Inspiration for a game can come from many places, but there can't be too many projects from major publishers that were inspired by a simple bug in another game. Immortals Fenyx Rising was created from just that, after its creative director saw the potential in Assassin's Creed Odyssey glitch. Speaking to IGN as part of our IGN First on Immortals Fenyx Rising, creative director Scott Phillips revealed the unlikely starting point for the upcoming open world game: “For me, the first memory I have of what would eventually become Immortals Fenyx Rising was a bug on Assassin's Creed Odyssey where you'd be sailing on your ship, but instead of your human crew, you ended up having cyclopes as your crew. It was just sort of one of those moments like, ‘Oh wow. Yeah, that'd be really cool actually to do a full game focused on this mythology.’” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/15/how-ac-odyssey-became-gods-monsters-and-finally-immortals-fenyx-rising"] While Odyssey wasn't afraid to dip into the fantastical, Phillips wanted to create a game entirely centred on myth rather than history, which led to the game originally known as Gods & Monsters, which in turn became Immortals Fenyx Rising. That mythical setting also meant the game could take a less realistic approach to creating a world. Where Odyssey's Greece is a sprawling web of islands, Immortals' Golden Isle is a single landmass, densely packed with skill challenges, boss fights and puzzles – and let Ubisoft balance the Assassin's Creed action-RPG influences with Zelda's approach to a challenge-packed hero's tale. Our IGN First interview with Phillips covers that entire journey from Odyssey to Immortals, covering a lot more ground that the initial seed of an idea – it's well worth reading in its entirety – and we'll have much more on Immortals Fenyx Rising for you all month, including exclusive new footage from the game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=immortals-fenyx-rising-screenshots&captions=true"] [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.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is Ubisoft Quebec’s big new project, and the studio’s first new IP in over a decade. Fresh off of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the Canadian team transformed its love for Ancient Greek mythology into a whole new world for protagonist Fenyx to journey through. Immortals itself has also experienced quite the journey, and we spoke to game director Scott Phillips to learn more about the creation of this new universe, and its evolution from original title Gods and Monsters to Immortals Fenyx Rising. “For me, the first memory I have of what would eventually become Immortals Fenyx Rising was a bug on Assassin's Creed Odyssey where you'd be sailing on your ship, but instead of your human crew, you ended up having cyclopes as your crew,” Phillips recalls. “It was just sort of one of those moments like, ‘Oh wow. Yeah, that'd be really cool actually to do a full game focused on this mythology.’” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/15/how-ac-odyssey-became-gods-monsters-and-finally-immortals-fenyx-rising"] Phillips and the team didn’t plan on just recreating Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with a greater emphasis on the more fantastical elements of Greek mythology, but there were ideas from Odyssey that they could use. “We spent a lot of time on Odyssey developing compelling loops,” says Phillips. “As an open world game with lots of exploration, you need to entice the player to travel the world. You need to entice them to go off the beaten path and not just do an A to B to C experience.” Those loops influenced the philosophy that drives Immortals. “Early on, we came onto a phrase that I think still continues now to be true, that we wanted the journey to be as challenging and rewarding as the end destination,” says Phillips. And so Immortals’ structure began to take shape. “We wanted everything that you do along the way to get to some place to be fun, exciting, challenging, interesting,” he says. To create that challenge, Fenyx has a stamina bar that drains when they climb, glide, and unleash powerful combat abilities. “That's where bringing in stamina makes the exploration of the world a bit more uncertain. We don't give you as much information.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CI%20don't%20think%20you%20can%20really%20be%20a%20gamer%20and%20say%20that%20you%20don't%20like%20Zelda%2C%20or%20you%20haven't%20played%20a%20Zelda%20at%20least.