Elden Ring has been delayed until February 25, 2022. However, the game will get a closed network test from November 12-14 – and you can register to be a part of it now, but it will be a consoe test only.

Announced on Twitter, the Elden Ring team explained that the delay – which is just over a month from the original date of January 21 – is because, "the depth & strategic freedom of the game exceeded initial expectations." The team thanked players for their patience.

Important message:

ELDEN RING will release on Feb 25, 2022, as the depth & strategic freedom of the game exceeded initial expectations. Thank you for your trust & patience. We look forward to seeing you experience the game in the Closed Network Test in Nov.

The #ELDENRING Team

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) October 18, 2021

There was some better news, however, with the annoucnement of a Closed Network Test, being used to judge how well the game's online elements work when put under the stress of a full playerbase.

The Closed Network Test is for console only, with the option to try the game on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, or Xbox Series X/S – with cross-play supported within console families. No mention has been made of a PC test.

The Closed Network Test will run from November 12-14, and players can be chosen to take part by registering on the Elden Ring website before November 1. Essentially, if you want to play some of Elden Ring early, you'll want to sign up soon.

The website makes clear that joining the test is free, but doesn't provide details of what it will entail, other than to say that it is "a pre-verification test for the completion of the commercial version of the game," and, "a test to improve the quality of the product." You'll need to create a Bandai Namco account to sign up.

There will be five sessions across November 12-14 (listed below in Pacific time):

Session 1: 3am - 6am, November 12 Session 2: 7pm - 10pm, November 12 Session 3: 11am - 2pm, November 13 Session 4: 3am - 6am, November 14 Session 5: 7pm - 10pm, November 15

Last weekend, thirty seconds of what appeared to be Elden Ring direct feed gameplay leaked – effectively our first public look at the game outside of trailers. IGN previously saw 15 minutes of the game running behind closed doors, which we summed up in a first preview.

The long-awaited game is an open world take on FromSoftware's beloved Souls games, continuing a legacy started by Demon Souls and carried on by the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. With world-building help from George R.R. Martin, it's a game that promises to have FromSoft's biggest ever map, all-new gameplay mechanics, and even a mechanic that sounds a bit like Pokemon. We previously had an in-depth chat with Souls mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki about the game.

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.

Elden Ring has been delayed until February 25, 2022. However, the game will get a closed network test from November 12-14 – and you can register to be a part of it now, but it will be a consoe test only.

Announced on Twitter, the Elden Ring team explained that the delay – which is just over a month from the original date of January 21 – is because, "the depth & strategic freedom of the game exceeded initial expectations." The team thanked players for their patience.

Important message:

ELDEN RING will release on Feb 25, 2022, as the depth & strategic freedom of the game exceeded initial expectations. Thank you for your trust & patience. We look forward to seeing you experience the game in the Closed Network Test in Nov.

The #ELDENRING Team

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) October 18, 2021

There was some better news, however, with the annoucnement of a Closed Network Test, being used to judge how well the game's online elements work when put under the stress of a full playerbase.

The Closed Network Test is for console only, with the option to try the game on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, or Xbox Series X/S – with cross-play supported within console families. No mention has been made of a PC test.

The Closed Network Test will run from November 12-14, and players can be chosen to take part by registering on the Elden Ring website before November 1. Essentially, if you want to play some of Elden Ring early, you'll want to sign up soon.

The website makes clear that joining the test is free, but doesn't provide details of what it will entail, other than to say that it is "a pre-verification test for the completion of the commercial version of the game," and, "a test to improve the quality of the product." You'll need to create a Bandai Namco account to sign up.

There will be five sessions across November 12-14 (listed below in Pacific time):

Session 1: 3am - 6am, November 12 Session 2: 7pm - 10pm, November 12 Session 3: 11am - 2pm, November 13 Session 4: 3am - 6am, November 14 Session 5: 7pm - 10pm, November 15

Last weekend, thirty seconds of what appeared to be Elden Ring direct feed gameplay leaked – effectively our first public look at the game outside of trailers. IGN previously saw 15 minutes of the game running behind closed doors, which we summed up in a first preview.

