Binge and Nightdive Studios are teaming up to produce a live-action series based on the critically acclaimed System Shock franchise.

IGN has decrypted a message in cyberspace and discovered that System Shock is being adapted into a live-action TV series that will be produced by Allan Ungar, who directed and co-wrote the Uncharted fan film that went viral a few years ago. Nightdive Studios' Stephen Kick and Larry Kuperman will both serve as executive producers on the project.

The original System Shock game drops players into Citadel Station, where an indentured hacker wakes up from a coma only to find themselves plunged into the twisted aftermath of a mutiny and immediately confronted by armies of cyborgs, robots, and a corrupt AI named SHODAN that controls operations and threatens to unleash terror at the space station.

"I've always believed that a live-action adaptation of System Shock would be the perfect medium to retell the harrowing story of Citadel station and its rogue AI that subjects the crew to unimaginable horror," said Kick, Nightdive's CEO and Founder. "We're very excited to see the talented team at Binge bring System Shock to life in horrifyingly real and new ways."

The live-action System Shock series will be released exclusively on Binge, an all-new streaming platform dedicated to delivering premium entertainment for gamers. Binge's streaming service will launch in 2022 with a library of original series and shows inspired by popular video games that will stream for free on any internet-connected device.

System Shock joins Binge's original content slate, which also includes an adaptation of the Driver video games that will "focus on undercover agent and ex-racecar driver John Tanner as he tries to take down a crime syndicate." That series is being produced by Ungar and Binge's Vincent Talenti, with a team of executive producers hailing from Ubisoft Film & Television.

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

Binge and Nightdive Studios are teaming up to produce a live-action series based on the critically acclaimed System Shock franchise.

IGN has decrypted a message in cyberspace and discovered that System Shock is being adapted into a live-action TV series that will be produced by Allan Ungar, who directed and co-wrote the Uncharted fan film that went viral a few years ago. Nightdive Studios' Stephen Kick and Larry Kuperman will both serve as executive producers on the project.

The original System Shock game drops players into Citadel Station, where an indentured hacker wakes up from a coma only to find themselves plunged into the twisted aftermath of a mutiny and immediately confronted by armies of cyborgs, robots, and a corrupt AI named SHODAN that controls operations and threatens to unleash terror at the space station.

"I've always believed that a live-action adaptation of System Shock would be the perfect medium to retell the harrowing story of Citadel station and its rogue AI that subjects the crew to unimaginable horror," said Kick, Nightdive's CEO and Founder. "We're very excited to see the talented team at Binge bring System Shock to life in horrifyingly real and new ways."

The live-action System Shock series will be released exclusively on Binge, an all-new streaming platform dedicated to delivering premium entertainment for gamers. Binge's streaming service will launch in 2022 with a library of original series and shows inspired by popular video games that will stream for free on any internet-connected device.

System Shock joins Binge's original content slate, which also includes an adaptation of the Driver video games that will "focus on undercover agent and ex-racecar driver John Tanner as he tries to take down a crime syndicate." That series is being produced by Ungar and Binge's Vincent Talenti, with a team of executive producers hailing from Ubisoft Film & Television.

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

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline, a new free-to-play FPS from Ubisoft, was announced last week. A Closed Test for the game was meant to begin today, but it's already been delayed.

Announced on Twitter, the Frontline team explained, "We have decided it is best to postpone the Closed Test for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline. The development team is dedicated to creating the best experience possible. We'll share details on the new date for the Closed Test as soon as we can. Thank you for your ongoing support."

No specific reason has been given for the delay.

We have an important message regarding Ghost Recon Frontline's Closed Test. pic.twitter.com/ne1VgOLMJF

— GRFrontline (@GRFrontline) October 13, 2021

We were introduced to the game last week, which will offer a free-to-play framework for 102-player battles. It's a spin on the expected battle royale format, with a focus on objective-based missions that sound like an extension to Ubisoft's own Dark Zone in the Division. The 16 square-kilometre map is divided into four biomes, and won't include a shrinking circle to contend with either, giving players access to the entire region at all times.

