California Governor Gavin Newsom has been accused of interfering in the Activision Blizzard sexual harassment lawsuit.

Allegations were made by Melanie Proctor, assistant chief counsel for California's Department for Fair Employment and Housing, after her boss, Chief Counsel Janette Wipper, was fired by the governor last month.

As reported by Bloomberg, Proctor resigned in protest to the firing and sent an email to staff saying the governor "began to interfere" in recent weeks and, "as we continued to win in state court, this interference increased, mimicking the interests of Activision's counsel."

She added: "The Office of the Governor repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation," and that her boss Wipper "attempted to protect" the agency's independence.

"I hereby resign, effective April 13, 2022, in protest of the interference and Janette’s termination," Proctor said.

Newsom's communication director Erin Mellon said "claims of interference by our office are categorically false", adding that the governor's office "will continue to support DFEH in their efforts to fight all forms of discrimination and protect Californians."

The lawsuit was filed on July 20 last year and became the first in a long series of accusations against Activision Blizzard over its alleged "frat boy" culture. It's currently pending in Los Angeles Superior Court with an expected trial date in February 2023, though it's unclear if these current allegations and the departures of Wipper and Proctor will affect the lawsuit.

Activision Blizzard recently settled another sexual harassment lawsuit with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $18 million but faces similar allegations from an anonymous individual and, of course, the state of California.

For a full timeline of the events that have transpired since, including Xbox's intent to acquire Activision Blizzard, check out IGN's story here.

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

Thumbnail image credit: Aric Crabb/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images

Hasbro announced today that it will be acquiring D&D Beyond the digital toolset and library for fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons.

The announcement came by way of Hasbro's investor newsfeed, followed by a post on the official Dungeons & Dragons website.

Welcome to the party, @DnDBEYOND – are you ready for the next adventure? https://t.co/iGtHcnRVUH pic.twitter.com/Ph5kkn7xMk

— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) April 13, 2022

"Dungeons & Dragons and D&D Beyond have always felt like a part of the same family," reads D&D's announcement. "That’s why we are excited to welcome everyone at D&D Beyond to formally join us at Wizards of the Coast, bringing together two teams dedicated to continuing to make Dungeons & Dragons easy to run and accessible to all!"

More importantly, it seems that current D&D Beyond members needn't worry about losing access to their catalog of campaigns, created characters, or purchased books.

"You’re probably wondering what kind of change might happen as a result of these two teams coming together," Wizards writes, "so let’s make this clear: we have no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond. The purchases you’ve made, the characters you’ve created, and the campaigns you’ve run aren’t going anywhere."

Calling it a " strategic acquisition", Hasbro seems to consider the purchase—which will cost the toy giant the "immaterial" sum of $146.3 million—an obvious step, citing D&D Beyond as a "significant contribution" to D&D's fastest-growing revenue stream. "The acquisition of D&D Beyond will accelerate our progress in both gaming and direct to consumer," said Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, "two priority areas of growth for Hasbro, providing immediate access to a loyal, growing player base."

Since launching in 2017 as an officially-licensed online compendium for both the free version of the D&D ruleset (with digital editions of published sourcebooks available for purchase), D&D Beyond quickly gained popularity with its additional tools for both Dungeon Masters and players. It's digital character sheet pulled from official content and playtest material—along with a wide variety of homebrew content shared by the community—and has since added other tools such as digital dice that do the math for you, encounter builders, and a combat tracker. With the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, the service saw a massive increase in active users as players started to move their weekly D&D games online.

There's been no word on whether or not players who purchase physical copies of new fifth-edition D&D books will be able to receive free or discounted digital copies, which has long been a topic of discussion within the digital D&D community. However, Hasbro's announcement does claim that the team aims to follow "a unified, player-centric vision" of Dungeons & Dragons moving forward.

“The team at D&D Beyond has built an incredible digital platform," said Cynthia Williams, President of WotC and Hasbro's Digital Gaming division, "and together we will deliver the best-possible Dungeons & Dragons experience for players around the world.”

The transaction still isn't final, though it has been approved by both Hasbro’s and Fandom’s Boards of Directors and is expected to close during the second or third quarter of 2022. Follow along here for more updates on digital D&D, as well as all the upcoming book releases and everything we know about the next version of Dungeons & Dragons.

JR is a Senior Producer at IGN, you can follow him on Twitter for more video games and tabletop RPG shenanigans.

