Hello Games' new project would feel impossible to create even with 1,000 people behind it, the developer has said.

Speaking to IGN, studio co-founder and managing director Sean Murray said that, while it's not a sequel to No Man's Sky, the new game is just as ambitious.

He said: "For a while now we've been working on something pretty ambitious in the background. It's a small team but we like it that way.

"Similar to No Man's Sky, it's the kind of project that even if we had a thousand people working on it, it'd still seem impossible."

The game was in "very early" development as of September last year but Murray reassured that, while No Man's Sky is still receiving regular updates and isn't finished by a long shot, the two games aren't impacting each other's development.

"No Man's Sky is not being held back by the next project but neither is the new thing being slowed by No Man's Sky," he said. "We're lucky enough to be able to allow folks to move freely to work on what excites them."

Nothing else is known about Hello Games' new project and this will likely be the case for a while, as Murray has previously said "we've learned our lesson" on talking about games too early after No Man's Sky open (and controversial) pre-release.

Outlaws, the latest No Man's Sky update, completely overhauled space combat and added a pirate underworld to the galaxy-spanning game.

While it's available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC today, Nintendo players can enjoy the update alongside the rest of No Man's Sky when it comes to Switch this summer.

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

Oddworld: Soulstorm being a free game on PlayStation Plus was "devastating" for sales according to its creator.

Lorne Lanning, founder of Oddworld Inhabitants, said the game was downloaded close to four million times through PS Plus, significantly more than the studio's expectations of 50 to 100,000.

Speaking on the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast, spotted by Video Games Chronicle, Lanning said there was nothing malicious about the deal on Sony's end but circumstances made it "a double-edged sword".

Soulstorm was free to download in April 2021, the same month it launched, and while Sony has never made clear how it comes to this agreement with developers, it's understood that a one-off payment is made.

Lanning explained that Oddworld Inhabitants and its partner developers were already struggling when they were approached by Sony. "We were hitting a number of legacy, technical, debt issues, and talent issues" he said.

The developer needed more money to finish the game and didn't expect launch sales on PlayStation 5 to earn more than what Sony offered, because in January, when the game was due to launch, there was still a severe shortage of consoles.

"We were supposed to deliver in January. So at that time there wasn't going to be any game machines. We were like, 'how many could we possibly sell?'," Lanning continued. "We needed the money to complete the project and we thought we did a pretty good deal. In January there's no way we'll sell more than this."

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed Soulstorm back three months, however, and by this point more PS5s were in the wild. Therefore, despite Sony essentially funding the final portion of development, Lanning said the four million downloads were "devastating".

“Because it slipped to April, we had the highest downloaded game on PS5 and it was, I think, approaching… close to four million units or something like that for free because they were all subscriptions," he said. "So for us, it was devastating”.

Of course, there's no evidence to suggest that Oddworld Inhabitants actually lost out on potentially millions of sales. A benefit of PS Plus games is being able to try out games you wouldn't normally consider buying yourself, so many of Soulstorm's downloads may not have necessarily translated into sales.

That's not to say all studios consider PS Plus a problem for their eventual sales, as the developers of games like Rocket League and Fall Guys have commented on the importance of the service for establishing their games.

In our 7/10 review, IGN said: "Oddworld: Soulstorm is an excellent remake of a delightfully weird '90s platformer with tons of charm, challenge... and annoying bugs."

Fortnite creator Epic Games has invested in and signed a publishing agreement with Brazilian developer Aquiris.

The studio is best known for the Horizon Chase series and its Apple Arcade release Wonderbox, but Aquiris is also working on a new, currently unannounced game.

Epic Games will publish it alongside an undisclosed number of other future titles, with Aquiris saying the investment will shape the next 15 years of the studio.

CEO Mauricio Longoni said: "We are thrilled to partner with Epic Games. It's a strong endorsement of what Aquiris has built so far, and we can't wait to show the world what we are working on together.

"Epic's publishing power and close collaboration with us on tech, business intelligence, and product development will help us boost the quality and the reach of our titles."

