Sony Japan Studio's ongoing restructure has led to a mass exodus of developers behind key PlayStation titles like Demon's Souls on PS5, Gravity Rush, Bloodborne, The Last Guardian, and more. In February, Sony confirmed that PlayStation's Japan Studio will be re-organized around Team ASOBI, the development unit behind Astro's Playroom. First-party development elsewhere in the studio will likely cease or be scaled back, and other departments such as localization, external production, and IP management will shift to PlayStation Studios. Since this news, several key members of Japan Studio have announced their departures from the company. Demon's Souls PS5 director Gavin Moore announced today he is leaving Sony after 24 years with the company.

After 24 years at Sony and 18 of those in Japan, yesterday was my last day at #JAPANStudio. I will miss the great creative spirit and camaraderie of the studio that was a huge part of my life. Time to seek out new and exciting opportunities!! pic.twitter.com/XOW0XytYd4

— gavin moore (@GavinmGavin) April 1, 2021

"After 24 years at Sony and 18 of those in Japan, yesterday was my last day at #JapanStudio. I will miss the great creative spirit and camaraderie of the studio that was a huge part of my life," Moore wrote in his farewell message. "Time to seek out new and exciting opportunities."

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Since Moore's message, several others shared that their time with Japan Studio has ended. Departures include former executive producer Yasutaka Asakura, who has credits on Gravity Rush, Bloodborne, and Shadows of the Colossus.

Brendon Pritchard who served as global relations on The Last Guardian also announced their departure; as well as Gravity Rush character designer Shunsuke Saito and senior producer Kentaro Motomura.

今日でソニー・インタラクティブエンタテインメントを退社しますー I'm leaving SIE Japan Studio today pic.twitter.com/jwXrGYMwGp

— 斎藤俊介(ShunsukeSaito) (@sshun3) March 31, 2021

Some of Japan Studio's creatives left earlier. Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama, along with Gravity Rush designer Junya Okura and The Last Guardian lead designer Kazunobu Sato all left Japan Studio in December to form Bokeh Game Studio. The developers are already working on their first game, a psychological horror title. As Japan Studio continues its re-structure, all eyes will be on what the studio that has worked on titles like Gravity Rush, Bloodborne, and more will look like once it fully re-centers around Team ASOBI. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

Producers of Starz's American Gods series have reassured fans that the show will continue in some capacity despite the network's decision to cancel the series shortly after its third season finale, Deadline reports.

“Fremantle is committed to completing the epic journey that is American Gods, one of TV’s most inclusive series with the most amazing fans across the globe,” a Fremantle Productions spokesperson told Deadline. “With Neil Gaiman and this fantastic cast and crew, we are exploring all options to continue to tell this magnificent story.”

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/10/american-gods-season-3-official-trailer-nycc-2020"]

Gaiman previously also assured fans that the American Gods television series, based on his 2001 novel, would continue.

“It's definitely not dead,” Gaiman tweeted. “I'm grateful to the team at Starz for the American Gods journey so far. Fremantle (who make AG) are committed to finishing the story that began in episode 1, and right now we're all just waiting to see which way forward is best, and who it'll be with.”

Starz officially canceled American Gods earlier this week.  The decision was based on declining ratings, with viewership dropping by 65% from its debut season to the recently concluded season three, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Fremantle’s statement lends an extra bit of weight to assurances that the series will continue on in some form. THR’s sources also indicated that Starz is in discussions to greenlight a possible event series or film to conclude the series. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/American clod for IGN.

Producers of Starz's American Gods series have reassured fans that the show will continue in some capacity despite the network's decision to cancel the series shortly after its third season finale, Deadline reports.

“Fremantle is committed to completing the epic journey that is American Gods, one of TV’s most inclusive series with the most amazing fans across the globe,” a Fremantle Productions spokesperson told Deadline. “With Neil Gaiman and this fantastic cast and crew, we are exploring all options to continue to tell this magnificent story.”

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/10/american-gods-season-3-official-trailer-nycc-2020"]

Gaiman previously also assured fans that the American Gods television series, based on his 2001 novel, would continue.

“It's definitely not dead,” Gaiman tweeted. “I'm grateful to the team at Starz for the American Gods journey so far. Fremantle (who make AG) are committed to finishing the story that began in episode 1, and right now we're all just waiting to see which way forward is best, and who it'll be with.”