Hasbro announced today that it will be acquiring D&D Beyond the digital toolset and library for fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons.

The announcement came by way of Hasbro's investor newsfeed, followed by a post on the official Dungeons & Dragons website.

Welcome to the party, @DnDBEYOND – are you ready for the next adventure? https://t.co/iGtHcnRVUH pic.twitter.com/Ph5kkn7xMk

— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) April 13, 2022

"Dungeons & Dragons and D&D Beyond have always felt like a part of the same family," reads D&D's announcement. "That’s why we are excited to welcome everyone at D&D Beyond to formally join us at Wizards of the Coast, bringing together two teams dedicated to continuing to make Dungeons & Dragons easy to run and accessible to all!"

More importantly, it seems that current D&D Beyond members needn't worry about losing access to their catalog of campaigns, created characters, or purchased books.

"You’re probably wondering what kind of change might happen as a result of these two teams coming together," Wizards writes, "so let’s make this clear: we have no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond. The purchases you’ve made, the characters you’ve created, and the campaigns you’ve run aren’t going anywhere."

Calling it a " strategic acquisition", Hasbro seems to consider the purchase—which will cost the toy giant the "immaterial" sum of $146.3 million—an obvious step, citing D&D Beyond as a "significant contribution" to D&D's fastest-growing revenue stream. "The acquisition of D&D Beyond will accelerate our progress in both gaming and direct to consumer," said Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, "two priority areas of growth for Hasbro, providing immediate access to a loyal, growing player base."

Since launching in 2017 as an officially-licensed online compendium for both the free version of the D&D ruleset (with digital editions of published sourcebooks available for purchase), D&D Beyond quickly gained popularity with its additional tools for both Dungeon Masters and players. It's digital character sheet pulled from official content and playtest material—along with a wide variety of homebrew content shared by the community—and has since added other tools such as digital dice that do the math for you, encounter builders, and a combat tracker. With the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, the service saw a massive increase in active users as players started to move their weekly D&D games online.

There's been no word on whether or not players who purchase physical copies of new fifth-edition D&D books will be able to receive free or discounted digital copies, which has long been a topic of discussion within the digital D&D community. However, Hasbro's announcement does claim that the team aims to follow "a unified, player-centric vision" of Dungeons & Dragons moving forward.

“The team at D&D Beyond has built an incredible digital platform," said Cynthia Williams, President of WotC and Hasbro's Digital Gaming division, "and together we will deliver the best-possible Dungeons & Dragons experience for players around the world.”

The transaction still isn't final, though it has been approved by both Hasbro’s and Fandom’s Boards of Directors and is expected to close during the second or third quarter of 2022. Follow along here for more updates on digital D&D, as well as all the upcoming book releases and everything we know about the next version of Dungeons & Dragons.

JR is a Senior Producer at IGN, you can follow him on Twitter for more video games and tabletop RPG shenanigans.

Just in case you didn’t think Call of Duty could get any crazier, season 3 seems to hint that Godzilla himself will show up to wreak havoc.

Call of Duty released Season 3’s “Classified Arms” trailer that has the team uncovering a mysterious device while searching for the released Nebula gas released by the Nazis.

The device is broadcasting an audio signal that’s heard at the end of the cinematic. The audio itself is somewhat broken up but sounds suspiciously like Godzilla’s signature roar.

YouTuber PrestigeIsKey posted a screenshot on his Twitter account of the audio ran through a spectrograph and found the words “Monsters Are Real.” And another Twitter user replied with a looping sound of Godzilla’s orca-like sound that matches the audio from the trailer. Both of these clues strongly hint at the famous kaiju making its grand appearance in Warzone.

When you run the audio through a spectrogram... https://t.co/7Xf06mYsb5 pic.twitter.com/qaq6D3cYbd

— Ryan B. (@PrestigeIsKey) April 13, 2022

Literally the same soundhttps://t.co/dPN6iebs2l

— BeeAggressive #MonsterverseShallContinue (@BeePlayingGames) April 13, 2022

Activision has attempted to tell an overarching story for the Warzone battle royale mode beginning in the Modern Warfare reboot in 2019. Since then, each successive Call of Duty has incorporated some of their worlds into the grand Warzone narrative. Recently, the original Verdansk play area was destroyed and replaced by Caldera after Call of Duty: Vanguard was released.

The inclusion of Godzilla would represent a radical change from the semi-realistic atmosphere of Call of Duty games (excluding Zombies mode). This could be an attempt to match Fortnite’s successful partnerships with third-party properties such as Marvel, DC, and Naruto.

