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Xbox has announced a deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the company behind Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and many other major gaming franchises – coming in at a stupefying $68.7 billion.

Announced on Xbox Wire, the deal means Xbox will soon own the likes of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and much more. CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer announced that all Activision Blizzard companies would report to him after the deal is closed.

No timescale has been given for how long the deal will take to close, and it's likely that the deal will be examined as to whether it creates a monopoly before it's formally approved. Spencer confirmed that Activision Blizzard would continue to run as an independent company until the deal is complete.

Update: In an email sent to Activision Blizzard employees, CEO Bobby Kotick says the company expects the deal to close "sometime in Microsoft’s fiscal 2023 year ending June 30, 2023".

As expected, Spencer says Xbox will include "as many Activision Blizzard games as we can" in the Xbox Game Pass services. No word has been made about turning the likes of Call of Duty or other mega-franchises into Xbox exclusives, but with the likes of Bethesda's Starfield becoming a first-party exclusive, it feels more than possible.

How much I enjoyed Nobody Saves the World was constantly in flux as I played, which is somewhat appropriate given the transforming nature of its hero. The latest from Drinkbox Studios is a fun but uneven top-down action-RPG that has you somewhat clumsily swapping between 15 different unlockable forms, mixing and matching their abilities to overcome challenging dungeons. It’s a clever premise that’s bolstered by fantastic playstyle customization options and all the charm and humor I’ve come to expect from the developers of Guacamelee. After a slow start it’s good fun for a long stretch before the campaign loses steam once the chase of unlocking all the forms starts to come to an end.

Nobody Saves the World’s straightforward story opens with the onset of a disastrous calamity: everything has inexplicably been covered in gross fungus, monsters are everywhere, and the world’s most powerful wizard, Nostramagus, has gone missing. It’s up to you, a pale-bodied amnesiac named Nobody armed with Nostramagus’ magic wand, to – as the title would suggest – save the world. It’s serviceable as an excuse to send you all across the overworld, clearing out dungeons and collecting shards of a magical gem as you go. The one real highlight is Randy the Rad, Nostramagus’s obnoxious apprentice who becomes increasingly unhinged as his plots to stop you and steal the glory routinely backfire on him in a variety of amusing ways.

An apparent leak from the Microsoft Store has revealed that Shadow Warrior 3 will launch in March.

The Microsoft Store page for Shadow Warrior 3 currently shows a March 1, 2022 release date. While this could well be a mistake or placeholder, the Microsoft Store has mistakenly leaked release dates before, including the date for Halo Infinite.

The Microsoft Store listing also states that pre-order purchases of Shadow Warrior 3 will come bundled with the first two games in the rebooted series, as well as a limited edition katana skin.

Shadow Warrior 3 was announced back in 2020, and our IGN First series showcased gameplay last year. Originally set for a 2021 release, it was delayed into 2022. Should this release date prove correct, it would seem that the delay has only pushed it into the first few months of this year.

Square Enix has announced that the Switch versions of the Kingdom Hearts games will be released this February. The cloud-based games can be purchased individually, or as part of a bundle priced at $89.99.

The trio of Kingdom Hearts games will be available from February 10. The first is a dual pack of the first two games, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, priced at $39.99. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue comes in at $49.99, and Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind DLC is also $49.99. The entire collection can be bought as part of the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece, priced $89.99.

Pre-orders are currently subject to a 20% discount, so you can currently grab the full series for $71.99 from the Nintendo store. If you’re unsure about dropping cash on them right now, then free playable demos of all three games are available now.

All three releases, including the remasters of the PS2 originals, are cloud games and thus only playable via streaming. The demo versions are also cloud-based, and so are a good opportunity to test if your internet setup is strong enough to play on.

Square Enix has previously explained why the Switch version will be limited to the cloud, noting that it is a storage capacity issue. With this release, it means that Kingdom Hearts is now available on all major gaming platforms, following the series’ arrival on PC last year.

God of War on PC is off to a strong start and has passed Horizon Zero Dawn to become Sony's biggest launch on the platform with an all-time peak of 73,529 players so far,

The stats were revealed by SteamDB, a site that tracks Steam's data, and it revealed God of War reached that number on January 15 - one day after the once-PlayStation exclusive arrived on PC.

Furthermore, God of War was the best-selling game for the past week that ended on January 16, and it held off Monster Hunter Rise, Ready or Not, Elden Ring (pre-order), and more.

Prior to God of War's arrival on PC, Horizon Zero Dawn had the highest all-time peak for a Sony first-party game at 56,557 players. Days Gone, Sony's second first-party release on PC, topped out at 27,450 players.

