Superhero movies ask us to suspend our disbelief, but one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most iconic moments has been proven impossible for different reasons than you might expect.

Thanos' snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War led to half the population of the entire universe disappearing into thin air. While the supernatural part of that is clearly not realistic, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (via livescience) found that the act of Thanos snapping his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet was actually impossible to pull off.

According to the study, a finger snap is the "fastest acceleration of the human body ever measured", and the physics involved should have been impossible for Thanos while wearing the gauntlet.

Basically, the study says the acceleration of a finger while it's snapping is incredibly high — three times as fast as the acceleration of a professional baseball player's arm during a pitch. A snap only takes seven milliseconds, which is more than 20 times faster than the blink of an eye.

In order to pull off such a fast maneuver, the study says the most important component is friction. Researchers found that attempting to snap while wearing metal gloves doesn't generate enough friction.

"Our results suggest that Thanos could not have snapped because of his metal armored fingers," author Raghav Acharya said. "So, it's probably the Hollywood special effects, rather than actual physics, at play!"

Regardless of its feasibility, the MCU is still dealing with the aftermath of the Avengers' mission to reverse the impact of the snap. Up next, MCU fans are looking forward to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which releases next month. For more, check out five burning questions we have after the new Spider-Man trailer.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Michael Keaton, who has made a late-career return to superhero movies, revealed he will be filming new Vulture material this week.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on November 17, Keaton was asked about his upcoming return as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the upcoming Flash movie. But during this, Keaton also revealed that he’ll be reprising his role as Vulture.

“I’m shooting tomorrow — I’m shooting Vulture stuff,” Keaton shared. When asked to elaborate Keaton merely repeated “Vulture stuff.”

Keaton was explaining how because the nature of filming a superhero movie can be so secretive and out-of-order that he doesn’t bother to ask too many questions on set. This is why he didn’t ask WB if George Clooney or Val Kilmer will also be in the upcoming Flash movie.

Funny enough, Keaton isn’t the first Spider-Man villain to reveal their involvement in an upcoming Spider-Man movie through an interview. Alfred Molina freely talked about playing Doc Ock again in Spider-Man: No Way Home months before he was ever confirmed to return,

Keaton didn’t reveal why he’s filming additional Vulture scenes and didn’t reveal for which movie, either. While the chances are high it could be for Spider-Man: No Way Home, the interconnected MCU means Keaton could appear just about anywhere.

If he does appear in No Way Home it would make a lot of sense as the movie surprisingly seems focused on Spider-Man’s villains. Also, read IGN’s 5 burning questions we have after seeing the brand new trailer.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

In today's edition of "who asked for this?," Variety reports that an Earthworm Jim TV series is in the works at Interplay Entertainment, the current owners of the franchise.

Interplay released a 2-minute teaser trailer featuring Earthworm Jim in a tongue-in-cheek "Behind-the-Music" like interview describing his history as a spacefaring adventurer.

The series, titled "Earthworm Jim: Beyond the Groovy," reportedly follows Earthworm Jim's adventures fighting evil from planet to planet throughout the galaxy, with each planet featuring a different race of anthropomorphic animal-like aliens. Earthworm Jim's ultimate goal is to get back to his home planet, you guessed it, Earth.

Interplay is launching efforts to develop new TV series and films with a new division of the company. Interplay is working with Passion Pictures, which has produced various animated short films and commercials, such as two episodes of "Love, Death, and Robots," and several animated trailers for Apex Legends.

The teaser trailer indicates a slightly more mature tone for Earthworm Jim, with the character referring to a thermostat added to his suit to "keep my ass warm" and that he spent 25 years in rehab. The Earthworm Jim games (and even the shortlived 1990's animated series on Kids' WB) stuck relatively close to kid-friendly fare, but the original developers at Shiny Entertainment and creator Doug Tenaple (who also voiced Jim in the games) frequently skewered video game and film tropes, adding characters like "Princess What's-her-name" as a riff on Princess Peach and more generic damsels in distress.

It's unclear if creator Doug TenNaple or other members of the original development team are involved in the project. TenNaple has a history of anti-LGBTQ views, speaking out against marriage equality, and has misgendered a transgender journalist who criticized his work in 2017. IGN has reached out to Interplay to ask whether TenNaple has any involvement, but did not immediately recieve a reply.

