Hello Games has announced No Man's Sky Expeditions, a new update that adds multiple upgrades based around going on missions with friends. The update launches today. Expeditions' flagship feature is a new mode that features Rendezvous Planets; worlds where players all start in the same place and can embark on Expeditions together across the galaxy. These Expeditions can be planned using a new Expedition Planner menu, which will help keep everyone in the team focused. Expeditions are made up of phases, which are split into milestone challenges. While this does add focus, Hello Games promises that milestones are open ended and can be completed in any order, which preserves the freeform nature of the game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/31/no-mans-sky-expeditions-trailer"] Working as a group, you'll be able to unlock mission patches as you complete milestones, as well as unlock new rewards with the community. While the co-operation aspects make up the main features of Expeditions, the update includes a large number of other, quality of life improvements. A new jetpack will be available, as well as the ability to call in walkers Titanfall-style. The UI has been updated and is now in 4K, and new colour-blind support is available. Twitch drop support has been added, as well as cross platform naming mergers, improved ping system, and better text chat. You can also unlock golden helmet and ship rewards. A new on-going season system will also be present. For more from No Man's Sky, check out the update that lets you adopt a pet alien, and the enhancements made to the next-generation version for PS5/Xbox Series X. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

David Ayer has expressed his desire to release his original cut of Suicide Squad, following the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max. In an interview with EW, Ayer reinforced the need for the #ReleaseTheAyerCut campaign by vocalizing how "amazing" his director's cut of the 2016 film was prior to the alleged involvement from the studio — after previously claiming that his "soulful drama was beaten into a comedy" by studio executives after the mixed reception of Batman v Superman and the blockbuster status of Deadpool. "I get it, it's a business," Ayer told EW, speaking on the subject again. "It's frustrating because I made a really heartfelt drama and it got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn't supposed to be. And then you take the hit, you're the captain of the ship, my name was on it. [Laughs] Even though it didn't represent what I actually made, I would take all the bullets and be a good soldier. I made an amazing movie. It's an amazing movie, it just scared the s*** out of the executives." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/27/the-10-best-dceu-movie-heroes"] While Ayer indicated that he understood the reason for the studio taking a business-minded approach to his Suicide Squad cut, he noted that community-driven initiatives may be exactly what the industry needs in order to spark a change in the way that studios look at projects, perhaps opening up the potential for "different things, different versions, different assets" being shared with an audience. "I think the studios see now that there can be canon, there can be non-canon, the fans just want to touch it," Ayer explained. "They love the characters, they just want to spend more time with it. And people are way more sophisticated about how movies are made and want to be participants in the journey. There's room for different things, different versions, different assets being shared with the audience. I think it just helps strengthen the community." Ayer credited Warner Bros. for supporting Zack Snyder and "having the courage to explore" his version of Justice League after a legion of fans coalesced into an online collective that, ultimately, executives could not ignore, resulting, in part, with the studio giving them exactly what they demanded by announcing plans last year to move ahead with the Snyder cut of Justice League. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dc-extended-universe-every-upcoming-movie&captions=true"] Some have speculated that the four-hour director's cut of Justice League could pave the way for the Ayer cut, given the equally tumultuous postproduction history of that DC film. Ayer himself has spoken about the significant differences between his version of the film and the one released in theaters, including an alternate main villain, stronger ties to Justice League, and much more of Jared Leto's Joker. However, WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff recently shot down any possibility of an "Ayer Cut" of 2016's Suicide Squad being greenlit, as the studio has now seemingly shifted its focus to the release of James Gunn's upcoming sequel, The Suicide Squad, which is just one of several major Warner Bros. films hitting theaters and HBO Max simultaneously this year, along with The Matrix 4 and Mortal Kombat. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Analysts suggest that, in as little as six years, digital game sales could entirely dominate the video game market. It's a shift that’s been brewing throughout the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console generation; but now, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X generation could become the turning point where physical media becomes all-but obsolete.

Unlike other entertainment industries, video game fans have clung on to the nostalgic draw of boxes, discs, and cartridges — so, why is this acceleration happening now, after years of healthy physical game sales?

For collectors who love adding the latest releases to their shelf, this shift might be frightening to consider. But does digital's dominance necessarily spell the end of physical games, or will collectors show enough interest and spend enough money to keep physical media alive, albeit in a new, more specialized form? And will digital change game ownership, standard pricing, and collecting as a whole?

