Netflix has revealed the principle cast for its upcoming epic Norse saga, Vikings: Valhalla, a spiritual successor to History's Vikings series, which centered on Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons. Vikings: Valhalla takes place around 100 years after the events of the History Channel series, and features legendary historical figures such as Norse explorer Leif Erikson (played by Sam Corlett) and the Danish king, Canute (portrayed by Bradley Freegard). For the entire ensemble and the characters they are playing, read on or check out the list and gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-character-in-vikings-valhalla&captions=true"]

Vikings: Valhalla Cast

• Sam Corlett is Leif Eriksson
• Frida Gustavsson is Freydis Eriksdotter
• Leo Suter is Harald Sigurdsson
• Bradley Freegard is King Canute
• Jóhannes Jóhannesson is Olaf Haraldson
• Laura Berlin is Emma OF Normandy
• David Oakes is Earl Godwin
• Caroline Henderson is Jarl Haakon
• Pollyanna McIntosh  is Queen Ælfgifu
• Asbjørn Krogh Nissen is Jarl Kåre

Back in 2019, we learned that Vikings: Valhalla is getting a 24-episode straight to series order from the streaming giant. Vikings creator Michael Hirst will serve as an executive producer alongside showrunner and lead writer Jeb Stuart (screenwriter for Die Hard and The Fugitive). Here's how Netflix describes the series: "Vikings: Valhalla begins in the early 11th century and chronicles the legendary adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – Leif Eriksson, Freydis Eriksdotter, Harald Hardrada, and the Norman King William the Conqueror. These men and women will blaze a path as they fight for survival in the ever-changing and evolving world." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/07/vikings-season-6-trailer-2019"] In an interview with IGN's Jim Vejvoda, Hirst revealed why the Vikings franchise was making the switch from History to Netflix. "I think that it was a decision of History [Channel] also to stop their involvement because [they're] not really doing, as far as I know, they're not going to do drama anymore, or at least they're going to go back to documentary making," Hirst said. "MGM very much wants [Vikings] to continue so [it's] important to stay friends." No release date for Vikings: Valhalla has been announced. What do you think of the casting news? Let us know in the comments. [poilib element="accentDivider"] David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

The developers of 2018's Celeste have released a surprise semi-sequel to mark the game's third anniversary. Celeste director Maddy Thorson posted the news to Twitter, revealing that Celeste 2: Lani's Trek or Celeste Classic 2 is a sequel to the original prototype of the game, built in Pico-8. Pico-8 is a "fantasy video game console" game engine that allows for its games to be played within a browser. This means you can play Celeste Classic 2 right now if you follow this link to the game's Itch.io page.

To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Celeste, we made a sequel to Celeste Classic for PICO-8 :D you can play Celeste Classic 2 now on web or pico-8! https://t.co/EHp7dTgGlE

— Maddy Thorson (@MaddyThorson) January 25, 2021

According to the short description that accompanies the game, Celeste Classic 2 was built in just three days. The mini-sequel is a challenging aside clearly set within the Celeste universe. You play as a new character called Lani, who has a grappling hook. Here's our review of Celeste from 2018, a game we scored a 10, noting its incredible platforming and innumerable secrets. If you're looking for more Celeste content, here's a speedrun of the game which manages to achieve the True Ending in just 54 minutes. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/01/25/celeste-review"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

More than 19 million people picked up Star Wars Battlefront 2 for free during the game's recent Epic Games Store promotion. That's approximately the same number of new players as the population of Chile. The news was revealed by the EA Star Wars account on Twitter, in a tweet that thanked players for their continued support. "More than 19M PLAYERS got #StarWarsBattlefrontII from the Epic Game Store promo," the tweet reads. "Thank you so much for the continued support, even after our final content drop!" The promotion, which allowed players to pick up the game free of charge, saw a massive influx of new players to the game. The promotion caused some trouble with the game's servers, forcing EA to increase capacity. This also coincided with a bug that saw players losing XP, which was promptly fixed.

