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Taylor Swift just announced her new album 'Reputation' — and the first single comes out Thursday night

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taylor swift

After teasing new music with a series of cryptic videos of a snake, Taylor Swift has announced the title and release date of her new album, "Reputation."

"Reputation" is due out November 10, and Swift's first single from the album will be released Thursday night. 

The 27-year-old singer wiped her social media accounts last week, prompting speculation that an album release would be imminent.

She then tweeted out three videos of a snake this week, seemingly referencing the public controversy and fallout surrounding her approval and (what some have deemed her "snake"-like) subsequent protest of Kanye West's song "Famous," which featured an explicit reference to Swift.

Swift's last album, "1989," won the Grammy album of the year award in 2015, and it has sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. 

Swift posted the artwork for "Reputation," her sixth studio album, on Twitter and Instagram. 

Check out the cover below:

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on

SEE ALSO: Grizzly Bear's first album in 5 years, 'Painted Ruins,' is an intricate rock masterpiece

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A crazy 'Game of Thrones' theory about Bran Stark and the Night King is spreading like wildfire

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bran stark three eyed raven game of thrones season seven

"Game of Thrones" fans have concocted a massive number of theories to try to figure out everything on the show, and one of the most popular ones circulating makes the case that Bran Stark is actually the Night King.

The Reddit user turm0il26 is credited with the spread of this fan theory, thanks to a Reddit post expanding upon and linking to a popular "Game of Theories" YouTube video that initially explained this particular Night King theory.

The Bran Stark/Night King theory suggests that Bran will try to use his powers to go back in time to save the people of Westeros from White Walkers, and in the process will ultimately turn into the Night King.

We already know that Bran has visions, the ability to see and travel into the past and future, and the ability to warg (inhabit) another person's body and control them. 

The idea is that Bran makes three trips into the past, utilizing all of his powers in an attempt to eradicate the White Walkers, but ends up inadvertently creating all of the events that cause the present chaos and destruction that he is trying to prevent from happening in the first place.

Mad King Aerys Targaryen

According to the theory, the first time Bran travels back in time, he visits the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen II, and whispers in his ear "burn them all" to try to warn him about the White Walkers and convince the king to burn them, preventing their return. But instead, the message Bran whispers to the Mad King drives him, well, mad. The Mad King then burns his own people instead of the White Walkers. 

Strike one.

white wall game of thrones

The second time Bran travels back in time, according to the theory, he tries to go back to when men were first able to eliminate the White Walkers to learn how they did it. However, Bran miscalculates the time and misses this event,  so he instead wargs into the legendary Bran the Builder and helps build The Wall, which is not yet erected.  Of course, we now know this is not a permanent solution to separating the White Walkers from Westeros.

Strike two.

Leaf Children of the Forest Game of Thrones

The third and last time Bran travels back in time, according to the theory, he goes back to the time of the Children of the Forest and embodies the first man that they turned into a White Walker. As we now know, the Children of the Forest created White Walkers in the hopes of eliminating men, but the White Walkers eventually ended up becoming a bigger threat. The idea is that Bran wargs into this first White Walker, thinking that he'll be able to prevent any war from happening between White Walkers, the Children of the Forest, and men. Unfortunately, Bran becomes trapped in the White Walker, and, armed with all of Bran's powers, eventually turns into the Night King. As both Jojen and the Three-Eyed Raven warned Bran, if you stay in the past or in someone's body for too long you can become trapped in it. 

This theory is also used to explain why the Night King let Jon Snow go during the battle of Hardhome, the reasoning being that Bran is seeing the first member of his family in over a millennia. This moment, according to the theory, reveals that there's still a little bit of Bran left in the Night King.

However, this is just a theory, one of many at this point. While interesting and fun to think about, there's no "smoking gun" or anything in the series that suggests that this is true at this point in time. 

SEE ALSO: Every 'Game of Thrones' romantic relationship, ranked from worst to best

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Here's everything leaving Netflix in September that you need to watch right now (NFLX)

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jackass

Netflix has announced the titles that will be leaving its streaming service in September, so make sure to catch a few of these movies and TV shows before they're gone.

Departing titles to check out include two of the "Jackass" movies, the FX show "Wilfred," and the horror classic "A Nightmare On Elm Street."

If you've never seen "The Emperor's New Groove," that's another fan-favorite worth watching.

Here's everything that's leaving Netflix in September (we've highlighted the titles we think you should watch in bold):

SEE ALSO: 34 movies you have to see this fall — including 'Justice League,' 'It,' and 'Blade Runner 2049'

Leaving September 1

"Better Off Ted: Season 2"
"Do Not Disturb"
"Frailty" 
"Hope Floats" 
"Jackass: The Movie"
"Julia" 
"LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu: King of Shadows"
"LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu: Way of the Ninja"
"RV"
"The Batman: Season 1 - 5"
"The Deep End: Season 1"
"The Omen"
"Wilfred : Season 1  - 2"

"Something's Gotta Give"
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" 

"Tears of the Sun"
"Scream"
"A Nightmare on Elm Street"



Leaving September 3

"Drumline: A New Beat"



Leaving September 4

"The A-List"



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Comedy Central is going to air all 254 episodes of 'South Park' for 8 days before the new season premieres

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south park

Get ready "South Park" fans. 

