Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has reacted to rumors that PlayStation is working on a service similar to Xbox Game Pass, saying that he sees it as "an inevitability" and is "the right answer" for how to get games to players.

Speaking to IGN's Ryan McCaffrey, Spencer addressed the recent rumors, which have pointed to a new service codenamed Spartacus set to replace the existing PS Plus service.

"As you know," Spencer began, "so many of these things actually intertwine with themselves, from [backwards compatibility] in terms of a way of building out a library of games that we have shipping on PC and console simultaneously [...] knowing that Game Pass is gonna come and we wanna bring Game Pass to multiple platforms – all of these decisions kind of stack on top of themselves.

"I don't mean it to sound like we've got it all figured out, but I think the right answer is allowing your customers to play the games they wanna play, where they wanna play them, and giving them choice about how they build their library, and being transparent with them about what our plans are in terms of our PC initiatives and our cross-gen initiatives and other things.

"So when I hear others doing things like Game Pass or coming to PC, it makes sense to me because I think that's the right answer."

Spencer continued by saying that he doesn't see Sony's apparent willingness to emulate Xbox's bold approach as proof he and his team were right to push for Game Pass early – more that it's proof that things were always going to go this way in the industry:

"I don't really look at it as validation. I actually, when I'm talking to our teams, I talk about it as an inevitability. So for us, we should continue to innovate, continue to compete, because the things that we're doing might be advantages that we have in the market today, but they're just based on us going first, not that we've created something that no one else can go create.

"I like it because it feeds our energy on what are the next things that we should be working on as we continue to build out the things that we've done in the past. Because I think the right answer is to ship great games, ship them on PC, ship them on console, ship them on cloud, make them available Day 1 in the subscription. And I expect that's what our competitor will do."

In recent years, Spencer has spearheaded a few inititatives at Xbox that Sony appears to be coming around to a little later. In 2016, Microsoft announced the Xbox Play Anywhere scheme, which saw all Microsoft Studios games released simultaneously on Xbox and PC, with cross-play and cross-buy. In the last few years, Sony has begun increasing the number of PC ports it creates for PlayStation exclusives, even launching a PC brand and acquiring a PC port specialist.

Xbox has also slowly created a large catalog of backwards compatible titles, with many games from as far back as the original Xbox available to play with no impediment on Xbox Series consoles. While almost all PS4 games are backwards compatible on PS5, rumours have begun spreading that Sony is working on extending that to at least PS3 compatibility in future.

Xbox Game Pass has been Microsoft's boldest and best received new idea in recent years, however, making a swathe of games (including all Xbox first-party exclusives) available as part of a single subscription fee. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan previously said that PlayStation exclusives would not be put on a subscription service, but the recent Spartacus rumours point to a subscription catalog, and perhaps a more expensive tier that includes backwards compatible games.

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.

Keanu Reeves has revealed he's only ever asked two people for an autograph, and he received a very rude, very funny response with one of them.

As a high-profile actor, who is often dubbed the nicest man in Hollywood, Reeves is certainly no stranger to signing his name on a fan-clenched piece of paper but he recently revealed that he's only ever personally asked two people for an autograph — one being George Carlin, his Bill & Ted co-star, and the other being Lou Reed from The Velvet Underground.

Reeves shared more about his encounters with the two celebrities during a quickfire quiz on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He admitted he acquired Reed's autograph for a friend, and that the musician kept it simple by scribbling his signature on a piece of paper without any additional message or sign-off. However, his other paper keepsake was quite different.

"I asked for another. George Carlin. Yeah, he gave me an autograph… It was really funny; he wrote, I think it was, 'Dear Keanu, F**k you!'" Reeves said with a smile, reflecting back on the comedian's personal note. "I always thought he just wrote that for me, and then I met someone else who said that he wrote the same thing to them! Anyway, beautiful."

While Reeves clearly appreciated Carlin's humorous approach to signing such a memento, we're pretty sure the John Wick star will be sticking to simply writing his moniker on all future autographs, though that could have ended up looking quite different as he almost went by an entirely different name because his was initially considered "a little too exotic" for Hollywood.

Having kept hold of his name, Reeves made his feature film debut in 1986's Youngblood, just three years prior to his breakthrough role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in which he starred alongside Carlin — who played the titular duo's time-travelling mentor in the movie. Since then, Reeves has starred in hit franchises like The Matrix and John Wick.

Reeves will return once again as the legendary hitman John Wick in the fourth film of the hyper-violent gun-fu franchise, though the film was recently pushed back by almost a year from its planned May 2022 release date. The next installment, which will reportedly be named John Wick Chapter 4: Hagakure, will now debut in theaters on March 24, 2023.

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

Keanu Reeves has revealed he's only ever asked two people for an autograph, and that he received a four-letter response off the back of one of those requests.

