Sony has released the first full-length plot synopsis for God of War Ragnarok, giving fans a little bit more information on what to expect in long-awaited sequel.

Revealed on the PlayStation Store (and spotted by The Gamer), the new synopsis replaces a much more bare-bones version we saw previously. It confirms that game will not just take place during Ragnarök - the grand final battle of Norse mythology that traditionally sees Odin, Loki and other gods die - but also during the events immediately preceding it, a Norse saga known as Fimbulwinter.

"From Santa Monica Studio comes the sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), the synopsis begins. "Fimbulwinter is well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Asgardian forces prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world.

"Along the way they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. The threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer. Kratos and Atreus must choose between their own safety and the safety of the realms."

While it was already confirmed that players can visit all nine realms, some of these story details were previously unknown, including the mention of Asgardian forces. Asgard is the home of Odin and other major gods, who Kratos will presumably come up against given his beef with Odin's son, Thor, so it seems likely that Asgardian soldiers will be a new common enemy.

Fans won't have too long to wait until all is revealed, of course, as developer Santa Monica Studio finally confirmed a November release date for Ragnarök, and has since been drip feeding new information including a cinematic trailer (above) and the game's special editions.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Sony has released the first full-length plot synopsis for God of War Ragnarok, giving fans a little bit more information on what to expect in long-awaited sequel.

Revealed on the PlayStation Store (and spotted by The Gamer), the new synopsis replaces a much more bare-bones version we saw previously. It confirms that game will not just take place during Ragnarök - the grand final battle of Norse mythology that traditionally sees Odin, Loki and other gods die - but also during the events immediately preceding it, a Norse saga known as Fimbulwinter.

"From Santa Monica Studio comes the sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), the synopsis begins. "Fimbulwinter is well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Asgardian forces prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world.

"Along the way they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. The threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer. Kratos and Atreus must choose between their own safety and the safety of the realms."

While it was already confirmed that players can visit all nine realms, some of these story details were previously unknown, including the mention of Asgardian forces. Asgard is the home of Odin and other major gods, who Kratos will presumably come up against given his beef with Odin's son, Thor, so it seems likely that Asgardian soldiers will be a new common enemy.

Fans won't have too long to wait until all is revealed, of course, as developer Santa Monica Studio finally confirmed a November release date for Ragnarök, and has since been drip feeding new information including a cinematic trailer (above) and the game's special editions.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

LEGO and Nintendo are unveiling a colossal 14-foot tall Bowser statue at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, bringing the Super Mario baddie to life with almost 700,000 bricks.

Fans attending Comic-Con (which takes place from July 21 to 24) will be able to see the LEGO Bowser up close. The model also has mechanised parts which allow his arms, hands, head, eyes, and eyebrows to move, and is also installed with a mighty roar. All in all, the statues is made up of 663,900 pieces.

It goes without saying that this truly massive LEGO set will not be for sale, and was built to celebrate an upcoming 2,807 piece Bowser set (which seems measly in comparison but is still pretty big under normal circumstances) and the success of the LEGO Super Mario range overall.

The normal Mighty Bowser is officially still the biggest Mario set to be released so far, eclipsing the Bowser's Airship set that previously took the prize at $99.99 and 1,152 pieces. Not part of the automated Mario LEGO line - but still very much a Mario LEGO set - a Super Mario 64 set was also released last year.

This is just LEGO's latest foray into the gaming world, having previously released sets based on Sonic the Hedgehog (with the Green Hill Zone), Horizon: Forbidden West (with the Tallneck), and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

LEGO and Nintendo are unveiling a colossal 14-foot tall Bowser statue at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, bringing the Super Mario baddie to life with almost 700,000 bricks.

Fans attending Comic-Con (which takes place from July 21 to 24) will be able to see the LEGO Bowser up close. The model also has mechanised parts which allow his arms, hands, head, eyes, and eyebrows to move, and is also installed with a mighty roar. All in all, the statues is made up of 663,900 pieces.