Leading up to the show's season 21 premiere on September 13, Comedy Central will air an eight-day marathon of every single episode from the network's iconic show.

The fun will start September 6, and the only time the marathon will be halted is for the airing of "The Daily Show" at its regular time.

So get ready to relive all the most memorable moments in the show's history: Chef, Kenny's gruesome deaths every episode for years, spoofs of Blockbuster, "Game of Thrones," "World of Warcraft," and every religion (including Scientology), its recent take on Trump, and countless other highlights.  

If you are curious how many episodes will be in the eight days, it's 254.

So get yourself ready (just no eating Chipotle beforehand).

SEE ALSO: 34 movies you have to see this fall — including "Justice League," "It," and "Blade Runner 2049"

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NOW WATCH: 'Sesame Street' has been mocking Trump since 1988 — here are some of the best moments

The new 'Uncharted' is the best $40 you can spend on gaming in 2017

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The latest "Uncharted" game is a thrilling blockbuster set in an exotic place. It's full of explosions and adventure and long lost civilizations. Sound familiar? 

Indeed, "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" sounds an awful lot like every previous "Uncharted" game. What that description doesn't tell you is how sharply executed and delightfully concise "The Lost Legacy" is. It's a short story set in the "Uncharted" universe.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

It turns out that the short story format is a fantastic way to extend the otherwise concluded "Uncharted" series. 

SEE ALSO: The new 'Sonic the Hedgehog' is the first good Sonic game ever made

In "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy," you play as Chloe Frazer — a returning character from the main "Uncharted" games. She's teaming up with Nadine Ross, from "Uncharted 4," in search of an artifact known as the "Tusk of Ganesh."

Chloe isn't just a stand-in for series star Nathan Drake. She's appeared in previous "Uncharted" games, and this time the game's story focuses on her, her background, her father, and her relationship with Nadine. The two aren't necessarily "friends" in the traditional sense; Chloe's hired Nadine for her mercenary skills in search of the Tusk of Ganesh. 



Where "The Lost Legacy" hooked me narratively was in the back-and-forth between Nadine and Chloe. Their friendship evolves slowly throughout the game, literally forged in gunfights and death-defying leaps.

 

Previous "Uncharted" games starred Nathan Drake, a dashing, snarky, Zack Morris type. Many people love Nathan Drake, but I am not one of those people. Chloe and Nadine are much more interesting to me as characters.

Chloe, for instance, had a father who was in search of the artifact that she is now on the hunt for; Nadine used to work with the story's main antagonist. Though Chloe bills herself as a "common thief," she's clearly got some emotional attachment to the artifact she's after. Nadine, meanwhile, is seemingly running from a past that she can't escape.

How this plays out in their ongoing conversations — not in expository "cutscenes," but while driving or walking around — is what kept me hooked in to "The Lost Legacy." 



Let's talk about these elephants right here.

Those are some pretty good-looking elephants, right? There are endless moments like this, where I caught something that just looked almost too impressive. These elephants, for instance, are just too realistic. It kinda freaks me out, honestly. Most players won't even notice! Why pay so much attention to something so small?

The strength of the "Uncharted" series is in its developer's attention to detail. From character animation to off-hand dialogue to the hundreds of ornately detailed environments scattered across the franchise, Naughty Dog lavishes the "Uncharted" series with attention. And each game is more impressive than the last. "The Lost Legacy" continues this...legacy. (Sorry!)

For example: Chloe carefully pushes aside clothes on a clothesline while she walks past. The clothes don't flop over in a solid block, and Chloe puts up her arm to carefully move the clothes that are in her way. It looks simple, but it takes a tremendous amount of work to make that happen. It's also the kind of small detail that most players won't notice was done expertly, though they'd certainly notice if it were done poorly.



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Bizarre conspiracy theories are swirling about the most expensive popular skin cream — and one about Estée Lauder hiring a psychic to contact the dead inventor is true

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jessica albaEstée Lauder's Crème de la Mer is an insanely expensive skin cream beloved by celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. 

For years, conspiracy theories have swirled about the cream, which costs a whopping $127 per ounce. People have speculated that inventor Max Huber isn't a real person and that the cream is just "expensive Vaseline."

Kathleen Hou at The Cut recently investigated 10 of the theories to see if they were true or false. 

The strangest of the lot?

Estée Lauder hired a medium to contact Huber, the scientist who invented the cream after a horrific chemical burn accident damaged his face.  

"Estée Lauder research and development head Joseph Gubernick consulted a medium when initial attempts to re-create the La Mer formula following Max’s death were unsuccessful," Hou writes, citing an Elle report.

la mer skin cream

Andrew Bevacqua, head of research and development at Estée Lauder, told The Cut what happened. 