Developed by Ubisoft Bucharest, the game has been worked on for three years so far, and is aiming for release on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. No full release date has been announced – you'd hope that a new date for the Closed Test isn't too far away.

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.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline, a new free-to-play FPS from Ubisoft, was announced last week. A Closed Test for the game was meant to begin today, but it's already been delayed.

Announced on Twitter, the Frontline team explained, "We have decided it is best to postpone the Closed Test for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline. The development team is dedicated to creating the best experience possible. We'll share details on the new date for the Closed Test as soon as we can. Thank you for your ongoing support."

No specific reason has been given for the delay.

We have an important message regarding Ghost Recon Frontline's Closed Test. pic.twitter.com/ne1VgOLMJF

— GRFrontline (@GRFrontline) October 13, 2021

We were introduced to the game last week, which will offer a free-to-play framework for 102-player battles. It's a spin on the expected battle royale format, with a focus on objective-based missions that sound like an extension to Ubisoft's own Dark Zone in the Division. The 16 square-kilometre map is divided into four biomes, and won't include a shrinking circle to contend with either, giving players access to the entire region at all times.

Developed by Ubisoft Bucharest, the game has been worked on for three years so far, and is aiming for release on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. No full release date has been announced – you'd hope that a new date for the Closed Test isn't too far away.

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.

Disney and Lucasfilm have teased a Star Wars video game announcement for December as part of a publishing campaign that will reveal new Star Wars products every Tuesday for the rest of the year.

As announced in an article on the official Star Wars website, the companies have launched their "Bring Home the Bounty" campaign, which will see "new Star Wars toys, collectibles, books, apparel and more" revealed on a weekly basis from now until the end of December.

This fall, #BringHometheBounty! Check out new #StarWars inspired products and head over to https://t.co/1R3NTZ9xun to discover new launches every Tuesday. https://t.co/4NPCrEK4ad pic.twitter.com/gvWGDFkTQs

— Star Wars (@starwars) October 12, 2021

Disney has given fans a glimpse into what they might expect from potential announcements across the campaign through an interactive poster on its site. Each week on the poster details different characters and memorabilia from across the franchise. However, on December 14, Disney has instead opted to lead with the image of a gamepad, hinting that there may be a new Star Wars game announcement on its way.

While it's unclear at this point whether the announcement will contain information about an already existing game or something completely new, there are currently a number of different developers working on games set in a galaxy far, far away. With EA's exclusivity deal over Star Wars games nearing its end, it was announced earlier this year that Ubisoft is working on its own open-world Star Wars entry. In an interview with IGN earlier this year, SVP of Walt Disney Games Sean Shoptaw explained that he and his team had met with Ubisoft Massive after Disney's acquisition of Fox, which included an already in-development Avatar video game project.

Although EA's exclusivity deal over the Star Wars franchise is set to run out, that by no means suggests that the publisher is stepping away from the universe. Earlier this year, EA CEO Andrew Wilson made very clear that Star Wars had been hugely profitable for the company, and confirmed it would continue working on games set in the universe. One game we can seemingly count on from EA is a Jedi: Fallen Order sequel.

Aside from that, Quantic Dream is also rumored to be developing its own Star Wars game and it was revealed during Sony's Playstation Showcase that the team at Aspyr is remaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic "from the ground up" for modern consoles. The KOTOR remake is set to release for PS5 as a console exclusive at launch alongside a PC release, though at present, the game does not have an official release date.

Whether or not December 14 will delve further into one of the projects above, or link to something completely different is anyone's guess. For now, however, you can check out this week's announcement from the "Bring Home the Bounty" that revealed a range of Star Wars Funko Pops, action figures, and clothing.

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

Disney and Lucasfilm have teased a Star Wars video game announcement for December as part of a publishing campaign that will reveal new Star Wars products every Tuesday for the rest of the year.

As announced in an article on the official Star Wars website, the companies have launched their "Bring Home the Bounty" campaign, which will see "new Star Wars toys, collectibles, books, apparel and more" revealed on a weekly basis from now until the end of December.

