• "Ocean's 8" wins the weekend box office, taking in an estimated $41.5 million.
• That's the best opening ever for the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise.

This weekend Warner Bros./Village Roadshow dusted off the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise — which worked so well for them in the early 2000s with the help of stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon — and set a new high for the movies thanks to an all-female cast.

Starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, and Rihanna, "Ocean's 8" took in an estimated $41.5 million to win the weekend domestic box office.

That's a record high for the franchise, passing 2004's $39.1 million opening. That movie went on to earn $362.7 million worldwide. If the studio can take in that kind of coin for "Ocean's 8" it will be very pleased. A lot has changed since 2004, specifically the kinds of movies studios will get behind.

In the current superhero binge by the studios, the majors are ignoring most genres, making the "Ocean's 8" opening a refreshing sight.

The last major opening by an all-female reboot of a franchise was Sony's "Ghostbusters" in 2016. Completely banished by the core fans of the franchise who didn't see a reason for the beloved movies from the 1980s starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis to be given the all-female cast relaunch, the movie only took in $229.1 million worldwide for its lifetime box office. It was a disappointing return for a movie that had a production budget of $144 million.

So what did "Ocean's 8" do right? Well, the movie's extremely modest $70 million budget is one thing. The pressure to be a major hit wasn't on its shoulders like it was for "Ghostbusters." And it wasn't trying to relaunch a franchise that has such a traditionalist fan base.

It will be interesting to see how "Ocean's" performs going forward with titles like "Incredibles 2" and "Jurassic Wold: Fallen Kingdom" coming to theaters in the coming weeks.

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• The massive success of "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is making major waves in the video game industry.
• Earlier this year, Activision announced that this year's "Call of Duty" would have a Battle Royale mode. On Saturday, EA announced that this year's "Battlefield V" also will.
• The announcement is indicative of how impactful the success of "Fortnite" and "PUBG" has been on the world of video games.

The next major entry in the "Battlefield" series is getting a huge new addition: A version of the massively popular Battle Royale mode that made "Fortnite" such a huge success.

"Battlefield V" is the latest major blockbuster to add a Battle Royale mode — "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" arrives this October with its own spin on the Battle Royale concept.

In the case of "Battlefield V," the mode (titled simply "Royale") won't arrive alongside the game on October 19. Instead, it's said to arrive some time after launch as part of EA's plans for ongoing support of the game via downloadable updates.

The move to add a Battle Royale mode to the beloved "Battlefield" franchise was divisive among fans when EA announced it on Saturday afternoon at its annual "EA Play" event in Los Angeles. Some people cheered, while others booed:

In the case of "Fortnite" and "PUBG," Battle Royale means a 1-vs-100 fight to the death on an island that gets smaller by the minute. In the case of "Battlefield V," it's not clear how large the mode is or how it will work.  

"It's royale re-imagined for Battlefield," senior producer Lars Gustavsson said of the mode. "So we bring those pillars of 'Battlefield' — destruction, team play, vehicles — into this new experience. We'll bring you an experience that you haven't played before — in 'Battlefield,' or anywhere else."

He also said we'll see more of this new mode later this year. For now, there's a new trailer that offers a peek into the massive multiplayer component of "Battlefield V" — check it out right here:

SEE ALSO: The next big 'Battlefield' game returns to World War II and makes some major gameplay changes — here's what we know

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With just a few weeks left until the biggest game show of the year, the unthinkable has happened: A massive leak.

The image below was taken from Walmart's Canadian website, which accidentally posted placeholder artwork for just shy of 40 games.

Many of the games are known quantities, but a bundle of them were accidentally revealed by the listings — and at least one major surprise was already confirmed in an announcement, which lends a lot more weight to the rest of the listings. 

Here's everything new that was revealed:

SEE ALSO: The 34 hottest video games you shouldn't miss in 2018

First, some context:

Retail listings with placeholder artwork aren't confirmation of anything, and it's entirely possible that the list is nothing but guesswork.

But there's at least one good reason why that's unlikely in this particular case: "Rage 2." 

It's been years since the first "Rage" came and went — seven years. "Rage" is far from a beloved franchise, nor is it a hated franchise. It's more of a forgotten game than anything else. It had a relatively forgettable open-world, and a story to match. It sold well enough, but wasn't a runaway success either.

In short: It's not the kind of game that was demanding a sequel.

So when it showed up on Walmart's Canadian site, it was held up as evidence that the list was false. Which is why it was so interesting when "Rage 2" was announced soon after — an apparent response to having been outed by Walmart — much to the surprise of people like myself.

If "Rage 2" is real, then the more obvious stuff in the leak is all the more likely to be true.

1. "Gears of War 5"

It's been about two years since "Gears of War 4," and a new entry in the series is a foregone conclusion.

Not only is "Gears of War" a marquee Xbox franchise directly produced by Microsoft's own studios, but the previous game in the series introduced a whole new slew of protagonists. It would be more surprising if there wasn't a follow-up to "Gears of War 4." 

Microsoft has yet to announce "Gears of War 5," but it would be entirely unsurprising if it debuted on stage during Microsoft's press briefing at E3 2018 in mid-June.

2. "Forza Horizon 4" (mislabeled as "Forza Horizons 5")

Perhaps the only game more expected than "Gears of War 5" on this list of rumored announcements is a new entry in the "Forza Horizon" series.

The "Forza" franchise operates on a rotating schedule. In 2016, "Forza Horizon 3" came out; in 2017, "Forza Motorsport 7" came out. The simulation-style racing series, "Forza Motorsport," is the big highlight one year, and the arcade-style racing series "Forza Horizon" is the big highlight the next.

Thus, 2018 is the year for "Forza Horizon 4."

The game is labeled in the leak as "Forza Horizons 5," which would indeed be a big surprise — what a bizarre name change! I'm guessing that's just an error, but who knows.

• Documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus looks at how The New York Times covered President Trump in his first year in office in "The Fourth Estate."
• The four-part docuseries examines the inner workings of the paper's newsroom and the reporters getting the stories.
• Garbus told Business Insider a big reason for doing the project was to show the importance of journalism in the "fake news" era.

Like many in the country, documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus (“What Happened, Miss Simone?”) was shocked when Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States. But what really fascinated her was how the media would be able to cover one of the most hostile presidents toward the press in modern times.

And when Trump went on a tirade on Twitter in November of 2016 about if he was going enter the building of the “failing” New York Times for an interview, the wheels began turning in Garbus' head.

“I thought, ‘What if I could be a fly on the wall at that meeting,’” she told Business Insider.

In that moment, Garbus had the idea for her next project: a look at how The New York Times, one of the most esteemed news outlets, would cover a president in the era of “fake news.”