“An ex-boss of mine was giving me grief: ‘You made me sound like a kooky person!’ But it is true. We do a lot of strange things in research and development that don’t always sound so scientific. I don’t know whether it helped me or not. But it did get information from someone who claimed to have psychic energy."

Bevacqua also said as a result of the medium's opinion, the scientists play carefully curated sounds as each batch is created. 

Read more about Le Mer conspiracy theories here

SEE ALSO: 'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing countless industries with their strange habits — but here are the brands they actually like

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NOW WATCH: A dermatologist says these popular skin products are a waste of money

We tried the $10-a-month movie theater service MoviePass — and it's more trouble than we expected

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MoviePass recently announced it would slash the price of its all-you-can-watch movie buffet to a mere $9.95 a month. The service allows users to see up to one movie per day, excluding premium formats like IMAX and 3D. 

We decided to sign up and find out if the service is too good to be true. We experienced some difficulties right out of the gate. MoviePass released a statement saying that the overwhelming amount of new subscribers has caused myriad technical issues. 

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The eSports competitive video gaming market continues to grow revenues & attract investors

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eSports Advertising and Sponsorships

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

What is eSports? History & Rise of Video Game Tournaments

Years ago, eSports was a community of video gamers who would gather at conventions to play Counter Strike, Call of Duty, or League of Legends.

These multiplayer video game competitions would determine League of Legends champions, the greatest shooters in Call of Duty, the cream of the crop of Street Fighter players, the elite Dota 2 competitors, and more.

But today, as the history of eSports continue to unfold, media giants such as ESPN and Turner are broadcasting eSports tournaments and competitions. And in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch, the live streaming video platform that has been and continues to be the leader in online gaming broadcasts. And YouTube also wanted to jump on the live streaming gaming community with the creation of YouTube Gaming.

eSports Market Growth Booming

To put in perspective how big eSports is becoming, a Google search for "lol" does not produce "laughing out loud" as the top result. Instead, it points to League of Legends, one of the most popular competitive games in existence. The game has spawned a worldwide community called the League of Legends Championship Series, more commonly known as LCS or LOL eSports.

What started as friends gathering in each other's homes to host LAN parties and play into the night has become an official network of pro gaming tournaments and leagues with legitimate teams, some of which are even sponsored and have international reach. Organizations such as Denial, AHQ, and MLG have multiple eSports leagues.

And to really understand the scope of all this, consider that the prize pool for the latest Dota 2 tournament was more than $20 million.

Websites even exist for eSports live scores to let people track the competitions in real time if they are unable to watch. There are even fantasy eSports leagues similar to fantasy football, along with the large and growing scene of eSports betting and gambling.

So it's understandable why traditional media companies would want to capitalize on this growing trend just before it floods into the mainstream. Approximately 300 million people worldwide tune in to eSports today, and that number is growing rapidly. By 2020, that number will be closer to 500 million.

eSports Industry Analysis - The Future of the Competitive Gaming Market

Financial institutions are starting to take notice. Goldman Sachs valued eSports at $500 million in 2016 and expects the market will grow at 22% annually compounded over the next three years into a more than $1 billion opportunity.

And industry statistics are already backing this valuation and demonstrating the potential for massive earnings. To illustrate the market value, market growth, and potential earnings for eSports, consider Swedish media company Modern Times Group's $87 million acquisition of Turtle Entertainment, the holding company for ESL. YouTube has made its biggest eSports investment to date by signing a multiyear broadcasting deal with Faceit to stream the latter's Esports Championship Series. And the NBA will launch its own eSports league in 2018.

Of course, as with any growing phenomenon, the question becomes: How do advertisers capitalize? This is especially tricky for eSports because of its audience demographics, which is young, passionate, male-dominated, and digital-first. They live online and on social media, are avid ad-blockers, and don't watch traditional TV or respond to conventional advertising.

So what will the future of eSports look like? How high can it climb? Could it reach the mainstream popularity of baseball or football? How will advertisers be able to reach an audience that does its best to shield itself from advertising?

Robert Elder, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled an unparalleled report on the eSports ecosystem that dissects the growing market for competitive gaming. This comprehensive, industry-defining report contains more than 30 charts and figures that forecast audience growth, average revenue per user, and revenue growth.