“I remember loving ‘Earthworm Jim’ as a kid,” said Michael K. Parand, the director of Interplay's new film and TV division. “And there’s so much potential in this story universe: a galaxy full of animals battling for power.  Jim is an earthworm in a universe where Earth is nothing more than a myth. His struggle to find meaning is surreal and comical, but it’s also relatable.”

Earthworm Jim's star power has faded since his height in the mid-to-late 90's. While the first two games were successes based on their gameplay and attractive 2D graphics, Earthworm Jim 3D and subsequent releases were critical and commercial failures, with the last game releasing in 1999.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/lowly worm for IGN.

Today is the Nintendo GameCube's 20th anniversary in North America, and we're learning the iconic purple color was highly debated within Nintendo ahead of its release.

Speaking to VGC, Nintendo's former VP of marketing and corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan said Nintendo of America was very concerned about bringing the purple color to store shelves.

“We actually suggested that the purple was not the best to start with and [Japan] said, ‘no, we’re going to use that’,” Kaplan said. “Then we pushed for black and silver, because I think in the US nobody had ever really done the purple colour before."

Kaplan added they worried they would get bad publicity because of the purple choice.

“It wasn’t that you couldn’t bring out hardware that was a different colour, it was just a very… ‘female’ looking color. It just didn’t feel masculine, I think. I remember us being very nervous at E3 that we were going to get bad press purely based on the color.”

At the time, the late Hiroshi Yamauchi was president of Nintendo, and Kaplan said he had a much different leadership style than his successor, Satoru Iwata. Kaplan said, "Under Yamauchi, we knew he was the boss," and it seems feedback from Nintendo of America was not heavily considered.

In North America, the GameCube ended up appearing in black, and silver variations in addition to purple, as Kaplan says Nintendo of America pushed for. Other regions saw white and orange versions, as well.

The GameCube ended up selling 22 million units in its lifetime, losing out to both the Xbox (24 million) and the runaway success of the PS2, which topped 155 million units. Still, the GameCube is fondly remembered by Nintendo fans to this day for games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and more.

If you're feeling nostalgic for Nintendo's purple cube, check out our picks for the best GameCube games of all time.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Deathloop's second big update is here, and the patch notes indicate that it addresses some of players' biggest concerns. The update focuses on enemy AI, UI issues, audio, and other elements.

One of the biggest changes is that Julianna players will receive a win if a Colt player drops out of their game, a change that will surely make fans of Deathloop's multiplayer happy. Previously, a Colt player bouncing from a multiplayer session could mean a lot of wasted time for a Julianna player with little to no reward.

Colt players who try to wait out Julianna will also get a sort of slap on the wrist. If a Colt player hides in the tunnels that connect each area of Deathloop's map, they'll be automatically pinged and the tunnel doors will open, allowing a Julianna player to more easily eliminate them. The antenna that Colt must hack to escape also takes slightly longer to hack, and Bethesda says an AI-controlled Julianna will be "more reactive" to Colt's actions, though doesn't explain how.

Enemy NPC behavior has also been dramatically improved. NPCs will react to bullets whizzing by their heads, when another NPC is assassinated nearby, and can hear better and react faster to footsteps.

Accessibility changes include controller remapping being added, left/right stick inversion, larger UI buttons and text in menus and larger selectable menu areas.

You can find the full patch notes below.

• NPCs now react to bullets passing close by, such as headshots that miss
• NPCs now react when another is assassinated close by
• NPCs now hear better and react faster to nearby footfalls
• NPCs under fire no longer move to take cover if the player is too close
• NPCs can now deduce the direction from which a grenade was thrown
• NPCs no longer stop trying to kill Colt if Julianna uses Nexus to link him to them
• Interrupted aerial assassinations will no longer cause NPCs to become mostly invulnerable
• Numerous other small fixes and improvements to NPC behavior, reactions, pathing, and placement
• Charlie Montague no longer gets stuck in the floor or ground if he’s kicked while using Shift

QUALITY OF LIFE/ACCESSIBILITY

• Added controller remapping and left/right stick inversion
• UI buttons and text in options menu are now larger, as are their selectable areas
• [PS5] Added Field-of-View and motion-blur options. We continue to listen to community feedback and explore more quality of life and accessibility options for a future update.