The long-awaited game is an open world take on FromSoftware's beloved Souls games, continuing a legacy started by Demon Souls and carried on by the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. With world-building help from George R.R. Martin, it's a game that promises to have FromSoft's biggest ever map, all-new gameplay mechanics, and even a mechanic that sounds a bit like Pokemon. We previously had an in-depth chat with Souls mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki about the game.

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.

Netflix estimates that Squid Game will create almost $900 million in value for the company, which is nearly 40 times the amount the show cost to produce.

According to an internal Netflix document seen by Bloomberg, the South Korean survival drama has generated $891.1 million in "impact value," which is a metric the company uses to assess the performance from individual shows, including the likes of Bridgerton which was the streaming service's most-watched series launch before Squid Game knocked it off its perch.

The confidential document also reportedly revealed that the nine-episode thriller, which hit Netflix on September 17, cost just $21.3 million to produce, making it approximately $2.4 million per episode, which is considerably more cost-efficent than some of Netflix's other major shows such as Stranger Things and The Crown.

In addition, the report shared some updated data in regards to Squid Game's total viewer figure, with it now being reported that about 132 million people watched at least two minutes of the show in its first 23 days on the platform. It was previously announced that the dystopian series had reached 111 million people, making it the biggest ever launch for Netflix.

Despite the show's seemingly overnight success, Squid Game was in development for 10 years as the director tried and failed to get the story made for the screen. And when Netflix finally went ahead and produced the show, director Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed the intensity of the shoot caused him to lose six teeth to stress.

The magnitude of production and the extremity of the experience may have taken its toll on Hwang, but it hasn't totally discouraged him from thinking about a second season. He has already indicated that, should it be greenlit, Squid Game's sophomore season might not be about the contestants as he would like to further explore the role of the Korean police.

IGN awarded Squid Game a 9 out of 10, calling it "one of the most exciting series to hit Netflix in some time." We praised the way it unravels the story to deliver "a white-knuckle thriller, drama, and episodic psychological breakdown with a sickly pastel veneer," which is "equal parts gut-wrenching and squirm-inducing" for both the players and the audience.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Netflix estimates that Squid Game will create almost $900 million in value for the company, which is nearly 40 times the amount the show cost to produce.

According to an internal Netflix document seen by Bloomberg, the South Korean survival drama has generated $891.1 million in "impact value," which is a metric the company uses to assess the performance from individual shows, including the likes of Bridgerton which was the streaming service's most-watched series launch before Squid Game knocked it off its perch.

The confidential document also reportedly revealed that the nine-episode thriller, which hit Netflix on September 17, cost just $21.3 million to produce, making it approximately $2.4 million per episode, which is considerably more cost-efficent than some of Netflix's other major shows such as Stranger Things and The Crown.

In addition, the report shared some updated data in regards to Squid Game's total viewer figure, with it now being reported that about 132 million people watched at least two minutes of the show in its first 23 days on the platform. It was previously announced that the dystopian series had reached 111 million people, making it the biggest ever launch for Netflix.

Despite the show's seemingly overnight success, Squid Game was in development for 10 years as the director tried and failed to get the story made for the screen. And when Netflix finally went ahead and produced the show, director Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed the intensity of the shoot caused him to lose six teeth to stress.

The magnitude of production and the extremity of the experience may have taken its toll on Hwang, but it hasn't totally discouraged him from thinking about a second season. He has already indicated that, should it be greenlit, Squid Game's sophomore season might not be about the contestants as he would like to further explore the role of the Korean police.