As a high-profile actor, who is often dubbed the nicest man in Hollywood, Reeves is certainly no stranger to signing his name on a fan-clenched piece of paper but he recently revealed that he's only ever asked two people for an autograph personally — one being George Carlin, his Bill & Ted co-star, and the other being Lou Reed from The Velvet Underground.

Reeves shared more about his encounters with the two celebrities during a quickfire quiz on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He admitted he acquired Reed's autograph for a friend, and that the musician kept it simple by scribbling his signature on a piece of paper without any additional message or sign-off. However, his other paper keepsake was quite different.

"I asked for another. George Carlin. Yeah, he gave me an autograph… It was really funny; he wrote, I think it was, 'Dear Keanu, F**k you!'" Reeves said with a smile, reflecting back on the comedian's personal note. "I always thought he just wrote that for me, and then I met someone else who said that he wrote the same thing to them! Anyway, beautiful."

While Reeves clearly appreciated Carlin's humorous approach to signing such a memento, we're pretty sure that the John Wick star will be sticking to writing his moniker on all future autographs, though that could have ended up looking quite different as he almost went by an entirely different name because 'Keanu' was intially considered "a little too exotic."

Having kept hold of his name, Reeves made his feature film debut in 1986's Youngblood, just three years prior to his breakthrough role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in which he starred alongside Carlin — who played the titular duo's time-travelling mentor in the movie. Since then, Reeves has starred in hit franchises like The Matrix and John Wick.

Reeves will return once again as the legendary hitman John Wick in the fourth film of the hyper-violent gun-fu franchise, which was recently pushed back by almost a year from its planned May 2022 release date. The film, which will reportedly be named John Wick Chapter 4: Hagakure, will now debut in theaters on March 24, 2023.

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

Several PlayStation 3 games were reportedly recently spotted on the PS5 store, causing speculation that the PlayStation 5 could get further backwards compatibility.

VGC reported that the PS3 game Dead or Alive 5 briefly listed a display price of £7.99, where it previously redirected users to the PlayStation Now version of the game. Additionally, other users reported similar new listings for the PS3 versions of Bejewelled, as well as Prince of Persia games, The Forgotten Sands, and The Two Thrones – each with their own individual purchase price. However, none of the games were purchaseable at these prices on PS5.

At time of writing, IGN could not replicate these findings, which could mean that this was a simple error in the PlayStation 5 store, or that this potentially mistaken early release has now been fixed.

Uhhh. Not to panic anyone, but a PS3 game shouldn't have a price when viewed on a PS5.

Unless... pic.twitter.com/5CTACWGh7s

— Jordan Middler (@JordanMiddler) January 16, 2022

Interestingly, these accidental listings appeared following the discovery of a patent that was filed by PS5 system architect, Mark Cerny. The patent, titled “backward compatibility through the use of spoof clock and fine grain frequency control” could suggest that Sony is working on bringing further backwards compatibility to the PS5. Social media has already begun speculating that this patent could mean Sony has solved at least one of the problems when bringing older PS3 titles to the next generation console.

If true, this would give Sony even more of a catalogue to play with, after reports that PlayStation is working on creating an Xbox Game Pass competitor. This new service, codenamed “Spartacus”, will reportedly allow PlayStation owners to pay a monthly fee for access to a library of games – much the same as Microsoft’s current Xbox Game Pass service.

Of course, it’s likely to include both modern and older games, which may mean backwards compatibility has become more of a priority for Sony in recent months.

The new Sony version of Game Pass is said to be split into three tiers. The first tier includes the same benefits as PlayStation Plus, which is required for online gaming and comes with a variety of free games each month. A second tier offers access to the gaming catalogue in the same way as Game Pass, while a third tier will include extended demos, game streaming, and access to a larger library that includes PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games. Sony has yet to confirm this new service, however.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Several PlayStation 3 games were reportedly recently spotted on the PS5 store, causing speculation that the PlayStation 5 could get further backwards compatibility.

VGC reported that the PS3 game Dead or Alive 5 briefly listed a display price of £7.99, where it previously redirected users to the PlayStation Now version of the game. Additionally, other users reported similar new listings for the PS3 versions of Bejewelled, as well as Prince of Persia games, The Forgotten Sands, and The Two Thrones – each with their own individual purchase price. However, none of the games were purchaseable at these prices on PS5.

At time of writing, IGN could not replicate these findings, which could mean that this was a simple error in the PlayStation 5 store, or that this potentially mistaken early release has now been fixed.

Uhhh. Not to panic anyone, but a PS3 game shouldn't have a price when viewed on a PS5.