That said, Call of Duty has included licensed material in the game before. Rambo, Jigsaw from the Saw horror movie franchise, and John McClane from Die Hard were playable operators in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. More recently, Snoop Dogg joined the lineup as an operator.

Call of Duty Vanguard, the most recent in the franchise, launched to lukewarm reviews. We thought the single-player campaign was highly polished if lacking a bit of variety. The multiplayer felt simple and underwhelming despite running on Modern Warfare’s engine.

David Matthews is a freelance writer for IGN.

Just in case you didn’t think Call of Duty could get any crazier, season 3 seems to hint that Godzilla himself will show up to wreak havoc.

Call of Duty released Season 3’s “Classified Arms” trailer that has the team uncovering a mysterious device while searching for the released Nebula gas released by the Nazis.

The device is broadcasting an audio signal that’s heard at the end of the cinematic. The audio itself is somewhat broken up but sounds suspiciously like Godzilla’s signature roar.

YouTuber PrestigeIsKey posted a screenshot on his Twitter account of the audio ran through a spectrograph and found the words “Monsters Are Real.” And another Twitter user replied with a looping sound of Godzilla’s orca-like sound that matches the audio from the trailer. Both of these clues strongly hint at the famous kaiju making its grand appearance in Warzone.

When you run the audio through a spectrogram... https://t.co/7Xf06mYsb5 pic.twitter.com/qaq6D3cYbd

— Ryan B. (@PrestigeIsKey) April 13, 2022

Literally the same soundhttps://t.co/dPN6iebs2l

— BeeAggressive #MonsterverseShallContinue (@BeePlayingGames) April 13, 2022

Activision has attempted to tell an overarching story for the Warzone battle royale mode beginning in the Modern Warfare reboot in 2019. Since then, each successive Call of Duty has incorporated some of their worlds into the grand Warzone narrative. Recently, the original Verdansk play area was destroyed and replaced by Caldera after Call of Duty: Vanguard was released.

The inclusion of Godzilla would represent a radical change from the semi-realistic atmosphere of Call of Duty games (excluding Zombies mode). This could be an attempt to match Fortnite’s successful partnerships with third-party properties such as Marvel, DC, and Naruto.

That said, Call of Duty has included licensed material in the game before. Rambo, Jigsaw from the Saw horror movie franchise, and John McClane from Die Hard were playable operators in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. More recently, Snoop Dogg joined the lineup as an operator.

Call of Duty Vanguard, the most recent in the franchise, launched to lukewarm reviews. We thought the single-player campaign was highly polished if lacking a bit of variety. The multiplayer felt simple and underwhelming despite running on Modern Warfare’s engine.

David Matthews is a freelance writer for IGN.

You’re not supposed to connect an external GPU to the Steam Deck, but someone did it anyway.

YouTuber ETA Prime not only managed to get it working, but was able to play games like Elden Ring at 4K with maxed out settings. Valve has repeatedly said that external graphics cards aren’t compatible, but ETA Prime was able to make it happen anyway.

They managed it by utilizing the Steam Deck’s M.2 PCIe x4 socket, which is normally meant for storage. ETA Prime used an external graphics card M.2 dock that plugs into the storage socket at one end and the graphics card at the other end. While that only allows the Steam Deck to use four lanes of PCIe, it still worked regardless. To complete the “build”, ETA Prime connected both the M.2 dock and graphics card to a standard ATX power supply.

Since the native SteamOS doesn’t support external graphics cards, ETA Prime had to boot Windows 11 off of a microSD card. Finally, he used a USB-C hub to connect accessories like a mouse and keyboard.

He tested a range of graphics cards from the Nvidia GTX 1060, GTX 1650, RTX 3060, Radeon RX 590, RX 480, and RX 6900XT. Unfortunately, none of the Nvidia cards worked, perhaps due to the AMD architecture used in the Steam Deck.

After running a bevy of AAA games, he was able to average between 40 and 108 frames per second depending on the game. The Witcher 3 was able to run well over 100 frames, while other games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 managed between 40 and 50 frames per second.

The entire APU inside the Steam Deck is rated between 4W and 15W of power. That means that though it’s using AMD’s latest Zen 3 CPU architecture, the lower power ultimately limits how fast the CPU can run. This creates bottlenecks for demanding games, especially ones that require more CPU power such as open world games.

