Electronic Arts will acquire mobile game studio Glu Mobile for a weighty $2.1 billion, the companies announced Monday, making it one of the most costly video game acquisitions in history.

Glu Mobile is, as the name implies, a mobile game development studio with a few heavy-hitting franchises to its name: Diner Dash, Disney Sorceror’s Arena, WWE Universe, TapSports Baseball ‘20, Kim Kardashian Hollywood, Deer Hunter, and others.

EA is demonstrating a clear interest in developing their mobile game business with the acquisition. Glu Mobile reports their game catalog has earned more than $1.32 billion in bookings over the past year. EA states that their reasoning for acquiring Glu Mobile includes growing their mobile games portfolio into sports, RPG, lifestyle, casual, and “midcore” games.

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As part of the deal, Glu Mobile is getting access to EA’s global licensing and distribution capabilities. Glu Mobile’s experience in monetizing sports and casual games is also a point of interest for EA.

“Our acquisition of Glu combines amazing teams and deeply-engaging products to create a mobile games leader with proven expertise across many fast-growing genres,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts. “Mobile continues to grow as the biggest gaming platform in the world, and with the addition of Glu’s games and talent, we’re doubling the size of our mobile business. With a deep IP portfolio and an expanding global audience, we’ll deliver more exciting experiences for our players and drive further growth for Electronic Arts.”

The acquisition brings Glu Mobile’s 500 game developers (and approximately 800 total employees) under EA’s umbrella.

EA is on a recent tear with game studio acquisitions. The company defeated Take-Two Interactive to acquire DiRT developer Codemasters in January for $1.2 billion.

While the acquisition is dwarfed by a few considerably larger grabs, it still stands as one of the most expensive of all time. According to Statista, Tencent acquired Clash Royale developer Supercell for $8.6 billion. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media (parent company to Bethesda, id Software, Arkane, MachineGames, and Tango) in 2020 for $7.5 billion. Activision acquired Candy Crush developer King for $5.9 billion in 2016, while Microsoft acquired Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion for 2014.

EA’s acquisition of Glu Mobile places it above other business deals like Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR ($2 billion), Zynga’s acquisition of Peak ($1.8 billion), and Bandai’s acquisition of Namco.

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EA previously purchased Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled developer Popcap games for $750 million in 2012. Adjusted for inflation, EA has spent roughly double that amount for Glu Mobile. Popcap’s acquisition eventually brought us Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 1 and 2, and Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville.

The Glu Mobile acquisition is expected to close on June 30, 2021, subject to all necessary approvals.

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

2020 was yet another record-setting year for Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive's quarterly financial results. In an earnings brief, Take-Two revealed that GTA 5 has sold over 140 million units to date — that's about ten million units sold since May of last year. Additionally, more units of GTA 5 were sold in calendar 2020 than in any other year except for the game's launch year of 2013 — when it sold 32.5 million. GTA Online is also doing well years after launch, with Take-Two saying the game had more players each month in 2020 than any other month since launch, as well as for the full year of 2020 than in any other year since its launch. It also saw the game's highest participation rate from both new and returning players, and its revenue was up 28% year-over-year for the quarter. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/15/gta-online-cayo-perico-heist-gameplay"] As a part of its earnings, Take-Two reaffirmed its commitment to release GTA 5 on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in the second half of 2021, as well as continue to update the game with new content this year. GTA was not the only Take-Two franchise that saw continued surges of interest in 2020. Red Dead Redemption 2 has now sold over 36 million units worldwide, and Red Dead Online reached more players in December of 2020 than it ever has since its beta launch in 2018. NBA 2K21 has now sold over 8 million units and Borderlands 3 has sold over 12 million units. Take-Two attributes much of GTA Online's ongoing success this year to its ongoing slate of new content releases, including the recently-released Cayo Perico Heist -- the first-ever heist that GTA Online players can play entirely by themselves if they choose. Players have also taken GTA Online's sandbox to create their own storylines and entertainment. The Green versus Purple Alien gang war in GTA Online was something players devised on their own within Rockstar's online universe and speaks to GTA Online's enduring popularity. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