Unless... pic.twitter.com/5CTACWGh7s

— Jordan Middler (@JordanMiddler) January 16, 2022

Interestingly, these accidental listings appeared following the discovery of a patent that was filed by PS5 system architect, Mark Cerny. The patent, titled “backward compatibility through the use of spoof clock and fine grain frequency control” could suggest that Sony is working on bringing further backwards compatibility to the PS5. Social media has already begun speculating that this patent could mean Sony has solved at least one of the problems when bringing older PS3 titles to the next generation console.

If true, this would give Sony even more of a catalogue to play with, after reports that PlayStation is working on creating an Xbox Game Pass competitor. This new service, codenamed “Spartacus”, will reportedly allow PlayStation owners to pay a monthly fee for access to a library of games – much the same as Microsoft’s current Xbox Game Pass service.

Of course, it’s likely to include both modern and older games, which may mean backwards compatibility has become more of a priority for Sony in recent months.

The new Sony version of Game Pass is said to be split into three tiers. The first tier includes the same benefits as PlayStation Plus, which is required for online gaming and comes with a variety of free games each month. A second tier offers access to the gaming catalogue in the same way as Game Pass, while a third tier will include extended demos, game streaming, and access to a larger library that includes PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games. Sony has yet to confirm this new service, however.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

In October, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 players began mass-reporting an issue that made entire lobbies of characters unkillable. By December, the problem was widespread enough that many declared the game unplayable. Now, a community manager from developer DICE has promised fans "it will be fixed."

The issue appears to affect multiple Battlefront 2 multiplayer modes on PC only, and sees full matches of players rendered unable to be reduced below 1HP - effectively making games pointless, ending only after a timeout or, more likely, after every player quits.

The problem has seemingly persisted for months, and has potentially gotten worse over time. An EA Forums post made on October 19, 2021 titled "Nobody can die" has since garnered 1,497 replies, and the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 subreddit has seen dozens of posts on the topic. The issue appeared to be sporadic at first but, by December, many players reported being unable to find a single multiplayer match on PC that wasn't affaected by the issue.

Official EA and DICE replies have been few and far between, with multiple community managers saying the problem was being looked into, but little word beyond that. However, yesterday, a response from DICE community manager Kevin Johnson (going by T0TALfps) offered more hope. In a Reddit thread about Battlefield 2042, a Battlefront 2 fan asked for an update on the 1HP issue. Johnson replied:

"With folks only just returning to the office this past week, progress has understandably (and unfortunately) been slow through the holidays. However progress was made towards getting a fix in place, it will be fixed, and we'll keep you all updated when they can do so."

Players have shown cautious optimism about those words but, with no timeline given for that fix, playing Battlefront 2 multiplayer on PC might remain a difficult proposition for the time being. We've contacted EA for comment.

One mystery might still remain even after a fix - where this issue originated from, and why it seems to have increased in severity over time. While some have said that 1HP issues have been a bug for years within the game, many believe this specific form of the problem to come from hackers, leading to the spike in problems last year. Some have pointed to a site that's alleged to have released the hack for free – and that it may even have come without the option to turn it off, leading to the increase in instances over time.

The issue comes at an unfortunate time for DICE, which has been seeing ongoing complaints about latest game Battlefield 2042's release and ongoing development - leading to poor Steam reviews and a subreddit accused of major toxicity.

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.

In October, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 players began mass-reporting an issue that made entire lobbies of characters unkillable. By December, the problem was widespread enough that many declared the game unplayable. Now, a community manager from developer DICE has promised fans "it will be fixed."

The issue appears to affect multiple Battlefront 2 multiplayer modes on PC only, and sees full matches of players rendered unable to be reduced below 1HP - effectively making games pointless, ending only after a timeout or, more likely, after every player quits.

The problem has seemingly persisted for months, and has potentially gotten worse over time. An EA Forums post made on October 19, 2021 titled "Nobody can die" has since garnered 1,497 replies, and the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 subreddit has seen dozens of posts on the topic. The issue appeared to be sporadic at first but, by December, many players reported being unable to find a single multiplayer match on PC that wasn't affaected by the issue.

Official EA and DICE replies have been few and far between, with multiple community managers saying the problem was being looked into, but little word beyond that. However, yesterday, a response from DICE community manager Kevin Johnson (going by T0TALfps) offered more hope. In a Reddit thread about Battlefield 2042, a Battlefront 2 fan asked for an update on the 1HP issue. Johnson replied:

"With folks only just returning to the office this past week, progress has understandably (and unfortunately) been slow through the holidays. However progress was made towards getting a fix in place, it will be fixed, and we'll keep you all updated when they can do so."

Players have shown cautious optimism about those words but, with no timeline given for that fix, playing Battlefront 2 multiplayer on PC might remain a difficult proposition for the time being. We've contacted EA for comment.

