Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of October 31, 2022

The Justice Department blocks a major publishing merger, Twitter turmoil continues, and Warner Bros. Discovery has more bad news.

Welcome back to Spooky Stuff Worth Knowing! (Look, the week began on October 31, so we gotta let it ride.) Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more. At the end of each newsletter, there will be a section called On The Calendar, which will include some of those notable dates that are near-term. Oh, and I also launched my Patreon, SavePhile, where my more thoughtful musings on any topic will go.

Without further ado, let's get into the news.

Books? 📖

Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster Merger Blocked By Federal Judge

I'm not going to cover the publishing space too much in Stuff Worth Knowing, but this news was big enough to warrant creating a new section for this week's newsletter. Federal judge Florence Pan ruled in favor of the Justice Department, stopping the merger of Penguin Random House, LLC and Simon & Schuster, Inc., two of the biggest publishing houses in the United States. In statements obtained by the New York Times, Pan agreed that the merger would lead to significantly less competition in the publishing market.

The merger was first announced way back in November 2020, when German media group Bertelsmann agreed to purchase Simon & Schuster for $2.175 billion after original parent company ViacomCBS put the publisher up for sale earlier that year. A year later, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit to stop the sale, noting that the combined entity would have an "outsized influence" on the American publishing industry. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: This was a huge deal. There are currently five major publishing houses: Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, and HarperCollins. This deal would've taken that number down to four, limiting the publishing houses available to authors. “This is a judgment that really took authors into consideration, and without authors, there would be no books,” said the novelist Douglas Preston, the president of the Authors Guild, told the NYT. “The ruling is important not just for authors and the book business but really for the free flow of ideas in society.”

Another facet of this is Bertelsmann only acquired full ownership of Penguin Random House in 2019, a publisher Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe noted had a great deal of "commercial strength." Acquiring Penguin Random House in 2019 and announcing a merger with Simon & Schuster in 2020 is pretty aggressive and show a clear desire to control a larger chunk of the market. 

Tech ⌨️

The Twitter-Elon Musk Rollercoaster Continues to Plummet Into the Darkness

When he took complete control of Twitter last week, new boss Elon Musk immediately cut the executive team. Then the "real fun" began, with Musk tweeting out a terrible conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Then there were rumors that Twitter would begin charging $19.99 a month for verification on the platform, with the real cost coming in at $8 per month.

Advertisers started pausing their campaigns earlier in the week, uncertain about the ultimate outcome of Musk's actions. Musk responded to this by confirming the advertiser exodus, blaming it on "activists" that remain unnamed. 

A report from the Washington Post stated that Musk planned to axe 75% of the existing staff, something Twitter general counsel Sean Edgett denied to staff last week. Turns out he was half right. Edgett himself was gone last Friday and Musk is laying off half of Twitter's staff this week. On Thursday, employees were told to leave the office or were locked out, with emails on their employee status going out today. While all this was happening, Musk attended the Baron Investment Conference, where he noted that he "tried to get out of the deal."

Basically, Musk paid too much for Twitter and now he's trying to do whatever he can to make any money on the deal. It's not going well.

AMD Income Down as It Reveals The 7900 XTX and XT Video Cards

Following the rough financial statements of other tech companies, AMD announced its financial earnings report for the third quarter of 2022. Revenue was up 29% year-over-year, landing at $5.6 billion. Sadly, net income was way down, hitting $66 million during the quarter, versus $923 million during the same quarter last year. Like Nvidia, AMD pointed to the "softening PC market." People bought a lot of desktop hardware during the pandemic, meaning they didn't need new hardware in 2022. 

In this depressed market, AMD will be launching the next generation of its Radeon video cards. The new cards, based on the all-new RNDA 3 architecture, were revealed as the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24 GB GDDR6) and XT (20 GDDR6). AMD promises better performance, DisplayPort 2.1 support, and the new Radiance Display engine for improved color accuracy this year. Both cards will be launching on December 13, with the 7900 XTX costing $999 and the 7900 XT costing $899. 

What's interesting about these announcements is AMD is ceding the high-end to Nvidia, at least this year. Team Green has the GeForce RTX 4090 for $1,599 MSRP, a card that is far more powerful than anything AMD is offering. Instead, the 7900 XTX is meant to compete with the RTX 4080. That's a more favorable match-up, given the former is still $200 cheaper than the latter.

AMD also announced FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3) at its reveal event, the latest iteration of its temporal upscaling model. AMD is touting up to twice the performance increase over FSR 2 at 4K resolution. We won't have any benchmarks until 2023 when FSR 3 launches. In the meantime, we have FSR 2.2 coming on November 8 to Forza Horizon 5.

