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In an announcement at the end of February 2016, Netflix stressed that it would begin to deny users who are using VPN access to the content of their service such a practice. More precisely, users in different regions and countries, especially in Europe, don’t have access to the same content as users in the United States or neighboring regions/countries. That’s why this part of Netflix’s audience uses VPN access to the service whose settings allow them to log in as users from another country and unlock content that isn’t initially available in their area. Doing so, they violate Netflix’s Terms of Use and because of that, but also because of copyright reasons, Netflix terminates those users to access restricted content. Prior to this announcement, Netflix, its partners, and users had a “tacit agreement” regarding the use of VPN capabilities because not all content is available worldwide. Until recently, the same case was regarding this service in general. Unfortunately for users, this “tacit agreement” has changed, which has been followed by online petitions, negative comments, and resentment from subscribers around the world. Users Raised a Lot of Noise Against Blocking of VPNs Users who have been blocked from accessing Netflix via VPN have raised a lot of noise on social media, especially on Twitter and Facebook, threatening that they will cancel their subscriptions if their access to content continues to be blocked. As they explained, they are annoyed by Netflix’s policy of not showing them what content they want to watch, with some saying that as much as 90 percent of everything they watch belongs to inaccessible content that’s locally blocked. Let’s clarify – these are users that are legally logged in, who each month give Netflix between $ 8.99 and $ 15.99 to subscribe, but “cheat” the system a little using a VPN to unlock content they can’t see in their region/country. The account of these users isn’t terminated, they are only forbidden from their previous VPN access. First countries whose users felt this new Netflix’s policy on their skin were Australia, followed by Germany, and so on. Those who try to trick Netflix’s geo-blocking using VPN will see the following error message clearly saying they won’tbe able to watch anything until they turn off their VPN: “Whoops, something went wrong… Streaming error. You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy. Please turn off any of these services and try again.” What Made Netflix Sharpen Its Streaming Policy? Never has this US company and its partners been happy with VPN solutions, regardless of the fact that users were paying for the service. However, partners still have to pay a certain amount of money to be available in some countries and have benefited from it, just like Netflix, which means that they lose some of their revenue if someone from Germany “pretends” to be in the United States and thus, consumes content inaccessible in Germany. Understandably, all three sides to this storyhave valid arguments. Specifically, Netflix can’t display content in a country that’s not licensed to do so, meaning that the content owners don’t receive some of the money they would receive in the case of licenses. Also, users are angry because they pay the same amount of money as American subscribers but don’t have the ability to view content that exists in the United States. Of course, they think something like that is unfair. We can explain this issue from a different angle. The cause of the problem is that Netflix has a different range in every country. Before it allows you to stream content, the licensed rights for it must be purchased. However, these must be purchased individually for each country. For example, Netflix has the American licensed rights for some movies and series but, let’s say, France doesn’t have the rights. American users can see the content, French users can’t. Geo-blocking is intended to prevent viewers from playing movies and series that they shouldn’t be able to play. If you log in to Netflix, your IP address will be used to identify which country you’re in. Then, accordingly, you’ll be shown the range for this country. So it’s often not possible to see a certain range from a certain country in another country without an aid, such as a VPN. What VPN does is helping you connect to different servers – including ones from the USA. This server is then virtually switched between you and Netflix who will only see that you’ve connected to the Internet via an American server. As a result, it assumes that you’re in the United States and that you can access the American range. So, a VPN is a good and legal way to see the US content. Is Netflix Acting Against Itself? Let’s get back to talking about unsatisfied users. In addition to all written above, criticism has also risen about the lack of subtitles in native languages for those who have a Netflix service in their home country. So, they are misled about that even though they pay for the service just like the Americans. All in all, it’s a very complicated and unwanted episode for Netflix because two months before they started blockingVPNs, they became available in 190 countries and began bragging about managing to handle the issue of piracy. And then this, what we’re talking about in the article, happened… Indeed, Netflix offers a lot of older movies, which those more versed in movies and series have watched through “alternative ways” a long time ago, especially in countries where piracy isn’t punishable or laws regarding this matter are loose, and after a month of the trial period, they simply gave up on renewing their subscriptions. Not only that, but subtitles into the languages of these countries (mainly third world countries) are practically inaccessible and the older population isn’t interested in the service because these countries have a lower percentage of English speakers. It may take some time for Netflix to re-organize, but until that happens, it will lose more than it will get with the decision to block the VPN possibility.

