Callisto Protocol director Glen has addressed his tweet where he proudly celebrated his team crunching towards the finish line on The Callisto Protocol. The director now says it was his fault for putting the team through crunch.

In September, Schofield in a now-deleted Tweet said he was proud of his team working "6-7 days a week" and after hours in order to finish The Callisto Protocol, a new survival horror game from the studio.

"The truth is, I messed up," Schofield says in an interview with Inverse. "We're a small-ish team and we were so good about it through the entire development, but at the end I messed up and we worked more than we should have. That one got away from us," Schofield admits.

The director also says that the backlash that followed his September tweet was "educational' and that he hopes it will serve as a "catalyst for change overall."

Much has been written about the practice of crunch in the video game industry. It is typically defined as when developers are asked to work overtime, in excess, for a concentrated period of time. While previously looked at by some in the industry as a rite of passage, the practice has come under intense scrutiny and is said to be a reason for why the video game industry has such a high-turnover rate among employees.

Schofield promises that crunch is "not a thing that happens in our next project or any future project."

The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor of sorts to Dead Space, which Scofield also created. It is set to be released on December 2 and you can read our hands-on preview of the survival horror game on IGN.

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

BioWare has confirmed the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf team has completed its Alpha milestone, meaning that, while there’s still a lot of work and polish to go, the upcoming RPG is now playable from start to finish.

In a post on the Electronic Arts website, General Manager Gary McKay explained that this milestone means the studio is now free to iterate on this playable version of Dreadwolf and is focusing its efforts on visual fidelity and iterating on gameplay features in place.

The team is also using the playable build to assess the game’s narrative cohesion, player progression, and the relationships the main character will build with others in the Dragon Age world.

Alongside all of this, McKay says the BioWare team hopes to be more communicative in the coming months now that the game has taken on a definitive shape.

“The Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done,” McKay says. “We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.”

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was first announced in 2018, but wasn’t publicly given a title until earlier this year in June. The title refers to a moniker given to Solas, a party member turned villain from 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, whose story was further explored in that game’s final DLC Trespasser.

More recently, BioWare has been teasing the story through written lore-like codex entries that make reference to long-time figures such as Brother Genitivi, who appeared in Dragon Age: Origins.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077, and covered the entirety of the Dragon Age series back in 2020. It's like, 47 episodes. Listen to it!

BioWare has confirmed the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf team has completed its Alpha milestone, meaning that, while there’s still a lot of work and polish to go, the upcoming RPG is now playable from start to finish.

In a post on the Electronic Arts website, General Manager Gary McKay explained that this milestone means the studio is now free to iterate on this playable version of Dreadwolf and is focusing its efforts on visual fidelity and iterating on gameplay features in place.

The team is also using the playable build to assess the game’s narrative cohesion, player progression, and the relationships the main character will build with others in the Dragon Age world.

Alongside all of this, McKay says the BioWare team hopes to be more communicative in the coming months now that the game has taken on a definitive shape.

“The Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done,” McKay says. “We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.”

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was first announced in 2018, but wasn’t publicly given a title until earlier this year in June. The title refers to a moniker given to Solas, a party member turned villain from 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, whose story was further explored in that game’s final DLC Trespasser.

More recently, BioWare has been teasing the story through written lore-like codex entries that make reference to long-time figures such as Brother Genitivi, who appeared in Dragon Age: Origins.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077, and covered the entirety of the Dragon Age series back in 2020. It's like, 47 episodes. Listen to it!

Apple has confirmed it will be equipping future iPhones in the European Union with a USB-C port in order to comply with the EU’s new mandate that all phones sold in its countries must use a USB-C charger.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said the company will "have to comply" with the new mandate, but made it clear it would do so because it had "no choice" in the matter. He also argued charging bricks had largely solved this problem, adding that users throwing out their original Lightning cables will result in a great deal of waste as devices make the switch.

“Governments, you know, get to do what they're gonna do. Obviously we'll have to comply. We have no choice as we do around the world to comply to local laws,” Joswiak says. “But, you know, we think the approach would've been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive.”

The EU’s new law aims to have electronic devices all using USB-C ports by 2024. The goal is to allow people using multiple devices to reliably charge phones, tablets, handheld gaming consoles like the Switch, and other chargeable tech with universal ports and cables, rather than having to use several across different brands. Apple phones have primarily used Lightning cables since their introduction in 2012.

The iPhone 14 launched last month, and IGN called the Pro version "one of the most substantial refreshes" the line of phones had received over the years. For more on that, check out IGN's review.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077.

Apple has confirmed it will be equipping future iPhones in the European Union with a USB-C port in order to comply with the EU’s new mandate that all phones sold in its countries must use a USB-C charger.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said the company will "have to comply" with the new mandate, but made it clear it would do so because it had "no choice" in the matter. He also argued charging bricks had largely solved this problem, adding that users throwing out their original Lightning cables will result in a great deal of waste as devices make the switch.

