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Since From Software released a trailer for Elden Ring at E3 2019, the developer has been fairly quiet on what’s going on with the upcoming game. We don’t know whether Elden Ring will make an appearance at E3 2021, but we sure hope it does.

Below, we go over everything that we currently know about Elden Ring (spoiler alert: it’s not much) and list what we hope to see of the game at E3 this year.

What We Know So Far

We know precious little about Elden Ring–its announcement trailer, in traditional From Software fashion, was not very straightforward in explaining what’s going on or what the player will be doing or why the player will want to do it. The developer is keeping details very close to the chest.

We do know that From Software is developing the game in collaboration with Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin when it comes to the construction of its story and world. That world will seemingly be a bit more open than past From Software titles–you’ll explore an open environment composed of different kingdoms, each ruled by a powerful entity.

Whether your overall goal is to defeat each of these rulers is unclear, but we do know that you can fight them, and beating them will allow you to claim their unique powers for yourself (not unlike how you can transfigure boss souls in the Dark Souls series to acquire special abilities and weapons).

In an interview with GameSpot, Xbox head Phil Spencer said, “As somebody who’s played all of Miyazaki’s games over at least the last decade, [Elden Ring] is clearly the most ambitious game that he’s done. I mean, I love his games, but seeing some of the gameplay mechanics stuff that he’s tackling, he and the team are tackling this time, of the setting, working with another creator in terms of story. I love it.”

Elden Ring is currently only scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, though we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the game is also coming to Xbox Series X|S and PS5.

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What’s Confirmed For E3 2021

Currently nothing Elden Ring-related has been confirmed for E3 2021. That said, the game’s publisher, Bandai Namco, is hosting its own livestream during E3. Elden Ring could make an appearance there.

Elden Ring was also first teased during Microsoft’s E3 2019 press conference, so we could see the game make an appearance during this year’s Xbox & Bethesda E3 showcase. No way of knowing until it airs.

What We Hope To See At E3 2021

At this point? Anything.

We’d love to see a deep dive gameplay showcase of Elden Ring which explains whether the game embodies a similar structure to From Software’s Soulsborne games or whether it takes a page out of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice‘s book and is only loosely inspired by what the developer has done before. Getting a concrete look at Elden Ring in action would be so cool!

Barring that, another cinematic trailer that’s not as opaque in its symbolism would be nice–we’d love to get a little bit of concrete information about what we’re actually doing in Elden Ring and why we’re doing it.

Honestly, at this point, we’d settle for a 10-second teaser that simply confirms whether Elden Ring is scheduled to come out this year. We just want to see something.

Polybius is an urban legend that has been around for a few decades, with stories detailing a supposedly mind-altering arcade game planted by the government in Portland, Oregon. No evidence exists to actually prove it was real, and in fact there is evidence to the contrary, but a cheeky scaled-down replica is available to preorder now.

Available from Numskull via its Quarter Arcades line, the Polybius replica costs $144 via preorder with an expected release date this August. It was previously available via Kickstarter (I backed it after trying to convince myself I didn’t need it) and because it’s not based on a real game, it doesn’t contain an arcade ROM like the other Quarter Arcades cabinets.

Instead, it plays spooky visuals and sound effects to hypnotize you and the back functions as a USB power hub. You can power up to 10 other cabinets via the ports, meaning you’ll only need one outlet on your wall in order to make your entire tiny arcade playable. It also comes in a “mysterious black box” as a nod to the urban legend.

Polybius is such a popular urban legend that it has made its way from arcade obsessives to mainstream pop culture, appearing as an Easter egg in shows like The Simpsons and The Goldbergs. YouTuber Stuart Ashen liked the story so much that he even made a feature-length film about it.

Numskull’s other Quarter Arcades games include Pac-Man 40th Anniversary, Galaga, Galaxian, and Dig Dug. You can check them all out on the official website.

Despite announcing a number of upcoming ways to play Xbox without a console or PC, a Microsoft exec insists that Xbox consoles remain its “flagship experience” – and says work has already begun on “new hardware and platforms.”

In a video shown for press, CVP of Gaming Experiences & Platforms, Liz Hamren explained that, despite the company’s growing interest in cloud streaming for gaming, “We’re already hard at work on new hardware and platforms, some of which won’t come to light for years.”

