PUBG creator Brendan Greene has revealed his next game – a blockchain-powered metaverse title.

During an interview with Hit Points, the 45-year-old game developer revealed that Artemis, his next game, will feature NFTs, the metaverse, and blockchain.

“[Artemis] will be a platform that we participate in the maintenance of, maybe,” he explained. “But it’s something that anyone can plug into, and everyone can host a bit of themselves.”

Artemis will reportedly let players make anything they like as part of a large, open world. But now, it looks as though the project will incorporate blockchain.

"I was fascinated with this idea of digital spaces, places where there are no real rules but a set of systems that you can use,” explained Greene. “That fascinated me, and still does. I never considered just walking away.”

Blockchain is often pitched as a way for players to contribute to a game’s development, but many developers have come out against the technology with the likes of Minecraft outright banning the use of NFTs or blockchain.

Greene insists that Artemis is not about making money. “The only way this exists is if it’s made for everyone, and it’s not made for money,” he said. However, he also confirmed that players will be able to “extract value” from their creations by selling in-game items to other players.

Despite the skepticism, Greene says he’ll continue regardless.

“I’m just going to do what I’m going to do,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter if it’s called the metaverse. I don’t care what people want to call it.”

Of course, Greene won’t be the first developer to get into the metaverse. Bandai Namco recently revealed it’s spent a massive $130 million on an upcoming metaverse project. Not to mention Epic Games and LEGO working together on a child-safe metaverse project.

Quite how the Artemis metaverse will take shape remains to be seen. But the addition of NFTs and blockchain sure isn’t going to win over the critics.

Want to read more about the metaverse? Find out what the metaverse means for gamers as well as what the Epic Games metaverse is all about.

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

Netflix’s Grendel series has been canceled but could be picked up elsewhere.

According to Deadline, the Dark Horse comic book adaptation, about a masked vigilante named Grendel, has been canned by the online streaming service.

Announced back in 2021, Grendel had been picked up by Netflix for an eight-episode series, but now the project has been pulled, despite the fact that it was midway through production.

“This business, man,” said comic book writer Jay Faerber via Twitter. “They were in the middle of shooting their first season and Netflix just... changed their minds. Nothing had even aired yet.”

This business, man... They were in the middle of shooting their first season and Netflix just... changed their minds. Nothing had even aired yet. https://t.co/KZqJfNO7Ax

— Jay Faerber (@JayFaerber) September 27, 2022

Grendel stars Abubakr Ali in the leading role – the first male Muslim actor to portray a series lead in a comic book adaptation. It tells the story of Hunter Rose (Ali), a gifted fencer, writer, and assassin, who’s looking to avenge the death of a lost love. He goes to war with the entire New York criminal underworld, only to realize… why beat them when you can join them?

The series was secured by Netflix as part of its first look series with Dark Horse.

However, this isn’t necessarily the end of the road for Grendel. Now that Netflix has pulled the plug on the project, producers are free to shop the series elsewhere, so we could eventually find that the masked vigilante has simply found a different home.

Additionally, the decision to cancel Grendel apparently came after the bulk of filming was already complete, so streamers and networks might be keen to pick up a series with only minimal work left to do.

Despite Grendel’s cancellation, the relationship between Dark Horse and Netflix remains strong. After all, they recently renewed The Umbrella Academy for a fourth season – another Dark Hose adaptation brought to the screen by Netflix.

Will Grendel ever see the light of day? For now, we’ll have to wait and see.

Want to read more about Netflix? Check out the new Netflix game studio as well as everything announced at Netflix’s Tudum 2022.

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

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the longest Phase 4 movie… by far.

According to a new listing at Cineplex, the upcoming Marvel movie clocks in at 2 hours 41 minutes – that makes it the longest Phase 4 movie as well as the longest non-Avengers film in the whole MCU.

The record is currently held by Eternals which comes in at 2 hours and 36 minutes… but the Black Panther sequel beats it by a full five minutes.

Although Marvel is yet to confirm the official runtime, it does make sense.

For one thing, the death of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman leaves a lot to clear up in the film’s opening act… and with plenty of new story in the recent Wakanda Forever teaser trailer, it looks like there’s plenty of justification for a pretty hefty runtime.