Companies and organizations mentioned in the report include: NFL, NBA, English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, NHL, Paris Saint-Germain, Ligue 1, Ligue de Football, Twitch, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Valve, Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, ESL, Turtle Entertainment, Dreamhack, Modern Times Group, Turner Broadcasting, TBS Network, Vivendi, Canal Plus, Dailymotion, Disney, BAMTech, Intel, Coca Cola, Red Bull, HTC, Mikonet

Here are some eSports industry facts and statistics from the report:

  • eSports is a still nascent industry filled with commercial opportunity.
  • There are a variety of revenue streams that companies can tap into.
  • The market is presently undervalued and has significant room to grow.
  • The dynamism of this market distinguishes it from traditional sports.
  • The audience is high-value and global, and its numbers are rising.
  • Brands can prosper in eSports by following the appropriate game plan.
  • Game publishers approach their Esport ecosystems in different ways.  
  • Successful esport games are comprised of the same basic ingredients.
  • Digital streaming platforms are spearheading the popularity of eSports.
  • Legacy media are investing into eSports, and seeing encouraging results.
  • Traditional sports franchises have a clear opportunity to seize in eSports.
  • Virtual and augmented reality firms also stand to benefit from eSports.  

In full, the report illuminates the business of eSports from four angles:

  • The gaming nucleus of eSports, including an overview of popular esport genres and games; the influence of game publishers, and the spectrum of strategies they adopt toward their respective esport scenes; the role of eSports event producers and the tournaments they operate.
  • The eSports audience profile, its size, global reach, and demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes; the underlying factors driving its growth; why they are an attractive target for brands and broadcasters; and the significant audience and commercial crossover with traditional sports.
  • eSports media broadcasters, including digital avant-garde like Twitch and YouTube, newer digital entrants like Facebook and traditional media outlets like Turner’s TBS Network, ESPN, and Canal Plus; their strategies and successes in this space; and the virtual reality opportunity.
  • eSports market economics, with a market sizing, growth forecasts, and regional analyses; an evaluation of the eSports spectacle and its revenue generators, some of which are idiosyncratic to this industry; strategic planning for brand marketers, with case studies; and an exploration of the infinite dynamism and immense potential of the eSports economy.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

  1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
  2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

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NOW WATCH: 6 details you might have missed on season 7 episode 5 of 'Game of Thrones'


Nintendo's SNES Classic Edition will come with three of the four most popular games made for the original version

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Consumers who are lucky enough to get their hands on one of the new Super Nintendo Classic Edition consoles will not only be getting an inexpensive remake of the popular game machine, they'll also be getting some of the top games that were made for the original version.

The SNES Classic Edition is a miniaturized version of Nintendo's original Super Nintendo Entertainment System from the early 1990s. It costs only $80 and comes loaded with 21 classic games. Among those are six of the 10 most popular games that were made for the original console, as this chart from Statista— which is based on data from VGChartz and Nintendo — shows. 

Many fans ended up disappointed last year when Nintendo's NES Classic, a miniaturized version of its original game machine from the 1980s, ran out of stock. The company has promised to make "significantly more" units of the SNES Classic, but when preorders for the device went live on Amazon and Best Buy on Monday night, the device sold out almost immediately. With a game lineup like this, it's not hard to see why.

 

COTD_8.23

SEE ALSO: Here's how people are using their smartwatches

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NOW WATCH: Unboxing the Nintendo Switch — here's everything you'll get with the new console

One of the most innovative sports games in years is coming to the Nintendo Switch

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"Rocket League" is unlike any video game you've ever played. It's essentially a game of soccer, but with rocket-powered cars instead of human players. 

It's one of my favorite games on the PlayStation 4 (it's also available on Xbox One and PC via Steam), but later this year, it will arrive on Nintendo's newest console, the Switch, which itself has been on a rocket ever since its release in early March.

Though most people have praised the Switch (myself included), one of the biggest sticking points with critics has been its limited roster of must-have games. Of course, this is understandable since the console only launched about six months ago, but the addition of "Rocket League" only makes the Switch a better sell. Two of the biggest hits on the Nintendo Switch currently, "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" and "Splatoon 2," encourage people to play with and against each other, thereby taking advantage of the Nintendo Switch's unique multiplayer capabilities. "Rocket League" fits that bill in a similar fashion, and it's also a proven winner on otherconsoles, meaning it's easy to recommend before it's even released.

For the Nintendo Switch version, "Rocket League" maker Psyonix created some new cars themed after Nintendo's most famous mascots, including Mario, Luigi, and Samus Aran of "Metroid" fame — all three of these cars are featured in Psyonix's new teaser for the game, which it released on Wednesday night. You can watch that teaser below.

"Rocket League" will release on the Nintendo Switch sometime in "holiday 2017."

SEE ALSO: The 25 best games every PlayStation 4 owner should have in their library

DON'T MISS: The $300 Nintendo Switch has been great for my relationship

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NOW WATCH: British special forces are testing out a bulletproof combat helmet that looks like something Boba Fett would wear

Don't spoil 'Game of Thrones' for George R.R. Martin — he's still a couple of episodes behind

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Don't be fooled, George R.R. Martin does watch "Game of Thrones" — he's just a few episodes behind! Please don't spoil it for him, because he has no idea who's died. 

Earlier this week, news circulated online that George R.R. Martin, the author of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series which "Game of Thrones" is based on, doesn't watch the show. This news spread thanks to a quote from Martin that was taken out of context.