INVASION

• Colt dropping the game now counts as a win for a player-controlled Julianna
• AI-controlled Julianna is now more reactive to Colt’s actions
• The antenna that Colt must hack to escape now takes slightly longer to hack
• AFK players are tagged
• Colt players who linger in Colt’s tunnels for too long are automatically tagged and that causes the tunnel doors to open
• Higher chance that you will invade players on your Friends list while they are playing in ‘Online mode’
• Strelak Sapper Charges thrown by NPCs that Julianna has attacked will no longer create false Colt tags for Julianna
• Players now properly hear audio reactions from the opposing player during melee
• Strelak Sapper Charges will now stick to Julianna as they do to other NPCs

USER INTERFACE

• The UI is now clearer regarding Residuum loss on death
• The appearance of weapons and other items is improved within the Loadout UI
• The UI HUD will now properly display updates made to key bindings and controls
• The game will now pause fully during the Game Over splash screen
• Melee will now be labeled correctly when in the weapon cycle on a controller (Y)
• When aiming down sights, crosshairs will no longer disappear while the player is close enough to an NPC to perform an assassination
• The Heritage Gun’s reticle will now indicate the increased scatter from the Scattergun perk
• [PC] Players will no longer be asked to confirm changes to visual settings if nothing was changed
• [PC] Fixed an issue in which mouse wheel sensitivity was overreduced when zooming in or out to view a weapon in the Loadout UI

MISC. GAMEPLAY

• Duplicate Slab upgrades are now converted to a harvestable Residuum object
• In Karl’s Bay, Harriet and her cultists can no longer shoot at Colt through the closed security door to her office
• Also in Karl’s Bay, a certain window in Hangar 2 has been restored to its intended functionality
• Strelak Sapper Charges can no longer be thrown in a way that enables the player to clip through doors or other surfaces
• Kicking a Strelak Sapper Charge while “cooking” it no longer causes the Charge to explode and no longer causes subsequent Charges to disappear when thrown
• Turret placement can no longer be used as a way to enable the player to clip through doors or other surfaces
• Hackable antennas now give clearer audiovisual feedback of their hacked status
• Fixed an issue that could result in Colt having 2 guns in the same hand or one gun in the left hand instead of the right hand after a reprise
• Fixed an issue that could prevent a weapon from being further reloaded if player switched to a same ammunition type while reloading then switched back to original weapon
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Hackamajig not to be automatically equipped to an empty hand when first picked up
• Fixed an issue that could lead to a player using the Shift Slab to reach a ledge, triggering the vaulting action, and getting stuck in the ledge instead of vaulting it
• Fixed a case in which 2-Bit interactions were not working as intended
• Fixed an issue that caused some hackable doors to become unopenable if kicked while hacking
• More than one turret can no longer occupy the same space
• Fixed an issue that could trap players if Fia’s large bunker doors close on them

GRAPHICS/AUDIO

• Fixed an issue in which the player could unequip the machete during an assassination animation
• Corrected some issues with FSR integration and improved overall implementation.
• Fixed in issue in which the player could unequip a jammed gun during the unjamming animation
• Fixed bugs, including some that could cause crashes, related to the DLSS and ray tracing graphics options
• Fixed numerous minor visual glitches, including some related to indirect lighting
• Fixed or improved numerous audio details and timings, including some improved voiceover lines
• Improved audio mixing across the board
• Fixed an issue that could cause graphical glitching when a door is opened at the same time a sensor closes it
• Turret indicator lights now no longer function if the turret’s battery is destroyed
• The hostile/friendly indicator lights on Field Nullifiers are now consistent with those on turrets
• Fixed an issue that caused deactivated turrets to sound as though they’re deployed when thrown or dropped
• Fixed an issue that rarely caused closed doors to appear as though they’re open

ACHIEVEMENTS/TROPHIES AND FEATS

• Fixed an issue that enabled Julianna to be rewarded with duplicate trinkets
• Fixed an issue that prevented the “Ensemble Tragedy” achievement from being rewarded properly
• Fixed an issue that prevented Julianna from earning the Double Vision feat if killing Colt via assassination while Masquerading as a Visionary
• Fixed an issue that enabled Julianna players to earn the Sorceress feat even if weapons were used
• Fixed an issue that counted Colt’s own deaths to Julianna’s gunfire toward the “Don’t Mind Me” achievement