Piracy continues to be a major challenge for media and broadcast organisations, with the shift to IP presenting new opportunities for pirates. How can the industry safeguard content distribution in an OTT world? Streaming piracy: Webinar discusses the problems still facing online content With more media companies shifting to OTT and IP-led services, the piracy landscape is changing. Valuable content rights drive direct-to-consumer platforms making it more essential than ever to protect content from illegal use and avoid revenue loss. That means content owners are in a constant battle, to protect their content on its journey into the homes of legitimate customers without degrading the levels of service. In the latest IBC365 webinar, experts on battling piracy discuss how to safeguard content as more of it moves towards OTT. This is a particular issue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. According to figures from Sandvine, 23% of internet users across MENA and Turkey have subscribed to a pirate IPTV service. This compares with 5.8% in Europe and 6.9% in the US. BeIN Media Group legal director for anti-piracy Cameron Andrews outlined streaming piracy as any restreaming of content over the internet illegally. This may be legitimately obtained – for example through a legitimate subscription – but then shared across other platforms illegitimately. Or it could be as simple as recording a legitimate stream using a smartphone and sharing through social media. “We think of piracy as an ecosystem because there a lot of different players involved,” explains Andrews, who points to hardware manufacturers, app developers, the pirates themselves and wholesalers and resellers who can all be involved in piracy. He identifies four options to tackle piracy but says all have significant flaws as well. These are: Sending takedown notices to third parties in that ecosystem who are facilitating piracy; Use fingerprinting/ watermarking to discover and kill subscriptions used by pirates for re-streams; Investigate and take legal action against pirates; Work with ISPs to block customers from accessing pirated services. “You will always have piracy to some extent,” he adds. “But it is about containing it. It’s about making the pirated product less attractive to the consumer than the legitimate product. “Through pursuing each of these elements, plus cooperation effort in the background and better laws, we can go a long way to containing piracy. But we shouldn’t underestimate just how difficult it is to lock up content so it can’t be pirated. Read more: Piracy: How broadcasters are confronting the threat Joining Andrews on the webinar is Sheila Cassells, EVP at the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA). AAPA brings together more than 30 different players across the entire content change to try and tackle piracy. Illegal streaming has seen a significant drop in the cost of entry for pirates, according to Cassells, meaning you only need access to a legitimate stream and the right tools in order to become a pirate. “It’s almost becoming out of control,” she explains. “It’s not a case of winning the battle – I don’t think we’ll ever win it outright. It is a case of containing it, mitigating it, and working together to minimise the damage being caused. “It’s also important to work alongside law enforcement to ensure they have the correct knowledge to fight it when they want to go down that route and work with the other players who facilitate piracy, knowingly or unknowingly, to reduce it.” Asked if consumers are knowingly paying for pirated services, Cassells says that a lot of pirated offerings have a significant number of channels compared with legitimate services making it obvious that it is “a bit dodgy”. “There is a large element of consumers who are buying pirated services knowingly and for many, the fear of penalty for doing so isn’t great,” she adds. “Some countries will take legal action against the end user but in many the impact on the end user is just that the pirated service is stopped or they lose some subscriptions, but then are free to find another pirated service.” She challenged the private sector to work together to tackle piracy and “take coordinated action where required”. Read more: Online piracy: OTTs battling back Also on the webinar is Daniel Woolnough, director at Content Protection Experts, an organisation that aims to tackle piracy. “Technology is not the entire solution,” he explains. It is vital for content owners to develop a strategy going across the entire space. “Point solutions are not necessarily the answer to this as they have small impacts. “Developing a plan, making sure that plan is realistic, and the goals are measurable is critical because generally, an anti-piracy campaign will cost money so quantifiable results are key.” Senior level buy-in is also important. Having senior backing for an anti-piracy plan helps to overcome resource issues that are commonplace. Giving their biggest tips for tackling piracy, Cassells says companies need to give resource and priority to anti-piracy and work closely with technology partners and other partners to dampen piracy as much as possible. Woolnough agrees that cooperation is vital. He says that challenging suppliers and technology partners over the capabilities of an anti-piracy solution is important too. For Andrews, it is a cross-business issue. “It impacts all different parts of the business, from the valuation, through to how you build your platform, and how you structure your offering.”