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In the video, Microsoft execs repeatedly make clear that the Xbox experience can, and will, expand beyond traditional platforms. As Phil Spencer puts it, by the company’s calculations, there are a potential 3 billion gamers on Earth, but only 200-250 million will consider buying a console. But Hamren makes clear that the company is putting emphasis on those console owners:

“While we continue to expand in PC and mobile, console remains our flagship experience. We want to deliver the most powerful, capable consoles in the world, devices that empower our players to enjoy amazing games for years to come, including gameplay we can’t even imagine yet.”

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It’s clear that Microsoft sees a new, multi-pronged strategy in its future – providing high-end experiences using traditional hardware, while offering multiple options – from TV apps to streaming devices – to those who would prefer to stream their games.

It’s a mjor moment not just for Xbox, but Microsoft as a whole. After years treating Xbox as something of an island, the tech giant is now “all in on gaming”.

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New-school RPG Monark will be making its way West in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch, developer Lancarse and publisher NIS America have announced. Developed by a studio made up of several people who previously worked on the Shin Megami Tensei series, Monark will feature English and Japanese voice acting and is set in an academy that contains the demon-filled dimension of Otherworld.

To survive in this realm, you’ll need to harness their Authority of Vanity, which can be used to conjure a battalion of Fiends who are powered by their master’s “Ego” according to Lancarse. To power up your Ego, you’ll have to develop it through various psychological tests and gain enough power to stand against the seven Pactbearers who have corrupted the academy. Basically, the madder you are, the more powerful you’ll become at the risk of permanently losing your sanity.

Fortunately, various allies and faculty staff will stop you from going off the deep end entirely, and you can unlock different Fiends to command in battle through the use of a freeform tactical system. Preorders are now open for the game, which will also be available in a $100 limited edition that includes a collector’s box, hardcover art book, VANI limited soundtrack, Seven Sins cloth poster, and a Pieces of Ambition set of five acrylic stands.

Announced at the beginning of June, Monark’s website originally contained a mysterious phone number that you could dial and then listen to screaming in the background while a Japanese voice delivered a creepy message.

The National Music Publishers’ Association is suing Roblox for $200 million in damages, claiming that the MMO has been allowing unlicensed use of songs by users.

As reported by Variety, the Association’s president and CEO, David Israelite, announced the company’s lawsuit against Roblox at the NMPA’s 2021 annual meeting. Israelite said that Roblox has earned “hundreds of millions of dollars by requiring users to pay every time they upload music onto the platform — taking advantage of young people’s lack of understanding about copyright — and then they take virtually no action to prevent repeat infringement or alert users to the risks they are taking.”

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The NMPA say that the artists affected by Roblox’s copyright infringement include Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons, deadmau5, Ed Sheeran, the Rolling Stones, and others. The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $200 million to cover damages “for Roblox’s unabashed exploitation of music without proper licenses.” The money “will ensure songwriters are fully paid for their works on the platform and that Roblox takes seriously its obligations to those who have made its service so popular and profitable.”

The Roblox name is still unfamiliar for many gamers, but it is colossally popular with younger players, so much so that Roblox is now worth more than Ubisoft and Take-Two combined. The platform, which allows for user-created games, has led to successes such as Roblox creators opening their own studios, and established indie devs making the new games in Roblox.

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

Xbox is going to start building its services directly into TVs, create Xbox streaming devices that negate the need for a console, and will add cloud gaming directly into PC and Xbox console experiences. It’s the surest sign yet that Microsoft is now thinking beyond traditional devices for gaming, although it insists that consoles remain its “flagship experience.”

In a pre-E3 2021 briefing, head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced a number of improvements and extensions to the Xbox ecosystem, including its Game Pass subscription service, All Access payment service, and Game Streaming capabilities. The main takeaway is that, as it’s hinted before, Microsoft is beginning to think of how to reach platforms other than Xbox consoles and PCs.

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The headline additions are:

• Xbox is working with TV manufacturers to build Xbox experiences directly into internet-enabled TVs, with only an extra controller required to play. This would presumably use Game Streaming services, rather than seeing games stored on TV hard drives.
• Xbox will also build ‘streaming devices for cloud gaming’, which will allow players to play Xbox games on TVs or monitors, without the need for a console. Phil Spencer previously hinted that streaming sticks could be bundled with a Game Pass subscription, but that wasn’t mentioned in the new announcement.
• Later this year, cloud gaming will be added to Xbox consoles and the Xbox app on PC, meaning you can play games before you buy and download them. This could also mean that you could begin playing games while they download.
• Microsoft datacenters are being upgraded with Xbox Series X hardware, meaning cloud gaming players could see better load times and frame rates (depending on internet connection).
• Xbox cloud gaming in a browser will soon open to all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members, supporting Chrome, Safari, and Edge.

