The controversial Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, has once again invested a significant amount of money into international games companies: this time, Take-Two, EA, and Activision-Blizzard. An SEC filing from a few days ago gives a rundown of a number of new investments undertaken by the Public Investment Fund, or PIF, a fund chaired by the Crown Prince with the goal of diversifying the country from its dependence on oil. These investments include 14.9 million shares in Activision, 7.4 million shares of EA, and 3.9 million shares of Take-Two acquired during the fourth quarter of last year. The total value of the shares between the three companies is over $3 billion. This isn't the first time Prince Salman has invested in video game companies, either. Last year he also purchased a third of Japanese fighting game maker SNK through a charity organization he heads up called MiSK, at the time announcing his intention to eventually take majority ownership of the company. He has previously told Bloomberg that his interest in gaming stems from being a part of the first generation in Saudi Arabia to grow up playing video games. Prince Salman has previously been implicated by the CIA in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, though Saudi Arabia has denied the claims. He has also been accused of sending a hit squad to Canada to kill a former Saudi intelligence official, as well as criticized for his involvement in the alleged jailing and torturing of political activists in the country and specifically urged by the UN to free jailed women's rights defenders — all of which Saudi Arabia denies. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

After a series of leaks teasing the new Outbreak Zombies experience, Activision has officially confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone's Season Two is on the way on Feb. 25, and Activision has outlined the major additions coming players' ways, including a brand new Zombies experience. Season Two will include:

• The new Zombies: Outbreak experience
• Four new Operators
• Six new weapons
• New multiplayer maps

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/18/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-warzone-season-two-gameplay-trailer"] The Zombies experience is "the next chapter of the Dark Aether story," which will see players travel deep into Russia in the new Outbreak adventure. The description reads: "As Requiem continues to fall behind in the arms race against Omega Group, various regions in the Ural Mountains have recently become Dark Aether outbreak sites. With new opportunities to research the Dark Aether and advance Requiem’s agenda, it’s up to you and three fellow agents to complete the deadly experiments that few have survived." Treyarch's new "large-scale" zombie experience promises new enemies, objectives, rewards, and intel, with missions including tracking down enemies via a satellite tracker, escorting a Rover to find dimensional portals, and more, all of which will need to be completed before Exfil, or players can "risk entering a Dark Aether portal to a new region for even more rewards." Activision promises more details on Outbreak in the coming days. Season Two will also bring with it new multiplayer maps, including the 6v6 Apocalypse map, the multi-team Golova, the 2v2 and 3v3 Mansion, and the 6v6 Miami Strike. Additionally, new multiplayer modes include Gun Game, a returning free-for-all mode, as well as the 6v6 Stockpile, which mixes Kill Confirmed and Hardpoint, and Hardpoint, a multi-team returning mode that Activision promises is the biggest version of Hardpoint yet. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-and-warzone-season-two-screenshots&captions=true"] On the Warzone side of things, in addition to new points of interest, new game modes called Exfiltration and Rebirth Island Resurgence Extreme are on the way. You can check out the full list of announced Season Two updates from Activision. Black Ops COld War will start to receive a rolling update on Feb. 23, while Warzone will see the same on Feb. 24, both happening between 9 and 11 pm PT on their respective days. Content is expected to be available starting Feb. 24. Recently, we learned Black Ops Cold War is one of the best-selling games in U.S. history after its debut late last year, but Activision also recently confirmed that a new Call of Duty is on the way this year. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Multiple Silent Hill projects could be in the works at third-party developers, according to speculation stirred by comments from The Medium developer, Bloober Team, as well as a report from VideoGamesChronicle. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz Bloober Team said it's working on "another horror IP" with a "very famous publisher." Fans have started to speculate by putting the two bits of news together that Bloober Team might be working on a Silent Hill project. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/11/first-person-silent-hill-fan-remake-gameplay"] "(We've) been working for more than a year on another gaming project, another horror IP, and we're doing this with a very famous gaming publisher," Bloober Team CEO, Piotr Babieno, told GamesIndustry.biz. "I can't tell you who. I can't tell you what the project is, but I'm pretty sure when people realize we're working on it, they will be very excited." VGC sources told the publication that Konami, the publisher with the rights to the Silent Hill franchise, has already outsourced a Silent Hill project to a prominent Japanese developer and that it will be revealed this Summer. If accurate, along with the speculation surrounding Bloober Team, then multiple Silent Hill projects could seemingly be in the works. It's important to note that the idea of Bloober Team working on a Silent Hill game isn't confirmed and is more speculative in that fans are putting Babieno's comments and VCG's report of multiple Silent Hill projects together to create this theory. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps1-games-ever&captions=true"] Elsewhere in the Silent Hill rumorverse, Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka recently hinted at what many took to be a hint at a new game in the franchise. Yamaoka said, via translation, "you'll probably hear something this Summer to be announced" and that "(he thinks) it’s the one you’re kinda hoping to hear about.” Although the interview has been taken down from YouTube, Yamaoka's comment on a summer announcement coincidentally lines up with the rumors of a third-party led Silent Hill game from Japan. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Danny Elfman has revealed that he will score the music for Marvel's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, reuniting the composer with director Sam Raimi. The award-winning composer confirmed the news in an interview with Inverse, and explained that he had just begun to work on the score for the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring superhero flick. Elfman didn't elaborate on what musical style he was aiming for with the movie, but stated that he had already produced some themes to help set the scene on set.