This fall, #BringHometheBounty! Check out new #StarWars inspired products and head over to https://t.co/1R3NTZ9xun to discover new launches every Tuesday. https://t.co/4NPCrEK4ad pic.twitter.com/gvWGDFkTQs

— Star Wars (@starwars) October 12, 2021

Disney has given fans a glimpse into what they might expect from potential announcements across the campaign through an interactive poster on its site. Each week on the poster details different characters and memorabilia from across the franchise. However, on December 14, Disney has instead opted to lead with the image of a gamepad, hinting that there may be a new Star Wars game announcement on its way.

While it's unclear at this point whether the announcement will contain information about an already existing game or something completely new, there are currently a number of different developers working on games set in a galaxy far, far away. With EA's exclusivity deal over Star Wars games nearing its end, it was announced earlier this year that Ubisoft is working on its own open-world Star Wars entry. In an interview with IGN earlier this year, SVP of Walt Disney Games Sean Shoptaw explained that he and his team had met with Ubisoft Massive after Disney's acquisition of Fox, which included an already in-development Avatar video game project.

Although EA's exclusivity deal over the Star Wars franchise is set to run out, that by no means suggests that the publisher is stepping away from the universe. Earlier this year, EA CEO Andrew Wilson made very clear that Star Wars had been hugely profitable for the company, and confirmed it would continue working on games set in the universe. One game we can seemingly count on from EA is a Jedi: Fallen Order sequel.

Aside from that, Quantic Dream is also rumored to be developing its own Star Wars game and it was revealed during Sony's Playstation Showcase that the team at Aspyr is remaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic "from the ground up" for modern consoles. The KOTOR remake is set to release for PS5 as a console exclusive at launch alongside a PC release, though at present, the game does not have an official release date.

Whether or not December 14 will delve further into one of the projects above, or link to something completely different is anyone's guess. For now, however, you can check out this week's announcement from the "Bring Home the Bounty" that revealed a range of Star Wars Funko Pops, action figures, and clothing.

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

In late 2006, I took a Tokyo train a few stations down to pick up a copy of Pokémon Pearl on a whim, which had launched in Japan earlier that day. Over the ensuing months I spent hundreds of hours in the Sinnoh region, where I was pulled deep into the nascent online community. Needless to say it’s held a special place in my heart ever since — the first generation that I played entirely in Japanese, and one that has a way of transporting me back to one of my favorite times in my life.

In the years since, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have been given comparatively short shrift, much to my chagrin. Developer Game Freak didn’t even see fit to include Diamond and Pearl’s starters in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, despite the fact that their (mostly) open world Pokémon adventure is set in an ancient version of Gen 4’s Sinnoh Region. Most of the love for latter day Pokémon games are generally reserved for the likes of Black and White, with little respect given to Diamond and Pearl's striking atmosphere and the myriad improvements it made to Ruby and Sapphire.

On reflection, the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl generation was mostly about refinement. It brought back several features that had been cut in Ruby and Sapphire, redefined the balance of the competitive game by splitting physical and special attacks, and introduced several much-needed evolutions for Pokémon like Roselia and Piloswine. Most critically, it introduced true online play, paving the way for the community to grow into what it is today. But to say that a game refined the existing formula isn't a terribly exciting legacy, which is perhaps the biggest reason that Gen 4 wound up getting lost in the mix of history.

Still, that didn't stop the community demanding Diamond and Pearl remakes, if only because they were next in line after 2014's Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. But when they were finally announced earlier this year, the community was left feeling slightly bemused. Compared to the gorgeous, fully-updated remakes afforded Gen 3, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl seemed to be on the losing end of things. My initial reaction was to be irritated. Gen 4 getting the short end of the stick once again. Typical.

Now I'm kind of glad Game Freak took the remakes in this direction. Over the course of a 40 minute hands-off demo, I found myself once again transported back to the region that remains my sentimental favorite. The remakes are at pains to preserve the look and feel of the originals, and until I saw Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in action, I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Returning to the overhead camera angle is refreshing, in some ways bringing me all the way back to the days of Red and Blue on the Game Boy. Even the distinctly tinny soundtrack isn't all the different from how it was back on the Nintendo DS. If only it had kept the 2D sprites, it would be perfect.

