Sony, YouTubers, and Digital Media Part 1: Is Cable Truly Done For?

     YouTuber Joshua Ovenshire A.K.A The Jovenshire, from Smosh Games, made a video concerning the recent announcement Sony made at E3 this year. Starting soon, Sony announced that it would be expanding its service, PlayStation Vue to more cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco. PlayStation Vue is a service allowing its users to purchase single cable channels and stream on the PlayStation 4. In the video, he states that PlayStation Vue will be a big deal as, what he claims it will change media forever. Ovenshire is acknowledging the current trend with digital media. It is popular with the younger demographic as this generation is starting to prefer watch content online compared to watching shows on TV. There are less and less young people watching TV. But the question is will this move on Sony be or will it be the beginning of the end of cable?
     First of all, cable isn't going anywhere. It is true that people are preferring to watch shows online, companies like Time Warner and Comcast have their hands in things have they have in so deep that not even Superman can loosen their grip. Cable stations are, slowly but surely, adapting to digital formats and have been doing so in order to compete with the Netflix and the Hulus. Ironically, cable companies are working with these services like Hulu in order to get people who prefer watching things online to watch their channels. Also, the offer Sony is making to its customers isn't new. It is very similar to Sling TV. Sling TV, like what Sony is hoping to do, is an online TV service the offers channels for $20 a month, cutting out cable. Sling has barely made a dent competing with Comcast's second quarter earnings. Sony may have a harder time as not that many people are buying PS4s for TV.
     Ovenshire might be on to something. Eventually we might see cable go, but it's going anywhere soon. Vue service offers more channels than Sling, yet Sling is cheaper with its $20 compared to Vue's $50, but I highly doubt that PlaySation Vue will be the cable slayer, especially considering how Sling has fared and the number of people who buy PlayStation 4s to do things other than playing games. For something to make people who really jump from its gonna have to be a much better service provider.

Hating Pewdiepie

     Recently we have heard that famous YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, or who you may know as Pewdiepie, earned $7 million dollars last year. That is $3 million more than what he has earned the previous year. Pewdiepie is the most popular YouTuber uploading content daily with millions of people watching it and have over 37 million subscribers. Pewdiepie has earned this not only through ads, but through sponsorship with companies. Not everyone is happy about this. He has gotten a ton of backlash and outrage over the recent news of his earning. The outrage was loud enough for Pewdiepie to make a video addressing this. In the video Pewdiepie said the following:

“Money is a topic that I have purposefully tried to avoid for the five years that I’ve been making videos, because I just feel like it’s not important to anyone.”

"Whenever it comes out how much I made a certain year, people just get so shocked. A lot of people were also very, very angry. They thought it was unfair. They thought I just sit on my ass all day and I just yell at the screen."

"To see so many people upset about this whole thing is sad."

     It is understandable to see why people are upset about hearing this. You have some people who slave away at their 9 to 5 jobs and make nowhere near 7 million dollars, some don't even barely make enough. You slave away at your job and you hear this person not only makes videos of him playing Minecraft and making goofy noises while doing so, but people are willing to throw a boat load of cash at him. It's enough to send you up the wall in a fit of rage.
     I know it is easy to write these people off as haters, but should we? No. Again, you can easily understand why people are mad, but I don't think people understand what goes behind what he does. Yes Pewdiepie does make weird noises while playing video games, even he has said that was true, but surprisingly there is a lot that goes in to doing what he does. There's more to his videos other than him playing games and making funny noises. There is a ton of research and looking into the demographic of a particular game he has to look into instead of saying I'm just gonna play Game X. There is a lot of time going into knowing what people want to watch. Not only that, but to keep them entertained. Pewdiepie is suppose be a very entertaining personality on YouTube and that is what people like about him and is what keeps his views and his bank account in the millions.
     I'm not going to tell these people who are upset about this to just shut up and get over it as in some ways they can be outraged. However what I can do is ask people to try to understand why he is making as much as he can. I'm sure if they do, they probably wouldn't be as mad as they are.

What are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on people who are upset about how much Pewdiepie makes?

Terminator Genisys: Does It Suck?

     This week the new installment in the Terminator series, Terminator Genisys, has come out. To recap, Genysis is the fifth installment in the series. The first movie, directed by James Cameron, was a hit. The second one T-2: Judgement Day became a bigger hit. The series kinda fell short with the third film and Salvation which was suppose to be the reboot of the series. Now we have Genisys, but will it live up to the standards of the previous films or will it be just as bad as the other two? Will it suck?