IGN spoke with several video game industry analysts to get their thoughts on this rapidly evolving marketplace.

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Digital Game Sales Are On the Rise

Overall sales of digital versions of video games have slowly been catching up to physical game sales over the last few years. Now, the scale is tipping towards digital more than ever — partially due to the trends set throughout the last few years, and partially due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic keeping consumers from shopping in-person — and pushing them towards digital storefronts.

Digital games have hit big milestones over the last few years. Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly saw the biggest digital game launch of all time. Elsewhere, developers are seeing digital sales outpace physical sales numbers, with Capcom reporting approximately 80% of its game sales are from digital downloads.

Reflecting that shift, Sony and Microsoft have now both released digital-only consoles that eliminate the option of using physical media entirely, but offer enticingly cheaper prices. If you have a more expensive PS5 or Xbox Series X with a physical disc drive, you're still given complete freedom when choosing how to buy your games. See a sale online you can't pass up? Go ahead and order the game with 2-day shipping. Want to make an impulse grab you see in a second-hand bargain bin? No problem.

For years, gamers have been offered that freedom as par for the course. Now, the reality of digital-only consoles effectively funnels consumers down a digital pipeline to PlayStation or Xbox’s more controlled stores. But the reason for that is simple — more gamers than ever prize the ensured convenience of digital over the potential freedom of physical.

Taking a deeper look at sales numbers globally supports the idea that more gamers are starting to favor digital downloads. Instead of lining up at GameStop for the latest release, players are waiting for their digital downloads to unlock at the strike of midnight. In Sony's recent Q3 FY2020 results, we saw digital sales outnumber physical sales throughout the entire current fiscal year.

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Even when we exclude games that are typically digital exclusives, digital sales still have the upper hand. In Sony's "Full Game Software" results for the three quarters of the current fiscal year, digital sales accounted for 74%, 59%, and 53% of overall sales, respectively.

This means, when given the choice between retail and downloads, the majority of players on PlayStation consistently choose digital over physical.

It's not just Sony seeing this shift in numbers. In Nintendo's recent earnings report, the company said digital sales made up 40.9% of all software sales, which is a sizable 12.3% increase year-on-year. Nintendo's digital sales also saw an increase of 104.9% when compared to 2019.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has to be taken into account. Sony's 2020 fiscal year began on April 1, 2020, when lockdowns across the world were reaching their peak. Customers who suddenly found themselves housebound could explain the huge 74% statistic in Sony's first quarter, which ran from April 1 to June 30.

"It's very straightforward: in a pandemic, downloads are the safest and most convenient option for concerned gamers," says industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games Inc.

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But as we look at 2020, analysts noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was not an instigator for the rise of digital media, but simply an accelerator of a trend we've seen take shape throughout the last console generation.

"The game industry, as well as consumers, have been gradually shifting towards digital sales before the pandemic already," says Dr. Toto. "COVID-19 has of course been a strong accelerant for that trend, as some physical locations were simply forced to shut down or people generally were not eager to go out anymore."

In 2018, digital games accounted for 43% of Sony’s Full Game Software download, and in 2019 it was 55%. Both are large year-over-year increases from even before the pandemic hit.

The acceleration is significant compared to the start of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation. Daniel Ahmad, a Senior Analyst at Niko Partners, said on Twitter that we entered the last generation of consoles in 2013 with digital downloads accounting for 5-10% of total sales. Now, we enter the PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X generation, and digital downloads account for half of the sales.

It's worth noting that we entered the current console generation (2013) with digital downloads accounting for around 5-10% of unit sales.

Now we're entering next gen with 50%+ as standard. Packaged sales are still strong, especially during COVID-19, digital is additive overall — Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 30, 2020

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Websites like Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop have helped keep physical game sales alive during a time when people aren't making purchases in person as often. While you may be hesitant about going out to a store right now, it's easier than ever to go online, add a game to your cart, and checkout within seconds.

In 2020, two-thirds of games sold in the UK were purchased digitally. That's a 20% year-over-year increase from 2019. However, last year also proved players still love cracking open a new game case as 18.2 million games were sold in boxes in the UK — a 2% increase from 2019.

This means digital and physical sales both jumped, but digital increased significantly more. In this case, digital sales numbers rising is more of a reflection of video game sales numbers as a whole going up, not the immediate death of physical media.