The president of the Spanish league wants the Premier League to consider the "damage" that Saudi Arabia's pirating of broadcasts has caused the sport before it decides whether to approve a takeover of Newcastle by the country's sovereign wealth fund. The Saudis are trying to buy an English topflight club while "stealing football" through the beoutQ service that is undermining the sport's finances, La Liga President Javier Tebas told The Associated Press. The Premier League has been part of a joint push by global soccer competitions, including La Liga, in trying to shut down beoutQ's pirated broadcasts of games. They both lodged protests with the American government which led last month to Saudi Arabia remaining on a "Priority Watch List" as one of the "notorious markets for counterfeiting and piracy." Human rights activists have also put pressure on the Premier League to consider stopping the Saudi sovereign wealth fund becoming the majority owner of Newcastle. The Premier League has not commented on the progress of the process for approving the takeover even as objections to the deal have grown. "European football rights – including Newcastle rights – have been stolen systematically by BeoutQ for three years," Tebas said in a statement to the AP. "Now the Saudis want a seat at the top table — forgetting the damage they have done through BeoutQ. If football leagues and clubs do not protect their intellectual property, they have nothing. LaLiga couldn't be clearer about this — stealing the football broadcast is stealing football." The bootlegging of sports broadcasts is a proxy in a wider Gulf diplomatic and economic boycott of Qatar, which owns Premier League and La Liga rights through the beIN Sports network that is banned from operating in Saudi Arabia. La Liga and the Premier League wrote separately to the Office of the United States Trade Representative in February to highlight the lack of legal action taken by Saudi Arabia over beoutQ despite complaints. The Premier League's current television contracts are worth 9.2 billion pounds ($11.4 billion) over three seasons. "The scale and nature of online piracy, such as that committed in Saudi Arabia ... continues to place this revenue at significant risk," the Premier League wrote to the U.S. government body. The Saudi Public Investment Fund is pursuing an 80% stake in Newcastle in a 300 million pound ($370 million) takeover alongside the wealthy British-based Reuben brothers and financier Amanda Staveley, buying out retail entrepreneur Mike Ashley. A letter was sent to Premier League clubs last month by beIN Media Group CEO Yousef Al-Obaidly warning of the "danger of allowing the acquisition" given Saudi Arabia's "illegal actions and their direct impact upon the commercial interests of the Premier League." Amnesty International has also asked the league to consider blocking the bid because the fund is overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying he has been involved in a "sweeping crackdown on human rights." Agnes Callamard, a U.N. special rapporteur who authored an inquiry into the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, said there was "sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown prince demanding further investigation" and required sanctions. Tebas has also previously denounced Saudi Arabia over human rights by highlighting its role in the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. "The Saudi Arabian government has a policy whereby they improve the image of the government through sport — whitewashing their image," Tebas said during a visit to London in January. "We should not forget what happened in the Turkish embassy. "We should not forget these things. This happened in an embassy, not a pub and this is very serious, at least in my opinion. Money is not the only thing that matters."

Saudi Arabia has been placed on a "Priority Watch List" for the second year running, in a report published by the United States, mostly due to extensive piracy carried out through its beoutQ channel system in the kingdom. The report, published on Thursday by the US Trade Representative (USTR), identifies Saudi Arabia as one of only 10 countries that fail to protect and enforce intellectual property (IP) around the world. Other countries include China, India and Indonesia. More: Asian Football Confederation steps up fight against beoutQ piracy Video reveals location of beoutQ piracy channel HQ in Riyadh Qatar's beIN seeks $1bn compensation for 'Saudi TV sport piracy' The USTR has also ordered an "Out-of-Cycle Review" into Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The review is a USTR tool which allows the government to increase its efforts to try and solve the identified IP issues. "The United States continues to remain concerned about reportedly high levels of online piracy in Saudi Arabia, particularly through illicit streaming devices [ISDs], which right holders report are widely available and generally unregulated in Saudi Arabia," the report said. "The United States encourages Saudi Arabia to increase IP enforcement actions and IP awareness campaigns particularly targeted at reducing online piracy and to combat the perception spurred by beoutQ's activity that pirating copyrighted material is permissible." Qatar-based sport network beIN Media Group, which holds exclusive rights to broadcast international tournaments to the MENA region, has long claimed beoutQ is stealing its signal and broadcasting it as its own. Last year, FIFA, football's world governing body, said it will take legal action against beoutQ for illegally broadcasting World Cup matches in the Middle East. The US government report follows only a few months after the European Commission also published a significant report in which it singled out Saudi Arabia for "causing considerable harm to EU businesses" following the unprecedented theft of European sport programmes by Saudi-based beoutQ and Arabsat1.

