Month: January 2021

Netflix has announced Skull Island, a new anime series set in the Legendary MonsterVerse. It will be produced by Powerhouse Animation, the studio behind Castlevania.

A shipwrecked crew, an island of monsters, and one king to rule them all. Skull Island is a new anime series set in @Legendary’s Monsterverse from @PowerhouseAnim.

— NX (@NXOnNetflix) January 27, 2021

As detailed by the tweet, the series will involve a shipwrecked crew landing on an island full of monsters, where one king rules them all. That ‘king’ is likely to be King Kong himself, considering Skull Island is the giant gorilla’s home.

Skull Island has been featured in numerous films, starting in the 1933 movie King Kong. Most recently, it was the setting of Kong: Skull Island, and modern film fans will also recall it being a large part of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. The Kong: Skull Island version of the setting is officially part of the Legendary MonsterVerse, and so may well be the starting point for this show, which is also an official part of the universe.

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No images or artwork has yet been shown, but Powerhouse Animation has produced a variety of well-liked shows, including Netflix’s Castlevania adaptation and Blood of Zeus. The studio is based in Austin, Texas, but has produced animation in a similar style to Japanese anime studios.

For more, check out our look at every monster in the MonsterVerse, why Kong is so big in the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong movie, and vote in our survey on who you think will win the epic monster battle. 

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

EA has announced the newest studio in its stable, Full Circle, and the Vancouver-based, but also globally focused, studio will be the team behind the recently announced new Skate game.

While it remains unclear whether the newest entry in the Skate franchise will be Skate 4, or reboot of the franchise, or something else, EA confirmed the Full Circle team will be led by Daniel McCulloch, the former Head of Box Live at Microsoft. Returning Skate producers Deran Chung and Cuz Parry remain on board, having appeared in the Skate sequel’s announcement video at EA Play 2020.

“The fans wished Skate back into existence and we want them to feel involved in the process from development to game launch and beyond. We want them to feel like they are a part of Full Circle,” McCulloch said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “We’re all about having fun and making great games that people want to play with their friends. And, we’re looking for more developers to help us build compelling worlds for players to explore.”

The new studio is currently hiring for various positions including artists, designers, and engineers, and while it’s based in Vancouver, is “embracing a geo-diverse team” with members involved in development “around the globe.”

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Full Circle joins EA Sports and Respawn Entertainment as the third EA Studio in the Canadian city.

Unfortunately, there’s no new word on development on the next Skate thus far, or any additional details about the vision for the upcoming game, but late last year we learned the new Skate may have a focus on user-generated content. At the time, EA’s Andrew Wilson discussed how the new Skate was in “very early development” but that trends within the skateboarding world could fit into the scope of the new game.

“You take a game like Skate, and while skateboarding in and of itself has tremendous appeal to a huge, global audience, there’s another secular trend that’s happening inside our industry around user-generated content, open-world, and interaction,” Wilson said last June. “So for many people, you think about skating as a starting point that has appeal, but you start to build in user-generated content, exploration, and community on top of that and that expands the opportunity exponentially.”

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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

The Skate franchise has a new studio that will lead development on the upcoming game, publisher EA confirmed. Called Full Circle, the “geo-diverse” team will be in charge of bringing the iconic skateboarding simulator back to life with a brand-new entry the publisher announced back in June 2020.

Leading Full Circle is studio general manager Daniel McCulloch, the former head of Xbox Live. McCulloch will be joined by Cuz Parry and Deran Chung, who served as the creative forces behind the Skate franchise and integral parts of the development of the three original games. Though based in Vancouver, the team is staffed by employees from around the world to “embrace a geo-diverse team and culture” focused on the next evolution of the Skate series.

In a press release announcing the new studio, McCulloch said Full Circle is looking for more developers to help out with “making great games that people want to play with the friends.”

“The fans wished Skate back into existence and we want them to feel involved in the process from development to game launch and beyond,” McCulloch said. “We want them to feel like they are a part of Full Circle. We’re all about having fun and making great games that people want to play with their friends. And, we’re looking for more developers to help us build compelling worlds for players to explore.”

Chung and Perry echoed McCulloch’s sentiment, saying they’re “stoked” to be working on the Skate franchise again after being dormant for so many years despite the clamoring from fans.

“We’re so stoked to be back working on Skate,” Chung and Perry said in the press release. “Some would say things have come full circle.”

