises a unique blend of romance, personal redemption, and unexpectedly dark undertones in a picturesque Mediterranean setting.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – July 22, Netflix

• Release date: March 22, 2024
• Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Gil Kenan
• Cast: Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Dan Aykroyd, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt

This latest installment in the beloved franchise sees the Spengler family relocating to New York City. They join forces with the original Ghostbusters team to face a chilling new threat. An ancient evil entity named Garraka, capable of freezing the entire world, has been unleashed.

The film promises a mix of nostalgia and fresh energy as the multi-generational team races against time to prevent a new Ice Age. Expect a blend of spooky comedy, state-of-the-art special effects, and callbacks to the original films.

The Commandant’s Shadow – July 18, Max

• Release date: June 13, 2024
• Genre: Documentary
• Rating: PG-13
• Director: Daniela Völker
• Cast: Hans-Jürgen Höss, Kai Höss, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Maya Lasker-Wallfisch

This documentary tells the story of Rudolf Höss, infamous commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, from the perspective of his descendants. The film centers on Hans Jürgen Hoss, Rudolf’s son, now in his late 80s, as he reflects on his childhood spent living next to the concentration camp.

Interwoven with Hans’ story is that of his own son, Kai, a pastor grappling with his family’s notorious history. The documentary also features Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, an Auschwitz survivor, and her daughter Maya, exploring how trauma is passed down through generations on both sides. Through intimate interviews and archival footage, the film examines guilt, denial, and the ongoing impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations, raising profound questions about how we confront and process historical atrocities.

Love Lies Bleeding – July 19, Max

• Release date: March 8, 2024
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
• Rating: R
• Director: Rose Glass
• Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Orion Carrington

This neo-noir thriller takes place in a gritty New Mexico town in the year 1989 and revolves around Lou, who is a gym manager involved in an endless cycle of violence and small-town boredom. However, her life turns dramatically when Jackie, a bodybuilder heading to Las Vegas for a contest comes into her life. The two quickly become heavily attracted to each other — this blossoms into an affair based on mutual goals, steeped in desire.

This film promises a gritty, visceral exploration of passion, power, and what one can do to escape circumstances.

Femme – July 23, Hulu

• Release date: December 1, 2023
• Genre: Thriller
• Rating: N.A.
• Director: Sam H. Freeman
• Cast: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay, Antonia Clarke, Moe Bar-El, Nima Taleghani, John Leader, Aaron Heffernan

This psychological thriller tells the story of Jules, a talented drag performer whose life is ruined by a brutal homophobic assault. Preston, his attacker, meanwhile struggles with the fact that he himself is gay. Seizing this opportunity, Jules initiates a sexual relationship with Preston, initially motivated by revenge.

However, as their intimacy deepens, the lines between vengeance, attraction, and understanding begin to blur. The film explores complex themes of identity, masculinity, and the cyclical nature of violence, all while maintaining a taut, suspenseful atmosphere.

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Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery have collaborated to bring a new top-tier sports streaming service to the market. Venu Sports will launch in the coming months and will offer an introductory rate of $42.99 per month for a limited time.

Those subscribers who take up the launch price will be guaranteed to lock it in for 12 months, with the option to cancel the service at any time. There will also be a free seven-day trial available before you commit. The standard price after the promotional launch period hasn’t yet been revealed.

Venu Sports subscribers will have access to over a dozen linear sports networks, such as ESPN, ABC, FOX, and TNT. Extensive live games and events coverage will include NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, international soccer, Grand Slam tennis, championship golf, F1, and more. There will also be iconic sports studio shows and on-demand content.

Announcing the new venture, Venu Sports CEO Pete Distad said, “With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will provide sports fans in the US with a single destination for watching many of the most sought-after games and events.”

The range of sports coverage and Mr. Distad’s statement reflect the type of sports enthusiast this new streaming service is aimed at. While not cheap, fans who enjoy a wide range of sports that they would otherwise have to jump between streaming services to find can use it as a one-stop subscription to get their fix.

We’re here with a new list for the week, featuring two long-awaited movies and an anime retelling you’re going to love. It’s a great month for movies and shows this month, you’ll find more if you scroll to the bottom of this week’s round-up.

The best new streaming movies this week

Feel free to click on the links if something piques your interest, or read through to discover what’s streaming to find your weekend watch.