Martin recently told Metro that he hasn't had time to watch the show because he's been busy "touring." He also said, “The book series and TV adaptation go their separate ways. On the screen characters are killed right and left. About twenty of them have died already, which are quite alive to me and will appear in a new book.”

The New York Post then published a story with the headline "George R.R. Martin does not watch 'Game of Thrones.'" After the news that Martin does not watch the show that he has written for and is based on his own books, Entertainment Weekly confirmed with Martin via email that he does watch the show. He just hasn't had time to catch up on season seven, because he's been traveling.

Thankfully with only seven episodes, there's not that much catching up to do. But he should probably stay off the internet for a while to avoid spoilers.

SEE ALSO: The 24 most gruesome 'Game of Thrones' deaths, ranked

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Nintendo's approach to selling the $80 Super Nintendo is an anti-consumer fiasco

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Were you awake around 2 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning? Or perhaps around 4:45 a.m. that day? If you were, you might be one of the lucky few who happened upon the first chance to pre-order Nintendo's new, miniature Super Nintendo Entertainment System. 

Super NES Classic Edition

The console, officially known as the Super NES Classic Edition, is a tiny, $80 version of the original SNES. It comes with two gamepads, and 21 games built in. One of those games, "Star Fox 2," is a previously unreleased sequel to a classic game ("Star Fox").

As such, the SNES Classic Edition is in ridiculously high demand: It's the perfect marriage of nostalgia and low cost. And this is precisely why it's so incredibly frustrating that Nintendo's making it so, so difficult to simply buy the system.

Target, Super NES Classic Edition checkout

After pre-orders went live at Amazon and Best Buy in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, they sold out within minutes. That left Walmart, Target, and GameStop — but when would those go live? 

Later that same Tuesday morning, the thousands of people who wanted to pre-order the console were on high alert. Nintendo said nothing; we reached out for comment and didn't receive a response. The company issued no statements on its social channels regarding SNES Classic Edition pre-orders on Tuesday.

Later in the day, around 1 p.m. ET, pre-orders suddenly went live on Target and Walmart. Both were quickly swamped — five colleagues and I tried buying the console, only to hit checkout errors like the one seen above, despite those consoles already being in our check-out carts. Those errors were never fixed, and subsequent attempts showed that both stores were sold out. 

GameStop — the largest game retailer in the world — offered pre-orders in stores. Minutes after announcing as much, stores were mobbed:

gamestop snes classic nyc

Alternatively, GameStop-owned ThinkGeek offered outrageously expensive bundles online.

If you were so inclined, you could've pre-ordered a Super NES Classic Edition alongside a bunch of gaming tchotchkes: $139.99 was the lowest-priced bundle, while the highest-priced was a ridiculous $329.99. 

To be clear, this is a garbage proposition. Even in the least expensive bundle, you're paying an extra $60 for... what? For this junk:

ThinkGeek product screen (Super NES Classic Edition)

That bundle sold out, as did the $329.99 one. Of course they did.

Maybe you were in the market for a "Super Mario Canteen" (that's the NES cartridge) and a "Tetris Lamp" (who isn't?). Maybe you're okay paying an extra $60 for stuff you otherwise wouldn't buy. Maybe you're not deeply offended that the largest game retailer in the world is bundling a low-priced nostalgia item with a bunch of overpriced junk you'd find in the discount bin at Spencer's Gifts. 

The reaction from fans on social media hasn't been quite so positive.

All of this might not be such a problem if the Super NES Classic Edition were an item being produced in perpetuity. Alas, that is not the case — like the NES Classic Edition before it, the mini Super Nintendo is only planned for a limited-production run. Nintendo says it will only guarantee production through the end of 2017 — meaning you have a finite chance to find one of these consoles before they become permanent collectors' items.

The fact that the console is limited in availability adds pressure, especially if you have a friend/relative/loved one who wants a Super NES Classic Edition for a gift this holiday season. 

So, why doesn't Nintendo just make more? The Super NES Classic Edition is a small plastic box with a very inexpensive computer inside, and it's clearly high in demand. Even at the low price of $80, Nintendo's assuredly taking in massive profit on each unit sold. Moreover, making more units would make it possible for everyone who wants to buy the console to actually buy the console.

It's these unanswered questions that make Nintendo look so bad in this instance. 

Super Mario

In the case of a new game console, like the Nintendo Switch, it's understandable when a company has a hard time keeping up with demand: Manufacturing the console is expensive and new; shipping takes time; it's risky to overproduce a product. 

In the case of the Super NES Classic Edition, though, Nintendo seems to be intentionally limiting supply. Couldn't Nintendo let everyone pre-order the console who wants to pre-order the console, and then fulfill those orders? Yes, Nintendo could do that. Instead, Nintendo's chosen to rely on the pre-order systems of retailers who aren't prepared for the type of sudden demand that the Super NES Classic Edition comes with. 

But don't worry: You can still line up on September 29 when the console launches and try to get one in person.

Good luck with that.

