A report has surfaced that claims Ubisoft was working on a King Arthur fantasy RPG directed by Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw, which was ultimately cancelled by Ubisoft's former Chief Creative Officer, Serge Hascoët. According to Bloomberg, Dragon Age's Mike Laidlaw was hired to direct the development of a new Ubisoft RPG known as Avalon, a "big-budget adventure involving stories of King Arthur and his Round Table in a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world full of knights and legends." Alas, according to Bloomberg sources familiar with the project, Avalon was cancelled by Ubisoft's then-Chief Creative Officer, Serge Hascoët. Hascoët was apparently suspicious of the fantasy genre, telling the team that, if it was to be a fantasy game, Avalon had to be "better than Tolkien," referring to the hallowed Lord of The Rings franchise. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/21/multiple-assassins-creed-games-reportedly-scrapped-or-minimised-female-lead-roles-before-release-ign-news"] The report's sources noted that Avalon was "progressing well" ahead of its cancellation and that it featured a "cooperative multiplayer world similar to Capcom Co.'s popular Monster Hunter series." In an effort to save the project, the setting was reshaped into science fiction and Greek mythology, but Hascoët was still unwilling to approve it, and it was cancelled in 2019, with Laidlaw leaving the company shortly after. This isn't not the first story we've heard about Hascoët's involvement in rejecting pitched projects - the executive was also allegedly at the centre of scrapping or minimising female roles in multiple Assassin's Creed games. Hascoët recently resigned from Ubisoft following sexual misconduct and toxic culture allegations at the company and was named as "playing a central role in the company's culture problems" in a report from the French newspaper Liberation. Ubisoft recently chose not to directly address the aforementioned abuse allegations during its Ubisoft Forward conference earlier this month, but has committed to "major changes" following multiple reports of abuse and harassment within the developers' studios. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

The horror manga legend's conversation with Kojima was more casual than initially suggested, and he's apologised for potentially offering 'false hope'.

Hearthstone’s next expansion launches on August 6 in NA (August 7 in ANZ), and it’s taking us back to an iconic World of Warcraft setting – Scholomance. This classic dungeon was a decrepit, evil place; a school for necromancers and home to one of WoW’s most infamous villains, Kel’Thuzad, but what was it like before it fell, when Kel’Thuzad was still a human Mage, and its halls were thrumming with students and teachers? That’s the premise for Hearthstone’s Scholomance Academy. It’s a fantastic twist on a famous location, and is also likely to be pretty appealing for anyone who’s a fan of schools of witchcraft and wizardry. More importantly, though, now that we’ve seen a decent chunk of the 135 cards coming in the set, Scholomance Academy is looking really powerful and distinct from a gameplay perspective too. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/28/hearthstone-scholomance-academy-cinematic-trailer"] The set’s new keyword is Spellburst, which is an effect that triggers the next time you play a spell, provided the minion or weapon with Spellburst is still around. The fact that it’s not a guaranteed effect - unless you can play a spell on the same turn as the Spellburst card - should make for some interesting decisions on both sides of the board. Scholomance Academy also introduces dual-class cards, and these lean into areas of overlap between different classes in really fun ways. Druids and Hunters both utilise beasts for instance, while Warlock and Priest both have hero powers that can impact the hero’s health. Dual-class cards even introduce new mechanics, such as Soul Fragments, which are utilised by both Warlocks and Demon Hunters. You can get a feel for these in the slideshow below. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=scholomance-academy-spellburst-and-dual-class-cards&captions=true"] That's not why you clicked through to this article, of course. Nope, you're here to see a brand new cad from the set. Introducing Professor Slate, a new Hunter legendary: Yes, if you play Professor Slate then damage a minion with a spell, that minion dies. It’s a strong effect and because it’s attached to a low cost card, you can potentially activate Slate from pretty early on. On turn four you could pair him with Rapid Fire to kill an enemy minion, and on turn five you could use the Twinspell too, killing off two. Some of the other existing spells that you could pair this with in the Standard format include Arcane Shot, Corrosive Breath, Kill Command, Marked Shot, Multi-Shot and Scrap Shot. Slate will even work with Snipe and Explosive Trap… provided he’s on the board when they trigger. [caption id="attachment_2385416" align="aligncenter" width="858"] All these spells can be paired with Professor Slate.[/caption] All that said, because Slate is a one-of (and his effect isn’t a win condition), I don’t think you’d build your deck around him or include cards that aren’t also good without him. It feels like Professor Slate needs to slot into a deck that already has synergy for his effect, and right now none of the Hunter decks really do. Highlander Hunter only has Corrosive Breath in terms of damage-dealing spells, and its minions are very focused around synergy – beasts, dragons, rush - and Slate has none of those affixes. Dragon Hunter also only runs Corrosive Breath and Explosive Trap while Face Hunter has more ways to deal damage with spells, but sure as hell doesn't want to direct those spells at minions. Face Hunter goes face. As of this reveal, however, we’ve hardly seen any of the set's Hunter cards, so Professor Slate could be one piece of a whole new archetype, or part of a package that can slot into an existing archetype. The combination of Professor Slate and Headmaster Kel’Thuzad, for instance, could be pretty spicy. Wandmaker, also, could be an inclusion, as his battlecry can hit both Arcane Shot and Rapid Fire. It’s also worth mentioning that Slate has many more spells he can be paired with in the Wild format, such as On the Hunt, Bomb Toss, Grievous Bite, Quick Shot, Powershot, Flanking Strike, Wing Blast and so on, but Hunter as a whole isn’t doing too well in Wild overall, so it’s going to need something pretty big to bring its win rates more in line with the titans of the format, and whatever that may be, we haven't seen it yet. Even so, Professor Slate is undoubtedly a good card and will likely see play in some capacity while it's in the format. You can see all the cards that have been revealed so far here, and be sure to check out the pre-order bundles and other key details on Blizzard’s Scholomance Academy site. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/26/how-the-hearthstone-team-designed-demon-hunter-behind-the-scenes] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Cam Shea is Studio Lead in IGN's Sydney office and is occasionally on Twitter.

