Sony has announced Gran Turismo Sophy, an artificial intelligence built in collaboration between Sony AI, Polyphony Digital, and the cloud gaming team at Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Revealed as part of the Race Together Media Event, Sony claims that the new artificial intelligence, which has been trained using Gran Turismo Sport, can race competitively against the best Gran Turismo players in the world.

In development tests, Gran Turismo Sophy was pitted against four of the world's best Gran Turismo Sport players across two separate events, one in July 2021 and a second in October 2021. The first test saw Sophy score 70 points across three different races, while the human team scored 86. After a few months of training, Gran Turismo Sophy was able to score 104 points in a second round of tests, versus the human team's score of 52. Sophy won every race in this second test, and set the best lap time.

Sophy is trained through a deep reinforcement learning system, using Sony Interactive Entertainment's cloud gaming infrastructure. The system trains the AI in three areas: Physical Realism, which teaches Sophy to control a car and exploit features of track, Realtime Race Tactics, which coaches the AI to master passing and optimise its use of the racing line, and Sports Etiquette, which trains Sophy to drive aggressive but fairly.

Sony notes that Gran Turismo Sophy is a different kind of AI to the likes of artificial intelligences used in chess, shogi, Go and things such as AlphaStar and OpenAI Five AI developed for RTS video games. Where those AIs generally work with tactics and strategy, Sophy must also deal with simulated physics, too. Essentially, the AI has to learn how to drive a car and deal with the physical properties of that, and then learn how to win a race against human opponents.

While it was a goal of Sony AI to develop an artificial intelligence that race competitively against the top Gran Turismo drivers, the team also saw importance in making an AI that would also be fun for the top drivers to race against. Gran Turismo Sophy has been designed not to feel unfair or seem outlandishly superhuman.

While Gran Turismo Sophy is already displaying very impressive results, it's not something you should expect to see in GT7 at launch. However, "Sony AI and PDI will explore how to integrate GT Sophy into future releases of the Gran Turismo series," says Michael Spranger, COO of Sony AI, in a new post on the Sony AI website.

For more on Gran Turismo, check out our final preview of Gran Turismo 7.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

It's never good news for DC's heroes when the word "Crisis" is bandied about. DC is gearing up for another Crisis event in Summer 2022, and it couldn't come at a worse time for our heroes.

DC has announced Dark Crisis, a new event comic being billed as the company's "biggest story of 2022." This crossover builds on the foundation of past epics like 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths and 2005's Infinite Crisis, as a familiar cosmic villain seeks to restore the original DC multiverse.

Dark Crisis is written by Joshua Williamson (Batman) and drawn by Daniel Sampere (Action Comics). It's no coincidence this story is debuting shortly after Williamson chronicles the death of the Justice League in April's Justice League #75. Dark Crisis builds directly on the events of that issue and other recent DC series like Infinite Frontier. This new conflict will unfold in a time when nearly every member of the League is feared dead, leaving the newly minted Superman, Jon Kent, to spearhead a new team. But as Jon will discover, not every hero is willing to put their life on the line for what may well be a suicide mission.

The instigator of this new Crisis happens to be a key figure from the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, Pariah. Originally a scientist named Kell Mossa, this tormented figure accidentally caused the destruction of his world when he attempted to view the creation of the universe and attracted the wrath of the Anti-Monitor. Now Pariah seems to have found a way of restoring the countless universes the Anti-Monitor devoured, even if it means harnessing the cosmic power known as the Great Darkness and using it to destroy Earth-0.

The preview art featured above offers a few clues as to the events of Dark Crisis. DC previously teased that only one member of the Justice League will survive the bloodbath in issue #75, and the cover to Dark Crisis #1 suggests Black Adam is that survivor. That same cover also suggests Pariah will be joining forces with a very powerful lineup of DC villains, including Darkseid, Ares, Trigon, Deathstroke, Doomsday and even Black Lantern Corps leader Nekron.

Dark Crisis itself is a seven-issue limited series that will ship monthly beginning in June 2022. If past Crisis events are any indication, readers can probably expect a number of tie-in comics as well. For now, DC is only revealing two prologue books shipping in May. The first of these, Dark Crisis #0, is being released as part of Free Comic Book Day 2022 on May 7. The second, an anthology special called Justice League: The Road to Dark Crisis #1, will release on May 31.

“Dark Crisis is an epic DCU event about legacy,” said Williamson in DC's press release. “It will have all the giant, fun cosmic battles and Multiversal set pieces, but it’s not about reboots, retcons, or rewriting time and space. At its core it’s about the characters and the relationships that we’ve seen built over DC’s great history. Dark Crisis spins out of Justice League #75 'DEATH OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE' and connects all the story threads across the DCU since Infinite Frontier #0 in a major way. Unifying the new legacy of the DCU as we honor the classic. You can't miss it!”

