Ninja Warrior's signature obstacle course is being tested for possible inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

According to Deadline, Olympic athletes may soon be facing a new kind of challenge, as obstacle sports are being considered for the Modern Pentathlon. The tournament currently consists of five disciplines: fencing, swimming, laser pistol shooting, running, and equestrian show jumping, but organizers are looking to potentially replace the riding discipline.

Format owner Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) is said to be collaborating with several partners to trial the "ninja competition" that was made popular by Sasuke aka Ninja Warrior. The first test competition will be held in Ankara, Turkey on June 27, with another scheduled to take place the day after, following the 2022 Pentathlon World Cup Final.

"Sasuke/Ninja Warrior, which continues to win fans around the world, represents the culmination of TBS's long history of content development," said Miho Takashima, who manages the format globally. "We look forward to working with the UIPM [Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne] and FISO [Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles] to further expand the possibilities of obstacle racing."

Ninja Warrior started off as a Japanese sports entertainment reality TV show called Sasuke in 1997, which saw 100 competitors participating in a four-stage obstacle course. The series then expanded globally, spawning local versions in at least 18 other countries, including the United States, which adopted the format for the launch of American Ninja Warrior in 2009.

A sports video game based on the series, titled American Ninja Warrior Challenge, was released in 2009 for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The people that accepted the challenge and picked up the game had to compete across a series of daunting obstacle courses from the hit show to achieve Total Victory and earn American Ninja Warrior status.

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

Thumbnail image credit: TBS.

It's been long-rumored that Apple is working on a headset capable of offering augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality content (VR). A new report now suggests that the head-mounted display features the powerful new M2 chip and 16GB of RAM.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that the latest version of this headset is running with the M2 system on a chip and includes 16GB of RAM. This deviates from previous reports, which included a prediction from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that the headset would include a chip with the same computing power found in the M1 chip.

Gurman's latest reporting, like the report from The Information last month, suggests that the device will be a standalone headset, like the Meta Quest 2. The Information also noted in the same report that the device would have a multi-chip setup. However, in his new report, Gurman does not go into further detail on the mixed reality headset beyond what the current incarnation has CPU and RAM-wise.

Apple announced the M2 chip during its WWDC keynote earlier this month. Currently, only one device on the market features the latest Apple silicon — the 13-inch MacBook Pro. However, a 2022 model refresh of the MacBook Air was also announced at WWDC and is slated for release sometime next month.

Information on the mixed reality headset has trickled in throughout 2022; this includes Gurman reporting in May that Apple's board of directors had the opportunity to try out the headset. Additionally, "RealityOS," the operating system likely to be used on the headset, has appeared in a trademark application filed by the iPhone maker. At the same time, "RealityOS" has also appeared in Apple's code.

Although Apple has not formally announced the product, CEO Tim Cook last week all but confirmed the headset's existence during a recent interview with China Daily. Reports suggest that Apple may launch the headset as early as January 2023.

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

This story contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness!

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends with a pretty dark twist, with Strange succumbing to the effects of the Darkhold by the end of the movie. But it could have been a lot worse…

During the film’s audio commentary, screenwriter Michael Waldron revealed that Doctor Strange originally suffered a much darker fate by the end of the movie. During the course of the movie, Strange visits an incursion universe in which he meets a twisted version of himself, known as Sinister Strange, who meddled with dark magic.

According to Waldron, it sounds as though Sinister Strange could have traded places with our Doctor Strange: “Strange gets trapped in that [incursion] universe,” he revealed of an alternate plan. “And then [Sinister Strange] turns around, and the third eye opens.”

If that wasn’t haunting enough, the twist would have been announced with Vincent Price’s iconic laugh – echoing the horror icon’s vocals in the Michael Jackson song, Thriller.

Unfortunately, Vincent Price’s laugh remains outside of the MCU for now. What we ended up with was Doctor Strange falling to his knees in the middle of NYC as his third eye manifests.

“That's the bill coming due," Waldron told ComicBook. "As Wong says, 'You used the Darkhold to possess your own corpse.' Surely, there must be some fallout. It was a little bit of a throwback to [director Sam Raimi's] old Evil Dead, and that groaner of an ending, or it's just like, 'Oh my God, things turned out bad in the end.' So, yeah. We'll see what all that means for Stephen.”

As it stands, we already know that someone comes looking for him. A post-credit scene introduced Doctor Strange character, Clea – played by none other than Charlize Theron. In the comic books, she’s the niece of Dormammu, the demonic entity Strange encountered in the first film.

But don’t panic – she’s actually a force for good, and the pair have often dated in the comics – even if their relationship never usually lasts very long.