“It just felt like it was much too soon to recast,” said Marvel boss, Kevin Feige. “Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window. And we had talked about how, as extraordinary and fantastical as our characters and stories are, there’s a relatable and human element to everything we do. The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And Ryan [Coogler] poured that into the story.”

Director Ryan Coogler has revealed that Wakanda Forever will tackle the passing of the original Black Panther and the theme of moving on in the face of insurmountable odds.

“The conversations were entirely about, yes, ‘What do we do next?’” Feige said. “And how could the legacy of Chadwick – and what he had done to help Wakanda and the Black Panther become these incredible, aspirational, iconic ideas – continue? That’s what it was all about.”

These are obviously big questions, that won’t be wrapped up with a limited runtime. Not to mention the fact that Wakanda Forever won’t have one lead character.

Instead, the film will focus on a larger cast, including Letitia Wright's Shuri, Angela Bassett's Queen Ramonda, Winston Duke's M'Baku, and Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to debut on November 11, 2022.

Want to read more about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? Check out the major Namor theory that’s been confirmed, as well as how the original pitch made it through to the final film.

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

Deadpool will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe on September 6, 2024, and star Ryan Reynolds is teasing a long-awaited meeting with his old friend Wolverine.

In a surprise teaser posted on Ryan Reynold's personal Twitter account, the actor is shown seated on a sofa telling fans he was "extremely sad" about missing D23 where there was no Deadpool 3 announcement.

Reynolds then shares a workout montage before talking about a potential story idea the writers had for Deadpool 3. He then asks Hugh Jackman if he wants to play Wolverine again, to which Jackman appears briefly and says "sure."

Click over to see our biggest burning questions about Deadpool 3 and Wolverine's return.

Hard keeping my mouth sewn shut about this one. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/OdV7JmAkEu

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) September 27, 2022

Jackman last played Wolverine in 2017's Logan directed by James Mangold. At the time, Jackman publicly stated Logan would be his last film as Wolverine. Even after Disney officialy acquired the rights to the X-Men again, Jackman talked about his excitement for new actors to pick up the claws.

However, a Jackman and Reynolds team-up has also been something both actors have wanted for a long time. Especially as a way to make up for their first meeting in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And if Reynolds could reboot Deadpool, why not reboot his relationship with Jackman's Wolverine too?

The pair did briefly appear together in the credits of Deadpool 2, though that was more of a fun joke than proper crossover.

The idea that Jackman could reprise the role of Wolverine is deeply exciting. Jackman has played Wolverine across nine films, and his sendoff in Logan was as close to perfect as can be. But to see Jackman and Reynolds together at last (again) will be a second closure for fans.

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

Team Ninja says that it is open to outsourcing its own IP, such as Ninja Gaiden, to other studios as long as the game being developed is able to exceed fan expectations.

In an interview with VGC, Team Ninja's Fumihiko Yasuda - director of upcoming Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - said, “If we were to theoretically work with another company on a new Ninja Gaiden title, we would need to make sure that it would be a title that the fans would really enjoy and exceed their expectations.”

Yasuda explained that even though there is a big fanbase for existing IP like Ninja Gaiden, Team Ninja needs to balance its resources within the studio, including seeing what kind of skills members of the development team currently have. From there, they would decide if those skills could fit an existing IP, or perhaps an entirely new one.

He is also open to handing off a potential new Ninja Gaiden game to a team of younger developers within Team Ninja. However, either decision wouldn’t be made lightly. “It’s not just a matter of, ‘hey, let’s just go do this.’ All the pieces would need to fit, and it would need to be the right team…either a younger team internally or another company that would really need to fit the Ninja Gaiden pedigree,” Yasuda explained.

Team Ninja is understandably cautious about such an idea. The last time Ninja Gaiden was outsourced - 2014's Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, made by Californian studio Spark Unlimited - the series was tarnished with poor reviews, including a 5.6 from IGN.

Ninja Gaiden’s latest entry was the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection back in June 2021. Right now, Team Ninja is focusing on Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which will arrive on Xbox Game Pass next year at launch, and Rise of the Ronin, an exclusive for PlayStation 5.

