Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone has announced a new board game adaptation of the popular farm life game, and it’s available to order now for $55.

The result of a collaboration between Stardew Valley’s sole developer Barone (who often goes by the moniker ConcernedApe) and Cole Medeiros, ConcernedApe’s head of operations and business development, the project took a total of two years to design. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=stardew-valley-the-board-game-announcement-photos&captions=true"]

“In 2018 Eric Barone and Cole Medeiros, introduced online through their mutual friend Matt Griffin, played a co-op game of Stardew Valley and discussed the idea of making a Stardew Valley board game,” the announcement reads. “They didn't know exactly what it would look like, but they knew Stardew had all the components of a great board game.”

After two years of refining and playtesting, all spent in between development time for the video game, the pair officially had a board game.

Much like the original video game, players work cooperatively to grow crops, raise animals, build out their farm, and gather resources from across the valley. Players can also befriend the familiar townspeople and earn hearts to reveal secret goals. To win, you’ll need to restore the Valley to its original greatness and keep Joja Mart from mucking it all up. The game can be played with 1 - 4 players, with an estimated 45 minutes of playtime per player.

To do all that, players need to achieve four “Granda Goals” and restore all of the community center rooms before a deck of season cards is exhausted.

The game, which retails for $55, comes with a board of Stardew Valley to play on, tiles (for items like crops, ore, buildings, animals, etc), numerous cards for things like events, epic items, and mine levels, gold tokens, and more.

ConcernedApe notes to fans that the board game is meant to evoke the lengthy nature of playing Stardew Valley, so while it’s designed to be easy to play, it will have a lot of complexity to it, so check out the official rulebook to see if it’s your jam.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/24/the-best-nintendo-switch-games-fall-2020-update"]

ConcernedApe also says that once the first print run is sold out, future prints will depend on how much demand there still is.

“If there's more demand for it, then we'll definitely do more print runs, and maybe slowly expand... we're kind of just testing the waters for now and see what the response is,” ConcernedApe wrote.

The Stardew Valley board game is almost certain to prove popular with fans of the original game. We here at IGN proclaimed it one of the best Nintendo Switch games, and the original video game has now sold more than 10 million copies across six platforms. ConcernedApe also has two new projects in the works, both of which will tie into Stardew Valley in different ways.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/geode smasher for IGN.

PlayStation has announced a State of Play will premiere later this week on Thursday, February 25 at 2 pm PT/5 PM ET. The new State of Play will feature updates and deep dives on games coming to both PS4 and PS5. PlayStation published a new blog announcing the newest State of Play will premiere later this week and will "serve up updates and deep dives for 10 games coming to PS4 and PS5." Along with updates on existing third-party and indie titles, there will also be new game announcements.

State of Play returns this Thursday! Tune in live at 2 PM PT/5 PM ET to see updates and deep dives for games coming to PS4 and PS5.

Full details: https://t.co/qMFCMCuIGU pic.twitter.com/NjwB40YlU1 — PlayStation (@PlayStation) February 23, 2021

PlayStation says the show will be around "30 minutes or so, give or take" and that there will be no hardware or business-focused updates during the show. That means the full 30 minutes will be spent on games. This is the first variety State of Play from PlayStation since August 2020, which showcased a variety of third-party games coming to the PlayStation 5. A smaller State of Play focused entirely on Destruction AllStars was released in January.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"]

Sony has been slowly ramping up its announcement cycle as the company announced it is working on a PlayStation VR 2 headset for PS5, a delay for Gran Turismo 7, and that it's bringing more first-party PlayStation games to PC such as Days Gone later this spring. The zombie game from Bend Studio will be the second PlayStation-exclusive coming to PC after Horizon Zero Dawn. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is News Editor at IGN.

PlayStation has announced a State of Play will premiere later this week on Thursday, February 25 at 2 pm PT/5 PM ET. The new State of Play will feature updates and deep dives on games coming to both PS4 and PS5. PlayStation published a new blog announcing the newest State of Play will premiere later this week and will "serve up updates and deep dives for 10 games coming to PS4 and PS5." Along with updates on existing third-party and indie titles, there will also be new game announcements.

State of Play returns this Thursday! Tune in live at 2 PM PT/5 PM ET to see updates and deep dives for games coming to PS4 and PS5.

