Blizzard is changing up its release plans for Overwatch 2 in a major way. Rather than ship the PvP and PvE portions of the shooter together, Blizzard will decouple the package to get the Overwatch 2 PvP to players sooner rather than later.

In a new update — the first in a series of updates for the sake of more regular communication with fans — Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 PvP will be entering closed alpha testing later today, with a beta planned for late April.

We look forward to building a new era of Overwatch 2 together ✨ pic.twitter.com/CadWUwlIxh

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) March 10, 2022

The closed alpha is only open to Blizzard employees, Overwatch League pros, and a few other select groups. The late April PvP beta, however, will be available for PC players in all regions. While it will be a closed beta, it's a chance for a larger group of testers to play the PvP mode and provide feedback to the developers.

As part of the beta, several of the changes coming to Overwatch 2 will be available for testing. This includes the new hero Sojourn, the new game mode Push, 5v5 Multiplayer, the new Hero reworks, and four new maps.

Players can sign up to request access to the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta 1 on https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/beta/. More players (and hopefully platforms) will get an opportunity to beta test the PvP in upcoming beta phases.

Overwatch 2 is a sequel to 2016's critically-acclaimed competitive shooter. The plans for Overwatch 2 are somewhat arcane as Blizzard announced big changes to the multiplayer which will affect both Overwatch 1 and 2. A new PvE story mode will be exclusive to the sequel.

Overwatch 2 was announced at BlizzCon in 2019, but according to an IGN investigation, the announcement was premature with internal sources saying Overwatch 2 was still years away. The news that Blizzard will split the Overwatch 2 package into PvP and PvE suggests that if the company continued to release the two together the game would take longer to release.

But with PvP becoming a separate release, Blizzard looks to be targeting an earlier launch date for the hero-shooter sequel. The strategy mirrors other recent games like Halo Infinite, which split the main campaign from the free-to-play multiplayer mode.

Whether this means we’ll see Overwatch 2 in 2022 remains up in the air, but for now, many fans will get to go hands-on with the long-awaited shooter sooner than expected.

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

Blizzard is changing up its release plans for Overwatch 2 in a major way. Rather than ship the PvP and PvE portions of the shooter together, Blizzard will decouple the package to get the Overwatch 2 PvP to players sooner rather than later.

In a new update — the first in a series of updates for the sake of more regular communication with fans — Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 PvP will be entering closed alpha testing later today, with a beta planned for late April.

We look forward to building a new era of Overwatch 2 together ✨ pic.twitter.com/CadWUwlIxh

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) March 10, 2022

The closed alpha is only open to Blizzard employees, Overwatch League pros, and a few other select groups. The late April PvP beta, however, will be available for PC players in all regions. While it will be a closed beta, it's a chance for a larger group of testers to play the PvP mode and provide feedback to the developers.

As part of the beta, several of the changes coming to Overwatch 2 will be available for testing. This includes the new hero Sojourn, the new game mode Push, 5v5 Multiplayer, the new Hero reworks, and four new maps.

Players can sign up to request access to the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta 1 on https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/beta/. More players (and hopefully platforms) will get an opportunity to beta test the PvP in upcoming beta phases.

Overwatch 2 is a sequel to 2016's critically-acclaimed competitive shooter. The plans for Overwatch 2 are somewhat arcane as Blizzard announced big changes to the multiplayer which will affect both Overwatch 1 and 2. A new PvE story mode will be exclusive to the sequel.

Overwatch 2 was announced at BlizzCon in 2019, but according to an IGN investigation, the announcement was premature with internal sources saying Overwatch 2 was still years away. The news that Blizzard will split the Overwatch 2 package into PvP and PvE suggests that if the company continued to release the two together the game would take longer to release.

But with PvP becoming a separate release, Blizzard looks to be targeting an earlier launch date for the hero-shooter sequel. The strategy mirrors other recent games like Halo Infinite, which split the main campaign from the free-to-play multiplayer mode.

Whether this means we’ll see Overwatch 2 in 2022 remains up in the air, but for now, many fans will get to go hands-on with the long-awaited shooter sooner than expected.