"Packaged software sales have been on a decline for the past few years, but this year has been slightly different," Ahmad said. "The impact from COVID-19 expanded the games market as a whole. It led to a sharp increase in digital game sales and helped stem the decline in packaged software sales."

Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the NPD group, says rising digital numbers do not necessarily spell doom for physical games.

"Growth in digital premium game sales is not being offset by matching declines in physical," Piscatella said. "Changes in physical and digital spending are also often not significantly correlated."

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For now, it seems there's a place at the table for both physical and digital sales.

"Recent numbers indicate that physical sales are surprisingly holding up well, as lockdowns don't go on forever and people can still order physical games online even during a pandemic," Dr. Toto said. "At the moment, it looks like the pie has grown overall, without physical imploding."

Analysts believe that digital sales will continue to ascend, but not as quickly as we saw during the unprecedented events of the last year.

"We expect the digital sales ratio to continue increasing, but not at the same rate as 2020," Ahmad tells IGN. "That being said, we are at a point where the overwhelming majority of games sold are via digital download already."

An All-Digital Future?

"Like it or not, but there can be no doubt that the future is digital," Dr. Toto said. "Once people are starting to download games, they are likely never going back to buy them physically."

If you're a hardcore physical collector, you may have felt your heart start beating a little faster after reading that. A silver lining? Video games are as popular and profitable as ever. For the games industry as a whole, analysts expect spending to remain high as we move further into 2021.

"We expect the increased engagement across gaming as a whole to maintain post-pandemic," Ahmad said. "We predict that people who discovered gaming in 2020 will continue playing."

However, analysts do believe physical sales will slowly diminish, leading to digital cementing itself as the primary way players purchase games. Dr. Toto said an all-digital future raises some concerns for consumers.

"What about ownership of a digital game? Is there a guarantee that I can access my download in 20 years or am I effectively just renting it? Why is there no second-hand market on digital? How do platform providers on console aim to solve the storage problems that come with downloads?"

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These concerns have cropped up from time to time throughout the last few years. Some games get delisted due to licensing issues, becoming inaccessible to redownload in order to play or preserve. Also, consumers who rely on trade-ins to help fund future game purchases are hung out to dry on digital storefronts.

"The convenience outweighs any negatives for most consumers," Ahmad said. "That being said, there are moves that publishers can make to increase digital game ownership acceptance among a broader audience, such as offering timed refunds, gifting, or trading."

If you're worried about not being able to add the latest releases to your shelf, don't panic too much just yet. Analysts think the future of physical games will be sharply redirected towards the most hardcore, passionate corners of the fanbase.

"There will continue to be a market for packaged software in the future. While the ratio of digital games keeps increasing, it’s important to note that over 200 million packaged games are still sold each year across the major console platforms," Ahmad said. "We may see packaged game offerings evolve in the future, with a larger focus on special editions."

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Analysts believe physical games aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. This is partially due to the hardcore segment of the fanbase, and the group of consumers who go to the store to buy physical games as gifts for friends or family members. Most would probably agree it's more fun to gift a physical game than a download code.

But no matter how physical gaming clings on, analysts we spoke to feel set on the idea of digital becoming the true force in the industry in the not-too-distant future. "My estimate is that digital will be the totally dominant form by the end of the decade, after the life cycle of the current PlayStation and Xbox models," Dr. Toto said.

Microsoft and Sony's new consoles launched last Fall and, judging by the length of the last two console generations, this estimate pegs digital game downloads as the completely dominant form of game purchases by around 2027-2028.

Six or seven years may seem like a long time, but in the scope of video games, it's not that far off. The video game industry adapts at a rapid pace, and before you know it, mass-market physical games could feel like a distant memory.

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Looking Ahead to the Next Few Years

However, the fate of physical games could rest upon how hard platform holders push the digital-only consoles in this generation, and how much of the player base jumps on board.

"If players gravitate towards the current digital editions of next-gen consoles, which are priced lower, we could see platform holders move to double down on digital-only consoles next generation," Ahmad said.

Piscatella agrees, saying, "the long-term trends will depend on the types of consoles being made, and developer- and publisher-driven initiatives."

But Ahmad was quick to point out that digital sales overtook physical sales even before the digital-only consoles launched, which suggests there are other significant factors in play.

From the publishers and developers’ perspective, digital game sales give them a boost by cutting out the middleman, leading to more profit. Capcom's latest earnings report specifically mentions how digital sales have increased the company's profits by subtracting retailers from the equation.

