Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 will reportedly see Tom Cruise step out as Ethan Hunt for the last time as the action-packed film series reaches its final "culmination."

According to a report from Variety, an unnamed insider has indicated that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films will serve as a "culmination" of the entire film series and deliver a "sendoff" for Cruise's Ethan Hunt character, who has been the face of the franchise since 1996 when the first installment of the spy thriller series hit theaters.

The first entry, directed by Brian De Palma, became the third highest-grossing movie of the year and went on to spawn a monumental franchise, spanning more than two decades with six entries up to now. The most recent installment, 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout, turned out to be the best-reviewed and highest-grossing film in the franchise to date.

The next two sequels in the long-running series were originally meant to be filmed back-to-back, however, the production suffered numerous delays as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shifts in the shooting schedule then caused conflicts with Cruise and his other commitments, including promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick.

As a further consequence of these delays, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have postponed the release dates of Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 multiple times. The latest update came at the beginning of the year when it was announced that the two beleaguered films have been delayed once again, and will now be released in 2023 and 2024.

Variety reports that part of the reasoning for the release dates being moved is that Cruise wants the eighth film, which is about to go into production in South Africa, to wrap production before the seventh film is released because the seventh entry apparently ends on a cliffhanger, and Cruise is keen to make sure that the two parts fit together seamlessly.

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

Bandai Namco has made an official announcement recognising the current technical difficulties with the Dark Souls games on PC, and has said that it is now looking into Elden Ring ahead of launch to ensure the problem does not affect the new FromSoftware game.

In a statement on Twitter, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware said that they are "aware of the technical difficulties players have experienced with the Dark Souls suite of games on PC", referring to the fact that servers are down after a "serious exploit" was discovered.

#DarkSouls pic.twitter.com/ZRhX9OcvQe

— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) February 9, 2022

The companies offered their thanks to fans who have reported the issue. "Thanks to you, we have identified the cause and are working on fixing the issue."

"In addition, we have extended the investigation to Elden Ring - our upcoming title launching on February 25th - and have made sure the necessary security measures are in place for this title on all target platforms," the statement reads.

This suggests that Elden Ring's online features should be available on PC when it launches later this month. However, the situation has meant that severs for Dark Souls will not be returning until later. "Due to the time required to set up proper testing environments, online services for the Dark Souls series on PC will not resume until after the release of Elden Ring," says the statement.

"We will continue to do everything we can to bring back these services as soon as possible," it continues. "We will make an announcement as soon as the schedule is determined for resuming online services."

The issue affecting FromSoftware games on PC was discovered last month, with Reddit users claiming a RCE (Remote Code Execution) exploit had been discovered that could let hackers "run arbitrary code on your machine without permission." The users who discovered the exploit noted that it could affect Elden Ring, but thankfully FromSoft's work on the issue seems to mean that Elden Ring will launch on PC without problems.

For more from Elden Ring, check out our hands-on preview and details on the game's multiplayer. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has also said meeting George R.R. Martin to discuss Elden Ring was "like speaking with an old friend", but thinks Martin would be "shocked" at what he's done to his characters.

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

More than 60,000 Battlefield 2042 players have signed a petition asking for their money back, as the game continues to receive criticism for its slow update roll out and perceived lack of features.

Eurogamer spotted the petition, which requested that refunds available on Steam be extended to PlayStation and Xbox customers, and said EA made "a mockery" of customers who purchased the game.

The publisher admitted itself that Battlefield 2042 "did not meet expectations" and developer DICE has recently delayed a number of updates to the game including its first season pass and the addition of a scoreboard.

The petition reads: "EA’s release of Battlefield 2042 was a mockery of every customer who purchased this video game for $70 (USD) due to EA’s false advertising. Battlefield 2042 has cost consumers millions of dollars in damages and upset thousands of customers worldwide."

Complaints arose almost immediately when Battlefield 2042 launched on November 19 with server and UI problems, and fans quickly noticed a number of features they thought were missing from the game.

DICE announced on February 1 that Battlefield 2042's Season One would be delayed so the studio could focus on more immediate issues in the game, starting with an end-of-round scoreboard being added. But the developer said two days later that this update would also be delayed until March as it had to release a hotfix to tackle game instability issues caused by the previous patch.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Lost Ark is already one of Steam's biggest-ever games, overtaking the likes of Apex Legends and Among Us in peak concurrent users, even before it goes free-to-play later this week.

Per SteamDB data, the game's peak concurrent users currently stand at 532,476, placing it sixth in Steam's all-time list behind only New World, Cyberpunk 2077, Dota 2, CS: GO, and PUBG. Incredibly, it hit that number within 4 hours of going on release as a paid game, even though it will become free-to-play on Friday.