SEE ALSO: It looks like Super Nintendo mania is hitting full swing — so get ready for shortages

DON'T MISS: Nintendo's $80 mini Super Nintendo went up for sale overnight and sold out immediately

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NOW WATCH: Nintendo dropped another trailer for 'Super Mario Odyssey' — and it looks amazing

AMC Theatres has begun pushing back against MoviePass, the $10-a-month service that lets you see a movie a day in theaters

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Moviepass

MoviePass has hit yet another stumbling block during its troubled rollout, with AMC Theatres blocking users from being able to purchase e-tickets at locations in Boston and Denver, according to a report by SlashFilm

The app, which has been around since 2011 but introduced a new $10-a-month pricing model last week, allows subscribers to see a movie a day in theaters.

After the announcement of the new, lower price, AMC released a statement saying it would be consulting with its attorneys to see if it could block MoviePass' efforts.

The theater chain, which is the largest in country, asserts that MoviePass' business model is unsustainable, and that moviegoers will be set up for "ultimate disappointment down the road" when it goes under.

Simply put, AMC is worried that if MoviePass goes down, nobody will want to pay full price for a movie anymore. 

It appears unlikely that AMC will be able to fully block MoviePass, as the service has its own agreement with MasterCard to provide subscribers with pre-loaded debit cards they can use to purchase their tickets. 

"We comply fully with the rules of MasterCard and AMC has signed agreements with both their credit card processor and with MasterCard to comply with all the rules," MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told Variety. "They would essentially have to not take MasterCard in order to block us."

However, AMC is able to make MoviePass more inconvenient to use. By blocking e-ticketing at locations in Boston and Denver, the theater chain has made it so that subscribers are unable to order their tickets from home, in advance of the showtime they want to see. 

This measure won't prevent MoviePass subscribers from going to those locations, though. Instead, they'll just need to swipe their debit cards in person. 

Only 6% of the theaters MoviePass subscribers have access to offer e-ticketing, so it does not appear that this move by AMC will have much of an effect on subscribers. Time will tell what other measures, if any, the theater chain might take against MoviePass.

SEE ALSO: This is how MoviePass plans to make money with a $10-a-month unlimited plan that seems too good to be true

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Galore, the publishing company focused on 16- to 24-year-old women, has flipped media's business model

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galore

  • Galore Media says traditional ads just don't work for Gen Z, the 70 million people born between 1996 and 2010.
  • Instead it focuses on creating content for marketers and connecting them with influencers.
  • "This is how everybody will have to build a media company in the future."

When the digital-media company Galore talks to prospective advertisers, it tries to sell them on its social-media network, its ability to make content for brands, its relationship with influencers, and its track record of producing events. It barely bothers selling them paid ads.

Mike Albanese, Galore's CEO, said that even just a few years ago, digital-media companies looking to capture the millennial market were focused on a fairly traditional ad strategy.

"Let’s make a lot of content, figure out how to drive lots of traffic, get some big audience numbers, and kind of wrap advertising around it," Albanese said. "That no longer holds up."

Today, Albanese says, "display ads on a website just aren't going to get you there, especially with a generation of consumers who don't even think of websites — and if they do, they use ad blockers," he said. "There are just too many challenges with that model."

As an alternative, Galore operates as a specialist agency for its advertisers, helping them make ads, distribute content (videos and photos), and reach a community through a number of outlets.

Many media companies, from BuzzFeed to Condé Nast, have edged into making content and ads for paying marketers. Vice Media operates its own global ad agency. Yet they all still sell lots of ads.

In Galore's case, the ads-are-secondary approach may simply represent a unique strategy for a publication that is focused on a hard-to-reach demographic: women between the ages of 16 to 24. Or it may be a harbinger in an industry where young consumers are increasingly able to avoid traditional advertising, even traditional digital ads.

"Yes, we have an audience that is unique in many ways," Albanese added. "They are younger, they were 10 years old when the iPhone came out, and were raised on Tumblr. So Gen Z Media companies will need new revenue and distribution models. But we think this is how everybody will have to build a media company in the future."

Galore does sell some old-fashioned display ads on its website, alongside articles with headlines like "9 Different Ways to Rock the Wet-Hair Look." But these are almost throw-ins to bigger campaigns focused on connecting brands like L'Oreal and Neutrogena with young women.

The company tries all sorts of alternative tactics. For example, it operates a Slack channel for 1,500 of the company's biggest fans, through which it bounces ideas off the fans as part of a real-time digital focus group — even tapping into this group to serve as "micro influencers" for paying advertisers on occasion.


Last year, Galore launched the Girl Cult franchise in New York, and it has grown it into a full-fledged festival this year, featuring speakers Tyra Banks and Kimora Lee Simmons with a number of performers and sponsors.

unnamed 10In addition, Galore creates and distributes content with the help of stars who resonate with its young audience, such as Kylie Jenner, Zendaya, and Sofia Richie, all while connecting marketers with top influencers through Kitten, an influencer-rep firm that it owns.

