Hulu has made a 10-episode, straight-to-series order for a sequel to How I Met Your Mother called How I Met Your Father. This news comes by way of a report from The Hollywood Reporter which says that Hilary Duff is set to star in the comedy television series. HIMYM creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, are returning to the sequel series to executive produce alongside This Is Us showrunners, Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. Aptaker and Berger will also oversee HIMYF. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2014/04/02/was-the-how-i-met-your-mother-ending-a-betrayal-or-a-triumph"] "We are beyond excited to be bringing How I Met Your Father to Hulu," Aptaker and Berger told THR. "Carter and Craig's iconic original series revolutionized the half-hour comedy, and we are so honored to be carrying the torch forward for the next generation — and with Hilary Duff no less." The two said they can't wait for audiences to meet Sophie, who will be played by Duff, and her crew while watching them "come into their own and find love in modern-day New York City." This news comes months after Duff announced that a Disney Plus reboot to Lizzie McGuire had been cancelled. She's continued to star in Paramount Plus series, Younger, since then and will now star in HIMYF. "I've been incredibly lucky in my career to play some wonderful characters and I'm looking forward to taking on the role of Sophie," Duff told THR. "As a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother, I'm honored and even a little nervous that Carter and Craig would trust me with the sequel of their baby. Isaac and Elizabeth are brilliant, and I can't wait to work alongside them and all of their genius." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=disney-plus-spotlight-may-2020&captions=true"] According to THR, Hulu's official logline for the sequel series is the following: "In the near future, Sophie is telling her son the story of how she met his father: a story that catapults us back to the year 2021 where Sophie and her close-knit group of friends are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options." A premier date or release window has not yet been determined for HIMYF. How I Met Your Mother ran for nine seasons consisting of 208 episodes from the years 2005 to 2014. How I Met Your Father is the first sequel of three attempts to lift off the ground, according to THR. Back in 2016, a spinoff was in development and about six months later, reports came out that 20th Century Fox was looking into new ways to revive HIMYM. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Jeff Kaplan served as, until his recent departure, the Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment. But for Overwatch fans not tuned into Activision-Blizzard’s corporate hierarchy, he may most humbly be known as “Jeff from the Overwatch team.” That’s how he introduced himself at the start of every Developer Update video, a greeting that downplayed his status as Game Director, and emphasized that Overwatch was a team effort. But while he didn’t shout them from the rooftops, his achievements speak for themselves: Jeff Kaplan was, for 19 years, one of Blizzard Entertainment’s most vital and important innovators. Blizzard recruited Kaplan in May 2002 specifically to help it expand into a whole new genre: the MMORPG. Back at the start of the millennium, the studio’s experience was predominantly in the real-time strategy space, and the team lacked the expertise to help inform the company’s next venture. And so Rob Pardo, one of Blizzard’s lead designers, looked to the most obvious place to find an MMO expert: an MMO itself. At the head of EverQuest’s prominent Legacy Of Steel guild, he found exactly the kind of person Blizzard was looking for: a player named Tigole, a passionate (see: outspoken) and well-known member of the game’s community. Outside of EverQuest, he was known as Jeff Kaplan. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/20/jeff-kaplan-overwatch-2-director-leaves-blizzard"] Pardo invited Kaplan to a series of lunches. “With hindsight, what I didn’t realize at the time was that those guys were interviewing me for a role with World of Warcraft,” Kaplan recalled during an interview with Game Informer. Six months later, Kaplan joined the World of Warcraft team, helping design quests for what would eventually become the genre-defining MMORPG. A significant part of the reason behind World of Warcraft’s success was its approach to questing, something Kaplan helped shape. Previous MMOs, like EverQuest, had very few scripted quests and were largely freeform, player-directed games. But Kaplan, along with his design partner Pat Nagle, forged World of Warcraft’s questing system as a near-constant supply of hand-crafted missions. Player testing only reinforced the need for numerous quests. “Our old estimates for how many quests we thought we were going to do versus how many quests we ended up doing were radically off,” Kaplan told Edge. And so the world of Azeroth was designed that it would always have new stories for you to explore, even if that was just killing six rats for a farmer. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=By%202008%20Kaplan%20was%20World%20of%20Warcraft%E2%80%99s%20Game%20Director%2C%20leading%20the%20charge%20on%20one%20of%20the%20series%E2%80%99%20landmark%20expansions."]This approach helped make World of Warcraft significantly more accessible to MMO newcomers. Unsurprisingly (at least in hindsight), his efforts were part of its colossal success. After several promotions, by 2008 he became World of Warcraft’s Game Director, leading the charge on what is still to this day considered one of the series’ landmark expansions, Wrath of the Lich King. With a focus on story (entwining the player’s story with that of legendary antagonist Arthas), Kaplan ensured that WoW’s second expansion was a vital part of not just Blizzard’s MMO, but the entire Warcraft mythos. Kaplan left World of Warcraft behind the day after Wrath of the Lich King shipped. His new calling was, naturally, Lead Game Designer on a new MMO that was in the works. He was the guy Blizzard employed for his MMO expertise, afterall. This new project was going to be the most ambitious thing Blizzard ever made, and its working title reflected that: Titan. But Titan would never see the success that World of Warcraft did. In fact, Titan infamously would never see the light of day. In the desperate struggle to make something - anything - from the ashes of Titan’s design, Kaplan came up with what is, undoubtedly, his greatest achievement at Blizzard: Overwatch. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/04/14/jeff-kaplan-critiques-igns-overwatch-team"] Kaplan was enamoured with the class designs and RPG abilities that fellow designer Geoff Goodman had created for Titan. “I started thinking about a more tightly scoped game using that Geoff Goodman concept of dozens of classes with abilities,” he explained to Edge. Kaplan envisioned a game in which these faceless classes became playable heroes with names and backstories. But rather than an MMO, this would be a PvP shooter. “Team Fortress 2 was just mega in my mind,” Kaplan told Game Informer while discussing Overwatch’s genesis. “There was such inspiration from that, so as we were rolling off of Titan and we were coming up with ideas that we as a team were super passionate about, we really chased our hearts more than anything else.” Kaplan’s vision was embraced by the team, which led to them pitching it to Activision. “They were super polite and super nice to us, but you could sense this undercurrent of, ‘Oh god, of all things, what are you idiots doing?’” Kaplan recounted to Edge. But while perhaps another shooter alongside Call of Duty was not part of Activision’s original plan, Kaplan says the character designs won over CEO Bobby Kotick. “What that bought us was that we had until March to put together a core combat demo of the game,” said Kaplan. A successful demo led to full development, and Overwatch would eventually be revealed at BlizzCon in 2014. Its fresh new world and innovative rethinking of MMO and MOBA-style class abilities as shooter mechanics quickly won the hearts of fans. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Kaplan's%20Developer%20Update%20videos%20are%20the%20gold%20standard%20example%20of%20direct%20transparency%20with%20a%20game%E2%80%99s%20player%20base."]As Overwatch’s Game Director, Jeff Kaplan became something of a community celebrity. Following in the footsteps of Hearthstone’s Game Director, Ben Brode, Kaplan made himself the face of Overwatch. His friendly, mild-mannered personality was endearing, and he was soon lovingly known as ‘Papa Jeff’ by the community. Kaplan has always taken this in his stride, ever happy to join in on a meme, even going as far as to sit by a fire in near-silence for an eight-hour festive livestream just for the fun of it. But it was really Kaplan’s innovative approach to communication that made him such an effective face for Overwatch. His Developer Update videos are, to this day, the gold standard example of direct transparency with a game’s player base. On a semi-regular basis, Kaplan would explain in clear detail the changes coming to Overwatch, and why those changes were being made. He used straightforward language, so the updates felt like a friend talking with you, rather than a marketing team talking at you. All this made it easy to understand the thinking behind Overwatch’s many alterations, and invited players to feel like they were part of the decision-making. There’s perhaps no better example of this than Role Queue, the team composition system created after years of back-and-forth debate between players and the Overwatch team. Combined with being ever-present on the Blizzard forums, there was a constant sense that Kaplan cared about Overwatch’s players, or at the very least was actively listening to them. And even in moments when the conversation could become exceptionally heated - the Mercy resurrection rework was a particularly rough time - Kaplan would be there answering questions. It always felt as if players were part of Overwatch’s development. It’s hard to imagine this would be the case without Kaplan’s particular approach, and Blizzard would be ill-advised to abandon the strategy going forward, especially in regards to Overwatch 2. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/04/22/overwatchs-jeff-kaplan-responds-to-ign-comments"] No matter what approach the company takes going forward, though, Blizzard won’t be the same place without Jeff Kaplan. But it’s also important to remember that Kaplan never saw himself as the ivory tower leader on his projects. He was always Jeff from the Overwatch team, never Jeffrey Kaplan, Game Director. His Developer Updates would regularly champion his colleagues, be that the design decisions of Aaron Keller, the heroic creations of Geoff Goodman, or the lore drops from Michael Chu. Kaplan was a team player, and, at least as far as outsider perceptions go, seemed to foster that approach among his peers. And as Keller steps up as Game Director, it seems sensible to expect at least some of Kaplan’s spirit to remain. Over 19 years, Jeff Kaplan has been one of Blizzard’s most important voices. Recruited for his passion, his work helped shape one of the core pillars of not just World of Warcraft, but modern MMO design. His strength of vision helped rescue Blizzard’s most notable disaster, and turn it into what is arguably the developer’s most significant mainstream game in Overwatch. And as the head of that project, he refined communication between developers and players in a way few other studios have been able to replicate. He will be missed. But, just like Blizzard superstars Mike Morhaime and Chris Metzen, who also stepped away from the company in recent years, Jeff Kaplan leaves behind him a legacy of hugely successful creativity and innovation that has inspired not just those at Blizzard, but studios all over the world. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