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"In my view, retailers large and small will be cut out of the game industry's value chain in the long run," Dr. Toto said. "Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo won't say it openly, but cutting out the middleman is clearly where the industry has been shifting towards for years now already."

Even if the goal is to cut them out in the long run, analysts believe stores will continue selling physical games until the market ceases to exist altogether. There's an unquestionable convenience to digital games, but there's also something to be said for swinging by the electronics section to pick up a game on your weekly trip to pick up milk and eggs.

"As long as there is physical retail, they will all keep selling physical games," Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities said. "But the evolution of sales to digital downloads will ultimately impact their health."

Some analysts believe the shift to digital will be gradual, until the point where the majority of fans are used to the digital storefront as the primary way to purchase games. At that point, we may see some big publishers pull the plug on physical game production entirely.

"The tipping point is reached when it doesn't make any economic sense to produce physical games and when the backlash of the fanbase is expected to be manageable," says Dr. Toto. He added we could even see a major publisher shift to digital-only releases as soon as sometime this generation.

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It's not just the big companies that benefit from digital sales. Indie developers and publishers rarely release physical games because digital sales help the bottom line significantly more. For many indie developers, the cost of manufacturing discs just isn't worth it. In recent years, we've seen indie developers creating boutique physical editions of their games once they’ve become a proven success, in some ways leveraging the love of a hardcore audience as a second revenue stream — a model that could be seen as a blueprint for larger developers and publishers in future.

The increasing irrelevance of physical games means less competition for digital storefronts hosted on Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo's consoles. Console storefronts almost certainly won't suffer from the internal competition seen on PC – where Steam, Epic Games Store, and more compete for digital gamers' attentions – and if retailers like Best Buy and Walmart ever fall out of the equation, it gives the publishers a larger slice of the pie. This could end up leading to an increase in prices for the consumer.

"In the future, we will see US $70 as the new standard price for single games," Dr. Toto said. "Some titles are offered with that price tag already." Dr. Toto added that platforms like Xbox Game Pass will likely see price increases as the catalogue grows and the service becomes a more popular mainstream option.

While the timetable may be fuzzy, digital game sales are looking to dominate the market completely, and evidence suggests the shift is irreversible.

"It would be safe to assume that the share of physical premium games within the overall content market should continue to decline over time," Piscatella said. "To what extent and over what time period remains opaque."

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While the speed may be subject to debate, the analysts we spoke to agree the curtain has fallen on the dominance of physical games, saying it's only a matter of time until cases, cartridges, and discs join a past era of game manuals, memory cards, and composite cables (although, somewhat ironically, memory cards seem to be making a small comeback entirely because of digital).

For physical collectors, this may raise some concerning questions about the future of trade-ins, lending games to friends, and game ownership. On the widest possible level, it’s not unthinkable to imagine a future console generation that forgoes physical media altogether, making physical game collecting itself a thing of the past. For players who already primarily buy games digitally, it may be a change that goes unnoticed – until the point when publishers might feel comfortable enough to jack up the cost of their games due to the lack of competition from physical marketplaces.

While the shift to digital sales is all-but inevitable, games companies remain tight-lipped about their long-term plans for how to react to it. Questions regarding disc drives, game preservation, and digital exclusives loom large as the industry enters a new era. Some players are embracing the change and shifting their game libraries from their shelves to their hard drives. Others are clinging on to physical media, planning to stay on the ship until it goes down.

This console generation will, without a doubt, answer some of our lingering questions about physical media's demise. Regardless, it's time we realize the question isn't if digital will become entirely dominant, but when and how the change will impact the way we buy and experience games.

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Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