Full details: https://t.co/qMFCMCuIGU pic.twitter.com/NjwB40YlU1 — PlayStation (@PlayStation) February 23, 2021

PlayStation says the show will be around "30 minutes or so, give or take" and that there will be no hardware or business-focused updates during the show. That means the full 30 minutes will be spent on games. This is the first variety State of Play from PlayStation since August 2020, which showcased a variety of third-party games coming to the PlayStation 5. A smaller State of Play focused entirely on Destruction AllStars was released in January.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"]

Sony has been slowly ramping up its announcement cycle as the company announced it is working on a PlayStation VR 2 headset for PS5, a delay for Gran Turismo 7, and that it's bringing more first-party PlayStation games to PC such as Days Gone later this spring. The zombie game from Bend Studio will be the second PlayStation-exclusive coming to PC after Horizon Zero Dawn. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is News Editor at IGN.

DC is making a Blue Beetle film, and it already has a director. The Wrap reports that Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto is set to direct Blue Beetle, which will focus on Mexican-American teen Jaime Reyes, the third character to adopt the Blue Beetle name.

Writing the film is Mexican-born Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, writer on Universal’s upcoming Scarface remake.

“It is an honor to direct Blue Beetle, the first Latino superhero film for DC,” Soto told TheWrap. “I want to sincerely thank everyone at Warner Bros. and DC for trusting me to bring Jaime Reyes to life. I can’t wait to make history together.”

The film is scheduled to start production in the fall.

Debuting in 2006, Jaime Reyes is noted for being significantly different from previous Blue Beetles. With no prior connection to superheroes or super abilities, Reyes’ origin story sees him discover the titular Blue Beetle scarab, a piece of alien technology which grafts itself onto the base of his spine and gives him a powerful suit of armor, an energy cannon, powered blades, wings, and several other abilities.

Reyes was quickly found by Booster Gold, another DC hero, who introduces him to the Justice League, and the two eventually become frequent partners in crime fighting.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-greatest-batman-graphic-novels-of-all-time&captions=true"]

DC originally announced a Blue Beetle movie was in the works in 2018, with Dunnet-Alcocer still attached to write. A Blue Beetle and Booster Gold live-action film was previously rumored in 2015, but nothing ended up materializing.

Blue Beetle also ended up becoming a popular character in DC’s animated universe, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold and season two of Young Justice.

Blue Beetle is also set to appear in a new DC animated film sometime in 2022.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

DC is making a Blue Beetle film, and it already has a director. The Wrap reports that Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto is set to direct Blue Beetle, which will focus on Mexican-American teen Jaime Reyes, the third character to adopt the Blue Beetle name.

Writing the film is Mexican-born Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, writer on Universal’s upcoming Scarface remake.

“It is an honor to direct Blue Beetle, the first Latino superhero film for DC,” Soto told TheWrap. “I want to sincerely thank everyone at Warner Bros. and DC for trusting me to bring Jaime Reyes to life. I can’t wait to make history together.”

The film is scheduled to start production in the fall.

Debuting in 2006, Jaime Reyes is noted for being significantly different from previous Blue Beetles. With no prior connection to superheroes or super abilities, Reyes’ origin story sees him discover the titular Blue Beetle scarab, a piece of alien technology which grafts itself onto the base of his spine and gives him a powerful suit of armor, an energy cannon, powered blades, wings, and several other abilities.

Reyes was quickly found by Booster Gold, another DC hero, who introduces him to the Justice League, and the two eventually become frequent partners in crime fighting.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-greatest-batman-graphic-novels-of-all-time&captions=true"]

DC originally announced a Blue Beetle movie was in the works in 2018, with Dunnet-Alcocer still attached to write. A Blue Beetle and Booster Gold live-action film was previously rumored in 2015, but nothing ended up materializing.

Blue Beetle also ended up becoming a popular character in DC’s animated universe, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold and season two of Young Justice.