In the four-part Showtime documentary series, “The Fourth Estate” (episode one aired Sunday), Garbus is given unprecedented access by the paper to chronicle its coverage of Trump during his first year in office. The filmmaker is there to capture some of the biggest stories about the Trump White House — from Michael Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser to James Comey’s firing as FBI director by Trump. And we are right there when breaking news happens or a reporter gets something extraordinary, like Trump calling the Times’ White House correspondent Maggie Haberman to comment on the collapse of the health care legislation in the Senate.

The docuseries is an interesting look at the reporters and editors who have been on a non-stop Trump news cycle the past year, and gives us a glimpse at how they use sources and gumshoe reporting to get the news out to the world, while still having some semblance of a personal life.

“I walked in there trying to understand the ecosystem, how it goes from a reporter having lunch with somebody to becoming a story that you then go back to the government for comment,” Garbus said. “That whole process was opaque to me and it was something that I learned along with our viewers.” 

How she got in the newsroom

Though Garbus got the "okay" from the heads of The New York Times to make the docuseries, she still had to get the permission of every single reporter and editor she wanted to film. Needless to say, not everyone was instantly receptive. But there were some that Garbus felt were pivotal to have.

“Maggie Haberman, she’s one of their star White House reporters and she’s also a really compelling character,” Garbus said. “She’s a working mom who lives in New York and is traveling down to DC and has incredible sources. She was important.”

Some of the most compelling moments throughout the series are when the camera is following Haberman. Having covered Trump since back in her days reporting at The New York Daily News, she’s in many ways the Trump decoder for the paper. She is the one they turn to in order to better understand the president and his behavior. But then Garbus also shows Haberman's personal life as a mother who is never home and has to continue on the Trump grind — even though she thought Trump would lose the election and promised her family once that happened she would be home more.

And then there’s the Times’ Washington correspondent, Michael S. Schmidt, who at first declined Garbus’ invitation to be in her project. Over time, he had second thoughts.

“You might tell he’s not in episode one, but then you see more of him in the episodes going forward,” Garbus said. “He was someone who was very wary and skeptical but then decided to play ball. I’m so happy he did because he was really one of the reporters that was getting so many scoops and advancing our knowledge of Trump and the investigations this past year.”

And Schmidt’s personal life is very different than Haberman's. He’s single and basically lives and breathes his beat. At one point in an episode, he says half jokingly that he doesn’t even have food in his refrigerator because he’s never there.

Garbus pinballs back and forth from the newsroom in New York City to the Washington, DC bureau — the latter being where a lot of the exciting breaking news takes place in “The Fourth Estate.”

She admitted the entire filming was not a comfortable experience. Often reporters would brush away her camera or run into a conference room if they were speaking to a source, but when news broke things got easier as the newsroom went into action and Garbus and her two crew members (some episodes are also directed by Jenny Carchman) would just react to what they were seeing.

It was when nothing was going on that the filmmakers stuck out like a sore thumb.

“You would be pointing your camera at someone refreshing their Twitter feed and that’s annoying,” Garbus said.

Disdain toward the press isn’t going to stop any time soon

Hanging over all the episodes in the docuseries is how the media is portrayed as a bunch of liars and fabricators by Trump.

Garbus shows this in a few different ways, from reporters interacting with Trump supporters to the eerie score throughout the series which is done by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who have done scores for “The Social Network” and “Gone Girl”).

One of the big motivations for Garbus to do the project was to show just how much goes into a story actually making it to print.

“Every time the Times has a scoop related to, say, the FBI, they call the FBI for comment, you give them the opportunity [to comment],” Garbus said. “The sausage making in some way is very unglamorous but that’s what I really wanted to expose and demystify. I think there have been so many attacks on journalism, but the way these reporters make sure someone is on the level with them and the amount that they don’t put into the newspaper that they hear is pretty incredible.”

In one of the most chilling moments of the docuseries, Garbus’ team follows a Times reporter to one of the rallies Trump did after he became president. At one moment, Trump bashes the media in the room and Garbus’ team, inside the press section, shows the crowd around them becoming more and more volatile toward the press. It’s an instance that Garbus believes isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

“You can’t built up the emotions of people and call out the press to people without inciting violence,” Garbus said. “I think there will be more instances like that and that’s really alarming. But these journalists are not afraid.”

And Garbus wants to continue looking at the press and Trump. Though “The Fourth Estate” has been wrapped for a while, she doesn’t rule out some kind of sequel either at the Times or another outlet.

“I think looking at the press right now is important,” she said. “We don’t know where this roller coaster ride we’re on will end, but many of us agree the press is an important partner to have on that ride.”

"The Fourth Estate" airs Sundays on Showtime, or stream the entire docuseries here.

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• Dating apps are increasingly connecting people who live or work close by, have the same commute, or went to college together.
• Sometimes dating apps can speed up a relationship that might have unfolded, albeit platonically, in real life.
• Most dating app users opt to see potential matches who live within a few miles of them, so they're bound to run into neighbors.

Paige Monborne was playing around on Bumble when a message popped up from a match.

"I don't mean to be creepy," the guy said, "but I've seen you a couple times when I've been biking to work."

She took a closer look at his profile picture and instantly knew who he was. Monborne, a 26-year-old healthcare policy consultant in Washington, DC, had not only seen this guy twice while he was biking across Key Bridge and she was running — she'd noticed how cute he was when they locked eyes.

Today, the two are a couple.

"Our first meeting was essentially what people would write about in a [Craigslist] Missed Connections encounter," Monborne said. "Except we were able to skip the weird Craigslist post and, ironically, reclaim the connection via Bumble."

Dating apps have the potential to connect people all over the world — and indeed, they sometimes do. Yet more often than not, dating apps end up matching users who live or work within blocks of each other, or take the same commute to the office.

I asked the Business Insider staff if they'd ever heard of something like this happening, and got a flurry of responses that were essentially multiple versions of the same story. One man, for example, went to college with his now-boyfriend, but never knew he existed until they met on Tinder in Manhattan.

To be sure, some dating apps are specifically designed to connect you with people you've met — or at least could have met — in real life. Happn shows you other Happn users you've recently walked by. And Hinge matches you with friends of Facebook friends, who you might have met years ago at, say, a birthday party.

Even on apps that aren't specifically designed for reconnecting, most people opt to see matches who live close by.

Match data shared with Business Insider reveals that 69% of active users set their default distance — i.e. how far away a match can live — to five miles. Meanwhile, dating app Clover found that, in New York City, most matches happen between people from the same borough. Still, Hinge reports that less than half of users set a maximum distance, and of those who do, the average maximum distance is about 25 miles.

Dating apps can sometimes catalyze a relationship that might have unfolded in real life

Thea Domber, a 36-year-old tech executive working in New York City's Flatiron District, met her now-fiance on Tinder, only to learn that they'd worked a few blocks away from each other in the Financial District for five years.