Sony's focus on putting some of its biggest exclusives on PC appears to be working out in its favor, and God of War director Cory Barlog revealed that PlayStation's own studios were key in convincing Sony that it was a "really good idea" to make this happen.

Ubisoft has partnered with Pathé to develop Notre-Dame on Fire, a location-based VR escape game based on Jean-Jacques Annaud's docudrama of the same name that will put players in the shoes of the Parisian fire brigade as they try to save the world-famous cathedral from the fire that broke out in 2019.

As reported by Variety, this one-hour experience will take players through the events of April 15, 2019, when flames nearly destroyed Notre-Dame. Ubisoft is no stranger to working with the cathedral, as a detailed model of it appears in Assassin's Creed Unity and in its short immersive VR experience Notre-Dame de Paris: Journey Back in Time.

During the production of Annaud's Notre-Dame on Fire film, he reached out to Ubisoft to help him bring this complimentary experience to life.

"He knew that we had a special attachment to Notre Dame,” says Deborah Papiernik, Ubisoft senior VP new business and strategic alliances. “I guess that’s why he came to us. I don’t think he went to see [anyone else].”

Their discussions began in early 2021, and it was decided that, since the film is set for release in March 2022, Ubisoft knew it only had time to create a one-hour escape experience and could not make a "full-fledged game" in such a short period.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has reacted to rumors that PlayStation is working on a service similar to Xbox Game Pass, saying that he sees it as "an inevitability" and is "the right answer" for how to get games to players.

Speaking to IGN's Ryan McCaffrey, Spencer addressed the recent rumors, which have pointed to a new service codenamed Spartacus set to replace the existing PS Plus service.

"As you know," Spencer began, "so many of these things actually intertwine with themselves, from [backwards compatibility] in terms of a way of building out a library of games that we have shipping on PC and console simultaneously [...] knowing that Game Pass is gonna come and we wanna bring Game Pass to multiple platforms – all of these decisions kind of stack on top of themselves.

"I don't mean it to sound like we've got it all figured out, but I think the right answer is allowing your customers to play the games they wanna play, where they wanna play them, and giving them choice about how they build their library, and being transparent with them about what our plans are in terms of our PC initiatives and our cross-gen initiatives and other things.

"So when I hear others doing things like Game Pass or coming to PC, it makes sense to me because I think that's the right answer."

Spencer continued by saying that he doesn't see Sony's apparent willingness to emulate Xbox's bold approach as proof he and his team were right to push for Game Pass early – more that it's proof that things were always going to go this way in the industry:

Several PlayStation 3 games were reportedly recently spotted on the PS5 store, causing speculation that the PlayStation 5 could get further backwards compatibility.

VGC reported that the PS3 game Dead or Alive 5 briefly listed a display price of £7.99, where it previously redirected users to the PlayStation Now version of the game. Additionally, other users reported similar new listings for the PS3 versions of Bejewelled, as well as Prince of Persia games, The Forgotten Sands, and The Two Thrones – each with their own individual purchase price. However, none of the games were purchaseable at these prices on PS5.

At time of writing, IGN could not replicate these findings, which could mean that this was a simple error in the PlayStation 5 store, or that this potentially mistaken early release has now been fixed.

Uhhh. Not to panic anyone, but a PS3 game shouldn't have a price when viewed on a PS5.

Unless... pic.twitter.com/5CTACWGh7s

In October, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 players began mass-reporting an issue that made entire lobbies of characters unkillable. By December, the problem was widespread enough that many declared the game unplayable. Now, a community manager from developer DICE has promised fans "it will be fixed."

The issue appears to affect multiple Battlefront 2 multiplayer modes on PC only, and sees full matches of players rendered unable to be reduced below 1HP - effectively making games pointless, ending only after a timeout or, more likely, after every player quits.

The problem has seemingly persisted for months, and has potentially gotten worse over time. An EA Forums post made on October 19, 2021 titled "Nobody can die" has since garnered 1,497 replies, and the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 subreddit has seen dozens of posts on the topic. The issue appeared to be sporadic at first but, by December, many players reported being unable to find a single multiplayer match on PC that wasn't affaected by the issue.

Official EA and DICE replies have been few and far between, with multiple community managers saying the problem was being looked into, but little word beyond that. However, yesterday, a response from DICE community manager Kevin Johnson (going by T0TALfps) offered more hope. In a Reddit thread about Battlefield 2042, a Battlefront 2 fan asked for an update on the 1HP issue. Johnson replied:

Awesome Games Done Quick, the video game speedrunning marathon that raises money for charity, has set a new record for a single Games Done Quick event by raising over $3.4 million.