IGN awarded Squid Game a 9 out of 10, calling it "one of the most exciting series to hit Netflix in some time." We praised the way it unravels the story to deliver "a white-knuckle thriller, drama, and episodic psychological breakdown with a sickly pastel veneer," which is "equal parts gut-wrenching and squirm-inducing" for both the players and the audience.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Compulsion Games, the studio behind We Happy Few, says that it has doubled in size for its newest project, which will be a third-person narrative-driven single-player game.

During an interview with Xbox Squad (as translated by VGC), Compulsion Games PR and Community Developer Naila Hadjas talked further about the studio's recent expansion and its plans for the future, saying: “I think we gave ourselves a little time to learn. It’s our first game with Microsoft and we’re learning a lot."

Microsoft announced back at E3 2018 that it had bought Compulsion Games as part of a mass acquisition that included the likes of Forza Horizon developer Playground Games, State of Decay's Undead Labs, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice developer Ninja Theory. As a result, the new game will almost certainly be exclusive to Xbox and PC, and released at launch on Game Pass.

“We have doubled the workforce and we are adapting to it,” Hadjas continues. “The goal is to expand our zany universe, to continue to make our mark in video games as a studio that likes to make unique games, in little-used settings. For now, that’s our goal. Pursue our ‘legacy’, our heritage, while remaining true to ourselves.”

Despite its current lack of details or official title, the upcoming game from Compulsion is reported to have gone into production only a few months after the release of We Happy Few, which initially entered early access in 2016 before gaining a full release two years later. According to Hadjas, the new game is currently in "full development", although the PR and Community Developer did also note that she has "no idea" when fans will get to see it.

Unlike We Happy Few, the studio believes that its new project is unlikely to require an early access period prior to its full launch. “With our new game, a narrative, third person, story game, I don’t think we need any feedback," says Hadjas. "It’s not like a roguelike where you replay it multiple times and you need data to make sure the experience is fun."

While We Happy Few does have a traditional story, Hadjas notes that this wasn't the case in the beginning and that its inclusion only came after fans fell in love with the game's world and its characters. In contrast, Hadjas says that the next game "is a story" and that the team knows where it is going from the beginning. Currently, Compulsion Games' upcoming project does not yet have a release date.

For more from the developer, make sure to check out our review of We Happy Few where we awarded the game a 7.3/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Compulsion Games, the studio behind We Happy Few, says that it has doubled in size for its newest project, which will be a third-person narrative-driven single-player game.

During an interview with Xbox Squad (as translated by VGC), Compulsion Games PR and Community Developer Naila Hadjas talked further about the studio's recent expansion and its plans for the future, saying: “I think we gave ourselves a little time to learn. It’s our first game with Microsoft and we’re learning a lot."

Microsoft announced back at E3 2018 that it had bought Compulsion Games as part of a mass acquisition that included the likes of Forza Horizon developer Playground Games, State of Decay's Undead Labs, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice developer Ninja Theory. As a result, the new game will almost certainly be exclusive to Xbox and PC, and released at launch on Game Pass.

“We have doubled the workforce and we are adapting to it,” Hadjas continues. “The goal is to expand our zany universe, to continue to make our mark in video games as a studio that likes to make unique games, in little-used settings. For now, that’s our goal. Pursue our ‘legacy’, our heritage, while remaining true to ourselves.”

Despite its current lack of details or official title, the upcoming game from Compulsion is reported to have gone into production only a few months after the release of We Happy Few, which initially entered early access in 2016 before gaining a full release two years later. According to Hadjas, the new game is currently in "full development", although the PR and Community Developer did also note that she has "no idea" when fans will get to see it.

Unlike We Happy Few, the studio believes that its new project is unlikely to require an early access period prior to its full launch. “With our new game, a narrative, third person, story game, I don’t think we need any feedback," says Hardjas. "It’s not like a roguelike where you replay it multiple times and you need data to make sure the experience is fun."

