Monthly Archives: October 2022
Black Adam Will ‘Absolutely’ Fight Superman In the DCEU Says Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson has promised that his DCEU character Black Adam will "absolutely" fight Superman in an upcoming film.
Speaking to Cinema Blend, Johnson remained confident that Black Adam is marking a new era in the otherwise struggling DC cinematic universe.
When asked if Black Adam and Superman will ever throw fists, Johnson said: "Absolutely. That is the whole point of this. There's a new era in the DC universe that's about to begin."
He went on to claim that DC is now listening to its fans and doing its best to meet their expectations, though warned that "sometime down the road" it may not be able to do so.
Johnson firmly believes that the DCEU - which began with Man of Steel and has since included the original Suicide Squad, Justice League, Wonder Woman, and so on - has been going through a transitory period and will begin again with Black Adam.
"So finally, after many months turned into many years, we ended up with what we ended up at," he said. "And the whole goal and intention now is to this new era, new time. Now let's build out."
It's not the first time the Fast and Furious and Jumanji star has been vocal about the future of the DCEU, as Johnson commented in August that he's "optimistic" that it will one day cross over with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
There perhaps isn't as much optimism about other DCEU properties, however, as DC Comics chief creative officer Jim Lee said in July that Zack Snyder's time at the helm has likely come to an end. He believes the "Snyderverse" - which consists of Justice League, Batman v Superman, and Man of Steel - has concluded, as "there's no plans for additional work on that material."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Valve Job Listing Suggests a New VR Headset Is in Development
Valve appears to be working on a new version of its Valve Index virtual reality headset with camera passthrough and advanced tracking.
As reported by Upload, a job listing on Valve's website revealed its search for software engineers to assist it in "pushing the boundaries of VR experiences".
It continued: "The main scope of this position is to prototype, ship, and support consumer gaming products leveraging visual-inertial tracking (HMD and controllers), camera passthrough, environment understanding, eye tracking, and hand tracking."
While its remained quiet on the VR front since the Index was released in 2019, Valve has since seen success with another hardware pursuit in the Steam Deck. Now that its production issues have resolved, however, Valve appears to be turning its attention back to VR.
Though its Index is still considered one of the best high end VR headsets, the Meta (previously Oculus) Quest 2 has become a strong competitor since it was released in 2020, and Meta is otherwise doubling down on VR in the coming years.
It reportedly plans to release four new VR headsets by 2024 including two that will evolve the technology of the Quest 2 and be specifically focused on gaming. Mark Zuckerberg released footage of the first of these, Project Cambria, back in May, showing off similar features to what Valve is seemingly planning such as camera passthrough and environment understanding.
In our review of the original headset, IGN said: "Valve’s Index is a premium VR set for enthusiasts: those of us who have a powerful PC, the space to set up external sensors to cover a large area, and who want to experience the cutting edge of finger-tracking input devices."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Valve Job Listing Suggests a New VR Headset Is in Development
Valve appears to be working on a new version of its Valve Index virtual reality headset with camera passthrough and advanced tracking.
As reported by Upload, a job listing on Valve's website revealed its search for software engineers to assist it in "pushing the boundaries of VR experiences".
It continued: "The main scope of this position is to prototype, ship, and support consumer gaming products leveraging visual-inertial tracking (HMD and controllers), camera passthrough, environment understanding, eye tracking, and hand tracking."
While its remained quiet on the VR front since the Index was released in 2019, Valve has since seen success with another hardware pursuit in the Steam Deck. Now that its production issues have resolved, however, Valve appears to be turning its attention back to VR.
Though its Index is still considered one of the best high end VR headsets, the Meta (previously Oculus) Quest 2 has become a strong competitor since it was released in 2020, and Meta is otherwise doubling down on VR in the coming years.
It reportedly plans to release four new VR headsets by 2024 including two that will evolve the technology of the Quest 2 and be specifically focused on gaming. Mark Zuckerberg released footage of the first of these, Project Cambria, back in May, showing off similar features to what Valve is seemingly planning such as camera passthrough and environment understanding.
