Though Dontnod's seen success with games like Tell Me Why and Vampyr, it's still primarily associated with Life Is Strange. In addition to pioneering the series with the original Life Is Strange (which was widely praised by critics and sold over three million copies) Dontnod is also responsible for Life Is Strange 2 and The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. But according to CEO Oskar Guilbert, Dontnod is now ready to move on. "Never say never," Guilbert said. "But for the moment it's not our strategy, yeah. We want to create our own IPs. That's what we want to do." Despite its association with Life Is Strange, Dontnod doesn't own the intellectual property. Square Enix does. And Square Enix recently announced that Life is Strange: True Colors will be developed by Deck Nine, which also worked on Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. That on its own doesn't prevent Dontnod from ever returning to Life Is Strange, but, at least for now, more Life Is Strange isn't in the studio's plans. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/03/life-is-strange-2-the-complete-season-trailer"] Head of publishing Xavier Spinat added immediately after, "But we are looking at what's happening, of course. Because our fans are looking at it, and so we are looking at it." Guilbert elaborated further on the importance of Dontnod owning its own games, tying it into other topics we addressed during the interview like the studio's long-term stability. He also talked about Dontnod’s determination to remain independent and not have its portfolio influenced by outside editorial decisions. "We think that this is something really important for the company, for the ownership of the teams, and for the future of Dontnod," he said. "This is our value for the next [few] years. So we decided to now develop IP [that is] fully or at least partially owned [by Dontnod]. So this is really our strategy. "We continue to work with Focus Home Interactive. We work with them on Vampyr. We continue to work with them on Project 8 [Dontnod's internal name for one of its upcoming games]. So yes, we are seen as the Life is Strange studio, but I hope that in the future we'll be seen like-- we cannot reveal the titles for our next game, but let's say Project 9, Project 10, Project 11. Or Dontnod Project 1." Earlier this year, Dontnod announced it was working on a new franchise in partnership with Tencent after Tencent bought a minority stake in the company. In total, the studio has seven projects in the works — six internally, and one it is publishing for independent developer PortaPlay. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

At a time when it seems like every independent studio that grows to a certain size and has a hit game or two is getting acquired by a giant entity, Dontnod is growing while fiercely proclaiming its ongoing independence. Speaking to IGN, Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert says that Dontnod had actually turned down a number of companies who wanted to acquire it in recent years. "To be honest, we refused several proposals," he says. "There are a lot of people who are interested [in] the game industry and see the game industry as a new El Dorado for investing. "...We raised 40 million euros in January. But for us, it was really important that the historic shareholders still have the majority, and still can keep the company independent. That's something really important for us." Why is Dontnod so adamant that it stay independent? For Guilbert, it comes down to the identity that Dontnod has built up over the years. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/27/tell-me-why-review"] "The values, the kind of games we want to do — it's really important for us that we keep this identity of the company for the future. [...] I don't want to be pretentious, but we're one of the game companies which do these kinds of games — like Life is Strange, like Tell Me Why, and Vampyr also in a sense. We really want to continue doing this. And we are lucky because our current partners, our people who put a lot of money in our company still let us do what we want to do. "...Intuitively I think people know what it means, a game made by Dontnod. This is very important for us because we really want to continue to develop this brand, the Dontnod brand as something which is meaningful  internally for us, and also externally for the players." All that understood, both Guilbert and Dontnod head of publishing Xavier Spinat are candid that staying independent in the space Dontnod has carved out for itself can be a challenge. Currently, Dontnod has around 250 employees internally working on six games — five in the Paris headquarters, and a sixth in the new Montreal studio. The company is taking its growth slow and steady, not wanting to overpromise or take on too many games at once, but also not wanting to put all its money in a single title. For example, its most recent releases — Twin Mirror and Tell Me Why — launched just a few months apart last year. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It%20was%20really%20important%20that%20the%20historic%20shareholders%20still%20have%20the%20majority%2C%20and%20still%20can%20keep%20the%20company%20independent."] And more recently, Dontnod has opted to further support its ambitions by moving into not just self-publishing, but third-party publishing as well, first with a game by indie studio PortaPlay. I pointed out to Spinat that PortaPlay seemed an odd choice for Dontnod's commitment to company identity, given its portfolio of games like drunken zombie war title Broken Lines. But Spinat reassures me I would be pleasantly surprised. "They are an indie studio with some veterans at heart, and to survive they are doing work-for-hire with museums, with institutions in Denmark," he says. "So they are doing a lot of varied work… And we don't want to talk right now about the concept, but [the game Dontnod is publishing] was a project that was very dear to the birth of the company and [PortaPlay has] been working on it for quite a while. We saw immediately that there was passion and emotion and authenticity into everything that was in it. We think it was something that would interest our audience and something we would be proud to follow up and to bring into our portfolio. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/02/twin-mirror-launch-trailer"] Spinat reiterates that with publishing as well, Dontnod wants to take things slow. "We don't want to become in two years, a publisher that publishes 10 games per year… We want to maintain consistency and quality in the lineup, which is our goal, [and] keep the editorial vision strong." But ultimately, Spinat continues, all of this comes back to Dontnod wanting to maintain its independence. If it can ensure it's not dependent on a single title to be a hit, and diversify its business between development and publishing, that helps keep the company stable, especially in an industry where it's so easy for a studio to fall apart if one project goes badly, or one funding source dries up. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We%20don't%20want%20to%20become%20in%20two%20years%2C%20a%20publisher%20that%20publishes%2010%20games%20per%20year."] "Even though there's an opportunity to get financed or published right now, it's also very unstable to be an indie developer," Spinat says. "Because you have one project. You cannot do two in parallel. It's very rare. And if it fails, it means you need to take your team and start over, so it's very difficult to build franchises, to build communication with the community. To build a sense of togetherness, let's say. It's difficult, because you never know. And just one failure can bring you down. "Dontnod was lucky enough to build successes in the past that were consistent in various areas because Vampyr is not Life is Strange, for example. That gave the idea to not just go with one bigger project, one bigger project, one bigger project, but several balanced projects. So if one failed — it's not like we plan for failure, of course. But we need to take that into account because of the survivability of the studio." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

