Kazuki Takahashi, the Japanese artist who created the beloved manga series Yu-Gi-Oh! has died, aged 60.

According to reports from Japan public broadcaster NHK, Takahashi was discovered floating in shallow waters off the coast of Nago City, Okinawa Island by the Japan Coast Guard on Wednesday morning, June 6. He was wearing snorkeling equipment when found. Police and the Coast Guard are currently investigating the circumstances around Takahashi’s death.

Originally from Tokyo, Takahashi became a star among manga artists thanks to Yu-Gi-Oh!, his first serialized work. The series was first published in 1996 and ran until 2004. Following the story’s success in print, Yu-Gi-Oh! became a multimedia franchise, with a hit anime series, numerous video games, a card game, and more. Takahashi remained a key part of the series throughout his life, having most recently written the original story for the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions anime film, released in 2017. He predominantly acted as supervisor over many other projects in the franchise.

While Takahasi has worked on several other projects, Yu-Gi-Oh! will be his lasting legacy. The physical card game even has a Guinness World Record for the “trading card game with the highest number of sales in the world”.

IGN’s thoughts are with Takahashi’s family and friends.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

One week removed from the internet dunking on EA's social media accounts, some of the developer's employees are reportedly unhappy with the post that implied single-player games aren't worthwhile.

Last Thursday, EA's official Twitter account posted what instantly turned into a controversial tweet, saying, "They're a 10 but they only like playing single-player games". The post is a play on the "they're a 10 but..." trend that's dominating social media right now.

The internet did not react kindly to this post, pointing out things like EA's disastrous rollout of microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2 and other instances of its shaky history with single-player games. Just hours after the post, EA tweeted again, saying, "Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11."

Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11. https://t.co/PNg4FKOgfB

— Electronic Arts (@EA) July 1, 2022

In a report from USA Today's FTW, a plan was apparently put in place to try and turn a negative into a positive, where EA's studios would publicly ridicule the tweet to gain favor with the audience. However, multiple social media managers reportedly declined, with some EA employees saying that roasting the company would only magnify EA's poor reputation among gamers.

According to the report, there was such a dislike for the tweet among EA employees in part because EA's main social media account is reportedly not managed by the company's social or communication teams. Rather, the Twitter account is said to be managed by people outside of the game industry.

“They’re all new and most of them, to my knowledge, aren’t really game industry people," one of USA Today's sources said. "The person who posted that tweet didn’t know and wasn’t supported properly to ensure something like this didn’t happen.”

Now, EA is apparently hosting roundtable discussions with executives who are angry about the post, since some of EA's studios working on single-player games viewed the tweet as an insult.

For more on EA, you can check out every EA game in development that we know of. Or read up on the upcoming Dead Space remake and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, two upcoming single-player games from EA.

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

IGN received an unexpected supply drop today from Wizards of the Coast in the form of two upcoming Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair drops, both of which feature Fortnite crossover cards. While this crossover was previously announced, getting this box in the mail is the first we've seen of the specific cards in the drops, which you can take a look at in the gallery below:

The two drops are titled "Secret Lair x Fornite" and "Secret Lair x Fortnite: Landmarks and Locations," the latter of which is a set of five full-art basic lands (one of each type). The main drop features the following seven cards reskinned with Fortnite art and names:

• Shrinking Storm (Wrath of God)
• Dance Battle (Dance of Many)
• Supply Llama (Etherium Sculptor)
• Crack the Vault (Grim Tutor)
• Battle Royale (Triumph of the Hordes)
• Battle Bus (Smuggler's Copter)
• The Cube (Planar Bridge)

Both sets also have a secret card that WOTC has asked us not to spoil quite yet. (Who doesn't love a surprise?) We don't have the rest of the details on these drops just yet, but will update this article once we hear back about things like price and release date – though one thing I can assume is that the fancy box they arrived in is not standard.

This isn't the first video game crossover Magic has had, and it likely won't be the last. I intereviewed the minds behind Magic last year alongside dozens of community members to hear about how the game is changing amidst record success, as well as the slightly contentious practice of licensed crossovers like these Fortnite drops.

The Matrix Awakens, an impressive display of Unreal Engine 5's capabilities, was a demo released in December for PlayStation and Xbox consoles. However, the demo is leaving stores on July 9th so grab it while it's still available. Once you have the demo, you will be able to redownload it at your leisure.

The original release of the demo roughly coincided with the release of The Matrix Resurrections. Both Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) appear in the demo and show off just how photorealistic Unreal Engine 5 can be. Though astute gamers will probably notice the difference between real and fake, in true Matrix fashion it was intended to blur the line between reality and gaming.