Games Done Quick shared the news on Twitter following the week-long 24-hour AGDQ 2022, confirming the event had raised a total of $3,416,729 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and "is officially the most we've ever raised in the history of @GamesDoneQuick - ANOTHER WR."

🏁TIME 🏁
#AGDQ2022 has raised a total amount of $3,416,729 for @preventcancer! This is officially the most we've ever raised in the history of @GamesDoneQuick - ANOTHER WR🏆
Thank you to everyone who made this marathon possible, and thank you all for your generosity & support❤️

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 16, 2022

Additionally, AGDQ 2022 reached the first $1 million in donations in the shortest amount of time in Games Done Quick history.

343 Industries has confirmed that it is gearing up to make some changes to Halo Infinite's in-game store, including reducing prices, improving bundles, putting individual items outside of certain bundles, and much more.

343's Head of Design Jerry Hook shared the news on Twitter, saying that the team is going to begin implementing these changes on Tuesday, January 18, and they will continue to monitor and try new things throughout the remainder of Halo Infinite mutliplayer's first season.

"We’ve been monitoring the discussions on the Shop, bundles, and pricing closely since launch," Hook wrote. "Using data and community feedback, we’re going to begin rolling out changes to how we package and price items in @Halo Infinite – and it all starts next week.

"Starting Tuesday, the Shop experience will vary week-to-week. We are focused on reducing pricing across the board, providing stronger values in our bundles, starting to put individual items outside of bundles, and more.

"We will be trying new things throughout the rest of the season so that we can continue to learn and improve for the future. Please keep the feedback coming during this process and I hope to see you all next week for the Cyber Showdown event!"

While Hook didn't go into further detail as to how much these prices will be reduced and what other types of changes we can expect, we won't have long to wait to see some of them put into action.

Following the launch of God of War on PC, Sony Santa Monica creative director Cory Barlog has revealed that many of PlayStation's own studios helped convince Sony that it was a "really good idea" to bring its biggest exclusives to PC.

Speaking to Game Informer, Barlog - who served as game director on 2018's God of War - was asked what insight he may have into Sony's decision to put a greater focus on the PC market.

"I think it was the collective of studios all over saying this is a really good idea," Barlog said. "We should be looking into this. Eventually, I think it reached that tipping point. When we had sent so many suggestion box suggestions that they were like, 'I’m tired of hearing all this. Fine, we’ll do this.' It’s a process. We’re still figuring it out as a company and as individual studios how to do this and what the process and strategy will be."

Sony's push into the PC market began in 2020 when it announced it would be bringing Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition to the platform. While other games that were either funded or published by Sony had already made their way over like Death Stranding, Horizon was a true first-party PlayStation Studios game that would no longer be exclusive.

Following Horizon, Sony released Days Gone on PC in 2021 and is gearing up to make Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection available to PC players in early 2022.

If you're feeling bummed out at the general state of the world going into 2022 and need a pick-me-up, here's an idea for you: how about taking a bunch of photos of cute dogs?

Specifically, the dogs in Pupperazzi, the latest game from indie studio Sundae Month. It is for the most part, per lead developer Isobel Shasha, what it says on the tin. "It's a game where you're taking pictures of dogs, and I think people might really connect with that."

Popping into Pupperazzi myself the other day, I find that Shasha is exactly right. I emerge in front of a beach shack where a chill pup named Sea Dog instructs me on how to use my camera and demands a photo of himself, before unleashing me on a dog-covered beach to take photos to my heart's content. There's a pile of dogs, big and small in all different colors, chasing one another around the beach and, once I pet them, happily following after me, too. I can throw a stick or (goofily) a banana for them to run after, or try to line up a nice shot of a happy dog sitting in front of the lighthouse at the end of the beach, framed by the ocean. And then I upload my photos to "Dog Net," an in-game social network where I receive feedback on my numerous photos until my audience gets annoyed at me for spamming them with cute dog pictures (how dare!) and stops rating them temporarily.

I never really considered Far Cry a series that was ripe for the roguelite treatment, and Far Cry 6’s Control DLC doesn’t do much to convince me otherwise. This looping gauntlet provides an interesting exploration of one of its more complex villains, Far Cry 4’s pink-suited Pagan Min, but Control’s small-scale open world doesn’t deliver the same free-form fun as the base game (or even other expansions from Far Crys past).

