By Krysta Fauria
GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) --It's been nearly a decade since "Breaking Bad" was on the air. But according to Aaron Paul, the iconic series is still "one of those gifts that just keeps on keeps on giving," thanks to steaming services that allow it to continue to find new fans.
"A lot of these kids that were too young to watch the show when their parents were watching it, they are now old enough to watch. And so, they're diving in," Paul said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
His latest project with former co-star Bryan Cranston is a "Breaking Bad"-inspired ad for the chip company PopCorners that will air during this weekend's Super Bowl.
"The team's back and pushing a more viable legal product this time," Paul laughed. "It's an embarrassment of riches. It's so hard to get a job in this industry. And then to get one that you really love, but one that just keeps on giving back."
"Breaking Bad," which aired on AMC for five seasons, holds the Guinness World Record for the critically highest-rated TV series ever. In addition to the longevity it has sustained from subsequent projects in the show's franchise, such as "Better Call Saul," Paul thinks "Breaking Bad" continues to exist in the zeitgeist thanks to its availability on Netflix.
"These shows live, hopefully, forever on these platforms," Paul said. "New people are getting introduced to it all the time and it's just so easy to find."
His comments came soon after HBO pulled the plug on "Westworld," which Paul starred in, and removed the Emmy-winning sci-fi drama entirely from its streaming platform, HBO Max.
"It was hard because that's our family, our film family. And so it's rough not to be able to say a proper goodbye," Paul said of the move.
"Westworld" received more than 50 Emmy nominations and won nine awards from the TV academy.
Warner Bros. Discovery announced last week that it had struck a deal with The Roku Channel to stream "Westworld" and other shows after they abruptly scrapped and removed a handful of HBO original titles from HBO Max in December.
Nintendo reports lower profits as demand drops for its aging Switch console
Nintendo, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario franchise, said Tuesday that its profit fell 60% in the first half of the fiscal year, as demand waned for its Switch console, now in its eighth year since going on sale.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a 108.7 billion yen ($715 million) profit for the April-September period, as sales slipped 34% from the previous year to 523 billion yen ($3.4 billion).
More than 74% of its sales revenue came from overseas, according to Nintendo, which didn't break down quarterly numbers.
Global Switch sales during the period dropped to 4.7 million machines from 6.8 million units the previous year.
But Nintendo said in a statement that Switch sales were still growing and vowed to stick to its goal of selling a Switch console to each and every individual, not just one Switch per every household.
Nintendo stuck to its earlier projection for a 300 billion yen ($2 billion) profit for the full fiscal year through March 2025, down nearly 29% from the previous fiscal year.
Annual sales were forecast to drop 23% to1.28 trillion yen ($8.4 billion).
It also lowered its Switch sales projection for the fiscal year to 12.5 million units from an earlier forecast to sell 13.5 million.
Nintendo and other game and toy makers rake in their biggest profits during the Christmas shopping season, as well as New Year's, a holiday celebrated with fanfare in Japan, when children receive cash gifts from grandparents and other relatives.
Nintendo has not yet announced details on a successor to the Switch.
Among its million-seller game software titles for the fiscal half were "Paper Mario RPG," which sold 1.95 million units since going on sale in May, and "Luigi Mansion 2... Read More