A federal appeals court announced today that it has granted Apple's request to postpone changes to the App Store, which would require the tech giant to allow developers on its storefront to include links to external payment options.

"Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal raises serious questions," three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in a stay issued today. The document notes that Apple may wait to implement any changes to its App Store until the appeals process regarding its ongoing legal dispute with Fornite creator Epic Games had concluded. Meaning Apple will not be forced to implement this change for the next few years.

"Our concern is that these changes would have created new privacy and security risks and disrupted the user experience customers love about the App Store," a spokesperson for Apple told The New York Times today.

In May, the Epic Games vs. Apple case was argued, though a ruling was announced in September. The judge ruled that Apple was not considered a monopoly nor engaged in anti-trust behavior. A few days after the ruling, Epic Games announced it was appealing the ruling.

While this is a victory for Apple today, down the road the company may have to comply with adding alternative payments to its App Store, though depending on the outcome of the lawsuit's appeal, Apple may just be delaying the inevitable.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster

Attorney Lisa Bloom and Christine, a current Blizzard employee, held a press conference outside of Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California today to share her story about the “alcohol-soaked culture of sexual harassment” at the company.

Christine appeared in front of a crowd in front of Blizzard’s headquarters today to describe her experience at the company she’s been with for the past four years. Christine spoke about her elation when she was first hired and how it turned to horror as she became subject to repeated sexual advances and comments. She also says a supervisor propositioned her for sex.

After making a complaint, Christine described encountering retaliation from the company including receiving a demotion and denying her full profit-sharing. Christine also described avoiding the company’s social events to avoid being inappropriately touched.

In a follow-up statement from Bloom, the lawyer made public demands of Activision Blizzard including a new, “streamlined” process for victims as well as a victim compensation fund of $100 million led by victim advocates.

In a statement to IGN, Activision Blizzard says it appreciates the courage of current and former employees who come forward with reports of misconduct and reaffirmed its commitment to “creating an environment we can all be proud of.”

Bloom is well-known for taking on high-profile sexual assault and harassment cases having represented women in cases involving Bill O’Reilly and Bill Cosby but has also advised Harvey Weinstein during his sexual abuse case.

The press conference is just the most recent event all tracing back to the details revealed in the California Depart of Fair Employment and Housing’s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard in July. The lawsuit revealed details of a frat-boy culture permeating the company and sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

In November, Jen Oneal, who was appointed to co-lead Blizzard alongside Mike Ybarra, announced she would be stepping down and it was later revealed Oneal was offered less compensation for her role than her male counterpart.

While Activision Blizzard continues to reaffirm its commitments to improvement, reports revealed Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly knew about harassment allegations personally and did not disclose these allegations to the board. All three major gaming hardware manufacturers, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo have privately expressed concerns with the company to their own employees.

IGN has a report with the inside perspective of Activision Blizzard employees as well as a timeline of events with details on everything that has happened so far in regards to the famed developer behind games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

God of War developer Sony Santa Monica has revealed the game's specs ahead of its move to PC while Nvidia has announced that Horizon: Zero Dawn's PC edition is also getting a new feature today.

The PC specs for God of War have been released by Sony Santa Monica prior to the game's Steam launch on January 14, 2022.

As per the specs detailed below, to run the game at its minimum requirements of 720p resolution at 30FPS, players will need to be packing an Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 290X alongside an Intel i5 processor (or equivalent) and 8GB ram. The game itself will require around 70GB of free space which can be installed on a standard hard drive, though it's recommended that players run the game via a solid-state drive (SSD) even at low-performance settings.

Ultra graphics settings will allow players to run the game in 4K at 60 FPS though the hardware needed to do so is significantly higher in spec. In order to run the game in Ultra, PC players will need an Nvidia RTX 3080 (10GB) or AMD RX 6080 XT (16 GB) as well as an i9-9900k (8 core 3.6 GHz) processor (or equivalent) plus 16 GB of ram. To see how your PC will shape up, you can check the full range of the game's specs below.

In addition to releasing the specs for the game, Nvidia GeForce has also released a trailer detailing a wealth of new features coming to God of War with its PC release. As can be seen in the video below, these include NVIDIA DLSS support for increased performance, Nvidia Reflex Support for more responsive gameplay, higher resolution shadows, improved screen-space reflections, and more.

As well as announcing new features for God of War's upcoming PC launch, Nvidia has revealed that Horizon Zero Dawn's PC edition will also include DLSS support as of today. Players running the game on GeForce RTX PCs on laptops will have access to the additional feature, which should allow for up to 50% extra accelerated performance in the game.