Head of third-party publishing at Epic Games, Hector Sanchez will join the Aquiris board of directors as a result of the investment.

He said: "Aquiris not only have a keen eye for quality game experiences, but have demonstrated great artistic and technical capabilities with their utilization of Unreal Engine in their products.

"We’re honoured to have this opportunity to strengthen our relationship with one of the premiere studios in the growing and important Latin American development scene."

The news comes a few days after Epic Games received its own investment from Sony and LEGO's parent company KIRKBI. The entertainment giants invested $1 billion dollars each to deepen their relationships with the metaverse.

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

Space pirates are coming to No Man's Sky today with the Outlaws update.

Developer Hello Games announced that, while the previous Sentinels update focused on ground combat, Outlaws will overhaul space combat and add other new features.

These are headlined by the introduction of a pirate underworld that lets players embody Han Solo in new rebellion and smuggling missions. Outlaws have taken over space stations across the galaxy and turned them into dangerous, lawless places where players can purchase illegal goods and smuggle them out for a considerable cash reward.

The update also adds the speedy Solar Starship, the first new ship type in more than two years, and for players worried about giving up a previous vessel to make room, the number of ships a player can own has increased from six to nine.

Players can also hire their own squadron of wingmen with the Squadrons feature and are encouraged to build their perfect fleet of ships and pilots (which all have different, upgradeable abilities).

Hello Games has promised more speed and excitement in space combat overall with improved handling and visual effects. Enemy starships now have shields while the player's weapon selection has been broadened with new secondary effects such as being able to slow enemy engines or disable shield systems.

Ship versus ship combat can also now occur within a planet's atmosphere and pirates can raid players' settlements. For those who struggle with space combat, Hello Games said accessibility has been "significantly improved" thanks to a new Auto-Follow mode.

Outlaws arrives two months after Sentinels and is the 20th major update to No Man's Sky since it launched in 2016. Despite six years of post-launch content, game creator Sean Murray told IGN that No Man's Sky isn't finished "by a long shot".

The new update is available April 14 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, Nintendo players can enjoy the update alongside the rest of No Man's Sky when it comes to Switch this summer.

Warner Bros. is allegedly waiting to see how Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore performs before greenlighting any further sequels.

According to Variety, the five-film plan for the Fantastic Beasts franchise now hinges on how The Secrets of Dumbledore is received by audiences, with Warner Bros. allegedly assessing the movie's performance to determine whether to greenlight films four and five. Sources have also apparently confirmed that there's currently no written script for the fourth installment.

The outlet broke down some of the biggest controversies that have plagued the Wizarding World franchise leading up to this point, including Ezra Miller's recent arrest for disorderly conduct and harassment, Johnny Depp's forced resignation due to abuse allegations between he and actress Amber Heard and a libel case Depp had against The Sun newspaper.

Mads Mikkelsen was cast to replace Depp in the role of Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, but the third installment wasn't without its setbacks. Variety notes that "Warner Bros. initially postponed filming in 2019 to retool the third movie," causing extra time to be spent in pre-production. The film then faced further delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling came under fire for being a major voice of anti-trans rhetoric, which forced Harry Potter fans to wrestle with the series they love and its creator's prejudice. They were note alone as franchise stars Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, and Eddie Redmayne also condemned her remarks on gender identity and trans women.

In terms of box office performance, 2016's Where to Find Them was a commercial success, grossing more than $800 million worldwide, even though its opening weekend numbers fell short compared to the rest of the franchise. 2018's The Crimes of Grindelwald suffered a 20% decline, earning $650 million globally to become the lowest-grossing installment to date.

The Secrets of Dumbledore faces some challenges of its own as some countries where the movie was scheduled to hit theaters have strict censorship mandates that could impact the release. References to Dumbledore and Grindelwald's gay relationship have already been edited out by Warner Bros. for the movie's release in China.

News came from Rowling that the trilogy would be extended back in 2016, saying at that point that considering it a trilogy was "kind of a placeholder." Director David Yates later defended the decision to extend the series from three to five movies, explaining that Rowling realized there was "a whole lot more" to the story while writing the second.