SCOOP: Danny Elfman will team up with long time collaborator Sam Raimi to score Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness https://t.co/1Zmgr3hJ90

— Inverse (@inversedotcom) February 18, 2021

"I am starting to do bits of pre-work for Doctor Strange 2 that Sam Raimi's directing," Elfman said. "Even though I don't start it for some months, there's bits of recorded music they need for the sets." Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness reunites Elfman with director Sam Raimi, who replaced previous incumbent Scott Derrickson in the hotseast last April. The duo famously collaborated on two entries in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s, but Elfman has scored other Raimi flicks before and after, including 1995's Darkman, 1998's A Simple Plan, and Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013. Elfman replaces Michael Giacchino, who composed the score for 2016's Doctor Strange and was signed on for the follow-up until recently. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/18/wandavision-episode-7-official-clip"] Filming on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness reportedly began in November 2020. Work on the sequel was initially supposed to start in May of last year, but it became one of many film productions that were postponed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film's release has been pushed back three times due to the virus, with a potential date of March 25, 2022 pencilled in pending further disruption. Few details are known about Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, but we do know that it will directly tie into the events of Spider-Man 3 and WandaVision. Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff will appear alongside Cumberbatch's Steven Strange, and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has teased that the Multiverse will be a running theme through Phase Four and beyond. In other MCU news, Eternals star Kumail Nanjiani recently revealed how director Chloe Zhao picked the cast for the MCU's next cosmic movie. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Tom Power is a UK-based freelance journalist. Follow him on Twitter.

Yes, finally, it looks like we get to fight the genocidal Forsaken Horde leader Sylvanas in the next World of Warcraft: Shadowlands patch. In a leaked document of materials intended to be announced tomorrow at BlizzCon, the details of the next major patch for Shadowlands were revealed, including its next raid and a boss that awaits players inside. In patch 9.1, entitled Chains of Domination, the Jailer pulls a new domain into the Maw -- Korthia, a long-lost city. Korthia is the stage for new quests and outdoor content in 9.1, as players endeavor to unite the four covenants of the Shadowlands to take the fight to the expansion's ultimate Big Bad: the Jailer. However, the Jailer has an ally on his side: former Horde leader Sylvanas Windrunner. Sylvanas awaits inside a new ten-boss dungeon located in Torghast, the Sanctum of Domination. Players will also encounter "the true eye of the jailer," as well as a "terrible new champion" that Sylvanas has wrought -- likely Alliance leader Anduin Wrynn, who she has been trying to corrupt throughout the expansion so far. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/29/world-of-warcraft-shadowlands-story-trailer"] Other new content will include a new eight-boss "mega-dungeon" called Tazavesh, the Veiled Market, that features the enigmatic Brokers we've seen throughout Shadowlands so far. We'll also see a new season of PvP content, a new seasonal Keystone dungeon affix, new Covenant cosmetic armor sets, and will be able to unlock flying across the four Covenant areas in Shadowlands. The press documents do not include a release window for patch 9.1, though currently patch 9.0.5 is on the game's Public Test Realm and expected to release soon, and 9.1 is likely to follow. Also in the leak was the announcement that World of Warcraft: Classic would get The Burning Crusade expansion sometime later this year. Our review of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands when it launched late last year found the expansion included "the most compelling max level experience WoW has had in many years." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