%E2%80%9D"]“That was a philosophy that we carried throughout the entire game, that changed the traversal to the fights to the puzzles as well, which is a whole new aspect for us,” Phillips notes. “There were some people on the team that had Prince of Persia experience, but as a global entity, the directors and the team didn't have a ton of [puzzle] experience, but we felt really confident that this was a way to separate ourselves to make something unique and different.” With stamina and puzzle solving key parts of the gameplay loop, it’s easy to draw parallels to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Immortals even has puzzle dungeons, called Vaults of Tartaros, which are akin to Breath of the Wild’s Shrines. Phillips says that Zelda - and more importantly, its idea of the hero’s journey - has indeed had an influence on Immortals. “I don't think you can really be a gamer and say that you don't like Zelda, or you haven't played a Zelda at least,” he says. “So, that sort of Zelda, Lord of Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, all of these things that have fantasy and being a hero and finding the sword and saving the world. There are all these elements that come into play for Immortals Fenyx Rising as well. We wanted to give a fresh take on that by really binding ourselves to Greek mythology and bringing that into the 21st century.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/10/gods-monsters-reveal-trailer-e3-2019"] All of these elements were part of the game when it was revealed at Ubisoft’s E3 conference in 2019. Back then it was known as Gods and Monsters, and had a slightly more Pixar-like quality to its art style. It was set to be released the following February, but a long delay meant that Ubisoft Quebec had many months to improve and iterate on what it had created. This led to many new features, the most notable being a refreshed art style and a new name. “Visually, we wanted to add more details,” Phillips says, noting that the stylistic design was a new challenge for the team after the realism of Assassin’s Creed. “Having more time, you can really look at, ‘Okay. How can we make everything consistent, raise the quality bar everywhere? Add some things where it makes sense.’ And then on the gameplay side, a lot of it was adding quality, adding variation to enemy attacks.” The extra time also allowed the team to put together extra challenges for players. “We've got legendary creatures and world bosses and these wraiths that are these fallen heroes of ancient Greece. We really expanded on the variety,” Phillips says. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22It's%20ancient%20Greek%20Guardians%20of%20the%20Galaxy.%22"]“On the narrative side, we wanted to change the framing of the narrative with the narrator,” he adds. When the game was known as Gods and Monsters, it had just one narrator; legendary Greek author Homer. “You heard his voice a lot, so you didn't feel like it could change or was necessarily involved in the story that you were being told,” explains Phillips. These days, Immortals has two narrators: the god Zeus and Titan Prometheus. “We wanted to go with two characters that could sort of oppose each other,” Phillips explains. “In a way, it's almost like a sportscaster. You've got the guy that's calling the shots, calling the play-by-play, but then you've got the color commentator. Prometheus is the play-by-play, and then Zeus is the color commentator making things fun and interesting and unique. And so, that sort of reframed the tone a bit.” “It put more focus on Fenyx as well, and so that's where the name change comes from,” Phillips adds, although speculation about other reasons for the change has since been made. “We wanted to promote Fenyx, and Fenyx's journey with the gods to be the centerpiece.” As for that tone, Phillips has a good comparison that instantly sparks excitement. “I think the description for me of the tone that's worked the best and made me understand it very quickly was that it's ancient Greek Guardians of the Galaxy,” he says. “It's light-hearted, interpersonal interactions. It can be fun, it can be very light, but the stakes of the universe are on the line and everything could be destroyed if you failed. So, it's that great interplay that makes the game special.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=immortals-fenyx-rising-screenshots&captions=true"] Making Fenyx the centerpiece of the game led to a redesign of their character. “I think where we were at E3 2019, we were still not sure,” says Phillips of Fenyx’s old, wide-eyed design. “I think that's potentially why you could see the helmet. We were just not sure. ‘Is this right? Are we fully happy with how this is going to look?’ So, we kept tweaking and tweaking and tweaking” “The player character we've defined better, and made them much more varied, with more options for you to customize your own Fenyx,” says Phillips. “The core and the heart of the game were there at E3 2019, it's just expanded and improved since then.” With all these iterations locked in, Immortals Fenyx Rising is now in the last stages of production. The final touches are being added, but we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen so far; read our Immortals hands-on preview to see our detailed thoughts. For more, stick with IGN, as we have other exclusive Immortals Fenyx Rising interviews and videos to come over the next few weeks. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Xbox Series X and Series S will open for pre-orders at 8am UK time on September 22. Announced by Xbox UK's marketing lead on Twitter, the timing is currently only confirmed for the UK timezone. However, that time maps to midnight, September 22 in Pacific time. Given Xbox headquarters are in the Pacific timezone, midnight feels like a likely time for pre-orders to open in the US.

