God of War: Ragnarok has received a rating in South Korea, suggesting the game is on track for its 2022 release date.

As spotted by ResetEra user modiz, Ragaorok was rated as an "18 and over" game by South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee, and a game being rated usually signifies that a relatively complete version has been presented, and therefore isn't too far from being released.

While developer Sony Santa Monica has reassured fans recently that the long-awaited sequel to God of War (2018) will be released this year, there's also been reason to be a little sceptical. 2022 has proved a particularly nasty year for game delays as the impact of COVID-19 still echoes throughout the industry. 29 games have been affected by delays this year so far, headlined by the recent shift of Bethesda's Redfall and Starfield into next year.

Ragnarok itself has also been delayed before and is just one of many PlayStation Studios titles that have been pushed back. Horizon: Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, Returnal, and Ghost of Tsushima were all delayed by Sony in the past two years.

Originally due to be released in 2021, Ragnarok was pushed back "to ensure that Santa Monica Studio can deliver the amazing God of War game that we all want to play." Protagonist Kratos's voice actor later revealed that he was part of the reason for Ragnarok's delay, however, saying that he had to undergo physical therapy following several operations in 2019 and therefore couldn't work.

Ragnarok was announced for PlayStation 5 (and later confirmed to be coming to PS4 too) in September 2020 and a three-minute trailer was shared one year later.

In our 10/10 review of the 2018 original, IGN said: "God of War’s outstanding characters, world, and combat come together to form an unforgettable adventure."

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

By the end of the 2025 financial year, 50% of Sony's investment into its PlayStation Studios will go towards the creation of brand new IPs.

Revealed in its latest investor briefing, Sony said that investing in new IP is part of its overall growth plans and it's looking to increase this area significantly over the next few years.

While it was previously mostly focused on developing existing IP, pointing to a 2019 figure that saw a 77% investment in its current franchises and only 23% in new ones, Sony has been slowly shifting towards a more even split.

By the end of the 2022 financial year Sony will be investing 66% in existing IP and 34% in new IP, and by the end of the 2025 financial year it wants this number to be exactly 50/50.

This is just the latest confirmation that Sony sees great value in developing its first party PlayStation Studios as it revealed earlier in May that it's investing a further $300 million into its developers including God of War's Santa Monica Studio or Horizon: Forbidden West's Guerrilla Games.

This investment is separate from its acquisitions budget as Sony is also looking to significantly expand the number of studios it owns.

It purchased Bungie in February for $3.6 billion and in the last year has also acquired several other studios, including Bluepoint and Housemarque. Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan also said in April that it already has more purchases planned.

It's also looking to expand brand awareness by continuing its development of TV shows based on PlayStation IPs, also confirming during the investor briefing that it's creating series based on Horizon, God of War, and Gran Turismo.

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

Oh, bother. Winnie the Pooh just got real dark. A new horror film, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, reimagines the beloved children’s book character as a serial killer. Not exactly a cozy bedtime story.

The indie horror title is currently in production by director Rhys Frake-Waterfield. Quite a staggering directorial debut if you ask me. The cast includes Craig David-Dowsett as Winnie, with Chris Cordell as Piglet. Other characters include “Caged Man” and “Mauled Woman” just to give you an idea of where they’re going with this…

The film is being made by the London-based Jagged Edge Productions, which also made The Curse of Humpty Dumpty and The Legend of Jack and Jill. So, it seems they’ve got form for putting a bloody take on childhood stories.

But how are they able to make a Winnie the Pooh movie? Winnie the Pooh is almost synonymous with Disney at this point after the studio turned A.A. Milne’s classic children’s books into a collection of movies and the recent Christopher Robin film. Until now, Disney had the exclusive rights to the character… but Milne’s work entered the public domain earlier this year, meaning that anyone can now adapt those classic characters as they see fit. We just weren’t expecting it to get quite so dark, quite so quickly.

At the moment, details are scarce about Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, and with no official synopsis just yet we don’t really know what the film is about. However, from a batch of images, it looks as though Winnie and Piglet will be killers wearing these masks.

The film’s IMDB page states that it’s “A horror retelling of the famous legend of Winnie the Poo.” Whatever it turns out to be, it’s definitely one to keep your eye on. After all, it’s not every day you see Winnie the Pooh with a hammer.

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

The PlayStation VR2 will launch with more than 20 major games, seemingly including the Horizon virtual reality game, Call of the Mountain.

Revealed in Sony's latest investor briefing, there are "20 plus first-party and third-party titles confirmed for PS VR2 at launch".

Interestingly, the slide uses Horizon: Call of the Mountain - the VR game set in the world of Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West - as its image to go alongside the launch game reveal. While Sony hasn't confirmed that Call of the Mountain will be a launch title explicitly, the investor briefing certainly makes it appear to be.