After the success of World of Warcraft: Classic, Blizzard is preparing to take the re-release of its MMORPG in its original form to the next expansion, with the launch of The Burning Crusade sometime later this year. The news was planned to be announced at this year's BlizzCon event taking place online tomorrow, but a leaked early press kit revealed the expansion early. The Burning Crusade was originally released in 2007, and will add two new races to World of Warcraft Classic's playable roster -- the Alliance Draenei, and the Horde Blood Elves. It raises the level cap to 70, and sends players to the broken world of Outland to fight the invading Burning Legion across areas such as the scorched Hellfire Penninsula, the swampy Zangarmarsh, and the mystical Terokkar Forest. It also introduced flying, allowing players to earn mounts that would let them soar across Outland. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/05/14/world-of-warcraft-classic-preview-more-than-just-nostalgia"] As with World of Warcraft: Classic, Blizzard intends to release content from the original game in phases, including the opening of the Black Temple, Zul'Aman, and the Sunwell. However, Blizzard is also planning on preserving the original Classic experience for those who want it. Players will be able to choose when the expansion launches whether they want to bring their Classic characters to The Burning Crusade expansion with the rest of their server, or if they want to move them to a new server that will remain perpetually in original Classic. As with the rest of Classic, The Burning Crusade will be available free with existing World of Warcraft subscriptions. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

After Jan Willem Nijman and Kitty Calis launched their saw blade dodging game Disc Room last year, the conversation (as it does) turned to what project they would move onto next. Both Disc Room and their previous project, Minit, had been well-received, affording the independent duo a bit of freedom to pursue something a bit less structured...or in this case, explicitly dedicated to making money.

Which is why they turned their 2018 top-down timed adventure Minit into a racing game for charity.

Today, the pair have launched Minit Fun Racer (Get it? Minit Fun(d) Racer? Like fundraiser?) in collaboration with their former Minit development colleagues Jukio Kallio and Dominik Johann. The game is out today on Steam and itch.io, published by Devolver Digital, and all proceeds from the game are going to charity.

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"For a long time I wanted to make a game for charity," Calis says, speaking in an interview with IGN. "I think it was just a matter of getting the band back together and the right situation. And it was really fun to do."

Nijman and Calis aren't able to specify exactly which charity the money would be going to just yet, but they did confirm that multiple charities would be supported. Calis says that their plan is to publish a monthly update to let people know how much money was donated to where during each period of the game's sales, and the intention is to keep the game up on sale indefinitely and continue donating for as long as it keeps making money.

Minit Fun Racer is a small, timed racing game in the same visual style and world as Minit, where the player must dodge traffic and obstacles, collect coins to add more time to the clock, and try to get as far as they can through a busy street and desert in order to watch a sunset in a scenic spot.

"Especially nowadays, one of the things I'm really enjoying is the sunset," Calis says of the game's small but simple end goal. "It sounds super silly, but it's there every day. Before COVID, I didn't always take the time to enjoy the little things in life."

Minit Fun Racer's collected coins can be spent on buffs in a small in-game shop, and there are plenty of goofy little easter eggs and achievements scattered throughout to keep the game interesting for several hours of play.

"A lot of the game is actually about, like Minit, these little details," Nijman says. "You can complete goals to get your driver's license, and we really wanted that stuff to reflect something interesting in the world, so it's not just 'Play ten games,' it's more like, 'Hit two cop cars,' and you don't just get an achievement, but a helicopter starts chasing you."

Calis adds that players who open the game at a certain time of night might even find their races haunted by ghosts.

Minit Fun Racer is short and sweet, and Nijman says it only took the group a few months to make. The timing was perfect, he said, as he and Calis had just come off of working on Disc Room, Kallio had wrapped up Fall Guys, and Johann was done with Stanley Parable. The cards simply aligned for the group, and their collective experience with making Minit had been so positive they all were happy to take some time to work on the charity racer.

The idea for the game stemmed from an illustration Calis made for The New York Times last year, but Nijman and Calis say they always wanted to return to the world of Minit one way or another. The two have been vocal in the past about their belief in healthy work habits, crediting individuals for their work, and making games without crunch. Nijman quips that the two "crunched so little [on Disc Room] we had two months spare to make a game for charity."

And their previous publishing partner Devolver is on board too, and has also agreed not to take any profit on the game so that its proceeds can be donated.

“We love this entire team and have a long history with each of them across a myriad of different projects," says Devolver marketing manager Robbie Paterson. "It’s a great game and a great way to do some good, so we were honored to come on board as part of this project.”

Nijman emphasizes that he wants Minit Fun Racer to be a game that people buy because they think it will be fun to play -- not just because they want to donate to a cause.

