• While video games have blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry, most attempts to adapt popular games into movies have failed.
• In spite of terrible reviews, recent video game-based movies like "Rampage," "Warcraft," and "Assassin's Creed" have seen high international earnings, perhaps thanks to their recognizable brands.
• At least three video game movies will be released during 2019, and there are more than a dozen currently in production.

There's no denying the impact video games have on pop culture. But despite decades worth of attempts, only a handful of movies have been successful in bringing the fun of gaming to the big screen.

A trio of recent big budget video game adaptations, "Rampage, "Warcraft," and "Assassin's Creed," were all commercial and critical failures in the U.S., but managed to take advantage of their recognizable brands to earn hundreds of millions of dollars overseas. Their performance proved that there remains a market for video game movies, no matter what the critics say. 

So, more movies based on video games are on the way! At least three video game-based movies will be released this year, and more than a dozen adaptations are currently in the works.

These are the upcoming video game-based movies to look out for:

SEE ALSO: The new 'Detective Pikachu' movie trailer features cute and creepy 'real-life' versions of Pokémon — here they all are

SEE ALSO: A 'Sonic the Hedgehog' movie is on the way, but fans think his new design looks awful

"Detective Pikachu" (May 2019)

"Pokémon: Detective Pikachu" is easily the most anticipated of the upcoming video game movies. An early trailer showed off Nintendo's iconic Pokémon characters in live action for the first time, and "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds will voice the titular character.

It seems the movie is mostly inspired by the story of the "Detective Pikachu" video game, released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016, but details are sparse.

"Angry Birds Movie 2" (August 2019)

This year will mark the the 10th anniversary of "Angry Birds," the smash hit mobile game that has grown into a monster licensing vehicle. While the "Angry Birds" fad is over, the characters do still have their fans. 

The first "Angry Birds" movie is actually the third highest-grossing video game movie of all time, with more than $352 million box office earnings worldwide. Only "Warcraft" and "Rampage have earned more.

"Sonic the Hedgehog" (November 2019)

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most iconic video game characters in the world, and after multiple cartoon series and nearly three decades worth of games, he'll be getting a live-action film later this year.

So far Paramount Pictures has only offered glimpses of Sonic's live-action look, but fans have been less than pleased. Sonic will be voiced by Ben Schwartz of "Parks & Recreation," with legendary comedian Jim Carrey playing Sonic's nemesis, Dr. Robotnik.

• Despite Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland currently serving a six-year prison sentence for fraud charges related to the disastrous music festival, Netflix's "Fyre" director Chris Smith thinks we haven't seen the last of McFarland.
• Smith told Business Insider he feels that way because of how easy it was for McFarland to rebound after Fyre. 
• But Erik Bernstein, vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management, told Business Insider most people going forward are not going to trust something that McFarland is involved in.

Despite being known as the face of the biggest music festival failure in recent memory, there are some who believe we have not heard the last of Billy McFarland.

This week McFarland — who was touted as an entrepreneur on the rise before his brainchild Fyre Festival imploded — is the focus of not one but two documentaries released on streaming services. Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” and Netflix’s “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” both, in their own ways, delve inside the disaster and give a deep look at McFarland's shady business practices.

And though he’s currently serving a six-year prison sentence for wire fraud charges, you could make the argument that due to the amount of people who will watch both documentaries, McFarland will have a bigger profile in the public eye than ever when he’s eventually released.

In Netflix’s “Fyre," the movie even suggests that we may have not seen the last of McFarland, as the movie ends with Marc Weinstein, a music festival consultant who was hired on to do Fyre, saying:

“I actually wouldn’t be surprised if ten years down the line we’re going to be hearing about Billy McFarland starting some kind of other venture that’s imaginative and gets some serious momentum and this all happens in some form again.”

Read more: We watched both Netflix and Hulu's docs about the doomed Fyre Festival, and one gives you a better look inside the fiasco

Chris Smith, the director of Netflix’s “Fyre,” told Business Insider he agreed with what Weinstein said, and added that McFarland didn't even need these two documentaries to land back on his feet after doing time.

"I think he would have that status regardless," Smith said.

Smith based this on what stood out to him while making “Fyre” — seeing how easy it was for McFarland to rebound after the festival went up in smoke.

“He didn’t miss a beat,” Smith said. “He was continuing to move forward and seemed to be living the lifestyle that he had before Fyre."

"He’s a very smart, very focused, industrious person,” Smith added.

But not everyone is convinced it's a sure thing McFarland will make a comeback.

"Though McFarland may well try to raise his reputation from the ashes of the Fyre Festival fiasco, there were enough folks burned the first time around that I would expect to see concerted efforts to raise awareness of McFarland’s involvement in any future events," Erik Bernstein, vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management, told Business Insider. "Name recognition is great in many cases, but the large-scale misery broadcast by Fyre Festival attendees should be enough to scare people from spending their money on anything McFarland is involved in."

SEE ALSO: Netflix says that "Bird Box" was viewed by 80 million accounts in its first month

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• Two hotly anticipated TV shows documenting the wild Fyre Festival saga begin streaming this week. Hulu's version debuted on Monday, while Netflix's followed just a few days later. 
• Billy McFarland, the organizer of the festival, was sentenced to six years in prison in October and ordered to forfeit $26 million.
• McFarland pleaded guilty in March 2018 to wire-fraud charges in relation to Fyre Festival, which became infamous after hundreds of attendees were left stranded in the Bahamas last year.
• In June 2018, McFarland was arrested again on charges of selling fake tickets through a different company, called NYC VIP Access, starting in late 2017. He pleaded guilty to those charges in July.
• Here's a look back at what happened at Fyre Festival.

After much anticipation, two documentaries that give a behind-the-scenes look into 2017's hellish Fyre Festival will finally air on our screens.

Hulu's version launched on Monday, and Netflix's followed just a few days later. 

Billy McFarland, the 27-year-old founder of the company behind the festival, was sentenced to six years in prison in October and faces a $26 million forfeiture order. He is featured in an exclusive interview in the Hulu documentary.

Read more: Fyre Festival founder sentenced to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors out of millions of dollars in various ticketing schemes

Fyre Festival, which promised a VIP experience on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas, turned into a nightmare situation as attendees were stranded with half-built huts to sleep in and cold cheese sandwiches to eat.

Here's what happened:

SEE ALSO: Netflix and Hulu are releasing competing documentaries on the Fyre Festival debacle, but Netflix is dominating Google search interest

The three-day party was supposed to be on a private beach on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

It was supposed to be over two weekends in 2017: April 28-30 and May 5-7.

It was described as an "immersive music festival."

• Apple should be in the hunt for a video content company, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a new report.
• The company's future growth is dependent on its services business, and a streaming video offering is expected and needed to drive that business, Ives said.
• Ives think the company has several potential and notable targets.

Dan Ives thinks the time has come for Apple to open up its wallet and buy a piece of Hollywood.

Like others on Wall Street, Ives, an analyst who covers the iPhone maker for Wedbush, thinks the company's future is in its services business. A key component of that business going forward is likely to be the subscription streaming video offering it's widely expected to launch this year.

But even as Apple is spending more than $1 billion a year to develop new video content, it faces a big challenge going up against Netflix, not to mention the new and upcoming streaming services from Disney and the combined AT&T-Time Warner — it has little in the way of a library of movies and TV shows.

"Now is the time for Apple to rip off the band-aid and finally do significant content [mergers and acquisitions]," Ives said in a new research note. Should the company pass on the opportunity, he continued, "it will be a major strategic mistake ... that will haunt the company for years to come, [because] content [is] the rocket fuel in the services engine that is currently missing in the portfolio."

Read this:Investors focused on Apple's disappointing iPhone sales are missing the company's hidden goldmine

Making such an acquisition would represent a major shift for Apple. While the iPhone maker has purchased lots of smaller companies, it has traditionally eschewed big mergers. To date, the biggest acquisition deal Apple has ever completed was its $3 billion purchase of headphone maker Beats in 2014.