While We Happy Few does have a traditional story, Hadjas notes that this wasn't the case in the beginning and that its inclusion only came after fans fell in love with the game's world and its characters. In contrast, Hadjas says that the next game "is a story" and that the team knows where it is going from the beginning. Currently, Compulsion Games' upcoming project does not yet have a release date.

For more from the developer, make sure to check out our review of We Happy Few where we awarded the game a 7.3/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida says that discussions between Square Enix and Microsoft to bring the game to Xbox are 'positive', but still ongoing.

In an interview with Easy Allies, Yoshida talked further about the current status of an Xbox version of Final Fantasy 14. While the director was hesitant to confirm any new details surrounding the game, he did point out that talks between Square Enix and Microsoft have taken a positive turn.

"So I feel bad for saying the same thing every time," said Yoshida when asked if there was any news on an Xbox version of FF14. "But we are still in discussions with Microsoft and I feel like our conversations are going in a positive tone. I don't want to say that we do not have an Xbox version but I'm hoping that the timing will be very soon that I'll have some kind of update to the players.

"I'm sure that there's a lot of things that people want to ask about on the subject and there's a lot of things that I would love to share but I'm afraid I'm unable to divulge on those details."

Despite its current lack of an Xbox port, the game has performed exceedingly well across PC and PlayStation consoles. Following a soft reboot with Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and a number of subsequent expansions, the MMORPG has seen growing popularity over the past few years. This year alone, the game has seemed as popular as ever, with speculation even suggesting that Square Enix may have temporarily halted digital sales for the game due to briefly over-congested servers.

During a hands-on preview event for the game's upcoming Endwalker expansion, Yoshida spoke further about the popularity of FF14. During the event, the director confirmed that the MMORPG has become the most profitable game in the Final Fantasy series to date and that it had recently surpassed 24 million players worldwide.

Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker is set to launch on November 23. As well as featuring hours and hours of new story content, the expansion will also include several new areas and two new job classes. IGN was recently given the opportunity to try out some of the various new features coming to Endwalker. To see what we thought, make sure to check out this article detailing everything we learned from the Final Fantasy 14: Enwalker preview.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida says that discussions between Square Enix and Microsoft to bring the game to Xbox are 'positive', but still ongoing.

In an interview with Easy Allies, Yoshida talked further about the current status of an Xbox version of Final Fantasy 14. While the director was hesitant to confirm any new details surrounding the game, he did point out that talks between Square Enix and Microsoft have taken a positive turn.

"So I feel bad for saying the same thing every time," said Yoshida when asked if there was any news on an Xbox version of FF14. "But we are still in discussions with Microsoft and I feel like our conversations are going in a positive tone. I don't want to say that we do not have an Xbox version but I'm hoping that the timing will be very soon that I'll have some kind of update to the players.

"I'm sure that there's a lot of things that people want to ask about on the subject and there's a lot of things that I would love to share but I'm afraid I'm unable to divulge on those details."

Despite its current lack of an Xbox port, the game has performed exceedingly well across PC and PlayStation consoles. Following a soft reboot with Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and a number of subsequent expansions, the MMORPG has seen growing popularity over the past few years. This year alone, the game has seemed as popular as ever, with speculation even suggesting that Square Enix may have temporarily halted digital sales for the game due to briefly over-congested servers.

During a hands-on preview event for the game's upcoming Endwalker expansion, Yoshida spoke further about the popularity of FF14. During the event, the director confirmed that the MMORPG has become the most profitable game in the Final Fantasy series to date and that it had recently surpassed 24 million players worldwide.

Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker is set to launch on November 23. As well as featuring hours and hours of new story content, the expansion will also include several new areas and two new job classes. IGN was recently given the opportunity to try out some of the various new features coming to Endwalker. To see what we thought, make sure to check out this article detailing everything we learned from the Final Fantasy 14: Enwalker preview.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

A woman in Canada was allegedly woken by a meteorite crashing through her roof and landing on her bed while she was asleep.