“Governments, you know, get to do what they're gonna do. Obviously we'll have to comply. We have no choice as we do around the world to comply to local laws,” Joswiak says. “But, you know, we think the approach would've been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive.”

The EU’s new law aims to have electronic devices all using USB-C ports by 2024. The goal is to allow people using multiple devices to reliably charge phones, tablets, handheld gaming consoles like the Switch, and other chargeable tech with universal ports and cables, rather than having to use several across different brands. Apple phones have primarily used Lightning cables since their introduction in 2012.

The iPhone 14 launched last month, and IGN called the Pro version "one of the most substantial refreshes" the line of phones had received over the years. For more on that, check out IGN's review.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077.

After a lot of back and forth between Xbox and Sony about Call of Duty's availability on other systems should the upcoming Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through, Xbox head Phil Spencer has just tossed another piece of hardware into the mix: the Nintendo Switch.

Per The Verge's Tom Warren, Spencer said today at WSJ Live that not only will Call of Duty be available on PlayStation, but he also wants to bring it to Nintendo's hybrid device.

"Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I'd love to see it on the Switch, I'd love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft."

Minecraft, for context, is available on an absurd number of platforms spanning PC and Mac, iOS and Android and Windows Phone, multiple Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo systems, Apple TV, Raspberry Pi, and more. At the moment, Call of Duty has only made it to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and the planned acquisition has had multiple parties questioning whether PlayStation may eventually be shuffled out of the mix.

Last we heard, Sony's Jim Ryan was alleging that Microsoft had "only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends," calling the proposal "inadequate on many levels."

On Spencer's end, he's repeated that while Call of Duty will come to Game Pass, he still intends for it to come to PlayStation on the same day - but he's stopped short of saying how long that will last, or whether Xbox owners might not get other special perks over other platforms.

Still, the throughline in Spencer's past statements has been that Xbox's goal is to bring games to as many people as possible on as many platforms as possible. He mentioned this again in the second half of his quote at WSJ Live, emphasizing what the goal of the Activision Blizzard deal was for Xbox:

"This opportunity [the acquisition] is really about mobile for us," he said. "When you think about three billion people playing video games, there's only about 200 million households on console."

Activision Blizzard's mobile arm, King, has been pointed out before as the primary reason for the acquisition, including with it major mobile franchises like Candy Crush. It's a big get for a company like Xbox, which currently doesn't have much presence in the mobile space.

The acquisition battle has been especially weird lately as multiple governments begin to investigate the massive acquisition for potential antitrust violations. Xbox recently launched a website to tell the public what it thinks are the benefits of the buyout. Meanwhile, Sony has been slamming the deal, saying it has "major negative implications for gamers" and urging governments to look into it.

As for Call of Duty on the Switch? Nintendo's largely stayed out of the back and forth thus far, though back in 2019 there were rumors of Xbox Live on Switch, and in 2021 more rumors hinted that Xbox Game Pass would similarly show up. While that never materialized, we did get Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest, previously Xbox exclusives. Maybe talks haven't stalled out after all.

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

After a lot of back and forth between Xbox and Sony about Call of Duty's availability on other systems should the upcoming Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through, Xbox head Phil Spencer has just tossed another piece of hardware into the mix: the Nintendo Switch.

Per The Verge's Tom Warren, Spencer said today at WSJ Live that not only will Call of Duty be available on PlayStation, but he also wants to bring it to Nintendo's hybrid device.

"Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I'd love to see it on the Switch, I'd love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft."

Minecraft, for context, is available on an absurd number of platforms spanning PC and Mac, iOS and Android and Windows Phone, multiple Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo systems, Apple TV, Raspberry Pi, and more. At the moment, Call of Duty has only made it to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and the planned acquisition has had multiple parties questioning whether PlayStation may eventually be shuffled out of the mix.

Last we heard, Sony's Jim Ryan was alleging that Microsoft had "only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends," calling the proposal "inadequate on many levels."

On Spencer's end, he's repeated that while Call of Duty will come to Game Pass, he still intends for it to come to PlayStation on the same day - but he's stopped short of saying how long that will last, or whether Xbox owners might not get other special perks over other platforms.

Still, the throughline in Spencer's past statements has been that Xbox's goal is to bring games to as many people as possible on as many platforms as possible. He mentioned this again in the second half of his quote at WSJ Live, emphasizing what the goal of the Activision Blizzard deal was for Xbox:

"This opportunity [the acquisition] is really about mobile for us," he said. "When you think about three billion people playing video games, there's only about 200 million households on console."

Activision Blizzard's mobile arm, King, has been pointed out before as the primary reason for the acquisition, including with it major mobile franchises like Candy Crush. It's a big get for a company like Xbox, which currently doesn't have much presence in the mobile space.