Star Trek Discovery Season 3's premiere date has been announced and it's coming in just a few months. CBS announced Monday that the third season of the CBS All Access-exclusive Star Trek show will premiere on Thursday, October 15. The season will consist of 13 episodes released weekly on the streaming service in the United States. As for what to expect, the Discovery crew is heading, "into an unknown future far from the home they once knew," as stated in a press release. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-trek-discoverys-redesigned-uss-enterprise-bridge&captions=true"] If you've seen the Season 2 finale, you likely know what is being alluded to there. The cast sees the return of show mainstays like Sonequa Martin-Green in the role of Commander Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Commander Saru, Anthony App as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly, Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber, David Ajala as Cleveland 'Book' Booker, and Michelle Yeoh as Phillipa Georgiou. With Season 3 not starting for a few months, there's plenty of time to catch up on Seasons 1 and 2. Both are available to stream in full on CBS All Access and it's also available on Netflix in nearly 200 countries. There's also Star Trek: Picard to check out on the service in the meantime as well. Read our thoughts on the first season's final episode in our Star Trek: Picard Episode 10 review. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/09/25/is-star-trek-discovery-worth-a-streaming-subscription"] If you're clamoring for more Star Trek Discovery, check out the official Comic-Con 2020 Star Trek Universe panel which features a look back at the first season of Picard as well as a virtual table read of Discovery's Season 2 finale. After watching that, check out everything to look forward to in the world of Star Trek including a new Enterprise-based show called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, an animated series called Star Trek: Lower Decks premiering August 6, and the Nickelodeon animated show, Star Trek: Prodigy. Lower Decks will be more of a comedy than its fellow Star Trek series' and Prodigy will be a CG-animated show aimed at younger audiences. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes, the spiritual successor to the Suikoden series developed by the same developers, has hit its Kickstarter goal in just two hours. Eiyuden Chronicles was revealed just last week. Suikoden 1 and 2 writer Yoshitaka Murayama is returning as the writer for Eiyuden while character design, system design, and direction are handled by additional ex-Suikoden team members. It launched on Kickstarter on July 27 with a goal of $500,000. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes-16-images&captions=true"] At the time of this writing, the funding has reached $564,224 although the number continues to go up every few seconds. The Kickstarter will remain live until Friday, August 28, leaving 31 days for would-be backers to commit some money to the project. The game currently has 4,800 backers. With the minimum goal reached, Eiyuden Chronicles is guaranteed to come to PC. The next goal is $750,000 and if reached, a Fortress mode will be added to the game. "The Fortress Town, the player's base of operations throughout the game, serves as the main character's military base, but also their home," the Kickstarter page reads. This mode allows players to acquire a small town and build it over time by recruiting players and putting them to work to build castle walls, expand military equipment, cultivate crops, and develop trades. The next goal is $1 million and if reached, the game will come to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and the Nintendo Switch. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/24/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes-gameplay-teaser"] As far as pledges go, you can pledge $10 as a show of support — this pledge does not get you any reward. You can pledge roughly $38 to get a digital version of the game as well as some unique Discord roles or, if you're looking for a physical version, you can pledge about $57. Doing this gets you a physical copy of the game, unique Discord roles, and access to the game's beta. Higher-tier pledges include double packs of the game, unique buttons, the soundtrack, and more depending on how much money you pledge. Eiyuden Chronicle is being developed by a studio known as Rabbit & Bear, which is a studio made up of Murayama, ex-Suikoden team members, and veteran developers from the Castlevania, Wild Arms, and Tales series. The game sports a 2.5D visual style and will have 100 heroes available to recruit. Combat will be turn-based with parties of six and boss battles will have different angles determined by the environment. The game is estimated to launch in October of 2022. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Two major drops of confidential Nintendo code and documentation — now popularly referred to as the Nintendo Gigaleak — have seemingly revealed previously unknown canceled games, prototypes, source code, development tools, internal communication, and more. It marks what may well be the largest leak of internal video game information ever released. Throughout the weekend, hundreds of leaked files have been unpacked, pored over, and speculated about, leading to a constant stream of new information. We've attempted to pull as much of that together as possible to explain what you need to know about the Gigaleak right now.