It goes without saying that this truly massive LEGO set will not be for sale, and was built to celebrate an upcoming 2,807 piece Bowser set (which seems measly in comparison but is still pretty big under normal circumstances) and the success of the LEGO Super Mario range overall.

The normal Mighty Bowser is officially still the biggest Mario set to be released so far, eclipsing the Bowser's Airship set that previously took the prize at $99.99 and 1,152 pieces. Not part of the automated Mario LEGO line - but still very much a Mario LEGO set - a Super Mario 64 set was also released last year.

This is just LEGO's latest foray into the gaming world, having previously released sets based on Sonic the Hedgehog (with the Green Hill Zone), Horizon: Forbidden West (with the Tallneck), and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Six US lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have asked the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to crack down on cryptomining.

In a letter also signed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Edward Markey, and Jeffrey Merkley alongside Members of Congress Jared Huffman and Rashida Tlaib, the lawmakers requested that cryptomining companies in the U.S. report their energy usage and carbon emissions.

Cryptomining is the process of using power-intensive computers to solve increasingly difficult mathematical puzzles to earn new tokens for currencies such as Bitcoin. While the US is seeing an influx of cryptomining operations, the report makes clear that there is, "no national or state reporting requirement or compilation of the locations of cryptomining facilities in the United States, and no federal regulations specifically governing cryptomining."

Given the power needs of these companies, concerns have been raised about energy usage driving up costs for regular consumers, and environmental damage. Citing their own research, the lawmakers claimed that between seven companies investigated - which includes Greenidge, Riot, Bitdeer, Stronghold, Marathon, Bit Digital, and Bitfury - together they have almost utilized enough energy to power every residence in Houston, Texas, coming in at around 1,045 megawatts.

Additionally, despite a number of the companies claiming that their cryptomining was environmentally friendly - Greenidge says it used a "clean burning natural gas facility", for example - the company still reported 273,326 tons of CO2 equivalent emitted in the 12 months prior to November 2021, equivalent to 60,000 cars.

Bit Digital estimated 92,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2020, but projected 1.075 million metric tons in 2022, rising to 1.2 million in 2023, the annual equivalent of 260,000 cars. The lawmakers also said the amount of energy used "could be used for other priority end uses that contribute to our electrification and climate goals, such as replacing home furnaces with heat pumps".

Making all of this information fully available to the government, the letter said, would "enable valuable public policy activities, including better monitoring of energy use and trends, better evidence basis for policy making, improved data for national mitigation analyses, better abilities for evaluating technology policies for the sector, and better modelling of national and regional grid loads and transitions, among other purposes."

Warren has been vocal about a number of other tech industry issues, including the transition to universal chargers for smartphones and raising concern over Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Thumbnail Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Six US lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have asked the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to crack down on cryptomining.

In a letter also signed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Edward Markey, and Jeffrey Merkley alongside Members of Congress Jared Huffman and Rashida Tlaib, the lawmakers requested that cryptomining companies in the U.S. report their energy usage and carbon emissions.

Cryptomining is the process of using power-intensive computers to solve increasingly difficult mathematical puzzles to earn new tokens for currencies such as Bitcoin. While the US is seeing an influx of cryptomining operations, the report makes clear that there is, "no national or state reporting requirement or compilation of the locations of cryptomining facilities in the United States, and no federal regulations specifically governing cryptomining."

Given the power needs of these companies, concerns have been raised about energy usage driving up costs for regular consumers, and environmental damage. Citing their own research, the lawmakers claimed that between seven companies investigated - which includes Greenidge, Riot, Bitdeer, Stronghold, Marathon, Bit Digital, and Bitfury - together they have almost utilized enough energy to power every residence in Houston, Texas, coming in at around 1,045 megawatts.

Additionally, despite a number of the companies claiming that their cryptomining was environmentally friendly - Greenidge says it used a "clean burning natural gas facility", for example - the company still reported 273,326 tons of CO2 equivalent emitted in the 12 months prior to November 2021, equivalent to 60,000 cars.