Blue Beetle is also set to appear in a new DC animated film sometime in 2022.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

While a recent report gave many hope that Hiro, Baymax and other characters from Big Hero 6 would be making their live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it appears that is not true... at least for now. A source inside Walt Disney Pictures Animation Studios confirmed to Variety that the recent report by TheDisInsider.com about the Big Hero 6 crew joining the MCU is not currently true. However, that doesn't mean the heroes from the film that was inspired by a Marvel comic of the same name won't ever join the ranks of Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and all of our other favorite super heroes. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2014/05/23/big-hero-6-trailer-1"] The Big Hero 6 comic series, which was published by Marvel Comics and created by Man of Action, made its debut in September 1998's Sunfire & Big Hero 6 #1. Unlike the film's setting of San Fransokyo, the comics were set in Japan. Furthermore, Baymax was a synthetic bodyguard that was able to transform into a green dragon. Walt Disney Pictures Animation's Big Hero 6 was released in theaters in 2014, and since then, Big Hero 6 has returned to comics, made an appearance in Kingdom Hearts 3, arrived on TV as a spin-off series, and so much more. As Variety notes, Guardians of the Galaxy was an obscure Marvel comics title that has made its way to the MCU, so there is no reason to count out Big Hero 6's inclusion in the future. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/09/18/kingdom-hearts-3-tgs-big-hero-6-trailer"] [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.

While a recent report gave many hope that Hiro, Baymax and other characters from Big Hero 6 would be making their live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it appears that is not true... at least for now. A source inside Walt Disney Pictures Animation Studios confirmed to Variety that the recent report by TheDisInsider.com about the Big Hero 6 crew joining the MCU is not currently true. However, that doesn't mean the heroes from the film that was inspired by a Marvel comic of the same name won't ever join the ranks of Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and all of our other favorite super heroes. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2014/05/23/big-hero-6-trailer-1"] The Big Hero 6 comic series, which was published by Marvel Comics and created by Man of Action, made its debut in September 1998's Sunfire & Big Hero 6 #1. Unlike the film's setting of San Fransokyo, the comics were set in Japan. Furthermore, Baymax was a synthetic bodyguard that was able to transform into a green dragon. Walt Disney Pictures Animation's Big Hero 6 was released in theaters in 2014, and since then, Big Hero 6 has returned to comics, made an appearance in Kingdom Hearts 3, arrived on TV as a spin-off series, and so much more. As Variety notes, Guardians of the Galaxy was an obscure Marvel comics title that has made its way to the MCU, so there is no reason to count out Big Hero 6's inclusion in the future. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/09/18/kingdom-hearts-3-tgs-big-hero-6-trailer"] [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.

Xbox Games with Gold for March 2021 will include Xbox One titles Warface: Breakout and Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse as well as the 2008 XBLA release of Metal Slug 3 and the Xbox 360 title Port Royale 3. Warface: Breakout will be available all month from March 1 to March 31. Metal Slug 3 will also become available on March 1 but will leave on March 15. Starting March 16, Port Royale 3 will be available for free until March 31 and Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse will be free until April 15, according to Xbox Wire. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/xbox-march-2021-games-with-gold-trailer"] Warface: Breakout was released in 2020. It's a tactical first-person shooter and a spin-off of the free-to-play game Warface, which recently made its way to Nintendo Switch with cross-play coming in the future. Metal Slug 3 is the classic run-and-gun shooter first released in arcades in 2000. It was ported to the original Xbox with additional game modes, but that's not the version available. The port available for free in March was released in 2008 on Xbox Live Arcade. According to IGN's review of the XBLA Metal Slug 3 port, visuals were improved over the original Xbox port but the extra game modes did not carry over. Even worse, blood was also censored in this port. The blood can be restored by setting the language on the Xbox 360 to Japanese. It's not known if that trick works on Xbox One or Series X. Another version of Metal Slug 3 was released in 2017 for Xbox One, which lets players choose between different versions of the game. Unfortunately, the 2008 port is the version that Xbox Wire links to in the Games with Gold announcement. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/warface-breakout-17-minutes-of-gameplay"] Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse is a twin-stick shooter released in 2018. Gamers take control of mechs to wipe out a llama apocalypse with four-player co-op. IGN Africa's review of VALA said the game has "a severe lack of variety, poor pacing of the action, and enough mild annoyances that add up to major irritations." Finally, Port Royale 3 is a pirate simulator set in 17th Century Caribbean. IGN's preview of the game said, "The relatively slow pace and simulation-based approach might keep action gamers at arm's length, but we were impressed by how many different ways there are to leave your mark on Port Royale 3's many sandy shores." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-games-to-play-on-xbox-series-xs&captions=true"] Xbox Gold members still have time to pick up some of February's titles, including Gears 5, a remastered version of the original Resident Evil and Lost Planet 2. For anybody looking for new games to play on Series X, then look at IGN's guide to the best games on Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft was in hot water in January when they increased the price of Xbox Live only to revert back after a day of social media outrage. As a bonus, Microsoft said that all free-to-play games no longer require Xbox Live. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.