The inclusion of DLSS support for Horizon Zero Dawn comes alongside a number of other titles set to receive the feature this month including Ratloop Games' Lemnis Gate, RocketWerkz’s Icarus, and Deep Silver's new sci-fi action-adventure game, Chorus.

Horizon Zero Dawn first made its way to Steam on August 7. For more from Guerilla's jump from console to PC, make sure to check out this article detailing our full Horizon Zero Dawn PC analysis.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Xbox has released a Spotify-exclusive narrative podcast called Halo Infinite: Memory Agent - a new story that follows a secret agent from the Office of Naval Intelligence as she attempts to deliver vital information to Master Chief.

While this mission would be dangerous enough if everything was perfect, this agent suffers from a condition that resets her memory every seven hours. Luckily, she won't be alone as she will have the help of an AI companion and "battlefield reports of others who have encountered the legendary hero."

Throughout the six-episode series, she will not only learn more about her past and that of Master Chief, but she will also piece together "just how important her task may be."

Each episode ranges from 8-11 minutes and, although it is only available on Spotify, it can be listened to on the streaming platform even if you don't have an account.

Halo Infinite: Memory Agent follows the excellent two-season Hunt he Truth podcast that led up to the launch of Halo 5: Guardians. That story followed journalist Benjamin Giraud's quest to unravel the mysteries behind Master Chief.

This narrative podcast arrives just hours before the official launch of Halo Infinite's campaign. In our review, we said, "Halo Infinite's single-player campaign is exactly what this series needed. It brings out the best in Master Chief's unique and satisfying combat style while leveraging old ideas to create memorable new moments. Its story falls short for both new and veteran players, but it was worth the six-year wait."

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.

Halo Infinite's open world was reportedly cut down from a scale similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to what it is today. Apparently, almost two-thirds of the planned game was chosen to be cut in in the move.

According to a report on the game's development by Bloomberg, 343 decided to drastically slash the game's open-world map in 2019 as it attempted to stabilize the direction that game was heading.

Reportedly, by the summer of 2019, Halo Infinite had hit a number of issues. As per the report, the studio took the decision to cut almost two-thirds of the entire planned game in an effort to streamline production. As part of this decision, the outlet notes that the game's open world was significantly scaled down from a "Zelda-like experience into something far smaller."

Despite scaling down the game's open-world map, Infinite's problems continued past 2019. In July 2020, the developers showed off a range of gameplay footage for the game, which was met with overwhelming disapproval from the Halo community. Fans mocked the gameplay footage across social media for its poor quality, creating memes out of 'Craig the Brute', and airing their frustrations toward 343.

Following the backlash, Infinite was delayed by an entire year from its intended November 2020 release. Since then, the game has undergone something of a revolution. While more minor issues have still cropped up with factors such as the game's multiplayer progression, critical praise for both Infinite's single player campaign and multiplayer mode have been widespread in recent weeks.

While Halo Infinite's darkest days now feel behind it, it's pleasing to see that the developer was even able to include a Craig Easter Egg in the game - perhaps as a nod of acknowledgement toward Infinite's turbulent past.

For more on Halo Infinite, make sure to check out our reviews for both the game's single-player and multiplayer modes, where we awarded both efforts a solid 9/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Paramount Pictures has revealed the newest poster for Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Movie. However, that's not all. The studio has also revealed that a new trailer for the film will be launching tomorrow, December 9.

As shared on Twitter, Paramount has shown off the first poster for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie sequel. In the tweet, the company also announced that the world premiere of the film's new trailer will be released tomorrow during The Game Awards. The poster for the film shows Sonic and Tails as they attempt to evade Jim Carrey's Dr. Robotnik in a high-octane plane chase above an urban city below.

The first poster for #SonicMovie2 has arrived! And that’s not all – The world premiere of the new #SonicMovie2 trailer drops tomorrow in @TheGameAwards at 8pm ET. pic.twitter.com/dDZzd8EoG5

— Sonic the Hedgehog (@SonicMovie) December 8, 2021

Recently, Tails voice actor Colleen O'Shaughnessey announced that she would be returning to voice Sonic's sidekick when the movie is released on April 8, 2022. O'Shaughnessey is the most recent English voice actor to portray Tails', having played the character in the 2014 Sonic Boom TV series and Sonic Boom video games.

"Taking my old pal Tails for another adventure," stated O'Shaughnessey on Twitter. "Thrilled to announce I’m the voice of Miles “Tails” Prower in #SonicMovie2! Can’t wait for y'all to see him on the big screen." The voice actor also portrayed Tails during an end-credits scene for the original live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film, where the character was seen attempting to track down Sonic's location.