Marketers that specialize in trying to reach this young demographic tend to agree that this kind of multipronged approach is necessary.

"This consumer is tuning out standard advertising models," said Nick Woodhouse, president and chief marketer officer of Authentic Brands Group, which owns Juicy Couture and Aeropostale. "Today’s consumer is looking for content that is cool, is peer-driven, and hits a chord."

Albanese says Galore Media is on track to pull in $5 million in revenue this year, up from $2 million last year. Roughly 70% comes from running influencer campaigns and making content for marketers, while 20% comes from events. Just 10% comes from paid ads.

"It's almost like the ads we sell are a nice-to-have for our partners," he said. "It's a total philosophical difference from most media companies."

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The 11 youngest Emmy award nominees and winners of all time

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Millie Bobby Brown, star of the Netflix original hit "Stranger Things," has been nominated for an Emmy award. If she wins, she'll be the youngest Emmy winner of all time at 13.

The Emmy Awards have always been fairly selective when nominating young actors and actresses for awards, despite the magnitude of child actors working in television over the years. 

There have only been 11 actors under the age of 18 nominated for an Emmy, and only two actors in that age group have won since the award show began in 1949. 

In anticipation of the 2017 Emmy Awards in September, we rounded up the youngest Emmy nominees and winners of all time — including the possible record-breaking win that could occur.

Here are the youngest Emmy nominees and winners of all time:

Patty Duke, 18-years-old

Duke was 18 in 1964 when she received an Emmy nomination for her work in her self-titled show "The Patty Duke Show."



Sara Gilbert, 18-years-old

Gilbert was nominated for best supporting actress at 18, in 1993 for her portrayal of broody teenager Darlene Conner on "Roseanne."



Malcolm Jamal-Warner, 16-years-old

Jamal-Warner became a contender for a best supporting actor Emmy at 16 for his role as the goofy, relatable Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby show" in 1986.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The movie theater behind the women-only 'Wonder Woman' screening is hosting a clowns-only showing of Stephen King's 'It'

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Breathing life into the nightmares of many, an Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin, Texas has required that all attendees of an upcoming screening for the Stephen King film "It" show up dressed as clowns.

A post on the theater's site for the showing reads, "For this special screening of IT, all attendees should arrive dressed as a clown in order to attend."

Film writer Siddhant Adlakha first spotted this terrifying happening on Twitter, noting that the same Alamo Drafthouse location prompted controversy when it called for a "women-only" screening of "Wonder Woman" earlier this year.

Alamo Drafthouse did not immediately reply when asked to elaborate on if the event will be exclusive to its Austin location.

"It" premieres nationwide on September 8.

Watch the trailer below:

SEE ALSO: 15 movies and TV shows you didn't know were Stephen King adaptations

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There's a simple, frustrating reason you can't buy the $80 mini Super Nintendo

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Even if you were quick on the draw, chances are you weren't able to preorder the adorably small $80 Super Nintendo that Nintendo's retail partners put up this week.

Super NES Classic Edition

You might've signed up for a Target.com account ahead of time, and you might've had the product page set aside in a window by itself. Maybe you closed all your other browser tabs, and made sure nothing else was using bandwidth. You might've even managed to be near a computer to take advantage of all this stuff when preorders suddenly went live on Tuesday around 1 p.m. ET.

Unfortunately for you, puny human, you can't move faster than code can.

Target, Super NES Classic Edition checkout

That's right: You weren't just competing with hundreds of thousands of other humans who wanted to secure a Super NES Classic Edition. There were also people running scripts — essentially a set of instructions for your computer to execute a series of actions. In the case of the Super NES Classic Edition preorders, the script was being used to place and execute preorders far more capably than you're able to do on your own.

One such script is named Tai Ding, and it was reportedly responsible for at least some of the preorder train wreck on Tuesday.

"People have realized that our bot puts them ahead of the competition. We have a 93 percent success rate," a representative for Tai Ding told Polygon. One of the script's creators even claimed on Twitter that they were able to preorder four Super NES Classic Edition consoles by using the Tai Ding script.

None of the five different people in Business Insider's office who were attempting to preorder the console without a script were able to get through. Social media is flooded with reports from other people who hit the same wall. GameStop offered in-store preorders, which resulted in long lines and a lot of disappointment when stores ran out of their limited preorder allotments.

gamestop snes classic line

Hilariously, Tai Ding is said to be easily thwarted — a simple "CAPTCHA" gate shuts it down. None of the retail websites where preorders were available use CAPTCHA.

Unfortunately for average people without scripts, who weren't anxiously sitting at a computer at exactly the right moment, even that wouldn't have fixed the bigger problem: Demand for the Super NES Classic Edition vastly outstrips supply.

The Super NES Classic Edition console costs $79.99 and arrives in stores on September 29. Make sure to get there early if you want a shot at getting one!