In our review of the original headset, IGN said: "Valve’s Index is a premium VR set for enthusiasts: those of us who have a powerful PC, the space to set up external sensors to cover a large area, and who want to experience the cutting edge of finger-tracking input devices."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Win an Exclusive IGN DXRacer Gaming Chair With IGN Rewards
The DXRacer Craft Pro is an all-new model from the company practically synonymous with gaming chairs, but it's not seeing a wide release until later. However, if you're an IGN Rewards member, you can sign up for your chance to win one of these exclusive IGN edition gaming chairs and sit in style. Stay tuned at dxracer.com and social media channels for when pre-orders begin.
Check out the gallery below for a better look at this extremely limited run of gaming chairs.
The Craft Pro Series focuses on making the gaming chair into a piece of art. Its high-quality material compliments the large canvas and fine embroidery created with high-end industrial machinery. This makes the pattern more stereoscopic, vivid, and complete. Every Craft Pro chair is a masterpiece.
The sweepstakes runs from now until November 11, and you can enter for your chance to win by signing up for an IGN membership and then checking the IGN rewards page.
Make sure to follow DXRacer on social media for updates on upcoming products and more:
Win an Exclusive IGN DXRacer Gaming Chair With IGN Rewards
The DXRacer Craft Pro is an all-new model from the company practically synonymous with gaming chairs, but it's not seeing a wide release until later. However, if you're an IGN Rewards member, you can sign up for your chance to win one of these exclusive IGN edition gaming chairs and sit in style. Stay tuned at dxracer.com and social media channels for when pre-orders begin.
Check out the gallery below for a better look at this extremely limited run of gaming chairs.
The Craft Pro Series focuses on making the gaming chair into a piece of art. Its high-quality material compliments the large canvas and fine embroidery created with high-end industrial machinery. This makes the pattern more stereoscopic, vivid, and complete. Every Craft Pro chair is a masterpiece.
The sweepstakes runs from now until November 11, and you can enter for your chance to win by signing up for an IGN membership and then checking the IGN rewards page.
Make sure to follow DXRacer on social media for updates on upcoming products and more:
How PlayStation Studios Malaysia is Playing a Growing Role in Sony’s Most Important Franchises
Founded in 2020, PlayStation Studios Malaysia is the newest first-party PlayStation studio to be created from the ground up by Sony. Until recently, very little has been known about the projects this studio is working on – but now we know the answer. They’re working on everything.
Speaking during a panel at Level Up KL in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, PlayStation Studios Malaysia head Hasnul Hadi Samsudin and Neil Ingram from PlayStation’s San Diego-based Visual Arts team explained how Sony’s newest internal startup studio has been involved in working on first-party games like The Last of Us Part I and MLB The Show 2022, as well as playing a role in many other first-party titles.
The new Malaysia studio was founded in Kuala Lumpur as a support studio, working closely with PlayStation’s Creative Arts team based in San Diego, and more specifically the Visual Arts team within it. The studio has 77 employees working on creating character models and other visual assets as well as motion capture and more.
“So far it’s a very small contribution,” said Samsudin when asked what work his studio carried out on MLB The Show and The Last of Us. “When we started, the team was very small. A lot of what we are doing is asset development for the games, especially for MLB. For The Last of Us Part I, there was this thing called Death Hints, which are tips that tell the player what to do in certain situations, and (Sony’s) animation team were supposed to be working on them but there was a lot to be done, so that came to us. But now we have a full-fledged art team, so we can do environment modeling, concept art, and we have a brilliant animation team that is working on some games that we can’t talk about right now.”
The Visual Arts team in San Diego also touches every first-party game that comes out of PlayStation, as well as other Sony projects such as aiding CG animation tech for Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots series. Ingram said his team “works on 15 to 25 games at any one time”.
Adding the new Malaysia studio to this equation helps Sony to manage what it calls “global production”, whereby each game is made with the help of hands across the globe. As Ingram put it, “It’s one planet making games”.