Obviously, this isn’t something that most people should do. The whole point of the Steam Deck is to be portable. That said, one of the selling points of the Steam Deck is the ability to plug into an external monitor and play using a traditional mouse and keyboard setup. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched to see if Valve includes external GPU support in the future.

Our Steam Deck review was mostly positive with major points being given to the ability to play a good chunk of our backlog of Steam games anywhere. However, we also noted that it still has a long way to go with several bugs and launch issues that hamper the experience. Fortunately, if you’ve already preordered the Steam Deck, Valve is ramping up shipments and is allowing people to finalize their order.

David Matthews is a freelance writer for IGN.

You’re not supposed to connect an external GPU to the Steam Deck, but someone did it anyway.

YouTuber ETA Prime not only managed to get it working, but was able to play games like Elden Ring at 4K with maxed out settings. Valve has repeatedly said that external graphics cards aren’t compatible, but ETA Prime was able to make it happen anyway.

They managed it by utilizing the Steam Deck’s M.2 PCIe x4 socket, which is normally meant for storage. ETA Prime used an external graphics card M.2 dock that plugs into the storage socket at one end and the graphics card at the other end. While that only allows the Steam Deck to use four lanes of PCIe, it still worked regardless. To complete the “build”, ETA Prime connected both the M.2 dock and graphics card to a standard ATX power supply.

Since the native SteamOS doesn’t support external graphics cards, ETA Prime had to boot Windows 11 off of a microSD card. Finally, he used a USB-C hub to connect accessories like a mouse and keyboard.

He tested a range of graphics cards from the Nvidia GTX 1060, GTX 1650, RTX 3060, Radeon RX 590, RX 480, and RX 6900XT. Unfortunately, none of the Nvidia cards worked, perhaps due to the AMD architecture used in the Steam Deck.

After running a bevy of AAA games, he was able to average between 40 and 108 frames per second depending on the game. The Witcher 3 was able to run well over 100 frames, while other games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 managed between 40 and 50 frames per second.

The entire APU inside the Steam Deck is rated between 4W and 15W of power. That means that though it’s using AMD’s latest Zen 3 CPU architecture, the lower power ultimately limits how fast the CPU can run. This creates bottlenecks for demanding games, especially ones that require more CPU power such as open world games.

Obviously, this isn’t something that most people should do. The whole point of the Steam Deck is to be portable. That said, one of the selling points of the Steam Deck is the ability to plug into an external monitor and play using a traditional mouse and keyboard setup. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched to see if Valve includes external GPU support in the future.

Our Steam Deck review was mostly positive with major points being given to the ability to play a good chunk of our backlog of Steam games anywhere. However, we also noted that it still has a long way to go with several bugs and launch issues that hamper the experience. Fortunately, if you’ve already preordered the Steam Deck, Valve is ramping up shipments and is allowing people to finalize their order.

David Matthews is a freelance writer for IGN.

Both Nintendo and Sony are changing their online subscription renewal systems following an investigation from the UK government.

The changes essentially make it harder for people to unknowingly pay money towards PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online, as reported by Gamesindustry.biz, after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into automatic renewal practices.

Sony will contact customers who haven't used the service in a long time to show them how to cancel their PS Plus subscription. If users neither cancel themselves nor return to the service, Sony will stop taking payments altogether.

Nintendo, on the other hand, will no longer have automatic renewal set as the default option when customers sign up to Nintendo Switch Online, meaning they will have to manually activate the feature themselves.

Michael Grenfell, executive director of enforcement at the CMA, told gamesindustry.biz: "As a result of our investigations, a number of changes have been made across this sector to protect customers and help tackle concerns about auto-renewing subscriptions."

Microsoft made changes to its Live Gold and Game Pass subscriptions in January when the government investigation was first launched.

It agreed to give better upfront information about automatic renewal, offer refunds to customers who renew accidentally, contact and cancel inactive memberships (like Sony is now doing), and give clearer notifications about price increases.

Sony announced an overhaul of its PS Plus service last month and as of June it will feature three different tiers ranging in price from $59.99 to $119.99.

The subscription services across all three consoles offer a number of free games. PlayStation's April line-up is headlined by Hood: Outlaws & Legends, Xbox's Games with Gold by Another Sight, and Nintendo recently added Mario Golf to its N64 library.