SEE ALSO: Nintendo's approach to selling the $80 Super Nintendo is an anti-consumer fiasco

DON'T MISS: Nintendo is about to release a miniature version of the original SNES — here's everything we know about it

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The Apple TV will reportedly get a 4K revamp soon to take on Roku and Google in the living room (AAPL, GOOG, GOOGL, AMZN)

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Apple is planning to unveil a new version of the Apple TV streaming box that will support ultra-HD 4K resolution video and the HDR color standard in September, reports Bloomberg.

4K resolution represents a sizeable bump up compared to traditional "HD" resolution, allowing for sharper movies and TV, and HDR technology offers the greatest accuracy in how colors are displayed on a TV. Apple's revamped streaming box will reportedly support both.

This new Apple TV will be unveiled alongside the iPhone 8 and the next-generation Apple Watch, according to the report.

To take advantage of the boost to video quality, you'll need a TV that supports 4K, HDR, or both, as well as have access to content that supports those standards. To that end, Bloomberg reports that Apple is in talks to bring 4K movies and TV shows to the iTunes store. The new Apple TV will also support apps that enable live TV streaming. 

A new Apple TV would come as the company's living room ambitions falter — recent studies show that Roku currently leads the market for video streaming devices, followed by Amazon and Google. With a new Apple TV, and support for higher resolutions, Apple is hoping to gain some ground.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. You can read the full Bloomberg report here.

Here's the video streaming market share tally, per a study released in July 2017:

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SEE ALSO: Here's why HDR, not 4K, is the most important upgrade for your next TV

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The white supremacist arrested after Charlottesville rally was featured in a 2014 segment of The Colbert Report

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christopher cantwell white supremacist charlottesville

Christopher Cantwell, the white supremacist featured in a widely viewed Vice News documentary on the Charlottesville white nationalist rally earlier this month, was also featured in a 2014 episode of The Colbert Report as a "difference maker" for his role in a group that frequently harassed parking meter attendants.

Cantwell was arrested Wednesday over his role in the Charlottesville demonstrations. Campus police at the University of Virginia had sought him for three felony charges: two counts of illegal use of tear gas and one count of malicious bodily injury with a "caustic substance," explosive, or fire.

Cantwell was propelled into infamy by the Vice documentary, in which he offered racist critiques of black and Jewish people, confirmed that his movement was violent, and defended the killing of Heather Heyer — the 32-year-old woman who was fatally struck by a driver identified as a white supremacist — as "justified."

"I'm carrying a pistol, I go to the gym all the time, I'm trying to make myself more capable of violence," he told Vice correspondent Elle Reeve, later predicting that "a lot more people are going to die before we're done here."

In his Colbert Report appearance, however, Cantwell's antics were related less to the white nationalist cause, and more to a supposed libertarian notion that parking meter attendants were symptomatic of "government overreach." The popular Colbert segment "Difference Makers" often featured various individuals or groups defending what they believed to be self-righteous causes, while being mocked all the while by Stephen Colbert's deadpan narration.

In the segment, Cantwell and his fellow members of the Free Keene Squad — in Keene, New Hampshire — were shown filming themselves putting coins in parking meters before the attendants could write tickets, and later following and harassing the attendants.

"Yes, this may look like the Free Keene Squad are being total dicks to innocent meter maids — but if that were true, why doesn't anyone stop them?" Colbert asked in a voiceover, before cutting to an interview with Cantwell.

"I find that when I carry a gun, people are very unlikely to hit me," he said, to the sound of laughter from Colbert's studio audience.

Watch the full Colbert Report clip below:

 

SEE ALSO: The chilling worldview of a white supremacist who helped lead the Charlottesville rally shows why so many people are furious with Trump

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Alec Baldwin mocks Trump's Arizona rally in brutal parody

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Alec Baldwin reprised his parody of President Donald Trump in a sketch depicting Trump's raucous Phoenix, Arizona, rally. Baldwin's Trump opened the sketch lamenting about the fallout surrounding the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"As we all know, there was a tragic victim that came out of Charlottesville — me," Baldwin quipped. "Folks, the media has treated me so unfairly by reporting my entire remarks, even the bad ones."

Baldwin's caricature of Trump then tore into "the dishonest media" that reported on his scripted speech of the US's future strategy for Afghanistan.

"They won't tell you about my accomplishments, but I've done so much. First off, last night, I solved Afghanistan."

"I sat down with our military, we looked at the map, and I asked the hard questions like: which one is Afghanistan," Baldwin said. "Is that blue thing an ocean?"

Baldwin also reenacted one of Trump's notorious chants:

"What do we want," Baldwin asked.

"The wall," the mock crowd chanted.

"Who's going to pay for it," Baldwin asked again.

"Mexico," the mock crowd chanted back.

"That's right, you are, the American taxpayer," Baldwin said.

You can watch the clip below:

SEE ALSO: 'DOWNRIGHT SCARY AND DISTURBING': James Clapper questions if Trump is 'looking for a way out'

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