In June 2020, EA confirmed Skate would make a return. The announcement was met with excitement online, though EA and now new-developer Full Circle have not revealed a release date or any real details. Despite the skateboarding genre seeing a resurgence in Crea-ture Studios’ Session, Easy Day Studios’ Skater XL, and Vicarious Visions’ Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, the last entry in EA’s series was Skate 3, which come out in May 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Division 2 is getting its next big update soon, and it includes improvements for people playing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, new Resident Evil content, and more.

Announced by the game’s community developer on Twitter, title update 12.1 will launch on February 2 with a number of new additions. The patch adds 4K 60 FPS support for The Division 2 on next-gen consoles, while it also introduces the Resident Evil crossover event. The February 2 patch will also rebalance some of the Optimization Station costs.

In February, Ubisoft confirmed that it was not developing a bespoke version of The Division 2 for PS5 and Xbox Series X, with the developer instead focusing on improving the game for existing platforms. This effort is now extended to PS5 and Xbox Series X through next week’s patch.

As for the Resident Evil event, players who log in to The Division between February 2-15 will receive several iconic outfits and items from the Resident Evil franchise–read more here.

In other news, The Division developer Massive Entertainment is now working on an open-world Star Wars game with Disney and Lucasfilm Games. That’s not the only licensed game in the works at the Swedish studio, as it’s also developing a new game based on James Cameron’s Avatar series.

The European Consumer Organization has submitted a complaint to the European Commission about Nintendo Switch Joy-Con Drift, and is calling for a “Europe-wide investigation” into the issue.

The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) revealed the news on the organization’s website, noting that “nearly 25,000” complaints have been filed from Switch-owning consumers across Europe. If you’re unfamiliar with Joy-Con drift, it’s when the analog sticks on the console’s controllers register movements without input from the player.

The article reports that, according to testimonies from consumers, “in 88% of cases, the game controllers broke within the first two years of use.” This has led the BEUC to submit a complaint to the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities “for premature obsolescence and misleading omissions of key consumer information.”

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The BEUC is further calling for a “Europe-wide investigation” into the Joy-Con Drift issue, asking Nintendo to “urgently address the premature failures of its product.” The article also suggests that the faulty controllers should be repaired for free by Nintendo.

Per the complaint letter submitted, the BEUC is asking the European Commission to “call on the national authorities to investigate Nintendo’s practices in their countries, launch a coordinated enforcement action and issue a joint position, which should request the company to change the design of their product, to effectively prevent its early obsolescence, and until then, to repair this product for free and properly inform consumers about the limited lifespan of the Joy-Con controllers.”

“Consumers assume the products they buy to last an appropriate amount of time according to justified expectations, not to have to pay for expensive replacements due to a technical defect,” said Monique Goyens, Director of the BEUC. “Nintendo must now come up with proper solutions for the thousands of consumers affected by this problem.”

Nintendo has been facing legal trouble over the issue in Europe, Canada and the US recently, with Canadian law firm lambert Avocat filing an application to bring a class-action suit against Nintendo in January of this year.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Ubisoft has issued the new Title Update 3.0 for Watch Dogs: Legion on PC, with console versions of the patch coming sometime soon. The patch includes various fixes and improvements, but focuses mostly on preparing for a closed technical test for the upcoming online mode.

According to a post on the Ubisoft forums, the tech test will gather data on stability with a large sample size of players. The 3.0 update is coming to consoles too at some point, but the company notes that some of the changes might be rolled into a separate update on consoles as we approach the launch of the online mode.

The online co-op mode was originally planned to hit Watch Dogs shortly after launch, but Ubisoft ultimately delayed it to focus its efforts on patching single-player issues. It promised at the time that the online mode would come in early 2021.

The online mode is said to allow up to four players to take on missions in the open-world London setting, as well as the first Tactical Op and a PvP mode called Spiderbot Arena. Ubisoft also has more story content planned for the season pass this year.