Music piracy seems largely to have dropped in the wake of growing streaming service presences from Spotify, Apple Music and others but amid the coronavirus pandemic, numbers are falling even more while showing an interesting trend towards the past. According to a report from Rolling Stone, global media piracy analytics company Muso revealed their data and after requesting music-based information the publication is noticing people who are stealing music are returning to peer-to-peer torrent sites. In the report, they’re noting that movie piracy has shot up by 41 percent in the US by the final week of March compared to the previous month. Rolling Stone requested the equivalent data from Muso for the music side of things and the numbers aren’t nearly the same but do show interesting trends. They note that cloud-based streaming piracy has been the fastest growing form in the music industry over the past several years. In 2017, illegal streaming sites made up over 41 percent of all music piracy visits. Now, during the pandemic music piracy has actually dropped. In the final week of March, piracy numbers lowered worldwide compared to February. Numbers were down 11.84 percent in Europe, 19.72 percent in Japan, and down 5.84 percent in the UK and 1.01 percent in the US. Streaming stats dropped even for legitimate uses in the beginning stages of lockdowns too though. Last week, Spotify noted to investors that “in hard-hit markets like Italy and Spain, we saw a notable decline in Daily Active Users and consumption,” and further said “over the last few weeks, we’ve seen listening start to rebound, and in many markets, consumption has meaningfully recovered.” Muso’s data reflects the same changes with piracy in Spain falling 4.89 percent in March. Most interestingly though, music-related visits to torrenting platforms like the Pirate Bay are shooting up. US torrenting site visits increased by 15.62 percent with 1.308 million visits for the last week of February compared to 1.513 million in March. Worldwide this is happening too. India saw a 23.43 percent increase and the UK went up 18.53 percent. Canada increased by 17.54 percent and across the EU, 7.61 percent. Spain saw the largest increase at 26.40 percent. Muso CEO Andy Chatterley says he believes ownership of music might be related to the numbers. “One stat that anecdotally jumps out is that Germany bucks the global trend, with visits to torrenting sites for music down 6.09% in the last week of March,” says Chatterley. “It’s interesting for context to think that Germany was quite late to switch away from physical music and to embrace streaming,” adds Chatterley. “It also makes you wonder if people are craving ownership more than usual right now, and whether that’s been caused or amplified by COVID-19, which may be having an effect on people’s financial status. The lockdown could also potentially be affecting subscription fatigue.”

