Microsoft has announced that the May 2021 Xbox Games with Gold are Armello, Dungeons 3, LEGO Batman, and Tropico 4. These four games represent a value of $79.96 and come with 4000 points of Gamerscore for players to earn, according to Microsoft. Armello will be available starting May 1 and it will be free to download for Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate members until May 31. LEGO Batman will be available from May 1 to May 15, Dungeons 3 will be free to download from May 16 to June 15, and Tropico 4 will be available starting May 16 until May 31. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/26/xbox-may-2021-games-with-gold-trailer"] Armello is a "grim fairytale board game" come to life, featuring swashbuckling adventure, the "deep tactics of card games," and the strategy of tabletop games. This character-building RPG sees players take on the role of the hero while waging battle and exploring the game's vast kingdom in an effort to become the next king or queen of Armello. The game was originally released in 2015 on Steam before hitting Xbox One in 2016 and you can read our thoughts on it in IGN's Armello review. Dungeons 3 is a dungeon-building, real-time strategy game where players must help the Dungeon Lord succeed in conquest while heading the frontlines of chief lieutenant, dark elf Thayla. Players can choose orcs, succubae, zombies, and more while attempting to "take down the do-gooders of the overworld once and for all." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/14/dungeons-3-complete-collection-trailer"] LEGO Batman is the first LEGO video game iteration of the character originally released on Xbox 360, but playable through backwards compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It takes the classic gameplay of LEGO video games and adds a DC, bat-centric twist to the formula as players take on Joker and other villains. You can read our thoughts on the game in IGN's LEGO Batman review. The fourth and final Game with Gold for May 2021 is Tropico 4, an Xbox 360 title that sees players take on the role of El Presidente, who must dictate anything and everything that happens on their island. Your job in this game is simple: gain the support of the island's people by any means necessary. Our review of the game says Tropico 4 is the perfect game for those who have spent hours upon hours within the likes of Civilization or Sim City. If you've missed out on the Games with Gold for April 2021, there is still time to download Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, Truck Racing Championship, and Hard Corps: Uprising. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

For the LittleBigPlanet community, one thing is clear — none of the mainline games in the series work right now, and haven’t for quite some time. Very little beyond that fact is very clear at all. The series' small but devoted group of remaining players has been left in the dark about why major sections of LittleBigPlanets 1, 2, and 3 are unplayable, who’s responsible, and when it will all be fixed. It’s a situation that speaks to the wider issue of online game preservation, and when a community is seemingly deemed no longer valuable enough to the companies that operate their games.

The LittleBigPlanet servers went down in early March. Their single player campaigns remain playable, and users can create their own levels, but they can no longer upload or download levels —the lifeblood of LittleBigPlanet, particularly this many years after release. Nor can they play with friends or access the game’s store. All three of the console LittleBigPlanet games are linked, with LittleBigPlanet 3 players theoretically able to download levels made for the first game; the unfortunate side-effect of this open approach being that when servers go down for one game, they go down for all three.

The servers remain inaccessible as I write, and messages around server repairs have been few and far between. On March 12, the Twitter accounts for LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 3 developer Sumo Digital, and Sony studio SIE XDev all mentioned that the servers were being taken down because of ‘technical difficulties’. On March 31, the LittleBigPlanet Twitter account followed up to say that the team was working to “get the servers back online ASAP”, with XDev director of product development Pete Smith adding that “It might not be today, but it’s close.” Fan site LBP Union even reported that the game was briefly playable in full that day, albeit with some slowdown – but the servers were down again before too long.

The last we heard from the team came on April 16, with a post reading, "We are still working on the LBP server issues. It’s taking us longer than we hoped but we are making progress and will update everyone as soon as we have more info. Thanks for being so patient :)".

[caption id="attachment_2505219" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The screen that greets LittleBigPlanet 3 players who want to play online right now.[/caption]

In talking with multiple members of the series’ community, I’ve heard a number of guesses and theories about how and why this happened in the first place. Many have pointed fingers at a single, aggrieved member of the community, spoken about stolen server keys, and claimed that thousands of junk levels were uploaded at one time as a DDOS attack to cripple servers. Others refuse to believe those theories, believing more prosaic reasons are to blame, based more on a lack of support for the games as they get older.