Watch Dogs: Legion Title Update 3.0 Patch Notes

Global

• Fixed an issue where certain sound effects would not play after starting a new game, or when resuming a game from the pause menu.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the audio to glitch and stutter in the open world.
• Fixed an issue that could cause players to become stuck in the cinematic after talking to Hamish in the “Power from the People” mission.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash due to an audio bug.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when loading into the world.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when exiting to the Main Menu.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the objective to not update after the cinematic in the Lost and Found mission.
• Fixed an issue where a recruitment mission would not start when force quitting or crashing the application while the first dialogue sequence is occurring.
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to freeze when switching between the Phone and Pause menus while interacting with a server via a Spiderbot during a Borough Uprising Mission.
• Fixed an issue causing the Neutralize VIP marker to not follow the target during the Neutralize/Eliminate VIP objective in the Borough Uprising Mission for Wandsworth/Nine Elms.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Clocktower puzzle to become impossible to complete after a Drone Expert’s Shock Drone flew into the tower during a Borough Uprising Mission for Westminster.
• Fixed an issue for a black screen to occur if an operative got hit after interacting with the starting point of the race in a Borough Uprising Mission for Tower Hamlets.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a black screen or game freeze to occur when opening the Phone or Pause Menu right after interacting with the keyboard to hijack the chase drone during a Borough Uprising Mission for Westminster and Camden.
• Fixed an issue where the “Hijack the News Drone” objective would incorrectly complete if the Drone Expert or Livestreamer operative would hijack their personal drone during a Borough Uprising Mission.
• Fixed an issue where Albion guards could disable the hijacked CT Drone rendering the player unable to control the drone during a Borough Uprising Mission for Lambeth.
• Fixed an issue where the player was unable to complete the mission after destroying the mission drone on the balcony of the Walkie Talkie Club during a Borough Uprising Mission.
• Fixed an issue where a player would occasionally be spawned in a different location when leaving the rooftop of Walkie Talkie building.
• Fixed an issue where the Football Hooligan operative could spawn allies inside areas where they would be unable to follow the player.
• Fixed an issue where the Ping function would not locate Personal Drones through walls or objects after exiting drone mode.
• Fixed an issue where completing Camden borough would show the Westminster celebration liberation instead.
• Fixed an issue where deleting a photo from the “My Photos” tab in the gallery would update the list to only display one remaining photo.
• Fixed an issue where the “Mission Aborted” message would not appear if the player performs an Operative Swap after starting a Parcel Fox activity.
• Fixed an issue where pedestrians on sidewalks would not dodge the player’s vehicle appropriately. Get out the way, I’m driving here!
• Fixed an issue where civilians would start spinning in place when attempting to flee.
• Fixed an issue where the Protest Leader’s Megaphone gadget would have no effect on NPCs in red zones.
• Fixed an issue where the player could easily escape high level felonies by hiding in a Subway.
• Fixed an issue where Clan Kelly and Albion AI vehicles may not appear red on the minimap during combat.
• Fixed an issue where a player could get stuck on the operative swap screen and their save slot would load infinitely, after their last available operative dies, while the other available operatives are unavailable.
• Fixed several clipping issues and visual gaps on several outfits and other apparel.
• Fixed an issue where the Halo and Snake on the viper operative would not go invisible when activating the AR cloak.
• Fixed an issue where a prestige operative that was killed would become active again if the game was closed while the player was on the op swap or death screen when playing with Permadeath on.
• Fixed an issue where a black screen could appear if the player was unable to swap Operatives after getting drunk with their last sober operative, while all other operatives are passed out.
• Fixed an issue where the “Investigate the Stage” objective would not progress if the player opened and closed the team app after skipping the cinematic during the Moscow Rules mission.
• Fixed an issue where the keypad would stop responding if the player performed an operative swap during the Safehouse entry walk-up animation.
• Fixed an issue that would cause podcasts to restart when entering a vehicle shortly after leaving it.