Xbox Games with Gold for March 2021 will include Xbox One titles Warface: Breakout and Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse as well as the 2008 XBLA release of Metal Slug 3 and the Xbox 360 title Port Royale 3. Warface: Breakout will be available all month from March 1 to March 31. Metal Slug 3 will also become available on March 1 but will leave on March 15. Starting March 16, Port Royale 3 will be available for free until March 31 and Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse will be free until April 15, according to Xbox Wire. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/xbox-march-2021-games-with-gold-trailer"] Warface: Breakout was released in 2020. It's a tactical first-person shooter and a spin-off of the free-to-play game Warface which recently made its way to Nintendo Switch with cross-play coming in the future. Metal Slug 3 is the classic run-and-gun shooter first released in arcades in 2000. It was ported to the original Xbox with additional game modes, but that's not the version available. The port available for free in March was released in 2008 on Xbox Live Arcade. According to IGN's review of the XBLA Metal Slug 3 port, visuals were improved over the original Xbox port but the extra game modes did not carry over. Even worse, blood was also censored in this port. The blood can be restored by setting the language on the Xbox 360 to Japanese. It's not known if that trick works on Xbox One or Series X. Another version of Metal Slug 3 was released in 2017 for Xbox One, but the version available for free in March is the XBLA release from 2008. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/warface-breakout-17-minutes-of-gameplay"] Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse is a twin-stick shooter released in 2018. Gamers take control of mechs to wipe out a llama apocalypse with a four-player co-op. IGN Africa's review of VALA said the game has "a severe lack of variety, poor pacing of the action, and enough mild annoyances that add up to major irritations." Finally, Port Royale 3 is a pirate simulator set in 17th Century Caribbean. IGN's preview of the game said, "The relatively slow pace and simulation-based approach might keep action gamers at arm's length, but we were impressed by how many different ways there are to leave your mark on Port Royale 3's many sandy shores." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-games-to-play-on-xbox-series-xs&captions=true"] Xbox Gold members still have time to pick up some of February's titles, including Gears 5, a remastered version of the original Resident Evil and Lost Planet 2. For anybody looking for new games to play on Series X, then look at IGN's guide to the best games on Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft was in hot water in January when they increased the price of Xbox Live only to revert back after a day of social media outrage. As a bonus, Microsoft said that all free-to-play games no longer require Xbox Live. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.

NBC’s Peacock streaming service is bulking up with...a new game show based on the classic arcade game Frogger?

Announced Tuesday, the Frogger game show will supersize the classic Frog-hopping, traffic-dodging courses from the classic games and pit contestants against one another for a cash prize.

The competition will feature twelve different obstacle courses, dubbed “crossings,” forcing contestants to “dodge treacherous traffic, leap over snapping gators and hop over hungry hippos to conquer the course.”

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/02/stranger-things-pinball-machine-6-radical-hi-tech-features"]

NBC has ordered 13 hour-long episodes of the game show.

In case you’re feeling lucky, you can apply to be a contestant on Frogger here. Word of warning, as is typical for such shows, the application is pretty long and asks you to also submit a two-minute video. The show’s recruiters are looking for folks with a love for Frogger (duh), the 80’s, and any particular physical or mental skills that could help you compete.

Frogger was first released in 1981 by Konami. Its success spawned dozens of sequels and spinoffs and cemented its place in pop culture with countless references in the likes of Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and Wreck-It Ralph.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-peacock-original-available-at-launch&captions=true"]

Frogger the game show is being developed by Eureka Productions, the production company behind other reality shows including The Amazing Race, The Real Dirty Dancing, and more.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Frogger on PS1 devotee for IGN.