"We both frequented the same bars after the work, the same social hangouts," she said. "It's just hard to imagine that even back then, he wouldn't have caught my attention, even for a look."

Domber's theory? "People tend to be face down in their phone. Even things that used to be social, whether you're waiting in line or eating lunch … people are just constantly checking stocks or checking email or checking Slack," she said. "They're just not noticing each other."

Sometimes, online dating can simply catalyze a relationship that would have existed, platonically, IRL. On Thought Catalog, Kelsey Thompson writes of meeting her next-door neighbor on Tinder, after which they began dating. (He initially recognized her fireplace in her profile photo because he had the same one.)

Thompson writes: "We've bumped into each other in the hallway several times since I've moved in. However, had it not been for Tinder being the catalyst for our initial meeting, I do not believe our relationship would have blossomed into a romantic one."

Anthony and Katie (they didn't want to disclose their last names) matched on Bumble in 2016, only to learn that Anthony could see Katie's apartment from his balcony. They're now engaged.

As for Monborne, she's still amazed that she's dating the cute biker from the bridge — and that a dating app gave her a second chance at meeting him. She said, "I wouldn't have ever thought growing up that this is the way I would meet a significant other."

SEE ALSO: How to figure out which dating app is the least annoying, the most convenient, and the best to help you find love

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• Microsoft announced "Halo Infinite" on Sunday afternoon.
• "Halo Infinite" is a new Xbox One game starring the supersoldier Master Chief.
• A brief teaser of the game showed our hero on what appeared to be Earth.

A new "Halo" game was announced on Sunday afternoon: "Halo Infinite" will be the next game in the smash-hit franchise, and it's coming to the Xbox One.

A brief teaser was shown, which depicted returning supersoldier Master Chief on what looks like Earth. 

The teaser also shows a Warthog, the beloved offroad vehicle from previous "Halo" games, as well as a quartet of people.

Take a look:

It's not clear how the game will play out — the teaser is extremely broad. Microsoft describes the game and teaser as such:

"The Master Chief returns in 'Halo Infinite' – the next chapter of the legendary franchise. Developed by 343 Industries and created with our new Slipspace Engine. This thrilling engine demo provides a glimpse into the future of the Halo franchise, leading it into new and unexpected directions."

The naming of the Slipspace Engine is something of an injoke for die-hard "Halo" fans: In the fictional universe of "Halo," slipspace engines are how starships can buck the laws of physics and travel faster than the speed of light.

Check out the full teaser right here:

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• Microsoft announced the next major entry in the "Gears of War" franchise on Sunday afternoon.
• The game is called "Gears 5," and it continues the story from 2016's smash hit "Gears of War 4."
• "Gears 5" is exclusive to Microsoft's Xbox One and Windows 10 platforms.

Are you ready to chainsaw some more Locust? With the newly announced "Gears 5," Microsoft's betting that the answer is a resounding yes. 

The next entry in the gruff and grisly "Gears of War" third-person shooter series was announced by Microsoft on Sunday during the company's annual E3 media briefing. A new character is at the forefront, introduced during a short trailer shown in Los Angeles — her name is Kait, who previously debuted as a supporting "Gears" characters.

Like previous games in the series, "Gears 5" features third-person shooting with a focus on movement and cover.

The game's trailer promises a return to "where it all began" in "Gears 5." Perhaps the planet from the first game? We'll see! Microsoft offered the following description:

"In 'Gears 5' as Kait, journey across the biggest, most beautiful 'Gears' world ever created. Play solo or with a friend in local split-screen co-op, or online co-op and experience every mode in 4K Ultra HD resolution with stunning HDR at a smooth 60 frames per second. Coming in 2019."

Check it out in action right here:

More than just one new "Gears of War" game was announced during Microsoft's briefing.

The company also revealed "Gears Pop" and "Gears Tactics," two entirely new games in the "Gears of War" franchise. "Pop" is heading to mobile phones, and is seemingly aimed at younger audiences with its more playful vibe and Funco Pop branding. "Tactics" is a PC game, and features tactical, turn-based combat along the lines of "XCOM" and other PC classics. 

Like "Gears 5," "Gears Pop" is planned for 2019 — it's not clear when "Tactics" is scheduled to launch. Check out "Gears Pop" right here:

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• A new entry in the legendary video game series "DOOM" is in production.
• The game is named "DOOM Eternal" — it's a direct sequel to the 2016 refresh of  the "DOOM" franchise.
•  Like the original "DOOM 2," the game is set at least partially on Earth.

For over 25 years, the "DOOM" series has been giving players a chance to rip through every single demon Hell has to offer.

"DOOM" is back once more, and now those demons are all over Earth in "DOOM Eternal" — the sequel to 2016's excellent refresh of the franchise.

A brief teaser shows a destroyed city, rife with the distinct demons of "DOOM," before the rage-filled supersoldier from the last game appears. He loads a shotgun, cocks it, and takes aim.

And that's all we've got thus far — but if the last game and the series' history have anything to tell us, "DOOM Eternal" could be a new take on the original "DOOM 2: Hell on Earth," which launched in 1994. The title tells you a lot right off the bat given what's depicted in the trailer. That said, given how 2016's "DOOM" offered a fresh take on the original game, "DOOM Eternal" is likely to take the same route.

There's no release date, nor are there announced platforms for "DOOM Eternal" just yet.

Take a look at the brief teaser right here:

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• Actor Robert De Niro said "f--- Trump" at the Tony Awards Sunday night and got a standing ovation.
• De Niro has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, and played the special counsel Robert Mueller on "Saturday Night Live."

Robert De Niro took the stage at Radio City Music Hall for the 72nd annual Tony Awards Sunday night, but CBS completely bleeped out his first words.

"F--- Trump," he said, referring to President Donald Trump.

De Niro threw his arms in the air defiantly as the crowd cheered and gave him a standing ovation.

"It's no longer down with Trump," he said. "It's f--- Trump."

De Niro was introducing Bruce Springsteen, who is starring in a Broadway production of his own, which has sold out tickets for months.

"Bruce, you can rock the house like nobody else," De Niro continued. "And even more important, in these perilous times, you rock the vote, always fighting for, in your own words, 'truth, transparency, and integrity in government.' Boy, do we need that now."

Springsteen laughed as he sat down at the piano to play.

When hosts Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban came back onstage, they were dressed in each other's characters in the musicals they were in — with her in a beard and him in a short waitress outfit.

"After De Niro, CBS told us to do something drastic, so here we are," Groban joked.

De Niro has been an outspoken critic of Trump, even saying in May he barred the president from visiting any locations of his swanky restaurant, Nobu. The actor, producer, and director has also played the special counsel Robert Mueller on "Saturday Night Live."