2020 was yet another record-setting year for Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive's quarterly financial results. In an earnings brief, Take-Two revealed that GTA 5 has sold over 140 million units to date — that's about ten million units sold since May of last year. Additionally, more units of GTA 5 were sold in calendar 2020 than in any other year except for the game's launch year of 2013 — when it sold 32.5 million. GTA Online is also doing well years after launch, with Take-Two saying the game had more players each month in 2020 than any other month since launch, as well as for the full year of 2020 than in any other year since its launch. It also saw the game's highest participation rate from both new and returning players, and its revenue was up 28% year-over-year for the quarter. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/15/gta-online-cayo-perico-heist-gameplay"] As a part of its earnings, Take-Two reaffirmed its commitment to release GTA 5 on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in the second half of 2021, as well as continue to update the game with new content this year. GTA was not the only Take-Two franchise that saw continued surges of interest in 2020. Red Dead Redemption 2 has now sold over 36 million units worldwide, and Red Dead Online reached more players in December of 2020 than it ever has since its beta launch in 2018. NBA 2K21 has now sold over 8 million units and Borderlands 3 has sold over 12 million units. Take-Two attributes much of GTA Online's ongoing success this year to its ongoing slate of new content releases, including the recently-released Cayo Perico Heist -- the first-ever heist that GTA Online players can play entirely by themselves if they choose. Players have also taken GTA Online's sandbox to create their own storylines and entertainment. The Green versus Purple Alien gang war in GTA Online was something players devised on their own within Rockstar's online universe and speaks to GTA Online's enduring popularity. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The fate of Anthem hangs in the balance depending on how an internal review of the reboot goes. That’s according to a new report which says there is a chance EA expands the Anthem Next team or shelves the game altogether. In a new report from Bloomberg, EA executives will review the latest version of Anthem Next later this week. Depending on how the project is progressing, EA will continue to back and grow the Anthem Next team or “abandon the project.” Anthem Next was set to be a re-do of sorts for Anthem, BioWare’s live-service action RPG which quickly lost traction with players. BioWare handed Anthem to BioWare Austin which specifically works on live projects like Star Wars: The Old Republic. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-bioware-game-review&captions=true"] BioWare Austin executive producer Christian Dailey became the face of Anthem Next, writing three blog posts about Anthem Next's development throughout 2020. But according to the report, Dailey left the Anthem team in December as part of a management shake-up. BioWare's Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah also the company in December. Dailey’s departure put more questions around the future of the project. In its development blog, BioWare Austin detailed some changes that the team considered for Anthem Next, including updates to loot drops, weapons, the Javelins — the robot armor players pilot and customize — and skill tree changes. Basically, a top-down overhaul and Bloomberg says other major changes have been made to Anthem’s “core systems and user interface[.]” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/21/anthem-review"] This isn’t to say Anthem Next has been officially canceled. That remains to be seen following EA’s internal review, and if the project is shaping up to satisfaction the dev team will be expanded to pursue the project further. IGN reviewed Anthem and gave it a 6.5 saying its energetic combat can’t save the lack of content and tedious grind. But second chances have become increasingly common in video games thanks to success stories like Final Fantasy 14 and No Man’s Sky. Meanwhile, BioWare's Canadian studios are working on a new Dragon Age and Mass Effect [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him at @lawoftd on Twitter.

The fate of Anthem hangs in the balance depending on how an internal review of the reboot goes. That’s according to a new report which says there is a chance EA expands the Anthem Next team or shelves the game altogether. In a new report from Bloomberg, EA executives will review the latest version of Anthem Next later this week. Depending on how the project is progressing, EA will continue to back and grow the Anthem Next team or “abandon the project.” Anthem Next was set to be a re-do of sorts for Anthem, BioWare’s live-service action RPG which quickly lost traction with players. BioWare handed Anthem to BioWare Austin which specifically works on live projects like Star Wars: The Old Republic. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-bioware-game-review&captions=true"] BioWare Austin executive producer Christian Dailey became the face of Anthem Next, writing three blog posts about Anthem Next's development throughout 2020. But according to the report, Dailey left the Anthem team in December as part of a management shake-up. BioWare's Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah also the company in December. Dailey’s departure put more questions around the future of the project. In its development blog, BioWare Austin detailed some changes that the team considered for Anthem Next, including updates to loot drops, weapons, the Javelins — the robot armor players pilot and customize — and skill tree changes. Basically, a top-down overhaul and Bloomberg says other major changes have been made to Anthem’s “core systems and user interface[.]” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/21/anthem-review"] This isn’t to say Anthem Next has been officially canceled. That remains to be seen following EA’s internal review, and if the project is shaping up to satisfaction the dev team will be expanded to pursue the project further. IGN reviewed Anthem and gave it a 6.5 saying its energetic combat can’t save the lack of content and tedious grind. But second chances have become increasingly common in video games thanks to success stories like Final Fantasy 14 and No Man’s Sky. Meanwhile, BioWare's Canadian studios are working on a new Dragon Age and Mass Effect [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him at @lawoftd on Twitter.

Actor Viggo Mortensen revealed that he turned down the role of the X-Men’s Wolverine thanks in part to his son Henry.

On an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via MovieWeb), Mortensen detailed how an early meeting with 20th Century Fox and director Bryan Singer colored his thoughts on potentially being locked into a superhero role for years to come. Besides his own personal misgivings, Mortensen’s young son Henry, a fan of the X-Men, noted how different Singer’s incarnation of the superhero group looked.