The concept will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Inception, Dreamscape, or really any even mildly sci-fi-adjacent TV show or movie in recent memory – you take control of Pagan while trapped in a prison of his own mind and must complete a series of trials to help restore his "sanity" (or, perhaps more accurately, his delusional self-image). To do so, you'll need to collect the three shards of his golden mask (yes, it’s a little on the nose, I know) from around the bizarro version of a Kyrati valley that has become his subconscious home. It's not clear whether this is a hallucination during his death throes or just some sort of weird dream (though, if I remember correctly, canon lore is that Pagan survives at the end of Far Cry 4) but the concept feels like a natural extension of the trippy sequences that have become a series staple.

Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick's salary has been in the news on multiple occasions over the last year. And while he certainly makes significantly more than most, a new report shows that he's in good company, with other gaming CEOs bringing in tens of millions of dollars per year.

Games One has compiled a rundown of video game executive pay in the year 2020 based on company filings, including salary, bonuses, stock, and other monetary benefits. The report reveals that Bobby Kotick was actually not the highest-earning CEO of 2020 — that prize goes to Robert Antokol, CEO of Israel-based Playtika, which makes free-to-play mobile games. In 2020, Antokol made $372 million in total compensation, while Kotick brought in $154.6 million.

While they were far and away the top earners, other gaming CEOs similarly made piles of money that year. EA CEO Andrew Wilson received $34.7 million in 2020, while Zynga's Frank Gibeau earned $32 million. Take-Two (which just announced its intention to acquire Zynga) saw its CEO Strauss Zelnick bring in $18 million.

Other notable names on the list include then-GameStop CEO George Sherman's $7.6 million, Roblox CEO David Baszucki earning $6.8 million, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda receiving $4.2 million, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa receiving $2.8 million, and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot getting just under one million.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing the Xbox vs. PlayStation console race, flipping through the January 2001 issue of GamePro, and observing some important gaming anniversaries. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

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Find previous episodes here!

Just a week after Dying Light 2 developer Techland said the game will take "at least 500 hours" to fully complete, we're now learning that the game will get at least five years of post-launch content with new stories, areas, in-game events, and more.

Techland announced its post-launch plans on Twitter, guaranteeing support for years to come. We don't know how much of the update plans will be free content, or how much will come in the way of free DLC.

However, Techland also supported the original Dying Light with a lot of free content and multiple major paid expansions, so we can likely expect to see the same type of support with the sequel.

Want to know what will happen AFTER the premiere? We guarantee to expand the world of Dying Light 2 Stay Human for at least 5 years post launch with new stories, locations, in-game events and all the fun stuff you love!#DyingLight2 #StayHuman pic.twitter.com/SgaNynkrzI

Torchlight: Infinite is a new entry in the long-running ARPG Torchlight franchise coming to PC, iOS, and Android that also happens to be a sequel to Torchlight 2. While there is no release date beyond 2022, sign-ups for the game’s closed beta are now open.

Those interested to participate in Torchlight: Infinite’s closed beta should head over to this link and sign up using a Gmail account. The beta will begin on January 18, 2022, in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; while signing up does not guarantee access, the team will try to get as many in as possible.

While the closed beta will be mobile only, the full game will feature cross-play and cross-save across all platforms. Furthermore, Torchlight: Infinite will be free-to-play and will contain no pay-to-win mechanics, with only cosmetic/non-essential items available for purchase.

A next-gen version of Apex Legends may be just around the corner, with reports suggesting that a native PS5 version of the game has been found on PSN.

A recent tweet from the PlayStation Game Size Twitter account (below), which reports findings from across the PSN database for new game additions and file sizes, suggests that a PS5 version of the game is now in the backend of the service, weighing in at an initial 80GB. The current forwards-compatible PS4 version of the game is around 55GB for a first-time download.

🚨 Apex Legends (PS5)

▶️ Download Size : +80 GB (Without Update)

🟨 #PS5 #ApexLegends pic.twitter.com/vzWCgwxtTi

— PlayStation Game Size (@PlaystationSize) January 14, 2022

A next-gen release for Apex Legends is known to have been in the works for some time now with Respawn having spoken openly about the idea in multiple Reddit AMAs last year. In February, the developer noted that it was targeting 120 FPS for the update but explained that it was continuing to look at a range of features in order to the right balance for the game.

PUBG developer Krafton has filed a lawsuit against mobile developer Garena, as well as both Apple and Google, over two mobile games that the developer believes copy its popular online shooter.

As detailed in a lawsuit filed by the company (and spotted by The Verge), Krafton has accused Apple and Google of distributing a "blatantly infringing mobile version of Battlegrounds" developed by Garena on their mobile app stores.

Krafton is currently seeking damages from Garena (and the other companies involved) over what it describes as "rampant, willful copyright infringement" surrounding the release of two Garena-developed games, Free Fire and Free Fire Max.