Nothing can be proven either way, because no party involved in LittleBigPlanet’s upkeep has meaningfully commented on the issue, other than to acknowledge that there is one. IGN understands that series creator MediaMolecule is no longer involved in any element of LittleBigPlanet’s ongoing operations, leaving its newer developers and publisher in a position to answer questions – although none of them ever truly have. LittleBigPlanet’s community manager has failed to respond to multiple requests for comment from IGN, Sumo Digital has been similarly silent, and Sony Interactive Entertainment responded to multiple questions about the issue with a simple statement, lacking in detail:

“We are aware of server issues with LittleBigPlanet and are working to get the issue fixed and the servers back online. We will keep you updated on progress and appreciate the continued patience as we work to resolve the matter.”

That stony silence around what exactly has happened has left members of the community wondering (and worrying about) not when, but if they’ll ever get to play the creative platformers again.

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I asked LBP player JakeLamba what it is that brought him back to the game so long after its release, and their reply feels like a very common sentiment. “A few months ago I started looking into PS3 stuff again, just for fun, and when I saw LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 games store a flood of forgotten memories came rushing back. I just got reminded of all the amazing times I had in the game and how instrumental it was in promoting creativity in me as a child. Though it's not just nostalgia that keeps bringing me back. I honestly think the game series is being slept on. The games have so much charm in them.”

Another community member, Redshift-TTV agrees: “As a kid playing LBP1 on my PS3 for the first time it was magical. It felt like the game was on a whole different level compared to others. The game had the perfect childhood, arts and crafts project feel to it. Really feeding into our growing imaginations at the time.”

Players return to, or have simply kept playing, LittleBigPlanet games because of the memories attached to them, and their relatively unique format – only the Mario Maker series really matches LittleBigPlanet for both profile and approach. One user even says they now play it with their own child, after playing it themselves back in 2008. “It's a great creative outlet for my kid who loves to create levels to express feelings, thoughts, or ideas,” says 0niongirl. “I feel so sad that a game that I love and now my child loves is slowly fading away.”

Just as we’ve seen with console generations, there are generations of gamers too, and LittleBigPlanet’s remaining base of active players remain tied to the series because it feels like part of a bygone age. LittleBigPlanet’s generation was part of the vanguard of massively online console gaming, and an early success in “shareable” content for PlayStation – and it’s that mixture of age, server reliance, and player input that makes the current situation so difficult to take for fans.

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If increasing digitalization is a concern for those interested in game preservation, games that rely on online-driven, user-generated content should be treated like something of an endangered species. Games like LittleBigPlanet are, essentially, built with an invisible countdown clock, ticking to the moment that the scales tip from “community support is worthwhile” to “community support is fiscally inefficient”. As a community dwindles over time, it will inevitably reach a point at which those paying to keep the lights on simply don’t see the value in the few remaining players, no matter their passion.

Some of the LittleBigPlanet community are grimly realistic about the game’s eventual fate: “LittleBigPlanet is an incredibly old game,” says JakeLamba, “where even the latest installment came out 7 years ago, so to expect them to regularly maintain and keep up servers is in my opinion unrealistic.”

But from what we can see, LittleBigPlanet is suffering those effects somewhat early. The games don’t seem to be down because Sony or Sumo have decided it’s time to close them once and for all, although total silence on the support side doesn’t help assuage that worry. Instead, they’re stuck in a kind of limbo, simply waiting for the servers to tick back on again. There’s a powerlessness to it – you own the game, which should be working, and yet you’re totally unable to use it as designed, with no one telling you why.

This isn’t isolated to LittleBigPlanet. TheGamer recently reported that Titanfall on PC has been functionally unplayable for years due to hackers, who post racist abuse and forcibly disconnect those coming to play for legitimate reasons. Developer Respawn and publisher EA seemingly didn’t respond to queries from its small remaining community, presumably for the same reasons that the game’s servers will, one day, inevitably be closed – it’s simply not a profitable use of a support’s time.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=There%E2%80%99s%20a%20powerlessness%20to%20this%20%E2%80%93%20you%20own%20the%20game%2C%20which%20should%20be%20working%2C%20and%20yet%20you%E2%80%99re%20totally%20unable%20to%20use%20it%20as%20designed%2C%20with%20no%20one%20telling%20you%20why."]