But with some $237 billion in cash and investments as of the end of September, Apple has plenty of money with which to go shopping. And now would be an ideal time, argued Ives. With AT&T having completed its merger with Time Warner last year and Disney expected to close its deal to acquire 21st Century Fox this spring, consolidation is about to become the name of the game in the content business, he said.

While Apple has been trying to build up its content library piece by piece, it risks being left far behind by rivals that are spending many times what it is each year and which already have significant holdings of movies and TV shows, Ives said.

"Apple significantly lacks the core content to get its loyal customer base to pay $10 per month," he said, adding that CEO Tim "Cook, Jony Ive (Chief Design Officer), Eddy Cue (head of Apple's content strategy), and others on the leadership/strategy team continue to drive in the right lane at 55 mph, while competitors from all areas of technology and media are passing the technology stalwart in the left lane driving 100 mph in their new content sports cars."

So where should Apple put its money? What content companies should it buy?

Here are the ones that Ives thinks could be prime targets for Apple:

SEE ALSO: Here's why Apple's China situation is at 'code red,' and why it needs to take dramatic action to plug up a key weakness in the business

A24

An independent film distribution and production house, A24 has made a splash in recent years with several acclaimed films, including "Lady Bird" and Jonah Hill's "Mid90s."

The studio has more recently branched into television, distributing last year's "Pod Save America" TV special and the upcoming "At Home with Amy Sedaris."

Lionsgate

A venerable player in the independent film market, Lionsgate hit it big in recent years with some popular franchise films, most notably "The Hunger Games" series. The company also owns the rights to the "Divergent" and "Twilight" series.

The company also has a significant television arm. Among its more notable productions are "Nashville" and Netflix hit "Orange is the New Black."

Sony Pictures

An Apple acquisition of Sony Pictures would be an interesting turn of events. The studio was formed in the late 1980s when that era's dominant electronics firm — Sony — decided it needed to get into the content business and purchased Columbia Pictures from Coca-Cola.

Purchasing Sony Pictures would be among the biggest moves Apple could feasibly make; Sony Pictures is considered to be one of the Big Six Hollywood studios. In addition to films such as the "Spider-Man" series, Sony Pictures has a major television arm, which has produced shows such as "Shark Tank" and "Masters of Sex."

• Writer Aaron Sorkin thinks there should be a sequel to the Facebook origins film he wrote, "The Social Network."
• He said "a lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff" has happened since the movie came out in 2010.
• The film's producer has also floated the idea of revisiting the subject. 

There should a sequel to "The Social Network," the 2010 film on the origins of Facebook.

That's the view of the man who wrote it, Aaron Sorkin, who said there is plenty of new material for another movie after a nightmare year for Facebook, in which it has made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

"I know a lot more about Facebook in 2005 than I do in 2018, but I know enough to know that there should be a sequel," Sorkin told AP Entertainment.

The 2010 film, directed by David Fincher, dramatises Facebook's early years and the legal battles fought by Zuckerberg with his cofounder Eduardo Saverin and the Winklevoss twins.

"A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since the movie ends with settling the lawsuit from the Winklevoss Twins and Eduardo Saverin" Sorkin added.

Read more: Facebook's disastrous run may actually worsen in 2019, with advertisers possibly turned off by its 'toxicity'

The screenwriter, who has penned shows including "The West Wing" and films such as "Molly's Game," added that "The Social Network's" producer Scott Rudin is also enthusiastic about revisiting Facebook. 

"I’ve gotten more than one email from him with an article attached saying, ‘Isn’t it time for a sequel?'" Sorkin said.

He did not expand on whether actor Jesse Eisenberg might reprise his role as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, or whether David Fincher would return to direct. 

Facebook's disastrous year began when the explosive Cambridge Analytica data breach was exposed in March 2018. Since then, the company has discovered more data breaches, found further evidence of bad actors using Facebook to interfere in elections, been the subject of a shareholder revolt, and been accused of smearing critics. 

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NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos is worth over $100 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money

• Netflix's price hike, announced Tuesday, could hurt the company eventually, if not immediately, the Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says.
• Customers may not notice it right away, he said in an interview, but could pay more attention later this year when Disney launches a rival service with movies and shows that are no longer on Netflix.
• He said that few consumers were likely to choose more than one pure streaming service and that Netflix's price hike had left it vulnerable to price competition.

Netflix's price hike may come back to bite the streaming video leader — and maybe not so far in the future.

The company's second price increase in less than two years, announced Tuesday, delighted investors accustomed to the intoxicating pricing power that comes when a business dominates a market the way Netflix does. 

But Netflix is about to face a new class of heavyweight competitors, Michael Pachter, a financial analyst who covers the company for Wedbush, told Business Insider in an interview Tuesday. What's more, many of these new rivals are likely to remove the movies and TV shows they license to Netflix, folding the content into their streaming services instead.

With Netflix's prices going up, its offerings arguably becoming less attractive, and a growing number of options to choose from, consumers, including some Netflix customers, are likely to start opting for other streaming services, Pachter said.

When it comes to which streaming video offering customers subscribe to, "it's not going to be all Netflix anymore," Pachter said.

Analysts and investors seem sanguine about the price hike

Netflix announced its biggest-ever price increases on Tuesday, saying it would hike its plan prices by 13% to 18%. Thanks to the move, its most popular plan will cost $13 a month, up from $11. That puts Netflix's price within spitting distance of that of the traditional premium TV leader HBO, which charges $15 a month for its standalone HBO Now streaming service.

Despite the steepness of the price hike and the fact that it is the second for the company in less than two years, few analysts seemed worried about it. Netflix's subscriber base continued to grow after its most recent price hike, noted Tuna Amobi, a financial analyst who covers the company for CFRA. Netflix added about 4 million new paying subscribers in the first nine months of last year, following its late 2017 price increase.

"It went seamlessly," Amobi said, adding that he thought Netflix had pricing power in its business model.

For their part, investors seemed enthused by the new price hike. Following Netflix's announcement, the company's stock finished Tuesday's regular trading session up 6.5%.

Though Pachter is a longtime bear on Netflix's stock— he has an underperform rating and a $150 price target on it — he's similarly sanguine about the price hike. Few, if any, Netflix subscribers will cancel their service immediately because of it, he said, arguing that the real danger to the company from the increase will materialize later this year.

Read this: Netflix is betting billions on its original shows and movies — but this analyst warns it's a far riskier gamble than investors realize

Netflix is losing content and gaining rivals

Netflix's deal with Disney is ending this year, and the company will most likely start pulling its movies and show from the former's service soon. Assuming it completes its planned acquisition of 21st Century Fox, it could also start pulling Fox's shows.

Consumers most likely won't notice many of the changes right away, Pachter said. But when Disney launches its streaming service later this year with content that used to be on Netflix, that could be a wakeup call.

"Sometime later this year, people are going notice that there's nothing on Netflix," he said.

And the landscape could get even more competitive. Warner Bros. plans to launch its own streaming service later this year and could similarly pull its shows and movies from Netflix and put them on its offering. The Comcast-owned NBC Universal announced this week that it was planning to launch a streaming service next year.

Together, video from Disney, Fox, Warner, and Comcast accounts for some 20% of Netflix's content, according to research from Ampere Analysis reported by Recode.

"When all that s--- disappears, Netflix has a problem," Pachter said bluntly.

It could be undercut on price

And by raising its prices, Netflix has also made itself vulnerable to competition on price. Disney CEO Bob Iger has said his company's streaming service will be "substantially cheaper" than Netflix — and that was before Netflix's latest price hike. Likewise, Netflix's current rivals Amazon and Hulu could play up the difference in price between their offerings and that of the streaming giant. Hulu's ad-free service costs $12 a month, while Amazon Prime costs $10 a month on an annual basis.