"We want to encourage people to do good, but this game should also stand by itself," he says. "If you just buy it because you want to have a good time and accidentally help out a charity, that's also good for us. It needed to be able to stand on its own."

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Japan had its own Nintendo Direct last night, and one of the major differences from the western version was the announcement of a beautiful looking Crayon Shin-Chan game. After disappointed fans asked after a potential release, a developer on the project said he would do his best to release a western version. The Japanese version of last night's Nintendo Direct offered a trailer for Crayon Shin-chan: Ora to Hakase no Natsuyasumi – Owaranai Nanokakan no Tabi (roughly translated: Crayon Shin-Chan: Me and the Professor's Summer Holiday - The Endless Seven-Day Trip), which sees the mischievous tyke exploring a tranquil small town, where he can fish, catch bugs, take baths and meet dinosaurs. The game, due to be released in Japan this summer, mixes cel-shaded characters and more realistic backdrops to create a beautiful aesthetic – you can check out the trailer below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/18/crayon-shin-chan-official-japanese-trailer-nintendo-direct"] Shin-Chan fans were disappointed that the game appeared to be exclusive to Japan, but developer Kaz Ayabe (who previously made the similarly tranquil Attack of the Friday Monsters for 3DS) has teased a potential western release. "I will do my best to release the European version," Ayabe tweeted, in response to a message asking about whether the game would be releasing in Europe. A European release for a Japanese game usually means a North American release isn't too far behind. In other February 2021 Nintendo Direct news, here's everything that was announced during last night's western version of the show, including The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. One of the other games revealed during the show was Mario Golf Super Rush, a new sports game from Camelot with a fully-fledged story mode. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Warning: Spoilers for WandaVision through Episode 6 follow. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Marvel Studios has released a clip from Episode 7 of WandaVision, teasing an entirely new sitcom style and setting for the show. The studio dropped a first-look at the forthcoming episode on Twitter. The clip opens with Wanda delivering a fourth-wall-breaking dialogue directly to the camera, as she tries to come to terms with her Westview border-expanding actions from the night before whilst also wrestling with family life. Billy and Tommy complain that their game is "freaking out," as their console controllers experience a glitch. Rest your eyes on the brand new clip from WandaVision Episode 7 below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/18/wandavision-episode-7-official-clip"] The new episode is set to debut on Disney+ on February 19, one week after WandaVision paid homage to the '90s with an episode that opened in the style of Malcolm in the Middle (the single-camera sitcom about a zany family that starred Frankie Muniz, Jane Kaczmarek, and Bryan Cranston). The episode left us with five theories and two lingering questions, which we hope to have some light shed on this week. However, if the answers don't arrive in the next episode, we might discover more in Marvel Studios' brand new documentary series, Assembled, which is set to start streaming exclusively on Disney+ from March. The show will take viewers "behind-the-scenes of the shows and movies of the MCU, following the filmmakers, cast and crew, and Marvel heroes every step of the way." The first episode will pull back the curtain on WandaVision, offering fans fresh insight into the production's concept and sitcom influences, filmmaking methods, and the "challenges and ultimate rewards" of performing an entire episode in front of a live studio audience, with exclusive commentaries from Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff) and Paul Bettany (Vision), plus other MCU stars. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=wandavision-all-the-marvel-and-tv-easter-eggs-in-every-episode&captions=true"] For more background on WandaVision, check out our explainer for the series and the comics that could be inspiring it, then read up on Wanda and Vision's story so far, and how the Disney+ sitcom fits into the MCU timeline. Once you're all caught up, take a look at our latest review for WandaVision Episode 6, which we called "amazing," noting how it "feels like it's on the ideal home straight." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Mediatonic has announced that Fall Guys will be coming to Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One this summer. In a post on Xbox Wire, lead game designer Joe Walsh revealed that Fall Guys is headed to the current and last generation of Xbox consoles this summer, placing it just under a year behind the PlayStation 4 release, which happened August 2020. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/04/fall-guys-launch-trailer"] No further reveals were made, but the news comes hot on the heels of the announcement of Fall Guys coming to Nintendo Switch, which was revealed as part of the latest Nintendo Direct. The Switch version is also launching in the summer, so it may be that both Xbox and Switch versions launch during a similar window. When Fall Guys launched it quickly became the most downloaded game on PlayStation Plus, so it stands a good chance of taking off on Xbox, too. It isn't planned for Xbox Game pass, though, so won't be free for subscribers in the same was as it was on PS4. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.