Starz officially canceled American Gods earlier this week.  The decision was based on declining ratings, with viewership dropping by 65% from its debut season to the recently concluded season three, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=american-gods-season-3-photos&captions=true"]

Fremantle’s statement lends an extra bit of weight to assurances that the series will continue on in some form. THR’s sources also indicated that Starz is in discussions to greenlight a possible event series or film to conclude the series. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/American clod for IGN.

This week in GTA Online, claim GTA$1M with your PlayStation Plus subscription, score bonus rewards in tons of modes, and snag parachuting freebies.

This week in GTA Online, claim GTA$1M with your PlayStation Plus subscription, score bonus rewards in tons of modes, and snag parachuting freebies.

Activision issued a DMCA takedown notice to the Twitter account of website Video Games Chronicle after it legitimately covered map leaks from Call of Duty: Warzone. This resulted in the VGC account being temporarily locked (a standard Twitter process in response to DMCA claims, but one that can eventually lead to full account suspension), with the tweet in question also struck from Twitter. The DMCA also affected VGC editor-in-chief, Andy Robinson. Both tweets pointed to VGC's coverage of the leaks – which Activision has seemingly not moved to take down. Twitter's policies say that it will "respond to reports of alleged copyright infringement, such as allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted image as a profile or header photo, allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted video or image uploaded through our media hosting services, or Tweets containing links to allegedly infringing materials." Robinson has made clear that the tweets did not contain Twitter-hosted images of the leaked material. Twitter links do automatically pull images from their stories, which could appear to show a leaked image – however the image in VGC's tweet (and story) appeared to be a screenshot from the 'Ashes to Ashes' mission in the Black Ops Cold War campaign, not a leaked image. Robinson confirmed to IGN that that image was the header from publish time onwards, and came from the existing game, not the leaks. VGC's coverage included only instances of the leaked material as embeds from other sites, and no leaked material was privately hosted. Many of those embedded, leaked images remain live at time of writing. Even if embedded images inside a news story were deemed to be a link to "allegedly infringing materials," Twitter's own guidelines on fair use make clear that copyrighted material can be posted or linked to if it is deemed transformative, including "educational explanation or additional context", both of which could easily be said to be a part of news coverage.

Here comes Activision removing our legitimate coverage of their leaks from Twitter (I’ve never received a DMCA from any other games company) pic.twitter.com/y6ig52lO1Q

— Andy Robinson (@AndyPlaytonic) April 1, 2021

Activision has not publicly explained why it sought to pull down the tweets, and Twitter has not explained why they were deemed to infringe its policies despite fair use. Activision has also not explained why it seemingly only sought to pull down the tweets. In a statement to IGN, Robinson confirmed that Activision has now been in touch, and is seeking to resolve the situation:

"It’s disappointing that this happened to a legitimate story about information that’s in the public domain. 

"I’ve been a reporting on the games industry for nearly two decades, and I understand that companies are sensitive about leaks and need to police their IP. However, when taking action such as this, there’s the inherent risk that good faith reporting such as VGC’s can be caught in the crossfire.

"On that basis, and since tweeting about this issue, Activision has been in touch to explain what happened and promised to take action to resolve the situation, so I’m satisfied with the outcome."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-and-warzone-season-two-combat-pack-trailer"] While Activision is by no means alone in its use of DMCA to approach leaked game industry information, this approach to the removal of links to news about leaks, rather than many of the leaked assets themselves – and Twitter's seeming acceptance of it – could be seen to set a harmful precedent to taking action against legitimate news coverage. IGN contacted Activision Blizzard for comment, but received no comment. At the very least, Activision's approach to coverage of the leaks certainly seems to suggest that they are legitimate. The leaks themselves originated with a clip of a live-action trailer of a new, 1980s-themed Warzone map shared onto social media by the account On Thin Ice, before being promptly taken down by Activision. The footage has since been shared across social media, on Reddit and YouTube. In its coverage, VGC corroborated the leak, with its sources saying that Warzone was set to swap its current-day Verdansk map for a Black Ops Cold War-era revision on April 22 as part of an "explosive in-game event". VGC's report also says that the new map was supposed to launch in November 2020 alongside Black Ops Cold War, but was pushed out of that window by "several factors." In other recent Activision-Blizzard news, the company reportedly carried out layoffs affecting nearly 190 employees. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter. Joe Skrebels is IGN's executive editor of news.