The acquisition battle has been especially weird lately as multiple governments begin to investigate the massive acquisition for potential antitrust violations. Xbox recently launched a website to tell the public what it thinks are the benefits of the buyout. Meanwhile, Sony has been slamming the deal, saying it has "major negative implications for gamers" and urging governments to look into it.

As for Call of Duty on the Switch? Nintendo's largely stayed out of the back and forth thus far, though back in 2019 there were rumors of Xbox Live on Switch, and in 2021 more rumors hinted that Xbox Game Pass would similarly show up. While that never materialized, we did get Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest, previously Xbox exclusives. Maybe talks haven't stalled out after all.

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

Xbox boss Phil Spencer is not impressed by the metaverse as it is currently.

Spencer is at WSJ Live taking questions and was asked about his thoughts on the metaverse. As reported by The Verge's Tom Warren, Spencer was critical of the version of the metaverse that currently exists.

"Today it's a poorly built video game. Building a metaverse that's like a living room is not how I want to spend my time." However, Spencer adds that it's early days and that "this will evolve."

Phil Spencer at WSJ Live on the metaverse:

"Today it's a poorly built video game. Building a metaverse that's like a living room is not how I want to spend my time. What I see in the metaverse world is that we're at the early stage and this will evolve."

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022

The metaverse is the hot buzzword of the year with Meta (formerly Facebook) the company championing it the hardest. However, Spencer's comments about a living room could be a veiled jab at Meta which is positioning the metaverse as a business tool where employees can take meetings in the metaverse.

The definition of a metaverse is still hazy too as Fortnite is considered a metaverse, where folks can bring in multiple characters and properties together into a single shared world.

While there's no indication that Xbox is pursuing a metaverse strategy, we can expect the question to linger as companies like Meta continue to pour resources into the metaverse, despite the recent bad press the company has suffered on growing out this ambition.

Elsewhere in the WSJ Live, Spencer commented on Xbox's seemingly shelved streaming device as well as the future of Call of Duty.

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

Xbox boss Phil Spencer is not impressed by the metaverse as it is currently.

Spencer is at WSJ Live taking questions and was asked about his thoughts on the metaverse. As reported by The Verge's Tom Warren, Spencer was critical of the version of the metaverse that currently exists.

"Today it's a poorly built video game. Building a metaverse that's like a living room is not how I want to spend my time." However, Spencer adds that it's early days and that "this will evolve."

Phil Spencer at WSJ Live on the metaverse:

"Today it's a poorly built video game. Building a metaverse that's like a living room is not how I want to spend my time. What I see in the metaverse world is that we're at the early stage and this will evolve."

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022

The metaverse is the hot buzzword of the year with Meta (formerly Facebook) the company championing it the hardest. However, Spencer's comments about a living room could be a veiled jab at Meta which is positioning the metaverse as a business tool where employees can take meetings in the metaverse.

The definition of a metaverse is still hazy too as Fortnite is considered a metaverse, where folks can bring in multiple characters and properties together into a single shared world.

While there's no indication that Xbox is pursuing a metaverse strategy, we can expect the question to linger as companies like Meta continue to pour resources into the metaverse, despite the recent bad press the company has suffered on growing out this ambition.

Elsewhere in the WSJ Live, Spencer commented on Xbox's seemingly shelved streaming device as well as the future of Call of Duty.

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

Knives Out and Glass Onion director Rian Johnson is taking his murder-mystery talents to the small screen, with a new mystery series called Poker Face. The ten-part show is coming to Peacock on January 26. Peacock released a short teaser trailer today, which you can check out below.

Poker Face stars Natasha Lyonne, who is known for playing Nicky Nichols in Orange Is the New Black, and Nadia Vulvokov in Netflix's Russian Doll. Johnson and Lyonne are credited as executive producers, and Johnson is also listed as the creator, writer, and director of the series.

The two creatives shared a summary of what to expect in the show:

"We invite you to follow Charlie (Lyonne) on a cross-country road trip as she meets a rogue’s gallery of characters and avenges a new injustice each episode, armed with little more than her uncanny ability to detect lies and a genuine appreciation for her fellow humans (and the occasional dog).

Now please leave the overthinking to Rian, who has masterfully crafted ten self-contained puzzles for Charlie to solve. Just jump in the back of her ‘69 Plymouth Barracuda and enjoy the ride."

Fans of Johnson's brand of detective stories have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is coming to theaters in November before hitting Netflix on December 23. We called the movie amazing in our review, saying, "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a bigger, bolder, funnier, angrier sequel that improves on almost every aspect of its predecessor." We just wonder what all of these great murder mystery projects mean for Johnson's Star Wars trilogy, which is apparently still in development.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.