“You’re selling these amazing experiences to a global market, so you have to make them in a global market,” Ingram continued.
He cited the VFX and mobile phone industries among others as leading the way in this thinking, stating that the game industry has lagged behind.
Malaysia's rapid growth as a gaming hub
Elsewhere at Level Up KL, PlayStation’s Malaysia studio held a talk on motion capture, where they detailed some of their processes in that field.
Over the past decade or so, Malaysia has become a prime location for videogame development support. Studios such as Lemon Sky Studios, Passion Republic, Streamline Studios and many more have built up impressive technical knowhow by working with major Western and Japanese studios on series from Street Fighter to Final Fantasy to Destiny to Dark Souls.
The talent pool is growing rapidly, with Kuala Lumpur a city that boasts a high standard of living at a low cost for a rich mix of nationalities and cultures. Along with PlayStation, Bandai Namco, Codemasters and Larian Studios are among the overseas developers to launch studios in Malaysia over the past few years.
Ingram explained how he and Samsudin toured Malaysia as they considered the Southeast Asian country as the location for their new studio. The large local talent pool and market potential were deciding reasons in founding the new studio there.
“There’s nothing that can be done in our world of AAA games that can’t be done here in Malaysia,” said Ingram. “It’s not just a case of them being able to do the work efficiently, but also the local development community’s ambition to grow.”
Samsudin has assembled his team of 77 employees under remote-work conditions due to the pandemic, but just this week they have finally begun to work at their new office space. Samsudin shared photos of the beautifully designed office on his personal Twitter feed, sparking a wave of interest online.
Meanwhile, at Level Up KL, the PlayStation booth was decorated with a rendition of the trademark circle, cross, square and triangle logo blended with traditional Malaysian cuisine, lending a distinct local flavor to their operation.
When asked by IGN Japan what benefit players stand to gain from PlayStation’s global production approach and his Kuala Lumpur team’s effort specifically, Samsudin replied, “I think the biggest benefit is that PlayStation is all about experiences. So we want to bring the best quality so that the end user feels that they are playing a PlayStation game and that this is what quality means.
"There is a level of expectation that we all have and we all strive for, and at the end of the day, the players will smile and say ‘This is great’. It doesn’t matter where it came from – it would be nice for the players to know that it came from all these great people here, but I hope they will just enjoy the games.”
Photo Credit: Hasnul Hadi
Daniel Robson is the editor of IGN Japan.
How PlayStation Studios Malaysia is Playing a Growing Role in Sony’s Most Important Franchises
Founded in 2020, PlayStation Studios Malaysia is the newest first-party PlayStation studio to be created from the ground up by Sony. Until recently, very little has been known about the projects this studio is working on – but now we know the answer. They’re working on everything.
Speaking during a panel at Level Up KL in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, PlayStation Studios Malaysia head Hasnul Hadi Samsudin and Neil Ingram from PlayStation’s San Diego-based Visual Arts team explained how Sony’s newest internal startup studio has been involved in working on first-party games like The Last of Us Part I and MLB The Show 2022, as well as playing a role in many other first-party titles.
The new Malaysia studio was founded in Kuala Lumpur as a support studio, working closely with PlayStation’s Creative Arts team based in San Diego, and more specifically the Visual Arts team within it. The studio has 77 employees working on creating character models and other visual assets as well as motion capture and more.
“So far it’s a very small contribution,” said Samsudin when asked what work his studio carried out on MLB The Show and The Last of Us. “When we started, the team was very small. A lot of what we are doing is asset development for the games, especially for MLB. For The Last of Us Part I, there was this thing called Death Hints, which are tips that tell the player what to do in certain situations, and (Sony’s) animation team were supposed to be working on them but there was a lot to be done, so that came to us. But now we have a full-fledged art team, so we can do environment modeling, concept art, and we have a brilliant animation team that is working on some games that we can’t talk about right now.”
