‘Arrested Development’ to return in May

By John Greenlee Updated May 1, 2013

Six years after Fox cancelled the show, Arrested Development is finally coming back to TV (and computers and smartphones and anything else that supports Netflix). The fourth season will debut on May 26 with 15 full episodes, each around 30 minutes, to be released at once.

It has been a big, big year for cancelled TV shows making a comeback. Recently, Veronica Mars announced that it had roundhouse kicked Kickstarter records in the face, and easily reached its target goal in order to bring the show back as a movie. As of this writing it has more than doubled its $2 million goal, and there are still 8 days to go. Its success has also also spurred talk of other shows following suit.

Shawn Ryan’s short lived detective series Terriers may soon head to Kickstarter, and Bryan Fuller’s Pushing Daisies may join it. Veronica Mars’ creator Rob Thomas has even claimed that Warner Bros., the company that owns the rights to Veronica Mars, is considering the Veronica Mars’ Kickstarter project as a guinea pig for other properties. If the movie it spawns is a success, Warner Bros. may consider this a legitimate new model to help finance struggling properties with a loyal fan base.

In the meantime though, Arrested Development will return with its original staff and crew, including series creator Mitch Hurwitz. Netflix is hoping this will be the first of many collaborations, although Hurwitz has claimed this will be the final season.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gaming

Sony acquires Returnal developer Housemarque, teases another purchase

The protagonist from the game Returnal in a space suit posed in front of flag.

Sony announced that it acquired Housemarque, the Finnish developer of PlayStation hits such as Resogun, Alienation, and most recently, Returnal.

The two companies had been working closely with one another for over a decade, with most of Housemarque's recent games launching exclusively for PlayStation consoles (or handhelds). In regards to the acquisition, Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst said "Housemarque’s recent release of Returnal proves the studio is one with incredible vision, capable of creating memorable new games that resonate with our community."

Gaming

The most expensive games ever developed

An outlaw wields a shotgun in Red Dead Online.

You only have to look at how video games have evolved over the decades to know that they are becoming more and more expensive to make. Unless we're talking about indie games, we're long past the days of simple pixel art characters running through a handful of stages with repeating patterns, a limited color palette, and short, looping music. Games have ballooned into massive worlds where each strand of a character's hair is detailed, dynamic lighting fills the landscape, and everything is backed by professional voice actors and orchestral arrangements.

Aside from the few indie developers who manage to hit it big on just a shoestring budget, most big games cost hundreds of millions of dollars to create. The more ambitious a game is, and the more staff required to make it, the higher the cost becomes. If you've never considered how expensive games are to make, some of these numbers will undoubtedly be a shock, and yet that's the price of creating and marketing a modern game. Before complaining about a minor bump in game prices, see just how much money is sunk into the most expensive games ever developed.

Gaming

Game over: Google to shutter its in-house Stadia game development studio

google stadia review rs 2

Google is shuttering its internal game development studio for Stadia, the company’s cloud-based gaming platform.

In a message posted on Monday, February 1, the web giant cited high costs as one of the reasons for its decision, adding that the move will allow it to focus on enhancing Stadia for third-party developers and building its business partnerships.