Bit Digital estimated 92,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2020, but projected 1.075 million metric tons in 2022, rising to 1.2 million in 2023, the annual equivalent of 260,000 cars. The lawmakers also said the amount of energy used "could be used for other priority end uses that contribute to our electrification and climate goals, such as replacing home furnaces with heat pumps".

Making all of this information fully available to the government, the letter said, would "enable valuable public policy activities, including better monitoring of energy use and trends, better evidence basis for policy making, improved data for national mitigation analyses, better abilities for evaluating technology policies for the sector, and better modelling of national and regional grid loads and transitions, among other purposes."

Warren has been vocal about a number of other tech industry issues, including the transition to universal chargers for smartphones and raising concern over Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Thumbnail Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Sylvester Stallone has taken to social media to call out Rocky producer Irwin Winkler as part of an ongoing dispute over ownership rights to the long-running boxing franchise.

As reported by Deadline, Stallone pulled no punches on Sunday morning when he shared an illustrated image depicting Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent on Instagram. In the caption of the post, he addressed Winkler directly, calling for a "fair gesture" from the 93-year-old producer, who he says is withholding ownership of the franchise and its sequel series Creed.

"After Irwin controlling Rocky for over 47 years, and now Creed, I really would like have at least a little of what's left of my rights back, before passing it on to only your children," Stallone wrote. "I believe that would be a fair gesture from this 93 year old gentleman? This is a painful subject that eats at my soul because I wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children."

Stallone portrayed Rocky Balboa in eight films, directed four of them, and served as a writer or co-writer on all the Rocky films and Creed II. He then announced in 2018 that he would be officially hanging up his gloves and retiring from the role, meaning that he would not return for Creed III, the next entry in the Michael B. Jordan-starring Rocky spin-off series.

In recent years, Stallone has voiced his frustrations over his lack of ownership of Rocky considering his involvement in the franchise. According to Variety, Stallone was paid $75K plus 10 net points, which equated to at least $2.5m for the first movie. Another source claimed the actor had made more than $10m on Creed and in the mid-teens on Creed II.

However, Stallone told the outlet in 2019 that he had "zero ownership" of the lucractive franchise. "When I finally confronted them, I said, 'Does it bother you guys that I've written every word, I've choreographed it, I've been loyal to you, I've promoted it, directed it and I don't have 1% that I could leave for my children?' And the quote was, 'You got paid.'"

Creed III, starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed, is due to hit cinemas on November 23, just over a year after the release of the ultimate director's cut of Rocky IV. IGN's review of Rocky Vs. Drago praised Stallone for managing to "wonderfully fine-tune Rocky IV with The Ultimate Director's Cut, chopping out what didn't work and keeping what did."

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

Sylvester Stallone has taken to social media to call out Rocky producer Irwin Winkler as part of an ongoing dispute over ownership rights to the long-running boxing franchise.

As reported by Deadline, Stallone pulled no punches on Sunday morning when he shared an illustrated image depicting Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent on Instagram. In the caption of the post, he addressed Winkler directly, calling for a "fair gesture" from the 93-year-old producer, who he says is withholding ownership of the franchise and its sequel series Creed.

"After Irwin controlling Rocky for over 47 years, and now Creed, I really would like have at least a little of what's left of my rights back, before passing it on to only your children," Stallone wrote. "I believe that would be a fair gesture from this 93 year old gentleman? This is a painful subject that eats at my soul because I wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children."

Stallone portrayed Rocky Balboa in eight films, directed four of them, and served as a writer or co-writer on all the Rocky films and Creed II. He then announced in 2018 that he would be officially hanging up his gloves and retiring from the role, meaning that he would not return for Creed III, the next entry in the Michael B. Jordan-starring Rocky spin-off series.

In recent years, Stallone has voiced his frustrations over his lack of ownership of Rocky considering his involvement in the franchise. According to Variety, Stallone was paid $75K plus 10 net points, which equated to at least $2.5m for the first movie. Another source claimed the actor had made more than $10m on Creed and in the mid-teens on Creed II.

However, Stallone told the outlet in 2019 that he had "zero ownership" of the lucractive franchise. "When I finally confronted them, I said, 'Does it bother you guys that I've written every word, I've choreographed it, I've been loyal to you, I've promoted it, directed it and I don't have 1% that I could leave for my children?' And the quote was, 'You got paid.'"

Creed III, starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed, is due to hit cinemas on November 23, just over a year after the release of the ultimate director's cut of Rocky IV. IGN's review of Rocky Vs. Drago praised Stallone for managing to "wonderfully fine-tune Rocky IV with The Ultimate Director's Cut, chopping out what didn't work and keeping what did."

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

Another new AAA studio has joined the gaming scene, this one founded by Jerry Hook, one of the architects of the original Xbox who most recently worked on Halo Infinite.

The new studio's mission is to "create a new generation of narrative-driven action games" with "immersive worlds." Its founding members include Paul Crocker, who served as lead narrative director on the Batman: Arkham trilogy; Greg Stone, who produced DOOM (2016), and Steve Dyck, who worked on SSX, NBA Street, and the Halo series. Hook's new venture follows his departure from 343 Industries, where he served head of design on Halo Infinite. Hook also helped launch Xbox Live and worked on Halo 4, Halo 5, and Destiny in various capacities.

Speaking with IGN in an interview ahead of the announcement, Hook says that the collective decision to leave 343 Industries was part of the natural cycle of departures that follows the release of a major project.

"I took a step back and really wanted to take a look at what is the impact I wanted to have moving forward; what is the impact I wanted to have not just with games or the next big idea, but really taking a look at teams and how could I build a home for creators and content creators who could really flourish and specifically help them grow so that they can put their entire passion against a project," Hook says. "And so on top of creative ideas and new game ideas and all the innovation that goes into games, I realized that probably my biggest challenge was we haven't really, in the game development space, spent a lot of time trying to innovate with teams and studios and studio structures."

Jar of Sparks is currently in the early stages of forming its core team, which the studio hopes will provide ideas for its first project. Hook estimates that the studio's first game is three to four years away.

One thing that's for certain is that it won't be a live service game. Even with Hook's experience working on projects like Xbox Live and Destiny, he deems live service to be too much of a risk for a fledgling studio like Jar of Sparks.

"[O]ne of the main challenges we all seem to struggle with is there's only so much risk you can take on within a new studio. You're forming a complete team with people who don't know each other, have never worked with each other or brand new IP. Live service adds more complexity on top of that and I really think from my own experience for service driven games, the amount of work you need to do to make a live service work is pretty tremendous. And I think the first game that Jar Sparks is going to go do isn't going to have that component to allow the team to flourish first and be able to put their creative energy first without having to worry about the continual pressure of server driven models," Hook explains.

And despite the studio's status as a "AAA developer," Hook isn't thinking in terms of massive budgets and even bigger sales.

"One of the challenges I think the industry has gotten itself into, where if everyone is always shooting for the 300 million mark or 10 million mark, I'm just like, okay, how about you build a team with the right budget that allows you to be successful with just a couple million or just a million? And you can be successful that way," Hook says, citing smaller-scale successes like V Rising and Valheim. "So my goal or at least our goal that we've talked about with the founder is — we don't want to go after God of War, we want to create our own space. It has a good dedicated following and it is a great title that people want to sink their teeth into, that's it."

As for NetEase, Hook sees the Chinese publishing giant as a backstop against the difficulties that can arrise from the volatile games industry.

"If you go and innovate and you need to slip something, your publisher of those people financing, you have to be clear that you can slip," Hook says. "And that was one of the key conversations I had with NetEase, which is, you need to prepare for slipping if we're going to go and innovate; if you're onboard with us innovating, you know the risks, and they were very clear with me."