The Visual Arts team in San Diego also touches every first-party game that comes out of PlayStation, as well as other Sony projects such as aiding CG animation tech for Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots series. Ingram said his team “works on 15 to 25 games at any one time”.
Adding the new Malaysia studio to this equation helps Sony to manage what it calls “global production”, whereby each game is made with the help of hands across the globe. As Ingram put it, “It’s one planet making games”.
“You’re selling these amazing experiences to a global market, so you have to make them in a global market,” Ingram continued.
He cited the VFX and mobile phone industries among others as leading the way in this thinking, stating that the game industry has lagged behind.
Malaysia's rapid growth as a gaming hub
Elsewhere at Level Up KL, PlayStation’s Malaysia studio held a talk on motion capture, where they detailed some of their processes in that field.
Over the past decade or so, Malaysia has become a prime location for videogame development support. Studios such as Lemon Sky Studios, Passion Republic, Streamline Studios and many more have built up impressive technical knowhow by working with major Western and Japanese studios on series from Street Fighter to Final Fantasy to Destiny to Dark Souls.
The talent pool is growing rapidly, with Kuala Lumpur a city that boasts a high standard of living at a low cost for a rich mix of nationalities and cultures. Along with PlayStation, Bandai Namco, Codemasters and Larian Studios are among the overseas developers to launch studios in Malaysia over the past few years.
Ingram explained how he and Samsudin toured Malaysia as they considered the Southeast Asian country as the location for their new studio. The large local talent pool and market potential were deciding reasons in founding the new studio there.
“There’s nothing that can be done in our world of AAA games that can’t be done here in Malaysia,” said Ingram. “It’s not just a case of them being able to do the work efficiently, but also the local development community’s ambition to grow.”
Samsudin has assembled his team of 77 employees under remote-work conditions due to the pandemic, but just this week they have finally begun to work at their new office space. Samsudin shared photos of the beautifully designed office on his personal Twitter feed, sparking a wave of interest online.
Meanwhile, at Level Up KL, the PlayStation booth was decorated with a rendition of the trademark circle, cross, square and triangle logo blended with traditional Malaysian cuisine, lending a distinct local flavor to their operation.
When asked by IGN Japan what benefit players stand to gain from PlayStation’s global production approach and his Kuala Lumpur team’s effort specifically, Samsudin replied, “I think the biggest benefit is that PlayStation is all about experiences. So we want to bring the best quality so that the end user feels that they are playing a PlayStation game and that this is what quality means.
"There is a level of expectation that we all have and we all strive for, and at the end of the day, the players will smile and say ‘This is great’. It doesn’t matter where it came from – it would be nice for the players to know that it came from all these great people here, but I hope they will just enjoy the games.”
Photo Credit: Hasnul Hadi
Daniel Robson is the editor of IGN Japan.
Sony Paid $3.5 Million to Put Ark: Survival Evolved on PlayStation Plus
Sony paid $3.5 million to put Ark: Survival Evolved on PlayStation Plus for one month, while Microsoft paid $2.5 million to put it on Xbox Game Pass for six months.
As spotted by Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach on Twitter (below), a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Snail Games USA (the parent company of Ark developer Studio Wildcard) revealed the values paid by each company to feature the game in their "free games" line-up.
Ark appeared on PlayStation Plus in March 2022 and was therefore free for subscribers in the five week period ranging from March 1 to April 4, a deal that Sony paid $3.5 million for.
Sony paid $3.5 million to make ARK: Survival Evolved a March PS Plus game.
— AmericanTruckSongs8 (@ethangach) October 11, 2022
Microsoft paid $2.5 million to keep it on Game Pass for the first half of this year, and $2.3 million to bring ARK 2 to the service when it launches.
Via September SEC filing. https://t.co/dl1VZOpXE8 pic.twitter.com/RSouPcAfyZ
Neither Sony or the developers involved have previously revealed how much these deals go through for, and while this could be a complete outlier and not representative of a standard agreement, its the first insight into the financial backend of PlayStation Plus that we've had since it began in 2010.