It’s wildly different from the more recent Pokémon Sword and Shield, which attempts to mix somewhat modern graphics with online social elements like the Wild Areas and raids. By comparison, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are a throwback — a nostalgia trip. It even brings back the old Union Room, a kind of visual lobby system introduced back in the days of Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green in 2004. It’s really interesting to compare them to see how the series has progressed in recent years, particularly in terms of how it has trended toward MMO-like elements such as raid battles. Being the first in the series to support online play via wi-fi, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl certainly had their share of early online social elements, but the balance of the gameplay still favored content that could be enjoyed without an internet connection.

A Window Into a Different Era

Being remakes, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are of course loaded with various odd artifacts from the Nintendo DS era. Poffins can be created by using the touchscreen. The Pokétch — an in-game device that previously lived on the DS’ second screen — will now occupy the top corner of the Switch’s screen if you wish, allowing you to easily check on your Pokémon’s friendship or hunt for items. This was an era when the DS’ touchscreen was still a fresh and novel concept, and lots of the remake's features hearken back to that period in one way or another, from the screen-tapping rhythm game of the Super Contests to the ability to put stickers on Pokéballs. Even the random badge polishing mechanic is back.

Of course, they aren’t one-to-one remakes of the original games. Among other additions, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will feature the more robust version of Exp. Share, meaning that XP will be doled out across the entire party (which for whatever reason can't be disabled). It will also be possible to customize your character’s appearance thanks to a new shop in Veilstone City that sells unique outfits, with Pokémon able to follow you around on the world map. Notably, Hidden Machines [HMs] will be returning in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, but will be handled slightly differently than before. Instead of teaching a monster a move that is then irritating to remove, a “wild Pokémon” will appear to perform the action instead. It’s a tweak that manages to preserve the spirit of the original system while removing much of the hassle.

But probably the biggest change is the Grand Underground — a series of tunnels where you mine items and build secret bases. In addition to supporting online play, it will feature biomes filled with special on-screen Pokémon that are influenced by statues you put in your base. It's here that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl come closest to matching the current generation games, but its approach is still firmly grounded in the originals.

Most of the improvements it makes are welcome, if only because Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are probably the least enjoyable generation to actually pick up and play in the modern era. Even I'll admit that the battle system was painfully sluggish back in the day. The memory of watching a monster’s health bar sloooooowly drain to zero after a critical hit is still burned into my brain even after all these years.

In removing some of their more abrasive elements, the remakes should be able to bring some of the region’s strengths back to the forefront. In particular, I hope they manage to capture its mood -- the vaguely menacing title screen, the grinding gym battle music. There was an unsettling vibe to these games that still stands out in my mind to this day.

One way or another, it will be a relief to go back to a simpler period in Pokémon history — an era without Gigantamax forms and Mega Evolutions, and with a Pokedex that’s actually close to manageable. I’m excited to once again tromp through the snow drifts around Snowpoint City; to journey to the Spear Pillars, and to battle Cynthia, who after all is still the best Champion in my very biased opinion.

Mostly, though, I’ll just be glad to have Chimchar back at my side after all these years. Welcome back, buddy. It’s been far too long.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN. Her natural enemy is Blaziken, who gets far too much attention compared to Infernape.

Jeff Strain, the founder of State of Decay developer Undead Labs who previously worked at ArenaNet and as the original lead programmer on World of Warcraft, has started a new game development studio in New Orleans called Possibility Space. The studio will be a distributed team, meaning employees can work from anywhere. And the team aims to create a AAA game.

“The phrase ‘triple-A’ has a lot of baggage in the development community,” Strain clarified to IGN, “so it’s not a phrase I like to use. It often implies a lack of innovation. Developers are often not viewing [AAA] as a positive. [But] are we going for a small-scale, purely innovation based attempt to capture a niche market, or do we have big ambitious goals and the resources to match those big ambitious goals? I can tell you it’s very much the latter.”