More than 19M PLAYERS got #StarWarsBattlefrontII from the Epic Game Store promo!Thank you so much for the continued support, even after our final content drop! We’ll watch your careers with great interest! May the Force be with you, troopers! pic.twitter.com/fC4A92HLNN

— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) January 25, 2021

Players who picked up the game during the promotion were given access to the Celebration Edition of Star Wars Battlefront 2, which includes all of the customization content purchasable in-game from launch, all the way up to Battlefront 2's 'The Rise of Skywalker' update. In other EA Star Wars news, a report has suggested that a new Knights of the Old Republic game is in the works, without original developers Bioware. We also learned in early January that Ubisoft is working on an open-world Star Wars game alongside the newly-reformed Lucasfilm Games. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/17/star-wars-battlefront-2-review-2019"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Konami has provided more clarity on the future of its gaming division, saying it restructured to allow for games to be developed more efficiently.

Disney has announced plans to update its Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World after receiving years-long criticism over the ride's outdated and insensitive depictions of other cultures. The Walt Disney Company shared a special transmission from the world's most remote tropical rivers on Monday, addressing some new and exciting enhancements that the Imagineers have planned for the Jungle Cruise attraction at both Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. The upcoming changes to the attraction are said to better "reflect and value the diversity of the world around us."

Exciting enhancements are coming to the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland park at @Disneyland Resort and Magic Kingdom Park at @WaltDisneyWorld Resort later this year! Here’s a first look from Walt Disney Imagineering at some of the “gnu” magic being added: https://t.co/B8HF1peLdF pic.twitter.com/2mWI8RPl3K

— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) January 25, 2021

"Imagineers are addressing negative depictions of native people while adding a humorous storyline that follows the adventure of a Jungle Cruise skipper, his passengers, and what has become of their boat and its contents," Disney said in a statement provided by Michele Himmelberg, per USA Today. "Guests will also find this group of adventurers to be diverse – in background and fields of interest." [caption id="attachment_2465229" align="alignnone" width="783"] Image credit: Disney[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2465230" align="alignnone" width="900"] Image credit: Disney[/caption] According to a Disney Parks blog post about the ride revamp, the river cruise will include "new adventures that stay true to the experience we know and love" with an extra splash of "humor, wildlife, and skipper heart." The updated storyline will expand upon the skipper role, as the "live, experienced and witty guide" will also be "represented by a show figure within the attraction itself." Disney's concept art for the reimagined ride shows an updated "trapped safari" scene, with a group of hapless adventurers shimmying up a tree trunk to escape the horn of a rhinoceros. Ride guests will get to follow "a skipper and his passengers as their journey goes awry," and in this new version of the scene, they will see the skipper of the ill-fated boat tour also clinging onto the bole. Abandoned, the adventurers' half-sunken boat is illustrated in another piece of concept art for the reworked attraction, which depicts a steamer that has been overtaken by a group of chimpanzees, with monkey business ensuing. Disney Imagineer Kevin Lively promised that, ultimately, "the jungle gets the last laugh" in these new and updated scenes. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/10/disneys-jungle-cruise-official-trailer-2"] Jungle Cruise is not the only theme park attraction to be getting a revamp; Disney previously announced that Splash Mountain will be "completely reimagined" as a Princess and the Frog ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World after fans petitioned to overhaul the ride because it was inspired by (and still includes) imagery from Song of the South, a movie featuring racially insensitive depictions. As reported by The Los Angeles Times, Disney expects the changes to the Jungle Cruise attraction to be completed at both parks this year, though the ride changes are being made independently of the forthcoming Jungle Cruise movie, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. A Disney spokesperson stressed that the ride's "new figurines will not represent characters in the film." The Jungle Cruise movie is currently scheduled to set sail in theaters on July 30, 2021. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