At a time when it seems like every independent studio that grows to a certain size and has a hit game or two is getting acquired by a giant entity, Dontnod is growing while fiercely proclaiming its ongoing independence. Speaking to IGN, Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert says that Dontnod had actually turned down a number of companies who wanted to acquire it in recent years. "To be honest, we refused several proposals," he says. "There are a lot of people who are interested [in] the game industry and see the game industry as a new El Dorado for investing. "...We raised 40 million euros in January. But for us, it was really important that the historic shareholders still have the majority, and still can keep the company independent. That's something really important for us." Why is Dontnod so adamant that it stay independent? For Guilbert, it comes down to the identity that Dontnod has built up over the years. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/27/tell-me-why-review"] "The values, the kind of games we want to do — it's really important for us that we keep this identity of the company for the future. [...] I don't want to be pretentious, but we're one of the game companies which do these kinds of games — like Life is Strange, like Tell Me Why, and Vampyr also in a sense. We really want to continue doing this. And we are lucky because our current partners, our people who put a lot of money in our company still let us do what we want to do. "...Intuitively I think people know what it means, a game made by Dontnod. This is very important for us because we really want to continue to develop this brand, the Dontnod brand as something which is meaningful  internally for us, and also externally for the players." All that understood, both Guilbert and Dontnod head of publishing Xavier Spinat are candid that staying independent in the space Dontnod has carved out for itself can be a challenge. Currently, Dontnod has around 250 employees internally working on six games — five in the Paris headquarters, and a sixth in the new Montreal studio. The company is taking its growth slow and steady, not wanting to overpromise or take on too many games at once, but also not wanting to put all its money in a single title. For example, its most recent releases — Twin Mirror and Tell Me Why — launched just a few months apart last year. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It%20was%20really%20important%20that%20the%20historic%20shareholders%20still%20have%20the%20majority%2C%20and%20still%20can%20keep%20the%20company%20independent."] And more recently, Dontnod has opted to further support its ambitions by moving into not just self-publishing, but third-party publishing as well, first with a game by indie studio PortaPlay. I pointed out to Spinat that PortaPlay seemed an odd choice for Dontnod's commitment to company identity, given its portfolio of games like drunken zombie war title Broken Lines. But Spinat reassures me I would be pleasantly surprised. "They are an indie studio with some veterans at heart, and to survive they are doing work-for-hire with museums, with institutions in Denmark," he says. "So they are doing a lot of varied work… And we don't want to talk right now about the concept, but [the game Dontnod is publishing] was a project that was very dear to the birth of the company and [PortaPlay has] been working on it for quite a while. We saw immediately that there was passion and emotion and authenticity into everything that was in it. We think it was something that would interest our audience and something we would be proud to follow up and to bring into our portfolio. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/02/twin-mirror-launch-trailer"] Spinat reiterates that with publishing as well, Dontnod wants to take things slow. "We don't want to become in two years, a publisher that publishes 10 games per year… We want to maintain consistency and quality in the lineup, which is our goal, [and] keep the editorial vision strong." But ultimately, Spinat continues, all of this comes back to Dontnod wanting to maintain its independence. If it can ensure it's not dependent on a single title to be a hit, and diversify its business between development and publishing, that helps keep the company stable, especially in an industry where it's so easy for a studio to fall apart if one project goes badly, or one funding source dries up. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We%20don't%20want%20to%20become%20in%20two%20years%2C%20a%20publisher%20that%20publishes%2010%20games%20per%20year."] "Even though there's an opportunity to get financed or published right now, it's also very unstable to be an indie developer," Spinat says. "Because you have one project. You cannot do two in parallel. It's very rare. And if it fails, it means you need to take your team and start over, so it's very difficult to build franchises, to build communication with the community. To build a sense of togetherness, let's say. It's difficult, because you never know. And just one failure can bring you down. "Dontnod was lucky enough to build successes in the past that were consistent in various areas because Vampyr is not Life is Strange, for example. That gave the idea to not just go with one bigger project, one bigger project, one bigger project, but several balanced projects. So if one failed — it's not like we plan for failure, of course. But we need to take that into account because of the survivability of the studio." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Beast Boy from DC's Teen Titans is coming to Fortnite later this week. He'll be able to join his comic teammate Raven, and there will even be a chance to earn some specific Beast Boy and Raven rewards when the animal shapeshifter lands on the island. Beast Boy will be available on Thursday, May 13 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET on the Fortnite item shop. He'll come with the requisite back bling (a controller strapped to a pizza box), and custom pickaxe. Furthermore, Beast Boy will come with both his superhero outfit and a casual outfit, plus his Go Ape Emote will let him transform into a green gorilla. For anyone who can't wait until Thursday, Fortnite players will have the opportunity to unlock Beast Boy early in the Teen Titans Cup, a duo tournament beginning on May 12. Teams that score at least eight points can also earn a new Beast Boy and Raven Loading Screen from artist Gabriel Piccolo that highlights the couple's romance. Anyone who just participates in the tournament will earn a Beast Boy and Raven spray. It's great to see Fortnite play up the recent canonization of the Beast Boy and Raven romance, a longtime favorite pairing in the fan community finally made official by DC. Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 6 is currently underway and some of pop culture's biggest characters are joining up on the island including Kratos, Master Chief, and more. There are also a few members of the Teen Titans still unaccounted for, so perhaps there's a chance we'll see the whole team together in Fortnite? [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