Pokemon Go developer Niantic is releasing a 5G-exclusive game demo called Codename: Urban Legends. The demo is part of Niantic's strategy to build a "planet-scale AR platform", according to a new blog post from the developer. Codename Urban Legends has been created to test what an immersive multiplayer experience would look like when it leverages 5G technology. Codename: Urban Legends looks like a far more involved social augmented reality game than the likes of Pokemon Go. "5G multi-access edge computing (MEC) can handle up to 10x simultaneous players compared to 4G," says Niantic. "This is just the beginning of how we can augment the world around us faster and experience adventures, together." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/06/28/niantic-real-world-ar-occlusion-with-pikachu-and-eevee"] In Niantic's video demonstration of Urban Legends, you can see a family simultaneously fighting monsters in a wide-open space, dodging projectiles and shooting at augmented creatures with their phones. This is what Niantic is calling "large-scale multiplayer on 5G." The developer has partnered with Deutsche Telekom, Globe Telecom, and Verizon to network test and help realise the technology. The game has been built on the platform that powers Niantic's other games, like Pokemon Go and Ingress, and will use the "ultra-low latency and high bandwidth capabilities" of 5G to its advantage. "By teaming up, players cast magic spells to blast monsters and rescue mythical allies, including Doty, the original Niantic Explorer," the blog post reads. It's not clear when players will be able to check out Codename: Urban Legends, but we'll be sure to let you know when it's available. However, Niantic has told The Verge that the game will be exclusive to its carrier partners when it releases. Niantic CEO John Hanke recently teased an updated look at its augmented reality glasses design. For more on Niantic, check out our article covering the first details revealed about the new Pikmin augmented reality game, which has debuted in early access in Singapore. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

YouTube is experimenting removing the display of dislike numbers on videos. Announced on YouTube’s Twitter account, the video platform explained the experiment is a response to creator feedback. Specifically, the tweet cites the well-being of creators, as well as targeted dislike campaigns used to harass some creators.

In response to creator feedback around well-being and targeted dislike campaigns, we're testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count. If you're part of this small experiment, you might spot one of these designs in the coming weeks (example below!). pic.twitter.com/aemrIcnrbx

— YouTube (@YouTube) March 30, 2021

“We're testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count,” the tweed explains. “If you're part of this small experiment, you might spot one of these designs in the coming weeks.” While the dislike count will not be publicly displayed beneath a video, creators will still be able to see the exact number of dislikes in YouTube Studio, the system’s back-end tools. This means user feedback will still be provided to those that need it, but any negatives that may come from the number being publicly visible may be negated. YouTube notes that the experiment is “small”, and is only for select users. There is no guarantee that this is the direction YouTube will head in; for now this is just a test to gather feedback and study the results of the change. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/06/01/god-of-war-is-destroying-youtube-ign-daily-fix"] To check out if you’ve been included in YouTube’s experiment, why not head over to the IGN YouTube channel and see if the panel below a video has changed. Oh, and while you’re there, you may want to take a look at how IGN’s YouTube channel has changed to help you get the most of it. Or, for changes in games instead of YouTube, check out all the many hundreds of changes coming to Cyberpunk 2077 in patch 1.2. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

The Oculus Quest 2 has outsold every other Oculus headset combined. The news arrives as part of a Bloomberg video interview with Andrew Bosworth, VP of Augmented and Virtual Reality at Facebook. When asked about virtual reality hitting the mainstream, Bosworth said that it was "starting to happen right now," citing the Oculus Quest 2's sales indicating a shift from early adopters to mainstream success. "Oculus Quest 2, in just a few months on the market, has outsold not just its predecessor but all of its predecessors combined," Bosworth said. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=oculus-quest-2&captions=true"] The Oculus Quest 2 launched in October of 2020, which means it is currently only five months old. Regardless, the cheaper, wireless head-mounted display has already outsold all of its predecessors, including the Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Go and the Oculus Quest. The Quest 2 launched and superseded its predecessor in technology with a higher refresh rate and resolution, but actually dropped the base price of the 64 GB device to $299, down from $399. This was certainly a move made by Facebook to make VR more accessible to mainstream users. Here's our review of the Oculus Quest 2, which we scored a 9, calling it "an amazing VR headset." Shortly after launch, we learned that users will lose all of their Oculus games if they delete their linked Facebook account.  [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Chinese police in the city of Kunshan have shut down a video games cheat operation that had amassed $76 million in revenue. The operation, called “Chicken Drumstick”, ran a website that sold cheats to players via subscriptions, according to a report from BBC. These subscriptions, which provided cheats for games such as Overwatch and Call of Duty Mobile, started at approximately $10 per day, and ran up to $200 per month. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/04/03/the-state-of-cheat-codes-game-scoop"] Kunshan police collaborated with Chinese gaming company Tencent to raid the Chicken Drumstick operation, where ten people were arrested and $46 million worth of assets were seized. Among the items seized were a number of luxury sports cars. Cheat manufacturing on an industrial scale has been a problem in gaming for a number of years, spanning from wall hacks for shooters to gold farms for MMOs. Kushan police believe Chicken Drumstick to be the “world’s biggest” cheating operation case because of the huge amount of money involved. The cheats offered by Chicken Drumstick - the sort used to give you an unfair advantage in PvP games - simply makes playing games worse for everyone. That’s not to say there are not acceptable cheats, though; games like GTA: San Andreas have developer-coded cheats built into the game to make things fun for the player. And if you’re stuck in a game and need to ‘cheat’ by looking up the answer, our IGN Game Help page probably has you covered. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

