Light Start – E3 Live, 5000-year-old beer, Netflix and Disney, and Uncharted 4 sales
Brett Venter
The Electronic Entertainment Expo has just announced E3 Live, which invites gamers to (part of) E3
If you’ve never been to E3, it’s mostly walking. And running. And being lost. And not having enough food to eat. And seeing your gaming heroes walking around like they’re normal people. But few get the chance to experience any of that, unless they’re part of the gaming industry or the media. But now the Electronic Entertainment Expo has something for the average gamer – a free side-event that takes place at the same time as E3. Called E3 Live, the event will be made up of a decent roster of E3 exhibitors (including Ubisoft, Oculus, HTC Vive, and Alienware) who will give attendees the chance to interact with all the new things to come for 2016 hands-on, instead of having to watch it on a stream or read about it on a website. There’s only one catch though: Though E3 Live, which runs from 14 to 16 June, is free to attend, tickets are going to be limited. If you’re in the area, you might want to try your luck.
Just what we needed to make archaeology more exciting – 5000-year-old beer recipes
It’s always good to see academics with their priorities right. At an archaeological dig called the Mijiaya site, located in the Shaanxi Province of China, there are two 5,000-year-old beer-making kits. The kits, which were permanent installations based on how they were found, still had residue from the beer-making process. Chemical analysis has given us a look at what the recipe looked like, with broomcorn millet, barley, Triticeae (wheat), Chinese pearl barley, snake gourd root, lily, and yam making up the refreshment. The old site showed evidence of temperature regulation and the researchers have said that “…the Yangshao people developed a complicated fermentation method by malting and mashing different starchy plants.” And now, you can attempt to replicate their brews if the fancy takes you. You ultimate hipster, you. Let us know what it tastes like.
Netflix US and Disney (and friends) are going to be exclusive partners from September 2016
So you’re a Star Wars or a Marvel fan, are you? And you still use a workaround to get your Netflix from the States? Then you’re going to be pleased to know that Netflix and Disney (as well as Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar) are going to be streaming together from September 2016. The exclusivity deal has been in the works for a long time and will be kicking off in the US later this year. Will this deal, which is costing Netflix a great big fat chunk of change, move to other geographical locations? Netflix hasn’t said anything yet but we’re kinda hoping so.
If it were a race between Tomb Raider and Uncharted (and it kinda-sorta is) then Uncharted has just won. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has broken records for Sony’s PlayStation 4 by becoming their fastest-selling first-party title. So far. Uncharted 4 pulled in global sales, with retail and digital sales combined, of 2.7 million units in the first week. Rise of the Tomb Raider, by comparison, took a whole lot longer to pass the 1-million-units-sold milestone, and there’s no sign that it’s done as well as Uncharted 4 yet, but that’s not really a reflection of the game itself. RotTR was limited by its Xbox One and then a later PC release at a time when Microsoft’s console install base wasn’t up to snuff. Once Rise releases on the PS4 later this year, then we’ll see how Square Enix’s creation really measures up to Uncharted 4.
