Variety Expands Gaming Coverage With Promotion of Jennifer Maas to Senior Business Writer, TV and Video Games

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft Gaming is taking a victory lap after an impressive Xbox Games Showcase presentation at the David Geffen Theater in Los Angeles on June 9, which was anchored by the reveal of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,” followed by major announcements across all of Xbox’s studios, including Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard, as well as collaborations with third-party developers. Xbox president of gaming content and studios Matt Booty sat down with Jennifer Maas, Variety senior business writer of TV and video games, to discuss highlights from this year’s presentation, the inner workings of Xbox post-Activision Blizzard, and more for Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast.

Secondary school pupils have been inspired to reach for the moon and launch their future careers as space explorers after meeting NASA scientists.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Season 10 finale of “Jet Lag: The Game,” now streaming on Nebula. “Jet Lag: The Game” dropped its Season 10 finale Wednesday on Nebula, featuring the epic conclusion to the Down Under saga of the travel game show and the presentation of a cartoon-kangaroo-balloon-shaped trophy to either Adam Chase and Ben Doyle or Sam Denby and two-time guest player Toby Hendy.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer This is not a joke: CollegeHumor wants your Emmy vote. Actually, just over two months after the internet comedy company, which rebranded as Dropout last year, sold out a 17,000-seat live performance set for January 2025 at Madison Square Garden, that proposition might not seem as funny anymore.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers fromSeason 3 of “Bridgerton,” now streaming on Netflix. In the Season 3 finale of “Bridgerton,” when Lady Whistledown steps into the light of her true identity — Penelope Bridgerton (Nicola Coughlan) — her husband, Colin (Luke Newton), learns not only to accept, but to applaud her for who she is. After that, Whisteldown imposter Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) is shunned from London, the ton rejoices in the birth of a “Polin” baby (a boy, making them the new Lord Featherington) and delightedly theorizes about which Bridgerton sibling will take the lead next.

Tim Spector is urging people to consume one 'superfood' to reduced a number health risks - including cancer.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Xbox will release all-digital versions of its Series X and S consoles this holiday season, Xbox president Sarah Bond announced during the Xbox Games Showcase Sunday. Additionally, Bond teased that Microsoft is developing the “next generation” of its console offering.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Xbox Games Showcase kicked offSunday with the reveal “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6″ will launch Oct. 25, and be available Day 1 via the service’s paid Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Games has dropped the first trailer for its next video game in the Wizarding World universe: “Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions.” The studio released the footage out of Summer Game Fest on Friday, where it also revealed the launch date for the followup to the massively successful “Hogwarts Legacy” will release on Sept. 3.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Video game expo Summer Game Fest was packed with announcements and first looks Friday, featuring big IP including “Batman,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Power Rangers,” “Among Us” and “Harry Potter,” as well as indie titles — including an inaugural slate of games from Blumhouse. During the two-hour Summer Game Fest, which took place at the SoFi’s YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, trailers were revealed for “Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions,” “Batman: Arkham Shadow” and “Mortal Kombat 1‘s” marquee matchup between “The Boys” character Homelander and “Invincible’s” Omni-Man, the seventh “Civilization” game was confirmed, a new “Power Rangers” video game was announced, and PlayStation revealed its debuting “Lego Horizon Adventures” across PS5, Switch and PC.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Insecure” and “The First Purge” star Y’lan Noel will be the voice star of Xbox‘s eagerly anticipated “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.” Details about Noel’s unnamed character and the storyline of the game are being kept under wraps until formally unveiled by Activision at the Xbox Games Showcase event in Los Angeles Sunday, but Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl teased to Variety Noel is playing “a new character” that is featured in the key art above. “He’s never worked in gaming before, but we really were impressed by his voice tapes.

A West Lothian mum who discovered she had cancer on her birthday marked the milestone of being 10 years clear of the disease by launching Race for Life in Scotland’s capital.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Lauren Paget has been named senior vice president of Littleton Road Productions, headed by “Dr. Death” and “The Girl From Plainville” writer Patrick Macmanus and producing partner Kelly Funke.

New hope for cancer patients in Scotland with the launch of a clinical trial for a form of the disease linked to asbestos exposure, a charity has announced.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Chip and Joanna Gaines‘ beloved home renovation series “Fixer Upper” is turning 10 and the couple is celebrating with the launch of a new special edition season, “Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse.” Premiering Sunday on the Gaines’ Magnolia Network (part owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) and HGTV, the original home of the “Fixer Upper” franchise, and streaming same day on Max and Discovery+, the six-episode “Lakehouse” follows Chip and Jo as they take on a unique mid-century modern lakehouse flip near Lake Waco, a new neighborhood for the home reno couple based in Waco, Texas. “Chip found a set of plans in this lakehouse that showed the house was built in 1965 and the husband loved mid-century modern style and the wife loved that Spanish revival style,” Joanna Gaines tells Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A new “Astro Bot” game will be launching on PlayStation 5 on Sept. 6, Sony’s PlayStation revealed Thursday during its virtual “State of Play” presentation featuring upcoming titles.

After decades of grafting hard, retirement should be a time of rest and relaxation.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Games has hired video game company 2K’s chief marketing officer Melissa Bell as its new executive vice president of global marketing. In her new role, Bell will oversee all aspects of the Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Fallout 76″ has found a whole new world of players thanks to the popularity of Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series. The Bethesda Game Studios title, which first launched in October 2018, crossed 20 million downloads and plays as of Wednesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fourteen seasons in, Gordon Ramsay‘s Fox cooking competition “MasterChef” has found a way to reinvent itself once more: pitting generation against generation in a battle that will prove whether baby boomers, Gen X, millennials or Gen Z cooks have culinary supremacy. Debuting Wednesday at 8 p.m., “MasterChef” Season 14 will begin with the audition rounds for the contestants that qualify as millennials (a group that usually encompasses those born between 1980-1994), followed by episodes devoted to whittling down the boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1979) and Gen Z (1995-2009) competitors.