Garena describes Free Fire as "the ultimate survival shooter game available on mobile", pitting 50 players against one another (or in squads of 4) in 10 minute rounds set on island locations, which involve parachuting down, staying within a safe zone and becoming the last surviving players.

Krafton argues in its lawsuit that both Free Fire and Free Fire Max "extensively copy numerous aspects of Battlegrounds", including the game's "copyrighted unique game opening 'air drop' feature" as well as a "combination and selection of weapons, armor, and unique objects, locations, and the overall choice of color schemes, materials, and textures" apparent in the game.

Editor's Note: The subject of NFTs is currently a very controversial topic in the gaming community. IGN urges community members to be respectful when engaging in conversation around this subject and does not endorse harassment of any kind. We've also updated some language in our article for clarity.

Update (1/15/22): Troy Baker, who is part of the podcast Play, Watch, Listen with IGN Alum and Sony Santa Monica writer Alanah Pearce, video game developer Mike Bithell, and video game composer Austin Wintory, took the time on the show's latest episode to reflect on the controversial way he announced he was working with an NFT company and to share his thoughts behind the entire decision.

On Play, Watch, Listen's 90th episode, which is titled "Talking to Troy Baker About His NFT Tweet," Baker discussed that the main reason he decided to partner with Voiceverse was not because of the NFT component, but because he thought it would be a way to help independent creators get "valuable resources" they may not have been able to get otherwise.

"While I understood that an NFT was a component to this, that’s not what I got involved with," Baker said. "I don’t know how I feel about NFTs. Someone presented a platform to me that said, ‘hey, here’s a tool that we’re going to be able to bring valuable resources to creators… independent creators who want to work in animation and video games or other applications.' And I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, I want to be a part of that,’ cause that’s the problem.”

After being literally too popular to handle following the release of the game's Endwalker expansion, Final Fantasy 14 is set to go back on sale on January 25.

In an update post by Naoki Yoshida, the Final Fantasy 14 game director explained that "after due consideration", Square Enix has decided to resume digital sales.

Sales for Final Fantasy 14 were suspended back in December, following the overwhelming popularity of the game's Endwalker expansion. At the time, Yoshida explained that due to the sheer amount of people playing Endwalker, Square Enix had taken the decision to temporarily stop selling Final Fantasy 14 in order to try and combat the long wait times that players who already owned the game were facing.

However, in a lengthy new update, Yoshida explained that plans to resume digital sales for the game come alongside opening a new Oceanian Data Center, which will add five new worlds, and should mean that there is “more than enough room for everyone in Oceania to transfer over”.

The data center's launch will coincide with the restart of digital sales on January 25. According to Yoshida, this change will help players in the region "who have struggled with network latency issues". In addition, Square Enix has also said that it will be providing additional incentives to those who do make the switch over to the new data center, such as waiving the transfer fee to make the change.

Cardy, Joe, and Matt are here to pitch their big predictions for upcoming video game sequels. Where will GTA 6 be set? Who will we play as in Spider-Man 2? Will Joe ever play a new Kessen game? All of these questions will be answered, as well as bigger issues such as which snack is the king of the lunchbox.

Want to get in touch? Feel free to send us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast #627: Our Big Video Game Sequel Predictions

• IGN UK Podcast #626: The 15 Best Things We Played and Watched Over Christmas
• IGN UK Podcast #625: The Big 2022 Preview
• IGN UK Podcast #624: Alternative Movie and TV Awards 2021
• IGN UK Podcast #623: Alternative Game Awards 2021
• IGN UK Podcast #622: Sucking on Chocolate is Wonderful

What are the most under-the-radar games coming to Switch in 2022? Find out on this week's NVC, where Seth Macy, Peer Schneider, Kat Bailey, and special guest Dan Ryckert talk TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, Metal Slug Tactics, Triangle Strategy, and other upcoming titles they're looking forward to. Plus, the crew dives into the latest Mario Kart rumors, the new Kirby and the Forbidden Land release date news, and more.

Timecodes:

• 00:00:00 - Welcoooome!
• 00:00:41 - Mario Kart rumors
• 00:08:29 - The secret best Switch games of 2022
• 00:36:37- Kirby release date news
• 00:44:48 - News rundown
• 00:49:07 - Kat Take
• 00:57:27 - Best wrestling games
• 01:03:54 - What we’re playing

Linktree!

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You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at nvc@ign.com and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We're all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

God of War is hitting PC on Jan. 14, allowing for players to re-experience IGN’s Game of the Year 2018, while a potentially brand new audience will also be able to jump into Sony Santa Monica’s evolution of the long-running series ahead of God of War Ragnarok’s planned 2022 release.

