The PS4 version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake seems to be coming to PS Plus next March, at least in Japan – but it won't upgrade freely to the new PS5 version. As pointed out by Twitter user aibo, the Japanese PS Store listing for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade includes small print that indicates the original PS4 game will be added to PS Plus on March 1. However, roughly translated, that listing adds that, "The PlayStation®4 version "FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE" obtained as a free play by subscribing to PlayStation®Plus cannot be upgraded to the PlayStation®5 version." It's worth pointing out that Japanese PS Plus games can differ from those in other territories. We've contacted Sony for comment. Developing...

Players will be able to upgrade their PlayStation 5 internal storage following an update in the summer, according to a Bloomberg report. Sources close to the planning process told Bloomberg that a firmware patch will arrive later this year, and will let players upgrade the internal storage on the console with compatible M.2 SSD drives. The console launched with the upgradable expansion slot, but it's been unusable – the patch will finally activate it, allowing owners to improve upon the 667 GB of storage available from the PS5's internal SSD, crucially letting them store more than a few PS5 games on the system at one time. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/25/state-of-play-live-stream-playstation"] The console's storage can already be expanded via an external drive connected by USB, but it will only be able to play and store PS4 games. At present, native PS5 games have to be played on the console's internal storage, but this reported patch will at least let players have more internal space for PS5 games. Bloomberg's report says that the update will also unlock "higher cooling-fan speeds" to support custom drives and mitigate overheating. This reported patch will be important given the ballooning storage real-estate taken up by modern games. Earlier this week, Activision said that 500 GB PS4 owners may "need to make room" if they wish to have the fully updated versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone installed. In other PlayStation 5 news, Sony hosted a State of Play this week that revealed new games such as Sufi and Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Nintendo Switch title Monster Hunter Rise will eventually come to PC, according to producer Ryozo Tsujimoto. While the latest title in the Monster Hunter series will launch on Switch on March 26, Tsujimoto told IGN Japan in an interview that PC players can expect to get their hands on the game sometime in early 2022.

“We received a lot of requests for a PC version of Monster Hunter Rise, particularly from overseas players, and so we have decided to develop a version for PC, which we aim to release in early 2022,” said Tsujimoto. “This is still under development, so I’d like to share more detailed information when the time is right.”

No other details of the PC version were available.

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While Monster Hunter has long been a killer franchise in Japan, 2018’s Monster Hunter: World and its Iceborne expansion brought the series to global success, with World selling over 16.8 million units worldwide, and a further 7.2 million sales for Iceborne. It’s encouraging to hear that Capcom is listening to series fans around the world when it considers platforms for new entries such as Rise.

Monster Hunter Rise has been specifically designed with the Switch’s capabilities in mind – for example, Tsujimoto said in the interview that during development “we considered the characteristics of the Nintendo Switch, which can be used as a handheld, and with that in mind we focused on hunting at a higher tempo than before.”

It is not clear how such aspects will translate to a PC version. But Rise’s emphasis on action results in tightened core mechanics that should be fun to play regardless of platform, and the game has been made even more welcoming to new players than the already accessible Monster Hunter World.

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For example, in addition to the feline Palico buddies from previous games, Rise introduces Palamutes, canine creatures that assist the player in battle and that can even be ridden like a horse, making exploration much faster and more dynamic. “We especially wanted to have the fun of traveling around on the Palamute available in multiplayer,” said Tsujimoto. “Getting the necessary performance out of the [Switch] hardware required some adjustments, but we were able to achieve it eventually through continued development.”

While the Switch hardware does come with technical limitations, Rise is a beautiful game with stunning art direction and a complex ecosystem that allows monsters to interact organically with one another. It is notably the first Monster Hunter on a handheld system to feature seamless maps with no loading between areas, a challenge that the development team worked hard to pull off. So there should be no reason to worry that a PC version would be held back by the game’s Switch origins.