Still, it looks as though we got a much more hopeful ending in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness than was originally planned. Want to read more about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Check out this deleted scene between Strange and Christine Palmer, and find out what could be next for Wanda Maximoff.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, alongside Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch. They’re joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, and Xochitl Gomez.

Sam Raimi directed the movie from a script by Michael Waldron, based on characters created by comic book legends, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee.

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

Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima seemingly worked on a concept akin to Amazon's The Boys before putting it on hold for being too similar. Now that he's put that out there, leads on the TV show say they want the legendary developer to work on a tie-in game.

Kojima said he was "warming up" the project for a long time - with Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen picked out as the lead in his mind - and was about to start it just as The Boys' first season was released. Sharing the concept on Twitter (below), Kojima said he stopped watching The Boys after episode three of the first season.

"I thought I'd watch the rest of the show," he said. "Actually, I watched a few episodes that were delivered at the time when I was about to start a project that I had been warming up for a long time, and put it on hold because the concept was similar (different settings and tricks).

Kojima said his concept would have included "a buddy (male/female) thing with a special detective squad facing off against legendary heroes behind the scenes. I was thinking of Mads as the lead." The Boys tells the story of a team of regular humans tasked with policing (and occasionally violently killing) superpowered individuals.

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"THE BOYS," which I quit after 3 episodes of season 1. I thought I'd watch the rest of the show. Actually, I watched a few episodes that were delivered at the time when I was about to start a project that I had been warming up for a long time, pic.twitter.com/UpI00pUIHQ

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) June 26, 2022

It's not clear whether Kojima's concept was for a game, a movie, or otherwise, but the implication seems to be that it's not currently in the works. Kojima is currently working on a cloud project for Xbox, and we've heard tell of a horror game called Overdose and a Death Stranding sequel.

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke responded to Kojima's tweets, declaring he was a huge fan and wanted to collaborate on a video game adaptation of the series. "Please come and make a The Boys game. We can team up and conquer," he said. Antony Starr, who plays Homelander in the series, concurred, saying that he seconds that notion.

The Boys Season 3 is currently airing, and we said the latest episode was great. The series has impressed overall, as in our 9/10 review of Season 2, IGN said: "The Boys is filled with memorable characters and plenty of that stylized and irreverent drama we love."

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

A Nintendo Direct Mini will be broadcast tomorrow, June 28. It will focus on third-party partners, so don't expect the likes of Mario, Zelda or other major Nintendo series to appear.

The 'Partner Showcase', which will be around 25 minutes long, will air on YouTube at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK / 11pm AEST.

A new #NintendoDirectMini: Partner Showcase is on the way! Watch on-demand via our YouTube channel beginning Tuesday, June 28 at 6am PT for roughly 25 minutes of info on upcoming third-party #NintendoSwitch games.

Subscribe & turn on notifications here: https://t.co/SZA1P3RSHS pic.twitter.com/8hmCJ1p5EX

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 27, 2022

Nintendo traditionally airs a major Nintendo Direct as part of E3 in June. However, with E3 cancelled in 2022, it's unclear if Nintendo is delaying its own first-party showcase, or will announce its games in more piecemeal fashion this year.

The last Nintendo broadcast was May's Indie World show, which revealed the likes of Gunbrella, a Switch release for Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, and more.

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.

Riot Games will begin testing its voice chat monitoring technology in Valorant next month as part of a wider strategy to combat "disruptive behaviour" in its games.

In a blog post, Riot announced its voice evaluation system - eventually intended to identify community behavioural violations such as the use of abusive language - would begin testing on July 13.

Valorant players will have their voice chat analyzed by the technology but, at this stage, it won't be judged for appropriateness. Riot said this testing period, only taking place in North America and in English, will be used "to help train our language models and get the tech in a good enough place for a beta launch later this year".

Only once the technology is working effectively will Riot launch the official beta and begin evaluating players' voice chat following reports of disruptive behaviour. "This is brand new tech and there will for sure be growing pains," it said. "But the promise of a safer and more inclusive environment for everyone who chooses to play is worth it."

While Riot has only announced this specific voice chat monitoring roadmap for Valorant so far, it made clear in the blog post that it plans to bring the service to its other games (such as League of Legends) too.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Valorant is a clever tactical hero shooter that’s plenty deep, and a lot of fun to master."

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

Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick have both earned $30.5 million at the domestic weekend box office so far and will have one final battle today, June 26, to see who comes out on top.

As reported by Variety and Box Office Mojo, Top Gun: Maverick currently has a slight lead at $30,500,176 in its fifth weekend in theaters. Elvis, which debuted this weekend, is sitting at $30,500,000.

