Now that it's broken away from Activision, Bungie is in charge of its own Destiny...and it should be a bright future.

Few studios with stellar AAA power remain independent as long as Bungie has, but the devs have managed to stay in charge of their own future by consistently navigating the industry will skill, luck, and a proven track record. Having split from Activision and gained full control over the Destiny IP, Bungie is looking to a future where it self-publishes its own games--including the next Destiny game. But there's other things in the works, too: Bungie received a $100 million investment from Nexon to fund a "bold new vision," and is reportedly working on a brand new IP (possibly related to its Matter trademark).

Despite all these plans and moving parts, Bungie remains strongly committed to the Destiny brand. The series isn't going anywhere any time soon now that Bungie is in total control of it. Series director Luke Smith says as much in a recent weekly update: "Long-term, Bungie is committed to Destiny. We created the universe and we hold its future entirely in our hands. The vast majority of the team is hard at work envisioning future experiences, enemies, and ways to play the Guardian you've been building since 2014. We're going to keep doing that."

Today WB Games released a ton of new Mortal Kombat XI info, including a spine-tearing gameplay trailer and confirming the sequel's continuing story arc.

Mortal Kombat XI's story is all about time, specifically how its related to the fabric of reality. The fighting series' penchant for big, overarcing sagas will continue with the latest entry and picks up directly where Mortal Kombat X left off. Raiden's actions literally broke time itself, and a mysterious new god-like being has stepped in to restore it. This time around we'll actually be traveling back to the past to fight "shadow" versions of ourselves and eventually take on the game's first-ever female boss, Kronika.

"Raiden has upset the balance of history with the death of Shinnok. Tired of Earthrealm's defiance, Kronika, The Keeper of Time will bring order to the universe through any means necessary."

"MK11 picks up right where MKX left off. Raiden had become a dark god. Turns out he's disrupted the balance of good and evil in the universe that was desired by Kronika, a new character in the Mortal Kombat universe who is the keeper of time, the architect of the destiny of the universe," said story director Dominic Cianciolo.

Netherealm shows off new Mortal Kombat XI gameplay footage and it's fluid, slick, and quite brutally sick (just how we like our MK).

As we expected, the official gameplay is pretty damn wicked: there's broken bones, close-ups of tearing faces off, and poor Scorpion even gets exsanguinated and then pincushioned with spears made of his own blood. Apart from amazing visual fidelity, high-end animations, and the grace of Netherealm's updated games engine, not a lot is actually shown off in the footage outside of combos, gore, and overall mayhem. But that's the name of the game after all.

Mortal Kombat XI is full of new tricks, too. The devs at Netherealm added a feature called "crushing blow," which is essentially mini-fatality-like cutscenes interspersed in the fight. The gameplay trailer is full of these little bloody massacres. The game will also feature tons of new gameplay-altering content like augments, which can be applied to gear on a character-by-character basis to actually change the outcome of battles. This customization offers "almost infinite variations," said Ed Boon. These items will be awarded in Towers of Time trials, a mode that's specifically designed to keep gamers playing for as long as possible and folds into WB Interactive's penchant for engagement.

Each of Anthem's four mech classes--Ranger, Colossus, Interceptor and Storm--all have their own unique support abilities that can be augmented with loot. It just so happens that the Ranger class, which is the starter javelin with an emphasis on precision, has a nifty bubble shield option straight out of Destiny.

I'm a Defender Titan through and through. I absolutely love my Destiny 1 build and there's nothing that could sway me to other classes or builds. I really enjoy being this walking tank protector that not only shields my allies, but builds them up with helpful buffs. Although Anthem isn't a lot like Destiny, it's taking some nifty queues from Bungie's shared-worlds shooter, namely with specific abilities.

The Ranger javelin's support ability is a shield-based AoE and can do various things like protecting allies from projectiles during crazy heated moment and buff them with speed, damage, or armor bonuses. But every shield isn't the same. The support ability's efficacy and type depends on the gear you have equipped. So the Bulwark Point, which creates the Destiny-Titan-like bubble shield that allies can shoot through, is tied to gear and won't be available unless you have that specific item equipped.

The Nintendo Switch enjoyed a massively successful year of hardware sales, especially in Japan where it's the favored system and conquers the likes of PS4, 3DS, and Xbox One.

The Nintendo Switch handheld-console hybrid has outsold its nearest competitor, the PlayStation 4, by over 2:1 in both system's home country of Japan. According to the latest sales metrics from Famitsu, the Switch sold 3.48 million units throughout 2018 compared to the PlayStation 4's 1.69 million.

These metrics come at an interesting time when global Switch sales crested 22 million as of September, and an incredible run in the US as the fastest-selling console of all time.