While it’s the same game feature-wise as what players enjoyed on the PS4 and PS4 Pro (or even backward compatible on the PS5) - there’s no additional DLC campaign being introduced or anything like that - it’s a chance for Santa Monica to take advantage of the increased power of PC’s to allow for better graphical fidelity and variety. And, just as importantly, it allows the developers to expand upon the ways players can actually interact with God of War. Keyboard and mouse controls are a given, more customization options for those inputs, and more tweaks allow God of War to, hopefully, be a more accessible experience on PC.

To find out more about the process of expanding on God of War’s playability on PC, IGN spoke with God of War 2018’s director Cory Barlog and Santa Monica Studio lead UX designer Mila Pavlin.

Adapting a PS4 Exclusive to PC

As Santa Monica’s first time focusing on a PC release, that means adding something as expected as mouse and keyboard support can have big ramifications for the team.

PlatinumGames' Kenichi Sato announced Thursday that he is stepping down from his position as president and CEO of the Bayonetta and Nier: Automata studio, with veteran developer Atsushi Inaba rising to take his place.

"Currently I feel that PlatinumGames is ready to push forward towards more innovative forms of play, and so now is better a time than ever to hand the reigns to Inaba, who has led the initiative on building the company’s creative output for many years now," Sato said in a blog post.

Sato will continue to serve PlatinumGames as an advisor, "offering my help where needed." He served as president of the company for a little over five-and-a-half years.

As for Inaba, he got his start working as the CEO of Clover Studio, the team behind Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and God Hand. He co-founded Platinum in 2007 alongside Resident Evil/The Evil Within director Shinji Mikami, Bayonetta's Hideki Kamiya, and Tatsuya Minami, taking on the role of lead producer, which he'll keep alongside his new role as president and CEO.

Inaba elaborated on his design philosophy in a separate post on Platinum's official site, saying he believed in "approaching 'fun' with complete sincerity. I believe every one of our staff take pride that they are entertainers, always attempting the perfect balance between play and professionalism."

Logan Paul made headlines when he purchased a box of first-edition Pokemon Card booster packs. But following speculation that Paul may have spent millions on fake cards, the YouTuber went to verify his purchase and confirmed they are indeed fake.

Paul posted a new video today simply titled “I lost $3,500,000 On Fake Pokemon Cards,” which seems pretty self-explanatory. But the saga on how he got to this point is quite the roller-coaster.

There is currently a Pokemon card gold rush with first-edition cards hitting valuations well into the thousands of dollars. In December 2021, Paul — an avid Pokemon card collector who owns a $150,000 Charizard — announced he purchased a “sealed & authenticated” box of first-edition booster packs which could contain rare cards worth a small fortune.

However, Pokemon card experts began to question the veracity of Paul’s purchase. Observers noted that the box Paul purchased doesn’t resemble previous boxes for a similar set, and the original seller changed their story on how they acquired this valuable case at least three times in the past. The box first sold for $75,000, well below the auction price.

In response to the online speculation, Paul traveled to Chicago to verify his purchase with the Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE) — a previous owner of the set claimed the BBCE verified the legitimacy of the set before, but Paul set out to authenticate his purchase in person.

“A little far from home, aren’t you?”

Kratos most certainly is! One of the biggest anti-heroes in the PlayStation family has moved home twice in the past four years. First, Kratos left the ancient Greek climes and mythology behind and hit the colder and harsher environment of the Nordic mythology. But by far the bigger move, though, is that he’s no longer a PlayStation-exclusive character, with PC players now invited into the fold ahead of the PS4 & PS5 release of the concluding chapter in this tale, God of War Ragnarok. The question left to be answered is: Is Kratos sorry or is he better?

iPhone gamers haven't been able to access Fortnite for some time now after Apple banned Fortnite on the App Store, but that looks like it might be changing thanks to a new update from Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service.

Epic Games and Nvidia have teamed up to put Fortnite on GeForce Now, streaming via the Safari browser on iOS, starting with a closed beta test sometime next week. The test will only be available to GeForce Now subscribers.

Nvidia has also worked with Epic Games to implement a new type of touch-based controls for Fortnite. Touch controls were previously part of Fortnite's mobile version, but, presumably, these new controls will be more friendly for streaming the game from the cloud.

Fortnite was previously removed from the iOS App Store in August 2020 after Epic sued Apple over its App Store policies, launching a protracted trial between the two companies. Apple later effectively banned Fortnite from the App Store for five years when it decided not to reinstate Epic's developer account on the platform.

Google similarly removed Fortnite from the Android Play Store, but players could still download the game via the Epic Games app.