STABILITY

• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash while using the Strelak Verso
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash if Colt dies just as a cinematic begins
• Fixed an issue that could rarely cause the game to become unresponsive on exiting the Journal
• [PC] Fixed an issue that could cause the game to become unresponsive while remapping controls from keyboard to controller or vice versa

CONNECTION-RELATED

• Fixed an issue that could cause the first weapon to be dropped when the Julianna player picks up multiple weapons at once
• Fixed an issue that could cause the mission results screen and progression to be skipped for the Julianna player if that player goes straight to Invasion matchmaking after successfully breaking the loop as Colt and watching the game credits
• Fixed an issue that could cause the “network connection to the server failed” message to remain on-screen after being resolved
• Fixed an issue that could cause Julianna to spawn above the ground, having to briefly fall before being able to move
• Fixed an issue that caused the visual effects of Karnesis, when used on an NPC, not to appear from Julianna’s point of view

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Mr. Kill for IGN.

Actor Tom Holland had a particularly tough time on the set of Sony's Uncharted live-action film, going so far as to say that filming Uncharted "absolutely broke" him.

In an interview with GQ (via GameSpot), Holland discussed the physical and mental toll that filming stunt-heavy projects like Uncharted and Marvel films have taken on him over the years.

“I was going to the gym in the morning like, ‘Oh, my God, I must have torn something in my leg,’ and the guys were like, ‘You haven’t, you’re just tired and you’re getting older,'" Holland said.

Holland had an incredibly brief three days between filming Uncharted in Berlin and moving on to Spider-Man: No Way Home in Atlanta.

“I never realized how lucky I am that Spider-Man wears a mask, because when he’s bouncing around and flying from buildings, that’s all CG. In Uncharted it’s just me in a henley and cargo pants,” Holland said. “That film absolutely broke me.”

Holland added that he had developed tendinitis by the time filming on Uncharted wrapped in early 2021. Tendinitis is typically the inflammation of a joint. Though most cases of tendinitis can be treated with rest, therapy, and pain medication, extreme cases can be known to require surgery.

Holland also touched on the physical exhaustion he felt during the press tour for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Holland traveled to 17 countries, performing backflips on request and eventually becoming ill enough that he vomited backstage immediately after a press conference.

“I was under a lot of pressure to finish the day’s work. That was the first time I was really like, ‘No, I’m done now. I’ve given you everything,'" Holland said.

In the same interview, Holland intimated that he's not sold on continuing as Spider-Man in the MCU, suggesting a Miles Morales film may be the proper path forward. The script for No Way Home was also rewritten on an "almost daily basis" and on-set during the filming of the finale. Script rewrites aren't uncommon in major Hollywood productions, even as filming is proceeding, but Holland shared that he learned to say "no" to a script he was unhappy with from fellow Marvel star Elizabeth Olsen.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/treasure hunter for IGN.

Henry Cavill has thrown his support behind The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich's seven-season plan for the widely popular Netflix series.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter for a recent feature, Cavill suggested that he would be up for reprising his role as Geralt of Rivia for seven seasons if the show keeps going, though he did have one stipulation. "Absolutely," Cavill said in regards to supporting Hissrich's vision. "As long as we can keep telling great stories which honor [author Andrzej] Sapkowski's work."

Cavill's caveat for the future of the series is one that has stayed at the forefront of their minds when developing the show, though Hissrich told THR that Cavill had presented a number of ideas for the show's second season, which arrives on Netflix on December 17, as he was keen to find a way for his character to open up more in the coming episodes.

"A lot of the notes he was sending to me were about Geralt's dialogue — could he, first of all, say more," Hissrich said. "Everybody came out of season one laughing and loving Geralt's fuming. But Henry was saying that when you read the books you spend a lot of time in Geralt's head. So how can we put that on the page? Meanwhile, I wanted to tell the story of him becoming a father figure to Ciri. So those two things coalesced wonderfully. He opens up to get Ciri to trust him, by speaking his mind and his heart more."

The first episode of the second season will adapt Andrzej Sapkowski's A Grain of Truth, the third story in The Last Wish, that explores family dynamics and relationships. In the tale, Geralt stumbles upon a rundown manor inhabited by a monstrous, cursed nobleman known as Nivellen, who is being portrayed by Kristofer Hivju in the Netflix series.