"If you don't think Amazon going exploit that in advertisements, you're wrong," Pachter said. "They will."

To date, consumers interested in streaming video have generally opted to subscribe to Netflix. While many consumers subscribe to Amazon Prime also, most do so because they signed up for the service's free shipping offering, not for streaming video, Pachter said. Hulu also doesn't directly compete with Netflix, because most consumers use it to watch broadcast TV shows they missed, he said.

The coming services from Disney and Warner Bros. are likely to be much more competitive with Netflix. Because most consumers have limited budgets, Pachter reckons the streaming video market is likely to shake out similarly to the market for premium cable channels: The majority of consumers will subscribe to just one. Though HBO is the leader, many consumers subscribe to Showtime or Starz instead, he said.

"Most people pick one," he said.

• Read more about Netflix:
• The future is bright for Netflix and bleak for basic cable — these 3 charts show why
• Netflix's CEO says streaming has 5 to 10 years left of major growth before the company needs to start worrying
• Netflix's 1 million subscriber miss is exactly why it’s time for the company to stop hiding a critical part of its business
• Netflix has hit a speed bump with original series and movies, and it could spell bad news for investors

SEE ALSO: Netflix is now the most popular TV service in the US — here's why its lead is likely to only get larger

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NOW WATCH: China made an artificial star that's 6 times as hot as the sun, and it could be the future of energy

• In 2019, Nintendo plans to release the first-ever "core" Pokémon game for the Nintendo Switch.
• Nintendo is also reportedly working on a new version of the Nintendo Switch, which could arrive in the coming year.
• Before the end of March 2019, Nintendo is expected to launch its first "Mario Kart" game for smartphones.

Nintendo is a notoriously secretive company, and much of the coming year for the Japanese gaming giant is a mystery. 

That said, we have a pretty good idea about some of Nintendo's biggest plans for 2019: a new main-series "Pokémon" game on the Switch, the first-ever "Mario Kart" game for smartphones in the not-so-distant future, and maybe even a new version of the wildly popular Switch console itself!

And that's before we start talking about the big unknowns. Is 2019 the year when we see more of "Metroid Prime 4" than a logo? Perhaps "Bayonetta 3"?

Here's everything we know — and a few things we're less certain of, but are still entirely possible — about Nintendo's coming year:

SEE ALSO: The 5 biggest things to expect from PlayStation in 2019

1. A new "core" Pokémon game

Pokémon is coming to the Nintendo Switch — prepare yourself!

Nintendo said a "core RPG Pokémon title" is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Not a spin-off, like "Pokémon Stadium" and "Pokémon Snap" way back on the Nintendo 64, but a full-on main-series entry.

The beloved Pokémon game series has always been a portable affair. With few exceptions, the only way to engage with the long-running series was on Nintendo's handheld consoles. But with this new entry, that's about to change.

Nintendo said the next main entry in the long-running Pokémon game franchise — the successor to "Pokémon Ultra Sun" and "Pokémon Ultra Moon" — will arrive in "late 2019." For now, that's all we know.

2. A new version of the Nintendo Switch?

Not a new Nintendo console, mind you, but a new version of an existing one: It looks like Nintendo is already deep in development of a new version of the Nintendo Switch.

Rumors point to logical upgrades, such as a brighter screen, better battery life, and a slimmer profile — Nintendo has yet to say anything officially.

That said, Nintendo has a long history of making new variants of its game consoles.

There are several different versions of the Nintendo 3DS handheld, for instance, some with more horsepower and bigger screens than others. The same could be said for the Nintendo DS before it, and the Game Boy Advance before that.

It's more than just a rumor, it's entirely likely that Nintendo will release new iterations of the Nintendo Switch. And 2019 is said to be the year that we'll see the first of those iterations.

3. "Metroid Prime 4"

What is "Metroid Prime 4"? Little more than a logo at this point, at least publicly speaking.

"Metroid Prime 4" is the fourth game in the first-person "Metroid Prime" series. The franchise began its life on the Nintendo GameCube and drew a legion of loyal fans across several sequels. It's been over a decade since the last major entry, "Metroid Prime 3," arrived on the Nintendo Wii.

The next game is said to be in production by Japanese game company Bandai Namco, rather than the studio responsible for the previous three games, though Nintendo has yet to confirm as much.

After announcing the game through a logo back in June 2017 (pictured above), Nintendo has yet to say another word about the highly anticipated sequel. 

• Verizon is the latest company known to be planning a cloud gaming service. Verizon Gaming will let users stream video games directly to their smartphones and other devices.
• The Verge reported that the Verizon Gaming app is being tested on the Nvidia Shield, a home-theater streaming device, and will be headed to Android devices next.
• Other companies pursuing cloud gaming services include Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Sony, and Electronic Arts.

Verizon is planning a new streaming service for video games called Verizon Gaming, according to a report from The Verge. Screenshots of an early test version of the Verizon Gaming app have surfaced, and Verizon has made more than 135 games available for streaming.

Test participants receive a Nvidia Shield, an Xbox One controller, and a Verizon Gaming account, and will be awarded a $150 Amazon gift card once the test is complete. The Verizon Gaming app comes preinstalled on the Nvidia Shield, which is an Android-based device with access to the Google Play store.

Cloud gaming services use remote servers to stream top-quality video games directly to the player. In the simplest terms, the server runs the game and sends the player a video feed from the cloud, while the player's controller inputs are sent back to the server. This allows the user to play the game remotely on their choice of computer or mobile device.

With the server doing the heavy lifting, players no longer need expensive video-game consoles to run the latest games. This has sparked the interest of major tech companies looking to get involved in the video-game industry without investing in expensive consoles and other hardware.

Cloud-based services still require a strong, stable internet connection to stream games properly, and Verizon's 5G mobile-data infrastructure would be ideal for delivering games at high speeds. Amazon and Microsoft, two of the world's largest server providers, will also be testing their own cloud gaming services this year.

Early screenshots from Verizon Gaming obtained by The Verge show a number of popular titles, including "Grand Theft Auto V," "Fortnite," and "Destiny 2,"  but also include PlayStation 4 exclusives such as "God of War 2" and "Knack." However, Verizon informed participants that some of the titles might just be placeholders. Verizon Gaming is also in such an early stage that players cannot save their progress; the game starts fresh each time they boot the app. 

“This trial is primarily focused on performance,” the Verizon Gaming team told test participants in an email, according to The Verge. “At a later date, when we advance the product, our library will consist of most or all of the top games you are familiar with — but at this early stage we’re working on the engine and its parts.”

The Verge found multiple job listings connected to Verizon's cloud-gaming, mobile-gaming, and video-game initiatives, suggesting that the project is still expanding.  The test is due to run through the end of January.

Expect more beta testing for cloud gaming services to pop up during 2019. Google's Project Stream beta test ends January 15, while Microsoft promised a beta test for their Project xCloud service later this year.

You can check out leaked screenshots of Verizon Gaming over at The Verge.

SEE ALSO: Google's new video-game streaming service could mark the beginning of the end for gaming consoles

SEE ALSO: Amazon is reportedly building a Netflix-like service for video games

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• Data miners exploring files on the Nintendo Switch say they have discovered a list of 22 Super Nintendo games coming to the console in the future.
• Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can currently access a selection of games from the original Nintendo Entertainment System, but games from other Nintendo consoles are not available.
• During their search, the data miners also discovered potential file slots for two new more consoles to be included with the Nintendo Switch Online service.

More than 20 classic Super Nintendo games could be on their way to Nintendo's newest console during 2019, based on data found in a recent Nintendo Switch software update.