In addition to O'Shaughnessey, the film will also feature a number of other noteworthy stars. Ben Schwartz is set to return as the voice of Sonic, Jim Carrey will star as Dr. Robotnik and Idris Elba will debut as Knuckles the Echidna.

Despite being voted 2018's sexiest man alive, the Luther and MCU actor stated that he wouldn't be attempting to make the echidna 'sexy' during an interview talking about Knuckles' characterization earlier this year. "Contractually, I cannot say anything," he said when questioned on the topic. "But I wouldn't say he was sexy. I don't think I'm going for that. That's for sure.”

For more on the Sonic sequel, make sure to check out this piece detailing potential plot synopsis leaks that surfaced online earlier this year. And, for more on The Game Awards make sure to take a look at this piece detailing how you can watch the show and what to expect.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

After Daniel Craig stepped down as 007 following No Time to Die, the hunt is on to find the next Bond. Producer Barbara Broccoli seems to be ruling out the idea that a female actor could take the role.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, famed 007 producer Barbara Broccoli explained why we she doesn't see a female Bond joining the franchise after No Time to Die.

“I think it will be a man because I don’t think a woman should play James Bond,” she explained. “I believe in making characters for women and not just having women play men’s roles. I don’t think there are enough great roles for women, and it’s very important to me that we make movies for women about women.”

These comments tally with Daniel Craig's own views on the matter. "“There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color," he said in September. "Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”

It's no secret that Daniel Craig’s 007 days are over – especially after the cast of No Time to Die made a touching farewell video to say goodbye to his James Bond – but now comes the tricky job of finding a replacement.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen plenty of suggestions, with Idris Elba a popular choice among the fans, even if the man himself is not that bothered. We’ve even seen the likes of Dwayne Johnson throw his hat in the ring for the role of the iconic super spy. But Broccoli seems to have already ruled him out.

“He should be British,” she added. “British can be any [ethnicity or race].” This obviously leaves the door open for a Black or underrepresented Bond, as long as they’re British. But one thing’s for certain – it’s unlikely to be a woman if Broccoli is deciding.

Although we’re keen to find out who will be the next Bond, it looks as though Broccoli is in no rush to find a replacement.

“I want to let this film play and really celebrate Daniel’s incredible achievement that he has done over 16 years,” she said. “People always ask, ‘Oh, who’s the next James Bond?’ It’s like asking a bride as she’s going up to the altar who’s her next husband going to be. I don’t really want to think about who is going to be the next person until I absolutely have to.”

No Time to Die stars Daniel Craig in his final adventure as James Bond, alongside Ana de Armas, Léa Seydoux, Naomi Harris, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Jeffrey Wright and Christoph Waltz.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Masahiro Sakurai has explained that there are 'no plans' for a sequel to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate right now, and says that "it would be best not to assume that there will always be another one." Even if he did return to the series, the director says a sequel would be unlikely to keep all of the current fighters.

Speaking to IGN in an email interview, the beloved Smash Bros. director touched on the future of the series, and his part in it.

"I can’t really think about future prospects at the moment," he explained when I asked if he planned to direct another Smash Bros. game. "If Nintendo decides they want to make another one and offers me the job, that’s when I’d start thinking about it."

However, it seems that, at least right now, Nintendo isn't thinking beyond Smash Bros. Ultimate – which recently added its last character and released its final balance update.

When I ask if he'd like to make a different game before potentially returning to the series – as he did with Kid Icarus: Uprising between Smash Bros. Brawl and 3DS/Wii U – he makes very clear that returning to the series is not a foregone conslusion:

"When you say 'returning to the series', it makes it sound like there is going to be another Super Smash Bros. title, but currently, there are no such plans. It would be best not to assume that there will always be another one.

"Apart from that, I may not necessarily continue with creating more games, as I could potentially go down a different path. As for involvement with the gaming industry, there are various ways to do that. I like to keep an open mind about what I should do and take a look at all the different possibilities."

Even if Sakurai did come back to direct another installment, it feels like a tricky task. I ask how you follow up a game quite literally called the 'Ultimate' version of a series.

"At the very least, I don't think it would head in a direction where all of the current fighters are kept and the roster continues to expand," he explained. "I presume that running such a game on a hypothetical new system alone would exceed the game’s budget."

"However, if we try to keep things fresh by shifting to a different genre or greatly changing the direction, then it's no longer a Super Smash Bros. game. I can't deny that making this title so expansive has made it a tough act to follow."

It may well be that Sakurai feels that Ultimate includes all he needs to prove about himself with the Smash Bros. series he's steered for so long. Famously, it was revealed that the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had called Smash Bros. Ultimate his "final mission" for Sakurai. I ask the director if he felt he had succeeded.

