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Source: ESA / E3 2023
Welp, E3 2023 has been put on ice…again.
IGN broke the news that two sources confirmed with the website that the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) is canceling this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.
The sad news comes after multiple video game companies like Ubisoft, Sega, and Tencent pulled out of the event, giving the gaming industry and gamers the vibe that E3 2023 was not happening.
Per IGN:
Two sources have confirmed to IGN that the organization announced the cancellation via an email sent out to its members today. The email said that while E3 “remains a beloved event and brand,” that the 2023 version “simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry.”
The ESA concludes the email by reiterating its commitment to advocacy work. It does not mention undertaking the show again in future years.
The ESA did confirm IGN’s reporting with a statement from Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming, ReedPop:
This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.
The statement also claims that ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work on “future E3 events.” We shall see about that.
Twitter Says RIP To E3
Reactions to the news immediately began to hit Twitter timelines, with some users congratulating Summer Game Fest’s creator Geoff Keighley for officially owning the summer.
Keighley didn’t waste any time plugging his event after the news broke about E3 2023.
RIP E3 became a trending topic immediately, with gamers and members of video game media sharing fond memories of past E3 conventions.
You can see those tweets in the gallery below.
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Photo: ESA / E3 2023
3. Classic
5. Interesting
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Source: Jim McIsaac / Getty / Ben Simmons
Brooklyn Nets fans don’t have to worry about Ben Simmons being a liability for the team when the playoffs begin.
ESPN reports the Brooklyn Nets are shutting down Ben Simmons for the remainder of the season; coach Jacque Vaughn told the press on Tuesday.
“Ben will not be joining us the rest of the year and through the playoffs,” Vaughn revealed after practice. “After consulting with our doctors, multiple specialists, he’s just going to begin a rehab program. Our doctors and the specialists feel and think that he’ll have a full recovery, so that starts now.”
The fragile hooper has not hit the court for the Nets since the team’s final game before the All-Star break because of a nerve issue in his back. Simmons has been beset with knee and back issues, but Vaughn says he does not expect the point guard to get surgery for this latest injury.
“That is not in sight,” Vaughn said. “That’s the recommendation right now.”
Before making his Nets debut following a trade that saw the Brooklyn franchise swap James Harden for him, Simmons underwent back surgery last summer.
When he did return, he was a mere shell of his former self, seeing a steep decline in his performance from his All-Star days with the Sixers.
During the small sample size with the Nets, Simmons posted career lows in minutes (26.3), points (6.9), rebounds (6.3), assists (6.1), and free throw percentage (43.9).
Jack Vaughn Still Believes In Ben Simmons
Still, his coach remains hopeful the 26-year-old professional hooper can return to his old form.
“That’s our goal,” Vaughn said. “And overall, you just think about, he’s 6-10, athletic, what he can do and bring to our team, how he can help our group on both ends of the floor. We want to be involved in that. We want to see that. I want to coach Ben, and I want to be able to push Ben to get back to all-defensive team and impact our team on both ends of the floor. So that’s definitely the goal going forward.”
The Nets Will Continue To Support Him & Remain Hopeful He Can Return Next Season
According to general manager Sean Marks, the Nets will also continue to support Simmons.
“Same thing we’ve done in the past is support him,” Marks told ESPN. “This is a young man that has been through a very traumatic and pretty arduous last couple years here. And this is not news that he wants to hear. He didn’t want specialists telling him, ‘Hey look, here’s the best thing for you.’ The good news, they were in unison in their plan for a full recovery. I worked hard with these doctors, all the different specialists as well as Bernie Lee, his new agent, to come up with a plan that’s hopefully going to get him back, and back to being the Ben we’ve all seen.”
Marks continues, “I do feel for him because I know he wants to be out here. I know he wants to be part of this team. Nobody likes being told, ‘You didn’t amount to what you should have, and it shouldn’t be this, you should have done this, and so forth’ I hope he uses all of this as whatever you want to call it, chalkboard fodder for motivation, and attack [his rehab]. But I think he would fit with these guys we’ve got, and he fits for multiple reasons. So we hope that he’s back — and that he’s healthy, ready to go.”