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

Intel has announced its latest 13th Gen Raptor Lake desktop processors as part of its Intel Vision event.

Like its predecessor, the 12th generation Alder Lake processors, the Raptor Lake uses Intel's hybrid architecture, which mixes performance (P-Cores) and efficiency (E-Cores) x86 cores and uses the new Z790 chipset. Intel says that the Raptor Lake CPUs offer more hybrid cores than the previous generation, with the flagship CPU featuring 24 cores (8 performance + 16 efficiency cores).

Leading the 13th generation line is the $589 i9-13900K, offering 24 processor cores (8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores), 32 processor threads, and clock speeds up to 5.8GHz. As per the other Intel CPUs, the chips with the "K" at the end include Intel UHD graphics, with the other three CPUs offering the integrated graphics include the $409 i7-13700K and the more affordable $319 i5-13600K processor.

Another distinction of the Raptor Lake is these new processors support DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. Mandy Mock, Vice President and GM of Desktop, Workstation, and Channel Group at Intel, notes that the CPU maker anticipates DDR4 RAM will "coexist in the market through the end of 2024."

Raptor Lake offering support for both is an important distinction to note when you factor in that AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series only supports the newer, more expensive DDR5 RAM.

The Raptor Lake processors, along with the Z790 motherboards, will be available starting October 20.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Microsoft has unveiled a new Mineral Camo Special Edition Xbox wireless controller, featuring a camouflage pattern of ocean tones encompassing different shades of blue and purple. It's available to order now at several retailers (see it at Amazon).

The official Xbox announcement identifies the Mineral Camo controller as the fourth addition to the camo series alongside the Night Ops Camo, Arctic Camo, and Daystrike Camo controllers. The newest iteration has patches of mineral blue, aqua, and dark purple, inspired by geode crystals, with a textured grip on the triggers, bumpers, and back case to enhance comfort and make the controller easier to hold.

The Mineral Camo controller has many of the same features as the Daystrike Camo release, including a hybrid D-pad for more precise input in all eight directions, and a Share button to send screenshots and video out into the world. It also includes a 3.5mm audio jack and wireless technology allowing players to fully immerse themselves into gaming on consoles, PC, mobile phones, and tablets.

The latest Xbox wireless camo controller is priced at $69.99 and is available to purchase right now from Amazon and the Microsoft Store. And if you're looking to stock up on your accessories, there's a matching Mineral Camo Razer Universal Quick Charging Stand for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One controllers. That's currently up for order on the Microsoft Store in the US and Razer in all other markets, for $49.99.

Microsoft has released several different versions of its new Xbox wireless controller since the Series consoles launched in November 2020, including a series of one-colour controllers and limited editions such as the 20th Anniversary version, the shiny blue Aqua Shift, and an extremely rare pair of furry Sonic the Hedgehog controllers that Microsoft awarded to a single competition winner.

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

Overwatch’s Commercial Leader and Vice President, Jon Spector, has said that he is interested in exploring brand crossovers similar to those seen in Fortnite with Overwatch 2.

Talking to Game Informer, Spector said: "I'm a big anime nerd myself. I think it's super cool when I see Naruto appear in Fortnite. I don't even play Fortnite, but that's awesome. And as we look at the Overwatch 2 space, those are things that we're interested in exploring. If and when we do that, one of our key values is to do it in a way that feels like a great fit for the Overwatch franchise."

Spector added that Blizzard is less interested in displaying adverts in Overwatch 2 in order to fund its transition to free-to-play. The main generator of revenue will be premium-priced battle passes and cosmetics, which in Season 1 of Overwatch 2 will be cyberpunk-themed.

It’s not difficult to imagine Overwatch 2 launching seasons of content themed around other brands. Overwatch has previously crossed over with other Blizzard games for special skins, such as Windowmaker’s Nova and Kerrigan Legendary skins, which reimagine the sniper as StarCraft 2 characters. Brand crossovers could potentially do a similar thing, as it’s hard to imagine Overwatch straight-up putting anime and comic book characters in the game. But who knows what Blizzard are thinking. Afterall, none of us ever expected to be able to do a kamehameha in Fortnite.