Since the Switch Online subscription service launched in September 2018, Nintendo has offered players a selection of retro games as an added bonus for paying for online features. New games have been added to the collection each month, but so far those games are only from the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

However, data miners exploring Nintendo's recent update to the Switch Online service have found placeholder titles for 22 Super Nintendo games, many of which were released on the Super NES Classic, the replica console Nintendo launched in 2017. A Twitter user named @KapuccinoHeck posted the full list of games, along with the file in which they were found.

The Switch uses emulation software to play NES games in their original form, and it seems a second emulator has been added to the Switch for Super Nintendo games. Data miners reported that four emulator types were found in total, meaning there could be future support for other Nintendo consoles like the Game Boy or Nintendo 64. However, the data is ambiguous enough that the values could just be counting the two existing emulators.

Nintendo has sold more than 10 million NES and SNES Classic units at $80 each, so having access to more than two dozen iconic games for a $20 annual fee is potentially a great deal for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. With Nintendo offering no other options to play classic games like "Super Mario World" and "The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past" on current consoles, fans should keep their fingers crossed until the data-mined list is confirmed.

SEE ALSO: Nintendo just snuck out a new version of the original 'Legend of Zelda' — and it's available now on the Nintendo Switch

SEE ALSO: Nintendo's Netflix-like service for classic games is a shattering disappointment, but it's so inexpensive that you should try it anyway

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 science-backed ways to a happier and healthier 2019 that you can do the first week of the new year

• Sony's got a big 2019.
• The much-anticipated follow-up to "The Last of Us" is expected to arrive on the PlayStation 4 — one of the last huge, exclusive games coming to Sony's PlayStation 4 consoles.
• Sony is also expected to announce the next PlayStation console in 2019, which may or may not be called the PlayStation 5.

For the 91-plus million PlayStation 4 owners, 2019 is going to be another big year.

Between the impending launch of blockbuster-to-be "The Last of Us: Part II," the expected launch of the mysterious (and gorgeous-looking) "Death Stranding," and the likely announcement of the next PlayStation console, Sony has a pretty massive year coming up.

So, with that in mind, we're looking ahead at the year to come in all things PlayStation.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best PlayStation 4 games for your new console

1. The PlayStation 5 is likely to get announced.

It's true: Sony has already announced its ongoing work on a successor to its current game console, the PlayStation 4 — which it may have already hinted will be called (what else) the PlayStation 5. 

Starting as early as May 2018, Sony executives were openly discussing work on the new console. And with PlayStation skipping the game industry's annual June trade show, E3, for the first time ever, it's entirely possible that the company will hold its own event specifically to announce the next PlayStation.

That said, we know little about what the console will be. We do know that it might not arrive until 2021.

"We will use the next three years to prepare the next step," PlayStation head John Kodera said in May.

Here's what we expect from the next PlayStation console: 

1. More horsepower, offering 4K/HDR support natively and, likely, support for G-Sync/FreeSync.
2. Backwards compatibility: Support for PlayStation 4 games, and potentially more.
3. A new, more powerful virtual reality headset.
4. An evolution of the PlayStation Now streaming service, potentially with PlayStation 5 games outright streamable.

2. The last few major exclusive games for the PlayStation 4, starting with "Days Gone."

"Days Gone" is shaping up to be something like "Sons of Anarchy" meets "28 Days Later." You play as a lone biker surviving in the wake of a global pandemic. Billions were wiped out, and many millions more became "freakers" — that's zombies to you and me.

As if zombies weren't scary enough, "Days Gone" turns them into a water-like mass capable of flooding into corridors with the speed and fury of a tsunami. They're a far more overwhelming threat than the "Night of the Living Dead" zombies in games like "Resident Evil."

That is, of course, when you're not riding away on your sweet hog — which is always an option.

"Days Gone" is the first major PlayStation 4 exclusive scheduled to arrive this year, on April 26.

Check out the latest trailer for "Days Gone" right here:

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• During a livestream of "Fortnite" on Twitch, one player received a massive gift: $75,000.
• It's common for video game streamers to use donation systems for viewers to give money, but it's usually in much smaller denominations — $1, $5, or maybe a bit more.
• Because of the absurdly high amount of the donation, the streamer initially didn't believe it was real.

"Wait a minute, that can't be real!" a stunned "Fortnite" streamer exclaimed during a stream early last week.

He was stunned for a good reason: He had just received a massive donation of $75,000 from a fellow streamer. And he didn't believe it was real.

The next few moments were tense, as the streamer known as "ExoticChaotic" frantically logged into his PayPal account to confirm the legitimacy of what he was seeing.

He leaped from his chair, yelling. "Dude!" he exclaimed. "What is that s---?!"

It turns out that a fellow streamer known as "KingMascot" had donated the money.

The streamers are friends, and KingMascot knew his friend was not in a good place financially.

"I do not have a very high income," ExoticChaotic told Kotaku. "My girlfriend has worked full time to support my career as a 'Fortnite' streamer, so I owe it to her and my 4-year-old son to protect and grow this money for their futures."

As for KingMascot, he's apparently got money to spare as "an early investor in bitcoin" who "now trades stocks," Kotaku said.

Though massive donations are rare, this is far from the first time such a large sum was donated to a streamer. Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, for instance, once received a donation of $40,000 from one person. And in 2014, an anonymous benefactor was known to gift large sums, seemingly at random, to a variety of streamers.

That said, the video of ExoticChaotic's reaction to this donation stands out as especially delightful — you can see it in full here:

SEE ALSO: The original 'Legend of Zelda' has a massive hidden area that one player finally opened, more than 30 years later

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NOW WATCH: All smartphones look the same today for 2 key reasons

• Free-to-play video games generated $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018, according to a new report from research firm SuperData.
• Asian players account for 62% of spending on free games, and seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers.
• "Fortnite" was the top grossing game of 2018, free or otherwise, with an estimated $2.4 billion in revenue.
• Revenue generated by mobile games ($61.3 billion) exceeded the combined earnings of games on traditional video game consoles ($12.7 billion) and PC ($35.7 billion).

Led by "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the free-to-play video game market surged to $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018 — more than triple the earnings of blockbuster games released by major publishers last year. In fact, free-to-play titles accounted for nearly 80% of all spending on digital games in 2018.

That's according to new research out Wednesday from Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm, which measures data from the gaming, AR, and VR markets. 

SuperData found that games played on smartphones account for an increasing majority of play time, and free games still rule mobile app stores. Case in point: "Fortnite" remains the most popular game in the world at the start of 2019, enjoying more than 80 million active users per month.

Read more: Fortnite made $318 million in May — almost $100 million more than any free-to-play game has made in a month

Free games like "Fortnite" earn revenue through microtransactions, usually in the form of small purchases that boost a player's performance or reward them with a special item. Those incremental purchases add up to big spending: mobile games earned $61.3 billion in digital sales in 2018, while games on traditional video game consoles and PC earned $48.4 billion combined. 

Free-to-play and mobile games are especially popular in Asia; SuperData reports that 62% of all spending on free-to-play games comes from the Asian market. Despite China blocking the release of new video games in the country for most of the year, the Asian mobile games market managed to grow by 18% during 2018, compared to 13% growth for mobile games in North America and Europe.

In fact, seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers, with the exceptions being "Fortnite," "League of Legends," and "Pokémon Go." "Fortnite" earned more than any free-to-play title in 2018 with an estimated $2.4 billion in revenue, spread between releases on PC, mobile devices, and all three major video game consoles.

SuperData reports that 34% of American players invest in "Fortnite" battle passes, seasonal subscriptions that offer rewards in exchange for real-life cash or in-game currency. The battle pass costs about $10 and a new pass is released every 10 weeks.

"Fortnite" players can also purchase "V-bucks" to exchange for items in the game; the in-game currency ended up on thousands of wish lists during the 2018 holiday season.