The company added that it’s also working on new subscription offerings for Game Pass, working to expand Xbox All Access (which offers a console and Game Pass for a monthly fee, rather than an upfront cost), and will add cloud gaming for Game Pass Ultimate members in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan this year.

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Speaking about the company’s philosophy going forward, Spencer said, “We want everyone on Earth to be able to join in [on gaming], no matter what device you have access to, or where you are, and without spending a lot of money on every bit of individual entertainment.

“Achieving our mission is not going to be easy, and we have a long way to go, but we believe that only this company, only Microsoft, can bring to bear the global scale, the vast wellsprings of technical innovation, the financial resources, and the deep, decades-long legacy in video games required to truly bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone.”

It’s been clear for some time that Xbox, and Microsoft as a whole, now views Xbox consoles as a piece of its gaming business, as opposed to the extent of it – but this might be its most confident step forward in a new direction so far. Despite that move, Xbox’s Liz Hamren insists that consoles are its ‘flagship experience’, and says that it’s already working on new hardware, although some will likely be years away.

Few specific dates have been given, but it seems this year should see the extension of Xbox as a name for how you play your games, not just on what device.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Xbox Game Pass has been one of Microsoft’s biggest success stories this generation, and the company is not slowing down. Microsoft on Thursday announced major plans to grow and evolve the service over time, while it also released new statistics that speak to its popularity.

Microsoft is working with TV manufacturers around the world to “embed the Xbox experience directly into” internet-connected TVs. The idea is you’ll be able to play Xbox games with no additional hardware, except for a controller. This is a very big deal because it opens up a potentially much larger audience for Xbox: people who don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars for a console but still want to play games on their TV.

Additionally, Microsoft announced that it is “exploring new subscription offerings” for Game Pass that will allow “more players around the world can experience the most immersive and fun games across devices, geographies, and financial realities.” The company did not share any specifics about this, however, but clearly the aim is to get more subscribers.

In another effort to expand Xbox, Microsoft is working with telecom providers on “new purchasing models” like Xbox All Access that allow users to get a console (with Game Pass) for a monthly price instead of paying more up front. This is the model that has been popular and widespread for smartphones for many years.

Additionally, Microsoft announced that new Xbox-branded “streaming devices” to push Xbox cloud gaming on “any TV” without the need for a console. Again, no specifics or images were provided for this.

Another way Xbox is expanding is by launching Game Pass in more regions. The service will come to Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan later in 2021.

Additionally, Microsoft announced that cloud gaming through PC browsers will open for all Game Pass Ultimate members “in the next few weeks” across Chrome, Safari, and Edge. What’s more, Microsoft is in the “final stages” of adding Xbox Series X server racks to its data centers around the world so games streamed to the cloud look and run better. Players can expect faster loading times, better frame rates, and better graphics.

And later in 2021, cloud gaming will be added directly to the Xbox app on PC, while it will also be integrated into Xbox consoles themselves so players can try games before they download.

In terms of the new stats, Microsoft announced that Game Pass users play 30% more genres and 40% more games overall. 90% of subscribers told Microsoft they played a game they otherwise would have overlooked. Microsoft also said that “engagement” with Xbox Game Pass titles, on average, is up by more than 8x when they go on Game Pass.

Subscribers are spending more, too, as Microsoft said members spend 50% more on content than non-subscribers.

EA Play is now included on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and this has been a big hit, it seems. Microsoft said EA Play hours played on Microsoft platforms was up 200%, which has helped EA’s games on Game Pass reach “millions” of new players.

Square Enix’s Outriders launched on Game Pass day one, and this seemingly didn’t stop it from having strong sales. Microsoft said Outriders was the No. 1 best-selling digital Xbox game on the Xbox platform during its launch week and it stayed in the top 10 for the first month.