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

It looks as though Jon Hamm almost played X-Men villain, Mr. Sinister, but never got as far as shooting anything.

During an interview with Yahoo! the former Mad Men star admitted that he was once in talks for the role of Mr. Sinister in a now-defunct sequel to The New Mutants. Director Josh Boone was originally planning to tease Mr. Sinister in a post-credit scene in the original New Mutants, but Hamm admits it never got that far:

“I never shot anything,” he revealed. “I remember having a conversation with people: I'm a huge comic book fan, especially of the X-Men and The New Mutants, so I was excited to be considered. But these conversations happen and then life intervenes.”

Unfortunately, a sequel to The New Mutants never happened, and following the sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney, it looks as though any plans or ideas to turn The New Mutants into a franchise have long been scrapped. After all, it performed poorly at the box office following numerous delays, eventually earning just $49.1 million globally.

Mr. Sinister first appeared in Marvel comic books in 1987, in The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #221 – unveiled as the mysterious employer of the shadowy assassins known as the Marauders.

He began as a 19th-century scientist, born Nathaniel Essex, but his backstory is a tragic one. A biologist obsessed with survival of the fittest and Darwin’s theory of evolution, he begins working with genetics after the death of his child to a genetic disorder.

Eventually, he enters into an alliance with Apocalypse, who subjects him to a painful genetic transformation to turn him into Mr. Sinister – an ageless being with chalk-white skin and the use of telekinetic abilities.

It’s not the first-time 20th Century Fox had planned to introduce Mr. Sinister to the X-Men franchise. After all, he was supposed to make an appearance in Channing Tatum’s Gambit solo film.

“We had a tease of it at the end of Apocalypse,” said Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg. “The Essex Corp is something that you see in a tag at the end of Apocalypse. We had talked about doing something with him, and I won't get into the specifics of it since it's no longer a 20th Century Fox property and now it's part of the MCU. I have no idea what the plan is. But Mister Sinister was going to be part of the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum.”

Again, that never came to be, and it’s unclear what plans, if any, Marvel has for the villain.

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

The sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders will premiere on Netflix in the U.S. (and all other markets where Netflix has the show's rights) on June 10.

Deadline reports that all six episodes of the final season will be available in the Netflix library on June 10, following its U.K. debut on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on February 27. The sixth season premiere of the Cillian Murphy-led show was watched by 3.8 million viewers in the U.K., according to overnight figures, making it the biggest ever launch for the Shelby clan.

The popular period gangster drama will come to an end after its sixth season airs on Netflix, however, showrunner Steven Knight has said there will be a movie to wrap up the story. The film is planned to enter production in 2023, per Variety, and Knight says the project "will mark the end of the road for Peaky Blinders as we know it."

Knight didn't rule out the possibility of there being "shows related" to the Peaky Blinders universe in the future, though he admitted that he would not necessarily supervise any such projects as he suggested that he would rather "pass on the baton" someone else after helming the series since its very first season back in 2013.

Peaky Blinders is centered around the notorious Birmingham gang led by Thomas Shelby, and the Season 5 finale featured a riveting chat between Tommy and Winston Churchill, Polly's resignation from the gang, the murder of Aidan Gillen's Aberama Gold, and the return of Grace, tempting Tommy to join her in death, resulting in a climactic ending ahead of Season 6.

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

When Xbox purchased Activision Blizzard and Sony acquired Bungie to kick off 2022, it kicked off a frenzy of speculation among industry observers. Suddenly, it seemed as if no acquisition was off the table.

In such an environment, Iron Galaxy would seem to be an ideal target for a major platform holder. Aside from being a noted work-for-hire studio, Iron Galaxy has worked on popular franchises such as Uncharted and Killer Instinct, and CEO Adam Boyes has a direct connection to PlayStation.

For now, though, Iron Galaxy seems happy to be independent.

"[S]o many doors are open and I love that," Boyes tells IGN. "And because we're independent, we have the ability to continue that freedom journey and check it all out and see what leans into our values as a company."

Boyes, an energetic game developer who earned notice as Sony Interactive Entertainment's Vice President of Publisher and Developer Relations, likens the current acquisition craze to his childhood in British Columbia, where his father was a lumberjack. In effect, he says, platform holders like Microsoft and Sony are clear-cutting the competition, in the process creating the underbrush that can attract new studios.

