The Roblox "oof" sound, which became famous not just with players but around the internet as a meme, has been removed from the game entirely due to a licensing issue.

The simple soundbite, a second-long "oof" sound that plays when a player dies or resets their character, has proven surprisingly awkward due to copyright claims in the last few years. It would appear these complications are now officially too much Roblox's development team, however, which has now announced the "oof" sound is no longer in the game.

It's been replaced with a similar default sound but, as announced on the Roblox Twitter (below), a whole range of new sounds, both old and new, will be released into the Avatar Shop in the future to make the transition away from the classic "oof" more palatable.

Related to sounds, due to a licensing issue we have removed the “oof” sound from Roblox and have created a replacement default sound which launches today.
We plan to expand our Avatar Shop with a whole range of both old and new sounds in the future. More to come on this.

— Roblox (@Roblox) July 26, 2022

Issues first arose in 2020 when video game composer Tommy Tallarico recognised the now iconic sound as his own creation, originally from a game called Messiah. The "oof" was removed from the game as a result until Tallarico and Roblox reached an agreement to reintroduce it, but at a roughly $1 cost for creators.

That agreement has seemingly ended, however, as the sound was removed "due to a licensing issue," the tweet said. The sheer ubiquity of the noise has turned it into meme-fodder across the internet, with rapper Post Malone even saying he'd made an entire 2-hour Coachella set based on the sound.

Despite being considered a game platform for children, Roblox often finds itself seeped in more adult controversy. Kim Kardashian threatened to sue the platform in April after her son found a fake sex tape game featuring the celebrity, and Roblox itself launched a lawsuit against a YouTuber for posting "terrorist threats" in November.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will reportedly feature a female playable character in its campaign for the first time. Rockstar apparently plans to launch the game with a single city, but add more locations over time through updates.

As part of a report on Rockstar by Bloomberg, sources close to the studio discussed the new female character, who will be Latina. The character will reportedly be part of a pair of bank robbers in a story influenced by real-life criminals Bonnie & Clyde.

Female protagonists have previously only been available as custom characters in GTA Online, never in the game's single player campaigns. Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser (who has since left the company) previously indicated the company was thinking about a female lead as far back as 2013. [Update: The first Grand Theft Auto game featured female playable characters - this would mark the first in the 3D GTA series as we know it today]

The report also indicates that the launch version of GTA 6 will begin with fictionalized Miami and surrounding areas (presumably a return for Vice City), but will be updated with "new missions and cities on a regular basis". That launch version apparently already includes more interior locations than any GTA game previously.

Per the report, the game is codenamed Project Americas due to its original plan to include huge territories based on North and South America – a plan that was scrapped in part to reduce crunch for employees.

Sources say that developers on the game are sceptical about predictions for a launch between April 2023 and March 2024 due to multiple changes on the team and bottlenecks in production. Some developers are even said to have quit due to a lack of progress on the game recently. Developers on the team reportedly expect the game to be at least two years away, and say that no firm release date has been set internally.

However, much of the report focuses on progressive changes at Rockstar in recent years, including a more inclusive office culture, a focus on reducing crunch, a removal of abusive managers, conversion of contractors into full-time employees and a restructure to improve working conditions. Morale is said to be higher at the company as a result, and one source said Rockstar was “a boys’ club transformed into a real company.”

The report also points to a more progressive mindset at the company in narrative terms, too. Bloomberg says that a mode called Cops 'n' Crooks was shelved before release following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, and has not been considered for release since. The company is also focusing on making fewer jokes in GTA that 'punch down' at marginalized groups.

After years of rumours, GTA 6 was finally confirmed this year, but more official news will apprently only be released when Rockstar is ready, not when its owner Take-Two requests it. Rockstar is said to have moved more developers onto GTA 6 recently having scrapped remasters of Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4.

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.

Brand new platform fighter MultiVersus is already hitting huge player numbers and nearing to tops of console charts.

After a launching into open beta yesterday, the new fighting game from Warner Bros. has seen some staggering numbers – reaching a peak of 144,456 concurrent players yesterday on Steam alone. This puts the game ahead of the likes of Warframe, Rust, and even Destiny 2.