Beast Boy from DC's Teen Titans is coming to Fortnite later this week. He'll be able to join his comic teammate Raven, and there will even be a chance to earn some specific Beast Boy and Raven rewards when the animal shapeshifter lands on the island. Beast Boy will be available on Thursday, May 13 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET on the Fortnite item shop. He'll come with the requisite back bling (a controller strapped to a pizza box), and custom pickaxe. Furthermore, Beast Boy will come with both his superhero outfit and a casual outfit, plus his Go Ape Emote will let him transform into a green gorilla. For anyone who can't wait until Thursday, Fortnite players will have the opportunity to unlock Beast Boy early in the Teen Titans Cup, a duo tournament beginning on May 12. Teams that score at least eight points can also earn a new Beast Boy and Raven Loading Screen from artist Gabriel Piccolo that highlights the couple's romance. Anyone who just participates in the tournament will earn a Beast Boy and Raven spray. It's great to see Fortnite play up the recent canonization of the Beast Boy and Raven romance, a longtime favorite pairing in the fan community finally made official by DC. Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 6 is currently underway and some of pop culture's biggest characters are joining up on the island including Kratos, Master Chief, and more. There are also a few members of the Teen Titans still unaccounted for, so perhaps there's a chance we'll see the whole team together in Fortnite? [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

Kerry Dixon hasn't had a free summer in a decade. He runs the San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog, and he usually spends May, June, and July, chasing down every rumor, booking, and itinerary he can find for the thousands of travelers who pass through the convention center each year. But in 2020, the world ground to a sudden halt. Conventions, concerts, festivals, and pretty much every other major public event simply couldn't exist under the shadow of a global pandemic, and Dixon had a lot of time on his hands that he was never burdened with before.