“To me, Dark Crisis is a big celebration for all DC fans,” said Sampere. “It’s a huge event full of epic heart, an event that embraces the past while looking to the future. Joshua and I are the biggest DC fans, and this is our love letter to these characters and this universe.”

DC has also released a video teaser for Dark Crisis on YouTube.

Are you intrigued by this first look at Dark Crisis? Annoyed that 2008's Final Crisis wasn't actually the final Crisis? Let us know what you think of this news in the comments below. And check out the video below to brush up on what to expect from DC in 2022:

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 will reportedly see Tom Cruise step out as Ethan Hunt for the last time as the action-packed film series reaches its final "culmination."

According to a report from Variety, an unnamed insider has indicated that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films will serve as a "culmination" of the entire film series and deliver a "sendoff" for Cruise's Ethan Hunt character, who has been the face of the franchise since 1996 when the first installment of the spy thriller series hit theaters.

The first entry, directed by Brian De Palma, became the third highest-grossing movie of the year and went on to spawn a monumental franchise, spanning more than two decades with six entries up to now. The most recent installment, 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout, turned out to be the best-reviewed and highest-grossing film in the franchise to date.

The next two sequels in the long-running series were originally meant to be filmed back-to-back, however, the production suffered numerous delays as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shifts in the shooting schedule then caused conflicts with Cruise and his other commitments, including promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick.

As a further consequence of these delays, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have postponed the release dates of Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 multiple times. The latest update came at the beginning of the year when it was announced that the two beleaguered films have been delayed once again, and will now be released in 2023 and 2024.

Variety reports that part of the reasoning for the release dates being moved is that Cruise wants the eighth film, which is about to go into production in South Africa, to wrap production before the seventh film is released because the seventh entry apparently ends on a cliffhanger, and Cruise is keen to make sure that the two parts fit together seamlessly.

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

Bandai Namco has made an official announcement recognising the current technical difficulties with the Dark Souls games on PC, and has said that it is now looking into Elden Ring ahead of launch to ensure the problem does not affect the new FromSoftware game.

In a statement on Twitter, Bandai Namco and FromSoftware said that they are "aware of the technical difficulties players have experienced with the Dark Souls suite of games on PC", referring to the fact that servers are down after a "serious exploit" was discovered.

#DarkSouls pic.twitter.com/ZRhX9OcvQe

— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) February 9, 2022

The companies offered their thanks to fans who have reported the issue. "Thanks to you, we have identified the cause and are working on fixing the issue."

"In addition, we have extended the investigation to Elden Ring - our upcoming title launching on February 25th - and have made sure the necessary security measures are in place for this title on all target platforms," the statement reads.

This suggests that Elden Ring's online features should be available on PC when it launches later this month. However, the situation has meant that severs for Dark Souls will not be returning until later. "Due to the time required to set up proper testing environments, online services for the Dark Souls series on PC will not resume until after the release of Elden Ring," says the statement.

"We will continue to do everything we can to bring back these services as soon as possible," it continues. "We will make an announcement as soon as the schedule is determined for resuming online services."

The issue affecting FromSoftware games on PC was discovered last month, with Reddit users claiming a RCE (Remote Code Execution) exploit had been discovered that could let hackers "run arbitrary code on your machine without permission." The users who discovered the exploit noted that it could affect Elden Ring, but thankfully FromSoft's work on the issue seems to mean that Elden Ring will launch on PC without problems.

For more from Elden Ring, check out our hands-on preview and details on the game's multiplayer. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has also said meeting George R.R. Martin to discuss Elden Ring was "like speaking with an old friend", but thinks Martin would be "shocked" at what he's done to his characters.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

More than 60,000 Battlefield 2042 players have signed a petition asking for their money back, as the game continues to receive criticism for its slow update roll out and perceived lack of features.

Eurogamer spotted the petition, which requested that refunds available on Steam be extended to PlayStation and Xbox customers, and said EA made "a mockery" of customers who purchased the game.

The publisher admitted itself that Battlefield 2042 "did not meet expectations" and developer DICE has recently delayed a number of updates to the game including its first season pass and the addition of a scoreboard.

The petition reads: "EA’s release of Battlefield 2042 was a mockery of every customer who purchased this video game for $70 (USD) due to EA’s false advertising. Battlefield 2042 has cost consumers millions of dollars in damages and upset thousands of customers worldwide."