The demo itself is a technical marvel, showing off detailed models, heavy crowd density, and ray tracing. It includes cinematics and an on-rails section where you can shoot it out with agents during a thrilling car chase (naturally). You're also able to explore the open world sandbox and tinker around.

Speaking of tinkering around, many intrepid people have modified the game to add popular superheroes to the game. Most notably, Spider-Man and a Superman were added by modders to allow players to experience what it's like to move around the city as those characters. The Superman clone in particular makes one pine for another Superman game done right.

Epic Games has since released a playable shooter called Lyra alongside Unreal Engine 5. This was yet another demonstration of the power of Unreal Engine 5, allowing developers to get a feel for creating a shooter using Epic's latest game engine.

There's also Lumen, a dynamic global illumination system that allows developers to create realistic lighting scenes, as well as Nanite, which allows developers to import high fidelity visual assets into a game without dropping frame rates.

With developers looking to use Unreal Engine 5 in future games, the technology included will have a huge impact in the games industry. Feel free to check out what actual game developers had to say about the launch of Unreal Engine 5.

David Matthews is a freelance writer specializing in consumer tech and gaming. He also strongly believes that sugar does not go in grits. Follow him on Twitter @packetstealer

David Harbour recently reflected on the poor critical and commercial reception of his first major on-screen role, Hellboy — Neil Marshall's reboot of the 2004 hit film.

Best known for playing chief of police Jim Hopper in Netflix's science-fiction horror drama Stranger Things, Harbour sat down with GQ to talk about the show's season 4 finale as well as his turn as Hellboy's demonic detective, but as a reboot of Guillermo del Toro's adaptations — hugely popular in their own right — it had a lot to live up to.

Ultimately, it just couldn't stick the landing, tanking at the box office while being panned by critics. IGN's review called it a "thin, clumsy, and charmless attempt at rebooting a beloved franchise."

Looking back on the experience, Harbour said he realized that he had been naive about fan expectations for the character.

"It was a very difficult experience because I wanted a lot out of it. I really like [Mike Mignola, Hellboy creator], I like that character," he said. "And then immediately when it began, even when it was announced, I realized that people did not want that character reinvented. I was very naive and optimistic about what we were going to do."

Funnily enough, he added that once he figured the film was going to bomb, he actually called Ryan Reynolds to ask for advice on how to survive superhero flops. Having starred in the infamous Green Lantern film, Harbour saw Reynolds as the one most apt to help console him as the negative reviews poured in.

"I know him a little bit. I called him and I was like, 'Hey man, I just need to know something. You know Green Lantern? Huge flop for you. What the f*ck is that like, because I think I’m going to hit that right now. Am I gonna be okay? Am I gonna survive this?' Reynolds, for his part, was sweet about it."

Since then, both have enjoyed individual renaissance periods. Reynolds is the star of fan-favorite Deadpool series films and Harbour has seen his fair share of success from starring in Stranger Things, which recently became Netflix's second show to have crossed 1 billion hours viewed.

As for whether Hellboy will get another shot at box office glory, we'll just have to see.

Diego Ramos Bechara is a Freelance Writer for IGN, and he's a fan of all things Star Wars, Rockstar, Naughty Dog and Batman. You can follow him on Twitter @DRamosBechara.

Since its release in June, Diablo Immortal has been the subject of criticism over its prevalent microtransactions, which players say can cost thousands of dollars without ever seeing the legendary gems they want from loot boxes. However, Blizzard CEO Mike Ybarra is still in favor of the game's monetization.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ybarra stood by the game's microtransactions, which he claimed were implemented to make the game more accessible. “When we think about monetization, at the very highest level it was, ‘How do we give a free ‘Diablo’ experience to hundreds of millions of people, where they can literally do 99.5% of everything in the game?’” Ybarra told the LA Times.

He also defended the way the microtransactions are implemented, as they largely only come into play in the game's later stages. “The monetization comes in at the end game,” Ybarra continued. “The philosophy was always to lead with great gameplay and make sure that hundreds of millions of people can go through the whole campaign without any costs. From that standpoint, I feel really good about it as an introduction to Diablo.”

Blizzard also said that most players aren't spending money on the game, though it wouldn't provide specific statistics. Recently, however, Diablo Immortal's microtransactions netted the company $24 million in just two weeks.

As many countries move to consider loot boxes as exploitative, the title was recently pulled in Belgium and the Netherlands for its heavy reliance on loot boxes.

We gave Diablo Immortal a 6/10 in our review, praising some aspects of its gameplay but saying it needs significant "overhauls to the monetisation and the many restrictions."