Xbox has detailed its plans to make online multiplayer in free-to-play games available to Xbox users who don't have an Xbox Live Gold subscription. A blog post on the Xbox website explains that, starting today, players will be able to access online multiplayer in over 50 free-to-play games with no Xbox Live Gold membership required. You can check out the full library of free-to-play games here. At present the list includes games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Rocket League, Roblox and Destiny 2. Brawlhalla, Warzone, It Takes Two and World of Tanks also make the cut. Xbox says that the list of free-to-play games will be updated "as more free-to-play games launch." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/05/xbox-series-x-review"] Back in January, Microsoft announced plans to increase the price of Xbox Live Gold, but then quickly reversed its decision after fans voiced their opinions on the move. As part of its response to the backlash, Microsoft said that it would be working to make free-to-play games available without Xbox Live Gold, which has led to this announcement. In other Xbox news, it was revealed earlier this week that the Series X and Series S are set to receive improved Quick Resume features in the near future, including the ability to see and delete save states within the UI. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Clark Kent is officially passing on the mantle of Superman to his son. As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, DC is officially making Jon Kent the new Man of Steel in a new ongoing series dubbed Superman: Son of Kal-El. Son of Kal-El is written by Tom Taylor (Injustice: Gods Among Us) and drawn by John Timms (Harley Quinn). The new series will debut in July 2021, replacing the current monthly Superman title. [caption id="attachment_2503349" align="aligncenter" width="970"] Art by John Timms. (Image Credit: DC)[/caption] DC readers already got a taste of John's new role during the recent Future State event, which jumped forward to reveal the state of the DC Universe ten years in the future. Future State also featured Brazilian heroine Yara Flor as the new Wonder Woman and Lucius Fox's estranged son Tim as the new Batman. Son of Kal-El isn't a continuation of the Future State storyline, but is instead set in the present-day DCU and shows Jon first grappling with his new responsibility. But given that we've already seen the future, it would seem DC has every intention of maintaining this new Superman status quo. This isn't to say the original Superman will be hanging up his cape and tights. Clark will continue to headline Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Daniel Sampere's Action Comics series and appear in Brian Bendis and David Marquez's Justice League. Action Comics will also draw on the events of Future State, following Clark's journey as he intervenes in a conflict between Atlantis and Warworld. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=future-state-every-comic-in-dcs-massive-2021-crossover&captions=true"] All-Star Superman writer Grant Morrison is also making his big return to the franchise in July. Morrison will team with artist Mikel Janin (Batman) for Superman and the Authority, a four-issue limited series that sees Superman take the reins of this ruthless metahuman team. The Authority's ranks will include familiar faces like Apollo and Midnighter as well as unlikely recruits Manchester Black, The Enchantress and Natasha Irons. Interestingly, though Superman appears visibly older on the cover to issue #1 (reminiscent of his appearance in Kingdom Come), the series is also set in current DC continuity and will impact the events of Superman: Son of Kal-El and Action Comics. Does this mean DC is permanently aging characters like Superman and Batman? Along with Tom King and Bilquis Evely's limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (which launches in June), these books look to make up the new Superman line going forward. Needless to say, a lot is changing for the Superman family in the months ahead. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/11/superman-lois-series-premiere-review"] DC fans interested in a slightly different take on Jon Kent should check out Superman & Lois, The CW's newest Arrowverse series. Superman & Lois features the titular duo moving to Smallville to raise their teenage sons Jon and Jordan. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Quibi is dead. Long live Roku Originals.