Where server attacks and outages in more recent games are fixed as a matter of course, in legacy games like Titanfall and LittleBigPlanet, the silence can be hard to break. It’s no surprise that, once the Titanfall community’s story hit a wider audience, Respawn promised fixes. In LittleBigPlanet’s case, the community organized, created a #SaveLBP hashtag, and contacted the media once it realized what had happened.

“I think this movement saved LBP from being ignored either indefinitely or for a longer period than what we waited for already,” Redshift-TTV tells me. JakeLamba agrees: “I definitely think the servers being worked on is due to fan outcry and media coverage. Without it there would've been a very good chance they were just going to shut it down and put an end to the LBP games.”

But even all that effort has led only to an acknowledgement of the problem. In both Titanfall and LittleBigPlanet’s case, no fix has been finalised, and no timeline given for it. There are signs as I write that LittleBigPlanet may be beginning to come back online, with some users reporting that they've been able to connect (although I've been unable to myself) – but even if and when the servers do return, the silence around this issue doesn't inspire hope for the inevitable moment when LittleBigPlanet is deemed less necessary to fix.

It speaks to the inherent problem of being a devoted fan of an older, online-focused game. No matter how passionate you might be, your hobby is in someone else’s control, not least when that someone else has historically shut down fan efforts to keep it alive in a new form. This will likely only be the beginning of this problem. Less than two decades ago, we entered into an age of increasingly online games; around a decade after that, we entered an era in which many of those games would become digital-only; now we’re entering a period in which many, or most, of those older games no longer hold value to those who hold the keys to make them work, with those same people reluctant to hand the keys over to those who would value keeping those games alive themselves.

Right now, a group of LittleBigPlanet players are part of an unwilling first wave of that movement – and they just want to know why they can't play their chosen games. No one is telling them.

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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 newstips@ign.com.

Following fan outcry over the 8-hour window of PS5's Resident Evil Village demos, Capcom has extended the final, multi-platform demo by a week. Instead of lasting for only 24 hours, Resident Evil's Twitter revealed the new Extended Final Demo will run from May 1 at 5pm PT/8pm ET/1AM BST (5/2) to May 9 at 5pm PT/8pm ET/ 1am BST (5/10). This final demo for Resident Evil Village will still only let players play for a total of 60 minutes between the Village Demo and the Castle Demo, which were separated by a week for PS5 players in their exclusive first demos. While some took issue with the 30-minute limit for each of the first two demos, the biggest complaint was its 8-hour window of availability. These demos started at 5pm PT/8pm ET/1 am BST, which is late in the day in North America for most and even later for those in Europe and elsewhere. If you were busy or sleeping or otherwise unable to spend time on your PS5, you were out of luck and could not try the demo at all. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/25/resident-evil-village-14-minutes-of-the-castle-demo-gameplay-full-playthrough"] Fortunately, Capcom heard the feedback and will make it a bit more convenient for those with different schedules and life responsibilities. For more on Resident Evil Village, which is set to be released on May 7, 2021, check out the great reference to Resident Evil 4 you will be able to see in the demo, all of the game's villains, and our thoughts after five hours of trying out the latest entry in the horror franchise. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Roku is warning customers that Google’s popular virtual TV provider, YouTube TV, may be booted from the streaming aggregator due to “unfair terms” that could “harm our users,” according to an email sent to customers on Monday morning.

Unlike previous public disputes that Roku has found itself in with other media companies (most notably WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal), the issue isn’t about what percentage of a cut Google takes when customers sign up for YouTube TV. Instead, this marks one of the first times that Roku is alleging anticompetitive behavior from Google, specifically related to acts that would manipulate search results and impact the usage of customer data, according to Roku’s email.

Google is allegedly asking Roku to suppress search results from some of Google’s biggest competitors in the streaming space, like Netflix and HBO Max, if a customer is searching for something in YouTube, according to Variety. If true, requesting special search access and preventing competitors from surfacing to favor YouTube is a perfect example of the anticompetitive behavior allegations that Google has fielded over the years. The United States Congress has also launched investigations into those same anticompetitive allegations, and spoke to Google CEO Sundar Pichai alongside other tech executives at a lengthy antitrust hearing in 2020.

