E3 organizer, the ESA, has announced that it will partner with ReedPop to produce E3 2023. ReedPop is best known for running the PAX, Star Wars Celebration and New York Comic-Con events.

The show will return in the second week of June, 2023 – and will take place in its now-traditional home at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We had already heard that E3 will return next year as an online and physical event, but involving ReedPop marks a new approach for the show.

No specific changes to the usual make-up of the the event have been revealed, but ReedPop Global VP of Gaming, Kyle Marsden-Kish promised in a press release that E3 2023 would be "recognizably epic—a return to form that honors what’s always worked—while reshaping what didn’t".

“It is a tremendous honor and privilege for ReedPop to take on the responsibility of bringing E3 back in 2023," said ReedPop president Lance Fensterman. “With the support and endorsement of the ESA, we're going to build a world class event to serve the global gaming industry in new and broader ways than we already do at ReedPop through our portfolio of world leading events and web sites.”

In recent years, the ESA has been criticized for some of its organization of E3, from leaking personal details of attendees to the wholesale cancellation of this year's event. In recent years, ReedPop has organized multiple hybrid events, and will no doubt be looking to bring that expertise to gaming's traditional biggest stage.

“We are thrilled to bring back E3 as an in-person event with ReedPop, a global leader in producing pop culture events.” said ESA president Stanley Pierre-Louis. “The past three years have confirmed that E3 convenes our industry like no other event. ReedPop brings world-class talent and a keen understanding of the video game industry, which will serve to enhance the E3 experience for years to come.”

The ESA says confirmed exhibitors will be announced in the months to come. In recent years, many companies have begun to hold their own digital showcases – PlayStation has not been a part of E3 for several years, while Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest has sought to offer a multi-platform summer showcase. It will be fascinating to see how these newer shows interact with E3 2023, if they do at all.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Grand Theft Auto 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the Mafia trilogy publisher Take-Two Interactive has ordered a popular virtual reality modder to take down his adaptations of the games.

As reported by PC Gamer, Luke Ross said on his Patreon that Take-Two is ordering that he removes "all their copyrighted works" from his Patreon page.

While his GTA 5 mod is available to download separately, the Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mafia ones are still works in progress and are therefore only available on his Patreon, where Ross reportedly earns more than $20,000 a month.

That being said, Ross noted that the takedown was "filed as a copyright issue and not a licensing issue, so the motivation for the request does not appear to be related to the fact that there is money involved."

It did come as a surprise however, Ross said, as "none of my modifications are built using software belonging to Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, and the modifications are not intended to replace their games, nor are they a means of exploiting Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's proprietary IP or assets."

Ross is hoping to gain further clarification on what exactly he did wrong, but warned fans that if he can't, he will need to take down all of his Take-Two related content.

"I refuse to believe that is what Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. wants, because that would be an extremely anti-customer and anti-gamer move on their part," he said. "But I am not getting in a legal battle with them. If what they want is to assert their corporate dominance with gamers' interests as collateral damage, I have no power to stop them."

Ross is a well-known modder and has added VR support for plenty of other games including Elden Ring and Cybperunk 2077. As you'd expect, his mods let players use virtual reality headsets on PC to play the games from a first person perspective.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Ever since Final Fantasy 7 Remake concluded with its shocking reveal, fans have been speculating on the possibility of a Crisis Core remaster. The moment was certainly ripe for an updated release of the prequel starring Zack Fair, the warrior with a suspicious resemblance to Cloud Strife. Aside from its connections to Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s story, Crisis Core has been difficult to find in recent years, forcing fans to resort to emulators and other measures.

That made Square Enix’s announcement of a Crisis Core remaster, which coincided with last month’s reveal of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, all the more welcome. It’s not any mere port, either. Square Enix is overhauling the graphics, the interface, and somewhat controversially, the voice cast.

“Various improvements have been made to nearly all other scenes and battles, to a point where it could be said that the work we are doing is akin to creating a ‘remake,’” producer Mariko Sato says. “However, as the core elements such as the story are grounded in the original work, we call it a ‘remaster.’”