Complaints arose almost immediately when Battlefield 2042 launched on November 19 with server and UI problems, and fans quickly noticed a number of features they thought were missing from the game.

DICE announced on February 1 that Battlefield 2042's Season One would be delayed so the studio could focus on more immediate issues in the game, starting with an end-of-round scoreboard being added. But the developer said two days later that this update would also be delayed until March as it had to release a hotfix to tackle game instability issues caused by the previous patch.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Lost Ark is already one of Steam's biggest-ever games, overtaking the likes of Apex Legends and Among Us in peak concurrent users, even before it goes free-to-play later this week.

Per SteamDB data, the game's peak concurrent users currently stand at 532,476, placing it sixth in Steam's all-time list behind only New World, Cyberpunk 2077, Dota 2, CS: GO, and PUBG. Incredibly, it hit that number within 4 hours of going on release as a paid game, even though it will become free-to-play on Friday.

That sheer influx seemed to be causing some problems initially, with users reporting connectivity issues and increased queue times that prompted developer Smilegate to open another North American server shortly after launch:

In response to increased queue times, we have opened up a new server on NA East (Karmine).

The team will continue to monitor server queues and make additional adjustments if necessary.

— Lost Ark (@playlostark) February 9, 2022

Lost Ark is an MMO / ARPG with isometric action similar to the Diablo games, featuring 15 playable classes, a cinematic story-led campaign, and co-op PvE combat. It was released in South Korea in 2019 and later in Japan and Russia, with a North American and European release finally arriving this week.

As you'd expect, the game is also seeing massive viewership on Twitch with SteamDB reporting a peak of more than 1.2 million people watching on its early access launch day.

A key to the game's streaming success may be in the free items given to Lost Ark players for watching gameplay. Content creators with early access participated in the Legends of Lost Ark launch event that had them compete to unlock Twitch Drops for viewers.

Twitch users, for every four hours watched, can unlock a Battle Chest Item, an Arkesia Paper Hat Chest, a Helgaia Pet Chest, and a gold Neugier hoverboard mount until February 28 - the incentive made possible by Twitch's owner Amazon also funding the game's western release.

Lost Ark will officially launch as a fully free-to-play game on February 11 at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK (that's February 12 at 4am AEDT).

In our preview for the game, we said Lost Ark's combat is "very, very good, combining the best elements of MMOs and ARPGs," and there's "a sense of wonder surrounding this game that has us greatly excited."

Lost Ark marks Amazon's second major gaming success after the launch of New World - which sits in fifth place on Steam's peak concurrent users lists - after it became Steam's most played game of 2021 just a day after it was released.

New World's popularity also brought problems however as Amazon had "alarms going off" for months after the release, as it was forced to double servers, and fix other issues such as gold exploitation and crashing.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has received its first post-launch patch, which has helped fix a glitch that made the Pokémon Cherrim incredibly difficult to catch.

Version 1.0.2 of the game was released on February 8 and "fixed an issue that sometimes made it difficult to catch Cherrim" alongside a handful of other minor bugs.

Players may have expected Arceus and the other legendary Pokémon to be among the hardest to catch but Cherrim, while easy enough to beat, often refused to stay in its Pokéball.

I have been fighting this Cherrim for like half an hour. I've thrown >50 ultra balls with no success. Am I losing my mind? pic.twitter.com/7KCHt0vavK

— zippyzap (@zippyzapps) February 8, 2022

As Pokémon Legends: Arceus encourages catching the same Pokémon over and over, Cherrim certainly proved a problem as it sometimes refused to be caught even after dozens of attempts.

Cherrim's unique ability allows it to change form depending on the weather - its flower opens if it's sunny and closes if it's not - but the glitch seemingly dropped the Pokémon's Catch Rate to zero if it changed forms even once.

Following the patch. however, many users are now reporting that the elusive Cherrim can now finally be caught as expected.

The full patch notes can be seen here:

• Fixed an issue where, while offline, the screen could freeze after trying to pick up a lost satchel by throwing out a ball that contains a Pokémon.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes made it difficult to catch Cherrim.
• Fixed an issue where a certain event would not occur during a particular Mission, preventing the scenario from proceeding as intended.
• Fixed an issue where players could obtain certain Pokémon twice instead of once only as intended, prohibiting the player from obtaining other certain Pokémon. The relevant Pokémon will appear for players who were unable to catch those certain Pokémon due to this issue.

IGN said Pokémon Legends: Arceus was "good", and "an ambitious revamp that successfully revolutionizes the defining Pokemon experiences of catching and battling, but is unfortunately set in a drab, empty, and at times tedious world."