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

The Duffer Brothers have started up a new production company called Upside Down Pictures which will help create more film and television projects with Netlfix.

Despite the name, Upside Down Pictures will create more than just Stranger Things shows and movies, and in fact, has already laid out a slate of projects the company will begin working on, including a new live-action adaptation of Death Note.

If you recall, Netflix previously released a live-action Death Note movie in 2017 directed by Adam Wingard and starring Nat Wolff. The live-action film took the Japanese manga and translated it to Seattle, Washington, but kept the premise of a teenager discovering a book that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

Details of the Duffer Brother’s version are sparse but it will be a live-action TV adaptation of the manga and anime. It is also likely a completely separate series, unrelated to the movie.

Other projects include:

• An original series from the creators of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
• An adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman in partnership with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount TV.
• A new stage play set in the world of Stranger Things.
• A live-action Stranger Things spin-off series based on an original idea by The Duffer Brothers.

Leading the new production company is Hilary Leavitt who has worked on shows like Orphan Black and Ozark.

While Netflix has had some turbulent times recently, Stranger Things remains a bonafide hit. And while the exact returns are unknown, live-action anime is something Netflix is investing heavily in.

While the company canceled its live-action Cowboy Bebop series after one season, it is still developing a live-action One Piece, a live-action Yu Yu Hakusho, and live-action Gundam movie.

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

San Diego Comic-Con is back in-person at the San Diego Convention Center for the first time since 2019, and it promises to be an exciting show that will reveal a ton of new details on upcoming movies and TV shows, including Marvel Studios to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, House of the Dragon, and more.

IGN will be at the show providing up-to-the-minute coverage of the biggest trailers, reveals, and exclusives, as well as hosting our own live show from SDCC this week on July 22 and 23. This watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch all the biggest moments of San Diego Comic-Con 2022, including how long the show is, a list of places you can watch the panels and live coverage with us, and what you can expect to see at the convention.

How to Watch San Diego Comic-Con Online 2022

San Diego Comic-Con 2022 will take place from July 21 - 24 with IGN’s live show on July 22 and 23, which will be broadcast here and across the many channels we have on a variety of platforms. Here’s the full list of places you can watch IGN’s live show at San Diego Comic-Con:

• IGN.com (homepage)
• IGN's Facebook Channel
• IGN’s Twitter
• IGN's Twitch Channel
• IGN’s Youtube Channel
• IGN’s TikTok Channel
• IGN's iOS App
• IGN's Android App
• IGN's PlayStation 4 App
• IGN's Xbox One App
• Roku
• IGN App for Android TV
• IGN for Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• IGN 1 on Samsung TV Plus
• Pluto TV
• Plex Live TV

On Wednesday, July 20, IGN will be hosting a TikTok Live at the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Tavern Experience. We will be giving viewers a first look at the experience, as well as talking to some of the cast/crew from the film. This will be streaming exclusively on IGN’s TikTok starting at 5pm PT.

IGN Live Show Lineup at San Diego Comic-Con 2022

As mentioned above, IGN’s live show will take place Friday, July 22, and Saturday, July 23, 2022 in San Diego. You can check out a list below of everyone to expect to see on our live show!

Friday, July 22

• Prey
• William Shatner
• Gotham Knights
• Moriarty: The Devil’s Game
• Primal
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection
• Vampire Academy
• Dragon Ball Super
• Superman & Lois
• Clerks III
• Paper Girls
• BODIES BODIES BODIES
• Dark Crisis
• Avatar: Braving the Elements
• Harley Quinn
• Archer
• MultiVersus
• Resident Evil Village
• The Riddler: Year One
• AEW Wrestling
• Saints Row

Saturday, July 23

• Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
• Reginald the Vampire
• The Sandman
• The Dragon Prince
• David Dastmalchian
• The Walking Dead
• Star Trek: Picard
• What We Do in the Shadows
• Mythic Quest
• Tales of the Walking Dead
• Barbarian
• Bill Nye
• For All Mankind
• Tuca and Bertie
• The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country
• Teen Titans Go!
• The Callisto Protocol
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Along with the above, we will have various exclusive reveals throughout our live show, such as the following below:

Kitbash Creatures: The Callisto Protocol

This year at San Diego Comic-Con, Max Scoville takes his cosplay to the next level by teaming up with Hollywood FX House, Ojala Productions, in building a terrifying mutated creature from The Callisto Protocol, an upcoming survival horror action game that challenge players to escape the maximum security prison set on Jupiter’s moon Callisto. Presented by The Callisto Protocol, watch from the beginning as we sculpt, mold and paint one of the mutated creatures from the game, giving Max the perfect costume to terrorize the floor of Comic-Con.