Video Games 🎮

Nibellion Leaves Twitter and Patreon

Prolific Twitter user and video game newshound Nibellion has decided to call it quits.  On Monday morning, he announced that he'd be leaving Twitter behind and shutting down his recently-created Patreon. "After some introspection, I’ve made the decision to focus my time and energy elsewhere and move on from Twitter. This marks the end of my video games coverage and my active participation in this platform," he simply stated on Twitter. 

A message on Patreon explained more about his departure. "Unfortunately, I was not able to create an interesting and sustainable Patreon which is evident in the number of Patrons stagnating during the first weekend and the first (of many) pledges being deleted during the first week,” he wrote there.

Nibel also pointed to the leadership of new Twitter owner Elon Musk as a problem. "I don’t think that Twitter has yet experienced good leadership, and this trend will not change with Musk either. I do not trust the platform. I do not trust Musk and his seemingly infinite immaturity," he said.

Why It's Worth Knowing: Nibellion had over 500,000 followers on Twitter, most of whom relied upon him to give a quick, concise report on the day's news. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to turn that into a steady stream of income, highlighting one of the bigger issues with Twitter. Nibel will be missed as one of the larger folks in gaming Twitter. 

Netflix Acquires Cozy Grove Developer Spry Fox

Netflix is still working out its vision for video gaming. On Monday, the streaming giant announced that it was picking up Triple Town, Alphabear, and Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox. The studio is the fourth acquisition by Netflix, following its pickups of Night School Studio, Boss Fight Entertainment, and Next Games. These studios join Netflix's new internally-created studios in Finland and California. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: All four of the acquired studios either make mobile games or games that are very mobile-friendly. That's where Netflix wants to compete and where it makes sense to spend. That said, the push hasn't been successful yet, with Apptopia showing that the service only has 1.7 million daily users, far less than the streamer's current subscriber count of 221 million users.

Sony PlayStation VR2’s Pre-Orders and Price Point: $549

This week, Sony finally told us how much its upcoming virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 5 was going to cost. In a post on the PlayStation blog, Sony revealed that the headset is launching on February 22, 2023. It’ll cost users $549.99 for the future of Sony VR.

That’s prohibitively high if Sony expects the device to have any sort of market penetration. The PS5 stock is only now starting to get into a good spot and the console starts at $499.99. That means going all-in will cost $1,049.98. Real steep, not counting any games.

Worse, the PSVR 2 is currently only available for pre-order through the PlayStation Direct site, which is causing a bit of umbrage at certain retailers. The headset bundle might go live at other retailers later, but Sony is staying quiet on that matter.

Embracer Group Shutters Square Enix Montreal

Embracer Group has been acquiring developers for many years now, with its last major purchase being Square Enix's Western studios: Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Sqaure Enix Montreal. Now it's shuttering one of those studios. Only two weeks after Square Enix Montreal announced that it was changing its name to Onoma, the studio has been closed. 

The news came via a report by Bloomberg which noted that the studio closure would impact 200 employees. According to the report, some employees will be transferred to Eidos Montreal, a sister studio in the same region. Square Enix Montreal is the studio behind mobile titles like Hitman Go and Tomb Raider Go. Embracer Group hasn't been focused on the mobile side of the gaming industry, so the move likely made business sense. Shame they didn't get a chance to pivot to other development. 

Square Enix Announces Symbiogenesis Its New NFT Project

Speaking of Square Enix, this week the company announced Symbiogenesis, its second shot at NFTs. The title will launch in Spring 2023 for PC and mobile. This feels like Square Enix absolutely missing the backlash against NFT gaming and the general cratering of NFTs in general, but hey… let's see how it pans out. 

Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️

Warner Bros. Discovery In Dire Straits

It's numbers season and that means we get to check in with Warner Bros. Discovery! The company released its financial earnings report for the third quarter of 2022. Revenue was up to $9.8 billion, but the net loss attributed to the company is a staggering $2.3 billion. WBD tried to hide the pain by also reporting an adjusted EBITDA income of $2.4 billion. 

In the investors' call, CEO David Zaslav did say that "the grand experiment of creating something at any cost is over." He also stated that the company's new savings target is $3.5 billion, up $500 million from previous guidance. 