However, Season 2 of The Witcher will initially pick up with Geralt taking Ciri to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen, where he will task himself with protecting her from the mysterious power she possesses while the Continent's kings, elves, humans, and demons strive for supremacy outside the walls of the castle located in the Kingdom of Kaedwen.

It has been confirmed that The Witcher will return for a third season as part of Netflix's "growing Witcher universe," which now also includes a second anime feature film as well as a family-friendly series set in the same world. So if you haven't already, now might be a good time to check out our Witcher reading guide to find out where to start.

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

John Krasinski has revealed that he refused to shoot a scene in The Office that would have depicted his character Jim cheating on his wife Pam (Jenna Fisher) during the show's eighth season.

As spotted by the New York Post, Krasinski wrote about the scene during an entry for a new book about the show called Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office.

Showrunners at the time had apparently planned on writing a scene into the episode 'After Hours', where Krasinski's character would "make out" with his wife's maternity leave replacement Cathy when the pair found themselves alone together in a Florida hotel room.

“That’s the only time I remember putting my foot down..." says Krasinski in the book. "I remember saying things that I never thought I’d say before, like, ‘I’m not going to shoot it," he writes before explaining that he took the issue to executive producer and director Greg Daniels.

“My feeling is there is a threshold with which you can push our audience. They are so dedicated. We have shown such great respect to them. But there’s a moment where if you push them too far, they’ll never come back. And I think that if you show Jim cheating, they’ll never come back.”

While the couple had their fair share of ups and downs across the sitcom's nine seasons, the show's community will likely be glad to hear that Daniels ultimately decided not to shoot the scene. Though, perhaps unsurprisingly the director does note that a number of the factors affecting the couple were introduced in part to keep fans engaged with the show.

“I feel like that kind of worry was good in terms of the fans’ engagement. I think they knew what was coming,” Daniels says when discussing plot points such as the show's decision to bring in Brian the sound technician to comfort Pam following a fallout between the pair.

“They were very comfortable with the show they were getting, and I needed to worry them that maybe I was going to give them a bad ending so they were happy when they got a good ending,” he finishes.

For more on The Office, make sure to check out this article detailing how James Gandolfini was paid $3 million to not become the new boss in the show.

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

If you think of high-end graphics, some names immediately come to mind: Epic, DICE, CryEngine. But as technology continues to disseminate across the world, more and more game studios in various global tech hubs are beginning to turn heads with their advancements in video game visuals.

One such company is Pearl Abyss, a South Korean video game company primarily known for the MMORPG Black Desert Online. Recently, the studio caught our attention with a show-stopping presentation of DokeV built using a proprietary engine Pearl Abyss is developing with an eye towards the studio’s future.

IGN was able to speak with Pearl Abyss’ Head of Game Engine Division and Lead Engine Programmer Kwaghyeon Go to talk more about this new engine, whose name IGN can reveal is called the “Blackspace Engine.”

Pearl Abyss’ biggest game currently is the MMORPG Black Desert Online, which Pearl Abyss developed using an earlier proprietary engine. But new projects require new technology.

“When devising new projects after Black Desert, we felt the need for a new engine with the latest technology for even better quality and performance. Additionally, it also had to be able to cover multiple projects,” Go says.

Enter Blackspace Engine, Pearl Abyss’ new, next-gen engine currently used to develop upcoming projects including Crimson Desert, PLAN 8, and DokeV, an open-world adventure where players can go on adventures with monsters based on Korean folklore.

Take the GamesCom trailer for DokeV for example which has already garnered over 7 million views. The K-Pop soaked trailer is filled with highly detailed environments, eye-popping particle effects, and rich textures, and a bulk of the comments are dedicated to discussing DokeV’s visuals.

“It’s our belief that amazing graphics and attention to detail determine the core quality of a game,” Go says. “After all, it’s these details that help create such an immersive experience.”

Go says its next-gen engine allows “for a more detailed representation of visual depth and increases the draw distance.” Furthermore, “improvements in atmospheric scattering and global illumination techniques provide more accurate lighting that takes into account the flow of time and spatial changes.”

Pearl Abyss also boasts an advanced motion capture and 3D-scanning studio, and the company plans to open a dedicated art studio in 2022.