Twitter Believes It’s A Wrap For Ben Simmon’s Career
While Simmon’s current team still believes in him, NBA Twitter is saying it’s a wrap for N0.10, and he will probably end up playing professional basketball in China.
LOL.
Damn, you all are ruthless.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Jim McIsaac / Getty
2. Howling
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Elon Musk
Another day, Elon Musk continues to make Twitter a very sh*tty experience for everyone.
If you open Twitter and see many people on your timeline, you don’t follow or care to follow. There is a good reason for that. There is this god-forsaken tab, “For You,” that shows you tweets from users that Twitter’s algorithm believes you will take an interest in.
It also hilariously is full of Elon Musk’s tweets after it was discovered that the Tesla chief had developers create a special system to flood our timelines with them after his Super Bowl tweet didn’t do the numbers President Biden’s tweet did.
Now, he’s desperately trying to ween the company off the ad-based revenue it heavenly relied on after his purchase of Twitter made everyone say I’m good beloved by introducing a subscription service nobody wants.
For either $8 a month or $84 annually, you will not only get a verification badge, which he is even making celebrities and notable people have to pay for, access to different features, and now have your tweets show up in the “For You” tab.
Musk made the announcement on his personal Twitter account, writing, “Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations. The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle. Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.”
In the same breath, he also wrote, “That said, it’s ok to have verified bot accounts if they follow terms of service & don’t impersonate a human.”
Twitter Hates The For You Tab & Paying For Blue Checks
According to Musk, Twitter is worth half its value now at $20 billion. Musk acquired the social media company for $44 billion.
Twitter has been clowning the “For You” tab, and the idea of legacy verified accounts having to pay for the blue checks. In a back-and-forth with William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, Musk told the iconic Star Trek actor, “It’s more about treating everyone equally. There shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities.”
Riiiiiggght.
In the gallery below, you can see what Twitter thinks of Musk’s new stupid idea.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
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Source: Michael Tullberg / Getty / Soulja Boy
Dinner with Soulja Boy? Apparently, nobody has time for that.
Soulja Boy was BIG MAD after a viral video showed people choosing $250 worth of food stamps instead of having dinner with him to pick his legendary brain.
As expected, the rapper, who claims to be the first to do many things, got on Instagram to rant, holding stacks of cash, calling the people in the clip “broke” and reminding them that they will “never make it out the hood,” while taking a shot a the state of New Jersey.
New Jersey-based platform 856 Entertainment was behind the now infamous clip. Hence the Jersey shade and a young man approaches random women with the $250 question if dinner with Soulja Boy is worth more than the food stamps. Hilariously, almost all of them didn’t think a meal and a conversation with Big Draco was worth passing up $250 in food stamps.
“Suck my d*ck. Ya’ll ain’t ever gonna make it out the hood,” he started his rant. “Y’all ni**as gon’ die broke. I wouldn’t have dinner with y’all pu**y AIDS-infested h*es anyway,” the insanely bitter Hip-Hop star said, adding he “would not have dinner with no broke a** bi**h from New Jersey anyway. I would not have dinner with no crackhead looking h*es anyway.”
He continues, “Bi**hes could not be in the same room with me. Ya’ll ni**as gon’ die in the hood, gon’ die broke, and gon’ never touch a million dollars. Never gon’ touch 30 million, ya’ll ain’t never gon’ touch 100K in a day, you gon’ die broke, you lived your whole life broke, bi**ch. You ain’t gon’ never be sh*t.”
We’ve Been Down This Road Before
If this question about dinner with a high-profile celebrity sounds familiar, it is. At that time, people were asked to choose between “$500,000 or dinner with Jay-Z.”
Unlike the question with Soulja Boy, there was a bit more of a divide, with some choosing an opportunity to speak with HOV and some preferring the money. Tidal, the music streaming platform that the Brooklyn rapper used to own, told its followers to take the $500K.
There is a good chance that Jigga was the creator of that tweet.
We know one thing, Soulja Boy better respond to the SEC after being hit with charges for illegally promoting cryptocurrency.
