What's Trending: April 25, 2023 Edition

#ICYMI Sega makes moves to enter the mobile gaming space and an AI-generated song signals trouble for the music industry in this trend roundup from Ayzenberg Senior Data Strategist Rafael Benjamin Sales and Analyst Daniel Ortiz .

Sega To Acquire Angry Birds Developer Rivo

Sega is purchasing Rivo, a Finish mobile games developer, for $775 million in a deal expected to close by the end of September. Rivo is known for developing the Angry Birds mobile game. With the acquisition, Sega hopes to bring its current and future game titles to the global gaming market. Sega has seen competitor Nintendo have similar success with the mobile releases of Mario Kart and Super Mario Run.

Netflix Will No Longer Mail DVDs

After 25 years in operation, Netflix is axing its DVD subscription service, with subscribers having until Sept. 29 to check out titles. “Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the DVD business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly hard,” the company said in its latest earnings release.

Drake’s New Song ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ Goes Viral—Except It’s Not By Drake

These past two weeks saw the rise of an AI-generated track on TikTok mimicking the superstar rapper, as well as The Weeknd, in a song that listeners are finding surprisingly accurate. However, that magic lasted for less than a week, as streaming services quickly moved to take down the track, which racked up 600,000 streams on Spotify, at the behest of Universal Music Group.

Reboot, Remake, Retro: Twilight Becomes The Next ‘Old’ Franchise To See New Life

Only a week after HBO announced Harry Potter was receiving the TV revival treatment, news broke that our favorite vampires will be getting their own show as well. The project is still in early development, but asks all viewers, do we really not have any original IP left?