Top Gun: Maverick is having one impressive run at the box office and has now reached $521 million domestically. It has also crossed the coveted $1 billion mark at the global box office and has become the highest-grossing movie in 2022 and the first film to pass $1 billion since Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.9 billion last year.

On the other hand, Elvis raked in another $20 million from 51 markets internationally and has a global tally of $50.5 million so far.

Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis have dropped down Jurassic World Dominion, the film that held the #1 spot for the past two weekends, to third place as it only earned $26.4 million. However, that was enough to bring the latest Jurassic World film past $300 million domestically and $746.6 million globally.

The Black Phone, which also debuted this weekend, took fourth place by earning $23.3 million domestically. It brought in $13.4 million overseas to help bring its global total to $35.8 million. The Black Phone only cost $18 million to produce, so it is well on a way to a successful box office run.

Lightyear rounded out the top five with $17.7 million, but it saw a 65% drop from its opening weekend. Lightyear has reached $88 million in North America and has earned $152.4 million at the global box office.

For more check out our review of Elvis and The Black Phone, how The Black Phone director's traumatic past inspired the horror film, and why the Elvis team says "credit needs to be given" to Rock & Roll's black pioneers.

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.

Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick have both earned $30.5 million at the domestic weekend box office so far and will have one final battle today, June 26, to see who comes out on top.

As reported by Variety and Box Office Mojo, Top Gun: Maverick currently has a slight lead at $30,500,176 in its fifth weekend in theaters. Elvis, which debuted this weekend, is sitting at $30,500,000.

Top Gun: Maverick is having one impressive run at the box office and has now reached $521 million domestically. It has also crossed the coveted $1 billion mark at the global box office and has become the highest-grossing movie in 2022 and the first film to pass $1 billion since Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.9 billion last year.

On the other hand, Elvis raked in another $20 million from 51 markets internationally and has a global tally of $50.5 million so far.

Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis have dropped down Jurassic World Dominion, the film that held the #1 spot for the past two weekends, to third place as it only earned $26.4 million. However, that was enough to bring the latest Jurassic World film past $300 million domestically and $746.6 million globally.

The Black Phone, which also debuted this weekend, took fourth place by earning $23.3 million domestically. It brought in $13.4 million overseas to help bring its global total to $35.8 million. The Black Phone only cost $18 million to produce, so it is well on a way to a successful box office run.

Lightyear rounded out the top five with $17.7 million, but it saw a 65% drop from its opening weekend. Lightyear has reached $88 million in North America and has earned $152.4 million at the global box office.

For more check out our review of Elvis and The Black Phone, how The Black Phone director's traumatic past inspired the horror film, and why the Elvis team says "credit needs to be given" to Rock & Roll's black pioneers.

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.

As AMD celebrates the first birthday of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), the tech company has announced that FSR 2.0 is now available for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One developers.

AMD shared the news in a blog, confirming that "FSR 2.0 is also supported on Xbox and will be available in the Xbox GDK for registered developers to use in their games." This also marks the first time the tech is being utilized outside the world of PCs.

For those unfamiliar, FSR 2.0 is AMD's answer to NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and is the "next-level AMD temporal upscaling technology designed to deliver similar or better than native image quality and boost framerates in supported games across a wide range of products and platforms."

Unlike DLSS, which uses machine learning, FSR optimizes anti-aliasing based on temporal data."

AMD confirmed FSR support for Xbox last year, noting that it uses "AI to upscale lower resolution images and makes them appear at a higher resolution without requiring a substantial amount of performance."

There are currently over 110 available and upcoming games that support both FSR 1.0 and 2.0, and they include God of War, Deathloop, Forspoken, Hitman 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and The Callisto Protocol.

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.

As AMD celebrates the first birthday of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), the tech company has announced that FSR 2.0 is now available for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One developers.

AMD shared the news in a blog, confirming that "FSR 2.0 is also supported on Xbox and will be available in the Xbox GDK for registered developers to use in their games." This also marks the first time the tech is being utilized outside the world of PCs.

For those unfamiliar, FSR 2.0 is AMD's answer to NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and is the "next-level AMD temporal upscaling technology designed to deliver similar or better than native image quality and boost framerates in supported games across a wide range of products and platforms."

Unlike DLSS, which uses machine learning, FSR optimizes anti-aliasing based on temporal data."

AMD confirmed FSR support for Xbox last year, noting that it uses "AI to upscale lower resolution images and makes them appear at a higher resolution without requiring a substantial amount of performance."

There are currently over 110 available and upcoming games that support both FSR 1.0 and 2.0, and they include God of War, Deathloop, Forspoken, Hitman 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and The Callisto Protocol.

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.