Despite yesterday's announcement about WB shifting to a more "cost effective" model, a listing on Amazon France seems to say that an hour and twelve minute animated feature, Scooby-Doo, Trick or Treat will be released on October 26, 2022 in France. The page lists that the directors are Audie Harrison and Sam Register, which would rule out this film being a repackaging of Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo. In the past, listings for future DTVs have popped up on some of the international Amazon sites a week or two before appearing on the US Amazon site, so it is possible that we may be getting an announcement for this DTV in the coming weeks. Last year's DTVs were announced 11 weeks before their release, and if this is being released the week of October 26, that would mean we would likely get an announcement and trailer next week (the week of August 9).

DVD Land out of Australia also lists a description, although this site lists it as Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo! (Thanks Scoobyverse for bringing this link to my attention)
Mystery Inc. has cracked the case to top all cases! They've tracked down Coco Diablo, the head of the notorious costume crime syndicate that colludes The Black Knight, Space Kook and the Ghost Diver. With Coco and her kitty in prison, Mystery Inc. thinks that they can finally enjoy a break. Wrong! Suddenly, menacing doppelganger ghosts of the Scooby crew and favorite classic foes show up in Coolsville to threaten Halloween. Now it's up to the meddling kids - and their unlikely new partner Coco - to unmask the latest scoundrel and save Halloween! For Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, with trick-or-treating on the line - this time it's personal!

A big thank you to Gross108 for sharing this information with me.

The holidays are cancelled.

Or at least, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Scoob! Holiday Haunt's release has sadly been cancelled. This is due to budgetary restrictions that arose with the recent Warner Brothers Discovery merger. The film's budget was 40 million dollars, but Warner Brothers executives determined that they could no longer justify the funding for this film, and thus pulled the film from the lineup of HBO Max's original programming. It is unknown if Velma will be affected by this announcement of cutbacks and budgetary restrictions. However, this could provide some insight into why we have not gotten any announcements for DTVs, since perhaps WB felt they could not justify releasing direct-to-video films when they are financially struggling due to the merger.

Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared with the press that Warner Brothers is currently attempting to shift to a "cost savings" model, focusing more on theatrical films rather than streaming and direct-to-video projects. Zaslav stated he feels that the majority of streaming projects "no longer make financial sense" under the new vision for Warner Brothers. Batgirl, another big budget film ($90 million dollars) was additionally scrapped despite that filming had been completed.

Courtesy of GamesRadar+, the Scooby-Doo comic solicitations for October have been released with some big news. It appears that demand was so high for The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries that they've chosen to reboot the series! Oddly, it has the same title, and they're starting over with #1, but nonetheless, the series will return in October!

THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES #1
Written by SHOLLY FISCH
Art and cover by DARIO BRIZUELA
$2.99 US | 32 pages
ON SALE 10/11/22
THE TEAM-UP SERIES YOU DEMANDED IS BACK!
A strange mystery pulls Batman, Robin, the Batmen of All Nations, Scooby, and the gang into a jet-setting race to some of the most haunted places on Earth. Even scarier, the trail leads straight to Ra's al Ghul and his League of Assassins!

We already know Roger Eschbacher from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated will be writing for the new Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Pups series. On Instagram, two more writers have just announced their involvement with the series. Sarah Eisenberg and Becky Wangberg have been signed on as writers for the Mystery Pups series. Both of them have significant previous experience writing for preschool series, including Thomas & Friends, Batwheels and Muppet Babies. Here is a link to their Instagram announcement.

Just a little creative spin on the title of the random book that appears "Which Witch is Which?" haha. We have some big news on Multiversus: the Open Beta launches on Tuesday, July 26 at 9:00am in the pacific time zone! The open beta will be available for anyone on Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, as well as Xbox One and X|S with full progression support and cross-play. You do not need a Playstation Plus or Xbox Live membership to play the Open Beta on these formats. However, once the Open Beta launches, new content will continue to roll out over the coming weeks in the beta, including new maps, new characters, and even seasonal content. There is no end date for the open beta, meaning it will essentially serve as a soft launch of the game.

In terms of characters, Shaggy, Harley Quinn, Jake the Dog from Adventure Time, and the Tasmanian Devil will be available immediately when the Open Beta begins. Other characters will unlock as you progress through the game, including Velma, Bugs Bunny; Arya Stark (Game of Thrones), Finn the Human (Adventure Time); Steven Universe and Garnet (Steven Universe); Tom & Jerry (Tom and Jerry) and The Iron Giant (The Iron Giant). You can also play with a number of different maps including Scooby's Haunted Mansion, Trophy's E.D.G.E., Trophy’s E.D.G.E. 2, Classic 3, Tree Fort 1 vs. 1 (from Adventure Time, the Batcave, Classic 3 Platform, and the training room. Players will be able to choose what mode they want to play in, including 2 vs. 2 team-based cooperative mode, 1 vs. 1 matches, 4-player free-for-all, 1-4 player local matches, co-op vs. A.I. matches, custom online lobbies, practice mode, and tutorial mode.

In addition, players who played in the Multiversus Closed Alpha will receive the exclusive opportunity to play in the Open Beta one week early. Those individuals will receive a code through their email by Tuesday, July 19 at 9:00am PDT and gain early access to the game.