Also, Warner Bros. Discovery streaming and games CEO JB Perrette stated that the merged HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service coming in 2023 will be more expensive than previously anticipated. HBO Max is $14.99 per month and Discovery+ is $4.99 per month. It's likely the combined service will come in higher, meaning north of $20. WBD is also pushing up the release of the merged service, with its planned launch coming in Spring 2023 rather than Summer.   

Netflix's Ad-Supporter Tier Goes Live

Every streamer is launching an ad-supported tier in order to grow their users, including Netflix. Netflix's offering launched on November 3 in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. Users can now pay $6.99 for a diminished catalog of shows and movies, 720p video quality, and 4-5 ads every hour. Netflix already averted the previous quarters of subscriber loss, but we'll see how many new subscribers the ad tier will bring to the service.

Of course, part of the problem is that, unlike YouTube, Netflix shows weren't generally built for ads. Apparently, major creators like Shonda Rhimes and Mike Flanagans are unhappy with how ads interrupt the storytelling in their shows. It probably doesn't help that Netflix will also not be sharing any ad-based revenue with creators. 

The CW: Some Execs Leave as Brad Schwartz Enters The Picture

Earlier in the week, the CW settled into its place under new parent company Nexstar Media Group. The company laid off 30-40 of its executive-level staff as it pivots away from scripted media toward cheaper, unscripted fare. A day later, Pop TV boss Brad Schwartz was named President of CW Entertainment. He will report directly to CW Network president Dennis Miller.

For his part, Schwartz downplayed the switch to unscripted in an interview with Deadline.

"So I think it will be a mix of unscripted, it’ll be a mix of scripted, and we’ll find the little holes in the market where we can break through. So I don’t think it’s as black and white, it’s just “Oh, you’re gonna do cheap unscripted stuff,” I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’re going to try having breakthrough content that brings in large audiences, and we’re just going to have to figure out a way of doing it efficiently."

Why It's Worth Knowing: Scripted shows aimed at young adults were where the CW made its name. What is the brand now that most of those shows are gone? Even new, not-canceled shows like The Winchesters and Walker Independence have found their first seasons capped at 13 episodes. They simply don't feel long for this world. The CW needs to find a new brand… quickly. 

Netflix's The Witcher Replaces Henry Cavill With Liam Hemsworth

Over the weekend, actor Henry Cavill took to Instagram to announce that he would not return as Geralt of Rivia in the fourth season of Netflix's The Witcher. Cavill retains the role for the upcoming third season, but following that, Geralt will be played by Liam Hemsworth. "As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam's take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men," said Cavill. Hemsworth also posted about his excitement on Instagram.

The response was… less than kind. Many considered Cavill perfect for the role, especially given his open love for the character. Combined with Liam's current perception as the less charismatic Hemsworth and the backlash was strong online. 

Why It's Worth Knowing: The Witcher is currently one of Netflix's bigger shows and a considerable part of that is built on the back of Cavill's portrayal. It's likely that his return to the role of Superman has convinced Cavill that there are greener pastures elsewhere in Hollywood. The third season, which still features Cavill, is dropping on Netflix in 2023, meaning there's going to be a long wait until we see Hemsworth. Can the show survive the change in the lead? 

Superhero Watch: Aquaman and Watchmen's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Is In Talks to Join the MCU

One thing I tend to stress to general fandom is that most rivalries don't actually exist on the production side. These are jobs for most involved, and they're treated as such. That's why there's no surprise that The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who played Black Manta in Aquaman and the mysterious Cal Abraham in HBO's Watchmen series, is in talk to play Wonder Man in Marvel Studios' series of the same name.

The series is in development by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton. Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Community writer Andrew Guest will be the head writer of the series. Wonder Man focuses on Simon Williams, a character who began his comic life as an Avengers villain before becoming a part-time Avenger and Hollywood actor. I'd expect the MCU series to lean on the latter part, with a more comedic bent similar to the recent She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. 

Comics and Manga 💭

Kadokawa continues the overall expansion of its anime marketing abilities this week with the acquisition of Anime News Network. The site includes its news editorial operation and an extensive database of anime, manga, and light novels. Kadokawa already owns a wide variety of companies across the entire anime industry, including online manga and light novel store BookWalker, manga publisher Yen Press, and game studio Spike Chunsoft. (It also owns part of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware.)

The acquisition puts Kadokawa almost end-to-end in terms of utilizing its IP. It can publish the light novel, sell it, produce the anime, review the novel and the anime, and make the spin-off video game! Keen!

On The Calendar 📅

Here's the interesting stuff that's coming over the next week or so.

…I really have nothing at the moment, sorry.