Google is denying claims made by Roku, noting that "Roku often engages in these types of tactics in their negotiations," adding that "we’re disappointed that they chose to make baseless claims while we continue our ongoing negotiations" in a statement to IGN. The company is currently in negotiation deals with Roku over YouTube TV being carried on the platform.

"We have made no requests to access user data or interfere with search results," A YouTube TV spokesperson said. "We hope we can resolve this for the sake of our mutual users."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/01/05/roku-to-stream-ultra-hd-4k-netflix-ign-news"]

Google and its YouTube TV division are reiterating that Roku is making inaccurate public claims about the tech giant, including those in the streaming aggregator's statement.

“We simply cannot agree to terms that would manipulate consumer search results, inflate the cost of our products and violate established industry data practices,” Roku said in a statement to Variety. “Google is already under fire from governments around the world for manipulating search results. It is outrageous that Google would now try to insist on manipulating Roku’s search results as well.”

It’s a tricky moment for Google. On top of owning search and advertising — Google’s advertising revenue jumped 22% in its last quarter, coming in at $46.2 billion — the company also has a sizable hardware division. Google TV with Chromecast, for example, is a direct competitor with Roku. While Google maintains a partnership with Roku to ensure YouTube and YouTube TV are on the device (Roku remains the most popular streaming hardware device in US homes), the company has its own ambitions. Google wants to own the entire ecosystem the same way the company owns search and advertising.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/02/28/youtube-announces-new-live-tv-service"]

Here’s where everything gets a little political. Roku has the perfect opportunity to latch onto a very strong, growing concern amongst some in Congress and some consumers that Google has a monopoly. By taking the first public swing at Google, Roku is setting the stage: we, Roku, are the good guys because we, Roku, want to protect you and your data.

What Roku’s email doesn’t say is that both YouTube and YouTube TV command a significant amount of screen time. Last June, YouTube’s executives told advertisers that YouTube makes up 41% of ad-supported streaming watch time, according to CordCutters. YouTube TV is also quickly growing, surpassing three million paying customers by late 2020. It’s a partnership that Roku doesn’t want to lose — as stated by Roku in its own email to customers.

Google also doesn’t want to lose out on signing up more YouTube TV customers or boosting the amount of time (and therefore ads sold) on YouTube. Roku is a good partner to have. More importantly, the company doesn’t want to be seen publicly as the very thing that some people may already think of Google as — a scary, monopolistic monolith.

This is the true “streaming wars.” It’s not whether more people subscribe to Netflix or Disney+; it’s a battle for the box in your living room. It’s a fight for advertisements and access to data — a fight that will become even more crucial to digital video business as targeted advertising becomes more integrated (there’s a reason Roku bought Nielsen’s video advertising business). It’s a fight that, if it becomes public enough, as Roku seemingly wants, and if consumers get upset enough over, Congress might just step in to ask, “What’s going on here?” Update: The story has been updated to include Google's statement.

Harrison Ford delivered a mini roast of Blade Runner during his presentation slot at the Oscars this year – but it was a roast made up of notes that came from the movie's original screenings to studio executives. In typical Ford fashion, everything about his roast was dry, yet it still packed plenty of heat, as he appeared on stage to present the award for Best Film Editing, carrying a crumpled piece of paper in his pocket, containing the scornful studio notes for 1982's Blade Runner. He then proceeded to share those "editorial suggestions" with the audience to highlight the difficulties of the editing process. "I'd like to share some notes, some editorial suggestions that were prepared after the screening of, uh, a movie I was in," Ford joked before launching into his grill session of Blade Runner, in which he starred as the brooding replicant-hunter Rick Deckard. "Opening too choppy. Why is this voice-over track so terrible? He sounds drugged." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=blade-runner-2049-to-original-side-by-side-comparison&captions=true"] He continued: "Were they all on drugs? Dekker at the piano is interminable. Flashback dialogue is confusing. Is he listening to a tape? Why do we need the third cut to the eggs? The synagogue music is awful on the street. We've got to use Vangelis. Up to Zora's death, the movie is deadly dull. This movie gets worse every screening." Several different versions of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner exist as a result of changes requested by studio executives. Fans have debated for decades about which is the definitive version, with some absolutely championing Ford's legendarily lazy reading of the voiceover narration he outwardly dislikes, while others have shown appreciation for Scott's later alterations on The Final Cut. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a movie would be released in a different edition. Films like The Wild Bunch and Close Encounters of the Third Kind had been re-released in theaters to take advantage of the novelty. However, it is one of the earliest examples of a movie using the words "Director's Cut" in its marketing, which opened up a whole new aspect of the home video marketplace. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/10/03/harrison-ford-on-why-it-matters-if-deckard-is-a-replicant"] For more coverage of the Academy Awards, check out the full list of Oscars winners, find out how Chloé Zhao made history with her Best Director win, and see Anthony Hopkins' tribute to Chadwick Boseman. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