Dying to play the game before July 26, but you weren't part of the Closed Alpha? There's still a way you (yes, you reading this blog post lol) can gain early access to the game on July 19 through a number of steps. First, you must set up a WB Games account (if you don't have one created already) and link your Twitch account. Then, watch any Twitch streamer play the Multiversus Open Beta with drops enabled for a full hour. You can check as your progress as you watch, and once a full 60 minutes of watching elapses, you can also play the game using your WB account! So now when your bigwig Closed Alpha friends contact you and brag about getting to play the game early, you can look right in their face and say, "Well actually, I'm playing it too! Ha!" lol.

The game will take up about 7 GB of space on your computer. It is required you have the following specifications on your PC to play the Open Beta: 60 FPS, Low Settings, 720p (settings), Intel Core i5-2300 or AMD FX-8350 CPU, GeForce GTX 550 Ti or Radeon HD 5850  | Intel UHD 750 or Radeon Vega 8 GPU, and 4 GB of RAM. However, it is recommended you have 1080p, high settings, Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 5 1200 CPU, GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon R9 GPUA, and 8 GB of RAM. Do I know what any of that means? No, but if it's not working on your device, it's safe to say you probably don't have one of those specifications lol.

A colorblind-accessible option will be available in the Open Beta. In addition, the user interface will be customizable based on player preferences. I think it's really cool they included this feature so the game can be more accessible to anyone who is colorblind!

The Open Beta will be available all throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and New Zealand. No release date has been announced for any other continent. ​

Some more information has been announced regarding the Multiversus Open Beta, thanks to Gamerant. Tony Huynh, the director of the Multiversus game, shared that the open beta releasing this month will "hopefully be permanent" unless some particularly bad bugs are found. This is great news for those anxiously awaiting to know if there was enough space for them in the beta test. Essentially, this means that the open beta is essentially a demo version of the game which will likely always be available. Moreover, this means the open beta will essentially equate to a launch of the game for anyone who wants to play it. New characters and maps may be added over time, although what fans will get with the open beta has been confirmed to be near the final product. 16 characters will be available in the open beta, and apparently, leaks have confirmed that other characters in the game will include Godzilla, LeBron James and Rick (sadly meaning from Rick and Morty, but my personal preference would have been Rick Astley...even as someone who isn't a fan of video games, I feel you have to admit that'd be pretty awesome to be able to play as him lol).

Upon release, Multiversus has been confirmed to be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

So I'm admittedly a little late on this, since I didn't know about it, but I thought I may as well still post it! This past weekend, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Scooby-Doo live-action film, Matthew Lillard hosted Scooby fans in the Mystery Machine that appeared in the 2002 film for $20 per night. The Mystery Machine was decked out in tons of 2000s nostalgia and Scooby-Doo related decorations. Those who stayed were offered free Wi-Fi, a TV, and an ocean and mountain view. Here's the full description, straight from Matthew Lillard's AirBnB profile (you should really read it if you haven't, it's very amusing):

Guests will be immersed in Y2K nostalgia and get to live like Shaggy (TM) and Scooby Doo (TM) in the Mystery Machine, including:
- A virtual greeting from yours truly upon arrival – I may even share some of my favorite memories with the meddling kids
- Plenty of throwbacks to 2002, including listening to the latest Sugar Ray album on a portable CD player, basking in the glow of a lava lamp and donning Shaggy’s signature puka shell necklace
- All-you-can-eat snacks and a selection to choose from for dinner, featuring all of Shaggy & Scooby’s favorite foods (like hot dogs and eggplant burgers)
- Mystery games galore so you can put your own whodunit-solving skills to the test
- A late-night re-watch of Scooby-Doo, complete with popcorn, candy and all the Scooby Snacks that your heart can desire
- An outdoor setup with enough lounge seating and hammock space for you to vibe out, free from any monsters that might be lurking about

This seems like such a cool opportunity and I'm so glad those few fans got to have what looks to be the time of their lives during this once-in-a-lifetime AirBnB stay!

A few months ago, a select group of people got to beta test Multiversus, but not many details of gameplay have been revealed to the general public. However, for the first time today, a "Pro Player Showcase" video has been released to give the general public their first sneak preview of this game. The video includes a famous gamer named Spooky playing as Shaggy (and his variant Uncle Shagworthy) and another gamer named Leviathan as Velma. Playing against them is ApologyMan as Superman and Brokkr as Tom and Jerry. This video provides us with a first look of the Multiversus gameplay. At the end of the video, it is announced that the first open beta test of Multiversus will take place in July. The sign-up is open to everyone with a WBGames account, and if interested, you can sign up in advance to play in the open beta at Multiversus.com (if you do not have a WBGames account, you will need to set one up first so you can register).

A very surprising addition has been made to the lineup for WB's Multiversus game today. It seems Uncle Shagworthy from "Scared a Lot in Camelot" will be one of the characters you can play and fight as. He will be a variant of the Shaggy character, and will be voiced by Daniel Ross.

Warner Brothers shared a bit more information about the upcoming Velma series today at the Annecy Festival in France. According to Variety, some more images were revealed at the festival that showed more of the supernatural elements in this series. One image apparently shows a woman transforming into a monster with a long neck, and another showed Velma's face being completely enveloped in the arms of a snake-like creature. In addition, it was revealed a major focus point of the series will be Velma investigating the overarching mystery of her mother's disappearance.

The Executive Vice President of alternative programming at Warner Brothers Animation, Peter Girardi, shared that “we’ve seen these characters in preschool and 6-11 shows, but now evolving them into an adult animation space has been something we’ve been working on for a long time."

None of these images have been released to the general public yet.