What Is the Nintendo Gigaleak?

The Gigaleak is made up of multiple drops of information, stemming primarily from two posts on 4Chan. The posts each contained gigabytes' worth of files and documentation from internal Nintendo projects. The first set of files contained data primarily from SNES-era projects, and the second set included information from N64 projects. The leaks include (among a lot of other elements), source code for games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and more — as well as entirely unknown games and canceled projects. The leaks' validity comes down to a couple of factors: 1) The sheer amount, scope and granular detail of information discovered make it very unlikely that someone's fabricated the data, 2) Developers responsible have already confirmed the validity of some parts of the leak. For instance, Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert — who helped create the original Star Fox games – pointed to a development tool made for Star Fox 2 that he hasn't seen "for almost 30 years". There remains the possibility that false files have been inserted among the rest, but we know that at least some of the Gigaleak are legitimate information.

How Did It Happen?

This remains a topic of some discussion, with Nintendo so far making no official comment on the Gigaleak. Unreleased files for the Pokemon series have been leaking for some time now, with some commenters pointing to those seeming hacks as the source. Others have pointed to April's major Nintendo hack, which saw tens of thousands of user details released onto the Internet. At the time, Nintendo said those details had been accessed "by some means other than our service", and said that there was "currently no evidence pointing towards a breach of Nintendo’s databases, servers or services." There's also the case of Zammis Clark, the security researcher who was arrested for hacking Microsoft and then hacked Nintendo while on bail for the first crime. Clark was accused of accessing "Nintendo's highly confidential game development servers", where code for unreleased games was stored. While Clark's hack on Nintendo was some time ago, the Pokemon leaks, a set of Nintendo console source code leaks and, now, the Gigaleak itself have been attributed to his breach.

What's Been Found?

There is simply too much in the leak, both discovered and undiscovered, to be totally comprehensive here, but we've included the most important, weird, and wonderful finds below (and we'll update as and when more emerge).

Super Mario 64 - Luigi Discovered and More

Perhaps the most notable of the discoveries so far is that source code for a version of Super Mario 64  (which may at one point have been called Ultra 64 Mario Bros.) seems to include a model for Luigi. Those with the files noticed a folder titled 'Luigi', and loaded the contents into existing SM64 mods, creating the model you can see below. If legitimate, it confirms decades of rumors and speculation about the other Mario brother appearing in the game in some form. The game's files also reveal beta-only enemy types.

super luigi 64 in Real pic.twitter.com/2mbm8wlnK3

— axo #BlackLivesMatter (@axoonium) July 26, 2020

Cancelled Pokemon MMO

Fans have been calling for a Pokemon MMO for years — to the point where the makers of Temtem just ended up making one themselves. However, it seems that the idea had been pitched to Nintendo as early as 2004. Files in the leak suggest that iQue (a Chinese support company co-founded by Nintendo) worked on a prototype for a Pokemon game that would be playable by connecting a Game Boy Advance to a PC. Offline, the game would allow players to catch around 30 Pokemon in a game based on the Fire Red and Leaf Green installments. Connecting to the PC and going online would add a "hatch system" that used multiple conditions to determine what Pokemon eggs would appear, feature weather based on the region you were connecting from, add online battle tournaments based on Pokemon Colosseum's code, and more. You can see an iQue presentation in the tweet below:

FILTRACIÓN:

iQue estuvo trabajando en un juego de Pokémon "principal" completamente en línea por allá de 2004. ➡ Hilo con detalles. Esto es increíble. pic.twitter.com/cIfHq6QETk — Centro Pokémon (@CentroPokemon) July 24, 2020

Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Early Maps

The key discoveries around Ocarina of Time have centered around areas that seemingly didn't make it into the final version of the game — and others that were perhaps planned for the 64DD Ura-Zelda expansion. Pre-rendered backdrops for OoT's Temple of Time area have been dug out of the files, as well as unused areas - such as an early Kokiri Forest - that may have been created for alpha versions of the game, or the ill-fated Disc Drive expansions. We've also seen alpha enemies, such as a "Baby Skeleton".

Well we finally get to see Zelda 64, 25 years later..#nintendoleaks pic.twitter.com/1vgk2DIIJy

— Zelda Gif World (@GifZelda) July 26, 2020

Prototype Yoshi's Island

Seemingly at one point titled "Super Mario Bros 5: Yoshi’s Island", this playable prototype features a different art style, UI, overworld menu, and uses placeholder music:

A bunch of Nintendo prototypes are apparently currently being compiled from leaked source code right now as of this post First up there's this Yoshi's Island proto with different UI graphics, placeholder music from Mario World, and has a prefix of 'Super Mario Bros. 5' pic.twitter.com/Qqock5RZaS

— Akfamilyhome @ Origami King (@Akfamilyhome) July 24, 2020

Super Donkey

One of the oddest and most fully-fledged discoveries so far is a game seemingly titled Super Donkey, which may have been an early version of Super Mario World 2 (the game that would become Yoshi's Island). Featuring an unknown character — who could be a version of Mario rendered in Yoshi's Island style — the game features similar mechanics to what would become Yoshi's Island, but a different set of visual assets.

super donkey pic.twitter.com/59OaRGJ0DK

— David notgivingmylastname (@DavidNGMLN) July 25, 2020

Prototype Super Mario Kart / Mario Kart 64

The leaks not only include a version of the original Super Mario Kart with unused or altered tracks and a lack of drifting but also seemingly include an alpha version of what would become Mario Kart 64, which seemingly uses the original Super Mario Kart sprites as placeholder art.

Some Mario Kart 64 (Super Mario Kart R) alpha source seems to have surfaced. Very interesting. Guess they started with some SMK source/assets pic.twitter.com/yWLDFECD2k

— Beck Abney (@abney317) July 25, 2020

Canceled Zelda 3 / Zelda 2 Remake

Sprite sheets have been discovered for a side-scrolling Zelda to follow Zelda 2. The community has variously speculated that it would have been an original Zelda 3 for SNES or could have been a Zelda 2 remake to played on the Super Famicom's Satellaview peripheral. What's perhaps most striking is that Link's sword, on one sheet, appears to be marked with blood - not something we associate with the family-friendly series.

So here he is. It is now largely assumed that this particular Link sheet comes from a scrapped BS Zelda 2 remake. (for Satellaview) There's some interesting details here, like the blood or rust on the sword. Fascinating stuff. https://t.co/xPnEiLPI5v pic.twitter.com/FBlvt8TF4A

— Brian (@Protodude) July 25, 2020

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Beta

Placeholder designs found in beta files for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl seem to show off early sprites for the likes of Darkrai, Arceus, and more. Some bear an unfinished resemblance to their finished forms and others (Arceus) very much do not:

Sprites e designs beta dos Pokémon de Sinnoh encontrados no código fonte de DP vazado no último dia 24. É bom tomar nota que muitos desses sprites são apenas placeholders. Na sequência: Arceus, linha Gible, Regigigas, Darkrai.#pokemonleaks #nintendoleaks pic.twitter.com/4azIr1Yy7k

—  Zenny TH  (@Treinador_Zenny) July 26, 2020

Pilotwings Prototype, Dragonfly

We've previously heard about Dragonfly, the prototype game that eventually became flight simulator Pilotwings. However, the leaks appear to have surfaced unseen visuals from the original version, which was a shooter designed to show off the SNES' Mode-7 chip.

I still can't believe we have actual graphics data for Dragonfly of all things now. today's been like some kind of weird fever dream pic.twitter.com/FJcNy0JtQZ

— Rusty! (@PixelatedWah) July 25, 2020

Super Mario World

Beta visuals from the game that became Super Mario World showed off some of the funnier sides of the leaks, from a far more dinosaur-like original Yoshi, the fact that SMW's Bowser at one point showed off his legs, and that one potential sprite for Luigi showed him seemingly flipping the player the bird.