While free-to-play games are mostly associated with mobile and PC, "Fortnite" has helped make the trend more popular on consoles. According to SuperData, free-to-play console games saw a 458% increase in revenue in 2018, driven primarily by "Fortnite," making it the fastest-growing model of digital video game. (The popularity of "Fortnite" had other benefits for console gamers, too: In 2018, Sony began allowing cross-play to let the massive free-to-play community connect across different platforms.)

Free-to-play games even eclipsed blockbuster video games from major studios in 2018. Digital revenue for "premium" games totalled $17.9 billion last year, but that's less than a third of what was spent on free games.

Plus, they find the vast majority of their audience in the West. According to SuperData, North America and Europe account for 80% of all spending on "premium" games. Customers are also trending towards more digital purchases for high-quality games, rather than buying physical copies.

Though video game culture remains focused on big releases, revenue reports show the industry trending towards more free releases and "games as service" models like "Fortnite." With the mobile market generating more revenue than traditional gaming platforms, game developers will continue to explore how to best capitalize on the mobile audience.

SEE ALSO: There's a simple, obvious reason 'Fortnite' is the biggest game in the world right now

NOW READ: Fortnite made $318 million in May — almost $100 million more than any free-to-play game has made in a month

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NOW WATCH: How Apple went from a $1 trillion company to losing over 20% of its share price

• Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider the most in-demand original TV shows on streaming services.
• This week includes new entry DC Universe's "Young Justice: Outsiders."

DC Universe dominated streaming this week with its two original shows at the top of this week's list of the most in-deman streaming shows: "Titans" and its latest animated series, "Young Justice: Outsiders," a revival of Cartoon Network's "Young Justice."

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the seven most "in-demand" TV shows on streaming services. The data is based on "demand expressions," the globally standardized TV demand measurement unit from Parrot Analytics. Audience demand reflects the desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance, so a stream or download is a higher expression of demand than a "like" or comment on social media.

Below are this week's seven most popular original shows on Netflix and other streaming services:

SEE ALSO: Netflix says that 'Bird Box' will be viewed by 80 million accounts in its first month

7. "Marvel's Daredevil" (Netflix)

Average demand expressions: 23,038,319 

Description: "Blinded as a young boy, Matt Murdock fights injustice by day as a lawyer and by night as the Super Hero Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen, New York City."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 3): 96%

What critics said: "Cox's Daredevil is perhaps the most brooding and thought-provoking he has been yet - and his performance follows suit, giving viewers possibly the most true-to-page Daredevil ever seen on-screen." — Callum Crumlish, Daily Express

Season 3 premiered on Netflix October 19. The show was recently canceled.

6. "Narcos: Mexico" (Netflix)

Average demand expressions: 24,031,068 

Netflix description: "Witness the birth of the Mexican drug war in the 1980s as a gritty new 'Narcos' saga chronicles the true story of the Guadalajara cartel's ascent."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 1): 86%

What critics said: "Four seasons in, Narcos isn't shaking up its formula so much as it's modifying it in compelling ways." — Miles Surrey, The Ringer

Season 1 premiered on Netflix November 16.

5. "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Amazon)

Average demand expressions: 24,428,099

Description: "After Midge's triumph at the Gaslight, the fallout from her takedown of Sophie Lennon looms large, making her climb up the comedy ladder more challenging than ever. As the actual grind of being a comic begins to take its toll on Midge, the pressure to come clean to her family weighs on her - especially as her choices have a ripple effect on everyone around her."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 2): 92%

What critics said: "It's safe to say: sophomore slump be damned. Mrs. Maisel is indeed marvelous." — Susan Kemp, Consequence of Sound

Season 2 premiered on Amazon December 5.

• Universal and M. Night Shyamalan's "Glass" earned $40.6 million since Sunday and looks to make around $47 million by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.
• It was a strong opening, but the movie had the potential to earn more.
• Pre-release industry projections had the movie's four-day opening between $60 million and $70 million.
• The latest Shyamalan movie suffered from a low Rotten Tomatoes score.
• However, Shyamalan is laughing all the way to the bank. "Glass" is his third-straight movie to make a profit.

Universal had everything set up to have a big Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend with its latest M. Night Shyamalan release, "Glass," which marks the close of the director's "Unbreakable" trilogy. And though the movie did make more than its $20 million budget, self-financed by Shyamalan, everyone involved was hoping for a lot more.

"Glass" brought in $40.6 million as of Sunday and is projected to earn around $47 million by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. That would make the movie, the latest collaboration between Shyamalan and Blumhouse Productions ("Get Out"), the third-biggest opening ever for the MLK Day four-day weekend.

But industry projections had the movie's four-day opening eyeing between $60 million and $70 million, causing the other studios to stay away from the holiday weekend. In 2016, "Split," Shyamalan's surprise sequel to his 2000 comic book-focused cult hit "Unbreakable," became an unexpected box-office darling.

However, the performance by "Glass" is the latest example that you can never predict how audiences (and critics) will react to an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

You can't blame Universal for its excitement. "Split" won over critics (76% Rotten Tomatoes score) and earned more than $278 million worldwide at the box office on just a $9 million budget. Its reception made it the most successful movie for Shyamalan critically and at the box office since 2002's "Signs," which made over $400 million worldwide.

The "Split" success led to the rare occurrence where two studios were willing to work together on a movie. It was agreed that Universal would release "Glass" domestically and Disney would handle the movie's international release.

Though the movie was incredibly hyped and is the first major release of 2019, people became less excited when critical reaction spread online and social media. With a current score of 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, and word beginning to spread of the movie's disappointing ending, the movie suddenly was not going to hit its projections. 

But in no way is this a failure for Universal. The hype allowed the studio to have the MLK weekend for itself. By Monday the movie will pass 2008's "Cloverfield" ($46.1 million) to become the third-biggest opening over the holiday weekend, with 2014's "Ride Along" ($48.6 million) and 2015's "American Sniper" ($107.2 million) still in second and first, respectively.

Having already earned more than its budget, "Glass" will mark the third straight Shyamalan movie to make a profit. All of them while working with Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions — "The Visit" ($5 million budget), "Split" ($9 million), and "Glass" ($20 million). And all three were self-financed by the writer-director.

SEE ALSO: We watched Netflix's and Hulu's docs about the doomed Fyre Festival, and one gives you a better look inside the fiasco

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• Writer Aaron Sorkin, who wrote "The West Wing" and "The Social Network", told CNN that, while he likes the new cohort of Democrats in Congress, they "need to stop acting like young people."
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman in Congress, dismissed his calls and insisted that her progressive policies are not "trends."
• Sorkin also said that Democrats should act like "the non-stupid party" and "be smart" in politics.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, slammed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's plea for new Democrats in Congress grow up.

Sorkin, who wrote "The West Wing" and "The Social Network," told CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Friday: "I really like the new crop of young people who were just elected to Congress. They now need to stop acting like young people, OK? It's time to do that."

Sorkin added that Democrats should now be "the non-stupid party" and "be smart" with new legislation and campaigns in Congress.

"I think there's a great opportunity here, now more than ever, for Dems to be the non-stupid party, to point out the difference," he said. "It's not just transgender bathrooms — that's a Republican talking point they're trying to distract you with.

"We haven't forgotten the economic anxiety of the middle class, but we're going to be smart about this. We're not going to be mean about it," he added.

Read more:Aaron Sorkin wrote a letter to his daughter the day after Donald Trump became president

Ocasio-Cortez dismissed Sorkin's calls on Sunday, tweeting: "News Flash: Medicare for All & equal rights aren't trends." Medicare for All is one of the key tenets of Ocasio-Cortez's platform.

"When people complain about low turnout in some demos [demographics], it's not because communities are apathetic, it's they don't see you fighting for them."

"If we don't show up for people, why should you feel entitled to their vote?"

Read more:This is the platform that launched Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress

Ocasio-Cortez lost out on a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee earlier this month, which oversees many parts of US economic policy and would have been a high-profile arena for her to advocate her progressive policies.