Watch the bleeped-out clip of De Niro's Tonys appearance below:

And here is the non-bleeped version:

SEE ALSO: Robert De Niro says he has barred Trump from all locations of his swanky restaurant chain that's beloved by the rich and famous

DON'T MISS: Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller played Mueller and Cohen on SNL, reprising their iconic lie detector scene from 'Meet the Parents'

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There's a huge disconnect between critics and audiences in the entertainment world.

Many times, audiences love something that critics hate. But every now and then, critics love a movie a lot more than the audiences do. This includes A24's most recent release "Hereditary," a horror film so terrifying that it scared some prominent directors including Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight") and Edgar Wright ("Baby Driver").

Critics are gushing over "Hereditary" for its unsettling horror and Toni Collette's career-best performance. It has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences aren't as into it given its 53% audience score on the site.

Although the difference is not quite as stark, critics also liked another release from this past weekend more than audiences did: "Ocean's 8."

We collected 10 movies from 2018 that have a much higher Rotten Tomatoes score from critics than audiences. While some of the audience scores are quite positive, there's a difference from the critics score of over 15 percent, which is substantial. We ranked them from the biggest score difference to the smallest.

Here are 10 movies from 2018 that critics loved a lot more than audiences did, from "Hereditary" to "Blockers":

SEE ALSO: Director Ron Howard feels bad that 'Star Wars' fans might be skipping 'Solo' because they're still angry about 'The Last Jedi'

"A Fantastic Woman"

Description: Marina, a transgender woman who works as a waitress and moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend.

Released: February 2

Critic score: 94%

Audience Score: 78%

Difference: 16%

"You Were Never Really Here"

Description: A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.

Released: April 6

Critic score: 86%

Audience Score: 69%

Difference: 17%

"Unsane"

Description: A young woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution, where she is confronted by her greatest fear — but is it real or a product of her delusion?

Released: March 23

Critic score: 79%

Audience Score: 61%

Difference: 18%

• Bethesda teased what initially looked like a comedic spoof of an Amazon Echo port for "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim."
• Fans believed that the app, named "Skyrim: Very Special Edition," spoofed the numerous remasters and ports of the immensely popular game.
• But Bethesda surprised everyone and actually rolled out the app on the Amazon app store. 

Amazon's Alexa just added another feature to its repertoire: dungeon master.

During its E3 showcase on Sunday, Bethesda released a video of what appeared to be an Alexa "port" for its immensely popular game "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" called "Skyrim: Very Special Edition."

"Now, 'Skyrim' looks to the future for its ultimate version," the announcer said in the video.

The video clip starts with the comedian Keegan-Michael Key casually sitting on a couch, pondering over which device to play by gesturing toward console controllers and a TV remote. But instead, he gives a voice command to his Amazon Echo: "Alexa, play 'Skyrim.'"

Alexa then responds, "You're level 57 and see a tall, snowy mountain."

Some "Skyrim" fans took the video as a joke and believed it was a not-so-subtle nod to Bethesda's numerous remasters of the nearly seven-year-old game, all of which have made their way to current-generation consoles, including the Nintendo Switch.

Adding to the satirical theme, the video also featured "ports" to an Etch A Sketch, a pager, and a smart fridge. So it was understandable that people didn't think "Skyrim: Very Special Edition" was happening.

But it looks as if Bethesda had the last laugh.

"Bethesda Game Studios is proud to present Skyrim... for Alexa," the Amazon product page says. "Yes, that's right, the version of Skyrim you never saw coming has finally arrived on the platform you never asked for."

It adds: "For the very first time ever, take your rightful place as the Dragonborn of legend (again) and explore Skyrim using the power of your own voice...your Thu'um!"

Fans have since uploaded videos of themselves playing "Skyrim: Very Special Edition." The gameplay appears to hearken back to text-based MUD and tabletop role-playing games, with Alexa serving as the dungeon master and giving prompts like "A mudcrab scuttles toward you," to which the player responds with voice commands like "Use shout."

You can play by tapping Alexa's circular icon on any Amazon-installed device and saying, "Alexa, open 'Skyrim.'" You can also go to the product page and enable it on your devices.

Upon starting, the app warns that it may contain mature content not suitable for all audiences.

Take a look at the trailer for "Skyrim: Very Special Edition":

SEE ALSO: A legendary game series is coming back to life once more with 'DOOM Eternal'

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E3 2018 is here.

It's the biggest gaming convention of the year, where the top gaming companies in the world showcase what's coming down the pipe for popular game consoles like the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

On Saturday and Sunday, we got our first big batch of announcements. Microsoft held its big press conference to show off what's coming to the Xbox One, while publishers Bethesda, Electronic Arts, and Devolver Digital also gave first looks at their exciting new games coming to multiple platforms.

If you missed any of the pressers, or if you just want a refresher on the highlights, here are the seven biggest announcements during the first weekend of E3 2018:

1. "Fallout 76" will be the first game in the post-apocalyptic series to take place entirely online, where every human you encounter in the game is another player.

"Fallout 76," in many ways, looks like another open-world "Fallout" game — truly massive — but it's set in West Virginia and lets you play with or against other online players.

Bethesda also announced more goodies for "Fallout" fans: The Power Armor Edition of "Fallout 76" will include an actual Power Armor Helmet you can wear or display in your living room — it lights up and everything — and the company's extremely popular mobile game "Fallout Shelter" is now available for free on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Here's the first trailer for "Fallout 76."

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2. New "Elder Scrolls" games for every type of player.

Bethesda doubled down on its popular "Elder Scrolls" series with a slew of new games:

• "Elder Scrolls Blades" is a first-person RPG designed for mobile devices like the iPhone, but Bethesda says it will also bring this game to every platform imaginable, including consoles, PC, and even mobile and high-end virtual-reality systems. The game will be free and arrives this fall.
• "The Elder Scrolls Online" is getting two new expansions called "Wolf Hunter" and "Murkmire."
• Bethesda is giving its "Elder Scrolls" card game, "Elder Scrolls Legends," a big visual update and will release it for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this fall.
• And, of course, what fans were waiting and hoping for: a true sequel to "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," called "The Elder Scrolls VI."

• Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos told Vulture that the service's teenage romantic comedy, "The Kissing Booth," is "one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe in the world."
• Sarandos cited film database website IMDb as a good indicator of what Netflix users will like.
• The movie is currently the ninth most popular movie on the website.
• It's the latest Netflix original movie to fight off poor critic scores and be loved by audiences. 

Netflix is developing TV shows and movies at a pace that's hard to compete with, and its executives think they know exactly what you'll like. One of the best examples of this might be the streaming service's new teenage romantic comedy film, "The Kissing Booth."

"The Kissing Booth" follows a teenager named Elle Evans (Joey King), who puts her long friendship with Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney) at risk when she develops a crush on Flynn's brother Noah (Jacob Elordi).