With a large part of the planet on lockdown in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19, streaming video consumption has seen explosive growth. Streaming platform Mux this week issued a study stating that during one three-week period measured by the company, streaming video usage overall jumped 239%. UK piracy tracking firm Muso TNT says they've also seen "unprecedented" traffic to movie streaming websites around the world in the last few months. The firm found that in many countries, the kind of piracy traffic traditionally reserved for weekends is now the norm during most weeks: "Data provided to Motherboard by London-based Muso TNT show that between February 20 and March 20, visits to pirated movie websites by users in both the U.S. and UK jumped 31 percent. The data shows similar growth in Spain (35 percent), Portugal (37 percent), India (33 percent), and Germany (30 percent), with Italy the highest overall at 50 percent." In just one month in the U.S. alone, the firm tracked 137 million page views to more than 19,000 websites offering streaming and BitTorrent access to pirated films, and more than 601 million page views of sites offering access to pirated TV content. The company says its data originates from an “industry-leading website traffic data provider.” None of this should be particularly surprising given that pirates are some of the heaviest consumers and buyers of movies, films, and television content. But it's worth noting that piracy, and BitTorrent use in general, had already been seeing a bounce even before the pandemic started. Why? While streaming is certainly cheaper with better customer service than traditional cable TV options, the rise of a universe of exclusivity silos has started to confuse and annoy some customers. With every broadcaster and their uncle now flooding the sector, hunting and pecking between a laundry list of exclusives and ever-shifting licensing agreements has become frustrating (aka "subscription fatigue"), driving some of these users back to the simplicity of piracy. "Piracy is a level playing field,” Muso wrote in one recent white paper. “No walled data-garden, no exclusivity, no windowing and no theatrical release. It’s all there: consumption with no barriers." Sure, this "subscription fatigue" is a minority of subscribers and not the end of the world, given streaming revenues are exploding. But pandemic or no, there's still some familiar lessons here about viewing piracy as a competitor or as a useful gauge of customer dissatisfaction. And based on the kind of price hikes we're still seeing at major cable TV providers, these remain challenging ideas for many traditional cable and broadcast execs to wrap their heads around. Muso found that while visits to illegal movie streaming websites have surged, visits to pirated TV stream outfits hasn't seen the same level of growth, in large part due to the suspension of most sports leagues. With sports, one of the few things that keeps people subscribing to traditional pay TV, several studies on cord cutters have shown that the cord cutting trend is likely to accelerate -- with bloated TV bundles a likely early casualty as a growing number of folks experience financial hardwhip: "Considering the financial crisis element of the pandemic, something has to give for the consumer,” Chatterley said. “If they discover piracy now the question is do they go back to multiple subscriptions?" So while many things have certainly changed, the same core issues still apply. Companies still need to compete with the simplicity and affordability of piracy if they want to hinder its growth. That's particularly true of the traditional cable sector, which, for the better part of the last decade, has treated competing on price as a some kind of deadly contagion in its own right. Just because an entertainment industry executive doesn't think its fair that they have to compete with privacy has never mattered -- and still doesn't.

Online media piracy spiked in March, according to a report issued by digital piracy tracking and analysis firm, Muso. In the UK alone, Muso recorded over 300 million visits to sites allowing media content to be downloaded illegally last month, as people have been forced to stay home due to Covid-19 lockdown measures. Figures for visits to piracy sites during the last week in March show a 57% increase on the same period in February. With legitimate streaming services seeing an increase in subscribers (Netflix registered almost 16 million new subscribers in the first quarter of the year, and Disney+ almost doubled its global subscribers to 50 million since it launched in the UK and Europe just as lockdowns began), it is inevitable that some will seek their media from unofficial sources. Muso CEO, Andy Chatterley, confirmed that “Piracy or unlicensed consumption trends are closely linked to paid-for or licensed content. So just as Netflix has seen large subscriber gains, we have seen a significant spike in visits to film and TV piracy sites. Demand for content via piracy has grown exponentially.” Now that media companies and rights owners have a better idea of how their content is being consumed, what next? As discussed in a previous article in relation to digital music in particular, it is vital that the creative industries and content platforms ensure that piracy prevention measures are in place for all their content. Access to official digital media content platforms should be smooth and simple, so that the rights owners receive the full benefit of increased demand for content through legitimate channels. However, increasing segmentation in this market, which means consumers have to pay for multiple subscriptions to gain legitimate access to all their desired content, may also be a factor pushing consumers to seek access to media content illegally for free. As the market reaches saturation, it will be interesting to see what new models for accessing media content evolve.