Speaking of tweets, Twitter has been reacting to Soulja Boy’s rant. You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Michael Tullberg / Getty
1. Accurate
3. Well, there is one person.
5. What a bitter man
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Source: Daniel Boczarski / Getty / Ahmed Best
The latest episode of The Mandalorian was a redemption story for a longtime Star Wars actor.
Ahmed Best, known for his role as clumsy Gungan/Senator Jar-Jar Binks from the polarizing Star Wars prequel films, is back in a galaxy far, far away. Best appeared in Wednesday’s episode of the popular Disney+ original series The Mandalorian as the Jedi Knight, Kelleran Beq.
Beq answered a major question revealing himself to the Jedi Knight who got our favorite youngling, Baby Yoda, to safety and out of the crosshairs of clone troopers who were killing the force-sensitive warriors as part of Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66.
Best has taken on three roles in the Star Wars universe, Jar-Jar Binks, Achk Med-Beq in Attack of The Clones, and Kelleran Beq, a game show host for Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, basically Legend of The Hidden Temple with a Stars Wars spin on it.
Beq was never considered Star Wars canon until his appearance in The Mandalorian, so who knows, that might not be the last time we see Kelleran Beq wielding two lightsabers.
To celebrate his return to the sci-fi/fantasy franchise, Best shared a photo of himself in the gym with the caption, “Gratitude! Good to be back. There is so much to say and share. It’s going to take a couple of days. But, for now, I’ll just say thank you to all that have held me up and made me better.”
Twitter Loves Seeing Best Return As Kelleran Beq
A much brighter outlook from the actor, who wrote in his book, he was deeply depressed, leading to career setbacks and even death threats following Jar-Jar Binks’s poor reception.
Twitter has been praising the actor’s return to the franchise and the fact Beq is officially canon.
This is the way.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Daniel Boczarski / Getty
1. We love to see it
3. He so deserves.
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Source: Variety / Getty / Megan Thee Stallion
Megan Thee Stallion took an understandable break from the world, but now she is back and putting us on notice.
The Hot Girl’s leader is back. Megan Thee Stallion ended her social media hiatus during Oscars weekend, showing up at Vanity Fair Oscars Party looking G O O D. Still, she wasn’t done blowing our minds and tantalizing our senses.
She followed up her Oscars Party glam by dropping a series of Instagram photos of herself in a bikini, showing off her killer, toned curves while sporting a more natural look, rocking the hair she was born with and a makeup-less fresh face.
In the first photo, the 28-year-old Houston rapper is rocking a hot pink bikini top while showing off those beautiful natural burls and a fresh face to match.
In the second picture, she is sitting on a bed wearing a colorful cutout Miaou one-piece bathing, giving her fans a very inviting look.
She comes in hot in the third photo in the gallery, rocking some Nike athletic gear while it begs the question, what waist? While showing us that while she was gone from social media, her mental health was not the only thing she was working on during her time away from the limelight.
The Hotties React To All Natural Megan Thee Stallion
The fourth photo is another jaw-dropper as the “Savage” rapper rocks a similar bathing suit while looking gorgeous on a beach.
The hotties immediately noticed the theme and began showering their favorite rapper with compliments.
“Megan thee stallion really disappeared for months and had the audacity to come out looking that fine. The hair .. the dress .. the face.. the body. She slapped me in the face so hard,” one user wrote on Twitter.
Another tweet read, “no one told me megan thee stallion looked like TAHT i never seen her without makeup damn she’s stunning.”
No lies detected.
You can see more reactions to no-makeup, natural-hair Megan Thee Stallion in the gallery below.
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Photo: Variety / Getty
2. Step into the greatness
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Source: Archive Photos / Getty / Good Burger 2
All That fans rejoice. Dexter and Ed are coming back for Good Burger 2.
Yes, you read the correctly. A sequel to the 1997 film Good Burger, based on the popular All That sketch, is in the works and is coming to Paramount+.
Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell made the big announcement on Friday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Production for the sequel begins in May and will arrive on the streaming network sometime in 2023.
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Per The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s plot will “follow them as they reunite in the present day at fast-food restaurant Good Burger with a new group of employees. Phil Traill (The Middle, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Single Drunk Female) will direct the film, with Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert (All That and Good Burger) serving as writers and executive producers.”