MLB The Show 21 also came to Xbox Game Pass on day one, and during its launch week, the game became the “biggest sports game of the past year” on Xbox. It was also the second biggest sports game of all time on Xbox, though the No. 1 title was no revealed. Direct sales of MLB The Show 21 on Xbox were strong too, becoming the No. 1 overall best-selling paid game on Xbox for April 2021.

This was just one of Microsoft’s big announcements today. The company also announced plans to release at least one new first-party game every three months. We might begin to hear more about Microsoft’s plans at the joint Xbox/Bethesda E3 2021 showcase on June 13.

Thanks in part to its acquisition of ZeniMax/Bethesda and the efforts it’s made to ramp up other internal development through buyouts of other studios, Microsoft now has 23 internal game developers across the world.

With so many teams now working on Xbox games, Microsoft said today that its new goal is to launch at least one new first-party game on Xbox Game Pass every three months.

These will span a variety of genres, including role-playing games, shooters, strategy titles, and adventure games. Microsoft said its goal is to make sure there is a “steady stream of compelling exclusive content to explore.”

Microsoft was at one point in time criticized for not having enough first-party content as it competed against PlayStation, but that doesn’t seem like it will be the case for much longer.

Now, not all of the games that Microsoft gives the green light to will come to market; that’s the nature of a creative business like games. But Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty said he’s happy with the output coming from the various Xbox studios going ahead.

“Games take up to four or five years to make, and the reality is that not every project we start will make it to launch,” he said. “But if you add all that up, that’s how we’ve gotten to our state today, with two dozen studios making games across a variety of genres. And we know a thriving entertainment service needs a consistent and exciting flow of new content. So our portfolio will continue to grow as our service grows.”

For its part, Sony recently announced that it has a whopping 25 new games in development, half of which are new IP.

As for when we might hear about the next Xbox games, Microsoft’s E3 2021 jointing briefing with Bethesda is coming up this Sunday, June 13; keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

In other news, Xbox just recently announced how it’s growing Xbox Game Pass in the future by creating Xbox-branded streaming devices, working with TV manufacturers to built Xbox directly into TVs, and more.

With the release of Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins fast approaching, Paramount Pictures has released a new series of motion posters featuring the heroes and villains of this G.I. Joe prequel.

IGN can exclusively debut all eight motion posters, which depict the main characters of the movie alongside symbols of the three key organizations that fuel the plot – the Joes, Cobra, and the Arashikage ninja clan.. Scroll down to get a closer look at this long-awaited origin story for the silent ninja hero.

Static versions of the motion posters can also be found in a gallery at the bottom of the article.

Snake Eyes

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Henry Golding stars as Snake Eyes, a loner who is recruited into the secretive Clan Arashikage. The film will chronicle his rise and show how he becomes the elite but silent member of G.I. Joe. Though there’s no guarantee the movie will follow the usual path of past G.I. Joe stories, as we already know we’ll be seeing a lot of Snake Eyes’ face.

“Let’s just say he wasn’t born with a mask. There’s always a beginning,” Golding told IGN. “And the importance for giving complexity to such an iconic character, I think drove us to be able to allow him to express himself because I don’t think we were able to see that in the comic books. We weren’t able to understand the hardships that got him to be who he is, the decisions that were made, the hurdles that had to be overcome, the wrong, the right. And we see all of that within this, [film] because perhaps he isn’t the best of guys in the beginning, perhaps his motivations aren’t true. But what he goes through with the Arashikage [Clan] perhaps puts him back on the right track.”

Storm Shadow

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Andrew Koji plays Thomas Arashikage/Storm Shadow. In the comics, Tommy is Snake Eyes’ friend and fellow trainee, though their friendship will become an outright rivalry as they grow older and find themselves on opposite sides of the G.I. Joe/Cobra war. Their relationship will be at the heart of the film, which shows Snake Eyes gradually allowing others into his solitary existence.

“The only relationship that Snake Eyes, when we pick up with him, is his own,” Golding said. “He is a complete loner. He’s been on his own for the majority of his life, up until the point where we pick them up in the movie. And so, his motivations, his goals are solely for himself.”

Scarlett

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Samara Weaving plays Scarlett, one of the top-ranking members of G.I. Joe and sometimes portrayed as Snake Eyes’ lover. Presumably, we’ll see her team up with our hero and attempt to recruit him in this prequel.