Story

     Based on the trailers and what you probably have read about the movie the plot of Genisys is that the story takes place when John Connor has won the battle in the future, but Skynet sents a Terminator back in time. Kyle Reese is sent back in time to 1984 in order to save Sarah Connor. The only difference is that while Kyle is sent back in time, the whole timeline somehow gets fucked up. How fucked up? Probably as bad as the reaction when we found out Genisys will be the name of this movie. Anyway, the timeline is all screwy. Sarah Connor is no longer the innocent and helpless woman she was in the original Terminator movie, and doesn't have the bad 80s hair either. She is accompanied with a Terminator buddy, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger a la her son in T-2. So now it's up t her and Kyle to set everything right and end Skynet. Oh and John Connor is the terminator out to kill them.
     The plot seems to be a love letter to the Terminator franchise, well the ones everyone loves. Since the whole timeline is messed up, you get to see certain events in the past Terminator films happen differently like Arnold fighting himself and among other things. It does make you want to go back and watch the old films and see how intuitive the director Alan Taylor and its writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier were writing and making these scenes.
     The story is almost reminiscent of the first Terminator movie as Genisys takes a look into our society and looks into how much we depend on technology to do practically everything. In the 80s it was Apple, Betamax, and video games. Today is smartphones, iCloud, and Oculus. Talking about this might be in a future post?
     I know that Taylor had major concerns about the trailer spoiling the movie, especially with the reveal that John Connor is the antagonist in the film. I wouldn't say it was a major spoiler. You did need to know who the antagonist would be in the film that Sarah and Reese would have to fight against in order to stop the threat of Skynet.

Action

     Let's get down to the nitty gritty. This is what we all look for in Terminator films. In almost Terminator films we always look forward to things getting wrecked and exploding. It is an action film after all. In Genisys we do get to see some cool and elaborate action scenes. Buses flipping over, helicopter dogfights, and you do get plenty of car chase scenes that are a staple of every movie. Seriously, intense car chase scenes are in every Terminator film. The action scenes are cool but they aren't as as cool as some of the previous Terminator movies. Even Rise of the Machines had to good ones where you asked how did they pull that off.

Performance

     Genisys featured a lot of newcomers, with only Arnold being the only big name (sorry Jai Courtney, not yet). I never seen Jai Courtney, who played Kyle Reese,  in other films but he did an ok job. Emilia Clark, of Game of Thrones fame, did a good job of playing Sarah Connor. I was surprised at how she did the role with knowing her playing Daenerys Targaryen. We got to see a different side of Sarah Connor that we usually see of her in other adaptations. We see her channel a bit of Linda Hamilton and a bit of what John Connor is usually like in the Terminator films, being tough yet asking why was she chosen to be the savior of humanity. If you haven't noticed, Arnold plays a different terminator in every movie. In this one you see him play a more quirky model often being used as comic relief in most scenes. It was almost like he was playing a T-800 version of Cameron from the Sarah Connor Chronicles series. There was another big name in the movie. Matt Smith, whom you may know from Dr. Who, was kept under wraps and there was a reason for this as his role was Skynet. This is almost a first in the franchise as we finally get Skynet personified. Helena Bonham Carter in Salvation doesn't count because that version's appearance was based off of people the protagonist has encountered in the movie.  I wasn't really impressed with his role. He played Skynet like a cold expressionist manner that almost like a parody of a Bond villian instead of being a cold impressionist AI bent on the destruction of humanity. Helena Bonham-Carter did a better job.

Effects

     The special effects in the movie were good. A lot of the action scenes required special effects, but it wasn't a let down or a hindrance to the action. It wasn't over the top. Kudos on them finally perfecting young Arnold. Take lessons Salvation.

Final Verdict

     So here's the part you've all waited for. Does Terminator: Genisys suck? Not so much. The movie has all of the generic stuff you get in a Terminator movie which is not a bad thing. Honestly, I was impressed about how the movie turned out. I was one of many that thought it would be absolutely horrible and it turned out not to be so. It's not in the range of the original and T-2, but it's a lot better than Salvation and Rise of the Machines. I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Hey, if you seen the movie like I did we will all know why the hell the movie is named Genisys...

Did you see it? What are your thoughts?