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

Niantic's next game is Peridot, a virtual pet game reminiscent of everything from Tamagotchi to Neopets. It's Niantic's latest attempt to recreate the overwhelming success of Pokemon Go, this time with an experience geared firmly toward casual audiences.

In development for two and a half years, Peridot is Niantic's first original property since Ingress. It's built around breeding, raising, and playing with mystical creatures called Peridots, who are awakening after thousands of years.

Like Niantic's other games, Peridot will be structured around exploring the real world with your virtual pets. Using Nianatic's Lightship ARDK technology, Peridots can recognize differing terrain and forage for different items depending on whether they're on grass, water, or sand. Gameplay will also change depending on the different weather patterns, and Niantic says that it's working on implementing snow as well.

Peridot will feature Daily Tasks including petting, feeding, and walking your ceature. Individual Peridots will also have their own desires, such as going to a specific destination or eating a blue tomato. There will be no consequences if you neglect your Peridot, so they will never die if you get busy and decide to do something else for a while. Instead, Niantic wants to reward players for coming back and playing more often.

"To be perfectly honest, we looked at a lot of pets in games. Our game design team was playing most of them while were iterating on them," producer Ziah Fogel says.

Peridots can be bred together upon reaching maturity, with each Peridot varying in likes, dislikes, abilities, and appearance. Individual archetypes include "Unicorn" and "Clownfish," along with more esoteric themes like "Jester." Breeding will take place in special nests themed around certain archetypes, with some able to mutate one feature, and others able to mutate a host of features.

Certain archetypes will be especially rare and prized among players, Niantic says. Each Peridot will have its own unique DNA, created with a mix of hand-created assets and procedural generation.

While Peridot will be less about raids and battles than Pokémon Go, and more about raising a series of virtual pets, Niantic says it's doing its best to take into consideration the needs of rural players.

An imaginative new friend. A story that’s completely yours. Peridot, a real-world adventure pet game where you raise, care for, and breed one-of-a-kind adorable creatures. Pre-register today to stay up-to-date on our development! https://t.co/mMAQke9HiB pic.twitter.com/0RT5FRXC5G

— PlayPeridot (@playperidot) April 13, 2022

"It's something we have been thinking a lot about," Fogel says. "This game in particular, while it does ask you to go to the Point of Interest [in-game areas based on real-world landmarks], particularly for the breeding loop, there are other elements that can be done without a Point of Interest."

They cite feeding, petting, and training as elements that don't require the activation of a Point of Interest. In additon, Fogel says Niantic is looking into other ways to help rural players, such as bringing in floating elements.

Niantic also addressed microtransactions — another thorny subject among players. Niantic says Peridot will feature a "wide variety" of in-app purchases, including the ability to make creatures grow faster, or to have an easier time breeding in a particular habit or place of interest.

The balance of progression against microtransactions have occasionally sparked frustration among Pokémon Go players, but it also earned a cool $1 billion in 2020. One way or another, microtransactions were a given for Peridot.

Either way, Peridot is perhaps Niantic's chance to capture the ongoing appeal of Pokemon on its own terms without feeling like an off-brand clone. It will be available in select markets later this month in both the App Store and Google Play. Niantic did not elaborate on the markets where it would be available.

"It is quite different [from Pokémon Go]," Fogel says. "We think that Peridot is going to appeal to a wide range of audiences."

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.

From director Naveen A. Chathapuram (Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn), The Last Victim is a gritty neo-western starring Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Ralph Ineson (The Green Knight), and Ali Larter (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter).

Debuting in theaters and on-demand on May 13, "The Last Victim follows a group of modern-day outlaws (led by Ineson), pursued by an aging sheriff (Perlman), who deal with the fallout of a crime gone wrong in the harsh landscape of the American Southwest. When a young professor (Larter) and her husband cross paths with the gang, they are drawn into a chain of vengeance where morality is ambiguous and survival is the only priority," according to film distributor Decal.

IGN can exclusively reveal a trailer for The Last Victim in the video below, or at the top of the page:

The Last Victim is based on a story from Chathapuram and Doc Justin, with the screenplay written by Ashley James Louis.

We also have an exclusive poster to show you featuring Perlman, Larter, and Ineson with the tagline, "No Bodies. No Convictions." Check out the poster in the gallery below:

What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments. And for more on the world of movies, find out how Spider-Man changed Jake Gyllenhaal's outlook on acting, the official HBO Max release date for The Batman, and our review of All the Old Knives starring Chris Pine.

David Griffin is the TV Streaming Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.