"The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over,” Mortensen said. “I was nervous about that. And also there were some things... I mean they straightened most of them out, but I did take Henry to the meeting I had with the director as my sort of good luck charm and guide. In the back of my mind, I was thinking he could learn something, too, because I did let Henry read the script and he goes 'This is wrong, that's not how it is.'"

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/05/marvels-wandavision-just-introduced-the-mcus-strangest-ever-cameo-ign-news"]

Singer eventually asked Henry if he was familiar with Wolverine, Mortensen said.

“And he goes 'yeah, but he doesn't look like this,' And all of a sudden the director is falling all over himself and then the rest of the meeting was him explaining in detail to Henry why he was taking certain liberties,” Mortensen said. “We walked out of there, and Henry asks if he will change the things he told him about, and I say I don't think so. I'm not going to do it anyway, because I'm not sure I want to be doing this for years, and then a couple of years later I'm doing three Lord Of The Rings [films] so who knows."

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=marvel-museum-collection-exclusive-preview&captions=true"]

While three Lord of the Rings movies is quite the project, it ended up being far less of an ask than what Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman got over the course of seven (technically eight) X-Men movies, most of which focused on Wolverine as the central lead. It's well-known that Jackman wasn't the first choice to play Wolverine, but call it a happy accident, considering Jackman is easily the most lauded and popular part of the X-Men film franchise.

Mortensen even turned down a role in the Hobbit trilogy prior to that franchise’s filming way back in 2008. The actor is definitely the type to be careful with his role selection, typically appearing in only one to two movies per year. His most recent major appearance in 2019’s Green Book (alongside Mahershala Ali) earned him an Oscar Award nomination for best actor. He most recently made his directorial debut for 2020’s Falling, starring Mortensen as a gay man caring for his dementia-ridden homophobic father.

Now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox, the future of the X-Men franchise has been a popular question considering the MCU made it all the way to Avengers: Endgame with nary a mutant. You can read our thoughts on what WandaVision latest twists and turns might mean for the future of the MCU. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/strider for IGN.

Actor Viggo Mortensen revealed that he turned down the role of the X-Men’s Wolverine thanks in part to his son Henry.

On an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via MovieWeb), Mortensen detailed how an early meeting with 20th Century Fox and director Bryan Singer colored his thoughts on potentially being locked into a superhero role for years to come. Besides his own personal misgivings, Mortensen’s young son Henry, a fan of the X-Men, noted how different Singer’s incarnation of the superhero group looked.

"The thing that bothered me at the time was just the commitment of endless movies of that same character over and over,” Mortensen said. “I was nervous about that. And also there were some things... I mean they straightened most of them out, but I did take Henry to the meeting I had with the director as my sort of good luck charm and guide. In the back of my mind, I was thinking he could learn something, too, because I did let Henry read the script and he goes 'This is wrong, that's not how it is.'"

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/05/marvels-wandavision-just-introduced-the-mcus-strangest-ever-cameo-ign-news"]

Singer eventually asked Henry if he was familiar with Wolverine, Mortensen said.

“And he goes 'yeah, but he doesn't look like this,' And all of a sudden the director is falling all over himself and then the rest of the meeting was him explaining in detail to Henry why he was taking certain liberties,” Mortensen said. “We walked out of there, and Henry asks if he will change the things he told him about, and I say I don't think so. I'm not going to do it anyway, because I'm not sure I want to be doing this for years, and then a couple of years later I'm doing three Lord Of The Rings [films] so who knows."

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=marvel-museum-collection-exclusive-preview&captions=true"]

While three Lord of the Rings movies is quite the project, it ended up being far less of an ask than what Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman got over the course of seven (technically eight) X-Men movies, most of which focused on Wolverine as the central lead. It's well-known that Jackman wasn't the first choice to play Wolverine, but call it a happy accident, considering Jackman is easily the most lauded and popular part of the X-Men film franchise.

Mortensen even turned down a role in the Hobbit trilogy prior to that franchise’s filming way back in 2008. The actor is definitely the type to be careful with his role selection, typically appearing in only one to two movies per year. His most recent major appearance in 2019’s Green Book (alongside Mahershala Ali) earned him an Oscar Award nomination for best actor. He most recently made his directorial debut for 2020’s Falling, starring Mortensen as a gay man caring for his dementia-ridden homophobic father.

Now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox, the future of the X-Men franchise has been a popular question considering the MCU made it all the way to Avengers: Endgame with nary a mutant. You can read our thoughts on what WandaVision latest twists and turns might mean for the future of the MCU. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/strider for IGN.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is joining the cast of the upcoming Borderlands film, Lionsgate announced Monday.