Reservation Dogs

Skoden! Tune into IGN Live at San Diego Comic-Con to catch FX’s Reservation Dogs trailer, and see behind-the-scenes footage of the all-new season returning August 3rd. Only on Hulu. Presented by Reservation Dogs.

San Diego Comic-Con 2022 Full Panel Schedule

The full programming schedule at San Diego Comic-Con has been released and can be viewed here for Wednesday, July 20 - Sunday, July 24. As mentioned above, IGN will be covering all of the biggest panels out of SDCC 2022.

What to Expect at San Diego Comic-Con 2022

Some of the biggest names in entertainment have confirmed they will be in attendance at the show, along with others released in the SDCC program lineup.

Perhaps most exciting is the news that Marvel will be returning to San Diego Comic-Con for the first in-person SDCC since 2019. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige revealed the news during a press conference for Thor: Love and Thunder in June, but gave no hints as to what fans can expect to see at the show.

In 2019, Marvel Studios revealed its initial plans for Phase 4 at San Diego Comic-Con and some of the projects featured were Eternals, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s premiere date, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, WandaVision, Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and many more. If that show is any indication, Marvel fans should have a lot to look forward to.

We do know a decent bit about the future of Marvel, so we very well may learn more about She-Hulk, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and/or the Holiday Special, Fantastic Four, and, who knows, maybe X-Men! Hey, we can dream!

Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Sandman, and Harley Quinn will all be present at San Diego Comic-Con alongside Gotham Knights and MultiVersus on the games side of things.

Fans of Middle-earth will be treated to an “exclusive early look” at The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Apple has shared it will be hosting panels for Severance, For All Mankind, Mythic Quest, and more.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

A streamer has leaked that She-Hulk is officially coming to Marvel's Avengers – while live on Xbox's Twitch channel with a Crystal Dynamics developer.

TechniqTV was guest streaming on the channel with Avengers' lead designer Brian Waggoner for less than an hour before he let slip that She-Hulk was coming to the game, with the clip later being shared by Miller on Twitter (below).

Despite there being no official word the character was coming to Avengers, Techniq asked if fans wanted a fun fact about She-Hulk. "I don't know if I can say this. I think it was public knowledge," he said. "I'll just say this. I don't like the face that Brian is making."

He went on to explain that his own acting coach is the voice of She-Hulk, though Techniq caught on neglected to mention the actresses name in case it wasn't public.

Whoops! This happened on the official Xbox Twitch channel today. pic.twitter.com/yDPqb0kKW0

— Miller (@mmmmmmmmiller) July 5, 2022

"Nope. No. We have never announced She-Hulk," Waggoner clarified as the stream grew painfully awkward. The full conversation can still be seen on Xbox's channel (at around 52 minutes) where Techniq grew sheepish and claimed he doesn't know if it's true or not. "We're working on our next hero," Waggoner added. "We haven't said who it's going to be yet."

Jane Foster became playable in Avengers last week - just in time for her reappearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor: Love and Thunder - so the timing would line up for She-Hulk to appear in the game close to her MCU debut on August 17.

We'll have to wait for official word from Crystal Dynamics to learn when (and officially if) She-Hulk is arriving in the game, but it would certainly make sense to see her next month.

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

Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has seen a new sneak peek, showing off many of its characters, locations, and even a glimpse at the show's Ents.

At time of writing, the teaser is currently available only on the Prime Video service itself. It begins by showing off Middle-earth's landscapes, before we see Lenny Henry's Sadoc Burrows announce, "The skies are strange." What follows is a montage of the show's characters watching a comet on its way down through the atmosphere.

Perhaps most notably for fans, we see our first glimpse at Ents, Middle-earth's beloved race of tree people (you can see them in the first image of the slideshow below). As pointed out on Reddit, the shot in question actually previously appeared in the show's Super Bowl teaser, but the Ents have since been added to it.

This sneak peek is in fact a trailer for a trailer – we'll be getting a new teaser for the show on July 14. Whether it will build on this minute-long peek, or offer a totally different approach is unknown right now. That teaser will be followed by a first look at the show as part of its appearance at San Diego Comic-Con.

This sneak peek follows IGN's exclusive reveal of the show's Orcs, who will be shown as a race taken almost to the point of extinction and scattered across the lands.

We're slowly learning more about the Lord of the Rings prequel ahead of its September 2 release. In development since 2017, The Rings of Power will focus on the Second Age, and it's shaping up to be one of the most expensive shows ever made, with just one season reportedly costing $465 million.

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.