The Mortal Kombat movie is delayed a week after Warner Bros. announced the video game adaptation will now be released on April 23 instead of its original April 16 release date. HBO announced the date change in a press release sent to IGN but did not explain why the date was pushed back a week. The video game adaptation is set to premiere on both HBO Max and in theaters, as per WarnerMedia's strategy of releasing its entire 2021 movie slate in both formats. Directed by Simon McQuoid, Mortal Kombat is a new film adaptation of NetherRealm's popular fighting game series. The movie will include iconic characters like Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Liu Kang, and more as they compete in an otherworldly fighting tournament that will determine Earth's fate.

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During a press tour promoting the movie, director Simon McQuoid promised a true-to-series adaptation that aims to push the R-Rating to its limit without becoming "unreleasable." Each character will also be true to their video game counterparts, and this will be reflected in their introductions and fight scenes. McQuoid is a veteran commercial director who is making his feature film debut with Mortal Kombat. McQuoid previously directed a series of live-action commercials for PlayStation. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/mortal-kombat-movie-vs-game-characters-compared"] Meanwhile, WarnerMedia has released several films direct to HBO Max already including Wonder Woman 1984 and very soon Godzilla vs. Kong on March 31. You can check out IGN's Godzilla vs. Kong review here ahead of its HBO Max premiere. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

It's been over 100 days since Cyberpunk 2077 was removed from the PlayStation store, and CD Projekt says that it's all up to Sony as to when the game finally returns. In an investor Q&A call today, the game's removal was brought up by a shareholder, with CD Projekt saying that the studio was still patching the game in earnest -- but that ultimately, the decision to return it to the storefront was in Sony's hands. SVP of business development Michał Nowakowski specifically referenced the recent 1.2 patch, saying that each update brings the game closer to re-release on the PlayStation Store, but did not give a specific new timeline. "However, the final decision, you have to understand, belongs to Sony," he said. "We do believe we are closer...but of course the final call is theirs. So let's wait and see." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/18/cyberpunk-2077-being-removed-from-playstation-store"] Later on, this thought was reiterated, but CD Projekt also projected that whenever Sony opted to put the game back on the store, it would likely encourage buyers on other platforms -- resulting in a sales spike for the company. Cyberpunk 2077 was originally removed from sale on PlayStation consoles on December 17, 2020, following numerous performance issues that disproportionately impacted prior-gen consoles. CD Projekt had a number of other Cyberpunk-related announcements today as part of a strategy update presentation today, including plans to develop two AAA games (in The Witcher and Cyberpunk franchises) simultaneously beginning in 2022, promises of better marketing strategies, and an update (or delay, or cancellation) on the status of Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Scrubs' Donald Faison has been cast as Dr. Utonium in the live-action reboot of The Powerpuff Girls for The CW, which is now simply called Powerpuff. As reported by THR, Faison joins the cast that is led by Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, respectively. [caption id="attachment_2493973" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Donald Faison Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images[/caption] This new Professor Drake Utonium is described as "the quirky, debonair and narcissistic scientific genius who is immensely proud of the three extraordinary girls he created in his lab. Staring down a midlife crisis, he is determined to repair his relationships with his now-adult daughters." The live-action reboot of Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls is set years after the events of the original and follows these three girls who are now "disillusioned twenty-something-year-olds" who resent the fact that they lost their childhoods to crime-fighting. The pilot for the show, which was ordered last month, is being written by Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier. Regnier worked on the Veronica Mars revival and iZombie, while Cody is perhaps best known for writing Juno, where she won the Academy Award for best original screenplay in 2008. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/02/11/the-powerpuff-girls-return-clip-i-am-not-a-princess"] Faison starred as Dr. Christopher Turk in all nine seasons of Scrubs that ran from 2001 to 2010. Faison is also known for his roles in Remember the Titans, Kick-Ass 2, Clueless, Waiting to Exhale, and much more. [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.