• Ultraman Rising
• Exhuma
• Clotilda: The Return Home
• Camp Pleasant Lake
• Monkey Man
• Black Barbie

Ultraman Rising – June 14, Netflix

• Release date: June 14, 2024 
• Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
• Rating: PG
• Director: Shannon Tindle
• Cast: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Keone Young, Julia Harriman

Ken Sato, a star baseball player in Tokyo, must reluctantly follow in his father’s footsteps and become the next Ultraman, humanity’s legendary defender against giant kaiju monsters. As Ken struggles to balance his sports career with his new responsibilities as a superhero, he also grapples with a strained relationship with his father and the recent disappearance of his mother.

An encounter with a baby kaiju forces Ken to examine what truly makes a hero. Amidst epic battles to protect Tokyo, Ken and his father must learn to work together and mend their family bonds, all while deciding the fate of this mysterious young creature. This anime film offers a fresh, modern take on the classic Ultraman story, delving into complex familial themes while delivering thrilling kaiju action.

Exhuma – June 14, Shudder

• Release date: May 3, 2024
• Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
• Rating: N.A.
• Director: Jang Jae-hyun
• Cast: Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Yoo Hai-jin, Lee Do-hyun, Kim Jae-chul, Jeon Jin-gi, Kim Sun-young

In the forested countryside near the North Korean border, a wealthy immigrant family finds themselves plagued by a dark force targeting their newborn son. Desperate for help, they turn to Hwa-rim and Bong-gil, two young shaman siblings, and Sang-deok, a veteran geomancer, and his Christian apprentice Yeong-geun. As the spiritual experts dig deeper into the family’s past, they uncover terrifying secrets linked to the colonial-era traumas and the region’s rich tapestry of shamanist, Buddhist, and Christian traditions.

Mixing elements of exorcism thrills and creature feature horror with a strong basis in Korean mythology and history, Exhuma delivers a chilling ghost story that will make you think twice about the consequences of disturbing the past.

Clotilda: The Return Home – June 18, Disney Plus

• Release date: April 13, 2024
• Genre: Documentary
• Rating: N.A.
• Director: Tara Roberts
• Cast: Tara Roberts

Nearly 90 years after the abolition of slavery, the schooner Clotilda carried 110 kidnapped Africans to Alabama in 1860, the last known slave ship to bring human cargo to the United States. Among the captives was Oluale Kossola, who was later interviewed about his experiences by author Zora Neale Hurston in the 1930s.

Now, Kossola’s descendants journey to his home village in Benin, hoping to finally fulfill his last wish of returning his spirit to where it was stolen. Along the way, the family confronts the brutal realities of slavery at historical sites in both Benin and America. Watch an African-American family’s quest to reclaim their ancestor’s story, find healing, and ensure that the truth of the Clotilda’s survivors will never be forgotten.

Camp Pleasant Lake – June 14, Starz

• Release date: February 27, 2024
• Genre: Horror
• Rating: N.A.
• Director: Thomas Walton
• Cast: Kelly Lynn Reiter, Jonathan Lipnicki, Leila Almas Rose, James Di Giacomo, Lacey Burdine, William Delesk, Bonnie Aarons

Two decades after the unsolved Meadows Family murders at Camp Pleasant Lake, the remote site has been transformed into an immersive horror destination where paying guests can live out a “real” 80s slasher movie experience. But as the campers gleefully play along with the staged scares and gory special effects, a very real killer begins stalking the woods, and the lines between fiction and reality blur with deadly results.

Is it the vengeful spirit of young Echo Meadows, who vanished the night of her family’s slaughter? Or a flesh-and-blood killer orchestrating the ultimate horror show? Paying homage to classics like Friday the 13th and Scream, this blood-splattered, Camp Pleasant Lake gleefully hacks its way through the fourth wall for a gory, tongue-in-cheek thrill ride.

Monkey Man – June 14, Peacock

• Release date: April 5, 2024 
• Genre: Action, Thriller
• Rating: R
• Director: Dev Patel
• Cast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Adithi Kalkunte, Sikandar Kher, Makrand Deshpande, Ashwini Kalsekar

On the chaotic streets of an Indian metropolis, a mysterious young fighter enters an underground tournament run by crooked promoters, using the prize money to fund his secret revenge mission. Concealing his identity behind a monkey mask, “The Kid” works his way into the inner circle of the city’s powerful elite, including the ruthless police chief who destroyed his family.

But even as The Kid trains his body into a lethal weapon, the sins of the past continue to haunt him. Driven by his commitment to justice and a belief in the mythic Hanuman, The Kid launches a brutal one-man war against the corrupt establishment, leaving a trail of blood and broken bones in his wake.