That sheer influx seemed to be causing some problems initially, with users reporting connectivity issues and increased queue times that prompted developer Smilegate to open another North American server shortly after launch:

In response to increased queue times, we have opened up a new server on NA East (Karmine).

The team will continue to monitor server queues and make additional adjustments if necessary.

— Lost Ark (@playlostark) February 9, 2022

Lost Ark is an MMO / ARPG with isometric action similar to the Diablo games, featuring 15 playable classes, a cinematic story-led campaign, and co-op PvE combat. It was released in South Korea in 2019 and later in Japan and Russia, with a North American and European release finally arriving this week.

As you'd expect, the game is also seeing massive viewership on Twitch with SteamDB reporting a peak of more than 1.2 million people watching on its early access launch day.

A key to the game's streaming success may be in the free items given to Lost Ark players for watching gameplay. Content creators with early access participated in the Legends of Lost Ark launch event that had them compete to unlock Twitch Drops for viewers.

Twitch users, for every four hours watched, can unlock a Battle Chest Item, an Arkesia Paper Hat Chest, a Helgaia Pet Chest, and a gold Neugier hoverboard mount until February 28 - the incentive made possible by Twitch's owner Amazon also funding the game's western release.

Lost Ark will officially launch as a fully free-to-play game on February 11 at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK (that's February 12 at 4am AEDT).

In our preview for the game, we said Lost Ark's combat is "very, very good, combining the best elements of MMOs and ARPGs," and there's "a sense of wonder surrounding this game that has us greatly excited."

Lost Ark marks Amazon's second major gaming success after the launch of New World - which sits in fifth place on Steam's peak concurrent users lists - after it became Steam's most played game of 2021 just a day after it was released.

New World's popularity also brought problems however as Amazon had "alarms going off" for months after the release, as it was forced to double servers, and fix other issues such as gold exploitation and crashing.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has received its first post-launch patch, which has helped fix a glitch that made the Pokémon Cherrim incredibly difficult to catch.

Version 1.0.2 of the game was released on February 8 and "fixed an issue that sometimes made it difficult to catch Cherrim" alongside a handful of other minor bugs.

Players may have expected Arceus and the other legendary Pokémon to be among the hardest to catch but Cherrim, while easy enough to beat, often refused to stay in its Pokéball.

I have been fighting this Cherrim for like half an hour. I've thrown >50 ultra balls with no success. Am I losing my mind? pic.twitter.com/7KCHt0vavK

— zippyzap (@zippyzapps) February 8, 2022

As Pokémon Legends: Arceus encourages catching the same Pokémon over and over, Cherrim certainly proved a problem as it sometimes refused to be caught even after dozens of attempts.

Cherrim's unique ability allows it to change form depending on the weather - its flower opens if it's sunny and closes if it's not - but the glitch seemingly dropped the Pokémon's Catch Rate to zero if it changed forms even once.

Following the patch. however, many users are now reporting that the elusive Cherrim can now finally be caught as expected.

The full patch notes can be seen here:

• Fixed an issue where, while offline, the screen could freeze after trying to pick up a lost satchel by throwing out a ball that contains a Pokémon.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes made it difficult to catch Cherrim.
• Fixed an issue where a certain event would not occur during a particular Mission, preventing the scenario from proceeding as intended.
• Fixed an issue where players could obtain certain Pokémon twice instead of once only as intended, prohibiting the player from obtaining other certain Pokémon. The relevant Pokémon will appear for players who were unable to catch those certain Pokémon due to this issue.

IGN said Pokémon Legends: Arceus was "good", and "an ambitious revamp that successfully revolutionizes the defining Pokemon experiences of catching and battling, but is unfortunately set in a drab, empty, and at times tedious world."

The merger between Nvidia and Softbank's chip business, Arm, has reportedly fallen apart due to regulatory and competition concerns. This decision came after Nvidia's board meeting on Monday. If it had been successful, the merger would have given Nvidia much more power in the chip industry.

In a new report from the Financial Times, SoftBank and Nvidia decided to stop pursuing the deal between them because of the regulatory hurdles that came with completing the transaction. Executive management at Arm has been changed due to the deal collapsing. CEO Simon Segars has been replaced by Rene Haas, who was previously the president of Arm's intellectual property group.

SoftBank will receive a fee of 1.25B and said that it would be looking to seek an initial public offering of Arm before the end of the next fiscal year in March 2023. It's currently unknown whether Arm will list itself in New York rather than London, as its headquarters are located in the UK.

With its base of operations in the UK, British politicians viewed Arm as a strong asset to have in the country. A British competition review was even extended due to concerns about national security because of the company potentially being listed outside of the UK.