Capcom has had success with previous ports to more powerful hardware, such as when 2011’s Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate received a gorgeous HD update for Wii U in 2012. So perhaps a PC version of Rise could receive a similar makeover.

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For more on Monster Hunter Rise, take a tour of Kamura Village in the video above, with brand new surprising details about its facilities, like the Gathering Hub, Canteen, and Training Area!  Also, check out our Monster Hunter Rise preview of the game overall.

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Ryuichi Kataoka is a freelance writer for IGN Japan. Daniel Robson is Chief Editor at IGN Japan.

 

343 Industries has shared seven new Halo Infinite screenshots showcasing the new Halo ring and a day and night cycle.

The Alien franchise has invaded Fortnite, as both Ripley and the Xenomorph are now available for purchase. Announced by The Fortnite Team, Ripley arrives with her Nostromo Crew Outfit variant and the Weyland-Yutani Cat Carrier, which comes complete with Jonesy the Cat. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/26/fortnite-ripley-and-alien-xenomorph-trailer"] The Xenomorph comes equipped with not only the Xenomorph Tail Back Bling, but also the Xeno Menace built-in Emote. The Space Gear Bundle is another purchasable addition from the Alien universe, and includes the P-500 Power Loader Arm Pickaxe, the Cheyenne Dropship Glider, and a new emote that's "bursting on the scene." Ripley and the Xenomorph follow both Fortnite's addition of Street Fighter's Chun-Li and Ryu and the crossover with Tron. This news also arrives a few days after Epic Games announced that any player who purchased its loot boxes called Loot Llamas in the Fortnite: Save the World mode will receive 1,000 V-Bucks for free following a class-action settlement. For more on Fortnite, check out where you can find every Surface Hub so you can scan every server, and other crossovers including the Flash, The Terminator, and Sarah Connor. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Red Notice director, Rawson Marshall Thurber, has stepped in to replace David Leitch as the director fof The Division movie. This news comes by way of Deadline, which reports Leitch, who is perhaps best known as the director of Deadpool 2, had to step down as director of Netflix's Division movie due to scheduling conflicts with his current project, Bullet Train. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/08/02/the-division-film-lead-actors-officially-announced-ign-news"] Thurber, who also directed Skyscraper and Dodgeball, has stepped in to fill the role and will also co-write the script with Ellen Shanman. Leitch will remain attached to the movie as a producer. Netflix purchased film rights to Tom Clancy's The Division back in 2019 and it was announced at E3 that year with Leitch on board to direct. He said at the time that he planned to "break the video game curse" with this movie and that chance to do so is still there — just not as a director. The Division stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain. The story of this film is set to follow the general events of Ubisoft's first Division game released in 2016, which follows Division agents activated to take back New York City after it is razed by a virus spread through paper money distributed on Black Friday. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-video-game-movie-in-development-almost&captions=true"] Thurber's Bad Version production company will produce the film alongside Ubisoft Film and Television, Leitch and Kelly McCormick's 87North Productions, Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories, and Chastain's Freckle Films. The Division was a movie that was supposed to release before the end of the last decade, but it joins 32 other films not yet released that were supposed to be out before 2021. It's not the only Ubisoft property being adapted for film for Netflix as Detective Pikachu director, Rob Letterman, is set to direct a Beyond Good and Evil movie for the streaming service. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Xbox has announced that its Xbox Live services are currently down after players began reporting issues with signing in. The official Xbox Support Twitter account confirmed the outage. According to the Xbox Status page, several services are currently down, with no cause or estimated time of repair announced. Things like Account and profiles, the Xbox Live Store and subscriptions, multiplayer and cloud gaming are all currently offline according to Xbox.

We are aware that users may not be able to sign-in to Xbox Live at this time. Our teams are currently investigating to fix this issue. We will update here and on https://t.co/PzAdjUFMJj when we have more information to share!

— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) February 25, 2021

The official Xbox Support team says it's working to fix these issues but until that services like Xbox Live, multiplayer, and xCloud are all down for the moment. It's unclear what the cause of the outage is, but it's severe enough to knock out all of Xbox's major services. IGN will update this story as it develops, but for the time being, anyone looking to play multiplayer or cloud games on Xbox will have to wait. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is News Editor at IGN.

Returnal is debuting in April as a PS5 exclusive, the first game Resogun developer has made for the new system. And while it’s still early days for the console’s life, the developers are hoping to take full advantage of the Sony system’s newest features. Speaking to IGN ahead of today’s State of Play, members of Housemarque spoke to how Returnal will employ the Dualsense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/24/returnal-atropos-trailer"] For the latter, players will be able to press with different amounts of force to use both the standard firing options and alt-fires for some of Returnal’s weapons, and if the alt-fire isn’t ready to be deployed, the haptics in the controller will offer additional feedback to let players know. The haptics will also be used to help accentuate Returnal’s storytelling, which includes certain scenes that shift the player’s perspective from third-person to first-person, as they explore a mysteriously normal house that pops up on this alien world. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=returnal-game-awards-trailer-screenshots&captions=true"] “It really provides this added immersion to the experience, where you can feel it as [Selene] picks up the photo, and then she reaches for the door handle,” Narrative Director Gregory Louden said as an example of what to expect. Housemarque has of course previously noted that Returnal will offer fast load times, and haptic feedback that will let players "feel the natural ambience of this alien planet as the controller mimics its environmental effects." For more on the upcoming PS5 exclusive, be sure to check out our Returnal hands-off preview. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

PlayStation console launch windows and new Housemarque games have been synonymous for a couple of generations now, and will continue to be so with the developer’s Returnal, exclusively coming to PS5 on April 30. But moreso than past launch games like Super Stardust HD and Resogun, as well as other modern arcade classics like Nex Machina, Returnal looks to be the studio’s most ambitious entry yet. And while we’re still waiting to get our hands on Returnal, an extended look at a gameplay demo – along with time spent speaking to some of the Housemarque team – makes it clear that this roguelike third-person shooter is an evolution for the studio. Returnal is imbued with the arcadey spirit that has made so many Housemarque games great, but also pushes the studio forward with ambitious production values, a deeper investment in story than ever before, and next-gen features to bring Returnal’s alien planet to life.

Arcade Is Dead… But Not Entirely

As a longtime fan of Housemarque’s games, I was quite disheartened when the studio announced in 2017 that it would be moving on from its arcade bonafides because, despite critical acclaim, the studio’s games just weren’t selling as well as they’d hoped. One free-to-play shooter experiment aside, Housemarque returns with what feels like very much a blend of the studio’s arcade roots, married with the grander shooter work done on the unreleased Stormdivers. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/returnal-atropos-trailer"] That marriage of the new and old is immediately clear in Returnal’s behind-the-back, third-person shooter gameplay, which, as evidenced by past trailers and my most recent look, has all the promise of past Housemarque hits like Resogun and Nex Machina. Playing as astronaut Selen crash landing on an alien planet, Returnal quickly throws players into the gauntlet of this dangerous new world. Action looks fast, frenetic, and engrossing, as the more cinematic third-person camera puts the player’s perspective more directly into the midst of battles. Enemies can take on all matters of shape and form, from tentacled nightmares to overtly Alien-inspired designs, and they can swarm the player on land and by air quite easily if you’re not smartly controlling the crowd. But I don’t want to speculate on how its gunplay will feel too much just yet, since I haven’t gotten a chance to go hands-on with Returnal,. Everything I’ve played from the studio before gives me confidence in what’s to come, though, and the gameplay certainly looks like it’s capturing that intense, thrilling flair that has been a hallmark of Housemarque’s past work, including some epic boss battles like the first one I saw that will certainly test how well a handle you have on the gameplay so far. Instead, what interests me most is Returnal’s focus on roguelike elements, a core gameplay design that’s more in depth than any randomization we’ve seen from the studio before, while also simultaneously being the most story-focused game they’ve made yet. And while the design of a rougelike may be new for Housemarque, their design has always been about imbuing experiences with replayability. “Returnal, just like many of our other games, is designed fundamentally for replayability,” Game Director Harry Krueger said. “So anything that is only fun once should only be experienced once. In practice, that means that we've adopted a somewhat hybrid approach to our procedural generation. So we have a series of different areas, such as treasure rooms, combat spaces, narrative spaces. And these of course, are handcrafted, to allow those flourishes of quality to really be dialed in, to let the narrative beats appear consistently, to let the mood and the audio and all of those elements just consistently appear, no matter what the configuration of the world is. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=returnal-game-awards-trailer-screenshots&captions=true"] “However, the configuration of those rooms, the order they appear in, the numbers they appear in, and whether some will appear at all, is dictated by the random generation. Even after you do familiarize yourself with some of these spaces, you will find yourself in very unfamiliar situations in them.” He pointed to the example of a treasure room, which I saw in my hands-off demo, that could have a different configuration of rewards, or traps, with different types and numbers of enemies or victorious spoils appearing in each go. Given that Returnal is a roguelike, though, and its DNA is wrapped up in the live-die-repeat ethos of the genre, it can often be just as important to make sure the new aspects of each run are as engrossing as what carries over throughout the entire experience. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/returnal-combat-trailer"]