Black Barbie – June 19, Netflix

• Release date: June 19, 2024 
• Genre: Documentary
• Rating: TV-MA
• Director: Lagueria Davis
• Cast: Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, Stacey McBride-Irby

Since 1959, the Barbie doll has been a blonde-haired, blue-eyed icon of femininity and a mainstay of American girlhood. But for decades, Black girls were denied a doll that reflected their own beauty and experiences — until a group of pioneering Black women at Mattel rewrote the toy’s history.

Told through the voices of Mattel employees, cultural historians, and Barbie fans, this eye-opening film reveals how designer Kitty Black Perkins and others challenged corporate resistance to create the first Black Barbies in the 1960s and 70s. Blending corporate history with cultural critique, Black Barbie takes a searing look at the tangled relationship between race, beauty standards, and the power of representation.

We’re back with another list this week, right on time for your weekend binge. There’s quite a bit of horror and sci-fi on this week’s list, so we’ve also included a refreshing anime release to keep things light and breezy. Let’s dive in.

The best new streaming movies this week

We have Jennifer Lopez’s entry into sci-fi this week, as well as the much-awaited prequel to the Omen franchise. Feel free to click the links if you see a movie you’ve been waiting for.

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Netflix has long offered HDR support on Android phones, giving you a more immersive viewing experience for supported content. What if you don’t want HDR on your device, though? Well, you couldn’t disable this feature up until now. But that could change in a future version of Netflix for Android.

Android Authority and leaker AssembleDebug dug into a recent version of the Netflix app for Android (version 8.117.0 build 3 50695 beta), discovering evidence of an HDR toggle as an experimental setting. This would allow users to choose between an HDR and SDR stream when watching content on their Android devices.

Last week Spotify announced it would end support for its short-lived Car Thing accessory for streaming music in an automobile… and by end support, I mean the gadgets would just stop working altogether. Part of the problem is Spotify never sold many of these things, but folks who did buy them weren’t too happy, and now Spotify […]

The post Lilbits: Spotify is refunding Car Thing customers after all, Librem 16 Linux laptop on the way appeared first on Liliputing.

A few weeks after several clips of Valorant players harassing women via in-game chat went viral on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media sites, Riot Games has announced its plans to tackle the bad actors. In a seven-minute-long video posted to X, Valorant head Anna Donlon spoke about the team’s responsibility to…

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What’s dead may never die. E3 may finally be gone for good but its spirit lives on in Summer Game Fest. Hosted by The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley, the event kicks off in June and promises teases, trailers, and world premieres for the biggest games of tomorrow and beyond. Here’s every gaming conference,…

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Welcome back to this week’s movie roundup — where we find the newest hidden gems so you don’t have to. We’ve got a movie about a Marvel character this week (always exciting) and two slick thrillers to keep you up at night, followed by an animated movie to ease the tension.

The best new streaming movies this week

We’ve rounded up the best of Netflix and Hulu this week. Feel free to click the links below to explore what piques your interest first.

This week’s lineup is worth staying indoors for.

From rom-coms that’ll have you swooning to action flicks that’ll make your heart race faster than your Netflix bill, we’ve got a little something for everyone.

FX’s acclaimed series, The Bear, follows the journey of a chef who returns to his roots in Chicago to manage his family’s sandwich shop. Created by Christopher Storer, season one of the streaming show earned a perfect 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 13 Emmy nominations. Its second season was released in 2023 and broke the streaming record to become the most-watched premiere of any FX show.

Season two left fans hungry for more, but season three promises new action, more guest stars, twists, turns, and delicious drama. If you’re a fan, you’ll be thrilled to know that the upcoming season premieres this summer. We’ll tell you all about The Bear season 3 release window, cast, plot speculations, and other rumors.

This week’s lineup is worth staying indoors for.

From rom-coms that’ll have you swooning to action flicks that’ll make your heart race faster than your Netflix bill, we’ve got a little something for everyone.

FX’s acclaimed series, The Bear, follows the journey of a chef who returns to his roots in Chicago to manage his family’s sandwich shop. Created by Christopher Storer, season one of the streaming show earned a perfect 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 13 Emmy nominations. Its second season was released in 2023 and broke the streaming record to become the most-watched premiere of any FX show.

Season two left fans hungry for more, but season three promises new action, more guest stars, twists, turns, and delicious drama. If you’re a fan, you’ll be thrilled to know that the upcoming season premieres this summer. We’ll tell you all about The Bear season 3 release window, cast, plot speculations, and other rumors.