However, Nvidia tried to assuage the anxieties of British politicians by saying that it would be able to financially help Arm expand into new markets. Softbank reportedly wants to list Arm in New York because it would have a higher valuation than the UK.

Some big tech corporations, such as Qualcomm and Microsoft, were against this merger because they relied on Arm's chip designs. Nvidia would have gotten first rights to Arms technology if the merger had been approved.

The deal between Arm and Nvidia was announced in September 2020. Recently, there have been shortages of semiconductor chips globally, as gaming companies like PlayStation and Nintendo have reported that the production of consoles has slowed down as a result.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Nothing old is safe, not even a beloved green clay-man.

THR reports Fox Entertainment has bought the rights to Gumby, the 1950's stop-motion animated character, from Joseph Clokey, son of Gumby creator Art Clokey. The deal includes all characters from the Gumby universe, including his horse pal Pokey.

Fox plans to "reimagine" the green character through multiple live-action and animated productions. Fox also plans to stream past Gumby series on its Tubi streaming service, plus develop new merchandise, including NFTs.

“Competition for globally recognized intellectual property is fierce. Uncovering this gem, with its built-in awareness and affinity, and bringing it to Fox, adds meaningful value and creative possibilities to the IP itself and to multiple divisions of our company,” said Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier. “Fox is proud to be home to these iconic characters. Welcome one and all.”

"Uncovering" might be a generous term to use for resurrecting a beloved kid's property that multiple generations still remember fondly. Gumby debuted to American audiences in the early 1950s on kid's program Howdy Doody, rocketing to success and multiple series airing on NBC through the '50s and '60s.

In the '80s, Gumby experienced a revival thanks in part to comedian Eddie Murphy's SNL parody of the character and the success of home video purchases. Eventually, Gumby reruns aired on both Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Gumby is commonly regarded as a landmark television series for its stop-motion animation.

Since selling much of its IP to Disney, Fox has acquired Bob's Burgers animation studio Bento Box and MaraVista Entertainment, acquired TMZ, and entered a new production studio partnership with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Credit: NBC/SNL

Sony is beta testing some new customization features for PlayStation 5 users based on feedback from the players. The new software beta is kicking off tomorrow, and it includes new party chat options, game base enhancements, accessibility options, and UI features.

As announced on the PlayStation Blog, Sony detailed the new features coming to the console. First, Sony said there are new changes to the Parties system on PS5. Players will now be able to start an open party, which all of your friends can see and join, or a closed party exclusively for players you invite.

PlayStation 4 players will also be able to control individual voice chat volume for every person in a party, which is already a feature on PS5.

Sony is also making changes to the Game Base, which is the PS5 menu where you set up parties, invite friends, and see messages. Now, it will be divided into three menu tabs: friends, parties, and messages. PlayStation says this should give players faster access to find what they're looking for.

As for UI features, you'll be able to sort your game collection by genre. Previous sorting options were limited to alphabetical order and recently played games.

There's also an option to keep up to five games and apps locked to your home screen, so they don't get pushed off the page if you haven't opened them recently.

Another big change is a new voice command feature that's getting a limited test release in the U.S. and U.K. With this, you can open games, apps, and settings using the built-in microphone on the PS5's DualSense controller. Players will launch the voice command option by saying "Hey, PlayStation!", much like how you start a voice command on your iPhone or Google Home. You can turn off the voice command feature at any time in system settings.

Keep in mind, these settings aren't rolling out to every PS5 user just yet, only to players who make it into the beta. In other news, PlayStation recently integrated Discord, allowing users to connect their accounts to their consoles.

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

The Oscar nominations for 2022 are officially here, which means that it's also Oscar snubs season. As is tradition, a number of 2021's most notable films and creators were left off this year's list, with Dune director Denis Villeneuve and Spider-Man: No Way Home among the omissions that raised eyebrows on social media.

Villeneuve was not among those nominated for the Best Director category, which featured Steven Spielberg (West Side Story) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza). His absence was striking in light of Dune picking up 10 nominations, including one for Best Picture. While not always the case, movies nominated for Best Picture generally get packaged with a Best Director nod.

Fans and industry observers were quick to note Villeneuve's absence from the Best Director category.

How is it even possible Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for Best Director for DUNE? #OscarNoms

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) February 8, 2022

"How is it even possible Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for Best Director for DUNE?" The Game Awards founder Geoff Keighley tweeted, echoing the sentiments of a number of critics on the platform.

Some compared the snub to Inception, which also garnered a Best Picture nomination in 2011 while Christopher Nolan was snubbed for Best Director. Both films stand out due to their strong creative direction and visual aesthetic, which have typically been credited to their directors.