Iron Galaxy, he says, is in a good position. "Before we were like, we have to take this or we have to take that," Boyes says. "We have some freedom to work on new stuff. So that part of it's cool."

Originally founded back in 2008, Iron Galaxy found early success sporting games like Bionic Commando and Bioshock 2 before releasing Divekick in 2013. Iron Galaxy expanded to Orlando in 2012, and is set to open its third studio in Nashville in an effort to "fish in other ponds" and attract fresh talent. Iron Galaxy co-founder Dave Lang says the studio was "mousey" in its early days, to which Chelsea Blasko, the third member of Iron Galaxy's executive triumvirate, jokingly takes offense.

Blasko, Lang, and Boyes form a kind of comedy trio, riffing on one another's remarks and speaking in a rapid patter on a variety of topics. Boyes jokes that he's the optimist, Blasko's the realist, and Lang's the pessimist. Boyes joined the group after departing SIE in 2016, in part because he wanted to get back into active development.

While Iron Galaxy has grown considerably in the past decade, its three executives still feel far from corporate. Lang wears his familiar baseball cap and hoodie, and Boyes sports a chin curtain beard. They're relaxed as they discuss Iron Galaxy's recent growth, as well as originaly projects like Rumbleverse, which Boyes says was delayed in part to give it "more content, more modes, more everything...make sure everything is super polished and amazing."

Iron Galaxy has managed to keep busy throughout the pandemic, its next release being Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, set to come to PC later this year. Asked what it was like to work with Naughty Dog, the group talks about how Iron Galaxy's programmers were "envious of how beautiful Naughty Dog's code was."

"The last thing I want to do is speak for Naughty Dog at all. Right? But I think looking at that code, you can see decades of work that are in that code and it's why their games are so different," Lang says.

"It's craftsmanship," Boyes agrees.

"Yeah exactly. It's bespoke game development in a way that most aren't, right? Doesn't make it intrinsically better, it doesn't make it intrinsically worse, but it's Naughty Dog. And I think that's my biggest appreciation for them is their dedication to this approach that they're on is really humbling in a certain way."

Iron Galaxy's other recent projects include the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which it ported to PC, as well as Diablo III and Overwatch for Nintendo Switch. Iron Galaxy's ports and remasters are workmanlike in that they rarely add unique features ⁠— though the Legacy of Thieves Collection did add some interesting DualSense ⁠functionality ⁠— but generally run well. In an industry that likes to promote studios as rock groups, Iron Galaxy are like the roadies, there to do the less glamorous work while other groups get more of the spotlight.

The challenge, Lang says, is "true financial independence." Iron Galaxy is still dependent on finding partners and getting paid on time. That's the price of freedom for a studio like Iron Galaxy, Lang says. But one way or another, the past decade has been good to Iron Galaxy, as evidenced by the studio's Nashville expansion. This has empowered Iron Galaxy to go its own way even amid the ongoing frenzy of acquisitions.

"I think people think about the acquisitions one way and it's actually very much a two-way street. Every time someone gets bought, well Microsoft still needs game pass games. Capcom needs to publish games. Everyone needs games, and now there's fewer and fewer people that can make them, it's actually super valuable to stay independent in a strange way that isn't really... It's counterintuitive, right?" Lang says.

"And so I think we're just enjoying being the prettiest person at the ball right now. We're really beautiful, we're doing what we do, and we're not really feeling any pressure to do anything. It's pretty cool."

Editor's Note: We made a small correction to this article to clarify Iron Galaxy's upcoming work is on Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

When Xbox purchased Activision Blizzard and Sony acquired Bungie to kick off 2022, it kicked off a frenzy of speculation among industry observers. Suddenly, it seemed as if no acquisition was off the table.

In such an environment, Iron Galaxy would seem to be an ideal target for a major platform holder. Aside from being a noted work-for-hire studio, Iron Galaxy has worked on popular franchises such as Uncharted and Killer Instinct, and CEO Adam Boyes has a direct connection to PlayStation.