We've reached out to Apple PR for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.

Despite rumors that said otherwise, Matt Reeves’ The Batman will not be rated R and will instead have a rating of PG-13. While that may be disappointing for some who were hoping for a much darker and grittier version of Batman, it bears mentioning that The Dark Knight was also PG-13 and is considered one of the superhero movies of all time.

Even still, those who were hoping for a new R-rated superhero comic book movie can always fall back on the various films in the genre that are available to watch right now and which carry with them a more adult edge.

From Joker to Zack Snyder’s Justice League to Watchmen and many more, here are the best R-rated superhero comic book movies.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has revealed the nominations for its 25th annual DICE awards, and Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart leads the pack with 9 nominations.

Arkane's Deathloop follows closely behind with 8 nominations, while inscryption and It Takes Two earn 6 each. All four of those games are up for Game of the Year, as well as Housemarque's Returnal – meaning three of the five GOTY contenders are PlayStation exclusives.

The awards will be held on February 24 in Las Vegas, and IGN will be the official media partner, meaning you'll be able to stream the entire event live right here with us.

You can check out the full list of nominees below:

IO Interactive has announced that the Hitman Trilogy Collection will be launching next week, and it's coming straight to Game Pass.

IO Interactive is combining all three of its Hitman games into one single package that fans will be able to get their hands on next week. Officially launching on January 20, the collection will be available for fans on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store.

However, that's not all. For those of you currently signed up for Xbox Game Pass, there will be no need to purchase the game separately, as the studio has also announced that the trilogy will be coming to the service on day one.

January 20 marks the first time that Hitman 3 has been made available to players on Steam. The game's Steam launch will include full support for the title's brand-new VR mode (which is set to launch the same day) as well as a number of other technical improvements coming to Hitman 3 on PC later this year including the likes of Ray Tracing as well as Variable Rate Shading to boost PC performance.

HITMAN Trilogy includes all three games from the World of Assassination. Available digitally on January 20 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Epic Games Store. As well as Steam and Xbox Game Pass.

Watch the full @HITMAN 3 Year 2 reveal here: https://t.co/1SODjYBTQC pic.twitter.com/0o4gvAj7WK

Making games that appeal to both dedicated gamers and families is hard. The very strategic depth that the hobby crowd craves is a direct turn-off for more casual players. But there’s no shortage of people trying because it’s a very lucrative market. What gamers are mostly short of is people to play games with, so titles they can enjoy with the folks in their own home are bound to sell like hotcakes.

Cascadia is the latest in this long lineage. Burnishing the appealing theme of building up an ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest and aided by simple rules and a quick play time, it looks to have the chops. But this is a hard road, littered with broken boxes, and there’s no guarantee it can emulate the success of other wildlife themed crossover classics like Wingspan (which we awarded one of the best board games of 2019).

What’s in the Box

As a simple game you’d expect a simple set of components, and Cascadia delivers. There’s no board, just several sheets of punch out cardboard from which you pop chunky terrain hexes. There’s also a drawstring bag to fill with thin wooden counters in strong colors, printed with animal icons. A few cardboard pinecones, scoring cards and a pad to help you add up your scores round out the box contents.

Bandai Namco has announced My Hero Academia: Ultra Rumble - a new free-to-play battle royale game headed to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

As reported by Gematsu, Bandai Namco revealed the game in the latest issue of Weekly Jump magazine and, while a release date wasn't shared, the magazine does tease that players will get to "team up to win a 24-player rumble in multiplayer action!"

Microsoft quietly discontinued manufacturing all Xbox One consoles at the end of 2020, the company has revealed.

As reported by The Verge, Microsoft has stated that it stopped producing Xbox One consoles at the end of 2020 in order to focus its efforts on its new generation of consoles. “To focus on production of Xbox Series X / S, we stopped production for all Xbox One consoles by the end of 2020,” a statement reads.

The company announced that it had ceased production on all Xbox One X and digital Xbox One S consoles a few months prior to the launch of the Xbox Series X in 2020. However, the latest comments from Microsoft indicate that the publisher also stopped manufacturing the disc version of the Xbox One S only a few months later.

It's possible that focusing entirely on Xbox Series console production has helped ease supply issues for Microsoft amid worldwide parts shortages for electronics.

News of the discontinuation comes just shortly after it was reported that Sony is set to produce more PlayStation 4 consoles than initially planned. The company had planned to stop production of the PlayStation 4 at the end of 2021. However, ongoing PS5 shortages have seemingly pushed the technology giant to continue manufacturing its last-generation console for a little while longer.