She, however, secured a place on the House Financial Services Committee, which has authority to oversee big banks and financial services in the US, and to shape new regulations.

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NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy'

• With the swift success of "Bird Box" and "You" last month, in terms of viewership and cultural impact, Netflix showed its originals could create the type of water cooler talk that live TV was famous for.
• Netflix said "Bird Box" was watched by 80 million households in its first month, and "You" by 40 million.
• "For part of your Netflix subscription, you are in the zeitgeist," Netflix's head of content, Ted Sarandos, said recently.
• For the first time, I felt a tangible sense of FOMO before I'd watched these titles, and it wasn't because they were groundbreaking works of art, it was because of the power of Netflix's platform.

Netflix started releasing its own "original" TV series in 2013, and since the start, it's been obvious that subscribers loved its delivery method: Full-season drops of on-demand bliss. Watching was convenient — stupidly so. But the question still lingered: In the age of scattered viewing, would Netflix ever replicate the water cooler talk that live TV perfected? Could the king of streamers make you feel culturally deficient if you didn't subscribe?

There have been moments over the past few years when I thought Netflix was inching toward that, from its first splashy original "House of Cards" to the slow build of its cult hit "Stranger Things." But it was the runaway success of two originals last month, "You" and "Bird Box," that finally convinced me that Netflix had begun to define the next phase of water cooler conversation.

"You" and "Bird Box" had very different origins — one as an original movie and the other as a TV show picked up after being discarded by Lifetime — but both spread through the internet and social media thanks to Netflix's massive reach (139 million paying subscribers and counting). Engaging with the online cultural conversation feels like the 2019 equivalent of chatting at the water cooler at work, and I really felt I wouldn't understand an important chunk of the internet if I wasn't familiar with this one movie and one show. And it wasn't because they were groundbreaking pieces of art, it was because they were so easy to watch on Netflix that everybody — or what felt like everybody — did.

The avalanche of "Bird Box" jokes and memes on social media was so overwhelming that people accused Netflix of using fake accounts to help spread them, though there was no proof. And in the end, it didn't really matter. The phenomenon was real.

Both "Bird Box" and "You" became a thing and made you feel a bit left out if you hadn't consumed them. And expect that to keep happening with Netflix originals in 2019, especially since the streamer has become the top entertainment platform for teens, beating everything from cable TV to YouTube.

Netflix's head of content, Ted Sarandos, addressed this very feeling on the streamer's Q4 earnings call.

"For part of your Netflix subscription, you are in the zeitgeist," Sarandos said. "You’re watching the programming that the rest of the world is loving at the same time."

Sarandos also revealed that "Bird Box" was watched by 80 million households in its first month on the platform, and that "You" was watched by 40 million in its first.

'Kimberly like everyone in the world'

"Bird Box" did not get off to a particularly auspicious start, leaving critics unimpressed when it became available to stream on December 21. The movie currently has a 63% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

But there was something intriguing about the movie, which follows Sandra Bullock as she tries to stay alive and avoid an evil that kills using sight — hence the blindfold.

Master of horror Stephen King tweeted that he was "absolutely riveted" by the film and urged viewers to ignore the lukewarm reviews, which he said might have been caused by "Netflix Prejudice."

Whether or not they listened to King, viewers flocked to the film. On December 28, Netflix took the unusual step of releasing a view count, saying that over 45 million accounts had watched over 70% of the movie in its first week, a record for the service.

By that time the memes were in full swing, and the movie's omnipresent blindfold had inspired the "Bird Box Challenge," which led at least one person to crash a car and may have prompted YouTube to ban dangerous pranks and challenges.

When Kim Kardashian tweeted on January 1 that she liked the movie and asked who had seen it, she was relentlessly teased.

"Kimberly like everyone in the entire world," Chrissy Teigen tweeted in reply.

Though "Bird Box" was clearly great fodder for memes, Netflix's ubiquity and ease of use allowed it to enter the cultural conversation like a tidal wave. And the ascension of "You," a Lifetime series that hit Netflix less than a week after "Bird Box," showed again how powerful the platform had become.

Sorry, Lifetime

"You," a creepy series starring Penn Badgley as an obsessive New York City bookstore clerk, debuted to rave reviews when it aired on Lifetime in September.

Writing for Time Magazine, Judy Berman called the show a "wicked satire of social media, self-proclaimed 'nice guys' and the twisted ideals of romantic fiction." It currently has a 91% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

But even with the good critical buzz, "You" wasn't a hit on Lifetime. The show got a live viewership of 611,000 on Lifetime, and though the network had secured the option to renew it for a second before its release, it decided not to move forward. Netflix picked up the show, giving the green light to season two and branding the first season a "Netflix original."

When the first season dropped on Netflix December 26, it quickly entered the internet hive mind. Though it didn't spread as intensely as "Bird Box," its success was equally notable because the show had already been out since September and had garnered such good reviews.

Here you can see the relative search volumes on Google of "You Lifetime" and "You Netflix" over time:

On January 14, IMDb tweeted that "You" was its top-trending show.

But it's not simply that "You" became more popular when it hit Netflix, something has been dubbed the "Netflix Effect" and has happened to shows like "Breaking Bad" and "Riverdale."

The actors and characters also immediately became topics of internet chatter.

Take supporting character Peach Salinger, played by "Pretty Little Liars" star Shay Mitchell, for instance.

On January 7, Vulture published a post titled, "Now That You Is on Netflix, You Should All Worship Peach Salinger." Then on January 11, BuzzFeed followed with, "This Post Is For Anyone That Is Team Peach Salinger And Demands Justice For Her." And on January 14, TV Guide raised the stakes by declaring, "Every Character on YOU Is Trash, but I Would Still Die for Peach Salinger."

Peach Salinger had officially become a thing. Before I started watching "You," I had even wondered myself why the heck they named a character Peach Salinger.

But if you look back at when the show aired on Lifetime, there was no Peach Salinger internet buzz. Here is a chart of Google searches that illustrates that:

Similar charts show the same trend for search interest in the names two main characters, Badgley's Joe Goldberg and Elizabeth Lail's Guinevere Beck.

And like "Bird Box," the characters on "You" have inspired lots of quality memes.

But it's not just the "You" characters. Penn Badgley is enjoying a renaissance in public awareness, with Google search interest surging and his Instagram hitting over 1.2 million followers.

Badgley has also participated in some of the fun internet shenanigans around the show that have popped up as it has gone viral on Netflix, including wading into the debate over people crushing on his serial-killer character.

"The amount of people romanticizing @PennBadgley’s character in YOU scares me," Twitter user @darrenglitz wrote.

"Ditto. It will be all the motivation I need for season 2," Badgley replied.

Lifetime execs must be pulling their hair out watching a show they took a chance on becoming a cultural force for someone else — and Netflix of all places. It shows the sad reality of the cable TV business today.

But Netflix is uniquely positioned to launch something into the zeitgeist, and not just compared to cable.

Netflix says 40 million households watched "You" in the first month on the platform (defined by watching 70% of at least one episode). Sure, there are caveats, but that means more Netflix accounts watched "You" than the entire subscriber base of Hulu, which recently announced it had reached 25 million.

And at 80 million views and counting, over three times Hulu's entire subscriber base watched at least 70% of "Bird Box" on Netflix.

It's hard to imagine any other platform getting that kind of instantaneous reach, and cultural impact, from scratch. Welcome to the worldwide water cooler.

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• PewDiePie boosted his monthly subscriber count by 700% over three months thanks to a massive campaign to stop another channel becoming the most popular YouTuber.
• Bollywood music channel T-Series keeps coming close to knocking PewDiePie off the top spot, but a sustained campaign by the Swedish YouTuber's peers and fans has kept him number one.
• PewDiePie gained more subscribers in four months in 2018 than all of 2017.
• This is particularly notable given the slowdown affecting most prominent YouTubers.