"Yes," he replies simply. "I believe I was able to fully complete this mission."

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.

Rockstar has announced that GTA Online will be receiving a story-focused expansion, 'The Contract', featuring GTA V character Franklin, and set years after the events of the game's single-player campaign. Due for release on December 15, the story will focus on Franklin working in his new "celebrity solutions agency", and will feature Dr. Dre, who has composed new music for the game.

Announced on the Rockstar Newswire, the expansion (which, like all GTA Online updates, will be free) introduces F. Clinton and Partner, an agency that offers 'solutions' to the problems of Los Santos' elite. Your GTA Online character will meet Franklin through Lamar Davis, and will be tasked with taking the business to the next level.

As part of that story, GTA 5 radio host (and GTA Online co-writer) DJ Pooh will contact Franklin to mention a potential client - Dr. Dre. Dre has lost his phone, which is full of unreleased new music. You'll be tasked with securing the tracks and returning them to the legendary artist – and you can do this solo, or with a crew.

Rockstar teases that you'll be working with Franklin himself, Chop the Dog, and a hacker called Imani to travel from Franklin's old neighbourhood, to Los Santos parties, to FIB offices to retrieve the tracks. As you can see from the trailer above, it seems we'll meet other famous artists too, given that Anderson .Paak appears – and a guest appearance from Snoop Dogg on the soundtrack could potentially be hinting at another cameo.

As you might expect, those tracks will become part of the game, and Rockstar is teasing much more for music in the update. Today's announcement promises "an eclectic new radio station from some very special guest hosts, huge first-of-their-kind updates to existing radio stations including a ton of new and unreleased exclusive tracks from Dr. Dre and a heavy-hitting line-up of artists".

The update will also bring new weapons, vehicles, hit contracts, and more. Rockstar says we'll learn more about the music, and the expansion as a whole, "in the coming days".

It sounds as though this update is intended as something of an answer to the many, many years of requests for story DLC in GTA 5. It remains unclear how the expansion will be implemented in the fabric of GTA Online, however.

This is of course confirmation that Dr. Dre was working on new music for GTA Online, not GTA 6 as some hoped for. Aside from knowing it's in development, we've heard precious little about GTA 6 - although some think Rockstar snuck a screenshot of it into the GTA Trilogy remaster of San Andreas.

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.

Rockstar has announced that GTA Online will be receiving a story-focused expansion, 'The Contract', featuring GTA V character Franklin, and set years after the events of the game's single-player campaign. Due for release on December 15, the story will focus on Franklin working in his new "celebrity solutions agency", and will feature Dr. Dre, who has composed new music for the game.

Announced on the Rockstar Newswire, the expansion (which, like all GTA Online updates, will be free) introduces F. Clinton and Partner, an agency that offers 'solutions' to the problems of Los Santos' elite. Your GTA Online character will meet Franklin through Lamar Davis, and will be tasked with taking the business to the next level.

As part of that story, GTA 5 radio host (and GTA Online co-writer) DJ Pooh will contact Franklin to mention a potential client - Dr. Dre. Dre has lost his phone, which is full of unreleased new music. You'll be tasked with securing the tracks and returning them to the legendary artist – and you can do this solo, or with a crew.

Rockstar teases that you'll be working with Franklin himself, Chop the Dog, and a hacker called Imani to travel from Franklin's old neighbourhood, to Los Santos parties, to FIB offices to retrieve the tracks. As you can see from the trailer above, it seems we'll meet other famous artists too, given that Anderson .Paak appears – and a guest appearance from Snoop Dogg on the soundtrack could potentially be hinting at another cameo.

As you might expect, those tracks will become part of the game, and Rockstar is teasing much more for music in the update. Today's announcement promises "an eclectic new radio station from some very special guest hosts, huge first-of-their-kind updates to existing radio stations including a ton of new and unreleased exclusive tracks from Dr. Dre and a heavy-hitting line-up of artists".

The update will also bring new weapons, vehicles, hit contracts, and more. Rockstar says we'll learn more about the music, and the expansion as a whole, "in the coming days".

It sounds as though this update is intended as something of an answer to the many, many years of requests for story DLC in GTA 5. It remains unclear how the expansion will be implemented in the fabric of GTA Online, however.

This is of course confirmation that Dr. Dre was working on new music for GTA Online, not GTA 6 as some hoped for. Aside from knowing it's in development, we've heard precious little about GTA 6 - although some think Rockstar snuck a screenshot of it into the GTA Trilogy remaster of San Andreas.

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.