The free-to-play multiversal crossover game, starring the likes of Batman, Bugs Bunny, and Shaggy, has already proven to be an extremely popular alternative to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And even without console figures, the game’s Beta launch is doing ridiculous numbers.

Multiversus might have just become the most played fighting game in recorded history. Without console numbers and several servers currently down. Might be closer to 200k with all platforms.

Guess this Free2Play thing really works huh? pic.twitter.com/Wz4buvM5i1

— Maximilian Dood (@maximilian_) July 26, 2022

MultiVersus is also proving to be very popular on consoles with the game creeping into the Xbox Most Played list. It’s also currently sitting at second place in the Xbox Series X/S Top Free Games, pipped to first place by Fall Guys.

On PlayStation, it’s a similar story, appearing 2nd on the PS5 Most Downloaded list, only beaten to the top spot by “That Cat Game”, aka Stray (itself a free download for PS Plus subscribers).

It looks as though the game’s free-to-play status, as well as the popularity of its characters, has created the perfect combo to give MultiVersus the edge. We’ll have to check how the player numbers look in the coming months to get a better idea of how popular the new fighting game will really be. For now, it looks as though Warner Bros. is onto a winner.

Despite a smooth beta launch, MultiVersus players have already seen some nerfs implemented to the popular character, Taz. “If you have been following early access, Taz’s Tornado has been dominating his character kit and presenting a non-obvious knowledge check for newer players,” read yesterday’s patch notes. “By reducing its effectiveness we hope to improve his gameplay health and loop and bring the game to a healthier state for newer players.”

The problem was that Taz’s signature tornado move was absolutely steamrolling other players, causing significant knockback and regularly comboing for several hits with minimal effort.

“The tornado is Taz's signature move so we want to keep it as one of his most powerful attacks,” explained developer Player First. And that will likely mean adding a cooldown in the long run.

Want to find out more about MultiVersus? Check out our character guide for a full list of playable characters, as well as our tips and tricks to get the most out of your match-ups.

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

Black Adam will bring about a “new era” of DC movies according to Dwayne Johnson.

During an interview with Screen Rant, the 50-year-old actor explained how his upcoming Black Adam solo movie will change the future of the DC Universe.

“That footage is a reflection of our director’s vision, who wanted to create something that was different,” said Johnson about the new Black Adam trailer. “[Jaume Collet-Serra] wanted to create a movie that was disruptive, but he also wanted to create a movie that would start the pendulum swing in the DC universe… to usher in a new era of the DC universe.”

Black Adam is not your usual hero. Starting life as a comic book villain and nemesis of popular DC superhero Shazam! it looks as though Johnson’s portrayal of the classic DC character will veer more into antihero territory – and he says that brings DC into a new era.

“A new antihero era, a new era of tone, a new era of story, and also… It’s this incredible opportunity that we have… to just build out the DC Universe.”

Johnson's comments came just days after DC's Jim Lee suggested that the company had no plans to make more movies set in the the 'Snyderverse' – the series of Zack Snyder DC movies that culminated with Justice League. Given that Johnson has previously teased a Black Adam cinematic universe, it may be that he considers this the new continuity to follow for DC's movies.

“[We want] to build out the DC Universe with disruption, with respect, listening to the fans, because they’ll always guide you,” he added. “I was a DC kid right out of the gates. I’m still a DC kid because I’m a big ass kid – I don’t think I ever grow up. But if you look a little further past the obvious characters in the DC world, there is a cadre of so many cool characters that we look forward to highlighting and introducing to the world.”

Some of those less-obvious DC characters will debut in the upcoming Black Adam film as the DC antihero takes on the Justice Society of America, also known as the JSA.

“The JSA pre-dated the Justice League,” said Johnson. “So, there’s a lot of great characters and it feels like audiences have been really responding to our JSA and these great characters so fingers crossed.”

Want to find out more about the JSA and how they connect to Black Adam? Check out our guide to the Justice Society of America as well as who’s been cast in the ambitious DC solo movie.