Pre-orders for Xbox Series X | S go live on the 22nd September at 8AM from the following UK retailers:

Microsoft Store Amazon GAME Argos Currys PC World Smyths Toys John Lewis & Partners AO .com Very .co.uk pic.twitter.com/W0zf1bSVda — Samuel Bateman (@samuelofc) September 15, 2020

The September 22 Xbox preorder date was announced last week, when we learned that Xbox Series X will cost $499 / £449, Xbox Series S will cost $299 / £249, and both consoles will see release on November 10. Both consoles will join the Xbox All Access program (a subscription service that gets you a console and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership), with Series X coming in at $34.99 USD / £28.99 a month, and Series S at $24.99 USD / £20.99. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] We'll likely learn about PS5 preorder plans tomorrow, September 16 at the PS5 showcase, which will "feature updates on the latest titles from Worldwide Studios and our world-class development partners." Still not sure if you want an Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, or a PS5? Check out our PS5 vs. Xbox Series comparison chart to get a better sense of what each shiny new box will offer. [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.

Disney has released the first trailer for Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 revealing glimpses of what we'll see from the continuing adventures of Mando and The Child (or Baby Yoda, if you're being informal, which I will be from here on out). The main revelation is that Mando is seemingly instructed to return Baby Yoda to its own kind – and that includes tracking down "a race of enemy sorcerers" called Jedi. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/15/the-mandalorian-season-2-trailer"]

Aside from that detail, we see the returning Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Cara Dune (Gina Carano), and get a glimpse at a character seemingly played by WWE's Sasha Banks, who was previously rumoured to be making an appearance.

That comes alongside looks at urban and icy planets, as well as a possible return to Tatooine, and an alien wrestling match. There are also action scenes on land, air and speederbike (including a look at more X-Wings).

The YouTube trailer's description runs through a list of Season 2's directors, including Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed and Robert Rodriguez.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-actor-and-character-confirmed-for-the-mandalorian&captions=true"]

The Mandalorian Season 2 will premiere on Disney+ on October 30. It's not clear how the episodes will be dropped as yet, but it seems likely that we'll see weekly releases in the same manner as Season 1.

Season 1 ended with a return for the fabled Darksaber - if you want a refresher on the legendary weapon before Season 2, we've got just the thing.

[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.

Toby Fox has issued a status update on Deltarune, the sequel to 2015's Undertale, saying it's been much harder to make, but outlines for every chapter in the game are now complete. In line with a number of celebratory occasions to mark the fifth anniversary of the indie RPG, the game's creator posted a Deltarune Sept 2020 Status Update on the Undertale website, detailing the current state of the project. As well as thanking fans for their continued support of his projects, Fox noted how Deltarune has been "much harder to make than Undertale" due to the complexity of new systems, plotlines and graphics. Fox explained that he has been managing severe pain and wearing many hats during the game's development – roles that would usually be taken by multiple developers. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/01/12/undertale-review"] Despite all of this, Fox has been "writing, composing, designing and drawing" over the past two years with a small team, with readable outlines now completed for every chapter in the game. After investigating different engines during that time, Fox has now decided to return to Game Maker, and development for Chapter 2 has now commenced as of May 2020, with plans to finish the chapter by the end of the year. Fox ended the status update noting that he hopes Chapter 3 will be easier to make as the team can use Chapter 2 as a base. He is looking to hire people on to work on Deltarune in the future and has asked people to send in portfolios. Chapter 1 of Deltarune launched in October 2018 for PC, landing on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in February 2019. You can check out our strategy guide here. A fifth-anniversary Undertale concert will be held later today at 7 PM PDT, with new Fangamer merchandise arriving to coincide with the gig, as well as some new "alarm clock" dialogue from the game's main characters. For all the details, check out the fifth-anniversary webpage here. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Despite everything, Jordan Oloman is still a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

When Nintendo Switch was first announced, the Internet immediately began speculating on how its detachable Joy-Con controllers could be experimented with, many imagining that different configurations and game-specific designs could be created, mixed and marched. Cut to a few years later and, besides a range of colour choices and some NES-style controllers, Nintendo's yet to release a dramatically different take on the Joy-Con. But that's not to say the developer hasn't been thinking about them. Over the years, we've repeatedly seen Nintendo patents for new Joy-Con designs surface, showing the company toying with ideas around shape, button placement, peripherals, and even entirely separate designs for the Switch controllers. Below, we've rounded up every Nintendo Joy-Con patent we've spotted so far (and we'll update this story as and when more emerge):

Standalone Joy-Con

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-standalone-joy-con-patent&captions=true"] Filed in 2018 and registered internationally in 2020, this patent appears to show a Joy-Con that ditches the rail design altogether, showing a controller that's designed to be entirely separate from the Switch console. With what seems to be a more ergonomic design, it may have been envisioned as a complementary product for the Switch Lite - which features built-in controls - to allow for multiplayer play. Others have suggested that it could be released alongside the rumoured Switch upgrade in 2021.

Hinged Joy-Con

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-hinged-joy-con-patent&captions=true"] Applied for in 2018 and published in 2019, this patent reimagines the existing Joy-Con design with a bend around a third of the way down. It may be that the controller is hinged, allowing the top part of the controller to be bent backwards, or permanently in the crooked shape. The patent shows a rail design that allows it to be attached neatly to the base Swtch model. This is presumably an ergonomic change, designed to be more comfortable on the hand during longer or more intensive gaming sessions.