For more from Overwatch 2, check out how Blizzard put together the new Portugal map, the origin story for new character Kiriko, and the news that lead hero designer Geoff Goodman has left the team.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

The Steam Deck is just over seven months old now, and Valve’s device has evolved considerably since our review criticized its compatibility issues and other problems. A host of updates have addressed everything from the fan curve to the system’s refresh rate, and Valve has been successful in getting more and more units into the hands of fans. In that respect, the Steam Deck has been very much a success.

Still, fans have plenty of questions about the device, including the status of the missing dock – briefly spotted at the recent Tokyo Game Show – and Valve’s plans for the next iteration of the Steam Deck. To get some insight on these topics and more, we caught up with Steam Deck UX designer Lawrence Yang and business development executive Erik Peterson at Tokyo Game Show, where we peppered them with questions about battery life, official support for dual-booting Windows, the possibility of a slimmer Steam Deck, and more.

Check out our full interview below!

IGN: It's been about seven months since the Steam Deck was originally released. I'm curious, what do you know now that you didn't know back in February?

Erik Peterson: I would say that one of the things that we've learned is just the way that people use it. We had some ideas about how we thought people might enjoy playing with it. At least in my mind, I was thinking, "It's portable. People are going to be playing it, of course, on an airplane or on a train or a bus or whatever." But, at least when we were playing it at home when we first started getting our test units, just having the ability to play something on your couch, or around the house, or whatever... getting away from your PC that you've been spending all day on during the pandemic and being able to just enjoy it in your own way.

In my case, I play it when my wife's maybe watching TV and I'm hanging out on the couch with her and playing a game. Or maybe I put it down for a second, make some dinner, come back, grab it. I think we're hearing similar stories from users all over the world.

Lawrence Yang: I'm a dad, I have two young kids, and it used to be that I'd have to guiltily hide in my office and play games in the dark. But now I can actually play a game and I hear my son crying, I can run over and change his diaper and then finish, and then play my game again while they're watching Sesame Street or whatever. It's been great. I can still have gaming in my life as a parent.

Erik Peterson: Another thing that I've noticed personally, and I've heard other people online talk about it, is just exploring your Steam library in a different way: types of games you play; when you play them. For me, personally, it's kind of enabled me to go back and explore games that I'd intended to play or wanted to play for a long time, or in a different style that I might not want to play on my desktop PC, and to really dive into these and feel like I'm giving them a fresh try.

IGN: There's been a lot of discussion about the delays for the Steam Deck Docking Station, and people have been eagerly anticipating it. Valve has said that it's been a problem with parts and that kind of thing. I'm just wondering, what kind of challenges have you run into in developing the dock?

Lawrence Yang: A lot of the same supply chain issues that we ran into with the [Steam Deck]. The Deck is actually in a much better spot now; we're able to produce them at a much faster clip. The dock is being manufactured at a different place, it has different components, and it has its own supply issues and constraints that we've had to deal with. We're overcoming them, and so we are going to hopefully announce something soon. So watch out for that.

There's a lot of stuff that we wanted to do to make sure that it works with as many peripherals as possible. What's great is any work that we do for the [Steam Deck dock] works on every dock – so every USB dock is benefiting from all of the work that we do on SteamOS.

IGN: We're here in Japan right now, and I'm curious, what has been the response from Japanese gamers to the Steam Deck?

Erik Peterson: It's been incredibly positive. One of the first things that we've been hearing in talking to people getting in their hands for the first time is just how surprised by how light it is. I think a lot of people maybe had a preconceived notion of it being this big, heavy, hard-to-handle thing, and they’ve really responded positively in terms of how light it is, how comfortable it is, and the types of games that you play on it. We've been watching people boot up various games on the device, and you can see them being surprised that they can play Elden Ring and other high-spec, AAA games on it. That's been a really pleasant surprise and it’s resulted in good feedback.

Lawrence Yang: Ever since we opened the booth, three things always pop up. One is, "It's a lot lighter and more comfortable than I expected it would be." Another is, "I can play a whole lot of games on here, and they actually run really well. Way better than I would expect." And the third one is, "I want one." That's been really great to see.