The merger between Nvidia and Softbank's chip business, Arm, has reportedly fallen apart due to regulatory and competition concerns. This decision came after Nvidia's board meeting on Monday. If it had been successful, the merger would have given Nvidia much more power in the chip industry.

In a new report from the Financial Times, SoftBank and Nvidia decided to stop pursuing the deal between them because of the regulatory hurdles that came with completing the transaction. Executive management at Arm has been changed due to the deal collapsing. CEO Simon Segars has been replaced by Rene Haas, who was previously the president of Arm's intellectual property group.

SoftBank will receive a fee of 1.25B and said that it would be looking to seek an initial public offering of Arm before the end of the next fiscal year in March 2023. It's currently unknown whether Arm will list itself in New York rather than London, as its headquarters are located in the UK.

With its base of operations in the UK, British politicians viewed Arm as a strong asset to have in the country. A British competition review was even extended due to concerns about national security because of the company potentially being listed outside of the UK.

However, Nvidia tried to assuage the anxieties of British politicians by saying that it would be able to financially help Arm expand into new markets. Softbank reportedly wants to list Arm in New York because it would have a higher valuation than the UK.

Some big tech corporations, such as Qualcomm and Microsoft, were against this merger because they relied on Arm's chip designs. Nvidia would have gotten first rights to Arms technology if the merger had been approved.

The deal between Arm and Nvidia was announced in September 2020. Recently, there have been shortages of semiconductor chips globally, as gaming companies like PlayStation and Nintendo have reported that the production of consoles has slowed down as a result.

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

Nothing old is safe, not even a beloved green clay-man.

THR reports Fox Entertainment has bought the rights to Gumby, the 1950's stop-motion animated character, from Joseph Clokey, son of Gumby creator Art Clokey. The deal includes all characters from the Gumby universe, including his horse pal Pokey.

Fox plans to "reimagine" the green character through multiple live-action and animated productions. Fox also plans to stream past Gumby series on its Tubi streaming service, plus develop new merchandise, including NFTs.

“Competition for globally recognized intellectual property is fierce. Uncovering this gem, with its built-in awareness and affinity, and bringing it to Fox, adds meaningful value and creative possibilities to the IP itself and to multiple divisions of our company,” said Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier. “Fox is proud to be home to these iconic characters. Welcome one and all.”

"Uncovering" might be a generous term to use for resurrecting a beloved kid's property that multiple generations still remember fondly. Gumby debuted to American audiences in the early 1950s on kid's program Howdy Doody, rocketing to success and multiple series airing on NBC through the '50s and '60s.

In the '80s, Gumby experienced a revival thanks in part to comedian Eddie Murphy's SNL parody of the character and the success of home video purchases. Eventually, Gumby reruns aired on both Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Gumby is commonly regarded as a landmark television series for its stop-motion animation.

Since selling much of its IP to Disney, Fox has acquired Bob's Burgers animation studio Bento Box and MaraVista Entertainment, acquired TMZ, and entered a new production studio partnership with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Credit: NBC/SNL

Sony is beta testing some new customization features for PlayStation 5 users based on feedback from the players. The new software beta is kicking off tomorrow, and it includes new party chat options, game base enhancements, accessibility options, and UI features.

As announced on the PlayStation Blog, Sony detailed the new features coming to the console. First, Sony said there are new changes to the Parties system on PS5. Players will now be able to start an open party, which all of your friends can see and join, or a closed party exclusively for players you invite.

PlayStation 4 players will also be able to control individual voice chat volume for every person in a party, which is already a feature on PS5.

Sony is also making changes to the Game Base, which is the PS5 menu where you set up parties, invite friends, and see messages. Now, it will be divided into three menu tabs: friends, parties, and messages. PlayStation says this should give players faster access to find what they're looking for.

As for UI features, you'll be able to sort your game collection by genre. Previous sorting options were limited to alphabetical order and recently played games.

There's also an option to keep up to five games and apps locked to your home screen, so they don't get pushed off the page if you haven't opened them recently.

Another big change is a new voice command feature that's getting a limited test release in the U.S. and U.K. With this, you can open games, apps, and settings using the built-in microphone on the PS5's DualSense controller. Players will launch the voice command option by saying "Hey, PlayStation!", much like how you start a voice command on your iPhone or Google Home. You can turn off the voice command feature at any time in system settings.

Keep in mind, these settings aren't rolling out to every PS5 user just yet, only to players who make it into the beta. In other news, PlayStation recently integrated Discord, allowing users to connect their accounts to their consoles.

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