Wide Joy-Con

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-wide-joy-con-patent&captions=true"] This is one of three patents filed ahead of the Switch's release in 2016, all of which resemble the final Joy-Con design, but alter it in a fundamental way. Perhaps the most striking is this wider Joy-Con design, which retains the button layout of the final design, but offers a lot more space around it. This could have been envisioned as a comfort solution for players with bigger hands.

D-Pad and Thumbstick Joy-Con

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-d-pad-and-joystick-joy-con-patent&captions=true"] The second of the three 2016 patents reimagines the Joy-Con in a couple of key ways. The first is that both left and right controllers feature a traditional D-Pad and a thumbstick (which appears recessed, looking more similar to the 3DS thumbstick than the Switch joystick). The second is that all buttons are presented in a straight line, perhaps to make this design preferable when used on its side, rather than upright. It also lacks the plus, minus, home and screenshot buttons of the final Joy-Con design.

D-Pad Only Joy-Con

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-d-pad-only-joy-con-patent&captions=true"] The final of the three 2016 patents looks initially similar to the release Joy-Con, but drops any joysticks, instead putting a D-Pad on both the left and right Joy-Con. This model also lacks plus, minus, home and screenshot buttons.

Plug-In Controller Pieces

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-plug-in-controller-pieces-patent&captions=true"] Likely an early take on what would become the Joy-Con design, this patent didn't show controller elements sliding onto the base console, but had them plugging into or clipping onto the side. An early clue to Nintendo's plan for detachable controllers, this design also connected to other patents that showed a console able to use infra-red to read hand gestures to either side of it.

Modular Controller Elements

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-modular-controller-elements-patent&captions=true"] Originally published in 2014, this patent embraces the idea of detachable elements on a handheld console, but reduces them down to detachable sets of buttons or sticks that can be slotted into the base unit. Perhaps an early part of the thinking around the Switch (then codenamed the NX), the modular elements include D-Pads, different button configurations, and joysticks. It would have allowed for a player to craft their own favoured design, or perhaps create a controller set-up on each side to allow for two players to play on one horizontal console.

Joy-Con Touch Pen

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nintendos-joy-con-touch-pen-patent&captions=true"] More an attachement for the Joy-Con than a Joy-Con design itself, this 2019 patent shows a touch pen that can be slid onto the Joy-Con rail and used with the Switch touchscreen. Available for both left- and right-handed use, the pen would work in tandem with the Joy-Con itself - for instance, drawing a line on the screen, then pressing a button to make that lines drawn thicker. [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.

After Xbox Series X last week, we've now got the packaging for Series S to look over.

It looks like Ubisoft changed the name of Gods & Monsters to Immortals Fenyx Rising due to a trademark dispute with Monster Energy. As detailed in this video from Hoeg Law, the Gods & Monsters trademark faced an opposition filing from the Monster Energy Company in April of 2020, which may have forced Ubisoft's hand, necessitating the name change to Immortals Fenyx Rising. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/10/gods-monsters-reveal-trailer-e3-2019"] You can see the full timeline of Gods & Monsters attempted patent registration over on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. Ubisoft applied for the patent back in June of 2019, and did not face any issues until January of this year, when Monster Energy applied to oppose the trademark under a belief that its brand would be damaged due to the "likelihood of confusion" between the two entities. In the notice of opposition the energy drink brand cites its ties to the games industry through sponsorship of professional gamers and esports organizations in support of its many claims. What's interesting is that in Ubisoft's May 2020 answer to Monster Energy's notice of opposition, they deny almost all of the claims. Yet ahead of September's Ubisoft Forward, the game's name was officially changed from Gods & Monsters to Immortals Fenyx Rising. In an interview with VGC last week, associate game director Julien Galloudec said that the name change was not a technical decision, but one related to the evolved "vision" of the game: So no, the change of name was entirely because of the vision of the game. When you start a game it’s always an adventure and it’s a very iterative process. So you start with a vision that evolves as you craft it with the team and we get feedback and ideas. [...] So after that, the game changed a lot, to the point where we felt we needed a new name to be better aligned with that updated vision, so that’s where we decided to change to Immortals Fenyx Rising". [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=immortals-fenyx-rising-screenshots&captions=true"] We've contacted Ubisoft for comment. Immortals: Fenyx Rising will launch on Google Stadia, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and PC on December 3, 2020. You can check out our preview here. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.