"I was mostly concerned about the artists and small vendors," says Dixon, over email, when asked to describe the fallout of last year. "While attendees might be sad that they can't go, and I certainly missed seeing my friends, for artists and small vendors San Diego Comic-Con is where many of them make a large portion of their income for the year."

But now, Dixon is preparing to come out of hibernation. San Diego Comic-Con is mounting a return for Thanksgiving weekend — with the hope that by then, COVID will finally be behind us. Dixon notes that currently, nobody knows much about what the proceedings will look like. Is Comic-Con going to be much smaller? Will it only be open to domestic travelers?

Hell, will it be restricted to California residents only? All of that is up in the air, as Dixon calculates what it's going to feel like to be out on the floor, surrounded by strangers.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/17/san-diego-comic-con-2020-cancelled"]

Can live events work in 2021?

"I think everyone's comfort level will depend on how things look closer to November," says Dixon. "If case counts are low, if it seems like we've mostly got this thing beat, if we've all had months of being vaccinated and feeling 'normal,' whatever that means now — I think it's going to be a really nice reunion event for many of us."

It’s a familiar feeling for many, across the world, who are grappling with the idea of returning to packed events after more than a year away. Events everywhere have already announced their 2021 return. Bonnaroo is planning an October return, and artists everywhere are releasing belated tour dates that will carve up the back half of the year.

Fans and promoters are hoping for a normal 2021, as vaccine campaigns slowly chip away at the tide of the pandemic. Some people are chomping at the bit to finally have their regular schedules back, and others are gun shy about making their way back to the fold. But after a year indoors, those who’d want to actually attend those events are processing the future of social contact in their own way.

One thing is clear: The live events industry needs good news. COVID, and the resulting deluge of shelter-in-place orders, has absolutely devastated the sector. In a survey sent out last July to production companies, rental shops, and design firms by the publication Live Design, three quarters of the respondents said they've lost over 75 percent of their total business (and a similar number said they were forced to lay off or furlough staff).

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/22/nearly-400k-fans-descend-on-gamescom-2019"]

Mikayla Moyer, a marketing director who worked at Live Nation until May of last year, remembers the fallout well. "I have so many former co-workers who had to run a face-slap gamut: first their salaries were cut, then they were put on furlough, then finally they were let go altogether," she says. There was no recourse; no chance to pivot, or recoup expenses, or explore other business models. Everyone in the industry just needed to hold on until the world reached the other side.

"There’s a concept in all live event contracts called Force Majeure — it’s a clause that essentially negates any party’s liability in the event of an 'Act of God.' A major storm, natural disaster, a coup, and so on," continues Moyer. "If something major and majorly unplanned happens — that affects all parties negatively and equally — you buckle down and weather it together, rather than finger pointing.

I think once the writing was on the wall, everyone just took a Force Majeure mentality: this huge thing just happened. Let’s try and help where we can, but after a point, you just have to submit to the natural order of the world. And sometimes that means just sitting and waiting."

The good news is that many health experts predict that concerts, conventions, and trade shows will be able to operate without incident in the relatively near future as more citizens carry shots in their arms. That is the thinking put forth by Dr. Amesh Adalja at Johns Hopkins University, who tells IGN that if an organizer is running an event where the majority of people are going to be vaccinated, it can go on in a "relatively safe manner."

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22Let%E2%80%99s%20try%20and%20help%20where%20we%20can%2C%20but%20after%20a%20point%2C%20you%20just%20have%20to%20submit%20to%20the%20natural%20order%20of%20the%20world%22"]

"But so long as there are unvaccinated individuals there, and there surely will be unvaccinated people at these types of events, there's going to need to be mitigation issues. If you're running a venue, you need to be sure that people are still following the common sense regulations," he continues. "There are some innovative solutions — at a concert, you could have vaccinated-only sections where people don't mix — you have more flexibility. But with a mixed audience, it's going to be more difficult."

Like so many in-person, sizable events, so much of the planning relies on numbers. New data from the CDC show that cases are decreasing across the country on average, but remain high in specific parts of the States.

On May 5th, the CDC reported that daily cases decreased about 12 percent on average, but some states are still seeing high caseloads. Alongside the medical community, the CDC is recommending people get their full vaccine shots. If cases grow in counties and cities where big festivals are being planned, like San Diego or New York City, it could change how organizers and attendees feel about venturing out.