The latest addition to Apex Legends’ character roster is Valkyrie, the daughter of Titanfall 2 villain Viper. And while she may not have a Titan herself, her kit is a direct tribute to her dad’s Northstar mech. Valkyrie’s key equipment is her jetpack, and her kit is built around that feature. The ‘VTOL Jets’ make her incredibly mobile, replicating the flying nature of the Northstar Titan. That’s just the start of the mech similarities, though; like a Northstar, Valkyrie has a Missile Swarm that deploys from shoulder-mounted launchers. Respawn compares this ability to a “mini Bangalore ultimate”, although expect much lower damage. The explosions do stun, though, so affected enemies will experience a short debuff to movement and aim speed. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/19/apex-legends-stories-from-the-outlands-northstar-trailer"] Her ultimate ability is Skyward Dive, which is effectively a team evacuation manoeuvre in which Valkyrie picks both her teammates up and soars into the sky as a trio. This can help an entire team escape danger and redeploy in a more advantageous position. Skyward Dive will also activate Valkyrie's Titanfall-style HUD (in fact any high-altitude move will activate this, be that using launch pads or the initial jump at the start of a match.) This HUD will highlight any enemy player that Valkyrie has line of sight on, within a certain range. This helps provide valuable intel before hitting the ground. As a recon class, Valkyrie can use the beacon terminals around the map to learn where the next ring will be located. She can obviously reach these thanks to her VTOL Jets, but it should be noted that the jetpack has limited fuel on a slow cooldown, so fuel consumption should be on the mind of every player. The VTOL jets are also loud, so draw attention. And while in the air, you’ll have to turn the jets off to be able to use your weapons again (although thankfully you can use the Missile Swarm mid-flight if you have it ready). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/19/apex-legends-northstar-valkyrie-lore-and-abilities-explained"] In addition to Valkyrie, this season of Apex Legends introduces a new weapon: the Bocek compound bow. This medium range precision bow and arrow has all the hallmarks of a classic video game bow; slow but quiet, huge damage, and difficult to master. It uses a new bespoke arrow ammunition type, which will be difficult to find, but they can be retrieved from the environment if you miss, or the deathbox of a player you kill. To help make the Bocek versatile, a Shatter Cap hop-up can be fitted to it, which turns the bow into a close-range shotgun-style weapon, shooting multiple scatter arrows at a time. For more confident users, the Deadeye’s Tempo hop-up provides a buff to drawback speed if you can repeatedly fire on the ‘beat’ of your bow pull. Valkyrie and the Bocek will both be added as part of Apex Legends’ Legacy update, which goes live on May 4. Additionally, a brand new 3v3 mode will be available, called Arenas. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