Nintendo has released a new 13-minute gameplay video showcasing Pokémon Legends Arceus. It offers an in-depth look at Arceus' new spin on the classic monster collecting game, including how Pokémon are battled and caught out in the wild.

The more open world-like nature of Legends Arceus means that Pokémon can be caught in and out of battle - you can try and sneak up on them and catch them unaware, or catch them in the more traditional way during battles. To try and get an advantage over your potential captures, you can throw items to lure or distract Pokémon.

Getting into a battle with a Pokémon brings a certain amount of risk, as they can directly attack you. Should you take enough damage, you'll eventually faint and lose items. As such, you'll want to be careful around particularly aggressive wild Pokémon, because items can be used to craft new creations in the new scavenging and crafting system.

A detailed explainer of Pokémon battles reveals that the turn-based system has been overhauled with a two-style system. Pokémon can attack with either strong style or agile moves. Agile moves are less powerful, but faster, and may allow you to take another attack to turn sooner. Strong style moves are the opposite: more devastating, but you risk delaying your next turn. Using a combination of both will be important for success, it seems.

Mini-boss style Pokémon, known as Alpha Pokémon, can be found in the world, and are larger, stronger versions of classic favourites. Seen in the trailer is an alpha Walrein with glowing red eyes, who's a pretty big boy compared to the trainer's own Raichu.

Pokemon Legends Arceus is almost here, and if you're looking to pick it up on release day, January 28, then you're in luck. If you preorder the game from Amazon right now you can save $5 on your purchase (see here).

This is a remarkable deal, especially considering it's rare for first-party Nintendo games to get any kind of discount soon after release, let alone before. So, if you want to play a brand new Pokemon game this month, we'd recommend checking out this discount before it expires.

Save $5 on Pokemon Legends Arceus Preorders Right Now

There aren't any universal preorder bonuses for Legends Arceus, but if you preorder from Amazon, you'll get an exclusive in-game Garchomp Kimono Set.

For more info on preorder details, make sure to check out our Pokemon Legends Arceus preorder guide as well.

What is Pokemon Legends Arceus?

Developed by Game Freak, Pokemon Legends: Arceus brings players back in time before the Sinnoh region was built out into what it is in the Diamond and Pearl games. Your job is to explore an 'open world' while researching wild Pokemon in order to complete the first Pokedex of the area.

Pokemon Legends Arceus Release Date

Pokemon Legends Arceus will release for Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.

A Starfield-themed watch has seemingly leaked online, and some fans think it might be set to arrive as part of the game's Collector's Edition at launch - or could even appear in the game itself.

The watch itself was actually spotted for the first time in a behind-the-scenes trailer last year (you can see it at 1:33 mark here), but new images have been posted on the Starfield subreddit by user SquiddyVonn, who found the images alongside a draft user manual by manufacturer The Wand Company.

Like many smartwatches, the timepiece appears to come with a number of added features beyond simply telling time. In addition to sporting various designs, images of the device suggest that wearers will be able to use it for a number of purposes such as checking your location's current temperature, humidity, and local times for sunrise and sunset.

While we may have now entered 2022, that doesn't mean that fans will stop going to extreme lengths to ensure that you can play Doom on pretty much anything you'd like. Doomed: Demons of the Nether is the most recent fan-made project to successfully translate the franchise – this time by way of a Minecraft map that looks absolutely wild.

The map itself was created by modder Sibogy and even has its own trailer (which you can watch below). According to a post made by the fan-developer on Reddit, the adventure map took two years to create, uses data packs, command blocks, and a custom resource pack, and will be completely free for anyone to download.

While the game is based on the recent Doom games by id Software, it isn't an exact copy. Speaking to PC Gamer about the creation, Sibogy explained, "I didn't want to make a 1:1 copy because you might as well play Doom at that point. If something seemed fun I looked to implement it."

PlayStation is continuing to expand its offering of PlayStation 5 DualSense colors and now PS5 console covers, and we've got a close-up look at some of the latest.

Check out the gallery below for a look at PlayStation's three new DualSense colors - the Galactic Purple, Starlight Blue, and Nova Pink variations, as well as the Midnight Black PS5 console covers, the first of two new swappable covers for your PlayStation 5.

Sony announced these new PS5 and DualSense color varieties in 2021. The controllers and covers, as well as the Cosmic Red PS5 covers, are available this month, while PS5 covers to match the new DualSense colors will be released later in 2022. If you're looking for them, be sure to check out our guide on where to get the newest PS5 DualSense controller color variants.

For more on the PS5, be sure to check out the latest episode of IGN's PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, to hear the latest news in the world of PS4 and PS5. And for more, check out our wider view of what to expect from PlayStation in 2022.