For now, though, Iron Galaxy seems happy to be independent.

"[S]o many doors are open and I love that," Boyes tells IGN. "And because we're independent, we have the ability to continue that freedom journey and check it all out and see what leans into our values as a company."

Boyes, an energetic game developer who earned notice as Sony Interactive Entertainment's Vice President of Publisher and Developer Relations, likens the current acquisition craze to his childhood in British Columbia, where his father was a lumberjack. In effect, he says, platform holders like Microsoft and Sony are clear-cutting the competition, in the process creating the underbrush that can attract new studios.

Iron Galaxy, he says, is in a good position. "Before we were like, we have to take this or we have to take that," Boyes says. "We have some freedom to work on new stuff. So that part of it's cool."

Originally founded back in 2008, Iron Galaxy found early success sporting games like Bionic Commando and Bioshock 2 before releasing Divekick in 2013. Iron Galaxy expanded to Orlando in 2012, and is set to open its third studio in Nashville in an effort to "fish in other ponds" and attract fresh talent. Iron Galaxy co-founder Dave Lang says the studio was "mousey" in its early days, to which Chelsea Blasko, the third member of Iron Galaxy's executive triumvirate, jokingly takes offense.

Blasko, Lang, and Boyes form a kind of comedy trio, riffing on one another's remarks and speaking in a rapid patter on a variety of topics. Boyes jokes that he's the optimist, Blasko's the realist, and Lang's the pessimist. Boyes joined the group after departing SIE in 2016, in part because he wanted to get back into active development.

While Iron Galaxy has grown considerably in the past decade, its three executives still feel far from corporate. Lang wears his familiar baseball cap and hoodie, and Boyes sports a chin curtain beard. They're relaxed as they discuss Iron Galaxy's recent growth, as well as originaly projects like Rumbleverse, which Boyes says was delayed in part to give it "more content, more modes, more everything...make sure everything is super polished and amazing."

Iron Galaxy has managed to keep busy throughout the pandemic, its next release being Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, set to come to PC later this year. Asked what it was like to work with Naughty Dog, the group talks about how Iron Galaxy's programmers were "envious of how beautiful Naughty Dog's code was."

"The last thing I want to do is speak for Naughty Dog at all. Right? But I think looking at that code, you can see decades of work that are in that code and it's why their games are so different," Lang says.

"It's craftsmanship," Boyes agrees.

"Yeah exactly. It's bespoke game development in a way that most aren't, right? Doesn't make it intrinsically better, it doesn't make it intrinsically worse, but it's Naughty Dog. And I think that's my biggest appreciation for them is their dedication to this approach that they're on is really humbling in a certain way."

Iron Galaxy's other recent projects include the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which it ported to PC, as well as Diablo III and Overwatch for Nintendo Switch. Iron Galaxy's ports and remasters are workmanlike in that they rarely add unique features ⁠— though the Legacy of Thieves Collection did add some interesting DualSense ⁠functionality ⁠— but generally run well. In an industry that likes to promote studios as rock groups, Iron Galaxy are like the roadies, there to do the less glamorous work while other groups get more of the spotlight.

The challenge, Lang says, is "true financial independence." Iron Galaxy is still dependent on finding partners and getting paid on time. That's the price of freedom for a studio like Iron Galaxy, Lang says. But one way or another, the past decade has been good to Iron Galaxy, as evidenced by the studio's Nashville expansion. This has empowered Iron Galaxy to go its own way even amid the ongoing frenzy of acquisitions.

"I think people think about the acquisitions one way and it's actually very much a two-way street. Every time someone gets bought, well Microsoft still needs game pass games. Capcom needs to publish games. Everyone needs games, and now there's fewer and fewer people that can make them, it's actually super valuable to stay independent in a strange way that isn't really... It's counterintuitive, right?" Lang says.

"And so I think we're just enjoying being the prettiest person at the ball right now. We're really beautiful, we're doing what we do, and we're not really feeling any pressure to do anything. It's pretty cool."

Editor's Note: We made a small correction to this article to clarify Iron Galaxy's upcoming work is on Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

A new Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin demo is available now on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, ahead of the game's release on March 18.