Other titles confirmed for PS VR2 include the lite-RPG Samurai Slaughter House, cyberpunk-esque Low-Fi, fast-paced racer-shooter Runner, narrative adventure Firmament, and hit deception game Among Us.

Some developers are also confirmed to be working on PS VR2 games but are yet to announce what the games are, including Apex Construct's Fast Travel Games, Firewall: Zero Hour's First Contact Entertainment, Ghostbusters VR's nDreams, and Gang Beasts' Coatsink Software.

Sony announced it was working on a "next generation" VR headset in August 2020 but only officially unveiled the PS VR2 in February last year.

The new controllers were revealed a month later, and in June a report emerged that said Sony plans to release its new headset in holiday 2022, though this remains unconfirmed.

In February this year Sony gave fans a proper look at the new headset and its features but we're still waiting for an official showcase with launch games, a release date, and pricing.

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

At the latest Sony investor presentation, Sony revealed that it plans to be done with PS4 games by 2025. Additionally, the company also explored the growth they’ve had in the PC and mobile realms, and used numbers to examine the past and predict the future of releases.

In the 2019 fiscal year, almost all Sony's releases were on PS4. But the estimated spread for 2022’s fiscal year accounts for Sony’s recent success on PC, and includes their foray into mobile as well. For 2025? There is nary a mention of the PS4. Instead, half the graph broadcasts releases for the PS5. Sony expects that PC should account for around 30% and mobile 20% for the rest of that fiscal year’s releases.

Many current games, like Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West, can be found on both PS4 and PS5, but according to Sony’s projections that will be a thing of the past within three years.

Elsewhere, the presentation largely focused on how the company plans to expand its reach to more people, what it's doing to get there, and what is working currently. One thing that is working is Sony's dive into the world of PC gaming. The company is projected to make a staggering $300 million in net sales at the end of this fiscal year next March.

Their venture toward mobile and PC gaming aligns with Sony's goal to move from a “console-centric” approach “to a future where large elements of our community extend beyond the console.”

There have been several big-name, PS5 only releases such as Returnal and Deathloop that have found success despite being only available on one Sony console. With the release of Sony's first official PS5 bundle, let's hope we're moving to a future where even more will be avaliable.

Casey is a freelance writer for IGN. You can usually find him talking about JRPGs on Twitter at @caseydavidmt.

It’s obvious that Thor passes the torch to Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder. Right? Well, not exactly.

During an interview with Total Film, director Taika Waititi said that he doesn’t think Thor will be stepping down from his role as the God of Thunder.

“It’s really fun, the idea that Thor got Stormbreaker, that big axe, and now his hammer’s back and it’s in the hands of someone else," he said "It’s no longer his hammer. It’s the idea that someone’s taking his place. I think a lot of fans are gonna potentially assume, ‘Oh, OK, this is the passing on of the torch’... I’m not privy to any plans Marvel has for the future, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

Of course, it’s easy to see why we might think that. Marvel fans have been excited about Thor 3’s new direction after Jane Foster was seen suited up in a very Thor-like costume, and even harnessing the power of lightning in the recent trailer.

Although Jane Foster does become the new Thor at one point in the comic books, we have no idea how closely Marvel will follow that particular storyline. And neither does Waititi.

“We stick pretty closely to Jane’s storyline, and what happened to Jane... because that was such an influence on the film,” he revealed. “We’re trying to take the best parts of that.”

It certainly sounds like a pretty epic Thor sequel, with Christian Bale joining as Gorr the God Butcher.

Here’s the official synopsis: “The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods.”

“To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.”

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.

Three major PlayStation franchises are getting TV adaptations with Horizon going to Netflix, God of War to Amazon, and Gran Turismo to a currently unannounced platform or network.

Revealed in an investor briefing on May 26 and confirmed by industry insiders including David Gibson on Twitter (below), Sony president Jim Ryan revealed during a Q&A that the company was expanding its entertainment adaptations even further.

The long-rumoured God of War series and other shows will join PlayStation exclusives including The Last of Us, Uncharted, and Ghost of Tsushima in being adapted to other media, though there's no inclination as to when these series will be released.

Sony IR - 3 positives in the presentation 1) Horizon (Netflix), God of War (Amazon) and Gran Turismo in TV development 2) 2 live service games coming in FY3/23 are not Destiny and 3) PC gaming revenues will surge 3.8x in FY3/23 (which I think relates to live service games) #sony

— David Gibson (@gibbogame) May 26, 2022

The variety in streaming platforms isn't terribly surprising either, as Sony hasn't favoured any service in particular so far. The Last of Us TV show will air on HBO, for example, while a Twisted Metal series is going to Peacock.

Netflix, which will be home to the Horizon show, has already shown a strong interest in video game adaptations (and video games themselves) with the likes of its hit League of Legends Arcane series and Castlevania anime too.

Amazon Studios, meanwhile, is currently working on a Fallout TV series from the creators of Westworld and a Mass Effect show is also coming to Prime Video.

It's unclear if these shows will include characters already featured in the games, with Gran Turismo being the most open ended as it doesn't really have any characters at all, revolving solely around track racing.

Horizon, on the other hand, already has two titles under its belt and developer Guerrilla Games is also thinking about a third game. God of War has been around since 2005 and features eight mainline games, but its 2018 reboot is arguably the best of the bunch having received incredible praise from players and critics alike.

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

Sony is telling its investors to prepare for a big PC gaming windfall in the coming year. Really big.

In a business segment briefing for shareholders today, one slide showed off Sony's net sales from PC games thus far, highlighting how titles such as Horizon: Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and God of War had brought in $80 million in the last fiscal year (which ended on March 31, 2022).

But the gaming giant expects more to come, and is telling them to expect a whopping $300 million in net sales on PC in the coming fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.

That's a massive jump, especially for a gaming hardware manufacturer that has only just in recent years dipped its toe into the PC space with real seriousness. What's more, it's not fully clear where that chunk of change is coming from. At the moment, Sony's only announced plan for PC is Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which still doesn't have a release date.

What's most likely happening here is that Sony has high expectations of Bungie, with its acquisition of the Destiny 2 maker expected to close by the end of this year. With Bungie being privately held, we don't have a good idea of what it brings in, though analyst Michael Pachter has speculated it's around $200 million in revenue a year across all sources (including console, merchandise, and more).

But it's likely Sony's PC ambitions extend beyond just Bungie. A slide later in the presentation shows that Sony expects approximately 15% to 20% of its releases in the coming year to be on PC, with that percentage increasing to closer to 30% by the end of 2025. Plus, there's its recent moves like its introduction of the PlayStation PC brand and seeming interest from many of PlayStation's internal studios in bringing their games to the platform. So far, that interest is working out well for PC players, with God of War running reasonably well on machines. Let's hope Uncharted runs similarly or better. Now give us Bloodborne?

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

As other companies in the games industry speak out about abortion rights in the wake of the government’s recent decisions, Electronic Arts is telling employees it plans to stay silent.

According to a report by Kotaku, during a company meeting on May 24, multiple EA staff members questioned executives about a possible statement regarding these two issues. In response, they were told that the company wouldn’t announce a stance because “being an inclusive company means being inclusive of all those points of view.”

“These things are hard and they’re personal and we all have our own perspectives and sometimes we won’t speak, and that will be upsetting and I understand that, we really do,” Chief People Officer Mala Singh told employees during this meeting, according to the transcript obtained by Kotaku.

Despite the FIFA publisher’s refusal to make a public statement regarding the issues, EA’s corporate communications director Lacey Haines told Kotaku that the company is focusing on “making sure that people have access to the healthcare benefits we provide as a company, even if those aren’t available locally.”

EA also signed an open letter opposing Texas’ anti-trans bill in March.

In the wake of a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn historic abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, studios including Destiny 2 creator Bungie and Psychonauts creator Double Fine have publicly taken clear stances in favor of abortion rights in contrast to EA.

Like EA, however, Sony has declined to release any public statements about abortion rights. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan told employeesin an internal email to “respect differences of opinion” in response to discussion surrounding Roe V. Wade. PlayStation-owned Insomniac has reportedly pushed back internally and pledged a total of $50,000 to the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, and while PlayStation is matching that total through PlayStation Cares, it is preventing internal studios like Insomniac from speaking publicly as well.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Speed Racer is reportedly getting a live-action series at Apple with J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot attached as executive producer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The scripted series will reportedly be co-written by Hiram Martinez who has worked on the TV series Snowpiercer. He would also act as showrunner.

Apple, Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. are said to have been impressed with Martinez’s “exciting take” on the original. The other co-writer and showrunner is reportedly Ron Fitzgerald, who works with Abrams on Westworld.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series has been in talks for years and “stems from Abrams and Bad Robot’s overall deal with Warner Bros. TV.” The series found its way to Apple a while back but the development has been “excruciatingly slow.” In 2019, Abrams signed a $250 million 5-year deal with WarnerMedia which has led to some of his more recent projects.

Speed Racer, initially a manga and animated series, has had several iterations in both games and films. It originally began as a manga and eventually became a hit anime in the 1960s. The 2008 live-action movie of Speed Racer was directed by The Wachowskis but ended up losing money for Warner Bros. Pictures.

As part of Abrams' deal with Warner Bros., he’s had quite a few projects in the pipeline. Last year, it was confirmed that a movie adaptation of the hit game Portal was still in the works. Just last month, it was announced Abrams would be helming the live-action movie Hot Wheels based on everyone’s favorite toy cars.

If you’re looking for even more Abrams news, be sure to check out the latest on the debut of the new season of Westworld, where he serves as executive producer.

Casey is a freelance writer for IGN. You can usually find him talking about JRPGs on Twitter at @caseydavidmt.