IGN: What kind of discussions have you had with Japanese developers? I assume that you're also talking with them while you’re here.

Erik Peterson: Oh, absolutely. We're constantly talking to developers all over the world, but we've been spending time this week talking to Japanese developers and telling them about the device. Honestly, the reaction from Japanese publishers and developers has been immensely, immensely positive. They are so excited about it, and we've been hearing that from them from the beginning because we were sending them units. These are the same publishers and developers that are making sure that their games run great on Deck, and you can see many of those teams here today at TGS.

Lawrence Yang: Yeah, and you can see it in the numbers too. Every month, we just say, "Hey, here are the top games on Steam Deck," and there's always a really healthy number of them that are coming from those Japanese developers. Elden Ring or Final Fantasy or Monster Hunter are always on the list.

IGN: You've managed to maintain a pretty steady cadence of fairly ambitious updates. What's that been like on your end?

Lawrence Yang: It's been good. It's something that we knew we would want to do. We knew when we shipped there were things on our wishlist of things that we wanted to finish that weren't done yet. We knew that when we shipped, we'd keep shipping updates. Not only are we going through the feature list of things we want to add to Steam Deck, we're looking at the customers and doing things to help them have a better experience as well.

The team is very motivated to keep shipping updates, and it's one of the benefits of Steam Deck and PC gaming. Valve is a company that is always working on things, iterating on things, and improving things. The Steam Deck that folks got back in March is very different from the Steam Deck people are receiving today, and the Steam Deck that you own six months from now will be even better.

IGN: So many people are working really hard to get Windows installed on this thing. Can we expect official support for Windows dual-booting in the near term?

Lawrence Yang: Yeah. There's a bunch of work we have to do on the SteamOS side to make a general installer for it. Right now, the version of SteamOS on there is made specifically for Steam Deck and tuned for it, so we have to do additional architecture work to make it available and able to be installed on any arbitrary machine. With that installer will come the ability to dual-boot Windows off of that.

IGN: For folks who are just now getting a Steam Deck or maybe haven't picked up their Steam Deck in a while, what would you say is the most significant improvement and/or update that you've made since its release?

Lawrence Yang: It's hard to know. We've done so much. The refresh rate change was a really big one, but even stuff like improving battery life, updating the fan curve...

Erik Peterson: Things like the ability to shop on the store for games that are Great on Deck or Verified, and the process of us verifying titles and really making sure that we have a whole large catalog of titles players can choose from. That list is growing every day, so if a customer had looked six months ago, it would be a different list of games than it is now.

Lawrence Yang: Yeah. I think we launched with 300 Steam Deck Verified games. Now we're at over 5,000 verified playable games, and that number's growing.

IGN: I know that, from my own perspective, when I tried to plug it into a television, I was surprised that a lot of games really struggled to be able to run smoothly on it. It was upscaling automatically to 4K and that kind of thing. I'm just wondering, what steps are you taking to enhance the connectivity to a television screen?

Lawrence Yang: Yeah. That's some of the software work that I alluded to, that's related to the dock work. A lot of the work that we're doing is to make sure that we can cover as many peripherals, displays, monitors and whatever to make sure that the thing you want to happen will actually happen when you plug it in and that it'll be a good experience. I don't know when the last time you tried that was, but I think we've actually improved that already, so you might want to try it again to see how that goes.

IGN: I have you heard a lot of people saying that they are not really treating this as a portable device, as a thing that they can go out with. Is that something you would want to change?

Lawrence Yang: Well, I think we want people to use it the way that they want to…my current situation is I barely take it anywhere. I brought it on this trip because I'm traveling, but otherwise it is my couch-gaming machine. I've actually reached the point where I don't game much on my PC anymore, on my desktop computer, just because I'm there all day. I don't want to keep sitting there.

Erik Peterson: Ultimately, people are using the device in a bunch of different ways. Some people are taking it portably all over the place, and some people are hanging out on their couch. I tend to use it for flights a lot because the hours just absolutely melt away when I'm playing Slay the Spire, and I just jam on there for hours at a time. People are going to use it in different ways, and we're listening to feedback. I think it's great that people are finding different ways to use it.