Netflix's chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, told Vulture that the film is "one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe in the world." Vulture noted that Sarandos didn't offer any data to prove his comment (Netflix rarely releases audience numbers), but he did cite film database website IMDb as a "good indicator" of what audiences will want to watch.

"[IMDb is a] good indicator of what works on Netflix, because it’s a pretty net-savvy, entertainment-centric person that gives feedback," he said. "It’s better than Rotten Tomatoes.”

Sarandos said "The Kissing Booth" is the fourth movie on IMDb's popularity rankings— as of Monday, though, it had dropped to number nine. Still, top 10 isn't bad for a romcom with a relatively unknown cast that has a 17% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

That's just further indication of the power of Netflix.

The service's original movies, such as the critically panned "Bright," have managed to fight off poor reviews and be adored by viewers. "Bright" has a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 26% but an audience score of 85%. Meanwhile, "The Kissing Booth" has a 72% audience score. On IMDb, it has a 6.5 out of 10 based on nearly 15,000 ratings. 

“Jacob Elordi is the male lead," Sarandos said of "The Kissing Booth." "Three weeks ago on the IMDb Star-o-Meter, which is how they rank their popularity, he was No. 25,000. Today he is the No. 1 star in the world. And Joey King, the female lead, went from like No. 17,000 to No. 6. This is a movie that I bet you’d never heard of until I just mentioned it to you.”

As of Monday, King and Elordi were number 7 and 8 on the list — but again, not bad.

"The Kissing Booth" isn't the first Netflix romcom to take off with viewers. Netflix's holiday movie "A Christmas Prince," another romantic comedy, was popular enough for Netflix to announce a sequel— and for dozens of people to watch the movie every day for over two weeks straight.

While Netflix's overall movie catalog has dipped in recent years, it still plans to focus on original movies. Netflix is set to release at least 80 by the end of this year in an effort to make the service more valuable to its users.

If "The Kissing Booth" is any indication, at least by Sarandos' standards, Netflix is achieving its goal.

SEE ALSO: Netflix CEO defends '13 Reasons Why' renewal after critics slam 'pointless' season 2

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The galaxy far, far away is huge. It's full of many planets, many people, many ships, many Ewoks, and other species, which means a lot of actors.

Over the past 40 years, famous actors of all generations have appeared in "Star Wars" movies, and some of their roles were so quick that you probably missed them. And some performers made their "Star Wars" appearances years before they got famous, so even if you saw them, you probably didn't know who they were at the time. 

Here are the 28 people you probably didn't know were in "Star Wars" movies, from "The Phantom Menace" to "Solo: A Star Wars Story."

SEE ALSO: Director Ron Howard feels bad that 'Star Wars' fans might be skipping 'Solo' because they're still angry about 'The Last Jedi'

Keira Knightley

Years before gaining fame for her major role in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Knightley appeared in "The Phantom Menace" as Sabé, a handmaiden to Queen Padmé Amidala. For most of the movie, Sabé poses as the Queen of Naboo. 

Sofia Coppola

The director had a small role as Saché, another handmaiden to Queen Padmé Amidala in "Phantom Menace." The same year, her feature-length directorial debut, "The Virgin Suicides," came out to acclaim.

Rose Byrne

The star of "Neighbors" and "X-Men: First Class" was in "Attack of the Clones" as Dormé, a handmaiden to Senator Padmé Amidala. 

• "Billions" star Maggie Siff has had an impressive career picking roles on iconic shows like "Mad Men" and "Sons of Anarchy."
• In an interview with Business Insider, Siff mentioned two people who inspired her "Billions" character: self-help guru Tony Robbins and Ari Kiev, the late in-house psychiatrist to Steve Cohen's SAC Capital.
• She said the character is a fun antidote to her outside-of-work life and that the S&M scenes were the biggest challenge for her to play.

Actor Maggie Siff grew up in New York City, a major setting of her latest hit TV show, “Billions,” in which she plays a powerhouse hedge fund’s “performance coach.” But she really grew up in a totally different world.

“My parents were ex hippies who settled down in the Bronx,” Siff told Business Insider in a recent interview. “The worlds of this show were really far removed.”

“Billions” depicts the collision of two high-powered and morally complex worlds: hedge funds and federal prosecutors. Siff’s character, Wendy Rhoades, is caught in a ethically dubious battle between her boss, Bobby “Axe” Axelrod, and her husband Chuck, a US attorney.

Before diving into the worlds of “Billions,” Siff’s only experience with hedge funds was a very brief temp job in her twenties, when she was an out-of-work actor.

“I really only did it for a few weeks,” she said.

What drew her to “Billions” was how smart and fun the script was, she said, and also her role as a multifaceted character with a nuanced marriage, one who has a foot in two worlds and who is constantly getting pulled between them. It’s a struggle that echoes some of what Siff’s last blockbuster character, Tara Knowles in “Sons of Anarchy,” also had to contend with.

Talking to Tony Robbins

In crafting the character, Siff mentioned two people she took inspiration from: Ari Kiev, the late in-house psychiatrist for hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen's SAC Capital, and self-help guru Tony Robbins.

“I went down the Tony Robbins rabbit hole,” while prepping her character, she said, and then had a phone conversation with the man himself. “I had a lot of questions about him,” she said, specifically around how someone ends up in this rarefied world of helping other people perform at high levels.

“What did it mean to him?” she wondered, and by extension, what did it mean for her character. “How does somebody who is this talented and empathetic end up here?”

“He talked a lot about helping people achieve,” she said of Robbins. “What it meant to lead people to peak excellence.” He talked about "forward momentum" in a relationship, or work, or philanthropy (something that has become a particular theme in the last few episodes of “Billions” season 3). He also led her through some visualization exercises.

The main inspiration she took from Robbins for her character was the timeframe of his work: “Let’s make this transformation happen right now. It’s part of the way [Wendy] operates.”

The deep, underbelly question

But the question of why Robbins does it, or why Wendy does her version, is never one that entirely went away for Siff or for the creators of "Billions."

“I think it’s a deep, underbelly question for the show, and for the character, and for me,” Siff said.

“I think that — she might not say so — but that she is as addicted to wealth and power as anybody else,” she said, and that she has a love, albeit a platonic one, for Axelrod. “The need to be around at the right hand of someone as rarefied and brilliant and all-powerful in some way is not something she wants to trade.”

And though the show has an intensity, part of its appeal is that it’s playful, and Siff said she has fun playing Wendy (more fun, perhaps, than the “tortured” Tara Knowles character on “Sons of Anarchy”).

“With Wendy, I love, I just love stepping in and out of her,” Siff said. “It’s kind of a joke for me. When I’m not at work playing this superwoman, I’m a hausfrau in sweatpants looking after my four year old. It’s like a big cosmic joke. [Playing a character with this] swagger around dudes is really fun. It’s been a lovely antidote having a small child.”