Microsoft, on the other hand, had reached an agreement to feature Ark on Xbox Game Pass for three years starting in 2019. Extending the deal later, the filing revealed that it paid the $2.5 million to feature Ark on Xbox Game Pass until June 30, 2022.
Looking forward, Microsoft also paid $2.3 million to guarantee that Ark 2 would be featured on Xbox Game Pass for three years after it's released next year.
Similar to Sony's PlayStation Plus deals, little is known about Microsoft's agreements with developers for Xbox Game Pass, meaning this is also one of the first real insights we've had into how the process works.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Sony Paid $3.5 Million to Put Ark: Survival Evolved on PlayStation Plus
Sony paid $3.5 million to put Ark: Survival Evolved on PlayStation Plus for one month, while Microsoft paid $2.5 million to put it on Xbox Game Pass for six months.
As spotted by Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach on Twitter (below), a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Snail Games USA (the parent company of Ark developer Studio Wildcard) revealed the values paid by each company to feature the game in their "free games" line-up.
Ark appeared on PlayStation Plus in March 2022 and was therefore free for subscribers in the five week period ranging from March 1 to April 4, a deal that Sony paid $3.5 million for.
Sony paid $3.5 million to make ARK: Survival Evolved a March PS Plus game.
— AmericanTruckSongs8 (@ethangach) October 11, 2022
Microsoft paid $2.5 million to keep it on Game Pass for the first half of this year, and $2.3 million to bring ARK 2 to the service when it launches.
Via September SEC filing. https://t.co/dl1VZOpXE8 pic.twitter.com/RSouPcAfyZ
Neither Sony or the developers involved have previously revealed how much these deals go through for, and while this could be a complete outlier and not representative of a standard agreement, its the first insight into the financial backend of PlayStation Plus that we've had since it began in 2010.
Microsoft, on the other hand, had reached an agreement to feature Ark on Xbox Game Pass for three years starting in 2019. Extending the deal later, the filing revealed that it paid the $2.5 million to feature Ark on Xbox Game Pass until June 30, 2022.
Looking forward, Microsoft also paid $2.3 million to guarantee that Ark 2 would be featured on Xbox Game Pass for three years after it's released next year.
Similar to Sony's PlayStation Plus deals, little is known about Microsoft's agreements with developers for Xbox Game Pass, meaning this is also one of the first real insights we've had into how the process works.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Personal Details Were Obtained In 2K Hack Last Month, ‘No Indication’ of Financial Data
Publisher 2K has confirmed that players' personal information was obtained in the hack that affected its support section last month, though there is "no indication" that financial data was taken.
An update on 2K's support website revealed that details including users' email addresses, gamertags, and console details were stolen and put up for sale. "There is no indication that any of your financial information or password(s) held on our system were compromised," it added.
2K has been emailing users affected by the hack, which itself saw emails sent from its official support section that contained malicious links asking for personal information. The publisher immediately shut down its support website and asked users not to open these emails but, as they were from the official account and not just a spoof account spending fake emails, some users did.
— 2K Support (@2KSupport) September 23, 2022
Though it doesn't believe the hack accessed information from linked accounts like PlayStation or Xbox profiles, 2K still warned users to "look out for suspicious activity across your accounts and be vigilant for unauthorized third parties trying to leverage the incident to harm you."
All users affected have been contacted by 2K already, with the publisher confirming that its emails are once again secure. The same support website has suggestions on what to do if the malicious email was accessed. It recommended at the time that users immediately change passwords saved in web browsers (like Chrome auto-fill), install anti-virus software, enable multi-factor authentication where possible, and check that no email account forwarding settings have been changed.
2K wasn't the only major video game company that suffered a hack in September, as Rockstar Games had around 90 videos of Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay leaked.
Uber was also victim to a hack, allegedly by the same individual that targeted Rockstar, and the company is now working with the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the issue. Blizzard also suffered from a breach as more than 40 minutes of Diablo 4 gameplay appeared online.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.