As expected, with greater numbers of households spending time indoors due to the coronavirus, use of home entertainment options such as transactional VOD have spiked. In the quarter ended March 31, 14% of U.S. broadband households used a TVOD service over the past 30 days, a five-point increase from the previous year, according to new data from Parks Associates. This service type, which includes Amazon Prime Video, FandangoNow, Redbox, iTunes and Vudu, will increase as more content moves online, including early access to theatrical releases such as Universal Pictures Trolls: World Tour or The Invisible Man. Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter! “The idea of streaming current in-theater films was once a concept from a proposed streaming service called The Screening Room,” research director Steve Nason said in a statement. “This service never officially launched, but the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the concept behind it into reality.” Nason said the move toward PVOD and shortening of the 90-day theatrical window has been ongoing, but events such as shelter-in-place orders pushed the digital distribution of new theatrical content to the forefront to offset the lost revenue from closed movie theaters. Parks said the changing distribution tactic is most notable with perennial box office loyalist Disney, which is fast-tracking movies to its SVOD service Disney+. The studio released Frozen II three months before its original planned release and added Onward to the streaming service much quicker than previously anticipated. Follow us on Instagram Dallas-based Parks says Disney and other studios are continuing to weigh if they should release new theatrical titles straight to VOD platforms and services or push back these titles so they can premiere in theaters as originally intended, when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Nason contends that studios moving more prime content online earlier, increases the risk of piracy for top-dollar blockbusters. He said early windowed content has always been an issue for studios as thieves would sneak video cameras into theaters to bootleg low-quality copies. “Now, with releases going digital, pirated video will be higher quality, while consumers might feel emboldened to tap into pirated video since theaters are closed,” Nason said. “This will put more pressure on the antipiracy efforts among video content and service providers.”

A stable and low-latency internet connection is the key to a great online gaming experience, and the router you choose can have a significant impact on multiplayer gameplay. Thankfully, one of our picks for the best gaming router—the Netgear XR300 Nighthawk Pro—is now $50 below its original MSRP. The Netgear XR300 might seem a bit expensive for a router, even at its new discounted price, but it's jam-packed with features. It has three external antennas for improved connectivity, four Gigabit LAN ports, and support for broadcasting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks (so all your devices can connect at the best possible speeds). Like any gaming product, there are LED lights on the top, but they can be turned off. Other functionality includes a built-in VPN server (so you can connect to your home network from anywhere in the world), Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack prevention, a network monitor and gaming dashboard, and the ability to create network-attached storage with the USB port on the front. The key downside to this router is that it only supports the common Wi-Fi 5 standard (better known as 802.11ac), not the newer Wi-Fi 6 protocol that offers higher potential speeds. That's not really an issue right now, since few devices on the market right now can connect to a Wi-Fi 6 network, but it means this router isn't quite as futureproof as some other options (like the TP-Link AX1800).

Paris Games Week isn't the most well-known videogame event in North America, but it's a big one: It attracted 317,000 visitors over five days in 2019. That's not going to happen this year, however, as organizers announced today that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 event scheduled for October 23-27 has been cancelled. "It is with great emotion that we have made the difficult decision to cancel Paris Games Week, initially scheduled from 23rd to 27th October and which would have marked our 10th anniversary," the Syndicat des Editeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs wrote. "The current context and the necessary anticipation of both the technical and logistical complexities of an event such as Paris Games Week have led us to cancel this edition. This year should have been special, with a line-up full of new releases, and an anniversary edition which we were thrilled to celebrate with you." Unlike Gamescom, which immediately committed to a digital replacement event of some sort, PGW organizers made no mention of a possible online event, but instead said that they are now working on putting the 2021 show together. The coronavirus outbreak has forced the cancellation of just about every major game show in 2020, including E3, Gamescom, SXSW, and QuakeCon. A plan to hold an "online experience" to replace E3 was quickly abandoned, but a digital Gamescom event is still in the works and multiple publishers including Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Devolver Digital are planning digital shows of their own. We've got a full schedule of all the replacement online events that we know about so far right here.