Why is nobody talking about this from the Nintendo #GigaLeak (Miyamoto Yoshing drawing/ beta SMW Yoshi) pic.twitter.com/bf8Gite5CX

— Greese (@TheRealGreese) July 25, 2020

People are digging up all sorts of unused art assets from the latest Nintendo leak. Here's some screenshots of some examples. Bowser from SMW apparently had legs at one time? pic.twitter.com/EZGDjiGAx6

— Gaming Alexandria (@GamingAlexandri) July 24, 2020

they found an unused sprite of luigi giving the middle finger in a super mario world prototype pic.twitter.com/HMYMj9OgvX

— misato bruh (@KatsuragiSimp) July 25, 2020

[poilib element="accentDivider"] 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 newstips@ign.com.

Warner Bros. has announced that Tenet will premiere in international theaters first before opening in select North American cities at a later date. As reported by Variety, Tenet will be released in 70 international territories including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United Kingdom on August 26, and then Canada on August 27 before making ways to select North American theaters on September 3. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/22/tenet-official-trailer-2"] Warner Bros. previously indicated it could become more flexible with releasing Tenet in other territories first after a U.S. theater release date was continuously delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries that have had more success with flattening the curve on coronavirus have begun opening movie theaters with social distancing rules in place. The United States has the most confirmed cases for Covid-19 in the world. Meanwhile, China has blocked movies that run over 2 hours from playing in theaters, which includes Tenet’s 2 hours and 20 minutes runtime. Though WB is hopeful that China will ease these rules ahead of a potential theater release. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-delayed-movie-due-to-coronavirus-so-far&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Opening Tenet internationally first increases the risk of spoilers and piracy ahead of Tenet’s U.S. premiere. But given Nolan’s insistence on Tenet’s theatrical release, and a U.S. release date that continues to be pushed back, it appears WB is taking the unprecedented approach of releasing a major blockbuster film in other territories before the U.S. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

An update for Ghost of Tsushima will bring a new Lethal difficulty mode and more accessibility options for reading text and more forgiving combat intensity. This update, patch 1.05, brings a new Lethal difficulty to the game and accessibility options that lower the intensity of the combat.  The patch also brings some new text changes to Ghost of Tsushima as well. Depending on when you're seeing this, the update might already be out as its set to go live on July 27. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ghost-of-tsushima-photo-mode-greatest-shots-by-ign-staff&captions=true"] "Later today, Patch 1.05 for #GhostOfTsushima will be released, adding new Lethal difficulty, a new option for Lower intensity combat, and new text settings," a tweet from Sucker Punch reads. The new difficulty level is called Lethal and it makes enemy weapons more deadly. It also makes Jin's katana more deadly as well. Enemies are more aggressive in combat, they detect Jin faster, and the parry and dodge windows are "tighter," the patch notes read. As far as new accessibility options, they seem to be focused around lowering the intensity of the game's combat. "Lower intensity mode is meant to maintain the heart and feel of Ghost of Tsushima combat while relaxing several timing-specific elements. Combat is less intense, giving you more time to react. Stealth settings are more forgiving, and enemies take longer to detect you." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/14/ghost-of-tsushima-review"] The patch notes say that most enemy attacks usually unblockable become blockable when Lower Intensity is enabled. Blocking with L1 will keep Jin safe from more attacks than standard combat, although some attacks will still need to be dogged. Enemies break off their attack combos after damaging you, giving players the chance to heal up before more attacks. Heavy attacks will interrupt Brutes when Lower Intensity is enabled as well. Beyond that, enemies will not attack at all when players try to use Resolve to heal and their awareness builds more slowly when Jin is trying to remain hidden. In terms of text changes, a new Large Text option will increase the size of subtitles, mission objectives, and interact prompts by 150%. Sucker Punch has also added the option to turn the speaker's name off when subtitles are enabled. Yellow, blue, red, and green color options have been added to subtitles as well. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/14/ghost-of-tsushima-gameplay-exploring-tsushima"] While the patch is focused on everything mentioned above, the notes indicate that it includes some bug fixes too, although those specific fixes aren't outlined. Read our thoughts about the game in our Ghost of Tsushima review and then read about how it's PS4's fastest-selling first-party original IP debut. Be sure to use the official IGN Ghost of Tsushima Wiki Guide as you make your way through the game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.