(A side note about parenthood: Siff said her and Paul Giamatti, her on-screen husband, joke about how on the show they are “the worst parents in the world,” which is 100 percent accurate.)

Not all anti-heroes are men

Siff said what’s surprised her most about the role has been the fan reaction, of how many professional women identify with her character.

“There is just so much appreciation for a character that has that much power, pulling strings behind the scenes,” she said. A lot of women relate to it, she continued. And she finds the character refreshing in other ways as well.

“On TV we see all these anti-heroes who are men,” Siff said. “We don't see a lot of women.” While Siff doesn’t believe Wendy is necessarily an anti-hero, strictly speaking, she is a character who can “relish the occasional evil deed, can play with as much kind of freedom and relish that the guys do.”

But Siff said there are challenging parts of playing Wendy, chief among them the scenes of S&M between her and Giamatti.

“I’m pretty naturally modest and those scenes, they require a lack of self consciousness,” Siff said. “They are actually incredibly intimate. When they work their best, you are looking at the most intimate moments in a marriage, things you should not be able to see.”

SEE ALSO: Why Jimmy O. Yang loves playing Jian-Yang, his diabolical 'pain in the ass' character on HBO's 'Silicon Valley'

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NOW WATCH: THE KRISTIN LEMKAU INTERVIEW: JPMorgan Chase's CMO explains how she deals with disruption on two fronts at once, why she's moving some ad dollars back to TV, and why it matters what your credit card feels like

• Photo-editing app VSCO has surpassed one million paid users.
• It's one of the fastest-growing subscription-based businesses in the world, in spite of fierce competition from lots of free apps and Instagram.
• The CEO of VSCO says Generation Z is driving the app's explosive growth.

Every day more than 95 million photos are shared to Instagram. It's a juggernaut in the field of social networks, with more than 800 million monthly active users.

So it's noteworthy that an Instagram alternative called VSCO has surpassed one million paid users for VSCO X, its subscription service launched in early 2017.

The app's rapid trajectory makes it one of the fastest growing subscription-based businesses in the world, and has helped grow VSCO's revenue 91% year over year in 2017. It's on track to increase revenue 100% this year, according to the company.

A subscription to VSCO X, which unlocks exclusive photo-editing tools and tutorials, costs $19.99 a year. That might not sound like much, but consider that there are dozens of free apps like it, and Instagram has its own suite of filters and tools that let users play with their photos and share with family and friends without ever having to leave the app.

As it turns out, it's Generation Z that's helping VSCO X rocket up the charts.

People under the age of 25 make up nearly 75% of all VSCO users, with Generation Z accounting for the largest segment of paid customers on VSCO X, according to the company. The fastest growing group of VSCO users are between the ages of 13 and 17.

There was a period of time when this surprised founder and CEO Joel Flory, a former wedding photographer who started the company in 2011 with an art-director friend.

"We were building [the product] for ourselves and realized that we no longer were the majority of users on VSCO," Flory told Business Insider at the startup's headquarters in Oakland.

From the beginning, VSCO set itself apart from rival photo apps and social networks by doing away with "vanity metrics," such as likes, comments, and follower counts. There are no ads or leadersboard, but instead, a feed of carefully curated content.

"For us, the only thing we wanted to show with the photo is the person who made it. That's really what we wanted it to be about," Flory said.

According to Flory, this focus on the creator really resonated with Generation Z. With the launch of a subscription service, VSCO learned that young people were even willing to pay for tools in an app space that let them "be who they are ... try new things," without the pressure and anxiety around building a following and collecting likes.

Born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Generation Z is building a reputation as the most socially conscious age group. A recent white paper from MNI Targeted Media Inc., a division of the Meredith Corporation, found that more than half of Generation Z say that knowing a brand has strong values and is "doing their part to make the world a better place" is important to them and directly influences their buying decisions.

"This generation makes sophisticated choices about identity, purpose, and values," researchers at the firm said. "They've spent their lives surrounded by digital content and they know how to filter anything that lacks the right tone, language, and relevancy."

VSCO is the fifth most popular photo and video app for iPhones in the US, according to app market data company App Annie, behind YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Google Photos, in that order. Its ranking by monthly active users has been rising over the last year, while Instagram's rank remains stable. Flory has largely Generation Z to thank.

The team at VSCO is constantly adding new filters, photo-editing tools, and educational content to the VSCO X platform so that the value of their subscription builds all the time.

"It's really about providing the ultimate experience for that creative," Flory said. "For us, it's not about some other company's way. It's about the VSCO way."

SEE ALSO: 37 incredible drone photos from across the globe that would be totally illegal today

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NOW WATCH: I quit social media for a month — and it was the best choice I've ever made

• According to a feature about Netflix published on Vulture Monday, Netflix canceled "Everything Sucks" because a lot of people didn't even finish the first episode.
• The first episode of the coming-of-age comedy set in the 90s is only 23 minutes long.
• This gives us an idea of how Netflix determines what shows get cut. 

Netflix decided to cancel "Everything Sucks" because while people started watching it, many of them didn't finish the first episode. 

In April, Netflix canceled the 90s-set, coming-of-age comedy less than two months after its debut. Many people were disappointed that the show has been cut, including the Beau Willimon, the creator of Netflix's "House of Cards" and comedian Lauren Lapkus, who appeared in the early seasons of "Orange Is the New Black."

"Everything Sucks" tells the story of Kate Messner, a high school sophomore who's coming to terms with her sexuality (she is a lesbian). Her journey showcases how hard it is to be an LGBTQ+ teen, especially two decades ago. 

Although the show's first episode is only 23 minutes long, people turned it off in favor of something else, which was the main reason why Netflix canceled it (and so quickly), according to "The Netflix Binge Factory," a feature published by Vulture on Monday. Others who completed the first episode didn't stick around much longer.

"It sucks that it ['Everything Sucks'] didn’t have a broader audience,” Netflix original content VP Cindy Holland said. “We couldn’t get out of that core appeal.”

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, told Vulture that Netflix doesn't determine how successful a show is by how quickly people watch it: It's whether people come back for more, and whether or not the show is getting Netflix new subscribers. 

“The completion of a single episode is a more important trigger," Sarandos said. "We wouldn’t be looking at, ‘Are people plowing through it in the first weekend?,’ because the number of people who do that is pretty slim.”

According to a "talent agency insider" cited by Vulture, "Everything Sucks" cost $1.5 million per episode, and less than $15 million in total for the first season. The show's low budget was one of the main reasons its fans were surprised it got canceled. 

What's not surprising was that Netflix subscribers were a bit turned off by the first episode. It started off on a lazy note, relying on 90s references and "Freaks and Geeks." But by the end of the season, the show became something truly special, making many (including me) excited for a second season, which had the potential to be great. 