PewDiePie's campaign to keep his crown as the world's most popular YouTuber has paid off.

Since October 2018, the controversial Swede has been in danger of losing his title to an Indian company called T-Series, which posts Bollywood music videos and has amassed millions of subscribers.

PewDiePie said as much in August 2018, in a comical video challenging T-Series (a company, not a person) to a sabre fight.

In October, Tubular Labs noticed that T-Series had racked up 66 million subscribers at the time, and was growing so quickly that it would overtake PewDiePie's 67 million subscribers within a week.

It never happened, thanks to PewDiePie's campaign asking people to "smash subscribe."

This resulted in a massive groundswell of support, with PewDiePie fans sticking up posters around their cities asking people to subscribe to his channel. Perhaps more effectively, fellow YouTubers Logan Paul and Mr. Beast made videos asking their audiences to subscribe.

Check out this chart showing the massive uptick in PewDiePie's subscribers:

PewDiePie racked up more subscribers in the last four months of 2018 than in the entirety of 2017. Using statistics site SocialBlade, we worked he gain more than 13 million subscribers between September and December. It took him all of 2017 to gain 7 million subscribers.

In December alone, 6.62 million people subscribed to PewDiePie, which is a 700% acceleration in growth on his 855,000 subscriber haul in September, before the campaign to keep him ahead of T-Series began in earnest. At the time of writing, PewDiePie's total subs base stands at 80.9 million. T-Series is close with 80.5 million fans.

Read more: PewDiePie will lose his crown as YouTube's biggest star next week, thanks to India's obsession with Bollywood

This is especially notable given Business Insider found in 2017 that many of the world's biggest YouTubers are seeing a massive slowdown in subscribers, including PewDiePie.

While famous YouTubers had years of massive subscriber growth, there is now more competition for views and subscribers than ever. Viewers have more choice in terms of the content they watch and the YouTubers they subscribe to, and they only have a finite amount of time.

As views and subscribers slow, YouTubers have stepped up their efforts to diversify how they make money. Think Alfie Deyes investing in startups, or KSI and Logan Paul selling tickets to their boxing matches.

PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg, can thank his prominent peers for doing some of the heavy lifting on the new subscriber front.

Mr. Beast, an American YouTuber with 13 million subscribers, bought radio ads and billboards promoting PewDiePie. He also carried out a 12-hour livestreaming stunt during which he said "PewDiePie" 100,000 times. Likewise, controversial YouTuber Logan Paul offered to donate to charity if his followers subscribed to PewDiePie.

They are supporting PewDiePie on the basis he's an individual creator, rather than a company, and should remain the face of the video site.

SEE ALSO: PewDiePie mocked his critics after praising a 'Nazi' YouTube channel but says he will 'be more careful in the future'

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NOW WATCH: How Apple went from a $1 trillion company to losing over 20% of its share price

• Niantic, the developer of "Pokémon Go" and the forthcoming "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," announced that it's raised $245 million in a deal valuing it at "almost $4 billion."
• CEO John Hanke tells us that Niantic is cash-flow positive, but the money helps it bunker down for a possible venture capital crunch as it starts the years-long road towards a possible IPO.
• The funding round brings in Samsung and Axiomatic Games as strategic investors — two companies that Hanke says are very important for helping Niantic realize its dream of bringing tech closer into the real world.
• Meanwhile, Niantic is also investing in the Real World Platform, which will see it license big pieces of its tech to other developers. Hanke says that Niantic can be both a gaming studio and a developer tools company. 
• "Pokémon Go," still Niantic's flagship game, has generated more than $2 billion in revenue since launch, says Hanke, and will see a further investment in real-world events for players.

Niantic, the developer of "Pokémon Go" and the forthcoming "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," says that it's now valued at "almost $4 billion," following a $245 million funding round led by IVP, with participation from strategic investors Samsung and Axiomatic Gaming.

John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic, tells Business Insider that the company didn't need the money, strictly speaking: "Pokémon Go," revitalized by a plethora of fan-requested features, has brought in over $2 billion of revenues since its 2016 launch, says Hanke. Furthermore, he says, Niantic is cash-flow positive — which is different from profitable — and still has lots of cash in the bank from previous investment rounds. 

Still, Hanke says, the time was right, as he foresees a crunch coming, where it'll be harder for companies like Niantic to raise investment capital amid a possible economic downturn. He's not necessarily against Niantic getting acquired, he says, and indeed, Niantic itself spun out of Google. Still, it's hard to guess how much control a would-be buyer would exert, and staying independent is the best way to ensure that Niantic gets to do what it wants to do. 

So while Niantic doesn't plan to IPO for "many more years," the cash helps make sure the company can weather any storms between now and then as an independent company.

“The best way to invent the future is to be around to build it," Hanke said.

Why these investors?

Beyond the money, Hanke says that those strategic investors were a big reason why Niantic chose to go after new funding, serving to "cement relationships that were already in place." Now that these companies have a financial stake in Niantic, the lines of communication are much more open, and the company can benefit from their expertise.

Samsung, Hanke notes, is an expert at Android phones, and has made big investments in augmented reality — the technology for overlaying digital imagery over the real world, largely introduced to the mainstream by "Pokémon Go" itself. Otherwise, Hanke says that he sees promise in using Samsung's investments in smart sensors to bring augmented reality closer to the real world, as physical objects can have presences in the real world. 

Axiomatic, for its part, is an entertainment and sports management firm with a controlling stake in Team Liquid, a well-known esports organization, as well as an investment in "Fortnite" maker Epic Games. Co-chaired by Peter Guber, Bruce Karsh, Ted Leonsis, and Jeff Vinik — all of whom own one or more professional, major league sports teams — Hanke believes Axiomatic can bring a lot of expertise about how to engage fans and throw live events. 

Combined, Hanke says, these partners can help Niantic come up with ways to make real-world gaming events "much more fun." He notes that Niantic has been encouraged by the success of Community Day, a series of events thrown by the company to encourage "Pokémon Go" players to hit the streets en masse, and that the company is prioritizing figuring out ways to do more big events, indoors and outdoors — which dovetails with the company's goal of using tech to get people on their feet and exploring the world around them. 

Read more:The CEO behind 'Pokémon Go' explains why it's become such a phenomenon

“We will attempt to expand and continue to invest in events," Hanke says.

Here comes Harry Potter

The next big game launch for Niantic is "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," developed in conjunction with Portkey Games, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. All we know is that it's expected to launch this year, and Hanke was tight-lipped about sharing any details. 

He says that there's a simple reason why the stewards of "Pokémon" and "Harry Potter," two of the most valuable franchises on the planet, have chosen to go with Niantic: Nobody else puts the same level of polish or care into a smartphone game, let alone one that involves exploring the real world, and the extra effort pays off in fan engagement, he says. 

When the likes of The Pokémon Company or Warner Bros. come to Niantic, they're saying "let’s do it big, let’s do it right, let’s invest in it," says Hanke. “There’s no comparable companies."

Otherwise, Hanke hints that Niantic has more games coming, even as it invests further in its existing lineup, including "Pokémon Go" and "Ingress Prime."

The cloud connection

The other facet of Niantic's business is the Real World Platform, which the company teased in the middle of last year. 

Essentially, the Real World Platform will enable software developers to take advantage of the technology Niantic created for its own games. Developers will be able to use Niantic's augmented reality tech, as well as the company's secret sauce for multiplayer gaming and for connecting gameplay to real-world locations. 

"You put so much tech into those games, it makes sense to leverage it," says Hanke. 

However, Hanke also sees it as having a variety of other uses, which nobody has yet foreseen. That could be in business software, or consumer software, or even robotics — but not necessarily in gaming, entirely. The company has announced a $1 million contest for early developers on the Real World Platform.