This new demo will take players through the first three stages of the opening of the game. In addition, players can also carry over the save data from the demo to the main game.

Stranger of Paradise is a reimagining of the very first Final Fantasy game with an action-RPG twist. The gameplay feels very similar to Dark Souls where players must fight through enemies that will reset if the player is killed.

However, Final Fantasy hallmarks like the job system and familiar locales and characters will return in a big way. According to the new PlayStation Blog post, Stranger of Paradise is around 40 hours, if the player progresses at a steady pace. But given there will be around 30 different jobs players can try, the playtime could be much longer depending on how in-depth the player wants to explore.

Stranger of Paradise will also come with multiple difficulty settings so players at any level can enjoy the game whether that's progress through the story or completing the most difficult challenges.

For more from today's State of Play check out our round-up of everything announced here.

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

A new Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin demo is available now on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, ahead of the game's release on March 18.

This new demo will take players through the first three stages of the opening of the game. In addition, players can also carry over the save data from the demo to the main game.

Stranger of Paradise is a reimagining of the very first Final Fantasy game with an action-RPG twist. The gameplay feels very similar to Dark Souls where players must fight through enemies that will reset if the player is killed.

However, Final Fantasy hallmarks like the job system and familiar locales and characters will return in a big way. According to the new PlayStation Blog post, Stranger of Paradise is around 40 hours, if the player progresses at a steady pace. But given there will be around 30 different jobs players can try, the playtime could be much longer depending on how in-depth the player wants to explore.

Stranger of Paradise will also come with multiple difficulty settings so players at any level can enjoy the game whether that's progress through the story or completing the most difficult challenges.

For more from today's State of Play check out our round-up of everything announced here.

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

Announced at today's State of Play, Returnal will be getting a new free update later this month that includes a new major challenge, as well as the ability to play cooperatively with a friend.

Returnal's Ascension update 3.0 drops on March 22, 2022, and will feature both online campaign co-op as well as a new survival mode called The Tower of Sisyphus.

Per the PlayStation Blog, co-op mode will be accessed through the Chronosis portal near the crash landing, as well as in other select parts of the game. You can either host a co-op game or join another public one, or host or join a private game with a friend. Players will be tethered together to prevent them from getting too far apart and can revive one another if downed. Game progression is tied to the host.

The Tower of Sisyphus is effectively an endless survival game mode where you try to climb as high as you can, with challenges and enemies getting more difficult the higher you get. Each phase in the tower culminates in a battle with Algos that gets progressively harder as well, and scores will be tracked on a leaderboard. The Tower also includes some new narrative content.

Notably, The Tower of Sisyphus cannot be done in co-op (and a few story moments are solo only as well), but the majority of the game seems to be available to play alongside a friend — a welcome assistance given how tough Returnal can be.

In our review, we loved Returnal's gameplay, weapon selection, and punishing difficulty, calling it "an incredible roguelike, and one of Housemarque’s best games to date."

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Announced at today's State of Play, Returnal will be getting a new free update later this month that includes a new major challenge, as well as the ability to play cooperatively with a friend.

Returnal's Ascension update 3.0 drops on March 22, 2022, and will feature both online campaign co-op as well as a new survival mode called The Tower of Sisyphus.

Per the PlayStation Blog, co-op mode will be accessed through the Chronosis portal near the crash landing, as well as in other select parts of the game. You can either host a co-op game or join another public one, or host or join a private game with a friend. Players will be tethered together to prevent them from getting too far apart and can revive one another if downed. Game progression is tied to the host.

The Tower of Sisyphus is effectively an endless survival game mode where you try to climb as high as you can, with challenges and enemies getting more difficult the higher you get. Each phase in the tower culminates in a battle with Algos that gets progressively harder as well, and scores will be tracked on a leaderboard. The Tower also includes some new narrative content.

Notably, The Tower of Sisyphus cannot be done in co-op (and a few story moments are solo only as well), but the majority of the game seems to be available to play alongside a friend — a welcome assistance given how tough Returnal can be.

In our review, we loved Returnal's gameplay, weapon selection, and punishing difficulty, calling it "an incredible roguelike, and one of Housemarque’s best games to date."

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.