A Faithful Retelling

Speaking with IGN in a brand-new interview, Sato discussed Square Enix’s intentions for the remaster, outlining the differences between the various platforms and whether or not it will ultimately connect with Rebirth. Veteran producer Yoshinori Kitase was also on hand to shed some light on how the project managed to be greenlit in the first place.

According to Kitase, Crisis Core was not conceived in response to Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s infamous reveal. Rather, Kitase says Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s successful development led Square Enix to realize that other stories from the universe could be updated as well.

“[T]here isn't really an exact date that I can point to at the moment, but I do recall that it was towards the end of the Final Fantasy VII Remake development that we realized that with the quality we were able to bring to Final Fantasy VII Remake, we might be able to create something for the stories that are actually surrounding Final Fantasy VII. And it is an actual possibility that we can develop Crisis Core. So that's the timing at which we decided that yes, this remake can actually happen,” Kitase says.

Crisis Core’s history stretches back to the days of the PSP, when fans were pining for a Final Fantasy 7 remake on PS3. Sony’s humble handheld couldn’t come close to matching its HD sibling, but Crisis Core still felt like a technical achievement at the time, reimagining the original game’s locations in far greater detail than the original PlayStation could imagine.

“Issues aside, Crisis Core is a great PSP game -- no question. It honors Final Fantasy VII's legacy,” our review said at the time.

It has remained popular with fans in the years since, who laud its excellent finale as being among the best moments in the series. Crisis Core also made Zack, who mainly existed on the periphery of the original game, one of the most popular characters in the series. Until now, though, Crisis Core has been largely locked to the PSP.

When Reunion was finally announced last month, fan reaction was largely positive, with plenty noting what seemed like significantly enhanced visuals. But there were also questions. Just how deep would this remaster (or remake) go? And what about the voice cast led by Rick Gomez, who did so much to bring Zack to life in the first place?

On the first point, it’s apparent that Crisis Core will be a substantial update indeed. In addition to overhauled graphics, Crisis Core will be fully voiced while also featuring a newly-arranged soundtrack. The gameplay is also getting an update, with Zack’s attack combos now being linkable and Limit Breaks being accessible at any time, not just when they pop up in the in-game slot machine, known as the Digital Mind Wave system or DMW. The DMW for its part will remain largely the same, meaning that elements such as leveling will remain random as ever.

In the meantime, all of the original’s assets are being replaced, with the updated versions utilizing Unreal Engine 4, the intention being to be “visually aligned and up to the standards of Final Fantasy 7 Remake,” according to Sato. To that end, the PC version will target an impressive 120fps while the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions will be 60fps (Sato didn’t elaborate on the Switch version but did say that there would be “differences” in the resolution and FPS).

“Our main purpose with this title is that we wanted a really wide range of players to be able to play on whatever platform that they desired,” Kitase says. “So we're looking forward to seeing which platform that players go for because the gaming experience will be solid and the same great experience on all platforms.”

Square Enix’s attempt to align with Final Fantasy 7 Remake is impacting not just the visual but the voice acting as well, to the consternation of some of the more dedicated fans of the series. In the wake of the announcement, many of the most upvoted comments lamented the loss of Gomez and other members of the original team.

Kitase describes the decision in terms of renewal.

“[S]ince Final Fantasy VII was a title that have been beloved for 20 years, we wanted to ensure that with this renewed project, the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, that it would be loved for another 20 years to come. And so that's when we invited a whole new cast of voice actors into the title,” Kitase explains.

Gomez was replaced by Caleb Pierce back in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, so the change is expected. Nevertheless, at least some fans miss Gomez, with one going so far as to edit the original voice actor into Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Take heart though: Crisis Core Reunion will also feature the return of Briana White, who so wonderfully brought Aerith to life in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

In other areas, meanwhile, Crisis Core Reunion will remain faithful to the original game. According to Sato and Kitase, fans shouldn’t expect new story content in the update, which explains why Square Enix is referring to it as a remaster despite the substantial improvements being made across the board

“With the FF VII Remake, it was a new starting point for a Final Fantasy VII, and so we decided to expand the story. But with the Crisis Core Reunion, it is a remaster and it's still positioned as a story that expands on the original Final Fantasy VII story. And so we didn't want to stray too far from that,” Kitase says.

Sato adds that there are “no plans” to include any new elements in the story, meaning new side quests and other storylines are most likely out the window. But that doesn’t necessarily preclude, say, a post-credits teaser that sets the stage for Rebirth.

The Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 Reborn

When Crisis Core Reunion is released later this year, it will in some ways be the culmination of the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 project that began way back in the early 2000s. Like the PSP game before it, it will be intimately connected to the main game, providing crucial context while telling an entertaining story of its own.

Square Enix’s recent history with remakes and remasters has been checkered, to put it kindly, with classics like Secret of Mana marred by poor graphics and strange design choices. Kitase and Sato don’t acknowledge any particular lessons learned from earlier projects, but do say that Square Enix has been “listening to feedback” from fans. That much is evident in the work being put into Crisis Core Reunion, which is shaping up to be a major improvement on the slapdash ports of the past.

More importantly, it reflects a degree of faith in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project. Whatever happens, it seems as if Square Enix wants to make sure this is done right.

“I've been watching a lot of reaction videos of people just reacting to the announcements and it really gives me the sense that a lot of people are out there waiting for these games and seeing their reaction is in a sense, very satisfying,” Kitase says. “Yes, we are able to provide these things to the fans, so it's been great.”

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion does not yet have a release date, but Square Enix is aiming for Winter 2022.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi didn’t want to please Thor fans with his second film about the Asgardian god. In fact, he wanted to make a film they wouldn’t want.

During an interview with Associated Press, the 46-year-old filmmaker explained that he wanted to make the Thor sequel into a love story.

“I wanted to show him in a light that most Thor fans wouldn’t really want if you were to tell them,” said Waititi. “If you were to say them: ‘Yeah, I’m going to make Thor in love,’ it’s probably the last thing that a Thor fan really wants to hear.”

Thor: Love and Thunder sees the return of Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman – Thor’s love interest from the first movie, who has been absent since her appearance in Thor: The Dark World back in 2013.

Now she’s back, and Mjolnir has turned her into the Mighty Thor, imbuing her with its powers. Where does that leave Thor? Well, he’s not exactly his usual, mighty self…

“For me, it’s good to give the fans something they don’t know that they want,” said Waititi. “With Ragnarok especially, when I signed on, a lot of fans were freaked out by that. They were like, ‘Who is this guy? He’s going to take our precious Thor and ruin it.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah. Exactly. That’s exactly my intention. And I’m going to make it better, you just don’t know it yet.’”

IGN’s own review said that Thor: Love and Thunder is “the MCU’s first romantic comedy, and it plays with those tropes in delightful ways.”

With the addition of new gods and a wider cosmic pantheon than we’ve seen before, it looks as though Thor: Love and Thunder will broaden the MCU like never before. But will Thor become the Thor fans want to see by the end of the movie? You’ll have to watch to find out.

Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, and Russel Crowe. Taika Waititi directed the film based on a script he co-wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Bandai Namco has officially commemorated the efforts of Elden Ring's most legendary player, Let Me Solo Her, by sending him an actual sword and other goodies from the game.

Shared on his Twitter (below), Let Me Solo Her - AKA Klein Tsuboi - shared pictures of a congratulations message and gift package he received from Bandai Namco.

Alongside a custom drawing of his character - who appears outside Malenia, Blade of Miquella's boss arena and defeats her with ease by himself - he was also given a wooden lithograph, what appears to be a coat, and the full-length sword.

Thank you @BandaiNamcoUS and @ELDENRING for giving me this gift and congratulating me for being #LetMeSoloHer . I can still remember my first experience with the soulsborne series and almost quitting because of Iudex Gundyr in Dark souls 3. I'm glad I persisted and (1/3) pic.twitter.com/w2FF77HRnO

— KleinTsuboi (@TsuboiKlein) July 6, 2022

"Thank you Bandai Namco and Elden Ring for giving me this gift and congratulating me for being Let Me Solo Her," he said in the post. "I can still remember my first experience with the Soulsborne series and almost quitting because of Iudex Gundyr in Dark Souls 3.

"I'm glad I persisted and went on to enjoy the game, because this community is one of the most passionate and dedicated I've ever seen in a game, and I'm proud to be a part of it."

Let Me Solo Her first emerged in April to balance the universe as Malenia emerged as Elden Ring's toughest boss, and in the end defeated her 1,000 times. Developer FromSoftware didn't help the situation by removing a popular way to defeat her and a glitch made her ridiculously overpowered, but Let Me Solo Her never slowed down.

In our 10/10 review of the game, IGN said: "Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path."

To make those choices with the best available information, check out our guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectible locations, boss strategies, and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

343 Industries is recreating the iconic E3 2003 Halo 2 demo in the Master Chief Collection as part of a larger modding project to revive cut content.

The Earthcity demo never made it to the final version of Halo 2 but was universally considered a spectacle at the time, with IGN saying "there's little in the eight-minute demo that isn't worthy of awe" in our original preview.

As outlined in a Halo blog post, it's being made playable for the first time as part of the Digsite project, which will also bring back pre-release content from the original Halo: Combat Evolved. This will include a ton of different assets including previously unseen models, vehicles, NPCs, weapons, and even levels.

Earthcity headlines the package though, finally letting fans have a shot of the famous demo after nearly two decades. While 343 is definitely hoping to bring it to each version of the Master Chief Collection, it said it "can't make promises" about brining it to console.

This is because it's a particularly difficulty underatking. "This was not a trivial process, and we should probably layer on a whole page of caveats that come with taking a demo map for an engine that no longer exists and getting it to not blow up the current lightmapper," the blog post said.

The Master Chief Collection was released in 2014 but has received a pretty significant amount of post-launch support. In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Despite multiplayer troubles, Halo: The Master Chief Collection's classic campaigns are amazing examples of FPS done right."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The villain from Black Adam has been revealed for the first time... but in action figure form.

The folks over at @hodceu have found new promotional images from the upcoming Black Adam action figure line, which features the demonic Sabbac in fully-poseable form. This toy reveal makes it looks as though Sabbac will be the villain in the upcoming Black Adam movie.

First look at Sabbac in #BlackAdam pic.twitter.com/bUl1xHMxVC

— Home of DCEU (@hodceu) July 1, 2022

Alongside the images of the action figure is also a small piece of art showing what appears to be Sabbac as he appears in the movie.

Of course, this is not the first time we’ve heard this name. Back in October 2020, The Illuminerdi reported rumors that Black Adam producers were eyeing Marwan Kenzari for the role of Sabbac in Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming DC antihero film. Then, back last year, Kenzari officially joined the cast in an undisclosed role.

Now, it looks as though Black Adam’s villain is one of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets, with new toy images seemingly confirming his role in the film.

Some more looks of Sabbac in #BlackAdam pic.twitter.com/wHnE0yMzXF

— Home of DCEU (@hodceu) July 1, 2022

Sabbac is essentially the polar opposite of Shazam! – calling out the name “Sabbac” imbues him with the powers of Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Crateis. S-A-B-B-A-C. Sabbac. Get it?

Sure, it’s not one of DC’s most original villainous origins, but it provides a neat parallel between the villain and Shazam! – the nemesis of Black Adam who will surely, at some point, tussle with Dwayne Johnson’s version of the classic DC character.

At the very least, it ties Black Adam more firmly into Shazam’s story. In the comic books, Sabbac made his first appearance in Captain Marvel, Jr. #4 back in 1943. His link to Captain Marvel/Shazam is no coincidence – he was originally known as Timothy Karnes, a hidden Nazi conspirator who acquired the demonic powers of Sabbac. But in the New 52 his ties to Shazam! are even stronger – Karnes, it turns out, is the former foster brother of none other than Freddy Freeman, aka Captain Marvel Jr.

Whether a hint of these backstories makes it into the Black Adam movie remains to be seen. For now, we’ve got our first good look at the demonic villain. And with demonic horns and a pentagram scratched into his chest, there’s no mistaking which side of good or evil this guy is on.

Find out more about Black Adam with our extensive look at the film’s superhero cast, as well as our look at the complicated history of Shazam!

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be in attendance at Gamescom 2022, where it will offer updates on previously announced Xbox games.

Announced in a press release, Microsoft said “We’re excited to confirm that Xbox will be back on the show floor at gamescom 2022 in Cologne, Germany. Fans in Europe and around the world can expect updates on some announced games coming to Xbox in the next 12 months.”

Xbox fans saw a selection of game updates and announcements at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June, where updates were provided for games such as Redfall, Hollow Knight Silksong, Forza Motorsport, and Starfield. There were also announcements for new games, including High on Life, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. It’s unclear right now which of the games shown in June will receive further news at Gamescom, but we won’t have to wait much longer, as the European gaming event takes place August 23-28.

For more from Xbox, be sure to check out Podcast Unlocked, our weekly show about all things Xbox.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

Kazuki Takahashi, the Japanese artist who created the beloved manga series Yu-Gi-Oh! has died, aged 60.

According to reports from Japan public broadcaster NHK, Takahashi was discovered floating in shallow waters off the coast of Nago City, Okinawa Island by the Japan Coast Guard on Wednesday morning, June 6. He was wearing snorkeling equipment when found. Police and the Coast Guard are currently investigating the circumstances around Takahashi’s death.

Originally from Tokyo, Takahashi became a star among manga artists thanks to Yu-Gi-Oh!, his first serialized work. The series was first published in 1996 and ran until 2004. Following the story’s success in print, Yu-Gi-Oh! became a multimedia franchise, with a hit anime series, numerous video games, a card game, and more. Takahashi remained a key part of the series throughout his life, having most recently written the original story for the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions anime film, released in 2017. He predominantly acted as supervisor over many other projects in the franchise.

While Takahasi has worked on several other projects, Yu-Gi-Oh! will be his lasting legacy. The physical card game even has a Guinness World Record for the “trading card game with the highest number of sales in the world”.

IGN’s thoughts are with Takahashi’s family and friends.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

One week removed from the internet dunking on EA's social media accounts, some of the developer's employees are reportedly unhappy with the post that implied single-player games aren't worthwhile.

Last Thursday, EA's official Twitter account posted what instantly turned into a controversial tweet, saying, "They're a 10 but they only like playing single-player games". The post is a play on the "they're a 10 but..." trend that's dominating social media right now.

The internet did not react kindly to this post, pointing out things like EA's disastrous rollout of microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2 and other instances of its shaky history with single-player games. Just hours after the post, EA tweeted again, saying, "Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11."

Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11. https://t.co/PNg4FKOgfB

— Electronic Arts (@EA) July 1, 2022

In a report from USA Today's FTW, a plan was apparently put in place to try and turn a negative into a positive, where EA's studios would publicly ridicule the tweet to gain favor with the audience. However, multiple social media managers reportedly declined, with some EA employees saying that roasting the company would only magnify EA's poor reputation among gamers.

According to the report, there was such a dislike for the tweet among EA employees in part because EA's main social media account is reportedly not managed by the company's social or communication teams. Rather, the Twitter account is said to be managed by people outside of the game industry.

“They’re all new and most of them, to my knowledge, aren’t really game industry people," one of USA Today's sources said. "The person who posted that tweet didn’t know and wasn’t supported properly to ensure something like this didn’t happen.”

Now, EA is apparently hosting roundtable discussions with executives who are angry about the post, since some of EA's studios working on single-player games viewed the tweet as an insult.

For more on EA, you can check out every EA game in development that we know of. Or read up on the upcoming Dead Space remake and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, two upcoming single-player games from EA.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.