According to The New York Times, 66-year-old Ruth Hamilton was sound asleep in her home in British Columbia when she was abruptly woken by something she later discovered to be out of this world, as a "rock" came plummeting through her roof and landed directly between the two pillows on her bed, where she had been led at the time of the "explosion."

Fortunately, Hamilton didn't appear to sustain any injuries from the incident, though the report notes that her face was left covered in "drywall debris" after the 2.8-pound rock hurtled through her roof and created a hole in the ceiling on the night of October 3. She immediately called emergenecy services and the police subsequently arrived at her home.

Hamilton says the officer on duty initially suspected the stray rock to have come from a construction site on a nearby highway, but they soon discovered "the workers had not done any blasting that night." However, Professor Peter Brown from the University of Western Ontario later confirmed that the charcoal gray rock was a meteorite "from an asteroid."

University of Calgary researchers shared reports from other local residents who claimed to have "heard two loud booms and seen a fireball streaking across the sky." According to Professor Brown, these people likely witnessed the onset of a very rare event as the odds of a meteorite making such an intrusion in someone's home is about one in 100 billion.

While it's a known fact that meteoroids hurl towards Earth every single day, only some of them break through the atmosphere and stick a landing. On the occasions that they do hit the ground (or someone's bed), scientists are presented with an unusual opportunity to study the space rocks and learn more about them based on their size, shape, mass, and more.

For instance, Scientists recently calculated that there is about a one in 1750 chance of the potentially hazardous Bennu asteroid hitting Earth between 2021 and 2300, while another group of researchers examined an asteroid that was discovered in an Algerian desert last year and determined it was actually a piece of an ancient planet older than Earth itself.

For even more about asteroids, find out why the metallic asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter has an estimated worth of $10,000 quadrillion, learn more about how a floating asteroid could play host to rotating habitats for humans to potentially colonize, and then take a closer look at an asteroid sample originating from a near-Earth object named Ryugu.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA

A woman in Canada was allegedly woken by a meteorite crashing through her roof and landing on her bed while she was asleep.

According to The New York Times, 66-year-old Ruth Hamilton was sound asleep in her home in British Columbia when she was abruptly woken by something she later discovered to be out of this world, as a "rock" came plummeting through her roof and landed directly between the two pillows on her bed, where she had been led at the time of the "explosion."

Fortunately, Hamilton didn't appear to sustain any injuries from the incident, though the report notes that her face was left covered in "drywall debris" after the 2.8-pound rock hurtled through her roof and created a hole in the ceiling on the night of October 3. She immediately called emergenecy services and the police subsequently arrived at her home.

Hamilton says the officer on duty initially suspected the stray rock to have come from a construction site on a nearby highway, but they soon discovered "the workers had not done any blasting that night." However, Professor Peter Brown from the University of Western Ontario later confirmed that the charcoal gray rock was a meteorite "from an asteroid."

University of Calgary researchers shared reports from other local residents who claimed to have "heard two loud booms and seen a fireball streaking across the sky." According to Professor Brown, these people likely witnessed the onset of a very rare event as the odds of a meteorite making such an intrusion in someone's home is about one in 100 billion.

While it's a known fact that meteoroids hurl towards Earth every single day, only some of them break through the atmosphere and stick a landing. On the occasions that they do hit the ground (or someone's bed), scientists are presented with an unusual opportunity to study the space rocks and learn more about them based on their size, shape, mass, and more.

For instance, Scientists recently calculated that there is about a one in 1750 chance of the potentially hazardous Bennu asteroid hitting Earth between 2021 and 2300, while another group of researchers examined an asteroid that was discovered in an Algerian desert last year and determined it was actually a piece of an ancient planet older than Earth itself.

For even more about asteroids, find out why the metallic asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter has an estimated worth of $10,000 quadrillion, learn more about how a floating asteroid could play host to rotating habitats for humans to potentially colonize, and then take a closer look at an asteroid sample originating from a near-Earth object named Ryugu.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA