Diablo: Immortal will no longer be released in Belgium or the Netherlands due to lootboxes being illegal in both countries.

The long-awaited mobile (and now PC) game finally arrives on June 2 but developer Activision Blizzard cancelled the launch in the two European countries just days before their release date.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz and confirmed to Eurogamer, Diablo Immortal will not be available there due to "the current operating conditions in these countries", as Belgium and the Netherlands both deem lootboxes to be gambling and they're therefore illegal.

"Diablo Immortal will not be available in Belgium or the Netherlands, and will not appear on Battle.net or the Belgian and Netherlands App or Google Play Stores," a spokesperson told Eurogamer.

The ban was placed in 2018 and is essentially only intended to affect loot boxes that have contents which can be sold for money.

It's unclear if lootbox items will be sold on the secondary market in Diablo: Immortal (or if this will be possible in the game at all) but Activision Blizzard seemingly has some reason to believe this will be the case and has therefore banned the game in these territories altogether.

Diablo: Immortal was announced at BlizzCon 2018 and was rumoured to release on June 30 after a date appeared to those who pre-registered for the game on Apple devices.

It was almost immediately met with negative fan reception due to its mobile-only plans and then-Blizzard Entertainment president J. Allen Brack said the company learned that "fundamentally our roots are PC" as a result of the reveal.

However, once the game hit alpha, we called it a hell of a good time, even if it did come with some problems.

Brack stepped down from the his position after Activision Blizzard was hit with a discrimination and harassment lawsuit from the state of California last year, the first in a long series of accusations that have since been made against the company.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Diablo: Immortal will no longer be released in Belgium or the Netherlands due to lootboxes being illegal in both countries.

The long-awaited mobile (and now PC) game finally arrives on June 2 but developer Activision Blizzard cancelled the launch in the two European countries just days before their release date.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz and confirmed to Eurogamer, Diablo Immortal will not be available there due to "the current operating conditions in these countries", as Belgium and the Netherlands both deem lootboxes to be gambling and they're therefore illegal.

"Diablo Immortal will not be available in Belgium or the Netherlands, and will not appear on Battle.net or the Belgian and Netherlands App or Google Play Stores," a spokesperson told Eurogamer.

The ban was placed in 2018 and is essentially only intended to affect loot boxes that have contents which can be sold for money.

It's unclear if lootbox items will be sold on the secondary market in Diablo: Immortal (or if this will be possible in the game at all) but Activision Blizzard seemingly has some reason to believe this will be the case and has therefore banned the game in these territories altogether.

Diablo: Immortal was announced at BlizzCon 2018 and was rumoured to release on June 30 after a date appeared to those who pre-registered for the game on Apple devices.

It was almost immediately met with negative fan reception due to its mobile-only plans and then-Blizzard Entertainment president J. Allen Brack said the company learned that "fundamentally our roots are PC" as a result of the reveal.

However, once the game hit alpha, we called it a hell of a good time, even if it did come with some problems.

Brack stepped down from the his position after Activision Blizzard was hit with a discrimination and harassment lawsuit from the state of California last year, the first in a long series of accusations that have since been made against the company.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Last year, Bo Burnham's Inside got a lot of attention because of its unique musical take on life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, on the one-year anniversary of the Netflix special, Burnham has released over an hour of outtakes that didn't end up making the final cut.

Burnham shadow dropped the unreleased footage on Twitter and YouTube today, writing, "a year ago today, i released a special called inside. i've spent the last two months editing together material that i shot for the special but didn’t end up using. it will be on my youtube channel in one hour. i hope you enjoy it."

a year ago today, i released a special called inside. i've spent the last two months editing together material that i shot for the special but didn’t end up using. it will be on my youtube channel in one hour. i hope you enjoy it.

— Bo Burnham (@boburnham) May 31, 2022

You can now watch the 63-minute video on Burnham's YouTube page. The video includes unused sketches, songs, and more that didn't make it into the 83-minute final cut. The footage was filmed between March 2020 and May 2021, and Burnham started editing this unreleased footage just last month.

IGN nominated Burnham for best director of a movie last year, where we called the special "one of the most unforgettable pieces of quarantine viewing." It also won best music direction, writing, and directing for a variety special at the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, along with a handful of other accolades.

For more on Bo Burnham, check out how his sitcom on Netflix, Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, is more relevant than ever.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Last year, Bo Burnham's Inside got a lot of attention because of its unique musical take on life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, on the one-year anniversary of the Netflix special, Burnham has released over an hour of outtakes that didn't end up making the final cut.

Burnham shadow dropped the unreleased footage on Twitter and YouTube today, writing, "a year ago today, i released a special called inside. i've spent the last two months editing together material that i shot for the special but didn’t end up using. it will be on my youtube channel in one hour. i hope you enjoy it."

a year ago today, i released a special called inside. i've spent the last two months editing together material that i shot for the special but didn’t end up using. it will be on my youtube channel in one hour. i hope you enjoy it.

— Bo Burnham (@boburnham) May 31, 2022

You can now watch the 63-minute video on Burnham's YouTube page. The video includes unused sketches, songs, and more that didn't make it into the 83-minute final cut. The footage was filmed between March 2020 and May 2021, and Burnham started editing this unreleased footage just last month.

IGN nominated Burnham for best director of a movie last year, where we called the special "one of the most unforgettable pieces of quarantine viewing." It also won best music direction, writing, and directing for a variety special at the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, along with a handful of other accolades.

For more on Bo Burnham, check out how his sitcom on Netflix, Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, is more relevant than ever.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Bradley Cooper will completely transform into American conductor Leonard Bernstein for Netflix's Maestro, an upcoming drama based on Bernstein's life. The film will follow Bernstein's marriage to Felicia Montealegre, and in photos Netflix has released from the set, you can see Cooper is significantly aged up in one of the shots, to the point where he is barely recognizable.

From the set of MAESTRO. pic.twitter.com/y3qsYILk6P

— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) May 30, 2022

Earlier this year, Cooper confirmed to Variety that the film would start production this month. The movie is Cooper's first time back in the director's chair since 2018's A Star Is Born, which he starred in with Lady Gaga. For Maestro, Promising Young Woman's Carey Mulligan will star alongside Cooper as Montealegre. The movie is expected to come out sometime next year.

Bernstein was a conductor, composer, and pianist who lived from 1918 until 1990. His best-known work is the music for West Side Story, the Broadway musical about two rival teenage street gangs in 1950s Manhattan. The musical recently got a new theatrical adaptation, which we called amazing in our review.

A Star Is Born was Cooper's directorial debut, and the movie received widespread acclaim back in 2018. In our glowing review, we said the movie was "a refreshing take of this classic showbiz rise and fall tale, with updated character work, fantastic performances by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, and a soundtrack that will be stuck in your head for days." The movie received a handful of nominations at the 2019 Academy Awards, taking home the win for best original song with "Shallow."

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Bradley Cooper will completely transform into American conductor Leonard Bernstein for Netflix's Maestro, an upcoming drama based on Bernstein's life. The film will follow Bernstein's marriage to Felicia Montealegre, and in photos Netflix has released from the set, you can see Cooper is significantly aged up in one of the shots, to the point where he is barely recognizable.

From the set of MAESTRO. pic.twitter.com/y3qsYILk6P

— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) May 30, 2022

Earlier this year, Cooper confirmed to Variety that the film would start production this month. The movie is Cooper's first time back in the director's chair since 2018's A Star Is Born, which he starred in with Lady Gaga. For Maestro, Promising Young Woman's Carey Mulligan will star alongside Cooper as Montealegre. The movie is expected to come out sometime next year.

Bernstein was a conductor, composer, and pianist who lived from 1918 until 1990. His best-known work is the music for West Side Story, the Broadway musical about two rival teenage street gangs in 1950s Manhattan. The musical recently got a new theatrical adaptation, which we called amazing in our review.

A Star Is Born was Cooper's directorial debut, and the movie received widespread acclaim back in 2018. In our glowing review, we said the movie was "a refreshing take of this classic showbiz rise and fall tale, with updated character work, fantastic performances by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, and a soundtrack that will be stuck in your head for days." The movie received a handful of nominations at the 2019 Academy Awards, taking home the win for best original song with "Shallow."

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Remember those debates with your friends over who would win in a fight between God of War's Kratos and Halo's Master Chief? Well, now you can see the two video game titans duke it out thanks to a PC mod for God of War 2018.

The mod was originally created by Marcos RC, and the footage takes the first boss fight from the game, replacing The Stranger with Chief himself. You can check out a snippet of the brawl below, or watch the entire thing play out on Marcos RC's YouTube page.

We finally have a Master Chief vs Kratos battle. This is such damn cool mod. #Halo #HaloInfinite #GodofWarPC pic.twitter.com/vSSyd6nhAA

— Kidskull (@Kidskull51) May 29, 2022

Due to the nature of the original boss fight, Chief doesn't rely on any of his iconic weapons, instead opting for hand-to-hand combat. So, I guess the jury's still out on who would win if both characters were fully equipped.

Modders have been creating all sorts of wild God of War mods since the game launched on PC earlier this year. If you want to see a much more comical brawl, check out how one modder replaced Kratos and The Stranger with Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders from The Simpsons.

Kratos fans are anxiously awaiting God of War: Ragnarok, the follow-up title to 2018's God of War. Ragnarok recently received a rating in South Korea, suggesting the game is set to hit its 2022 release target. There are certainly high expectations for the game, as we awarded its predecessor a 10/10 and our 2018 Game of the Year award. God of War 2018 even came out on top in IGN's best video game of all time fan bracket.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Remember those debates with your friends over who would win in a fight between God of War's Kratos and Halo's Master Chief? Well, now you can see the two video game titans duke it out thanks to a PC mod for God of War 2018.

The mod was originally created by Marcos RC, and the footage takes the first boss fight from the game, replacing The Stranger with Chief himself. You can check out a snippet of the brawl below, or watch the entire thing play out on Marcos RC's YouTube page.

We finally have a Master Chief vs Kratos battle. This is such damn cool mod. #Halo #HaloInfinite #GodofWarPC pic.twitter.com/vSSyd6nhAA

— Kidskull (@Kidskull51) May 29, 2022

Due to the nature of the original boss fight, Chief doesn't rely on any of his iconic weapons, instead opting for hand-to-hand combat. So, I guess the jury's still out on who would win if both characters were fully equipped.

Modders have been creating all sorts of wild God of War mods since the game launched on PC earlier this year. If you want to see a much more comical brawl, check out how one modder replaced Kratos and The Stranger with Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders from The Simpsons.

Kratos fans are anxiously awaiting God of War: Ragnarok, the follow-up title to 2018's God of War. Ragnarok recently received a rating in South Korea, suggesting the game is set to hit its 2022 release target. There are certainly high expectations for the game, as we awarded its predecessor a 10/10 and our 2018 Game of the Year award. God of War 2018 even came out on top in IGN's best video game of all time fan bracket.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The Blitzball minigame from Final Fantasy 10 is now, weirdly, an official part of Star Wars canon.

The fantastical sport - which is essentially underwater hockey played by the inhabitants of Spira in Final Fantasy 10 - is mentioned in Star Wars: Brotherhood, a novel focusing on the adventures of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars.

As spotted by GamesRadar, author Mike Chen shared a series of Easter eggs from the novel on Twitter (below), revealing that he is a huge fan of Blitzball and therefore included it in the novel.

#6: There's a reference to a sport called Blitzball played in a local lake. Blitzball is basically underwater hockey played as a minigame in Final Fantasy X. As a former NHL writer, I freaking loved Blitzball and spent hours winning leagues. pic.twitter.com/uad4uIMcrA

— Mike Chen - LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME is out now! (@mikechenwriter) May 17, 2022

It's only a fleeting reference, but the sport is mentioned as something played in a local lake. Chen confirms this isn't a coincidence and comes straight from Final Fantasy, saying he's a big fan of hockey and therefore loved the minigame.

It's not the only video game reference in the book, though the other one is much more on brand. A jedi called Jaro Tapa (from the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order) is mentioned in the book and is seen with a "red-haired youngling", who Chen confirms to be the Fallen Order's protagonist, Cal.

There are several other references and Easter eggs included in Star Wars: Brotherhood that Chen unpacks in his thread, including the basis of some plot points (such as the giant space corgis being based on his dog).

There will likely be several more references hidden within the ever-growing franchise, with last weekend's Star Wars Celebration revealing the new Andor Disney+ series and Jedi: Survivor video game, and confirming that The Mandalorian Season 3 is coming next year.

For absolutely every piece of Star Wars news from the event check out IGN's round-up of everything announced at Star Wars Celebration 2022.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Blitzball minigame from Final Fantasy 10 is now, weirdly, an official part of Star Wars canon.

The fantastical sport - which is essentially underwater hockey played by the inhabitants of Spira in Final Fantasy 10 - is mentioned in Star Wars: Brotherhood, a novel focusing on the adventures of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars.

As spotted by GamesRadar, author Mike Chen shared a series of Easter eggs from the novel on Twitter (below), revealing that he is a huge fan of Blitzball and therefore included it in the novel.

#6: There's a reference to a sport called Blitzball played in a local lake. Blitzball is basically underwater hockey played as a minigame in Final Fantasy X. As a former NHL writer, I freaking loved Blitzball and spent hours winning leagues. pic.twitter.com/uad4uIMcrA

— Mike Chen - LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME is out now! (@mikechenwriter) May 17, 2022

It's only a fleeting reference, but the sport is mentioned as something played in a local lake. Chen confirms this isn't a coincidence and comes straight from Final Fantasy, saying he's a big fan of hockey and therefore loved the minigame.

It's not the only video game reference in the book, though the other one is much more on brand. A jedi called Jaro Tapa (from the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order) is mentioned in the book and is seen with a "red-haired youngling", who Chen confirms to be the Fallen Order's protagonist, Cal.

There are several other references and Easter eggs included in Star Wars: Brotherhood that Chen unpacks in his thread, including the basis of some plot points (such as the giant space corgis being based on his dog).

There will likely be several more references hidden within the ever-growing franchise, with last weekend's Star Wars Celebration revealing the new Andor Disney+ series and Jedi: Survivor video game, and confirming that The Mandalorian Season 3 is coming next year.

For absolutely every piece of Star Wars news from the event check out IGN's round-up of everything announced at Star Wars Celebration 2022.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.