According to Go, “The Pearl Abyss Art Center will be the largest art studio in the whole of the Korean games industry and will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for gaming technology and design research.” It will also boast a new, nearly 11,000 square feet motion capture studio designed to shoot wire-action sequences, bulky objects, and even animals.

Alongside PC, DokeV has been announced for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. South Korean game developers have largely focused on PC and mobile, so IGN asked if DokeV was part of a new strategy targeting the global console market.

To this, Go cited Black Desert on console, which was released in 2019 and helped cater to a large overseas console market. Go says Pearl Abyss is one of the first South Korean companies actively pursuing the “challenging console market.”

Despite the competition, Pearl Abyss aims to expand its console offerings by supporting cross-play between platforms as well as next-gen console versions of its games.

As for Pearl Abyss’ decision to develop a proprietary engine rather than license an engine from another company, Go says it’s about “internalizing core game development technologies” by developing an engine using the company’s “advanced technology.” He added that Pearl Abyss seeks to resolve the long-term risks that come with relying on external development platforms.

“With one’s own engine, it is possible to build an efficient development process and actively respond to changes on various platforms,” Go says.

Aside from developing an engine capable of high-end graphics, Go says the BlackSpace Engine has other features that aid in the development of open-world games. “Many aspects can be automated, procedurally generated, and customized with Pearl Abyss’ engine,” Go says. Along with realistic audio expression and smooth transitions between cutscenes and gameplay which Go says offers a more immersive experience he says, “The biggest advantage of an in-house engine may be the freedom to add functions quickly when the need arises and to change them in the direction that we want.”

While there are currently no plans to license the BlackSpace engine to partner developers a la Epic or Unity, Go says Pearl Abyss’s next-gen engine can be used to create a virtual space “akin to real-life” and can be “combined with the latest technology to create a more realistic metaverse.” As a result, Pearl Abyss is considering the possibilities of using the engine “in a wide variety of fields.”

As games like DokeV continue to impress the world with its visuals, Go says Pearl Abyss will continue to focus on games like Black Desert while pursuing high-quality graphics and attention to detail, “all the while focusing on the gameplay itself as much as on the graphics.”

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

2K has revealed a number of features that will be part of WWE 2K22, including the long awaited return of a general manager mode and a brand new mode in which you put together a faction of superstars from across every era of the WWE.

General Manager mode has not been seen in a WWE game since WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, but it finally sees a return in WWE 2K22 under the new guise of MyGM. The mode will allow you to draft superstars, book matches, manage your contacts, and generally attempt to run the WWE. Creative Director Lynell Jinks notes that the journey of MyGM will see you “progressively working your way up from high school gyms to prime time TV.”

Where MyGM is the return of a fan favourite mode, MyFACTION is a brand new mode that’s a first for the WWE games. Your aim in this mode is to build a faction that rivals the likes of the nWO, The Hart Foundation, DX, and New Day. This is done by collecting, managing, and upgrading superstar wrestlers picked from every era of the WWE. Your squad of stars can then do battle in new game modes and challenges, supported by weekly events and challenges.

2K note that MyFACTION will make use of a virtual currency, but emphasise that it’s not required. “It is super important to note here that virtual currency does not offer any sort of competitive advantage, or put players in a play-to-win situation,” said art producer Christina Diễm Phạm. “The items you purchase with VC can also be purchased by MyFACTION points earned via gameplay.”

These two modes come alongside MyRISE mode, which allows you to experience the journey of a WWE Superstar from rookie to legendary, and the returning Universe mode. Creation Suit is also back, with “wild options and fantasy elements” and the ability to step into the ring anywhere in the world. Additionally, a new WWE 2K Showcase allows you to relive a legendary WWE Superstar’s most iconic matches.

All of this is built on a redesigned engine, with gameplay and animation rebuilt from the ground up. A new control scheme has also been implemented that 2K states allows for a more intuitive, controlled experience. “These updates enable folks to easily pick up and play while still allowing for higher skill expression,” says Diễm Phạm. “For less seasoned players our combo system enables you to string together lethal moves with ease. Faster response time and shorter lock outs means gameplay is faster and players learn a lot faster.”

WWE 2K22 is set to release in March 2022, and comes after the series was put on hold back in 2020 in order to allow extended development of the next game. No Mercy and Smackdown have been cited as influences for this latest entry in the series.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.