IGN: Obviously, this is a very community-focused machine. Is there one specific mod or improvement that the community has made that really made you as designers go, "Wow. That's awesome. That was some really incredible work by the community?”

Lawrence Yang: Well, one, the community is amazing. They're doing all sorts of crazy stuff – things we wouldn't imagine. There are YouTubers who are putting actual PC heat sinks into the thing. It's crazy, and it's cool because it's a PC and you should be able to do what you want with it, and we're really cool with that.

As far as other mods, we've seen a lot of people building plugins for it, and we're looking to see how people are using those, and what people are asking for and what they want. It's kind of a fine balance…adding more knobs and dials is cool for the people that want them, but if you have too many knobs and dials, then you can intimidate people who really don't want to mess with the Steam Deck.

We just have to try to find a way to appeal to both crowds and make sure everyone can have a good experience.

Erik Peterson: The sky's the limit on the kind of things you can do with it, but it's also really important to us that if you're not into that and you want to just have a device that you can just play games on and have great time, and not have to worry about updating your drivers or whatever, it does that. It should be able to do both.

Lawrence Yang: Yeah. Actually, one of the reasons we're here at TGS and showing it to the folks in Japan is this is a country that is not necessarily known for PC gaming. It's actually one of the fastest-growing PC gaming countries in the world, but there's still a lot of people who don't know much about it. I know, for me, when I want to buy a PC or buy a new gaming laptop, it can be a hassle because you have to do a lot of research and try to figure out what you want to do. With the Steam Deck, it's just like a one-stop shop: you can just buy it, and it can play all the games that you want to play. That's a really good entry point into PC gaming. We hope that will be the case for folks here in Japan.

IGN: One of the concerns about the Steam Deck going in was, because of the nature of it being a portable device, that it might end up being somewhat underpowered when it came to the processor. Indeed, certain games have had frame-rate issues and things like that and you have to work really hard to optimize them. I'm wondering, has fears about it being a little bit underpowered played out from your perspective, and what steps can you take to maximize its performance, ultimately?

Lawrence Yang: There are some games that are not well-optimized for Steam Deck out of the gate, and a lot of times it's just a quick tweak to fix it like changing default settings or making sure the game can see, "Oh, okay. I need a 1280 x 800 screen.” We've actually seen a lot of developers looking for Steam Deck or looking for Steam Deck-like hardware and changing the default config for this. We're working with developers to encourage that kind of thing.

Really, we just want customers to not have to worry about any of that and for things to work really well. That's why we have the Deck Verified program, and we try to test to make sure things are good, give them the green tick mark if it's a great experience on Deck, so customers can feel reassured before they make a purchase or a download on the Steam Deck.

Erik Peterson: I would just say that, certainly, I agree with what Lawrence said, but there's a lot of customers that we've heard from who were just blown away by the fact that it can run those AAA games the way that they can and have it still be a portable device that you can take with you and play. It may be just a different perspective, but it's kind of mind-bending to me, actually, sometimes, that I can just play Elden Ring in my hands on the couch.

IGN: The Verified program is interesting because there are some games that say they do not work on Steam Deck but actually do – for example, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Whereas other games say, "Verified for Steam Deck," but, actually, I would not say that it's necessarily an amazing experience. I'm wondering, what steps are you taking to refine the Verified program?

Lawrence Yang: Yeah. We're always looking at feedback and we're always iterating on the project. For the former, for the unsupported case, we have a very stringent bar for what we designate as an unsupported title. If a title plays and a cutscene is a black screen, we call it unsupported even if gameplay and everything else is fine just because we don't have a way of knowing if that cutscene is crucial to gameplay and it's not our call to make.

As a customer, I wouldn't want to buy a game and have it open and there's a black screen with audio. I'm like, "Why did I waste my money on this?" That's why we're extra stringent with calling games unsupported, but we've definitely heard the feedback of unsupported games working, and that's why we are continuing to try to iterate and make things clearer for customers so they know what to expect.

