The Making of ‘Doom’ Is Getting a TV Show

Greetings, and welcome to Replay, where we recap all the gaming headlines you might have missed this week. This time, we’ve got TV, reality and otherwise, publisher disputes, and Magic: the Gathering. Let’s get right to it.

Masters of Doom Is Coming to TV, and Here Are Its Stars

It’s time, finally: videogames are becoming prestige television. Or, more specifically, the drama of videogame development is, as the USA Network is putting together a pilot for an adaptation of Masters of Doom, the famous book about the development of, well, Doom, and the early days of id Software.

The network has already cast many of the principal players from Masters, including John Carmack, Tom Hall, and John Romero (and his incredible hair). Romero will be played by Eduardo Franco (Booksmart), while Carmack will be played by The OA actor Patrick Gibson, and Tom Hall will be portrayed by John Karna (Scream: The TV Series). There’s also Jane Ackerman, who will play Emma Romero, a character who is supposedly John Romero’s wife at the time but who, so far as we can tell, does not actually exist. TV is wild. Head to PC Gamer for the full casting announcement.

The Creators of Several Sherlock Holmes Games Are Having Serious Publisher Troubles

A new mystery for fans of the old detective: Where have all the Sherlock Holmes games gone? For years, developer Frogwares has put out a number of Holmes adventures, which are generally, as far as we know, well regarded and interesting little mystery numbers. And they’re presently de-listed from Sony and Microsoft’s console stores, and Frogwares claims it’s all their publisher’s fault.

In a powerful statement released earlier this week, Frogwares explains that their contract with Focus Home Interactive, their former publisher, expired, and Focus Home, according to Frogwares, “refuses to transfer the title IDs to us, the creators and IP owners of the titles, even though our Publishing and Distribution Agreement has ended.” Transferring those rights is, generally, what a publisher would do in these circumstances, but Frogware claims Focus Home has instituted a policy of keeping that sort of thing from any dev who pulls their stuff from Focus Home’s catalogue. Focus Home seemingly hasn’t responded to any requests for comment. If you want any Sherlock Holmes games, and you see them for sale anywhere, you might want to buy them now.

Watch Ninja Do Something Even More Embarrassing Than Normal

I kid, I kid. Mostly.

Reality TV, meet streaming. This week, The Masked Singer, a reality competition show where masked singers compete to confuse a panel of experts while singing the best they can (it’s sort of like competitive musical Scooby Doo villainy, just go with it) had Tyler “Ninja” Blevins on the program, dressed up as a giant ice cream cone. He was eliminated pretty quickly, but that means we have, for our viewing pleasure, Ninja in a costume singing “Old Town Road.”

We’re not entirely sure if this is amazing, terrible, or some entirely new concoction of both. Please, enjoy Ninja embarrassing himself on national television. In these dark times, this may be the joy you need.

Recommendation of the Week: Magic: The Gathering Arena, Wizards of the Coast, on PC

Magic: the Gathering is super rad, and super hard to get into. These two things have been true for the entire lifespan of the game. And while Arena, the newest attempt to turn Magic into an approachable videogame, doesn’t entirely change that, it certainly goes a way to on-boarding new players and making the play process easier, cheaper, and less demanding of cardboard. With an intuitive client and in-game markers of progress that help you learn and practice, Arena is one of the best entry points the series has ever had. And it’s just now coming out of Early Access, so it’s an ideal time to check it out.

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