Curtis will play Tannis, a scientist/archaeologist who possibly holds the (literal) key to the fabled vault, but her past with the Siren Lilith may complicate things along the way. Tannis has appeared in every main Borderlands game, but returned most recently as a side character in Borderlands 3 that assists the protagonists.

"Working with the iconic Jamie Lee Curtis has been a life long dream of mine, and I am so excited for her to bring her humor, warmth and brilliance to the role of Tannis," director Eli Roth said.

Curtis is joining actors Kevin Hart (playing the mercenary Roland) and Cate Blanchett (playing the Siren Lilith) in the film.

Curtis, who rose to fame as the original “scream queen” Laurie Strode in the Halloween series, is also known for her roles in cult classics such as Knives Out, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies, Trading Spaces, Freaky Friday, and others.

The Borderlands movie is being written by Craig Mazin, previously writer on HBO’s Chernobyl and currently developing a series based on The Last of US for HBO as well.

Developer Gearbox and Lionsgate announced the Borderlands movie back in February 2020. Since then, fans have been treated to the trickle of casting news, including the potential for fans and cosplayers to join the cast and be summarily killed.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-video-game-movie-in-development-almost&captions=true"]

With production still in the casting phases, don’t expect to hear much news on when we can expect to see the movie in theaters. Remember those?

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

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is joining the cast of the upcoming Borderlands film, Lionsgate announced Monday.

Curtis will play Tannis, a scientist/archaeologist who possibly holds the (literal) key to the fabled vault, but her past with the Siren Lilith may complicate things along the way. Tannis has appeared in every main Borderlands game, but returned most recently as a side character in Borderlands 3 that assists the protagonists.

"Working with the iconic Jamie Lee Curtis has been a life long dream of mine, and I am so excited for her to bring her humor, warmth and brilliance to the role of Tannis," director Eli Roth said.

Curtis is joining actors Kevin Hart (playing the mercenary Roland) and Cate Blanchett (playing the Siren Lilith) in the film.

Curtis, who rose to fame as the original “scream queen” Laurie Strode in the Halloween series, is also known for her roles in cult classics such as Knives Out, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies, Trading Spaces, Freaky Friday, and others.

The Borderlands movie is being written by Craig Mazin, previously writer on HBO’s Chernobyl and currently developing a series based on The Last of US for HBO as well.

Developer Gearbox and Lionsgate announced the Borderlands movie back in February 2020. Since then, fans have been treated to the trickle of casting news, including the potential for fans and cosplayers to join the cast and be summarily killed.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-video-game-movie-in-development-almost&captions=true"]

With production still in the casting phases, don’t expect to hear much news on when we can expect to see the movie in theaters. Remember those?

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

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has confirmed that E3 2021 will happen as a digital event. In a statement to IGN, the ESA has confirmed the return of one of the biggest video game conferences after its cancellation in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. "We can confirm that we are transforming the E3 experience for 2021 and will soon share exact details on how we’re bringing the global video game community together." A spokesperson from the ESA said. "We are having great conversations with publishers, developers and companies across the board, and we look forward to sharing details about their involvement soon." This news follows a report from VGC, in which E3 2021 pitch documents sent to game publishers have outlined the proposal that would see three days of live-streamed coverage from the previously announced dates of June 15-17, 2021. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/17/the-biggest-games-coming-in-2021"] The plan includes having "multiple two-hour keynote sessions from game partners, an awards show, a June 14 preview night and other smaller streams from game publishers, influencers and media partners." The broadcast event would be preceded by a media preview week, and demos would be released to the public during E3 2021 to help celebrate the future of video games. The ESA is also planning on making it possible to "allow partner companies to remotely stream playable game demos to the media across 'thousands' of scheduled meetings" alongside one-on-one assistance from developers. According to the report, these plans for E3 2021 still need approval from the ESA's membership, which include some of the biggest game companies in the world. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/13/playstation-will-not-be-at-e3-2020-ign-now"] Prior to COVID-19, many companies, including Sony, had already backed out of E3 in favor of doing their own digital events. Furthermore, The Video Game Awards and Summer Game Fest's Geoff Keighley had also backed out of E3 2020, and has no plans to return this year. Becoming a part of E3 is also very expensive, and one video game company indicated that it would rather run its own digital event instead of "paying the six-figure sums required to join E3 2021's schedule." VGC does note that the ESA has not officially cancelled plans for a physical E3 2021 event, but the digital event is indeed the main focus. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/07/no-digital-replacement-for-e3"] The proposed show would run from 10am-10pm EST, with regional replays scheduled for around the world. A typical day would include "a 30-minute pre-show run by a media partner, followed by a 2-hour 'exclusive press conference' by a console platform holder, followed by a Q&A and panel reaction." There would then be more third-party publisher presentations, a wrap-up show, a teaser for the next day, and a "charitable after-party" stream. [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.