UK retailer Argos has been targeted by PS5 scalping groups, possibly contributing to lower-than-expected availability during a recent stock update. In the early hours of January 26, UK gamers were delighted to see the PS5 back in stock at Argos. But, just as we've seen time and time again, the stock lasted for a much shorter time than expected, amid widespread issues. Not only was the site buggy, alongside the app, but there was also supposedly even less stock than expected on the already limited supply of consoles. Multiple sources (who wished to remain anonymous) have confirmed to IGN that this is in part because individuals were able to order PS5 consoles from Argos on January 25, a full day before the aforementioned official stock drop. This was down to a loophole discovered by scalping group Express Notify, a paid-for Discord server that shared links allowing users to buy the PS5 before the general public even knew about the new stock. Express Notify has been publicly taking credit, with many of its users showing off their orders for multiple consoles. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"] Argos supposedly shut these rogue links down quickly, but not without several consoles being sold and even collected from Argos outlets beforehand. There hasn't been any confirmation of how many PS5s were claimed before the loophole was closed, but this is just another example in the growing list of frustrations that customers are facing when trying to purchase the next-gen system. To compound the issues, those who were attempting to buy legitimately via Argos in the early hours of the morning weren't exactly given a head start. At first, stock appeared to be available on the Argos app – which repeatedly dropped for maintenance – but not on Argos' browser-based website. However, even success with the app was seemingly entirely dependant on your area, and whether it wanted to play ball in general. Some users reported success, others said the money came out of their account without a confirmation email, while many more were left without a console once again. Argos has responded to the issue, stating that it "identified a technical issue which allowed a small proportion of customers to place orders early" while also adding, “It’s clear our customers are excited for the new PlayStation. We released a small amount of additional stock and have seen huge numbers of customers trying to place their orders with us and we have now sold out.” Scalping has become a major issue for the low-stock, high-demand PS5, and has been particularly prevalent in the UK. Consoles have gone missing from Amazon deliveries, been stolen from moving trucks, and retailers have cancelled huge swathes of orders claimed by scalping rings. It's been enough for a set of UK politicians to motion for a debate on making console scalping illegal in the country. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/08/there-is-no-microsoftduracell-deal-requiring-xbox-to-use-aa-batteries-in-its-controllers-ign-news"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Robert Anderson is a Commerce Editor and deals expert for IGN. Send him awesome gaming screenshots @robertliam21 on Twitter. Credit to @PS5StockAlertUK for assisting with information. 

Tomb Raider 2, starring Alicia Vikander, has secured Lovecraft Country showrunner Misha Green as the new writer and director. Green will replace Ben Wheatley, who was first reported as director in September 2019. Tomb Raider 2 originally had a March 2021 release date but was recently taken off MGM's release calendar without receiving a new date. The news was first reported by Deadline and confirmed by Green in a post on Twitter. In her tweet, she said that 2006's Tomb Raider: Legend is her favorite "classic era" game in the series and 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider is tied with 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider as her favorite in the current series.

My fav from classic era is Legend & from survival era it’s a tie between Rise & Shadow. So I’m thinking something like:

*whispers* Who’s as excited as I am for a @TombRaiderMovie!?!? #TombRaider — Misha Green (@MishaGreen) January 25, 2021

Green is not just the showrunner behind Lovecraft Country but also wrote every episode of the show's first season and directed an episode. Green hasn't written or directed a feature-length movie yet, but Deadline said Green recently wrote a movie, The Mother, which Netflix won after a heated competition with rival studios. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/03/14/tomb-raider-review-2018"] There's no word on why Wheatley isn't involved in the project anymore. The filmmaker has kept busy by directing a horror movie during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Empire. That movie is set for release in 2021. Variety says that Wheatley is also set to direct The Meg 2 with Jason Statham. Details are slim regarding the Tomb Raider sequel. All that's known at this time is that Vikander will reprise her role as Lara Croft from the first movie. The first Tomb Raider movie with Vikander was released in 2018. Captain Marvel screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Small Axe writer Alastair Siddons wrote the script that was directed by Roar Uthaug. IGN gave the movie a 5.5 out of 10 in our review. We said Tomb Raider "fails to develop interesting characters or motives but at least offers viewers some fun action." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=live-action-versions-of-video-game-characters&captions=true"] On the other hand, Lovecraft Country was nominated for IGN's Best TV Series of the Year. Green says that she has been in touch with HBO regarding Lovecraft Country season 2, but nothing is official yet. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who highly recommends Lovecraft Country. It's one of the best TV shows in a long time.

GameStop’s stock is acting strangely, still. It’s gone even higher after last week’s surge drove GameStop’s value skyrocketing to record levels. And although the week is still young, it shows this unexpected rise is, rather than a result of anything the company’s done,  a savvy bit of investing, at least in the short-term. The interest in GameStop’s irregular stock activity has thrust the Reddit group seemingly driving the surge into the spotlight. Popularly described as “4chan with a Bloomberg Terminal,” r/WallStreetBets is a wild west of stock investing “advice” and memes. And the pearl-clutching establishment has certainly painted this group as a rogue troll army messing with the "official" practices of Wall Street. IGN has reached out and spoken to several r/WallStreetBets day traders to find out more about this group that has thrust the struggling video game retailer into the spotlight.

What Is Going on with GameStop Stock?

GameStop stock (traded as $GME) is on the up-and-up. Prices for a single piece of stock peaked today at around $145. Compare that to a year ago, when prices for the biggest video game brick-and-mortar retailer hovered around $15 but went as low as $3 a share. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gamestop-in-the-news-timeline&captions=true"] Some Wall Street investors bet that GameStop would continue to struggle and began short-selling the company, a strategy where an investor borrows stock of that particular company — in this case, GameStop — and sells it in the hopes that prices for the stock will continue to drop. If that happens, they can buy back the stock for even cheaper and keep the difference as a profit. But instead of going down, prices are going up, and this is bad for short sellers who have to buy back the stock they borrowed. Redditors on r/WallStreetBets saw the short early and moved in to buy GameStop stock early and cheap, creating a short squeeze. Short sellers rushing to buy while minimizing losses created a rush to buy GameStop stock, which in turn drove up prices. A vicious cycle, if you will.

Who Is Squeezing Wall Street?

In speaking with traders on r/WallStreetBets, it’s evident that these traders are not wolves of Wall Street, but hobbyists who trade on the side and have either a clear-eyed or irreverent view of the stock market. Three traders from r/WallStreetBets IGN spoke to say that they are not full-time traders, while a fourth says they’re still relatively new to trading. And all three also joined the community fairly recently with the longest member following the subreddit about a year ago. “I had seen the subreddit in some YouTube video after I got into trading but was only doing my own thing until this GME stuff really started to pop off and I bought in,” one trader, who asked to go by Ike for privacy reasons, tells IGN. [caption id="attachment_2465120" align="alignnone" width="837"] Source: Google.[/caption] Ike bought GME stock when it was around $30 and says he spent about $600 on his position. He says his option is now worth around five times that value but is still waiting before selling. When asked why they went in on GME, Ike says that it took “some convincing” and due diligence but that it was “mostly FOMO [or, Fear of Missing Out].” Another trader named Tj says they invest "on the side for fun," while working as a full-time engineer at a major tech company. Their option is worth six-figures after going in at a buying price of around $18 per stock. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/07/how-gamestop-plans-to-save-itself"] In keeping with their 4chan with a Bloomberg Terminal mantra, these traders prefer memeing their way through Wall Street, using terms like FOMO or YOLO [You Only Live Once] to explain away their investment decisions. One investor named Sage says they’ve only been following r/WallStreetBets for “around two months” and that investing is a “side hustle.” For “about five minutes” Sage’s GME options were worth $33,000, based on an initial investment of $1000. Though they chose not to sell. The biggest success story is someone who goes by u/DeepFu*kingValue on WallStreetBets who regularly updates the subreddit on the price of their option which is currently valued at $13 million. The energy the subreddit brings into trading can only be described as chaotic. One thread by user u/dumbledoreRothIRA is titled, “I’M NOT SELLING THIS UNTIL AT LEAST $1000+ GME” with an additional expletive and some rocket ship emojis for good measure. The subreddit is also claiming a “victory” against hedge fund Melvin Capital Management, a short-seller that the Wall Street Journal reports is getting an outside investment to help stabilize the fund after a variety of short bets fell through. One of which was Melvin’s bet against GameStop.

GameStop, a Meme?

One reason why the GameStop stock situation is so absurd is that for the past three years, GameStop has been struggling as a business. A brick-and-mortar video game retailer, GameStop has not been able to compete with digital retailers like Amazon as well as the growing trend of customers buying primarily digital versions of games through portals like Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live. When IGN spoke with GameStop’s chief customer officer Frank Hamlin back in 2019, he explained that “As a specialty retailer, we are linked at the hip to this category of video games. We compete with a bunch of generalist retailers who don’t have the same seasonality as we do because they sell paper towels and loaves of bread and they can use video games as a loss leader to sell a loaf of bread.” The increased competition has forced GameStop to close around 400 and 450 stores in 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic has not helped physical retailers like GameStop in the least. And whatever is happening with the stocks is not indicative of the business' actual current performance, which is still struggling. But GameStop is a mainstay in the public gaming consciousness, and the brand recognition has driven WallStreetBets to embrace the struggling brand. Whereas investors on Wall Street proper saw a struggling retailer, WallStreetBets saw an underdog and piece of gaming childhood. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gamestop-experimental-stores&captions=true"] Sage says that while “Reddit Hype” factored into their decision to go in on GME, so did “childhood memories.” Meanwhile, Tj tells IGN that their non-retirement investing is done with additional income. "So I figured might as well throw it into the latest meme and let it ride," they said. Another trader who spoke with IGN named Branyan said that knowing GameStop helped them go in on their own position. “I’ve done my fair share of shopping there,” says Branyan. “It definitely did make a difference that I knew the business opposed to going in blind. I’ve trusted them with my business so I should be able to trust them with my trades.” Ike says they were very aware of GameStop both from their childhood and recent news. “Like most my age [GameStop] used to be a place I’d go often for games as a kid, and I knew about its decline as I've watched the closure of one [of the stores] close to me.” However, Ike cites the addition of pet retail giant Chewy’s co-founder Ryan Cohen to GameStop’s board and the company’s attempts to remodel some of its stores into experiential event spaces as signs of positive change.

What Happens Next?

One side-effect of the GameStop Stock squeeze is the increased scrutiny on r/WallStreetBets. Mainstream and finance-focused publications are covering the subreddit in recent days — and not in a way the community finds helpful. “News coverage has been unfair and misleading, often referring to WSB as a single entity that makes decisions for millions of people,” says Ike. “But take only a glance at the sub and you’ll see just how wrong that is, [it’s] full of people taking all sides [on an investment] and people posting random sh*t half the time.” Tj says they're worried that the media coverage could harm inexperienced investors "jumping into stocks without researching." They believe that "a lot of people will lose more than they can afford to," because of the notoriety. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/11/how-is-gamestop-still-a-thing-ign-daily-fix"] “Well to tell you the truth [the media coverage] is very worrisome,” Branyan adds. “Many subreddits have been shut down in the past and wiped out due to getting negative media coverage. The coverage we’re getting now seems to want to suggest that we are attempting to manipulate the market as a collective single organism. This isn’t the case. We are just a bunch of investors who like to chat about what we do.” “People make huge YOLOs and succeed sometimes and people like to see that. That is what you’ll find at the base of WSB. People making it big or losing it all trying. We aren’t trying to manipulate the market, we’re trying to go big or die trying. Each and every one of us.” As for their GME options, the investors say they’ll eventually sell and hopefully make a profit. “I’ll sell when u/deepfu*kingvalue sells,” Sage says.

Update 1/27: The Fallout From $GME Continues

As the GameStop situation continues, there have been several developments. Driven by the activity on GameStop stock, r/WallStreetBets are discussing other potential stocks that could behave similarly. AMC stock, the movie theater chain besieged by COVID-19 has come out as a popular choice along with companies like BlackBerry and Nokia. Meanwhile, leaders in government and finance are sounding off on the GameStop stock situation on Wall Street. Nasdaq President Adena Friedman says it is monitoring the situation on social media for "unusual activity in stocks." White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says President Biden's economic team is "monitoring the situation" as well. And politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14) tweeted, "Gotta admit it's really something to see Wall Streeters with a  long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino."

Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 27, 2021

Reddit also suffered temporary outages during the ongoing GameStop stock situation, though it is apparently back up. There has also been financial damage to short-seller hedge fund Melvin Capital, which was reported to have closed out of its GameStop position after requiring nearly $3 billion in external financing to help stabilize its fund after a few shorts fell through, one of which was GameStop. CNBC reports that there are several hedge funds in similar trouble for their own GameStop options. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Capcom’s release of the Resident Evil Village demo, Maiden, is a short slice of what the full release will offer...sort of. Maiden doesn’t even include combat, it’s over in about 15-20 minutes (unless you get stuck on a simple puzzle, like I did), and in one of my favorite demo design choices, it isn’t even a scenario you’ll encounter in Village itself. Instead, it’s a mood piece, designed to give a sense of the atmosphere of one of Village’s main locations, tease some of the characters we can expect to face, and, hopefully, creep the hell out of you with a constant feeling of dread, as it did me. While they’ve perhaps less ubiquitous than when publishers tucked demo discs into a gaming magazine, Maiden and other recent examples show there are many right ways to execute a demo, reminding us of just how damn effective they can be in selling players on a game in a way no other part of the video game hype machine can. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/22/resident-evil-village-maiden-demo-gameplay"]

How a Demo Can Be So Effective

Regardless of what form a demo takes, a good one should accomplish at least a few things: let a player get a sense for some key aspect of gameplay, whether it’s basic gameplay mechanics or how they’ve changed within an ongoing series (like last year’s Bravely Default II demo), or introduce you to an atmosphere of a new world (like BioShock’s demo did back in 2007), or give you a sense of scale and spectacle, (like Final Fantasy VII Remake’s demo in 2020). I’ll never forget the BioShock demo specifically, as BioShock was a game I was unsure whether I’d like before launch. That demo, which replicated BioShock’s opening minutes in Rapture, is forever ingrained in my head. I don’t know if I would have ever picked up the full game had I not actually played it; it gave me just enough to want more. No amount of reviews, gameplay teases, or trailers could have properly conveyed everything that hands-on did. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=resident-evil-8-village-showcase-screenshots&captions=true"] Maiden does a fantastic job of preserving the twists and turns the developers have in store for the full game while still communicating what it is about. While it’s likely the more rare case, a totally new slice of gameplay can still thematically and mechanically touch on the full experience. More commonly, a part of the existing game is sectioned off as a demo on its own, either a level a bit into the game to give a full understanding of gameplay, or even just the game’s opening. And thanks to modern advancements, many of these opening mission demos now let players carry progress forward to the full experience. I will always be happy when I can pick up from that spot in the full game without needing to replay anything. Even when progress doesn’t carry over, though, developers have found smart ways to incentivize players to play a demo with content they may or may not have to replay later. Take Monster Hunter Rise’s recent demo, which doesn't carry over progress to the upcoming Switch game, but playing it does earn an item booster pack for players when the full game is available. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/25/resident-evil-8-village-maiden-demo-ps5-performance-review"]

Risk and Reward

Games by their very nature have to be sold on interactive levels that movies and TV just don’t. Trailers and images are all those entertainment mediums can offer, and while there’s no shortage of both in gaming, they pale in comparison to how much a demo can convey about what playing a game is actually like. Of course, there’s also the inverse risk - a player can experience a demo, decide a game isn’t for them, and move on without ever buying that game. I can only imagine the risk-cost analysis in releasing a demo. Not every game is for every person, and you can just as easily decide to buy a game after loving a demo as you can decide to never touch it again. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=resident-evil-village-playstation-5-screenshots&captions=true"] But when demos work, they really work. I don’t know if Maiden will necessarily usher in a new era of demos - their popularity seems to come in waves, either from generation to generation or even just on a given console. And plenty of developers have been putting out demos in recent years, so Capcom’s move here isn’t necessarily a new or unexpected one. Tt’s a reminder of the power of a demo. And they’re an enormous player service, allowing for discoverability and understanding of upcoming games on a deeper level. Demos may help you decide a game isn’t for you, but when they help a player fall in love with a new game, they act incredible gateways to worlds you’ve never experienced before, in a way no other tease could ever accomplish. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Scavengers Studio's Season, which had an impressive debut trailer at 2020's The Game Awards, has reportedly had a tumultuous development that is due to the latest in a reported pattern of workplace harassment and toxic behavior at the studio. A new comprehensive report from GamesIndustry.biz lays out a host of allegations from nine current and former employees of Scavengers Studio, the team behind the previous Darwin Project and the upcoming Season, against co-founder and Darwin Project creative director Simon Darveau. Specifically in regard to Season, the report describes an alleged, previous worry among developers at Scavengers that, should Darveau become a part of the team working on Season, he would essentially "override" the current creative director, Kevin Sullivan (who IGN previously spoke to about Season), and the rest of the team's work. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/11/season-announcement-trailer"] According to the report, these concerns became real, with allegations that, despite his actual role on the game remaining unclear, he has come in and led to "a considerable shift in focus and scope" on Season than what had previously been in place. "Several current employees mentioned that Darveau had used the partnership with Sony to force his own ideas onto the game, saying he had promised a number of features to seal the deal - such as a larger world, quests, and objective markers - that either weren't planned or had already been scrapped by the team. Now, they said, the studio is on the hook for them," Gamesindustry.biz's report states, with one source quoted in the story saying "I don't even recognize the game" from what was originally planned. One source even told the outlet "While it brought me extreme joy to see the work of my friends, it did sting a little bit to see a bunch of people praising the studio, saying how calming and chill and progressive everything looked. It might well be true for the Season project, but it has not been my experience with management." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=season-9-screenshots&captions=true"] And those concerns are allegedly not just due to the claims of Davreau's "inability to follow through on ideas" that was also a marked aspect of Darwin Project's development internally. Instead, the report shines a light on a number of accusations against Devreau and current-Scavengers CEO Amélie Lamarche. Chief among the claims of the alleged hostile workplace created by Davreau and Lamarche is the sense of a "boys' club" atmosphere, with allegations that women at the studio have been " frequently degraded by male employees including Darveau, or infantilized and treated as if they did not know what they were talking about even when speaking from a position of expertise about their own work." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/25/darwin-project-review"] Additionally, the report lays out reported concerns from current and former employees about Davreau's mistreatment and bullying of employees, save for a group of "commandos" that were Davreau's favorites; allegations of Davreau groping multiple employees, and the implications of Lamarche essentially serving in an HR role to other employees despite having previously been in a romantic relationship with Davreau. Scavengers responded to Gamesindustry, saying "Scavengers Studio appreciates that there have been situations during its rapid growth and takes the position that any type of harassment is unwelcomed and unacceptable and takes any complaints in this respect very seriously," and while the studio told the outlet that "Certain elements...are false, somewhat blown out of proportion or lacking important pieces," Scavengers did not comment further on what specifically may have been incorrect about the allegations. Season is scheduled for a release this year on PC and PS5. [poilib element="accentDivider"]