The latter case, where it's Verified but it doesn't behave as expected, a few months ago we introduced a built-in UI thing that goes, "Hey. This game is not Deck Verified. Do you agree with it?" If a lot of people don't agree that it's actually Verified, we see that. We can look at it and either retest it, or fix a bug, or reach out to the developer and say, "Hey. Here's something that we could work on." We're going to have to retest it so that it has an appropriate rating.

Erik Peterson: We've also had developers reach out to us because they have a game that’s listed as “Playable” or “Unsupported,” and they say, "Hey. It's really important to me that my game is Verified, so what can I do to make that happen?" We'll work with them and try to help them to do what they need to do and to reach that criteria so that they get Verified.

IGN: I think that one thing that also stands out to me is there are certain games that I was trying to play, like, for example, V Rising, and the games that are more traditionally PC-oriented, mouse-and-keyboard-oriented, have been a little bit of a struggle on the Steam Deck. From your perspective as a developer, how can you improve that experience for gamers?

Lawrence Yang: A lot of it comes down to input design. If a game is built with a controller in mind, or with keyboard and mouse but also controller in mind, a lot of times it'll be great on Deck. It'll just work, and things will work well. If it was built specifically with keyboard and mouse in mind, a lot of times you combine things and it'll be playable, but it may not be what you would call the best experience. That's just part of how it is, and not every game is going to be a great experience.

Erik Peterson: Yeah. Some games just weren't designed with a controller in mind, and that's okay. We think that's fine; it's kind of a design choice from the developer, so not every game is going to work as a Verified title.

Lawrence Yang: What's really cool, though, is if a developer does look at that and say, "Oh, I can get a green tick if i add controller support for my title," that's great not only for Steam Deck but also all Steam gamers because now anyone can plug a controller into their laptop or whatever and play that game with a controller. It's just making the game better for everyone.

IGN: Of course, battery life. Another hot topic with the Steam Deck. You've taken some steps to improve it. There have been a lot of hacks and discussions about what you can do on that front, but are there additional steps that you as developers can take to continue to enhance the battery life of the Steam Deck?

Laurence Yang: We're always looking for ways that we can make the battery life better from a software perspective. Part of that is providing controls for customers to be able to lower the settings. I think it's just the way things are. A AAA title like Elden Ring…I don't think that the designers were thinking that it would ever be played handheld, and it's kind of amazing that it can even be played handheld. It's something that we're still looking at. We're providing tools for customers, and we're going to keep looking at both future software and hardware revisions as well.

IGN: Yeah. When I'm playing the Steam Deck, also, I notice that it runs a little hot a lot of the time. Are you satisfied with the cooling solutions and the fans for the Steam Deck?

Lawrence Yang: I think we're pretty happy with it. We've designed it so that all of the heat is only on the back and coming out at the top, so you should never feel any heat where your hands are, and it should only be happening there. If it is happening here, please let us know because that is not part of the design. All of the thermal should be coming out here.

We did adjust the fan curve to address some noise issues that were reported, and we're still looking at that all the time just to make sure that we're doing what we can to make sure it's a good experience from both a thermal standpoint but also from an audio standpoint.

IGN: What kind of feedback have you heard on the actual ergonomics? Some people have said, "Really great," and other people have said, "Ooh, it's very bulky," especially compared to a device like the Nintendo Switch.

Lawrence Yang: Yeah. We designed it with ergonomics in mind. There is a reason we didn't go with a flat design. We really wanted there to be something that your hands could grip and hold onto for a really long play session. We've by and large heard very positive things about the ergonomics, but we’ve also heard, "It looks big and heavy and uncomfortable” and “The controls look like they're in a weird place." We've heard all of that.

But then we've also heard the, "When I picked it up, though it actually works. The thumbsticks are really easy to get to. It feels really nice in my hands. It's not as heavy as I thought. The weight distribution is done really well." We hope that that continues to be the case, and, as always, we're still listening to feedback if people have other opinions.

Erik Peterson: Yeah. The only thing I'd add is that every aspect of hardware design is trade-offs. You're always making a trade-off about how you want to design something. One of the things about the Steam Deck is it is a little bit bigger, and that enables us to have a bigger screen. Having a bigger screen is something... We can make it much smaller, we can make it the size of a watch, but you wouldn't be able to actually play any games on it and have a positive experience. Because it's a bit bigger and it has a bigger screen, for me, personally, I've noticed that it's enabled another class of games to be played on it that just wouldn't be a good experience if the screen were even a little bit smaller because it would just be too hard to see everything.

For me, it's a much more comfortable experience playing games on it. I personally really appreciate the current size of the Deck, and it's something that I really enjoy. Like everyone else, when I first saw it, I was like, "Ooh. I don't know if that's going to be comfortable." You get it in your hands, and it's like those fears just absolutely melt away because it is comfortable.

IGN: Do you foresee a future where we can release a slimmer Steam Deck?

Lawrence Yang: Maybe, but as Erik said, there's trade-offs. A slimmer Steam Deck would probably mean less battery life, so we would just have to weigh all of those and make sure that we can do what we can to mitigate it.

IGN: I'm wondering, what are some of the trends that you're monitoring in terms of mobile GPUs, dedicated handheld, that kind of thing that can enhance the Steam Deck going forward?

Lawrence Yang: We're really excited that there's a lot of growth in the space. We saw a lot of existing handheld PCs before Steam Deck, and there continue to be more now. But with Steam Deck it seems like the space has been really reinvigorated and people are looking at it as a viable category, which is really exciting for us. We think that the more choices the customers have, the better. Not only are we excited to see this is becoming a category of its own, we're also excited to bring SteamOS to other manufacturers that might want to put it on their handheld gaming PC. That's sort of my take on it.

From a technology standpoint, we're keeping track of what the newest APUs are coming out, the latest advances in memory, storage, display, battery… all the parts. When we make another iteration, we want to make sure that it's using the best tech that we can get into it.

IGN: Looking back on the past seven months of the Steam Deck, has it been everything that you hoped for?

Lawrence Yang: Totally. I wish we could make more of them, faster. I think that's the hardest thing, is that people have been waiting for so long. We're glad that they're still excited to get it, but we wish they didn't have to wait this long. We're glad that we're finally surmounting a lot of our production issues, which is actually what's letting us ship into these new regions. We have enough stock now where we're getting really close to being able to meet everyone's reservations, and then we're going to be shipping to all these other regions as well.

IGN: Has it reinvigorated Valve's actual game development?

Erik Peterson: We're always working on games. We have nothing new to announce today, but we're a game developer in addition to working on Steam, and we're always working on things.

Interview transcript was edited for clarity and flow.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Madden NFL 23's Ultimate Team weekly schedule could see some disruption this week as Hurricane Ian makes its way towards Florida, home of developer EA Tiburon.

Madden Ultimate Team released its content schedule on Twitter at the start of this week, alerting players to content drops for AKA, Team of the Week, Gridiron Guardians, Team Diamonds, and Legends along with three planned streaming slots for Good Morning Madden. However, the announcement also came with a warning: "Content is subject to change or experience delays due to Hurricane Ian."

Content is subject to change or experience delays due to Hurricane Ian.

Any and all updates or changes will be noted here or @MaddenNFLDirect. pic.twitter.com/81BwGWv4By

— Madden Ultimate Team (@EASPORTS_MUT) September 26, 2022

At the time of writing, EA's expected content schedule for Madden 23 remains in place but the studio promises to share any updates or changes to these plans on Twitter via MaddenNFLDirect.

Hurricane Ian is projected to make landfall in western Florida in the coming days. As reported by Forbes, Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Saturday ahead of the storm's anticipated arrival as he urged all residents to listen to local officials and prepare for high winds and torrential rain, issuing a warning for potential flooding, power outages and evacuations across the state.

Madden 23 was released on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC on August 19 and is EA's latest attempt to firmly establish the franchise on the current generation of consoles — and bring some shine back to its faded legacy as well, promising some serious upgrades to its franchise mode and long-awaited gameplay changes (and that the game would actually work).

IGN's review of Madden NFL 23 notes that the latest installment in the long-running series "provides a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel with a handful of smart enhancements to animations, AI, and passing mechanics that make subtle but meaningful improvements to the moment-to-moment football on the field," but "still has a long way to go to catch up with other sports sims."

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