The upcoming season of Apex Legends, Legacy, is set to add a new, permanent 3v3 game mode called Arenas. Arenas is not a battle royale, but is instead a multi-round 3v3 mode with similarities to games like Valorant and Counter-Strike. Players fight on maps much smaller than those used for the battle royale, and have just one life per round to out-play the other team. Conclusive games can be over in three rounds, but a match can go as far as nine rounds and into sudden death if teams are unable to out-smart their opponents. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/22/apex-legends-legacy-launch-trailer"] While you will use the same weapons and characters as you do in the main Apex Legends battle royale mode, Arenas is a very different looking game type. For starters, there is no looting at all. Instead, a shopping phase before each round will allow players to purchase weapons, consumables, and upgrades. You can also purchase character abilities; to keep the characters balanced for this mode, you’ll have to buy charges of their tactical and ultimate abilities in this phase, rather than the battle royale’s cooldown system. Currency for the store is provided at the start of every round, with bonuses awarded for kills and wins, much like in other tactical PvP shooters. Player equipment is reset at the start of each round to prevent power snowballing and keep matches to a swift average of 15 minutes. While there’s no classic-style looting, there are still equipment bins around the map that contain consumables, as well as currency pickups that will allow you to buy better gear in the next round. Additionally, a supply drop will land halfway through a round containing three weapons, the rarity of which will increase round by round. Map design is much closer to traditional Apex Legends than the lanes of Counter-Strike; while much smaller than battle royale maps, they have stretches of open ground and named locations to fight over. The classic battle royale circle is also part of the mode, and staying inside it is a major part of a round’s momentum. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/19/apex-legends-northstar-valkyrie-lore-and-abilities-explained"] When Arenas launches it will have two bespoke maps: Party Crasher, set on a ship that’s crashed into a downtown plaza, and Phaserunner, a more rural, open map with long sightlines. More maps are in development, but since they will take a while three more maps have been made using segments of the battle royale maps. These will be Artillery from Kings Canyon, Thermal Station from Worlds End, and Golden Garden from Olympus. The mode will launch with its two bespoke maps and Artillery, and add the other two maps in the following weeks. Arenas could be the start of Apex Legends being a platform for other game modes beyond battle royal, too. “We’re pretty good shooter makers, so how can we offer that in other ways?” said Game Director Chad Grenier in an Q&A session with press. “So our first step has been in Arenas. We’ve got these other things we’re doing in playtests, where we’re trying to expand even further than that, so I think you’ll continue to see some innovations and some limited time modes, and us try a few things here and there. We do hope that Apex can be more than just a battle royale game.” Apex Legends Legacy launches May 4, and adds a new character, Valkyrie, and a new weapon, the Bochek bow and arrow, too. Both this new character and weapon will be available in Arenas as well as the main battle royale mode. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

A web developer from Argentina managed to buy one of Google's official domain names for less than $3 while the site was down last week. As reported by the BBC, Nicolas Kuroña purchased Google.com.ar legally after discovering the domain was temporarily down via WhatsApp messages from his friends. Kuroña used the Network Information Center Argentina website to purchase the domain, where it was up for sale for a brief amount of time. The domain cost Kuroña just 270 pesos (£2.08 / $2.90 USD / $3.72 AUD). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/22/google-stadia-review"] The web developer clearly didn't expect the purchase to go through: "I want to make it clear that I never had any bad intentions, I just tried to buy it and the NIC allowed me to," Kuroña told the BBC. "When the purchase process was completed and my data appeared, I knew that something was going to happen... I was really anxious," Kuroña said. Kuroña took to Twitter to explain himself as his personal data appeared where Google's landing page should be. Google Argentina has since said that the domain didn't expire, noting that its expiration date was actually July 2021. At the moment nobody really knows why it was up for sale. Naturally, Google quickly reobtained the domain name (with Kuroña making clear that he didn't get into any trouble as a result). Google says it's investigating what happened. In other Google news, the Xbox Series X and S are set to receive an upgraded browser that can play Google Stadia games. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Sony has announced a Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart State of Play broadcast for this Thursday, April 29. Insomniac has also revealed the name of the game's mysterious new female Lombax protagonist – Rivet. The State of Play broadcast will include 15 minutes of new gameplay from the upcoming PS5 exclusive, and begin at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK (that's April 30 at 7am AEST). We also got a short new cinematic/gameplay trailer to tide us over until Thursday: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/26/ratchet-clank-rift-apart-gameplay-trailer"] That trailer properly introduces us to Rivet, the female Lombax teased in previous clips of the game. Insomniac describes Rivet as "a Lombax resistance fighter from another dimension, where organic life is hunted by the evil Emperor Nefarious." It seems we'll be controlling both Ratchet and Rivet in the new dimension as they aim to take down Nefarious (with Clank seemingly joining Rivet for portions of the game). The trailer also shows off the new Nefarious City location, as well as "alternate-dimension twists" on existing Ratchet & Clank locations Sargasso and Torren IV. Sony also showed off more of the contents of the digital deluxe edition of Rift Apart, including five cosmetics that can seemingly be applied to Ratchet or Rivet and shown off in the game's photo mode. The suits are: Android Armor, Rebel Armor, Imperial Armor, Hacker Armor, and Scavenger Armor (images below). If you want to pre-order, we've got a Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart pre-order guide for you. [caption id="attachment_2505183" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's digital deluce edition bonuses (Source: Sony).[/caption] On top of all that, Insomniac also announced that Mark Mothersbaugh – lead singer of Devo and composer for Thor: Ragnarok, The LEGO Movie, and multiple games (including the Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter series) – has composed the score for Rift Apart. Sony's released snippets of three tracks from the game on its Soundcloud page – click through to listen to 'Rift Apart', 'Ride Through the Omniverse', and 'Ode to Nefarious'. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be released on June 11, and marks one of the early truly PS5-exclusive games. If you're looking for a truly next-gen game to play for that, Returnal arrives this week, and our final preview says it's "still very much a Housemarque game at its core, and that’s what has me wanting to play and indeed die, again and again." They should mark the start of a generation which Sony bos Jim Ryan says will see more PlayStation exclusives than ever before. [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.