Accused is a fast-paced take on courtroom dramas and crime thrillers. Just like Criminal tells us what happens in the interrogation room; how people lie or almost get caught in crimes they didn’t commit — Accused tells us what happens when innocent people are taken to court for crimes they had nothing (or little) to do with.

Read on to know the Accused season 2 release date, plot speculations, and other details.

There’s no denying that Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services out there. As a matter of fact, it is currently dominating the market, with ...

The post Apple Music vs Spotify: Why I Made the Switch appeared first on Gizchina.com.

This week’s lineup is worth staying indoors for.

From rom-coms that’ll have you swooning to action flicks that’ll make your heart race faster than your Netflix bill, we’ve got a little something for everyone.

FX’s acclaimed series, The Bear, follows the journey of a chef who returns to his roots in Chicago to manage his family’s sandwich shop. Created by Christopher Storer, season one of the streaming show earned a perfect 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 13 Emmy nominations. Its second season was released in 2023 and broke the streaming record to become the most-watched premiere of any FX show.

Season two left fans hungry for more, but season three promises new action, more guest stars, twists, turns, and delicious drama. If you’re a fan, you’ll be thrilled to know that the upcoming season premieres this summer. We’ll tell you all about The Bear season 3 release window, cast, plot speculations, and other rumors.

Accused is a fast-paced take on courtroom dramas and crime thrillers. Just like Criminal tells us what happens in the interrogation room; how people lie or almost get caught in crimes they didn’t commit — Accused tells us what happens when innocent people are taken to court for crimes they had nothing (or little) to do with.

Read on to know the Accused season 2 release date, plot speculations, and other details.

There is a lot to watch on the various streaming services available in 2024 — sometimes, it almost feels like too much. To simplify things for you, we’ve compiled some of the best new streaming movies to watch that are new this week.

Check out our top picks from major streamers like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and will sometimes even bring you an exciting new VOD movie or two. In addition to the latest movies from this week, we also give you other recommendations for shows that have arrived on a new streaming platform in the last 30 days. 

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We’ve seen a ton of streaming services institute price increases in the past few years, with the likes of Disney Plus, Netflix, and Hulu all hiking subscription fees. The anime-focused Crunchyroll has resisted this urge since 2019, but all good things must come to an end.

Crunchyroll has announced a price increase on its website this week (h/t: The Verge), affecting its middle and top tiers in “Argentina, Colombia, France, Portugal, the United States and select additional countries.”

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A series centered around a superhero without actual powers— leave it to anime to give us that. My Hero Academia has given us six whole seasons of action, with both heroes and villains getting satisfying arcs.

Is My Hero Academia going to enter the final arc of its manga? Are we going to get a seventh season? Find out what we know about the My Hero Academia season 7 release date and where the plot is taking us next.

There is a lot to watch on the various streaming services available in 2024 — sometimes, it almost feels like too much. To simplify things for you, we’ve compiled some of the best new streaming movies to watch that are new this week.

Check out our top picks from major streamers like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and will sometimes even bring you an exciting new VOD movie or two. In addition to the latest movies from this week, we also give you other recommendations for shows that have arrived on a new streaming platform in the last 30 days. 

It’s hard to keep track of which streaming service is premiering which new show or movie from week to week. Netflix used to be king, but the streaming field is full of alternatives, and they’re all regularly pumping out new content. So, what are the best new streaming shows and where can you watch them? Every week, we answer that question for you, offering some exciting new and returning titles, including streaming originals, from services like Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Paramount Plus, and, yes, Netflix. 

We’ll be updating this list every week, so stay tuned for more new streaming shows on every major service. Looking for even more? We keep an archive of our recommendations going back at least 30 days. 

The best new streaming shows this week

Let’s jump right in and take a closer look at the best new shows debuting this week. It was a bit slower than the week before, but there were still a few notable entries. Let’s jump right in. 

The Circle, Season 6 – April 17, Netflix

The Circle has seen many adaptations, but this American version first aired on Netflix back in 2020. The show’s premise is fairly unique, as it takes a number of players and moves them into separate apartments in the same building. While in the building, players are kept isolated from the outside world and can’t even see each other in person, though they are allowed to communicate with other players through a special app that lets them see photographs and biographies, and engage in text chats. Every few days, each contestant must secretly rate all the others from first to last, but there’s a catch: the players are allowed to catfish if they so choose. In other words, the players may or may not be what they seem.

• Years active: 2020 – Ongoing
• Genre: Reality competition
• Rating: TV-MA
• Creator: Tim Harcourt

Watch on Netflix