SEE ALSO: Fans are rallying to save Netflix's 'Everything Sucks' after it was canceled

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NOW WATCH: What humans will look like on Mars

The summer movie season is heating up.

It got an early start this year with "Avengers: Infinity War" when its release date changed from May 4 to a week earlier on April 27. Since then, movies like "Deadpool 2," "Solo: A Star Wars Story," and "Ocean's 8" have hit theaters.

And that's just the beginning.

This week sees the long-awaited Pixar sequel "Incredibles 2" finally come to theaters, followed next week by "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom." Later this summer, Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp," Dwayne Johnson's "Skyscraper," the latest in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, and more will arrive. 

With a lot to look forward to, we've looked back on the great summer movies of past years. Superhero blockbusters like "The Avengers," animated adventures like "Shrek," and R-rated comedies like "Superbad" stood out among the best of the best.

We've picked the best summer movie of every year since 2000. In this case, we counted any movie that was released in May, June, July, and August. 

Below is the best summer movie of every year since 2000:

SEE ALSO: All of the DC Comics movies currently in the works, including one starring The Rock

2000: "X-Men"

Release date: July 14, 2000

The original "X-Men" helped kickstart the modern superhero movie craze. The franchise has since become cluttered and its timeline confusing, but its future may rest in the Disney-Fox deal. 

2001: "Shrek"

Release date: May 18, 2001

A movie that still inspires countless memes, mostly related to that Smash Mouth song, "Shrek" was the first movie to ever win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. 

2002: "Spider-Man"

Release date: May 3, 2002

If "X-Men" helped start the modern superhero craze, then the original "Spider-Man" set the blueprint for the majority of its colorful movies. "Spider-Man" was fun and campy, similar to what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has aspired to be. 

• Vic Mensa spoke with Business Insider about his experiences of working with Jay-Z, Pharrell, and No I.D. on his debut studio album, "The Autobiography."
• Among other topics, Mensa discussed how he plans to save lives on the south side of Chicago through his new non-profit foundation.

The past few years of Vic Mensa's career have set the 25-year-old rapper on a distinctive path to stardom. 

In 2017, Jay-Z and the legendary producer No I.D. served as the executive producers of Mensa's debut studio album, "The Autobiography," which also featured production from Pharrell Williams. A Roc Nation signee, Mensa followed the release of his album by opening for Jay-Z on the entirety of his 2017 "4:44 Tour." 

In his music and outside of it, Mensa has become a dynamic voice on a host of social justice issues. He recently launched a non-profit foundation, SaveMoneySaveLife, with the goal of combatting inequality in Chicago, his hometown. He also recently wrote an op-ed for Time criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians. 

Mensa spoke with Business Insider in a phone interview on Friday, between soundchecks on a tour date in Toronto, and following his performance at Governors Ball music festival last weekend.

He discussed his experiences of working with Jay-Z, Pharrell, and No I.D., how he plans to save lives on the south side of Chicago, and what we can expect from his next LP.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

John Lynch: I got to see your set at Gov Ball. How did that Gov Ball performance compare to some of the other shows you've had this summer?

Vic Mensa: Gov Ball was actually really special. I felt like Gov Ball had a uniquely strong energy, you know? It kind of felt like a '90s Lollapalooza-type energy. I thought that it was an opportunity for me to say what I mean, to tell the world what I'm about. I always try to take performances as an opportunity to implant my spirit into the hearts and minds of anyone in a hundred-yard vicinity. And I think I got that across.  

Lynch: On "Memories on 47th Street," you talk about how you almost died sneaking into Lollapalooza in 2010. Eight years later, you're killing it at these summer festivals. What do these large-scale performances mean to you, as someone who almost died getting into a festival?

Mensa: Coming from Chicago, Lollapalooza is the one weekend of the summer when actual Chicagoans are kept out [laughs]. You know, just monetarily, we didn't grow up with Lollapalooza tickets. Most people in Chicago don't grow up with Lollapalooza tickets. Situations led me to actually come very close to death getting into Lollapalooza. So when I'm able to step out on stage, and a huge crowd erupts at a festival in the summertime, that's special for me.

After I fell off the bridge at Lollapalooza, my father took me to Ghana. His dad's side of the family, their religion is Vodun, that's the original voodoo. So his uncle was like doing some incantations and pouring libations to the ancestors and the spirits, thanking them for my protection. At that moment I really felt like I was on this land alive, with a purpose, and for a reason. And I try to stand on that, live by that, especially when I get the opportunity to kind of be a ghost in these festivals where I could have been dead. 

Lynch: On a similar note, opening for Jay-Z on this "4:44 Tour," what sort of wisdom is he imparting to you there about the game, or about touring in particular?

Mensa: Touring? I'll say the wisdom he gave to me is to focus on my mission. Don't be distracted by the trappings of the industry, and bickering and beef. To keep my line of sight tunnel visioned on my bigger purpose. 

Lynch: I mean, like Jay and Kanye, you're one of the few artists who's been able to say, "No I.D. on the track / Let the story begin." How did that man allow you to tell your story on "The Autobiography"?

Mensa: Man, I am a No I.D. super-fan, so... [pauses]. I'm a No I.D. super-fan. Ever since the first Common albums. I mean, Common was and is like my favorite rapper. "Resurrection," and "One Day It'll All Make Sense," and "Can I Borrow a Dollar?" sh-t. All that sh-t. That's the music that raised me, that I studied, and that I lived with, and that I laughed with, that I fought with, rode the bus with. So being able to learn from one of the masters like that felt like a true moment of fate, and also just like a blessing. 

Lynch: My favorite track off the album is "Wings." How would you say the process of working with No I.D. compares to working with Pharrell, who you've collaborated with a couple times?

Mensa: Pharrell... [pauses]. Pharrell is just one of the dopest collaborators of all time. I mean, he taught me so much before I ever met him, and helped to validate me as a skateboarding kid on the southside of Chicago who liked rock 'n' roll music. So getting in the studio with him, and really feeling his energy, having him give me real advice about life and sh-t, and also just him being a fan of my music, that meant everything. 

Lynch: You were featured on "Life of Pablo," and you were also at that Madison Square Garden listening party for it in 2016, which was wild. I'm wondering how you think this new Kanye album rollout compares to the "Pablo" rollout. I mean, you might be biased because you were at MSG for that one.

Mensa: I don't really know much about the rollout. I just know that they're putting out seven song albums, which I like. That's all I know about the rollout, though. 

Lynch: So, in your work with SaveMoneySaveLife, you're already actively helping the community of Chicago. What's your vision for it moving forward? What are you planning for it in the next couple years?

Mensa: We want to literally save a lot of lives by training and equipping a large number of people in first-aid response. We also want to bring seasoned mental-health professionals into Chicago Public Schools, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, in a way that allows them to really help the kids and not just rotate 20 schools once a week. And we have a program called "UniVerse" that is designed to really bridge the link between the black community and the Native American community. So, we've got a lot of things in the pipeline.