Remember Quibi, the short form video streaming service that raised billions of dollars only to completely shutter in about six months? After Quibi executives called it quits, its library was acquired by Roku. Those series will now live on the streaming platform as Roku Originals, the company announced today. Roku will also use the same branding for all future original projects that appear on the Roku Channel, a free entertainment offering for Roku device owners. While it remains unclear what those originals will look like, Roku’s blog does note that more details will be announced in May.

For now, anyone who wanted to check out Quibi originals but didn’t want to sign up for the short lived streaming service can do so via Roku. This includes viral hits such as the woman with the golden arm or...well, Quibi wasn’t long enough to create any real hits, but that show featuring the woman with the golden arm certainly caught attention on Twitter last year. Look, Quibi tried its best in 2020 and that’s all any of us tried to do last year.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/08/quibi-review-2020"]

What Quibi lacked in hits, however, it certainly made up for in talent. Hollywood A-Listers like Anna Kendrick, Chrissy Teigen, Lena Waithe, Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, and Liam Hemsworth all have Quibi originals, as noted in the Roku blog. Is it programming that you’ll actually want to watch? That’s up to you, but it’s free and short and doesn’t require signing up for yet another streaming service.

The push is part of Roku’s efforts to go from being a hardware company to a hardware and software company. Roku used to be the device people connected to their televisions sets to watch Netflix, Disney+, YouTube TV, and dozens of other entertainment offerings. Now, Roku wants people to spend time watching Roku Originals, too. Why? The simplest answer is advertising — it’s also why Roku acquired a key Nielsen technology, Roku wants to own digital entertainment advertising, and the company is hoping that having a slate of original series will help.

As the blog notes, “more than 75 Roku Originals on the Roku Channel, including a dozen unreleased series" will debut this year. Roku doesn’t want to be another streaming service for people to consider, but wants to be the streaming home for everyone’s needs. Whether that’s watching Netflix and diving into some Roku Originals from time to time or just being the most convenient tool for consumers to access the entertainment they want, Roku’s ambitions are pretty clear.

So, for one last time: RIP Quibi. I’ll always think of what could have been if there was a clearer business model.