In a statement announcing the film, Thompson said, “I can’t believe it’s been a little over 25 years since great customer service was born at Good Burger! Being a part of something so many generations of people have come to love has made me so proud, and now to be back where it all began working on the sequel is surreal! Love performing with my brother Kel and can’t wait to show the fans what these characters have been up to since we last saw them.”
“Ed is one of those timeless characters that has brought so much joy and laughter to fans, and it’s such a beautiful blessing to still be doing it after all these years. It’s super awesome to come back and continue the stories of Dex, Ed, and Good Burger for both the people who grew up watching and their kids,” Mitchell added.
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90s Babies Are Excited For Good Burger 2
Good Burger first gained popularity as a sketch on Nickelodeon’s sketch comedy show All That and subsequently turned into a film. It would gross $24 million at the box office, easily recouping its reported $8 million budget.
The movie became a cult hit with fans, with Mitchell and Thompson reprising their Good Burger characters on The Tonight Show for a 2015 sketch.
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Those same fans are now reacting to the big news positively and negatively. You can see the reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Archive Photos / Getty
2. Exactly
3. Well, there are some who don’t want to see Good Burger 2
5. We don’t count this.
6. Howling
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Source: Rachel Murray / Getty / Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick was loved not only in the real world but also in the virtual world.
The world was stunned following the tragic loss of Lance Reddick. The actor, best known for his role on the iconic HBO Series The Wire and other standout performances on other shows, was also HUGE in the video game space.
Reddick recently took on the character of Albert Wesker in Netflix’s now-canceled Resident Evil series, a role the showrunner said he was perfect for. Reddick himself wished he could continue playing.
The actor’s likeness brings to life Sylens, the mysterious antagonist in Horizon Zero Dawn and its fantastic sequel, Horizon Forbidden West.
But Reddick has become legendary with players of Bungie’s looter/shooter franchise, Destiny. The actor’s iconic voice is behind the Titan Vanguard of the Tower, Captain Zavala, who issues out missions to guardians.
He was also an avid player of the game as well.
To pay tribute to Reddick, Destiny 2 players have been showing love to Captain Zavala by kneeling in front of him and making other gestures to show love to the 60-year-old actor who died from what is described as “natural causes” by his family.
So dope.
It will be interesting to see how Destiny and the Horizon franchises handle Reddick’s passing because he was integral to the progression of both games’ main stories.
Until then, you can see more touching in-game tributes from Destiny 2 players and more in the gallery below.
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Photo: Rachel Murray / Getty
2. So cool
3. Lance Reddick will live forever
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Source: Variety / Getty / Lance Reddick
The Wire star Lance Reddick has tragically passed away at 60.
TMZ broke the tragic news of the actor’s passing on Friday, March 17. The Baltimore native was best known for his roles on the iconic HBO series The Wire and the John Wick movie franchise. The news of his death shocked many as he was currently doing press for John Wick: Chapter 4. In the film, he plays Charon, Winston’s (Ian McShane) loyal New York Continental Hotel concierge.
Law enforcement sources told the celebrity gossip site, “Lance’s body was discovered at his Studio City home Friday morning around 9:30 AM. His cause of death is currently unclear, but our law enforcement sources say it appears to be natural.”
Reddick posted a photo of himself at home with his dogs just a day ago. There is no word on why exactly he was not at the John Wick: Chapter 4 premiere in New York City on Wednesday.
Lance Reddick’s Legendary Career Across Different Mediums
Fans will forever remember Reddick for his brilliant performance as Baltimore Police Department officer Cedric Daniels on The Wire, he also was on other popular shows like Oz, Bosch, Lost, and Fringe.
Reddick was also popular in the video gaming space and is a gamer. Gamers know him as Sylens in PlayStation’s hit games Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel. In Destiny and Destiny 2, which Reddick plays frequently, he is the voice of Captain Zavala in the video game franchise.
With his passing, it will be interesting to see how those games will move forward without him.
He also hopped into the world of Resident Evil, playing popular villain Albert Wesker in the Netflix original series based on Capcom’s survival horror video game franchise.
Twitter is reacting to the actor’s sudden passing. You can see the reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Variety / Getty
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2. That would be something
12. HOWLING