When The World Ends With You launched on the Nintendo DS in 2007, I was 16 -- only a year older than the game's main protagonist, Neku. And while the real-world Shibuya that was so lovingly modeled in the game was half a world away from me, the stylish cast, themes of growing up and overcoming one's own prejudices and inhibitions, and absolute bop of a soundtrack gripped me utterly. I remember posting on forum threads back in the day speculating as to whether a sequel would be announced at an upcoming E3. And then again the following year. And the year after that. In reality, it took 14 years -- punctuated by mobile and Switch ports -- for The World Ends With You to earn a sequel, NEO: The World Ends With You. I'm now probably closer in age to the enigmatic barista Mr. H than I am to Neku and his friends. And, over the course of this long, long wait I was far from alone in rampant speculation and thirst for a new entry. So, given the positive critical response and commercial success of the original -- not to mention enthusiasm for the ports and fan demand for a sequel -- what took so long? According to NEO's producer, Tomohiko Hirano, plans have been in place for some time (we’ve seen teases of a character we now know to be Tsugumi Matsunae since 2012), and fan reception spurred things along. Ultimately, though, the long wait stemmed from the team needing multiple pieces to fall into place to make their vision come to life. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/09/neo-the-world-ends-with-you-release-date-announcement-trailer"] "With the original version of the game, from the very beginning we’ve had a lot of fans that have been asking for a sequel to come along," Hirano says in an interview with IGN. "But with the content of the game, it's a little out there. It's a little different from your usual game and with that, we needed to secure an environment where we could really focus on the development of this team. Up until now we really weren't able to secure that kind of environment, but now that we have been able to do so we've been able to proceed." I ask what he means by "securing an environment," and Hirano specifies that the team wanted to create "something totally new" rather than simply do what they had done with The World Ends With You and attach a different plot. And in the interim, new platforms came out, changing the systems and tools they had to work with. Here, series director Tatsuya Kando interjects with a succinct addendum: "We were also busy handling Kingdom Hearts, so we didn't really have time to allocate to this series previously." In the span of those 14 years, Nintendo hardware has moved from a tiny dual-screen handheld with a touchscreen to a device that, while portable and with a number of interesting optional control schemes (thanks Joy-Cons) ultimately defaults to functioning as a regular ol' console with a no-nonsense controller attached. That means that the vast majority of games released on it need to function that way too, including NEO. That's great news for PS4 and PC owners, as it frees the sequel from necessary platform exclusivity. But gone are the days of The World Ends With You's divisive, challenging, and (to me) delightful multitasking touch controls and button patterns across two screens simultaneously. A new battle system had to be devised. Game director Hiroyuki Itou says that the shift was indeed a roadblock for the team, but playing around with the battle scheme fits in with the team's desire to make something completely new. The new battle system he describes to me does seem to echo one critical element of the original game that played out across all platforms it was released for: NEO’s combat is all focused around the main party members' teamwork. Itou says developing the smartphone version of The World Ends With You inspired the route the developers ended up taking. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We%20were%20also%20busy%20handling%20Kingdom%20Hearts%2C%20so%20we%20didn't%20really%20have%20time%20to%20allocate%20to%20this%20series%20previously."] "When you look at other titles, when you're playing as a party with multiple members in there, it's usually turn-based where you're switching between characters to control them," Itou describes. "This time around, we implemented a system where you'll be able to control all of your characters simultaneously using the various buttons on the controller." The system he describes brings back The World Ends With You's system of Pins for different attacks, but this time instead of equipping a