The Connective Thread

While Housemarque is definitely keeping some of those specifics secret to let players discover them, Krueger did speak to some of the mechanical elements that remain permanent throughout Returnal. “In the beginning, you will have a fairly limited move set. You will be teased by a lot of seemingly inaccessible areas and obstacles that you cannot overcome. But then as you reach these milestones of progress, for example, when you defeat a boss or you reach a new discovery through exploration, you will gain permanent unlocks, either as abilities or items, that will allow you to reach previously inaccessible areas, and also give you strategic advantages, both in traversal and in combat,” he explained. Krueger also noted that this will translate to the world of Atropos as well, so opening a key bridge in one run will ensure that it is open in future runs, too. He emphasized that because Returnal is meant to encourage exploration quite heavily, players should find permanent progress in this capacity. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-game-delay-announced-in-2021&captions=true"] “You're opening more shortcuts and more traversal possibilities for our exploration-heavy world. And that allows each player to define their own pace and their own style. So you want to just go straight to the boss again, be my guest. But you can also feel free to have that pressure valve, where you can just explore, power-up your character and give yourself more of a fighting chance as well,” he said. One of those areas that will see progress, as Krueger alluded to, is Returnal’s story. As glimpsed in some previous trailers and shown at length in my demo, Returnal makes time for its story by shifting the player’s perspective to Selene’s in first-person. Those quick flashes of a more terrestrial home in previous looks are no accident - as Selene’s journey continues, players will intermittently stumble upon an earthly home, her home, amidst the ominous expanse of Atropos. “[The shift to first person] was about providing that intimacy,” Narrative Director Gregory Louden said. “The best way to see things is to be in someone's shoes. It's to be in the space suit, within there, and looking at these objects. It also obviously allows a closer camera You should look around the house for clues and remnants of the story for you to uncover. On first look, they may seem inconspicuous, but they have much larger ramifications once you know the full story.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/returnal-gameplay-reveal-trailer"] While I of course only saw glimpses of that story play out in the demo, as a fan of the work Hades did in the roguelike genre of really bringing story to the forefront, it seems like Selene’s journey is a key component of Returnal’s adventure. And that extends beyond just these house sequences - as the game progresses, Selene will begin to discover her own corpse with audio logs that help to fill in more gaps in the story. And players can progressively learn more of the alien language present on Atropos to discover more about the world. “Our main goal has been for it to be mysterious and haunting, not in a sense of horror, but haunting in a sense that it's a story you can replay in your mind and you can rethink,” Louden said. “And when you see an image the second time, you re-contextualize, and you understand. “It's a roguelike, it's a game about repetition, and it's a game about discovery...Great stories are about loops, and it's about a character coming back to the start and re-contextualizing, learning from, growing from information they didn't have at the start and evolving.” While I’ve only seen a bit of Returnal’s loop, it’s clear Housemarque is ready to learn and grow from its own loops, pushing its ethos for action-packed gameplay with replayable hooks to evolve with new ideas and a deeper interest in story than ever before. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Sifu is a new action game with a unique take on the Kung Fu genre. Announced at PlayStation's February 2021 State of Play, Sifu will quite literally turn the student into the master as each time the player character dies, they’re revived slightly older, and more skilled. Developer Sloclap is returning to the world of hand-to-hand combat after Absolver with a true 3D Kung Fu game. Draped in a story of revenge and redemption, Sifu is the closest thing you’ll get to a Kung Fu movie in video game form, or at so the developer hopes. IGN spoke with Sloclap co-founders Pierre Tarno and Jordan Layani to find out more about the upcoming PlayStation (and Epic Games Store) exclusive. Kung Fu is not a new concept in video games, but a bulk of it is siloed in the world of fighting games. Sifu is dyed in the wool about Kung Fu. “We’re very passionate about martial arts, Kung Fu in particular. Jordan, as he’ll tell you, actually practices Bak Mei Kung Fu and other team members have joined the school where Jordan practices,” says Tarno. And the team channeled this passion into Sifu. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=sifu-playstation-state-of-play-reveal-screenshots&captions=true"] While you can expect true-to-form Kung Fu combat, the one twist in Sifu is how death is handled. Instead of dying, the main character ages just a bit. As with the spirit of Kung Fu, this now older version of the character knows a few more skills to go with the wrinkles. Designer Jordan Layani says this mechanic is an important metaphor. “Gung Fu literally means mastery by practicing. So it was important for us that Kung Fu cannot be learned by reading books or watching videos,” says Layani. “You have to practice a lot to improve your Kung Fu. The aging shows the time of practicing for us.” Kung Fu movies, of course, were an important inspiration in Sifu. Films like the works of Jackie Chan and The Raid (not strictly a Kung Fu film, but still features fantastic action) helped shape the design pillars for Sifu. The trailer showed off an intense hallway fight scene, but players will navigate around 3D maps to lay a beatdown on multiple enemies. [caption id="attachment_2479100" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Source: Sloclap[/caption] “It’s really about hand-to-hand combat. You know in Jackie Chan movies it’s one versus multiple enemies fighting in close quarters and importantly the environment playing a big part,” says Tarno. “You see in Jackie Chan movies it’s about strategic positioning. Like, ‘I’m going to jump over the table to position the table between me and these three guys so I can tackle the guys over there.” And while the tone of Sifu will be more serious than some Jackie Chan classics, the combat will allow players to utilize the environment to their advantage. Bottles and other environmental hazards can be used against enemies. You can push bad guys down the stairs, or break items to create makeshift weapons. Either way, you’ll need to be quick to figure out the best way to fight through so many baddies at once. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/25/sifu-announcement-trailer"] “It’s very much about Kung Fu and we’re making significant efforts in regards to lore and authenticity to portray the values [of Kung Fu]. In the teaser, you see the main character practicing Kung Fu forms and for the actual trailer we really worked in-depth with Jordan’s Sifu who we brought in as a consultant on the project.” Players will also be able to choose the gender of the main character, and in-line with the metaphor of aging there will be some evolution in the main character’s design as Sifu progresses, but don’t expect an in-depth character creation suite. And if you’re interested in what kind of Kung Fu films developer Sloclap enjoys to get a sense for Sifu, Layani cites The Prodigal Son, a 1981 Hong Kong martial arts movie directed by Sammo Hung. For more check out IGN’s full coverage of today’s State of Play, including a recap of all the biggest PlayStation news and announcements. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is News Editor at IGN.