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

A dedicated fan is creating a remaster mod for The Simpsons: Hit & Run – while also hand-drawing every cutscene for the game in the classic Simpsons style.

El Gato Del Tejado on YouTube uploaded a video showing their progress so far, which includes the complications that occur when remastering a near-two decade old game by yourself. One of these issues occurred as El Gato Del Tejado began work on Hit & Run's cutscenes, which are depicted in 3D in the original 2003 version.

"I would love to see the cutscenes of Hit & Run with current 3D technology like [the] Crash Bandicoot remake or Battle for Bikini Bottom," they said in the video. "I don't have much experience in 3D animation, so better to choose 2D."

El Gato Del Tejado explained that they tried using rotoscoping - where animators trace over footage frame by frame - but this only really worked for the backgrounds and not for the actual characters. The only alternative was to draw these by hand, and several pages of research of Simpsons creator Matt Groening's work was shown before the final result. Instead of being in 3D like the original game, the remaster mod will therefore have a cutscene style more akin to the Simpsons cartoon.

However, outside of cutscenes, El Gato Del Tejado is updating the original 3D look of the game. A previous video showed the modder's work recreating dozens of textures, and updating the Homer Simpson model to offer a more modern look at the character. It's clearly not going to be a quick process, with El Gato Del Tejado readily admitting the issues they've run into (including how Bart's nose disappeared in the new style and how Lisa turned into a monster), but the work so far is pretty astonishing.

El Gato Del Tejado hasn't offered a timescale for how long the work might take, but has opened a Patreon to help fund the project.

It's not the first remake of The Simpsons: Hit & Run, however, as several other modders have tried to recreate the beloved open world game.

One modder started recreating the game in Unreal Engine 5, impressing the original lead designer, while a Dreams player created perhaps the weirdest version yet. Finally, one completely ridiculous mash-up saw modders combine The Simpsons: Hit and Run with God of War.

Thumbnail Image Credit: El Gato Del Tejado on YouTube

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The developer of VRChat has banned all mods for its virtual reality-based social platform, and the community is incredibly unhappy.

As reported by PC Gamer, VRChat announced it would soon introduce Easy Anti-Cheat – a common PC counter-hacking and cheating service used in games including Elden Ring, Fortnite, and more. It's being introduced because, according to the developers, "malicious modified clients allow users to attack and harass others, causing a huge amount of moderation issues".

There were other reasons listed too, with developer VRChat Inc. saying that "even seemingly non-malicious modifications complicate the support and development of VRChat, and make it impossible for VRChat creators to work within the expected, documented bounds of VRChat."

A compilation of reactions to VRChat adding Easy Anti Cheat (to ban mods)

A passionate member of my discord put this together and I thought it was a great way to archive the moment (with their permission) pic.twitter.com/A4jJaIqdWI

— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) July 26, 2022

Some mods add major features to VRChat and are otherwise a huge part of its appeal for the community. For some, those mods' features are more vital, such as adding closed captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing, which will be removed as a result of the anti-cheat implementation.

As you might expect, the announcement has sent the community into an uproar, with Twitter, Discord, and other social platforms exploding with complaints in response to the blog post. The game's Steam page shot from showing mostly positive reviews to overwhelmingly negative as a result of the announcement, as users with hundreds of hours of playtime slammed the developers behind the game they love.

User FrostClaw wrote: "Horrible devs. Entirely disconnected from the community and what they want." Another, Zullfix, wrote that Easy Anti-Cheat will "lower framerates, increase instability, stop 'wholesome' mods, accessibility modes, and quality of life mods" among other things.

@VRChat "VRC-CC" is a mod that adds closed captions to movie worlds so deaf/HH people can watch movies with their friends. VRChat is killing that today by banning all mods. They've done absolutely nothing to address serious accessibility gaps on their platform. Please RT pic.twitter.com/DuJSUJCb4n

— Foxipso (@TheFoxipso) July 25, 2022

VRChat Inc. has issued a response to the community, updating its initial blog post to say that it has heard and understood the complaints but it will not cancel the implementation of Easy Anti-Cheat.