Strain said the move is due in part to a need for “some creative renewal” but primarily motivated by family. “I’ve been getting to a point where my family needed me,” he said. “And my wife’s family needed her too. There were a lot of forces around that drawing us back.” He emphasized, however, that he’s also incredibly proud of the games he and the team built at Undead Labs. “State of Decay is still on its way to achieving its ultimate vision,” he said, referring to the upcoming State of Decay 3, and he has nothing but kind words for Microsoft on his way out of Undead Labs, which Microsoft acquired in 2018.

“If you look at the way they manage and deal with the studios they’ve acquired over the past five years versus 10 years ago or 15 years ago, there’s a profound difference,” Strain said. “They do a good job of acknowledging that diversity of development cultures is a strength and not a weakness, and they support that and encourage that to the greatest degree that they can. They’ve done a good job of protecting the development cultures of all the development studios. And that’s why, by and large, I think people are happy working there.”

Joining Strain at Possibility Space are Jane Ng (Campo Santo, Valve), Austin Walker (Waypoint Media, Friends at the Table podcast), Liz England (Ubisoft, Warner Bros.), Richard Foge (Undead Labs, Probably Monsters), Brandon Dillon (Oculus, Double Fine), Leah Rivera (Undead Labs, ArenaNet), Brian Jennings (NZXR, Magic Leap), Charles Randall (Ubisoft, BioWare), and Erica Tam (Electronic Arts, Oculus). Some will work out of New Orleans, but most will not. “The pandemic accelerated a lot of trends that were already in place,” Strain said. “The fact is that it is completely possible to work wherever you want to work and live wherever you want to live. I do think that most developers like the freedom. Most game studios have shown [during the pandemic] that yes, you can continue to develop great games in a distributed fashion. For me the opportunity here is, ‘Let’s lean into a fully distributed studio.’ It’s about your culture. Let’s embrace it and have access to a global talent pool.”

When IGN asked Strain about what’s happened since he published his open-letter response to the damning accusations surrounding Blizzard, in which he called for and endorsed game-developer unionization, he told us, “My goal in publishing that letter was to start the process of defanging it. Of taking the fear out of it. And to exhort my fellow studio heads and publishing executives to stop fearing it and stop fighting it and instead step back and say, ‘Could we maybe [get] ahead of what a union might reasonably demand for the health and safety of its workers?’

• Skip to 1:23:40 in the video above to hear an interview with Jeff Strain from 2015 that goes over his fascinating career story, from Blizzard to ArenaNet to hitting on a huge new idea with State of Decay.

“It’s just not that hard to treat people fairly and equally. I’ve learned that it’s not enough to just have good intentions. It’s not enough to wish for diversity. You have to build structure that you adhere to in order to make it fair. We started [at Possibility Space] by making sure that we cast a very broad net and looked at the widest range of people we could to make sure we were getting fair representation at all levels of the company. And those people have now come on board and are strong counselors and offer strong guidance for how we continue to build the kind of systemic culture we need to build to make sure that as we hire people over the next five, 10 years, that we build a culture that would survive...me. You don’t want that all going away the moment certain key people walk out the door. It’s the most important issue facing our industry right now and it takes systems, not talk. It takes structure, not wishes.”

In late 2006, I took a Tokyo train a few stations down to pick up a copy of Pokémon Pearl on a whim, which had launched in Japan earlier that day. Over the ensuing months I spent hundreds of hours in the Sinnoh region, where I was pulled deep into the nascent online community. Needless to say it’s held a special place in my heart ever since — the first generation that I played entirely in Japanese, and one that has a way of transporting me back to one of my favorite times in my life.

In the years since, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have been given comparatively short shrift, much to my chagrin. Developer Game Freak didn’t even see fit to include Diamond and Pearl’s starters in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, despite the fact that their (mostly) open world Pokémon adventure is set in an ancient version of Gen 4’s Sinnoh Region. Most of the love for latter day Pokémon games are generally reserved for the likes of Black and White, with little respect given to Diamond and Pearl's striking atmosphere and the myriad improvements it made to Ruby and Sapphire.

On reflection, the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl generation was mostly about refinement. It brought back several features that had been cut in Ruby and Sapphire, redefined the balance of the competitive game by splitting physical and special attacks, and introduced several much-needed evolutions for Pokémon like Roselia and Piloswine. Most critically, it introduced true online play, paving the way for the community to grow into what it is today. But to say that a game refined the existing formula isn't a terribly exciting legacy, which is perhaps the biggest reason that Gen 4 wound up getting lost in the mix of history.