"This is a technically brilliant, visually amazing movie with a top-notch cast and deep sci-fi concepts," Scott Collura in IGN's Dune review, observing that Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic had previously been considered virtually un-filmable due to its sprawling scope and unconventional pace.

Vanity Fair called Villeneuve's snub "shocking," but argued that it could also "galvanize" the film's Best Picture hopes.

Voters and moviegoers already liked Argo, a lot. But it was in a tight race against Lincoln and Life of Pi. Blowback over Affleck's snub was just a little extra wind in Argo's sails, helping it pull ahead. And on Oscar night, Affleck did indeed collect the best picture trophy. What does this mean for Dune? Well, it's hard to engineer a campaign around sympathy; seek that sentiment and it immediately evaporates. But if a sense of “Denis was robbed" evolves naturally and authentically, it can be a powerful, invigorating force. If enough people—if enough voters—are scratching or shaking their heads over Villeneuve's absence, it could lend a little momentum to Dune in a year where there isn't already an established frontrunner.

Villeneuve himself didn't specifically address the snub, but he did talk about pancakes while saying that the Dune team had an "amazing morning."

"Here is a trick for all filmmakers on Oscar nominations morning. At the very last minute before announcements, make pancakes. It helps with the stress," Villeneuve wrote in a statement thanking the Academy. "Second, make sure you put enough eggs in the preparation, our pancakes were a disaster."

Dune already has plenty of momentum even without Villeneuve being nominated for Best Director. Apart from Best Picture, it was nominated for awards in the Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects categories. One way or another, Dune should clean up on awards night.

"...Second, make sure you put enough eggs in the preparation, our pancakes were a disaster.”

Full statement: pic.twitter.com/X1JwjgBaQf

— John Jurgensen (@johnjurg) February 8, 2022

Spider-Man and Lady Gaga also snubbed

In the meantime, there were plenty of other snubs, with Lady Gaga for Lead Actress (House of Gucci) and Spider-Man: No Way Home for Best Picture both drawing attention. Spider-Man's omission was notable but not surprising — out of all the superhero films released to date, only Black Panther and Joker have been nominated for Best Picture. Even a permanent expansion to include 10 nominees hasn't been enough to get more comic book movies in the mix. Spider-Man did earn a nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Among the films that did make the cut, Power of the Dog led the way with 12 nominations. West Side Story and Belfast received seven nominations each.

The Oscars will take place on March 27. While you wait, check out our list of the best reviewed movies of 2021.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

America's Army: Proving Grounds, the video game used as a recruitment tool for the United States military, will shut down on March 5 after more than 20 years on various platforms. As first reported by Vice, It will be delisted from Steam and PSN, and online matches will cease to be hosted. Offline and private matches will still be available.

America's Army is a first-person shooter released in 2002 and developed and published by the U.S. Army. The game was explicitly designed to encourage American citizens to join the United States military, and represented the United States' government's first major use of video games as a recruitment tool, as well as being a free-to-play game long before such a term became standard practice in the video game industry.

America's Army released in three major iterations throughout the years, updating content and gameplay for an audience of 20 million players. Proving Ground was the latest version, released in 2013.

"The free-to-play America’s Army PC Game represented the first large-scale use of game technology by the U.S. government as a platform for strategic communication and recruitment, and the first use of game technology in support of U.S. Army recruiting," a forum post announcing the shutdown said. "Three mainline titles and more than 20 million AA players later, the series’ original purpose continued. There have been over 30 million objectives completed, 180 million successful missions accomplished, 250 million teammates assisted, and many more in-game achievements attained in AA:PG alone."

The America's Army team said it will "shift our focus to other new and innovative ways to assist the Army with comms and recruitment," and promised "future announcements" for the series, suggesting it will return in some fashion.

Released in a time when support for the United States military was at an all-time high in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, America's Army quickly became a popular attraction, reaching nine million total players by 2007. As a first-person shooter, it resembled Counter-Strike or Rainbow Six's militaristic themes, but also included mechanics that reflected the real-world.

Its status as a recruitment tool made it controversial, particularly among those who opposed the Iraq War. It was a common sight at game events in the early-to-mid 2000s, with recruitment officers on hand to demo it for interested players. In 2007, Iraq War veterans protested an America's Army showing while chanting, "War is not a game."

Twenty years after release, public support for the military is actually waning, according to a 2021 survey by the Ronald Reagan Institute. In the years since America's Army: Proving Ground has launched, the military has found new, often controversial ways to recruit young adults and engender a familiarity with the military from a young age, such as Twitch streams and official esports teams.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.