"However, we hear you and see you saying that many of the modified client features that are being lost due to this are extremely important to you, or in some cases allow you to use VRChat at all, when in regards to modifications that added accessibility features that VRChat currently lacks," it said.

"Addressing these concerns and feedback is our highest priority. We are changing our internal development roadmap and priorities to focus on the features and additions that you want. Currently ongoing projects are being paused, rescheduled, or re-prioritized, and resources are being re-allocated to account for this change."

The first changes being made pertain to accessibility issues such as the removal of closed captions, with VRChat Inc. saying it is fast-tracking several similar features through production. It promised that more information will follow soon, and that these initial updates will be first of many, also thanking fans for their patience as they work through the list of concerns.

Whether fans will show that patience remains to be seen.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced at the company's full year earnings call that the Xbox Series X and S were the fastest-selling consoles in Xbox history. Now, a year later and nearly two years into the consoles' life cycles, he's affirmed this continues to be true.

While this sounds a bit obvious, what Nadella's really saying here is that sales of the newest Xbox consoles haven't really slowed down significantly since they launched, at least not compared to past Xbox consoles.

His exact words were that Microsoft has "sold more consoles life-to-date than any previous generation of Xbox." So almost two years in, none of the other Xboxes had sold as many units as the current generation.

That's a lot of Xboxes, especially given the many challenges the ongoing chip shortage has presented in getting the dang things on the shelves in the first place.

Nadella also mentioned a few other numbers. He reminded us that Xbox consoles have been the next-gen console market leader for three quarters in a row now (basically, they've been outselling PS5 for the last three quarters). And, hardware aside, Xbox's xCloud seems to be doing all right too — over four million people have streamed Fortnite to date on xCloud, Nadella said, including over one million people who were brand new to the xCloud ecosystem.

That's all good news for Xbox, though it came alongside the announcement that gaming revenue for the quarter was down 7% year-over-year, content and service revenue was down 6%, while hardware revenue dropped 11%. While none of that sounds sparkling, it also shouldn't be shocking — last quarter the company was still riding the high of a massive hardware sales surge, and it's normal to see hardware sales gently decline as time goes on.

As for content revenue, without a ton of blockbuster releases hanging around, Xbox will probably have to wait for October or later for some big releases to bolster those numbers further.

Xbox is projecting that its current quarter (running from July through September) will see a year-on-year drop in the low-to-mid single digits due to declines in first party content, while console revenue and Game Pass subscriptions are expected to rise.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced at the company's full year earnings call that the Xbox Series X and S were the fastest-selling consoles in Xbox history. Now, a year later and nearly two years into the consoles' life cycles, he's affirmed this continues to be true.

While this sounds a bit obvious, what Nadella's really saying here is that sales of the newest Xbox consoles haven't really slowed down significantly since they launched, at least not compared to past Xbox consoles.

His exact words were that Microsoft has "sold more consoles life-to-date than any previous generation of Xbox." So almost two years in, none of the other Xboxes had sold as many units as the current generation.

That's a lot of Xboxes, especially given the many challenges the ongoing chip shortage has presented in getting the dang things on the shelves in the first place.

Nadella also mentioned a few other numbers. He reminded us that Xbox consoles have been the next-gen console market leader for three quarters in a row now (basically, they've been outselling PS5 for the last three quarters). And, hardware aside, Xbox's xCloud seems to be doing all right too — over four million people have streamed Fortnite to date on xCloud, Nadella said, including over one million people who were brand new to the xCloud ecosystem.

That's all good news for Xbox, though it came alongside the announcement that gaming revenue for the quarter was down 7% year-over-year, content and service revenue was down 6%, while hardware revenue dropped 11%. While none of that sounds sparkling, it also shouldn't be shocking — last quarter the company was still riding the high of a massive hardware sales surge, and it's normal to see hardware sales gently decline as time goes on.

As for content revenue, without a ton of blockbuster releases hanging around, Xbox will probably have to wait for October or later for some big releases to bolster those numbers further.

