Sony says it's increasing production of PlayStation 5, and is "working to bring forward more supply into the year-end holiday selling season."

During its latest earnings results, Sony explained that both software sales and gameplay engagement have dropped year-on-year – not a huge surprise given the huge increase in gaming during COVID-19 lockdowns.

"Taking this situation into account," Sony explained, "we intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year, during which major titles including first party software are scheduled to be released, primarily by increasing the supply of [PS5] hardware and promoting the new PlayStation Plus service."

Sony says it still expects to meet its forecast of 18 million units sold during this financial year, and is seeing positive signs for supply after lockdowns lifted in Shanghai, a major components production hub. As a result, Sony now believes it can bring forward production and sell many of those units during the holiday season, a boom-time for sales.

Sony has previously promised to ramp up production this year, but supplies have remained constrained, with new units selling out almost immediately. In a Q&A session, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said, "We want to produce more units as soon as possible."

Sony's been improving its hardware and services consistently since the launch of PS5, most recently adding an update to support 1440p monitors, and introducing the new PlayStation Stars loyalty service.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Tomb Raider star Alicia Vikander will no longer be Lara Croft after MGM lost the rights to the franchise.

According to The Wrap, the rights for the Tomb Raider film franchise have lapsed after MGM failed to greenlight a Tomb Raider sequel in time, and that means the franchise is now up for grabs.

MGM had until May this year to put a Tomb Raider sequel into production but has now lost the rights after failing to do so. This has sparked a bidding war in Hollywood with “a host” of studios now putting in bids for the popular video game franchise.

The next film, it seems, will be a complete reboot of the franchise without Alicia Vikander, who starred as Lara Croft in the last movie reboot of the series. Tomb Raider saw Vikander suit up as the iconic Lara Croft and earned a paltry $275 million at the box office, barely breaking even. On top of that, it suffered from lackluster reviews.

IGN’s own review said: “It’s a shame to see the trend of poor game-to-movie adaptations continue with a character as great as Lara Croft. In this new Tomb Raider origin story, Lara’s singular drive to find her father falls flat because their relationship isn’t interesting, and that failure is compounded by a lackluster story and characters.”

MGM had already begun looking at a potential sequel, with Lovecraft Country showrunner Misha Green pegged to write and direct, but that too has fallen apart. GK Films acquired the Tomb Raider rights in 2011 from Square Enix and is now considering offers.

Things look brighter on the gaming side for Tomb Raider. Embracer Group acquired Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics earlier this year, and the studio is working on a new Lara Croft adventure in Unreal Engine 5.

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

Ivan and Viktor Drago will be back in Drago – a new spin-off from Rocky and Creed.

According to The Wrap, the upcoming Rocky film is being penned by writer Robert Lawton for MGM and will focus on the Russian father and son after their appearance in Creed II.

The film came about following Lawton’s spec script “Becoming Rocky”, which focused on the making of the first Rocky Balboa film. MGM execs were said to be “impressed” by this, leading to an offer for Lawton to write the upcoming Drago spin-off.

Ivan Drago actor Dolph Lundgren has been teasing a Drago spin-off for some time. “I think there’s some talk about doing a whole spin-off on Drago with MGM,” he said back last year. “So, you may get more of that.”

Creed II starred Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed, with Sylvester Stallone playing the young boxer’s mentor as the former Heavyweight champion turned coach, Rocky Balboa. The sequel saw Adonis takes on the son of Ivan Drago – the former Russian champion, Rocky’s nemesis, and the man who ultimately killed Adonis’ father with a knockout blow during an exhibition match in Rocky IV.

Florian Munteanu starred as Viktor Drago and is expected to return in the upcoming Creed III. Creed III has already been pushed back from its November release date and is now expected to debut in March next year.

Although the plot for the upcoming Drago spin-off is firmly under wraps, it looks as though it’s all change for the Rocky Balboa franchise, with Sylvester Stallone stepping away after revealing that he won’t be back for the third Creed movie.

Whether or not Stallone will be back in Drago remains to be seen, but with Stallone still tussling for the rights to the franchise, I can’t help thinking that’s a no-go right now. Still, Michael B. Jordan will be back as Adonis, as well as making his directorial debut with Creed III.

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

After days of intrigue, it's finally been revealed that the mysterious videos of hitherto unknown areas in Nier: Automata were the work of extremely talented modders.

The 'church saga' began when a Reddit user called sadfutago posted a video of a door that no Nier player had ever seen before, and followed it up with clips that showed bizarre content that included references to other games. It has hooked the Nier community (and many, many others), who couldn't work out if this was an ARG for a new game, or the work of modders - although the latter had been deemed impossible by many.

As it turns out, it wasn't as impossible to mod Nier: Automata as we thought, with a Twitch stream revealing that the entire saga was indeed the work of talented fans creating new content within the game. As you can see in the gallery below, the Twitch stream ended with an admission that all of this was created with mods by three individuals, DevolasRevenge, Woeful_Wolf, and RaiderB.

"THANK YOU," reads a text slide that aired at the end of the stream. "Everything we have shared has been completely in-game, no editing was used. We have been loving all the discussions and theories - it has been an amazing journey. It has been inspiring to see the community come together after so many years, it has made all the hard work well worth it."

While some will be disappointed that this doesn't mean more official Nier content is coming soon, the fact that the team has begin adding in-game content to Automata at all is huge news for the community. Many believed this wasn't possible, but the modders have promised to release "new Blender addons and scripting tools" on an open source basis, seemingly blowing the modding scene wide open for the first time.

The church scene itself will be released to let everyone play what they've been watching, and the team says they have "so much more in store", including an already finished mod from RaiderB.

Subsequent slides apologised to the community for misleading people, saying they wanted to give off the impression of this being cut or secret content, not a full-blown ARG. They also said they weren't trying to impersonate Nier creator Yoko Taro, who has been drawn into the mystery over the last few days (and who has been subsequently praised for not ruining the mystery).

Finally, the team apologside for the "anticlimactic" ending, saying they were running out of time to do it due to personal reasons. However, much of the community has been celebrating the reveal for breathing life into the community, even before mods are released.

"This is the most enamored I’ve ever been with something like this, and it’s insane. I was here," wrote Jinnie-boy. Seasalted-icecream sees this as a new future for the series: "These guys managed to grab the attention of multiple people involved with NieR and have revitalized interest in the series. What we have now may only be a new and incredibly made mod, but [Square Enix] might see that the interest is definitely there and may seriously consider working on the series again."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

It’s official – Ben Affleck is back as Batman in Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom.

The upcoming sequel sees Jason Momoa return as Arthur Curry, the seafaring superhero known as Aquaman. But it looks as though he couldn’t resist revealing that he won’t be the only Justice League member returning in the movie.

“REUNITED,” he said via Instagram. “bruce and arthur. love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright. busted on set all great things coming AQUAMAN 2 all my aloha j”

The official DC Comics Instagram simply replied: "Legends."

What’s surprising is that Affleck was reportedly done with Batman, officially hanging up his cape.

Of course, we knew that he was due to appear in the upcoming Flash movie, which was originally set to debut in November 2022 but has since been pushed to June 23, 2023. But this was supposed to be his final time on screen as the caped crusader. Instead, it looks as though someone, somewhere convinced him to return. And after his experience on Justice League, it couldn’t have been an easy conversation.

“I had a really nadir experience around Justice League for a lot of different reasons,” said Affleck. “Not blaming anybody, there's a lot of things that happened. But really what it was is that I wasn't happy. I didn't like being there. I didn't think it was interesting. And then some really s---ty things, awful things happened. But, that's when I was like, I'm not going to do that anymore.”

His return in Aquaman 2 then is a huge surprise, especially after he gave up starring in and directing his own version of The Batman.

Still, it looks as though Affleck’s Batman/Bruce Wayne will be back, but how he fits into the upcoming Aquaman sequel remains to be seen.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman, alongside Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison, and Nicole Kidman. James Wan directed the film based on a script by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Jason Momoa.

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

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn fans needn’t worry – she won’t be getting back together with The Joker anytime soon, at least not on her HBO Max series, now in its third season.

During an interview with AV Club, showrunner Patrick Schumacker explained that the Harley Quinn animated series won’t be bringing Harley and the Joker back together. Instead, it's all about Poison Ivy — a relationship that dates all the way back to Harley's inception in Batman: The Animated Series.

“We still have the occasional fan reaction of ‘I don’t like Harley and Ivy together. She should get back with the Joker,’ which we’re never going to do,” he explained. “Harley and Ivy will never break up in the series as long as we have a say. That’s something that we never want to touch again.”

Harley (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) finally got together in the Season 2 finale. They then headed off on the road for their aptly-named “Eat, Bang, Kill Tour” which would see them on the run from Commissioner Gordon and creating havoc across the U.S.

A spin-off limited comic book run continued their story before Season 3 debuted.

But now, it looks as though the villainous pair is solid as a rock… and Harley won’t be turning her back on Ivy anytime soon.

IGN’s own review of Harley Quin Season 3 says: “Love is in the air, but that doesn’t mean Harley Quinn isn’t as insane, blood-soaked, and hilarious as it’s always been. Season 3’s take on Harley and Ivy’s newly romantic relationship is still unsurprisingly the highlight, tackling all their highs and lows in ways that are incredibly true to each character.”

Thankfully, it looks as though Harley will remain free from the Joker’s clutches for the long haul. And even Kite Man might be getting his own sort-of-happy-ending…

After being jilted at the altar by Harley, Kite Man will be starring in his own spin-off – a show that’s described as “Cheers for villains” which sees him running a bar where supervillains hang out.

Kaley Cuoco stars as Harley Quinn alongside Alan Tudyk, Lake Bell, Rahul Kohli, Diedrich Baker, Tony Hale, Matt Oberg, and Ron Funches. Harley Quinn was developed by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey with Halpern and Schumacker serving as showrunners.

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

Michael B. Jordan’s epic fight sequel Creed III has been delayed until 2023. The upcoming Creed sequel (and the ninth film in the Rocky franchise) was originally expected to debut on November 23 but has now been pushed back until March 3, 2023.

Jordan once again stars as Adonis Creed – the son of the legendary Rocky opponent, Apollo Creed. But this time around, Jordan will also be stepping behind the camera, making his directorial debut.

Jonathan Majors will appear as new challenger, Anderson Dame.

Creed III will be the first of the Creed films without an appearance from Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa – unsurprising, given his passing of the torch in Creed II. The second film ends with Adonis making peace with carrying his father’s legacy, while Rocky himself travels to Vancouver – patching things up with his son and finally meeting his grandson.

But with Jordan taking the helm and Stallone stepping away from the franchise, this could signal a new beginning for the long-running boxing series.

The plot for Creed III is still firmly under wraps but is thought to introduce the new character Anderson Dame as a challenger to Adonis Creed’s title.

But the upcoming Creed sequel isn’t the only new Rocky film on its way.

The news of Creed 3’s delay comes on the back of news of a new spin-off, titled ‘Drago’ which follows the Russian father and son boxing team, Ivan and Viktor Drago (played by Dolph Lundgren and Florian Munteanu).

Clearly, it’s a time of change for the Rocky films, ushering in a new generation of fighters with both the sequel and spin-off.

Creed 3 stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed alongside Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Florian Munteanu, and Jonathan Majors.

Michael B. Jordan will direct the film based on a script by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin.

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

Peter Moore is known for wearing many hats around the games (and sports) industry. One stop in his career was at Microsoft where he helped oversee Xbox during the 360-era. In a new interview, Moore spoke about his time at Xbox and how they encouraged the console wars, but not for reasons you’d expect.

Moore recently made an appearance on one of Front Office Sports’ podcast to discuss his time as Liverpool FC CEO, in the process touching on his time at Xbox. While the games industry has shifted towards a more unified tone, during Moore’s tenure the console wars were arguably an even bigger part of the games industry — something Moore says was encouraged at Xbox.

“We encouraged the console wars, not to create division, but to challenge each other,” Moore says. “And when I say each other I mean Microsoft and Sony. If Microsoft hadn’t of stuck the course after the Xbox, after the Red Rings of Death, gaming would be a poorer place for it, you wouldn’t have the competition you have today.”

Moore joined Xbox in 2003 after serving as president and COO of Sega America. Moore is best remembered for helping launch the Xbox 360 and Dreamcast as well as his penchant for announcing high-profile games with fake tattoos. Xbox’s early dominance in the 360-era was driven by games like Halo as well as the launch of Xbox Live.

But Moore also talked about the lows such as the Red Ring of Death controversy. “If we didn’t resolve Red Rings of Death the way that we did I know darn well there’d be no Xbox today.”

Nowadays, the console wars are a bit more downplayed, especially given the current landscape of cross-platform and cross-play titles. Even when Xbox and Sony acquire developers like Activision and Bungie, there are still talks of keeping their biggest games multiplatform, at least for now.

Moore would later join EA to lead its sports division before becoming the CEO of Liverpool Football Club. He has since returned to the tech space and is currently a vice president and GM at Unity.

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

The second annual Annapurna Interactive Showcase has just wrapped up, during which we got a look at a ton of new projects in development, updates, and a handful of upcoming releases from the publisher of Stray, Neon White, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and tons more.

In case you missed the show or want to remind yourself of that cool game you didn’t catch the name of, here’s everything we just saw at the showcase:

Thirsty Suitors

From Outerloop Games (Falcon Age), we got a new, deeper look at Thirsty Suitors, an upcoming RPG that mixes elements of dating sims, turn-based battles, and skateboarding mechanics. Play as Jala, a young woman who returns home for her sister’s wedding and is forced to confront and reconcile with her multiple exes, all while managing her family’s expectations and repairing relationships with friends and relatives. Though we didn’t get a release date this time around, we saw quite a bit of gameplay, and there’s a free demo out on Steam now. Thirsty Suitors will release for PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Game Pass.

Hindsight

From the creator of the elegant tree cultivation puzzler Prune, Hindsight got a brand new trailer today with a release date for the first time. Hindsight is a story-focused game going through a woman’s life, from birth to present day, where physical objects can become literal windows into the past. It’s out on August 4 for iOS, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

A New Project from the Creators of Kentucky Route Zero

Cardboard Computer made an appearance at the showcase to reveal that following their near-decade-long work on Kentucky Route Zero, the studio is now working on a brand new project. Though we didn’t see a trailer, we did get a look at the team working on modeling a dog. And the team gave a handful of descriptions of the project, including that it’s the first project where Cardboard Computer is “really focusing on performance as a core part of the piece,” and that it has a “different tempo” from Kentucky Route Zero - it’s “faster” and “hopefully funnier.”

It might be a while before we get a proper look at whatever this new project is, but if it’s anything remotely like the beautiful, episodic Kentucky Route Zero, it’s sure to be worth watching.

Bounty Star: The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem

Dinogod Studio revealed the game that it’s been working on at last, called Bounty Star: The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem. It appears to be an Old West-styled shooter where the main character is a woman who pilots a cool mech, almost Titanfall-esque, and it’s all set to music by Brother Edge. Bounty Star will be out sometime next year for PlayStation, PC via Steam, and Xbox Game Pass.

Yarn Owl - Development Update

Texas and Georgia-based studio Yarn Owl popped in for a segment to talk about the studio’s founding, and its drawing inspiration from A Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past. We didn’t get a look at gameplay or any clear details about what the studio’s project is, but we did see some models of cute characters jumping around a world with an adventure, almost Wind Waker-like vibe.

Outer Wilds

Last year at the Annapurna showcase, Mobius Digital announced (among other things) that Outer Wilds was coming to the Nintendo Switch. That hasn’t happened yet, and Mobius appeared again this year to reassure us that yes, the Switch version is still in the works, though the studio doesn’t have a firm date yet. However, there’s another update with a more concrete release on it: Outer Wilds is getting a 60fps update for Xbox Series X and S and PS5. The update is free, and it lands on September 15.

The Pathless, Maquette, and Solar Ash

A montage including The Pathless, Maquette, and Solar Ash played that revealed some new platform releases for all three games. The Pathless is headed to Xbox and Switch this winter, Maquette will be on Game Pass and Switch also this winter, and Solar Ash is headed to Steam and Game Pass on December 6.

What Remains of Edith Finch

Concluding the above montage, we learned that What Remains of Edith Finch is getting a 4k and 60fps upgrade for Xbox Series x and S and PS5. The upgrade is free, and surprise, it’s out now.

Forever Ago

German studio Third Shift appeared to talk about its formation, and the creation of its upcoming game Forever Ago. It’s a story-driven road trip adventure about an elderly man who embarks on a journey in his van, traveling across the different landscapes in North America and taking photos as he goes. It’s unknown for now what platforms or when Forever Ago might release.

Flock: Gather Your Friends

Flock: Gathering Your Friends was up next, featuring colorful landscapes with cute little bugs and other animals fluttering around. We didn’t see a lot of gameplay, mostly just gorgeous vistas, but it appears to be a game about a person riding a colorful bird, flying around these landscapes and collecting little floaty bug dudes to follow you. It’s coming to Xbox Game Pass, PC via Steam, and PlayStation at a later date.

Hohokum

Hohokum looks like Ynglet and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse had an adorable child, and puts you in the control of a colorful little ribbon guy bouncing around stages, sometimes with a bunch of other colorful friends following you or riding on your back. Okay, it’s a bit hard to explain, and pretty open-ended if you’ve ever played it before. But it’s actually a 2014 game developed by Honeyslug for PlayStation 3, 4, and the Vita, and it’s out now on PC via Steam.

Uvula

Katamari Damacy and Wattam creator Keita Takahashi is back at it again, this time with a new company called Uvula. Yes, the little dangly thing at the back of the throat. No, we have no idea what the game is actually about or what you do in it; all we saw was a cute Takahashi-style character gently snoring away, camera zoomed in on his uvula, and a dog licking his cheek. Looks cute, whatever it is!

Dreamfeel - Developer Update

The developers of If Found… appeared on the stream to talk about their inspirations wandering through ruins in Ireland, as well as tease their next project. Though we didn’t get a game title or any gameplay, we learned the next game will take place in a fantasy version of Ireland, and all the characters are cats. At the core of the idea is the phrase, “Everything drowned will someday rise from the deep.”

The Lost Wild

Finally, the show concluded with the reveal of a game from Great Ape Games, called The lost Wild. The Lost Wild appears to be some sort of survival horror game…featuring dinosaurs. Lots and lots of dinosaurs. We get a look at a first-person view of a dense jungle full of dinos, and a scared player character consulting a compass. There seem to be some serious Jurassic Park vibes though, too, as we see sections featuring modern technology, using a flare, lights, a white board, and more. No release date just yet, but you can wishlist now on Steam if you like.

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

Closing out today's Annapurna Interactive showcase, we got a first look at a new game from Great Ape Games that looks like a Jurassic Park survival horror. It's called The Lost Wild, and it's coming to PC...sometime.

The Lost Wild appears to be some kind of survival horror game in the first person perspective. We see a player exploring a dense jungle full of dinosaurs, some of which appear to be mostly harmless-ish (like a plant-eating stegosaurus) and others that are clearly full of teeth and ready to chomp down on a person.

There's some sneaking around the jungle trying to avoid these hungry dinos, and there are also some spooky looking interiors briefly shown that include whiteboard notes indicating science or research of some kind being done, and at one point the player tosses a flare to distract or confuse some threatening dinos. Though this isn't a Jurassic Park licensed game as far as we can tell, it's clearly playing off some of those vibes.

We're looking forward to seeing more of The Lost Wild as it gets closer to release. We don't have any detail on a release window or platforms yet, except that it has a page up on Steam as of today and you can wishlist it if you want. Hopefully we'll see more scary dinos soon.

You can get a full rundown of everything announced at today's Annapurna Interactive showcase in our roundup.

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