Internet privacy has become a big concern for people all around the world. Big companies, ISPs, hackers, the government track users' activity on the Net. Each of them pursues his own goal. However, one cannot but agree that revealing sensitive data on the Internet doesn't seem right. Especially for American and Canadian nations, that have strong feelings towards privacy rights and freedom of speech. In this regard, a VPN for Canada has come to the rescue for the most prudent Internet users. VPN technology has become the number one privacy tool for the US residents as well.

It's not a surprise why VPN technology has established itself as one of the most reliable ways to protect sensitive data on the Internet. The most advanced providers use 256-bit encryption and robust protocols to shield customers' data. A VPN creates a hidden tunnel between two servers, making information that is transferred between them, invisible. But how to know if a VPN service trustworthy or not?

Being a protective measure a VPN provider should guard a user against uncontrolled interference. It means a service should provide customers with cutting-edge protocols such as OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2 and military-grade encryption.

Speaking about anonymity, a user should make sure that a VPN service saves no logs. Today, numerous VPN providers for the USA claim that they adhere to a strict no logs policy. Unfortunately, it's not always true. In this regard, it's immensely important to read a privacy policy of a VPN carefully as beneath the surface, some contradictions may emerge.

IGN has released yet another gameplay video of BioWare's upcoming online multiplayer action role-playing game Anthem. This time we get a touch of story, some awesome combat, puzzles and even a boss fight.

At the start of the video we gather that we will be going on a side quest, throughout the side quest viewers will be able to experience a small amount of narrative driven story while also seeing some combat of the Colossus and Interceptor Javelin. The side quest takes us on a retrieval mission for a manuscript, we see the characters pass through enemies and also be required to work out some mildly difficult puzzles.

It should also be mentioned that throughout this side quest we get a great change of landscape and a beautiful showcase of cave flora and fauna within the world of Anthem. Eventually arriving at the destination, we get a great display of combat with all of the javelins working in unison to defeat a Titan. The battle rages for quite some time and all of the players were brought down to very low health, its always good to see some high difficulty boss fights in an MMO. Anthem will be coming to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on February 22nd.

FoxNext Games, the developers of Alien: Blackout have said that if they were to bring Blackout to consoles the Nintendo Switch would be their console of choice.

Jordan Boyd from DualShockers got to sit down with FoxNext and go hands-on with Alien: Blackout. Throughout his experience, Boyd asked FoxNext Games' Vice President TQ Jefferson a question regarding Black arriving on consoles. In response to this question Jefferson said; "I think Switch is a good one to bring up and we've certainly seen many games go from mobile to console or more likely console to mobile. If I had to pick a platform to put it (Alien: Blackout) on, I'd pick Switch."

Since the announcement of Alien: Blackout, many fans of the Alien franchise are quite upset with the decision to aim the game towards mobile, tablets and consoles. Many fans were hoping for an extension of the Alien: Isolatioin games, but as Boyd has reported the judgment for Alien: Blackout going to consoles etc may not be fair, as the game hasn't even been released yet. Perhaps patience and a healthy amount of skepticism is key here, and since everyones expectations for Blackout are low, maybe some fans will be surprised at what FoxNext Games have created. Alien: Blackout releases on iOS and Android on January 24th.

Nintendo has announced their new Spirit Board event for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this time round we have the Fire Emblem characters making a return for part 2 of their Fire Emblem Fest.

If you remember back to the end of December, the first Fire Emblem Fest was held and featured Legend-class spirits such as Caeda, Azura, Eliwood, Eirika and more. This time round on the Fire Emblem characters second adventure, Caeda and Azura will return for round two but this time with a bunch of Ace-class level spirits.

Players that are unsure about what these spirit events are should note that each week Nintendo release a new Spirit Board event. Each event is usually based around a certain franchise of characters, e.g Fire Emblem for this week. Last week's event was different though and rewarded players double spirit experience and spirit points. If you are collecting spirits in Smash Bros. Ultimate I would advise you to keep on top of Nintendo's weekly Spirit Board events as they can net you some quite exclusive rewards.

We know the sales for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were legendary, but how legendary exactly? With limited sales figures and only whispers here and there at the success, we now have a better idea where the game is sitting at.

There is no doubt that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the most popular Super Smash Bros. game in the franchise. Nintendo has even claimed this themselves, with the announcement that Ultimate is the "Best pre-selling Super Smash Bros. game". How many copies of Ultimate has been moved though? First reports suggested that 3 million copies were sold within the first 11 days of launch.

Now we have some news that is slightly more updated, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has spoken to Japanese newspaer Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun and revealed that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has actually sold 5 million copies just within its first week of release. Furukawa also shined some light on the software sales of the Nintendo Switch, saying that the Switch now holds the record for most software sales of any Nintendo console. We should get a much better idea how Nintendo are doing both console and game-wise on January 31st when they release their earnings release.