PC

• Implemented various quality of life improvements for the User Interface on PC, including several fixes to unclickable option buttons.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when deleting a save file.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when the game was booted in DirectX 12 mode.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when changing any option in the gameplay tab from the main menu.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when quitting to the main menu after completing a mission.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash after exiting the benchmark in the Video settings menu.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when attempting to hack a person or vehicle.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when a player’s last operative is downed with Permadeath enabled.
• Fixed an issue where an incorrect default quality pre-set was being selected for AMD 6 series graphics cards.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to select any Data Menu app while using a Tobii device.
• Fixed an issue where pressing the “Continue” button would always launch the first save slot even if the player had a more recent save in a different slot.
• Fixed an issue where MSI Ambient Link would not engage until quitting to main menu and continuing a game.
• Fixed an issue where a black screen would appear when interacting with a tube station and simultaneously hacking a security camera.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash due to an engine bug.
• Fixed an issue that would cause FPS drops and stuttering on some PC specifications.
• Fixed an issue where the player’s operative state would not be saved if the game was exited while on a forced operative swap screen (Such as when the operative died, arrested, passed out or injured).
• Fixed an issue where the game screen would go black after enabling HDR.
• Fixed an issue where the game displayed various graphical artifacts when launching the game for the first time after enabling HDR.
• Fixed an issue where aim assist would have a wider area on higher resolution screens.
• Fixed an issue where camera shake would still occur even when camera effects were turned off in the settings.
• Fixed an issue where the photosharing feature would be unavailable on the borders of different boroughs.
• Fixed an issue where the game could temporarily freeze when quitting to the main menu.
• Fixed an issue where aim lock would not target valid objects during some missions.
• Fixed an issue where options settings would not save if the texture resolution confirmation message is canceled in the Graphics Settings menu.
• Fixed an issue where the game would not pause if the player was in the Gallery screen, and alt tabbed.
• Fixed an issue where the menu music would stop playing after switching spoken languages.
• Fixed an issue where Autodrive would automatically disable when the player hacked another vehicle.
• Fixed an issue where vehicle headlights and shadows would intermittently disappear.
• Fixed an issue where dynamic lighting was too strong with Tobii light adaptation.
• Improved Tobii UI functionality on game HUD elements.
• Fixed an issue with AMD video cards where visual artifacts were visible in game.

Less than a week after its release, Hitman 3 has already been profitable for developer and publisher IO Interactive. It’s the first game in the series to be self-published after a long relationship with Eidos and Square Enix, followed by Warner Bros. publishing Hitman 2.

“As the developer and publisher, we are immensely proud that we can say Hitman 3 is already profitable,” IO Interactive told GamesIndustry.biz in a statement. “We have recouped the total project costs in less than a week. That puts us in a really good place and allows us to confidently move forward with our ambitious plans for future projects.

Those projects include a 007 James Bond game, which will be an origin story not based on any of the existing actors’ portrayals of the character. In the past, IO Interactive also developed the cult-hit third-person tactical shooter Freedom Fighters, which saw the United States invaded by Russia and a plumber leading an underground guerrilla movement to take back New York City.

The future of the Hitman franchise, and IO Interactive itself, was murkier just a few years ago. Following the 2016 Hitman game’s release, Square Enix split from the studio and it looked like it could be the end of the franchise. Instead, IO Interactive paid for full ownership of Hitman and set out on its own.

Hitman 3 just might be the best game in the series to date. In our Hitman 3 review, Phil Hornshaw praised how the game made the best elements of the previous games even better, as well as how it managed to subvert players’ expectations. If you are struggling, check out our Hitman 3 guides and tips to help you plan the perfect assassination.

When Monster Hunter Rise arrives on the Nintendo Switch, fans of Capcom’s beast-slaying adventure who want to take the experience with them will have the option to grab a special edition of Nintendo’s successful console. Nintendo will release a Monster Hunter Rise-themed Switch on March 26 in Europe and Japan, which features intricate designs from the game on the Switch, dock, and Joy-Cons.

The system hasn’t been confirmed for a North American release yet, but the design is stunning and also features Monster Hunter Rise’s flagship monster Magnamalo etched across the Switch dock.

The game itself will be included through a download code, alongside deluxe DLC such as “Kamurai” Hunter layered armor set, “Shuriken Collar” Palamute layered armor piece, “Fish Collar” Palico layered armor piece, Gestures (4 Jumps), Samurai pose set, Kabuki face paint, and “Izuchi Tail” hairstyle.

A Palamute Retriever Costume layered armor, Palico Forest Cat Costume layered armor, and a Novice Talisman is also included as bonus content, with the special edition Switch costing 38,400 yen in Japan. Here’s a closer look at the bundle:

Gallery

There’ll also be a themed Switch Pro Controller available, although that will be a separate purchase.

If you’re still curious about Monster Hunter Rise, you better act fast as its demo will soon be delisted from the Nintendo eShop. You’ve got until 1 AM PT / 3 AM ET on February 1 to try it out, and if you miss that chance you’ll have to wait until its March 26 release.

Even if you are planning to buy the game regardless of the demo, it’s worth trying out as you’ll be able to start your adventure with a few handy items in your inventory such as Mega Potions, Pitfall Traps, Energy Drinks, Mega Demondrugs, and Mega Armorskins. There’ll also be three new Amiibo figures from the game to collect, that unlock special layered armor sets.

Check out our Monster Hunter Rise preorder guide and our roundup of everything we know about Monster Hunter Rise for more details.