Xbox is projecting that its current quarter (running from July through September) will see a year-on-year drop in the low-to-mid single digits due to declines in first party content, while console revenue and Game Pass subscriptions are expected to rise.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Development on the upcoming remake of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic has reportedly been paused indefinitely after what appears to be disappointment over the current progress of the RPG.

According to Bloomberg, Texas-based studio Aspyr’s recent internal demo of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic demo didn’t land as well as it could have when it was shown to Lucasfilm and Sony. This has led to Aspyr telling employees that the project would be put on pause and that the company would look for “new contracts and development opportunities.”

Additionally, Aspyr fired the remake’s art director, Brad Prince and design director, Jason Minor. The latter reportedly said on social media channels that the dismissal was unexpected.

Aspyr has been working on the remake of the 2003 Star Wars RPG for the last three years before finally announcing the game in September 2021. However, after presenting a demo, or vertical slice, of the game to its production partners Lucasfilm and Sony, it was followed by employees learning of the development pause, and two firings.

Bloomberg reports that Aspyr’s studio heads told staff that the vertical slice “wasn’t where they wanted it to be and that the project would be paused.”

While Aspyr’s future involvement in the project remains unclear, Aspyr’s parent company, Embracer, announced in May that Saber Interactive would assist on the project and some Aspyr employees believe Saber may take over the project completely.

Update 8/22 2:36 pm PT: Bloomberg later reported that the remake is officially moving from Aspyr to Saber Interactive's eastern Europe studio, though parent company Embracer doesn't expect the transition to result in a delay. However, a release date was never officially announced for the remake in the first place.

Knights of the Old Republic remake was set to be released as a PC and PS5 console exclusive and was touted as a full remake developed from the ground up. Originally developed by BioWare, Knights of the Old Republic has consistently been regarded as one of the best Star Wars video games and western RPGs.

The first teaser premiered in Sony’s 2021 PlayStation Showcase and it was revealed that original voice actor Jennifer Hale would be returning as Bastila Shan.

According to reports, Aspyr was targeting a late 2022 release date for the remake but insiders suggest 2025 was a more realistic target. However, it’s now unclear how this project will continue.

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

Development on the upcoming remake of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic has reportedly been paused indefinitely after what appears to be disappointment over the current progress of the RPG.

According to Bloomberg, Texas-based studio Aspyr’s recent internal demo of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic demo didn’t land as well as it could have when it was shown to Lucasfilm and Sony. This has led to Aspyr telling employees that the project would be put on pause and that the company would look for “new contracts and development opportunities.”

Additionally, Aspyr fired the remake’s art director, Brad Prince and design director, Jason Minor. The latter reportedly said on social media channels that the dismissal was unexpected.

Aspyr has been working on the remake of the 2003 Star Wars RPG for the last three years before finally announcing the game in September 2021. However, after presenting a demo, or vertical slice, of the game to its production partners Lucasfilm and Sony, it was followed by employees learning of the development pause, and two firings.

Bloomberg reports that Aspyr’s studio heads told staff that the vertical slice “wasn’t where they wanted it to be and that the project would be paused.”

While Aspyr’s future involvement in the project remains unclear, Aspyr’s parent company, Embracer, announced in May that Saber Interactive would assist on the project and some Aspyr employees believe Saber may take over the project completely.

Update 8/22 2:36 pm PT: Bloomberg later reported that the remake is officially moving from Aspyr to Saber Interactive's eastern Europe studio, though parent company Embracer doesn't expect the transition to result in a delay. However, a release date was never officially announced for the remake in the first place.

Knights of the Old Republic remake was set to be released as a PC and PS5 console exclusive and was touted as a full remake developed from the ground up. Originally developed by BioWare, Knights of the Old Republic has consistently been regarded as one of the best Star Wars video games and western RPGs.

The first teaser premiered in Sony’s 2021 PlayStation Showcase and it was revealed that original voice actor Jennifer Hale would be returning as Bastila Shan.

According to reports, Aspyr was targeting a late 2022 release date for the remake but insiders suggest 2025 was a more realistic target. However, it’s now unclear how this project will continue.

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