He says that while the Real World Platform is a major focus for Niantic going forward, he thinks that it can be both a gaming studio and a developer tools company.

"We really want to be both," says Hanke. 

As he points out, Epic Games is both the developer of mega-phenomenon "Fortnite," and the proprietor of the popular Unreal Engine software for game developers. 

Pokémon, go on

For Hanke, 2018 was a pivotal year for "Pokémon Go," which he says has finally become the game Niantic envisioned all along.

In the last year, Niantic has introduced long-awaited features to "Pokémon Go," including Pokémon battling and trading with friends. In November, too, Nintendo launched "Pokémon: Let's Go" for the Nintendo Switch, which offers an integration with "Pokémon Go."

All of this has led to Pokémon Go seeing a resurgence in popularity. But it took a great deal of effort within the company.

Niantic spent the months after its rocky 2016 launch "on our heels," trying to patch the game up on the fly.

He says that 2017 was characterized by taking a step back, making new hires, and building a plan. But 2018 was when the team achieved a "regular pace of updates," which he says will carry into 2019. Player engagement, for instance, was way up in 2018 from 2017. And that's giving Hanke optimism for the new year.

As it continues this goodwill tour with fans, Hanke says that Niantic keeps up with the "Pokémon Go" community via Reddit. While Hanke says that Niantic tries not to let fan feedback drive its overall product strategy, he says that it's very useful in fine-tuning an idea once it's out. When Pokémon trading and battling came out, Hanke says, fans highlighted all kinds of little problems that Niantic had missed in-house, guiding it to solutions.

Finally, Hanke says that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company — the Nintendo joint venture that owns the trademark — have been very pleased with both "Pokémon Go" and "Pokémon: Let's Go," and are looking for more "synergies" between the game and the core franchise. That's good news for Niantic, too, Hanke says. 

"We've benefitted in a lot of ways," says Hanke.

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• NBCUniversal will launch its own ad-supported streaming service in 2020.
• NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told The Wall Street Journal that the company could consider moving "The Office" from Netflix to the new service.
• "The Office" and NBC's "Parks and Recreation" are two of Netflix's most popular shows, according to data from analytics firm Jumpshot provided to Business Insider.
• Netflix has been investing heavily in original content as more companies enter the streaming war.

When Netflix first launched its streaming platform over a decade ago, it used a big catalog of traditional TV shows to kickstart viewership. Now, as more media giants plan to launch their own streaming competitors, Netflix is in jeopardy of losing some of its most popular shows.

NBCUniversal announced Monday that it plans to launch its own ad-supported streaming service in 2020 that would be free to users who already subscribe to traditional pay TV through companies like Comcast and Sky. The service could include popular NBC TV shows and Universal movies, as well as original content.

Users who don't already have pay TV will be able to subscribe to the service for a monthly fee around $10 a month, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited an anonymous source familiar with the matter. 

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NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told the Journal that the company may consider moving "The Office" from Netflix to the new streaming service once the licensing agreement expires in 2021. NBC declined to comment further to Business Insider.

That's bad news for Netflix because "The Office" is its most popular show, according to data from analytics firm Jumpshot provided to Business Insider. And NBC's "Parks and Recreation" is its third most popular show.

The chart below shows the 10 most popular shows on Netflix of 2018, courtesy of Jumpshot, which "tracks five billion actions a day across 100 million devices to deliver insights into online consumer behavior":

Netflix's second most popular show, the Warner Bros.-owned "Friends," is safe on Netflix — for now. The hit 1990s sitcom will remain on the service through 2019, but Netflix and AT&T, which bought Time Warner last year, are finalizing a deal to keep "Friends" on Netflix while also allowing AT&T the ability to put the show on its own platform that is expected to launch this year.

Netflix is paying up to $100 million for "Friends," according to The New York Times, significantly more than the $30 million it was paying per year for the rights. 

A similar scenario could happen with "The Office," "Parks and Recreation," and more NBC shows. Other NBC shows in Netflix's top 50, according to Jumpshot, included "The Good Place" and "The West Wing." Would Netflix drop so much money for multiple shows when it's already investing heavily in original content? 85% of new spending in 2018 went toward originals.

Netflix anticipated the competition, so it will likely continue to focus on original programming over licensing agreements.

"The way we look at this long term is that our competitors will want that content on their own services,” Netflix's content chief Ted Sarandos said during an earnings call in July. "That was a bet we’ve made a long time ago when we got into original programming."

SEE ALSO: Netflix has been smacked with a lawsuit over 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' that claims it 'tarnishes' the 'choose your own adventure' trademark

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• Nintendo just dropped a major re-release on the Nintendo Switch with "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe."
• The game originally launched on Nintendo's failed Wii U, but is getting new life on Nintendo's Switch as a repackaged "Deluxe" edition which includes a bunch of extra stuff.
• Having spent several hours playing "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe," I'd strongly recommend it to any classic "Super Mario" superfans.

"New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" is Super Mario as pastiche: It's composed entirely from bits and pieces of various classic, 2D Super Mario games.

Character selection is lifted from"Super Mario Bros. 2," and the overworld map is from "Super Mario Bros. 3." Each Koopa Kid boss fight is directly reminiscent of the same boss fights in "Super Mario World." That's blended with elements of the more recent "New Super Mario Bros." series, and it produces a delightful evolution of both.

If you're looking for dozens of hours of Nintendo's smartest, toughest, most traditional "Super Mario" gaming, look no further than "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe." 

Here's what I mean:

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"New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" is two games in one: Both "New Super Mario Bros. U," and "New Super Luigi U."

Though "New Super Mario Bros. U" was a hit on the Wii U, it still sold under 6 million copies — a surprisingly low number for one of the world's most popular gaming franchises. It wasn't the game's fault, but a measure of the Wii U's failure.

With that in mind, Nintendo is giving the game a new chance with a major re-release on the Nintendo Switch. It's a smart move, as the game feels purpose-built for the kind of gaming that the Nintendo Switch allows — it's exactly the type of game that's easy to play on-the-go or at home.

So, what is it?

It's two games — "New Super Mario Bros. U" and "New Super Luigi U" — combined into a single, $60 package. It comes with a new playable character in "Toadette." It's a re-release that gives an already great set of games a chance to reach new players on a far, far more successful Nintendo platform.

What's the difference between the two games? Difficulty.

If "New Super Mario Bros. U" is the base game, "New Super Luigi Bros. U" is the master quest. 

It would be reductive to say that the latter game is a harder version of the former, but it's not inaccurate. You can't actually play as Mario in "New Super Luigi Bros. U," but you can play as everyone else: Luigi, Toad, Toadette, and Nabbit. 

Part of the challenge is that Luigi is a more difficult character to control than Mario, and part of the challenge is that the entire game is rebalanced around being more difficult. Enemies act differently and appear in greater numbers. Platforms are in different places, or outright removed. Levels are designed to put challenge above all else.

If you've ever played literally any 2D Super Mario game, included "Super Mario Run" on smartphones, you're familiar with the gameplay of "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe."

In "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe," you're stomping on goombas and eating power-up mushrooms and always, always seeking out the next flagpole.

It's a pixel-perfect, 2D-style, classic Mario game with a ton of polish.

It plays like the memory you have of "Super Mario Bros." on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, albeit with far prettier visuals, more complex level design, and better controls. 

Unbelievably, after 30 years of "Super Mario" games, "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" still packs in plenty of incredibly impressive, delightful game design. Much of the game makes you feel clever, which is a testament to the subtlty of the game's developers. It's just difficult enough.

There are a few new additions you might not be ready for if you've never played the "New Super Mario Bros." series. Did you know that Mario is now regularly capable of wall jumps? Pretty much all the new gymnastics Mario learned from his 3D jaunt in "Super Mario 64" is now built into the 2D series as well, from ground pounds to wall jumps.