Dr. Adalja reiterates that the vaccines on the market are highly effective, and speaking for himself as a fully inoculated person, he wouldn't have any qualms about attending a major event. The United States is on the brink of having half of its population vaccinated, and there's hope that soon society will re-enter some semblance of normalcy by the summer. Fingers crossed.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=what-was-at-summer-of-gaming-2020&captions=true"]

Legally, organizers behind giant festivals and events are covering themselves, too. Bonnarroo’s ticket sale confirmation includes a clause stating that festival goers “voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19,” as reported by Rolling Stone. There’s no denying an inherent risk that comes with being in a large group of bodies, even as vaccinations roll out across the country.

Medical experts are looking at a future where herd immunity doesn’t exist. There’s no way for events to guarantee safety, but as people start reintegrating into the world it’s up to individuals, organizers, and public health officials to set guidelines for the safest way to get back to some form of normalcy.

That thought is echoed by another Comic-Con blogger, who goes by The Swag Collector online, who feels entirely comfortable with his health status. "With the way things are moving, I’m not at all nervous about the idea of attending a crowded indoor event later this year," they say. "I’m in good health and I’ve been vaccinated. I’m not in one of the high-risk demographics."

Still, some customers remain a little nervous about the return. 27-year old Sarah Thomas has attended EDM festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, annually for the last seven years. 2020 wasn't going to be any different. She purchased her ticket when she got home from the festival in 2019, long before COVID was a fixture in any of our vocabularies, and looked forward to keeping the tradition alive. Of course, the pandemic made landfall in the United States in early March, and suddenly the idea of showing up for a massive, springtime rave appeared untenable.

EDC was pushed to October 2020, and then May 2021, where it is still scheduled to go on today. Thomas has held onto her ticket throughout the ebbs and flows of past year, waiting for the chaos to finally let up. But once again, she's made the difficult decision to postpone her eventual return to live events to an even later date. Even now, after 13 months of quarantine, it's still easy for many people to feel a little uncomfortable about partying with strangers.

"EDC is something I look forward to annually and having a ticket throughout the pandemic gave me hope for the future of events once it passed," says Thomas, in an interview with IGN. "A lot of factors went into my decision to transfer my ticket. I felt very uncertain and anxious about whether or not the event is going to happen based on lack of information from [event organizer] Insomniac, lack of an approved safety plan, and the current status with vaccinations.

[widget path=“global/article/imagegallery” parameters=“albumSlug=awesome-cosplay-from-san-diego-comic-con-2019&captions=true”]

Due to that uncertainty, I had not yet requested PTO from my employer or booked flights and a hotel. With an announcement so close to the event date, the cost of travel has now gone way up."

Sarah also notes that she hasn't been able to schedule a vaccine in her state, and did not feel comfortable making her way to rave without the jab.

But EDC hasn't slowed down. Barring any unforeseen catastrophe, the festival will make landfall in Las Vegas on May 21 to 23 — marking one of the first major formal public gatherings of the COVID Covid era. EDC organizer Pasquale Rotella estimates that 200,000 people will attend, and that EDC is going to institute a "health pass" system, which is planned to verify entrants for vaccine data or recent COVID tests. Considering that the event is held outside, where COVID does not spread nearly as effectively, the risk factors facing EDC are relatively low.

In the meantime, many will be buying concert and con tickets for the months ahead, trusting that we'll all be out of this hell by the time the date arrives. Alyssa Bereznak, a writer in Los Angeles who recently got her second dose, just booked her calendar for a Japanese Breakfast show in October. She has no idea how she'll react. "I anticipate that the whole thing will feel like some kind of rebirth," says Bereznak. "I'm sure I'll cry." With luck, we'll all be having the best nights of our lives, very soon.

"As soon as all my friends are fully vaccinated, we are f**king celebrating. So by the time I arrive at The Regent in October, things won't feel so foreign, and the trauma of the pandemic will have faded a bit," she says. "I have a feeling that by the fall, I'll be less concerned about getting COVID at a concert than I will be with missing my bedtime on a Sunday night. But who knows, maybe everything could go wrong! If 2020 taught me anything, it's to prepare for the worst."

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Kerry Dixon hasn't had a free summer in a decade. He runs the San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog, and he usually spends May, June, and July, chasing down every rumor, booking, and itinerary he can find for the thousands of travelers who pass through the convention center each year. But in 2020, the world ground to a sudden halt. Conventions, concerts, festivals, and pretty much every other major public event simply couldn't exist under the shadow of a global pandemic, and Dixon had a lot of time on his hands that he was never burdened with before.