Activision issued a DMCA takedown notice to the Twitter account of website Video Games Chronicle after it legitimately covered map leaks from Call of Duty: Warzone. This resulted in the VGC account being temporarily locked (a standard Twitter process in response to DMCA claims, but one that can eventually lead to full account suspension), with the tweet in question also struck from Twitter. The DMCA also affected VGC editor-in-chief, Andy Robinson. Both tweets pointed to VGC's coverage of the leaks – which Activision has seemingly not moved to take down. Twitter's policies say that it will "respond to reports of alleged copyright infringement, such as allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted image as a profile or header photo, allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted video or image uploaded through our media hosting services, or Tweets containing links to allegedly infringing materials." Robinson has made clear that the tweets did not contain Twitter-hosted images of the leaked material. Twitter links do automatically pull images from their stories, which could appear to show a leaked image – however the image in VGC's tweet (and story) appeared to be a screenshot from the 'Ashes to Ashes' mission in the Black Ops Cold War campaign, not a leaked image. Robinson confirmed to IGN that that image was the header from publish time onwards, and came from the existing game, not the leaks. VGC's coverage included only instances of the leaked material as embeds from other sites, and no leaked material was privately hosted. Many of those embedded, leaked images remain live at time of writing. Even if embedded images inside a news story were deemed to be a link to "allegedly infringing materials," Twitter's own guidelines on fair use make clear that copyrighted material can be posted or linked to if it is deemed transformative, including "educational explanation or additional context", both of which could easily be said to be a part of news coverage.

Here comes Activision removing our legitimate coverage of their leaks from Twitter (I’ve never received a DMCA from any other games company) pic.twitter.com/y6ig52lO1Q

— Andy Robinson (@AndyPlaytonic) April 1, 2021

Activision has not publicly explained why it sought to pull down the tweets, and Twitter has not explained why they were deemed to infringe its policies despite fair use. Activision has also not explained why it seemingly only sought to pull down the tweets. In a statement to IGN, Robinson confirmed that Activision has now been in touch, and is seeking to resolve the situation:

"It’s disappointing that this happened to a legitimate story about information that’s in the public domain. 

"I’ve been a reporting on the games industry for nearly two decades, and I understand that companies are sensitive about leaks and need to police their IP. However, when taking action such as this, there’s the inherent risk that good faith reporting such as VGC’s can be caught in the crossfire.

"On that basis, and since tweeting about this issue, Activision has been in touch to explain what happened and promised to take action to resolve the situation, so I’m satisfied with the outcome."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-and-warzone-season-two-combat-pack-trailer"] While Activision is by no means alone in its use of DMCA to approach leaked game industry information, this approach to the removal of links to news about leaks, rather than many of the leaked assets themselves – and Twitter's seeming acceptance of it – could be seen to set a harmful precedent to taking action against legitimate news coverage. IGN contacted Activision Blizzard for comment, but received no comment. At the very least, Activision's approach to coverage of the leaks certainly seems to suggest that they are legitimate. The leaks themselves originated with a clip of a live-action trailer of a new, 1980s-themed Warzone map shared onto social media by the account On Thin Ice, before being promptly taken down by Activision. The footage has since been shared across social media, on Reddit and YouTube. In its coverage, VGC corroborated the leak, with its sources saying that Warzone was set to swap its current-day Verdansk map for a Black Ops Cold War-era revision on April 22 as part of an "explosive in-game event". VGC's report also says that the new map was supposed to launch in November 2020 alongside Black Ops Cold War, but was pushed out of that window by "several factors." In other recent Activision-Blizzard news, the company reportedly carried out layoffs affecting nearly 190 employees. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter. Joe Skrebels is IGN's executive editor of news.

The PS5 Open Beta of Final Fantasy 14 will land on the next-gen console on April 13. Revealed in a tweet from the official Final Fantasy 14 account on Twitter, the PS5 Open Beta for the popular MMO will coincide with the launch of Patch 5.5.