full set on one character and using different motions on a touch screen to activate each power, you equip Pins to your different party members, which are then assigned to different controller buttons. So in battle, you'll control your entire party at once via their respective Pin buttons, with party members acting out distinct commands like fire or sword attacks simultaneously. Aside from the battle system, another major change Itou describes is to the overworld. In The World Ends With You, progression around Shibuya was tied to progression of the main story, with areas blocked by Reapers who were either impassable or required battles or simple story puzzles to move forward. Though the Reapers' Game remains the focus of the main story, progression and discovery will be more connected to new kinds of puzzles taking place around Shibuya and the surrounding area, encompassing both the main story and sidequests. Itou doesn't elaborate on what these puzzles are just yet, but describes them as distinctly different from what players found in the first game. Speaking of the first game, no worries if you didn't play it -- Itou reassures me that players new to the series can step in comfortably to NEO, even though we've already seen a healthy pile of cameos from returning characters, from the first game's protagonist Neku to former villains Kariya and the math-obsessed Minamimoto. Itou adds that there will be plenty of nods to the first game for those familiar as well. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22We're%20hoping%20we'll%20see%20more%20demand%20from%20the%20players%2C%20which%20would%20serve%20as%20an%20opportunity%20for%20us%20to%20expand%20more%20on%20the%20franchise.%22"] Perhaps most interesting of all for returning players will be to see how the fictional Shibuya has transformed over the course of 14 years. Much of The World Ends With You was modeled directly after actual places in Shibuya City, a major commercial area within Tokyo popular for its youth culture, fashion, and shopping. Hirano tells me he believes that the game's earnest attempt at an accurate recreation of the area, encompassing its food, music, fashion, and culture, was a major factor in what made The World Ends With You so appealing to Western audiences, even resulting in tourists who had never been to Shibuya before traveling to the area, DS systems in hand, to compare TWEWY’s Shibuya with the real one. NEO The World Ends With You will follow this same philosophy of accuracy, Kando adds, while also seeing a "big expansion" to the map fans are familiar with, incorporating nearby Harajuku as well. But the real-world Shibuya hasn't been a static place in those intervening years, and Kando tells me NEO will reflect many of the changes it has experienced over that time. One example he offers is Miyashita Park, which in The World Ends With You is a relatively uneventful area featuring little more than an underpass. In the real world, Miyashita Park has historically been a public park situated in a rare green space in Shibuya. But in 2017, the city kicked off a remodeling project, transforming Miyashita Park into a huge outdoor shopping mall complete with a rooftop park. Kando tells me this transformation will be reflected in the game. It's hard not to harp a bit on the 14-year gap between games in what is now a The World Ends With You series -- after all, most unique experiences don't go that long and then suddenly get a sequel after years of fan requests. But The World Ends With You is coming out of Square Enix, a developer and publisher known for some of the most popular and long-running RPG and RPG-adjacent franchises out there, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts in particular. I ask the team if the hope is that The World Ends With You can eventually become a series like those, especially now that its universe is expanding not only with a sequel, but with an anime adaptation as well. "Yes, that is what we're aspiring for," Hirano responds. "But of course, as mentioned earlier, there was that big gap since the first title came out. So with the new title that's coming out, and also the anniversary version of the game going live, we're hoping we'll see more demand from the players, which would serve as an opportunity for us to expand more on the franchise." I tell him that I hope that comes true, but also that there isn't quite as big a gap between NEO and whatever comes next. The entire team laughs. "That's what we're hoping for as well," Hirano replies. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.