"I was mostly concerned about the artists and small vendors," says Dixon, over email, when asked to describe the fallout of last year. "While attendees might be sad that they can't go, and I certainly missed seeing my friends, for artists and small vendors San Diego Comic-Con is where many of them make a large portion of their income for the year."

But now, Dixon is preparing to come out of hibernation. San Diego Comic-Con is mounting a return for Thanksgiving weekend — with the hope that by then, COVID will finally be behind us. Dixon notes that currently, nobody knows much about what the proceedings will look like. Is Comic-Con going to be much smaller? Will it only be open to domestic travelers?

Hell, will it be restricted to California residents only? All of that is up in the air, as Dixon calculates what it's going to feel like to be out on the floor, surrounded by strangers.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/17/san-diego-comic-con-2020-cancelled"]

Can live events work in 2021?

"I think everyone's comfort level will depend on how things look closer to November," says Dixon. "If case counts are low, if it seems like we've mostly got this thing beat, if we've all had months of being vaccinated and feeling 'normal,' whatever that means now — I think it's going to be a really nice reunion event for many of us."

It’s a familiar feeling for many, across the world, who are grappling with the idea of returning to packed events after more than a year away. Events everywhere have already announced their 2021 return. Bonnaroo is planning an October return, and artists everywhere are releasing belated tour dates that will carve up the back half of the year.

Fans and promoters are hoping for a normal 2021, as vaccine campaigns slowly chip away at the tide of the pandemic. Some people are chomping at the bit to finally have their regular schedules back, and others are gun shy about making their way back to the fold. But after a year indoors, those who’d want to actually attend those events are processing the future of social contact in their own way.

One thing is clear: The live events industry needs good news. COVID, and the resulting deluge of shelter-in-place orders, has absolutely devastated the sector. In a survey sent out last July to production companies, rental shops, and design firms by the publication Live Design, three quarters of the respondents said they've lost over 75 percent of their total business (and a similar number said they were forced to lay off or furlough staff).

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/22/nearly-400k-fans-descend-on-gamescom-2019"]

Mikayla Moyer, a marketing director who worked at Live Nation until May of last year, remembers the fallout well. "I have so many former co-workers who had to run a face-slap gamut: first their salaries were cut, then they were put on furlough, then finally they were let go altogether," she says. There was no recourse; no chance to pivot, or recoup expenses, or explore other business models. Everyone in the industry just needed to hold on until the world reached the other side.

"There’s a concept in all live event contracts called Force Majeure — it’s a clause that essentially negates any party’s liability in the event of an 'Act of God.' A major storm, natural disaster, a coup, and so on," continues Moyer. "If something major and majorly unplanned happens — that affects all parties negatively and equally — you buckle down and weather it together, rather than finger pointing.

I think once the writing was on the wall, everyone just took a Force Majeure mentality: this huge thing just happened. Let’s try and help where we can, but after a point, you just have to submit to the natural order of the world. And sometimes that means just sitting and waiting."

The good news is that many health experts predict that concerts, conventions, and trade shows will be able to operate without incident in the relatively near future as more citizens carry shots in their arms. That is the thinking put forth by Dr. Amesh Adalja at Johns Hopkins University, who tells IGN that if an organizer is running an event where the majority of people are going to be vaccinated, it can go on in a "relatively safe manner."

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22Let%E2%80%99s%20try%20and%20help%20where%20we%20can%2C%20but%20after%20a%20point%2C%20you%20just%20have%20to%20submit%20to%20the%20natural%20order%20of%20the%20world%22"]

"But so long as there are unvaccinated individuals there, and there surely will be unvaccinated people at these types of events, there's going to need to be mitigation issues. If you're running a venue, you need to be sure that people are still following the common sense regulations," he continues. "There are some innovative solutions — at a concert, you could have vaccinated-only sections where people don't mix — you have more flexibility. But with a mixed audience, it's going to be more difficult."

Like so many in-person, sizable events, so much of the planning relies on numbers. New data from the CDC show that cases are decreasing across the country on average, but remain high in specific parts of the States.

On May 5th, the CDC reported that daily cases decreased about 12 percent on average, but some states are still seeing high caseloads. Alongside the medical community, the CDC is recommending people get their full vaccine shots. If cases grow in counties and cities where big festivals are being planned, like San Diego or New York City, it could change how organizers and attendees feel about venturing out.

Dr. Adalja reiterates that the vaccines on the market are highly effective, and speaking for himself as a fully inoculated person, he wouldn't have any qualms about attending a major event. The United States is on the brink of having half of its population vaccinated, and there's hope that soon society will re-enter some semblance of normalcy by the summer. Fingers crossed.

