Sony is investing more resources in Chinese video game developers and is planning to re-launch the China Hero project that was paused for the time being due to COVID-19.

According to Reuters, Sony is going to expand its program to incubate game development in China in order to beat out other competitors such as Microsoft. Sony director of Chinese game production Bao Bo notes that the program will invest more than 1 million yuan, or approximately $140,080, into each game and fund development teams of all sizes.

As part of the China Hero Project, Sony will be publishing the Final Fantasy XV-inspired action RPG, Lost Soul Aside, as well as the multiplayer third-person shooter title Convallaria. Both games will be available for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

Outside of the China Hero Project Sony found a smashing success in Genshin Impact, which it received an exclusivity deal with. Microsoft reportedly regretted missing out on making Genshin Impact an Xbox exclusive, so in response, Microsoft now has reportedly been trying to scout for more Chinese video game developers to work with and is looking to entice them with large Xbox Game Pass offers.

Some games from the China Hero Project have already been released, such as Anno Munitionem and F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch.

"The scale of the third season will far exceed the previous two," says Bao.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Donald Glover's Atlanta may have concluded after four seasons but fans can seemingly expect more from the world as writer Jamal Olori has said more content is on the way.

Speaking to IGN, Olori said he understands that people are disappointed Atlanta isn't returning for a fifth season, but he and the team still have "other stories" to tell within the world.

"I’m really happy that everybody got to enjoy the show as a whole and I know a lot of people were disappointed with it ending," he said. "But you know, we still have... we’re gonna put out other stories and other, you know, more content dealing in... being in the same world essentially.”

It's unclear exactly what this content will be, but it sounds as though Olori and the Atlanta team may plan to continue the series outside of a traditional TV structure. Whether this materialises as shorts, movies, comics, books, video games, music, or whatever else remains to be seen.

Atlanta began in 2016 as a comedy-drama created by Glover and starring himself alongside Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz. Olori is credited with writing Season 4's Born 2 Die and Cancer Attack episodes and has several other credits on the series including as a story editor and staff writer.

In our 8/10 review of the first episode, IGN said: "Endearingly eccentric, Donald Glover's Atlanta is an engaging new comedy (with a healthy dose of drama) about a couple of guys on the fringes of the music industry."

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

A newly discovered glitch in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet allows the player to very simply duplicate Pokémon, including the incredibly rare shiny ones.

As reported by Nintendo Everything, YouTuber Austin John Plays uploaded a video detailing the glitch and how it lets players clone any wild pocket monster in the game.

To trigger the glitch, simply catch the Pokémon you want to clone and head directly to the nearest open town that doesn’t require a loading screen to enter. Once the town name appears, save the game and close the software.

How to Duplicate Wild Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet https://t.co/LFBA5EPTBC pic.twitter.com/hw0Sg7rQ5j

— Austin John Plays (@AustinJohnPlays) November 21, 2022

Upon starting back up and reloading, the game should have respawned the Pokémon in the same location at which you caught it the first time around. The glitch only works if used on a proper town that you can walk straight into, and won’t trigger if tried with Team Star compounds or the random Pokémon Centers that you can travel to out in the open world.

Austin John Plays believes the glitch could be caused by entering an open town, at which point he believes the Pokémon in the world outside are put in a suspended state, but not despawned.

Ordinarily, heading back out of the town would cause them to respawn, but by closing the game and re-opening with the save in town, the game redraws the same Pokémon from the previous instance.

Glitches and what IGN called a "grevously poor performance" have been at the forefront of conversations around Pokémon Scarlet and Violet since it launched last week. IGN also released a performance review of the games, saying that, "both in docked and undocked modes, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet present framerate that are hard to ignore."

Alongside the duplication glitch, players have also discovered a bizarre way to run at double speed. Ironically, however, the official Pokémon virus appears to be missing from this generation.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer.

EA has announced that its highly anticipated EA Sports College Football won't be released until summer 2024.

Speaking to ESPN, EA vice president and general manager Daryl Holt said the long wait from College Football's announcement in early 2021 is due to them building the game from scratch.

"That's the best date for us to bring the game that we think is going to meet or exceed our player expectations and cover the breadth and scale of what we want in the game," Holt said. "We're trying to build a very immersive college football experience."

He also assured to ESPN that College Football won't just be a re-skinned version of EA's Madden NFL series. "We want to make sure that it is distinctly uniquely college football," Holt said. "If someone's worried about it being a clone of Madden or something else, that's not our intent and not the way we're approaching this."

Though no release date or window had been announced previously, internal documents reportedly revealed that EA was targeting a July 2023 launch, meaning the 2024 announcement will likely cause disappointment among fans who've been waiting for a new entry since 2013.

Holt did share a number of features coming to College Football though, confirming that fan-favourites Dynasty Mode and Road to Glory would return, letting players lead a school's entire football programme and single athlete's career respectively.

"Dynasty was on the top of everyone's mind, on top of everyone's list," Holt said. "That's been something that I think we are passionately focused on and want to make sure that we can get that as right as possible for year one with still foundational elements to build on as we go forward."

Finally, he revealed that over 120 colleges will be featured in the game, though wasn't able to share details on who had committed, who hadn't, or if FCS schools or HBCUs would be included.

The return of College Football was announced in February 2021 when EA tweeted simply that "College Football is coming back". The Madden NFL publisher entered a partnership with the United States' leading collegiate trademark licensing company CLC to become the exclusive developer of simulation college football video game experiences.

The franchise had been incredibly popular over its ten year run from 2005 to 2014 but the NCAA chose not to renew the EA Sports contract over ongoing legal issues regarding the use of player's names and likenesses in games.

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

The critically acclaimed video game Cuphead and its animated series spinoff The Cuphead Show are both a visual feast for classic animation fans. So it seems only fitting that the series is now the latest addition to Dark Horse's ever-growing library of gaming art books.

The Art of The Cuphead Show is written by Deeki Deke, who also serves as lead writer on the animated series. The book aims to give fans a much closer look at the making of The Cuphead Show. It features a mix of concept art, character designs and creator commentary from various artists who worked on the series.

The Art of The Cuphead Show is a hardcover volume priced at $49.99. The book is slated to hit bookstores and online retailers on June 27, 2023 and comic shops on June 28. Preorders should open shortly, but in the meantime, you can also order Dark Horse's previous The Art of Cuphead book, which focuses on the original game.

The Cuphead Show debuted on Netflix in February 2022. IGN's Rafael Motomayor gave Season 1 a 9, writing, "The Cuphead Show is a hilarious, surreal, chaotic cartoon that adapts the fan-favorite video game by mixing classic animation techniques with modern timing and humor. Though fans of Cuphead might miss the iconic finger guns from the game and may wish for a more faithful adaptation of the story, the show still provides one hell of a good time, with a focus on memorable characters, slapstick scenarios, and gorgeous animation."

Netflix released a second batch of episodes for The Cuphead Show in August 2022, with a third season dropping earlier this month. The game was also recently given an expansion in the form of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Cross-play and cross-progression are coming to Rainbow Six Siege on December 6 as part of the upcoming season Operation Solar Raid, which also brings a new map, operator, and more.

As reported by Eurogamer, Rainbow Six Siege PlayStation and Xbox gamers will automatically matchmake together and should benefit from lower wait times as a result, but the setting can also be turned off if a player wishes.

PC and streaming platforms such as Luna will be kept in a separate matchmaking pool, and Ubisoft currently has no intention of merging the two.

Players can invite friends through both PlayStation and Xbox platforms, as well as through the Ubisoft connect overlay. Voice communications will also work in the new console cross-play system, assuming voice comms are enabled and, of course, you’re on the same team.

Player rank history will also be shared between Xbox and PlayStation consoles when using the same Ubisoft Connect account but will again remain separate from PC and streaming platforms. The player's highest rank will also be transferred to each console alongside the furthest Battle Pass progression.

Credits and Renown will be pooled across all platforms, as will packs, operators, boosters, and cosmetics. Penalties for problematic online behaviour will also be shared. In-game options, operator loadouts, and equipped cosmetics meanwhile will remain specific to each console and platform.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer.

To commemorate the 17th anniversary of the release of the Xbox 360, video game peripheral maker, Hyperkin has officially announced today that it is resurrecting the iconic video game controller.

As noted in a press release, the Hyperkin Xenon is an officially licensed, wired gaming controller replicating the iconic controller that served as the primary gamepad for Microsoft's second home gaming console. The device is named after the codename used for the Xbox 360 ahead of its official unveiling at E3 2005.

The Xenon will be compatible with the Xbox Series X/S and Windows 10 and 11 devices. As you can see from the images below, the Hyperkin Xenon is a slightly modernized take on the Xbox 360 controller. The most notable changes are the dedicated Menu, View, and Share buttons commonly found on the latest iteration of the Xbox Series X/S controllers. Xbox

This is not the first time Hyperkin has brought back an Xbox controller from the dead. In 2018, the company released a replica of Duke, the first controller for the original Xbox known for its oversized design. And then, in 2021, to celebrate the release date for the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolve, Hyperkin released the Xbox 20th anniversary and Halo 20th anniversary Cortana edition variants of the Duke controller.

The Hyperkin Xenon will be available in four colors: black, white, pink, and red. No release date or price has been announced yet, sadly. However, Hyperkin is expected to release the Xenon controller sometime early next year.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

To commemorate the 17th anniversary of the release of the Xbox 360, video game peripheral maker, Hyperkin has officially announced today that it is resurrecting the iconic video game controller.

As noted in a press release, the Hyperkin Xenon is an officially licensed, wired gaming controller replicating the iconic controller that served as the primary gamepad for Microsoft's second home gaming console. The device is named after the codename used for the Xbox 360 ahead of its official unveiling at E3 2005.

The Xenon will be compatible with the Xbox Series X/S and Windows 10 and 11 devices. As you can see from the images below, the Hyperkin Xenon is a slightly modernized take on the Xbox 360 controller. The most notable changes are the dedicated Menu, View, and Share buttons commonly found on the latest iteration of the Xbox Series X/S controllers. Xbox

This is not the first time Hyperkin has brought back an Xbox controller from the dead. In 2018, the company released a replica of Duke, the first controller for the original Xbox known for its oversized design. And then, in 2021, to celebrate the release date for the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolve, Hyperkin released the Xbox 20th anniversary and Halo 20th anniversary Cortana edition variants of the Duke controller.

The Hyperkin Xenon will be available in four colors: black, white, pink, and red. No release date or price has been announced yet, sadly. However, Hyperkin is expected to release the Xenon controller sometime early next year.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Avatar: The Way of Water director James Cameron has admitted the upcoming sequel would need to be the "third or fourth highest-grossing film in history" to turn a profit.

Cameron told GQ in a recent interview that The Way of Water was "very f***ing" expensive to make, though he didn't share an exact figure to support or refute claims that the production budget was around $250 million. He did, however, refer to the movie as "the worst business case in movie history" before revealing that the long-awaited sequel would need to rank highly in the global box office charts just to break even.

"You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history," Cameron said about turning a profit on the movie. "That's your threshold. That's your break even."

The original Avatar movie currently sits at the top of the worldwide box office chart with $2.9 billion. Following that is Avengers: Endgame with $2.7 billion, Titanic with $2.2 billion, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $2.07 billion. According to Cameron, The Way of Water needs to overtake The Force Awakens and push that movie to the fifth spot, currently occupied by Avengers: Infinity War, to make money.

Cameron previously indicated that the box office performance of The Way of Water and the as-yet-untitled Avatar 3 will ultimately determine whether the fourth and fifth Avatar movies end up getting made, telling Total Film: "The market could be telling us we're done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: 'OK, let's complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,' if it's just not profitable."

Cameron has been notably vague on the future of Avatar past the third installment. As of right now, Avatar: The Way of Water is set to hit theaters on December 16, and Avatar 3 is due out in 2024. The other sequels are also pencilled in, with Avatar 4 eyeing a December 2026 release and Avatar 5 lined up for December 2028 — although Cameron might not helm all of the upcoming sequels if they end up happening.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Avatar: The Way of Water director James Cameron has admitted the upcoming sequel would need to be the "third or fourth highest-grossing film in history" to turn a profit.

Cameron told GQ in a recent interview that The Way of Water was "very f***ing" expensive to make, though he didn't share an exact figure to support or refute claims that the production budget was around $250 million. He did, however, refer to the movie as "the worst business case in movie history" before revealing that the long-awaited sequel would need to rank highly in the global box office charts just to break even.

"You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history," Cameron said about turning a profit on the movie. "That's your threshold. That's your break even."

The original Avatar movie currently sits at the top of the worldwide box office chart with $2.9 billion. Following that is Avengers: Endgame with $2.7 billion, Titanic with $2.2 billion, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $2.07 billion. According to Cameron, The Way of Water needs to overtake The Force Awakens and push that movie to the fifth spot, currently occupied by Avengers: Infinity War, to make money.

Cameron previously indicated that the box office performance of The Way of Water and the as-yet-untitled Avatar 3 will ultimately determine whether the fourth and fifth Avatar movies end up getting made, telling Total Film: "The market could be telling us we're done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: 'OK, let's complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,' if it's just not profitable."

Cameron has been notably vague on the future of Avatar past the third installment. As of right now, Avatar: The Way of Water is set to hit theaters on December 16, and Avatar 3 is due out in 2024. The other sequels are also pencilled in, with Avatar 4 eyeing a December 2026 release and Avatar 5 lined up for December 2028 — although Cameron might not helm all of the upcoming sequels if they end up happening.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.