Capcom has announced that it is bringing The Great Ace Attorney and its sequel worldwide in a new collection called The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles bundles together 2015’s The Great Ace Attorney and its 2017 sequel together in a single package that will be released on July 27, 2021, for PS4, Switch, and PC via Steam. Both games were previously Japan-exclusive 3DS games. The Great Ace Attorney is a prequel to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series set in the Victorian era and stars Phoenix Wright’s ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo as he works with characters like Herlock Sholmes (seriously) and Iris Wilson to exonerate clients in court. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/21/the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-western-announcement-trailer"] New to The Great Ace Attorney is an expanded jury system where Naruhodo will have to convince individual jury members of his client’s innocence and even persuade them to change their verdict if they’re leaning towards a guilty decision. The rest of Great Ace Attorney will seem familiar to longtime fans of the series. You’ll be able to examine crime scenes to gather evidence, interview witnesses, and cross-examine testimony presented by the prosecution led here by a character named Barok van Zieks. Other features include Escapades, which are short standalone adventures that flesh out the world of The Great Ace Attorney. There are also customizable outfits for each character and a gallery feature chock full of concept art and music. A DLC pack for early purchasers will unlock even more music and art. And yes, there will be dual-audio support so you can play with the English dub, or Japanese. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-screenshots&captions=true"] Capcom also announced a new collection that will bundle The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles with the Ace Attorney Trilogy, giving players access to most of the major Ace Attorney games alongside the newly released spinoff prequel. It’s been 20 years since the first Ace Attorney game was released, and series director Shu Takumi says it’s his pleasure to finally be able to release The Great Ace Attorney outside of Japan. “Ace Attorney was first released in 2001, and incredibly this year is its 20th anniversary,” says Takumi during the livestream. “I’m so pleased to be able to announce this global release of The Great Ace Attorney at this milestone.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

Tales of Arise will now be released on September 10 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PS4, and PC. After being delayed indefinitely last year, the new release date has allowed the development team to fix quality concerns, improve accessibility, and even add next-gen console versions. The team wouldn't be drawn on whether there would be a Nintendo Switch version of the game. "Having announced that delay and working through COVID and changing how we do work, this year of development has been pretty positive for the most part," producer Yusuke Tomizawa told IGN. "Mostly because we have given ourselves the time to really focus on quality and improvement of the game, as well as expanding accessibility and giving players more options, such as porting it to the PS5 and the Xbox [Series] next-generation consoles so that we have wider options for the consumer to choose from when they're thinking about buying this game." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/21/tales-of-arise-official-release-date-trailer"] Tales of Arise will be the 17th entry in the long-running Tales of RPG series, and sees players taking on the roles of Shionne and Alphen, who respectively hail from Rena – an advanced civilisation built on technology and magic – and Dahna – a more medieval society whose people are taken as slaves by Rena. The game was announced during Microsoft's Xbox E3 2019 press conference and will follows 2017's Tales of Beseria. You can check out an exclusive trailer showing ofg Arise's environments below, which will give you a look at arctic, desert, and industrial locations: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/21/tales-of-arise-exclusive-environment-trailer-ign-first"] In our 8.8/10 review of Tales of Beseria, we said it was "a surprisingly strong showing for this long-running series. Its tragic story of broken people fighting on the wrong side of history makes it utterly compelling, and its well-tuned combat more than makes up for its lack of interesting environments." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

LEGO has revealed its biggest ever buildable R2-D2 construction kit with over 2,300 pieces in the set. The massive LEGO Star Wars R2-D2 will launch on May 1 and retail for £179.99 / $199 USD. The set has been created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm and will feature a retractable mid-log, rotating head and periscope. A lightsaber hilt is also hidden in a secret compartment in R2's head, which should delight builders as they endeavour to complete the 2,314-piece kit. Check out a gallery of images of the gigantic kit below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=lego-r2-d2-construction-kit-photos&captions=true"] The set will also come with an exclusive R2 Minifigure as well as a "special Lucasfilm 50th anniversary LEGO brick," which is designed to be displayed alongside the 31 cm tall replica. Other "commemorative fan-favourite" Star Wars products are expected to be revealed as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. In other LEGO Star Wars news, the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga game was recently delayed past its Spring 2021 release window, with TT Games noting that it will "provide updated launch timing as soon as possible." The Skywalker Saga isn't being described as a remake of the original games, as it is a completely new game built from the ground up. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.