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Legally, organizers behind giant festivals and events are covering themselves, too. Bonnarroo’s ticket sale confirmation includes a clause stating that festival goers “voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19,” as reported by Rolling Stone. There’s no denying an inherent risk that comes with being in a large group of bodies, even as vaccinations roll out across the country.

Medical experts are looking at a future where herd immunity doesn’t exist. There’s no way for events to guarantee safety, but as people start reintegrating into the world it’s up to individuals, organizers, and public health officials to set guidelines for the safest way to get back to some form of normalcy.

That thought is echoed by another Comic-Con blogger, who goes by The Swag Collector online, who feels entirely comfortable with his health status. "With the way things are moving, I’m not at all nervous about the idea of attending a crowded indoor event later this year," they say. "I’m in good health and I’ve been vaccinated. I’m not in one of the high-risk demographics."

Still, some customers remain a little nervous about the return. 27-year old Sarah Thomas has attended EDM festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, annually for the last seven years. 2020 wasn't going to be any different. She purchased her ticket when she got home from the festival in 2019, long before COVID was a fixture in any of our vocabularies, and looked forward to keeping the tradition alive. Of course, the pandemic made landfall in the United States in early March, and suddenly the idea of showing up for a massive, springtime rave appeared untenable.

EDC was pushed to October 2020, and then May 2021, where it is still scheduled to go on today. Thomas has held onto her ticket throughout the ebbs and flows of past year, waiting for the chaos to finally let up. But once again, she's made the difficult decision to postpone her eventual return to live events to an even later date. Even now, after 13 months of quarantine, it's still easy for many people to feel a little uncomfortable about partying with strangers.

"EDC is something I look forward to annually and having a ticket throughout the pandemic gave me hope for the future of events once it passed," says Thomas, in an interview with IGN. "A lot of factors went into my decision to transfer my ticket. I felt very uncertain and anxious about whether or not the event is going to happen based on lack of information from [event organizer] Insomniac, lack of an approved safety plan, and the current status with vaccinations.

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Due to that uncertainty, I had not yet requested PTO from my employer or booked flights and a hotel. With an announcement so close to the event date, the cost of travel has now gone way up."

Sarah also notes that she hasn't been able to schedule a vaccine in her state, and did not feel comfortable making her way to rave without the jab.

But EDC hasn't slowed down. Barring any unforeseen catastrophe, the festival will make landfall in Las Vegas on May 21 to 23 — marking one of the first major formal public gatherings of the COVID Covid era. EDC organizer Pasquale Rotella estimates that 200,000 people will attend, and that EDC is going to institute a "health pass" system, which is planned to verify entrants for vaccine data or recent COVID tests. Considering that the event is held outside, where COVID does not spread nearly as effectively, the risk factors facing EDC are relatively low.

In the meantime, many will be buying concert and con tickets for the months ahead, trusting that we'll all be out of this hell by the time the date arrives. Alyssa Bereznak, a writer in Los Angeles who recently got her second dose, just booked her calendar for a Japanese Breakfast show in October. She has no idea how she'll react. "I anticipate that the whole thing will feel like some kind of rebirth," says Bereznak. "I'm sure I'll cry." With luck, we'll all be having the best nights of our lives, very soon.

"As soon as all my friends are fully vaccinated, we are f**king celebrating. So by the time I arrive at The Regent in October, things won't feel so foreign, and the trauma of the pandemic will have faded a bit," she says. "I have a feeling that by the fall, I'll be less concerned about getting COVID at a concert than I will be with missing my bedtime on a Sunday night. But who knows, maybe everything could go wrong! If 2020 taught me anything, it's to prepare for the worst."

The Gears of War series is getting 'multiple new projects', all of which will be developed on the upcoming Unreal Engine 5. In a blogpost, developer The Coalition announced that it is has started "shifting our resources to next-gen development using Unreal Engine 5." It also confirmed that this isn't just for Gears 6, saying it will be "developing on UE5 for multiple new projects in the coming years." However, don't expect an announcement for a new Gears game anytime soon; the developer makes clear that, "Shifting to a new engine is a big undertaking, so we want to be clear that we will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/ps5-unreal-engine-5-tech-demo"] Unreal Engine 5 was announced last year with a spectacular PS5 tech demo, which aims to help create games that would be deemed impossible to make with current technology, but help increase efficiency for developers. It was impressive enough that Sony invested $250 million in creator Epic Games, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney saying, "I guess they liked it!" As for its current projects, The Coalition made clear that Gears 5 updates Operation 7 and Operation 8 will be coming during the course of 2021. "Each Operation will have two drops including new characters, new maps, and special events, reads the post. "Through the end of the year, we will have store updates with exciting new content as well as featured playlists." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/05/xbox-series-x-performance-test-how-gears-5-proves-its-a-beast"] The Gears series has a long histroy with the Unreal Engine, beginning life at the engine's creator, Epic Games. It was among the first 720p games on Xbox 360, and Gears 5 came to Xbox Series X with a hugely impressive next-gen update last year. [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.