Still, that didn't stop the community demanding Diamond and Pearl remakes, if only because they were next in line after 2014's Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. But when they were finally announced earlier this year, the community was left feeling slightly bemused. Compared to the gorgeous, fully-updated remakes afforded Gen 3, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl seemed to be on the losing end of things. My initial reaction was to be irritated. Gen 4 getting the short end of the stick once again. Typical.

Now I'm kind of glad Game Freak took the remakes in this direction. Over the course of a 40 minute hands-off demo, I found myself once again transported back to the region that remains my sentimental favorite. The remakes are at pains to preserve the look and feel of the originals, and until I saw Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in action, I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Returning to the overhead camera angle is refreshing, in some ways bringing me all the way back to the days of Red and Blue on the Game Boy. Even the distinctly tinny soundtrack isn't all the different from how it was back on the Nintendo DS. If only it had kept the 2D sprites, it would be perfect.

It’s wildly different from the more recent Pokémon Sword and Shield, which attempts to mix somewhat modern graphics with online social elements like the Wild Areas and raids. By comparison, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are a throwback — a nostalgia trip. It even brings back the old Union Room, a kind of visual lobby system introduced back in the days of Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green in 2004. It’s really interesting to compare them to see how the series has progressed in recent years, particularly in terms of how it has trended toward MMO-like elements such as raid battles. Being the first in the series to support online play via wi-fi, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl certainly had their share of early online social elements, but the balance of the gameplay still favored content that could be enjoyed without an internet connection.

A Window Into a Different Era

Being remakes, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are of course loaded with various odd artifacts from the Nintendo DS era. Poffins can be created by using the touchscreen. The Pokétch — an in-game device that previously lived on the DS’ second screen — will now occupy the top corner of the Switch’s screen if you wish, allowing you to easily check on your Pokémon’s friendship or hunt for items. This was an era when the DS’ touchscreen was still a fresh and novel concept, and lots of the remake's features hearken back to that period in one way or another, from the screen-tapping rhythm game of the Super Contests to the ability to put stickers on Pokéballs. Even the random badge polishing mechanic is back.

Of course, they aren’t one-to-one remakes of the original games. Among other additions, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will feature the more robust version of Exp. Share, meaning that XP will be doled out across the entire party (which for whatever reason can't be disabled). It will also be possible to customize your character’s appearance thanks to a new shop in Veilstone City that sells unique outfits, with Pokémon able to follow you around on the world map. Notably, Hidden Machines [HMs] will be returning in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, but will be handled slightly differently than before. Instead of teaching a monster a move that is then irritating to remove, a “wild Pokémon” will appear to perform the action instead. It’s a tweak that manages to preserve the spirit of the original system while removing much of the hassle.

But probably the biggest change is the Grand Underground — a series of tunnels where you mine items and build secret bases. In addition to supporting online play, it will feature biomes filled with special on-screen Pokémon that are influenced by statues you put in your base. It's here that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl come closest to matching the current generation games, but its approach is still firmly grounded in the originals.

Most of the improvements it makes are welcome, if only because Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are probably the least enjoyable generation to actually pick up and play in the modern era. Even I'll admit that the battle system was painfully sluggish back in the day. The memory of watching a monster’s health bar sloooooowly drain to zero after a critical hit is still burned into my brain even after all these years.

In removing some of their more abrasive elements, the remakes should be able to bring some of the region’s strengths back to the forefront. In particular, I hope they manage to capture its mood -- the vaguely menacing title screen, the grinding gym battle music. There was an unsettling vibe to these games that still stands out in my mind to this day.

One way or another, it will be a relief to go back to a simpler period in Pokémon history — an era without Gigantamax forms and Mega Evolutions, and with a Pokedex that’s actually close to manageable. I’m excited to once again tromp through the snow drifts around Snowpoint City; to journey to the Spear Pillars, and to battle Cynthia, who after all is still the best Champion in my very biased opinion.