Jar of Sparks joins a host of other studios that have formed amid the glut of financing in the games industry, among them Nightingale developer Inflexion Games, Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, and Stormgate developer Frost Giant Studios. The surge of of studios helmed by experienced industry veterans is only now beginning to see results.

NetEase, for its part, calls Jar of Sparks a "new first party studio that will enjoy full creative freedom." Its other holdings including Grasshopper Manufacture and the new studio formed by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi.

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.

Another new AAA studio has joined the gaming scene, this one founded by Jerry Hook, one of the architects of the original Xbox who most recently worked on Halo Infinite.

The new studio's mission is to "create a new generation of narrative-driven action games" with "immersive worlds." Its founding members include Paul Crocker, who served as lead narrative director on the Batman: Arkham trilogy; Greg Stone, who produced DOOM (2016), and Steve Dyck, who worked on SSX, NBA Street, and the Halo series. Hook's new venture follows his departure from 343 Industries, where he served head of design on Halo Infinite. Hook also helped launch Xbox Live and worked on Halo 4, Halo 5, and Destiny in various capacities.

Speaking with IGN in an interview ahead of the announcement, Hook says that the collective decision to leave 343 Industries was part of the natural cycle of departures that follows the release of a major project.

"I took a step back and really wanted to take a look at what is the impact I wanted to have moving forward; what is the impact I wanted to have not just with games or the next big idea, but really taking a look at teams and how could I build a home for creators and content creators who could really flourish and specifically help them grow so that they can put their entire passion against a project," Hook says. "And so on top of creative ideas and new game ideas and all the innovation that goes into games, I realized that probably my biggest challenge was we haven't really, in the game development space, spent a lot of time trying to innovate with teams and studios and studio structures."

Jar of Sparks is currently in the early stages of forming its core team, which the studio hopes will provide ideas for its first project. Hook estimates that the studio's first game is three to four years away.

One thing that's for certain is that it won't be a live service game. Even with Hook's experience working on projects like Xbox Live and Destiny, he deems live service to be too much of a risk for a fledgling studio like Jar of Sparks.

"[O]ne of the main challenges we all seem to struggle with is there's only so much risk you can take on within a new studio. You're forming a complete team with people who don't know each other, have never worked with each other or brand new IP. Live service adds more complexity on top of that and I really think from my own experience for service driven games, the amount of work you need to do to make a live service work is pretty tremendous. And I think the first game that Jar Sparks is going to go do isn't going to have that component to allow the team to flourish first and be able to put their creative energy first without having to worry about the continual pressure of server driven models," Hook explains.

And despite the studio's status as a "AAA developer," Hook isn't thinking in terms of massive budgets and even bigger sales.

"One of the challenges I think the industry has gotten itself into, where if everyone is always shooting for the 300 million mark or 10 million mark, I'm just like, okay, how about you build a team with the right budget that allows you to be successful with just a couple million or just a million? And you can be successful that way," Hook says, citing smaller-scale successes like V Rising and Valheim. "So my goal or at least our goal that we've talked about with the founder is — we don't want to go after God of War, we want to create our own space. It has a good dedicated following and it is a great title that people want to sink their teeth into, that's it."

As for NetEase, Hook sees the Chinese publishing giant as a backstop against the difficulties that can arrise from the volatile games industry.

"If you go and innovate and you need to slip something, your publisher of those people financing, you have to be clear that you can slip," Hook says. "And that was one of the key conversations I had with NetEase, which is, you need to prepare for slipping if we're going to go and innovate; if you're onboard with us innovating, you know the risks, and they were very clear with me."

Jar of Sparks joins a host of other studios that have formed amid the glut of financing in the games industry, among them Nightingale developer Inflexion Games, Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, and Stormgate developer Frost Giant Studios. The surge of of studios helmed by experienced industry veterans is only now beginning to see results.

NetEase, for its part, calls Jar of Sparks a "new first party studio that will enjoy full creative freedom." Its other holdings including Grasshopper Manufacture and the new studio formed by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi.

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.