“I can definitely say Scarlett acts as the agent between the Arashikage and the Joes, and there is a preexisting relationship between the two. Cobra plays a fairly large part in the bigger picture of this, of this movie, especially,“ Golding said.

Baroness

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Úrsula Corberó plays The Baroness, an elite Cobra operative second only to Cobra Commander himself.

Hard Master

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Iko Uwais plays Hard Master, the leader of Clan Arashikage. He’s one of the most formidable fighters on the planet and the uncle of Storm Shadow. Traditionally, Hard Master’s murder is the catalyst that drives Storm Shadow to Cobra and Snake Eyes to G.I. Joe, though it remains to be seen how closely the movie follows that path.

Blind Master

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Peter Mensah plays Blind Master, another leader in the Arashikage family. As his title suggests, he’s blind, but that hardly diminishes his martial arts ability. In the G.I. Joe comics, Blind Master is also the mentor of Jinx, another key ninja character.

Akiko

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Haruka Abe plays Akiko, a character who has been created for the movie. Akiko is another Arashikage trainee, one with deep ties to both Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.

Kenta

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Takehiro Hira plays Kenta, another character who is unique to Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. His Cobra background indicates where his allegiances lie.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins opens in theaters on July 23, and it’s one of the big new movies of summer 2021.

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Director Shawn Levy’s upcoming action-comedy Free Guy revolves around Ryan  Reynolds’ bank teller Guy, an NPC in a raucous GTA-style, open-world shooter game called Free City who rebels against his programming. But while Guy is the heart of the movie and the focus of the story, Free Guy doesn’t take place wholly within the realm of a video game. The movie sees “real world” characters, such as Jodie Comer’s Millie Rusk, who wrote the code for Free City, enter the game as avatars.

The introverted Millie is out to determine who stole her code and, as her badass avatar Molotov Girl, she comes into contact with Guy. As Jodie Comer explained to IGN and other press visiting the Boston set back in June 2019: “What’s wonderful is Molotov meets Guy within the video world and he doesn’t realize that he is an algorithm. He thinks his life has this greater meaning, as we all do. And it’s about how these two people who are from completely separate worlds kind of help each other realize a lot of what is inside of them. And they help each other both get to the kind of destination it is that they need to be at.”

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Comer believes that Millie’s avatar reveals “a resilience and a determination” within her and that while the video game world may be artificial, she discovers a very real relationship with her creation, Guy. 

“The contrast is Molotov is very physically strong and there’s all of these very impressive things and it’s super cool, and Millie’s a little bit more introverted, so that is very different. But I think the resilience is there of Millie and her determination to kind of fight for what is hers. I feel like amongst all the kind of action of it all, there is a very human relationship there. The feelings that Guy and Molotov end up finding are all very real and kind of relate to a relationship in the real world.”

Initially, though, Millie/Molotov is “dismissive” of Guy, a background character in her coding she normally wouldn’t give a second thought to until she realizes something is amiss in her game. “It’s not until she senses some kind of abnormalities within the world and how people are reacting to things that she then engages with him,” Comer explained, “and that continues to grow throughout the movie.”

To prepare for her role, Comer’s homework included playing video games. She specifically played GTA on PS4 but found that whole experience “quite stressful. I find it quite amazing actually how, when I think of kids playing it, I’m like did they take it as literally as I am?”

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Comer opted to play Spider-Man instead since she found it more “carefree” than GTA. “I’m one of these people who just presses every single button in the hopes that I survive,” she admitted of her gaming skills.

As Millie, Comer shares scenes with actor-director Taika Waititi, who plays Antwan, the verbally abusive and greedy mogul behind video game company Soonami, maker of Free City. “He’s kind of my enemy within this. So, I did all in my power not to laugh at him because I was like, Millie would not. I was like I’m not going to give him this power.”

While she said she finds the idea of improvisation terrifying, Comer was awed by Waititi’s skills and said his brain “fascinates” her so much that she would come to set on days she wasn’t scheduled to work just to watch Waititi perform his scenes. 

“He’s fantastic. He brings such an energy to the film, especially within the realms of the real world and the video game,” Comer said. “We have all this action and this color, and it’s still present within the day-to-day world, because of what Taika and Joe [Keery] and Utkarsh [Ambudkar] bring to their [Soonami employee] characters.”

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Gamers can witness the action and color of Free Guy for themselves when it finally opens in theaters on August 13.