Altered Forme Giratina is returning to Pokemon Go. To celebrate the launch of Remote Raid Passes, the Legendary Renegade Pokemon will once again appear as a five-star Raid boss from May 5-12, giving you another chance to add it to your collection. If you need some pointers, we've rounded up a few tips to help you battle and catch Altered Forme Giratina below. Giratina Raid Hours Giratina will appear in five-star Raids until 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET on May 12. These Raids can occur any time, but you'll receive an in-game notification when one is about to begin nearby, so you should be able to find the Legendary Pokemon without much trouble. Now Playing: Pokemon GO - GO Battle League Dev Insights If you're eager to catch Giratina, your best bet for finding a Raid will come on May 6, when Niantic brings back its Raid Hour event. On that day, Giratina Raids will happen much more frequently than usual from 6-7 PM local time, all but ensuring you find one. Altered Forme Giratina Altered Forme Giratina Giratina Weaknesses And Counters Giratina is unique among Legendary Pokemon because it's a dual Ghost/Dragon type. Ironically, each of these types is weak against itself, making Giratina vulnerable to other Ghost and Dragon Pokemon like Golurk, Chandelure, Rayquaza, Salamence, and Dragonite. Giratina's typing gives it a few other weaknesses as well, namely to Dark, Ice, and Fairy Pokemon. Darkrai will be especially helpful, as it's very powerful and resists Giratina's Ghost-type moves, but other Pokemon like Weavile, Tyranitar, Mamoswine, Gardevoir, and Granbull will also come in handy when battling the Legendary. Remote Raids Thanks to the aforementioned Remote Raid Passes, you no longer need to physically travel to a Gym to join a Giratina Raid; you can now do so from home. If you have a Remote Raid Pass, you can use it to participate in any Giratina Raid that appears on your Nearby screen. There are a few caveats, however; only a maximum of five remote players can join the same Raid, and Pokemon used by remote players have lower attack power than those used by players physically at the Gym. You can learn more about how to get and use Remote Raid Passes in our guide.

Excitement is ramping up for the next generation of Xbox. Microsoft's upcoming Xbox Series X console is scheduled to launch sometime later this year, after all. While that should come as no surprise, it's crazy to think that Xbox One actually launched in 2013. Time certainly has a way of flying, and with each year, there have been tons of games released. As such, it can be pretty tough to decide what to play. From exclusives to the top multi-platform games to indies, there's a lot to choose from. With that in mind, we've assembled the list of what we think are the best Xbox One games so far. We've excluded backward compatible games on Xbox One, which includes many original Xbox and Xbox 360 favorites, because then this list would be way too long. Xbox also has a subscription service called Game Pass which lets you download and play a selection of over 100 games that varies slightly from month to month. We've excluded the older games on that service as well. For more Xbox One games, see our roundup highlighting when all the biggest new Xbox One games release dates from 2020 and next. You can also check out the best Xbox Game Pass games that you can play right now, as well as the best online multiplayer game to pick up with your friends right now, as well as the best games with a long and satisfying single-player campaign to keep you busy. We also have similar lists of the best PS4 games and the best games on Nintendo Switch.

Remote Raid Passes have arrived in Pokemon Go. Like regular Raid Passes, these let you join Raid Battles except from the comfort of home, so you don't need to travel to a Gym to battle the Raid boss. If you're not exactly sure how the new items work, here's an explainer on how to get and use Remote Raid Passes. How To Get Remote Raid Passes For a limited time, you can get three Remote Raid Passes from Pokemon Go's in-game shop as part of a one-PokeCoin bundle. You can only claim this bundle once, however; if you want additional Remote Raid Passes, you'll need to purchase them separately. One Remote Raid Pass costs 100 PokeCoins, while a bundle of three costs a slightly discounted 250 PokeCoins. Now Playing: Pokemon GO - GO Battle League Dev Insights How To Join Raids Remotely Once you have a Remote Raid Pass in your inventory, you can use it to join any Raid that appears on the Nearby screen. Simply tap the Raid you wish to join and you'll see the option to battle via your Remote Raid Pass. Raid Battles largely work the same whether you join them physically or remotely, but there are a few caveats to keep in mind while using Remote Raid Passes. First, while up to 20 players can join the same raid, only a maximum of five can join it via a Remote Raid Pass. If you try to participate in a Raid that already has five remote players, you'll be added to a new lobby. Another thing to be aware of: Remote players' Pokemon will have lower attack power than those of players who are physically at the Gym, so they won't deal as much damage as they normally would. Niantic says this reduction "may be temporarily adjusted during specified time periods," but it will presumably be in effect most of the time. Shiny Legendaries To celebrate the launch of Remote Raid Passes, Niantic is bringing three Legendary Pokemon back to the game for a limited time: Darkrai, Altered Forme Giratina, and Virizion. Each will appear as a five-star Raid boss for a week, and you'll have a chance to catch their Shiny forms. You can see the Legendary Pokemon Raid schedule below:

Suit up, Spartans: More than a decade after its original release, Halo 2 will launch on PC again. Halo 2: Anniversary's release date is set for May 12, and it comes as part of the broader Master Chief Collection, which offers six Halo games in one package, including the first four numbered entries, Reach, and 3: ODST. The game are releasing as they are completed, with those who purchased the Master Chief Collection on PC receiving them as free additions when they're ready. It will also be free for Xbox Game Pass for PC owners, making it one of several games coming to the service this month. Halo: The Master Chief Collection first came to the Xbox One in 2014, prior to the release of Halo 5: Guardians, with all six games included from the start. Halo 2: Anniversary features a complete redesign of its audio and cutscenes to align with modern standards, similar to the Halo: Combat Evolved anniversary from 2011, which is also a part of the Master Chief Collection. Now Playing: Cyberpunk 2077 Event Announced, Halo 2 Anniversary PC Release Date | Save State For the PC release, developer 343 Industries decided to release the Halo games piecemeal, since each has to be updated for PC. Halo 2 is the third game to be added to the PC version of the Master Chief Collection, following in the wake of Reach and the original Combat Evolved. According to the official Xbox site, the remaining three entries in the PC collection will be added later in 2020, finishing with Halo 4. In other Halo news, while there's an upcoming Xbox event on May 7, Microsoft has indicated that it will focus on titles from its "global development partners," not first-party studios like Xbox Game Studios. Instead, Microsoft announced that its Xbox 20/20 event in July will focus on those titles, which includes the hotly-anticipated Halo Infinite. Slated to arrive this holiday season, Halo Infinite will be the first entry in the franchise in over five years since 2015's Halo 5: Guardians.

May is shaping up to be another busy month for Pokemon Go. In addition to the game's limited-time Throwback Challenges, developer Niantic has announced two more events that will take place this month, both of which will give you a chance to catch more Shiny Pokemon. First, Niantic will hold a Snubbull Limited Research event this Saturday, May 9, from 8 AM - 10 PM local time. Throughout the event, you'll be able to complete special Timed Research tasks that lead to encounters with the Fairy Pokemon Snubbull, and you'll also have a chance to catch its Shiny variant. Now Playing: Pokemon GO - GO Battle League Dev Insights The following week, Niantic will host Pokemon Go's second Incense Day. The event will take place on Sunday, May 17, from 11 AM - 5 PM local time. During that window, you'll have a better chance of attracting Water- and Dark-type Pokemon with Incense. Carvanha in particular will appear more often throughout the event, and you'll have a chance to encounter its Shiny version. You can read more about the events on the official Pokemon Go website. As previously mentioned, Niantic is also offering special Throwback Challenges this month. There will be a new Throwback Challenge line every week, each revolving around a specific region from the Pokemon world. Niantic is also bringing back a handful of Legendary Pokemon this month to celebrate the release of Remote Raid Passes. Altered Forme Giratina is currently available in Raids until May 12, at which point it will be replaced by Virizion. May's Field Research tasks are also live. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough this month, you'll earn an encounter with the Electric Pokemon Shinx.

Some new content is coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone this week on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Developer Infinity Ward announced that both games will see a playlist update, the return of a game mode, and more. [Update: Alongside this week's new playlists, the big news has been the removal of helicopters in Warzone's battle royale, as well as the release of a new update--check out the full Modern Warfare and Warzone patch notes for details on what that changed.] In a weekly blog post, Infinity Ward confirmed that Modern Warfare will get a brand-new mode in Demolition. The mode, which is similar to Search and Destroy and will be detailed later this week, sees you "attempt[ing] to outsmart and overpower the other team." In Demolition, your team is tasked with either planting or defusing bombs. But where Search and Destroy only gives you one life, Demolition grants you respawns. The result is a frenetic battle of supremacy between those who destroy and those who prevent. The mode has made an appearance a number of Call of Duty games, from Modern Warfare 2 to Black Ops and beyond. Now Playing: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare - Flaming Throwing Knife & Bruen Mk9 LMG Elsewhere in Modern Warfare, the game's multiplayer playlist has been updated. In addition to the Shipment 24/7 moshpit, Infinity Ward has added the "all-blueprint battle" mode, Gun Game Reloaded. It's the same Gun Game you remember but with the caveat of sifting through "a unique set of [weapon] blueprints." And, of course, you will be demoted a weapon should you die by a melee or special finish.