I'd like to have an ambulance force, in the way that Hasidic Jewish communities have, as a part of the StreetMedics training program. That's the goal of the StreetMedics program is to be able to have our own ambulance forces in our communities — that could go from Chicago, and export out to Detroit, and export out to Los Angeles and New York. Because across the board, our communities are underserved, and ambulances take longer to come get us. We die waiting for help, so we need to be able to help ourselves. So that's the long-term goal.

Lynch: You had a recent essay on the plight of Palestinians in Time. I'm wondering what made you decide to go to Time with that in particular, or to write it even, as an opinion article?

Mensa: Well, I knew I was going to write an article when I was there, when I was asked by a man with a face of leather, in a circle of activists, artists, and poets, to go back to America and tell the world what I saw there. And to place pressure on the US to stop supporting Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. It was pretty much decided at that point, that I'd be going home and I'd be speaking about it in a significant way. I took it to a lot of places, and a lot of people were very hesitant, and sometimes, it was pointed out, flat-out "higher-ups" just being like, "No, you cannot speak about Palestine. You cannot speak against Israel." That's the power that Israel wields, especially in the music industry. So, I was lucky that I was able to get it with a very respected publication like Time Magazine. 

They did me a favor, too, by making the headline "What Palestine Taught Me About American Racism," because my piece was originally titled "Nora's Tears." Nora is an old woman that I speak about in the piece whose home in Jerusalem has been a target for Israeli development for 30, 40 years, and they've been trying to kick her out of it and move Jewish people in. But Time Magazine changed my headline to be "What Palestine Taught Me About American Racism," which juxtaposes the Palestinian struggle with the undeniable American racist struggle. Because many people deny the Palestinian struggle. They deny them everything. They deny them humanity, they deny them the right to be on the land they were born in. They deny them the right to return to the homes that were stolen from them, to build Israel. But not many people deny that America is racist. That's pretty impossible at this point in time.

Lynch: In my last question here, your new single, "Reverse," is a great track. I've got to say I'm not a G-Eazy fan, but the way you use him there is pretty cold [laughs]. 

Mensa: Thanks, bro.

Lynch: How are you conceptualizing this next album? How are you thinking about it at this point?

Mensa: You know, whenever I get into making an album, it's always like a really self-reflective, self-expressive journey. And I'm learning about myself in real time. Putting in hard work on myself to really say the things that I want to say in music. So, expect something honest, personal. It's going to be powerful, aggressive, beautiful, sad — all those things. 

SEE ALSO: Inside Bonnaroo: How the music festival doubled down on its roots to rebound from record-low attendance in 2016

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NOW WATCH: How a $9 billion startup deceived Silicon Valley

• Microsoft is hyping up Game Pass, a service that's very similar to Netflix, but for video games.
• Game Pass offers access to a large library of major video games for $10/month.
• "The thing I honestly want Game Pass to be is a creative outlet for game creators," Microsoft executive president of gaming Phil Spencer told Business Insider in an interview this weekend. 

The man at Microsoft in charge of all things gaming doesn't love how Game Pass, the company's $10/month video game subscription service, keeps getting compared to Netflix — even if Wall Street does think that the service puts Microsoft on a path to becoming a $1 trillion company. 

For starters, the business model that Microsoft is pushing is more complex: Even if a player gets an Xbox game via Game Pass, they can still spend additional real money on virtual items, changing the value equation. 

"Games actually have business models inside of themselves, so getting distribution inside Game Pass is not the end of its ability to make money for a developer," Microsoft executive president of gaming Phil Spencer said in an interview with Business Insider this weekend.

To put a fine point on it, if you make a movie, and you sell it to Netflix, that's it. But if you make a game, and you put it on Game Pass, you can still sell stuff to players within your game.

That's part of the argument Spencer is making to game makers small and large with Game Pass, as the company builds out the service's library beyond the 100-plus Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles already on there.

"If you put a game in there and you have a business model in your game, that could work," he said. "But also, if it's a single-player game with a beginning, middle, and end, I need to build a business relationship with you so that you feel great about getting new customers for your franchise and also putting some money in your pocket for doing a deal with us. And we're committed to all of that."

Like Netflix, Microsoft funds development of its own content. Where Netflix has banner franchises like "House of Cards" and "Stranger Things," Microsoft has "Halo" and "Gears of War," both published by the tech behemoth itself.

That original content is core to the message Microsoft is using to sell Game Pass. The next big "Halo," and the next "Gears of War" game, and the next "Forza" racing game will all come to Game Pass at launch. 

"We're finding people in Game Pass actually play more games," Spencer said. "And they're trying some franchises where, if they had to buy the franchise — even if they're $30, $60, whatever the amount might be — it's way easier for them to be invested at $10/month."

You could buy those blockbuster titles for each, for $60 apiece at launch, or you could pay $10 or Game Pass and play all three. It's a pretty strong argument if you own an Xbox One. Indeed, Microsoft has already started down this path: The recent "Sea of Thieves" and "State of Decay 2," both Xbox exclusives, were on Game Pass the day they launched.

Though Microsoft doesn't have the data to back this up, Spencer asserts that it's possible for games on Game Pass to actually sell more copies overall despite the fact that they're available with a Game Pass subscription. "With 'Sea of Thieves' and 'State of Decay 2' — I will look you in the eye and I have no way to A/B test this — we sold more copies of those games than we would have if the game wasn't in Game Pass," he said. 

It may sound illogical, but he makes a reasonable argument: Because people who had Game Pass were able to easily access those games without buying them, they helped spread word of mouth by playing it and surfacing the game to people who don't have Game Pass. People saw the game being played on Twitch, and they saw people playing it in their Xbox Live friends lists, and they saw talk on Twitter. 

Indeed, like Netflix, it's easy to scroll through the Game Pass library and try things out that you might not otherwise.

It is, of course, notable that both "Sea of Thieves" and "State of Decay 2" are inherently shareable games. Both feature unpredictable, player-driven gameplay that results in hilarious videos more often than most games. It certainly didn't hurt that they were both available in Game Pass for $10/month in addition to being full priced retail games.

"I fundamentally believe we had better retail success with both of those games than if they weren't in Game Pass," he said.

That success is unlikely to work the same way with every game on Game Pass, of course, and that's fine. Spencer intends to build a platform that offers a foundation for experimentation, with enough financial stability for game makers to try new things. 

"I want it to be a place where creators feel like they can take risks in things that they wanna do," Spencer said. "And know that [creators] have an audience of people who are already invested in the service, such that the marginal cost for them to click on the next icon and give it a try is very, very low."

Sound familiar?

SEE ALSO: The 7 biggest announcements from the first two days of E3 2018

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