The #FFXIV PS5 version open beta test begins Tuesday, April 13 alongside the release of Patch 5.5!

Learn how to participate https://t.co/ubsSmNPIub pic.twitter.com/ueMQrgduyZ — FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) April 1, 2021

You can check out all the details on how to participate in the beta on the official Final Fantasy 14 website. PS5-exclusive benefits include "greatly increased frame rates, true 4K resolution, 3D Audio and haptic feedback." Those who own the physical edition of Final Fantasy 14 on PlayStation 4 can upgrade by heading to the PlayStation Store and downloading the "FINAL FANTASY XIV PS5 Upgrade Edition (Beta Version)". Those who own the digital edition of the game can upgrade directly from their game library. If you're a PS5 player new to Final Fantasy 14, all you have to do is download the "FINAL FANTASY XIV Free Trial" from the PlayStation Store if you wish to try it out. The official service start date for the PlayStation 5 version of the game will be announced on the lodestone, and determined "based on the progress of the open beta test." Square Enix also notes that all data from the beta will be transferred to the full version of the game. In other FF14 news, here's Director Naoki Yoshida reflecting on the MMO reaching its first major ending with Endwalker. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

The PS5 Open Beta of Final Fantasy 14 will land on the next-gen console on April 13. Revealed in a tweet from the official Final Fantasy 14 account on Twitter, the PS5 Open Beta for the popular MMO will coincide with the launch of Patch 5.5.

The #FFXIV PS5 version open beta test begins Tuesday, April 13 alongside the release of Patch 5.5!

Learn how to participate https://t.co/ubsSmNPIub pic.twitter.com/ueMQrgduyZ — FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) April 1, 2021

You can check out all the details on how to participate in the beta on the official Final Fantasy 14 website. PS5-exclusive benefits include "greatly increased frame rates, true 4K resolution, 3D Audio and haptic feedback." Those who own the physical edition of Final Fantasy 14 on PlayStation 4 can upgrade by heading to the PlayStation Store and downloading the "FINAL FANTASY XIV PS5 Upgrade Edition (Beta Version)". Those who own the digital edition of the game can upgrade directly from their game library. If you're a PS5 player new to Final Fantasy 14, all you have to do is download the "FINAL FANTASY XIV Free Trial" from the PlayStation Store if you wish to try it out. The official service start date for the PlayStation 5 version of the game will be announced on the lodestone, and determined "based on the progress of the open beta test." Square Enix also notes that all data from the beta will be transferred to the full version of the game. In other FF14 news, here's Director Naoki Yoshida reflecting on the MMO reaching its first major ending with Endwalker. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

New York Comic-Con 2021 is set to return with an in-person convention this October. Taking to Twitter, editor Aaron Couch issued an update to THR's report about San Diego Comic-Con's "uphill battle" to secure talent for its in-person show in November to reveal the news that New York Comic-Con is also planning an in-person convention this year, running from October 7-10, 2021. He added that "a virtual element" is being planned in conjunction with the event as well. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-delayed-movie-due-to-coronavirus-so-far&captions=true"] This development comes on the heels of San Diego Comic-Con revealing its revised plans to hold an in-person show over Thanksgiving weekend, November 26-28, 2021, at the San Diego Convention Center. The company made reference to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in its announcement, saying they hoped that, by fall, "conditions will permit larger public gatherings." While the details of New York Comic-Con haven't been officially confirmed yet, the October dates provided place it more than a month prior to San Diego Comic-Con, which was previously pegged to be the first in-person convention produced by the organization since Comic-Con 2019, and the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to THR, though, the San Diego Comic-Con announcement hasn't been well-received, with multiple studio, publishing, and publicity insiders indicating "a pushback is brewing" behind the scenes. Sources cited various reasons for the criticism, including safety concerns, quarantine issues, and the event schedule, having been booked for the "first post-vaccine Thanksgiving holiday." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/23/the-new-mutants-comic-con-2020-footage-breakdown"] Comic-Con International highlighted "all the great elements that make Comic-Con such a popular event each year," as well as the company's hopes to "generate much-needed revenue, not only for the organization but also for local businesses and the community" by hosting an event that could potentially mark "a slow return to larger in-person gatherings in 2022." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.