The Gears of War series is getting 'multiple new projects', all of which will be developed on the upcoming Unreal Engine 5. In a blogpost, developer The Coalition announced that it is has started "shifting our resources to next-gen development using Unreal Engine 5." It also confirmed that this isn't just for Gears 6, saying it will be "developing on UE5 for multiple new projects in the coming years." However, don't expect an announcement for a new Gears game anytime soon; the developer makes clear that, "Shifting to a new engine is a big undertaking, so we want to be clear that we will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/ps5-unreal-engine-5-tech-demo"] Unreal Engine 5 was announced last year with a spectacular PS5 tech demo, which aims to help create games that would be deemed impossible to make with current technology, but help increase efficiency for developers. It was impressive enough that Sony invested $250 million in creator Epic Games, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney saying, "I guess they liked it!" As for its current projects, The Coalition made clear that Gears 5 updates Operation 7 and Operation 8 will be coming during the course of 2021. "Each Operation will have two drops including new characters, new maps, and special events, reads the post. "Through the end of the year, we will have store updates with exciting new content as well as featured playlists." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/05/xbox-series-x-performance-test-how-gears-5-proves-its-a-beast"] The Gears series has a long histroy with the Unreal Engine, beginning life at the engine's creator, Epic Games. It was among the first 720p games on Xbox 360, and Gears 5 came to Xbox Series X with a hugely impressive next-gen update last year. [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.

A disgruntled movie director has suggested that Capcom copied his monster design for a boss fight in Resident Evil Village. The claim has come from Dutch director Richard Raaphorst via LinkedIn, who states that the design of a boss monster from Resident Evil Village is the same as a creature from his 2013 horror movie Frankenstein’s Army. He reads, “In 2013 I directed my film Frankenstein’s Army. It’s a crazy monster movie filled with my own creature designs, one of which has been used - completely without authorization or credit in the newest Resident Evil game.” Light spoilers for Resident Evil Village follow. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/05/resident-evil-village-review"] The monster in question is a boss fight from the Heisenberg’s Factory section of the game, where you fight a monster with a propeller for a head called Sturm. In Frankenstein’s Army, a similar monster appears as an unnamed human creature with a propeller for a head (you can watch a video of the movie scene here). Raaphorst provided images of the two scenes, going as far as telling Eurogamer that Sturm is a “one to one” copy of his design. In that interview with Eurogamer, Raaphorst points out that even the way the scene and boss fight end is similar, with the monster being forced to burst into flames. "It's just the same scene as in my movie," he said, "except that in my movie you have to cut loose the fuel tubes. That's the only thing that is missing. But the whole thing is getting into flames, and then it explodes, and then the way it rotates through the camera - it's all the same, really. Even the environments, the whole colour palette. It looks like an animatic for my movie." [caption id="attachment_2511662" align="alignnone" width="630"] Raaphorst's comparison images. (Source: LinkedIn)[/caption] Raaphort goes on to say that, “It's so difficult to come up with a great design. It's really hard to actually think about something that communicates as a cool design. It's not just that ideas are floating around that you can grab. It's actually hard labour. Then they just grab it and put it somewhere in the game.” Twitter user CloneKorp has created a thread claiming that not only Sturm, but a number of monsters from Frankenstein's Army were repurposed for Resident Evil Village. In a reply, Raaphorst said, "Oh dude, this is worse then I thought. First I felt angry, then proud, but now I see this, I feel sad." IGN has contacted Capcom for comment on the similarities, and Raaphorst's claims. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/07/25/frankensteins-army-red-band-clip"] In other Capcom news, it was revealed today that the company continues to achieve record breaking profits, with the latest fiscal year being the most profitable in its history thanks to strong sales of its Resident Evil and Monster Hunter franchises. It was also revealed that Capcom used a giant grumpy stand-in for Lady Dimitrescu's motion capture in Resident Evil Village. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman