Author: Trafficblast

Netflix has revealed the title for the first episode of its live-action One Piece series, and longtime fans of the anime and manga will likely recognize it.

That’s because the episode title, Romance Dawn, seems to be hinting at the origin of One Piece.

Published as a one-shot written by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda in the Shonen Jump 1996 Summer Special, Romance Dawn is about a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy, who, to make things short and spoiler-free, does some very pirate-y things. Romance Dawn is also the first arc in the anime, told over the first few episodes.

IT’S HAPPENING!!!!!! #OnePiece pic.twitter.com/Xmp9eHAK9G

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) September 3, 2021

While the Romance Dawn one-shot wasn’t called One Piece at the time of its original publishing, it was essentially adopted as the origin of One Piece. In fact, it was eventually reprinted in One Piece Red: Grand Characters.

Now, it’s unclear if the first episode of Netflix’s One Piece series will be a retelling of the Romance Dawn arc or if the episode title is simply an homage to the series’ start.

Netflix announced the series back in 2020 as a partnership with Tomorrow Studios and Shueisha “to bring [One Piece’s] pirate adventure story from Japan to audiences around the world.” Netflix released this note from Oda, the author of the manga series, at the time of the announcement:

The story of One Piece centers around the Straw Hat Pirates and their captain, Monkey D. Luffy who, after eating the cursed Gum-Gum Devil Fruit, is turned into what is essentially a rubber man. This gives Luffy the power to stretch his body to great lengths. Luffy and his crew are after the legendary One Piece treasure, as whomever discovers it becomes the King of Pirates.

There’s no official casting or release date at this moment, but Steven Maeda (Lost, The X-Files) will serve as showrunner with Oda set to executive produce the series alongside Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios (Cowboy Bebop, Snowpiercer, Hanna). The picture of the first episode’s script reveals that the teleplay was written by Matt Owens and Maeda.

For more about Netflix’s live-action ventures, check out the first images from its upcoming Cowboy Bebop series and then check out the cast and creative team for its Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Battlefield 2042 developer DICE has shed some light on one of the notable changes it’s making to a particular part of the multiplayer game due to feedback from the alpha.

Battlefield’s lead community manager said on Twitter that the operator Falck’s S21 Syrette pistol had “significant” enough issues to lead to an overall imbalance to gameplay. This pistol is capable of reviving players at range, but that proved to be too OP. As a result, DICE is changing the pistol so it will only be capable of healing at range but not reviving.

“Balancing games is fun! We love learning when we move into new environments and we’re excited for the things that we’ll learn this month with our open beta expect us to be plenty transparent about how things are performing and the balance changes we’ll make across 2042,” the community manager said.

This information is coming to light just ahead of DICE putting out new “gameplay snippets” for the operators Boris, Casper, Mackay, and Falck. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

Battlefield 2042 launches in October, but an open beta is apparently coming up sometime in September, so it might not be much longer until we get to go hands-on with the multiplayer game.

In other Battlefield news, EA has shared lots of new information about Battlefield Mobile, including the release timing, launch content, and cross-play details for the upcoming beta.

This week the IGN UK podcast heads to Yara, the setting of Far Cry 6. Matt’s spent a few hours in its jungles, and so tells Dale and Jesse exactly what he thinks of it so far. There’s also chat about House of Ashes, the next game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, as well as more thoughts on time loopers Twelve Minutes and The Forgotten City. All that doesn’t mean that we don’t have time for an Endless Search and listener feedback, so listen all the way through for the full package.

Want to submit your own Endless Search, food opinion, or a bit of other nonsense? Feel free to get in touch with the podcast at: [email protected].

IGN UK Podcast #608: A Far Cry From The Forgotten City

• IGN UK Podcast #607: DokeV’s Llama Would Batter a Xenomorph
• IGN UK Podcast #606: Lucy’s Unfortunate Train Ride and Other Stories
• IGN UK Podcast #605: Darth Maul + Rio Ferdinand = Darth Merkin’
• IGN UK Podcast #604: Welcome to British Sitcom Smash
• IGN UK Podcast #603: John Cena’s Jungle Ascent

Ahead of the second DC FanDome event in October, Warner Bros. and DC Comics have debuted new key art for the upcoming third-person action RPG Gotham Knights. Featuring the core cast of Bat-family vigilantes stepping up to protect Gotham City after the apparent demise of Batman, the new image features Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin strutting down a seedy part of the city that is very wet and very purple. There’s also a reflection of Batman, sneakily reflected in the puddle below the gang.

As for clues in the image, there’s not exactly much hidden inside of it. Aside from a detailed look at the Bat-Family’s costumes–which will come in handy for cosplayers looking for more reference material–the only other DC Universe easter egg is a reference to Sundollar Coffee, a multinational franchise that has appeared in a handful of comic books.

Originally scheduled for release this year, Warner Bros. delayed Gotham Knights to an unspecified date in 2022. For more info on the game, you can check out our Gotham Knights interview with creative director Patrick Redding and producer Fleur Marty, where we discussed making an original story, how the RPG systems work, and more.

DC FanDome kicks off on October 16 and will feature an update on another DC Universe game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. News on upcoming film projects such as The Batman, Flashpoint, and Black Adam is also expected to be part of DC FanDome’s main event.

Fortnite is ending its Chapter 2 Season 7 Invasion event with a grand finale called Operation: Sky Fire. This is a live, one-time event with no replays so you’ll want to start tuning in on September 12 at 1 pm PT/4 pm ET if you want to take part.

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 7 Invasion began with an alien invasion. Players were tasked by Doctor Slone to fight back the alien menage along with Imagined Order. Now you’ll infiltrate The Last Reality in one final mission.

The Operation: Sky Fire event playlist will be available 30 minutes before the event start so you’ll need to queue in for a spot on the 16-person team. Epic Games is insistent that this event will not happen again and recommends players, particularly content creators, to record their game.

Epic is also recommending you finish up your quests before Chapter 2 Season 7 ends and has provided a to-do list for players before Operation: Sky Fire

• Starting on September 9, players should gather and spend Bars at the Bargain Bin Wild Week. A new Legendary Quest will let you earn extra XP for your Battle Pass for doing so.

• Complete any remaining Epic Quests and Superman Quests and exchange Battle Stars before the event.

• Unclaimed Battle Stars or Alien Artifacts will be automatically redeemed for rewards and styles starting with the earliest available unlocks.

• The Superman Quest must be completed before September 12 at 1 pm PT/4 pm ET to earn the special Glider, Pickaxe, and Shadow style before the next season.

Fortnite’s space theme continued past seasons with big cameos and guest characters. Superman and Rick were both part of the Invasion season along with a host of alien-themed cosmetics.

With the finale approaching, all eyes will be on what Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 8 will have in store, which will likely be teased or revealed following Operation: Sky Fire.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Fortnite Season 7 is coming to a close very soon, and Operation: Sky Fire aims to put a bow on what has been many players’ favorite season of Fortnite Chapter 2. The alien invasion season played host to a busier-than-usual content pipeline, including the Cosmic Summer event, the Ariana Grande Rift Tour, and the return of Wild Weeks. But now it all comes down to this. Operation: Sky Fire is a go. Here’s what you need to know.

Operation: Sky Fire

The Fortnite interactive finale event for Season 7 is called Operation: Sky Fire, and it will take place just once on Sunday, September 12 at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET. Players who want to be a part of it should try to queue into the playlist 30 minutes before it begins.

Players can jump into the event playlist in a lobby with up to 15 friends to experience it all together, though it’s unclear if that means each player shares the experience only with those in their menu lobby or if they will see strangers in the same space, a la the Rift Tour. There will be no replays for this event, unlike some others such as the Zero Point Finale, which remained a playlist for several weeks into Season 6.

Naturally, Epic Games is staying pretty quiet about precisely what this event will entail, but we know from a story perspective this will be the culmination of months of work led by Doctor Slone, the Imagined Order, and you–assuming you’ve been tackling all those surveillance and sabotage missions for Slone all season long.

The developer-publisher did provide a small teaser for the event, though if you’re ultra-sensitive to spoilers, you may want to skip this next bit. According to the team, players will “join a strike team and sneak aboard the Mothership to deliver IO’s final message to the invading Aliens.” I’m guessing it won’t be “come back soon.”

Season 7 Checklist

Epic also wants players to ensure they’ve done everything they wanted to do this season, as they’ll only have a few days more to do it before Season 8 presumably begins on September 13. Here’s everything Epic says to double-check before the Fortnite world lunges into yet another new era:

• Spend Alien Artifacts on Kymera customization options
• Spend Gold Bars–to date, they have never carried over across seasons
• Complete Epic Quests, including all Superman Quests
• Spend Battle Stars to unlock Battle Pass items

Epic is warning players to do all this before Operation Sky Fire begins, suggesting what comes of the assault on the Mothership will have massive implications for Fortnite Season 8.

A new report claims that Nintendo is going to add Game Boy and Game Boy Color games to its Nintendo Switch Online service.

This news comes by way of Eurogamer, which corroborates a report from Nintendo Life that games from these two Nintendo handhelds might finally come to the company’s online Netflix-like service.

Nintendo Life reported earlier this week that Nate the Hate podcast host, NateDrake, had revealed that Nintendo might be adding Game Boy and Game Boy Color games to its online catalogue. The publication confirmed this with its own sources, adding that these games could be coming “really soon.”

Now, Eurogamer writes that its own independent sources say the same. The publication also revealed that its sources say games from other retro platforms are on the table as well.

As noted by Eurogamer, a 2019 datamine by OatmealDome of the NES Switch app revealed that SNES titles would be coming to the service before Nintendo made the official announcement. Nine months after that datamine, SNES games were added to the service.

OatmealDome noted that they had discovered two additional emulator types — Hiyoko and Count. Nintendo Life’s report, which has now been corroborated by Eurogamer, mentions that Hiyoko could be the emulator name for Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles.

Eurogamer’s report indicates that additional retro consoles could be added to Nintendo Switch Online, and perhaps the Count emulator discovered in OatmealDome’s datamine is the emulator that these additional consoles (or maybe just one console) will use.

While waiting to see if these games come to Nintendo Switch Online, check out one of the latest game drops for the service in this Super NES: July 2021 game updates trailer. Watch IGN’s unboxing of the Nintendo Switch Online SNES controller after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.