One mystery might still remain even after a fix - where this issue originated from, and why it seems to have increased in severity over time. While some have said that 1HP issues have been a bug for years within the game, many believe this specific form of the problem to come from hackers, leading to the spike in problems last year. Some have pointed to a site that's alleged to have released the hack for free – and that it may even have come without the option to turn it off, leading to the increase in instances over time.

The issue comes at an unfortunate time for DICE, which has been seeing ongoing complaints about latest game Battlefield 2042's release and ongoing development - leading to poor Steam reviews and a subreddit accused of major toxicity.

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.

Nvidia has reportedly pushed back the launch of the RTX 3090 Ti, its beefy top-end graphics card.

A number of websites have begun to report the delay, with each citing their own sources. TweakTown's sources suggest that the RTX 3090 Ti's release has been pushed back, and Videocardz has confirmed this with its own sources, who claim BIOS and hardware issues are responsible for the delay. PC Gamer has also heard from a GPU manufacturer that the release may have been "temporarily stalled".

TweakTown's report says that manufacturing of the 3090 Ti has been put on hold, and that third-party board partners have also been asked to pause production.

The Nvidia 3090 Ti was announced at CES 2022 earlier this month. At the time, no release date or window was offered, but rumours have pointed towards a January 27 release date. But with no official word from Nvidia, it seems likely that should the delay be real, that we won't be seeing the card until February at the very earliest.

While Nvidia has not promised a release date, it did vow to reveal more about the card later this month. Hopefully before January is out we'll know both a release date, as well as more details about the card's capabilities.

For now, we know that the Ampere-based RTX 3090 Ti will include 40 teraflops of GPU performance, powered by 24GB of GDDR6X VRAM.

Alongside the RTX 3090 Ti, Nvidia announced a new entry-level GPU, the RTX 3050, which arrives on January 27 with a starting retail price of $269.

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

Nvidia has reportedly pushed back the launch of the RTX 3090 Ti, its beefy top-end graphics card.

A number of websites have begun to report the delay, with each citing their own sources. TweakTown's sources suggest that the RTX 3090 Ti's release has been pushed back, and Videocardz has confirmed this with its own sources, who claim BIOS and hardware issues are responsible for the delay. PC Gamer has also heard from a GPU manufacturer that the release may have been "temporarily stalled".

TweakTown's report says that manufacturing of the 3090 Ti has been put on hold, and that third-party board partners have also been asked to pause production.

The Nvidia 3090 Ti was announced at CES 2022 earlier this month. At the time, no release date or window was offered, but rumours have pointed towards a January 27 release date. But with no official word from Nvidia, it seems likely that should the delay be real, that we won't be seeing the card until February at the very earliest.

While Nvidia has not promised a release date, it did vow to reveal more about the card later this month. Hopefully before January is out we'll know both a release date, as well as more details about the card's capabilities.

For now, we know that the Ampere-based RTX 3090 Ti will include 40 teraflops of GPU performance, powered by 24GB of GDDR6X VRAM.

Alongside the RTX 3090 Ti, Nvidia announced a new entry-level GPU, the RTX 3050, which arrives on January 27 with a starting retail price of $269.

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

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania has arrived on Prime Video, but it has done so without the voice talents of Adam Sandler and Kevin James, the two comedic actors who played Dracula and Frankenstein, respectively, since the original film. Why is that? Let's take a look.

As reported by Decider, Sandler was replaced in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania by Brian Hull and James was replaced by Brad Abrell. The pair had starred in all three previous Hotel Transylvania films and there has been no official word as to why they weren't part of this final installment.

While Sony, Sandler, or James have yet to give any statement on the matter, Transformania's directors Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska shared a bit as to why the change in voice actors actually fit the story they were trying to tell. It's also important to note that Drymon and Kluska have taken over for Genndy Tartakovsky, the director who lead the first three films.

"The fact that he turns into a human was a good opportunity to do things a little differently," Drymon told ScreenRant. "He could be a little different than he was in the movies, and it would be natural. So, it kind of was the perfect movie to have a person come in and fill those shoes."

"We started with the design, and how do we make that character feel as different as possible," Kluska added. "He's not going to animate the same; he's not going to look the same. And it felt like embracing Brian and, more specifically, embracing what the difference in that would be as a human. It felt like it was a great opportunity."

While this may answer why Sandler and James aren't in Transformania, it doesn't necessarily account for why those like Andy Samberg returned to voice Jonathan, who turns into a monster after being human.

There are those who also believe Sandler and James did not return because of their ongoing deals with Netflix. In 2020, Sandler signed on to make four more movies for Netflix, while James also recently signed on to a development deal with the company.

Sandler signed his original deal with Netflix in 2014 and was no longer an executive producer on the Hotel Transylvania films after the second one.

While we may never know the truth as to why these two did not return for Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, the mainline films are officially over - for now - and it looks like everyone will be going their separate ways regardless.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.