Mostly, though, I’ll just be glad to have Chimchar back at my side after all these years. Welcome back, buddy. It’s been far too long.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN. Her natural enemy is Blaziken, who gets far too much attention compared to Infernape.

Jeff Strain, the founder of State of Decay developer Undead Labs who previously worked at ArenaNet and as the original lead programmer on World of Warcraft, has started a new game development studio in New Orleans called Possibility Space. The studio will be a distributed team, meaning employees can work from anywhere. And the team aims to create a AAA game.

“The phrase ‘triple-A’ has a lot of baggage in the development community,” Strain clarified to IGN, “so it’s not a phrase I like to use. It often implies a lack of innovation. Developers are often not viewing [AAA] as a positive. [But] are we going for a small-scale, purely innovation based attempt to capture a niche market, or do we have big ambitious goals and the resources to match those big ambitious goals? I can tell you it’s very much the latter.”

Strain said the move is due in part to a need for “some creative renewal” but primarily motivated by family. “I’ve been getting to a point where my family needed me,” he said. “And my wife’s family needed her too. There were a lot of forces around that drawing us back.” He emphasized, however, that he’s also incredibly proud of the games he and the team built at Undead Labs. “State of Decay is still on its way to achieving its ultimate vision,” he said, referring to the upcoming State of Decay 3, and he has nothing but kind words for Microsoft on his way out of Undead Labs, which Microsoft acquired in 2018.

“If you look at the way they manage and deal with the studios they’ve acquired over the past five years versus 10 years ago or 15 years ago, there’s a profound difference,” Strain said. “They do a good job of acknowledging that diversity of development cultures is a strength and not a weakness, and they support that and encourage that to the greatest degree that they can. They’ve done a good job of protecting the development cultures of all the development studios. And that’s why, by and large, I think people are happy working there.”

Joining Strain at Possibility Space are Jane Ng (Campo Santo, Valve), Austin Walker (Waypoint Media, Friends at the Table podcast), Liz England (Ubisoft, Warner Bros.), Richard Foge (Undead Labs, Probably Monsters), Brandon Dillon (Oculus, Double Fine), Leah Rivera (Undead Labs, ArenaNet), Brian Jennings (NZXR, Magic Leap), Charles Randall (Ubisoft, BioWare), and Erica Tam (Electronic Arts, Oculus). Some will work out of New Orleans, but most will not. “The pandemic accelerated a lot of trends that were already in place,” Strain said. “The fact is that it is completely possible to work wherever you want to work and live wherever you want to live. I do think that most developers like the freedom. Most game studios have shown [during the pandemic] that yes, you can continue to develop great games in a distributed fashion. For me the opportunity here is, ‘Let’s lean into a fully distributed studio.’ It’s about your culture. Let’s embrace it and have access to a global talent pool.”

When IGN asked Strain about what’s happened since he published his open-letter response to the damning accusations surrounding Blizzard, in which he called for and endorsed game-developer unionization, he told us, “My goal in publishing that letter was to start the process of defanging it. Of taking the fear out of it. And to exhort my fellow studio heads and publishing executives to stop fearing it and stop fighting it and instead step back and say, ‘Could we maybe [get] ahead of what a union might reasonably demand for the health and safety of its workers?’

• Skip to 1:23:40 in the video above to hear an interview with Jeff Strain from 2015 that goes over his fascinating career story, from Blizzard to ArenaNet to hitting on a huge new idea with State of Decay.

“It’s just not that hard to treat people fairly and equally. I’ve learned that it’s not enough to just have good intentions. It’s not enough to wish for diversity. You have to build structure that you adhere to in order to make it fair. We started [at Possibility Space] by making sure that we cast a very broad net and looked at the widest range of people we could to make sure we were getting fair representation at all levels of the company. And those people have now come on board and are strong counselors and offer strong guidance for how we continue to build the kind of systemic culture we need to build to make sure that as we hire people over the next five, 10 years, that we build a culture that would survive...me. You don’t want that all going away the moment certain key people walk out the door. It’s the most important issue facing our industry right now and it takes systems, not talk. It takes structure, not wishes.”