Whether the rest of the story ever makes it to screen remains to be seen. IGN rated The Secrets of Dumbledore a 4 out of 10, calling the franchise's latest entry "an un-fantastical Potter prequel with uninteresting secrets" that "looks drab and feels like it was made by people who want to leave its magical premise behind."

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

Tom Hanks WWII movie Greyhound is getting a sequel, and it’s heading to Apple TV+.

According to Deadline, the 65-year-old actor will star in the upcoming war movie and is also producing the WWII series Masters of the Air which will also debut on the streaming platform.

And that’s only the beginning.

“Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman have made a multi-year exclusive overall deal with Apple TV+.”

The Apple TV+ deal includes upcoming films, TV shows, documentaries, and unscripted projects, all of which will be distributed by Apple.

Masters of the Air follows on from Hanks’ earlier WWII epics Band of Brothers and The Pacific, and tells the story of the American bomber boys during World War II with an impressive ensemble cast.

Barry Keoghan stars as Lt. Curtis Biddick alongside Elvis star Austin Butler as Major Gale Cleven.

The series is co-produced by Amblin Entertainment which also brought Band of Brothers and The Pacific to our screens via HBO.

Masters of the Air has been in the works since October 2019 – a month before Apple TV+ even launched – and is based on the Donald L. Miller book, Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.

“World War II could not have been won without the bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, which pummeled Germany by day while the British bombed at night,” reads the book’s synopsis. “In Masters of the Air, prize-winning historian Donald L. Miller tells the dramatic story of the American bomber boys (Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart among them) who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep before Allied soldiers stepped on German soil.”

Greyhound saw Hanks return to WWI as Captain Ernest Krause – an allied officer in command of his first U.S. destroyer as he led a convoy of 37 ships while being pursued by Nazi U-boats.

However, IGN’s own review called it a mess of CGI and a bland supporting cast.

“Despite Greyhound being mostly torpedoes, explosions, gunfire, and screaming, a lot of the tension gets drowned out in a sea (literally and figuratively) of CGI. And because the crisis rarely lets up, there's little room for character. Hanks' Krause is a dutiful and reverent man. His feet are to the fire here, but he also rarely missteps.”

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

A Metal Gear Solid 3 player has figured out how to skip the game's infamously long ladder climb.

Though it came out 18 years ago in 2004, YouTube user Apel has finally figured out a way to skip MGS3's two minute climb altogether, as spotted by Polygon.

They showed off the tactic in a video but it essentially involves positioning protagonist Snake next to the ladder before pressing a few particular buttons in the menu. When the player comes back to the game, Snake enters a T-Pose and floats for a moment before being fired like a rocket to the very top.

While this may seem a bit redundant given the game is nearly two decades old, speedrunners are still chipping away at Metal Gear Solid 3 to achieve quicker and quicker times. In fact, the top five speedruns were all set in the last year, showing that new tactics like these are still very valuable to the community.

The best time of one hour, 16 minutes and ten seconds is only ten seconds ahead of the second best time, meaning speedrunners will likely be racing to master this new tactic to try and retain or claim or the crown.

Elsewhere in the speedrunning community, Elden Ring player Distortion2 has shaved his time down to under seven minutes, while Tunic has been beaten in just 24 minutes.

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

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.1 is finally live, and so are the patch notes for the newest content drop.

Alongside a new story questline, Patch 6.1 also includes a new 24-player Alliance Raid, housing options, and much more. As always, Final Fantasy 14 Patch Notes are quite in-depth, but you can read below for a summary of some of the biggest new content and changes.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker 6.1Patch Notes - Newfound Adventure

• 10 New Main Scenario Quests starting with Newfound Adventure
• 4 new Chronicles of a New Era quests starting with A Mission in Mor Dhona
• 4 new Role Quests starting with Bitter Snow
• New chapters have been added to New Game+
• Certain main scenario quests for A Realm Reborn have been revised
  • Operation Archon
  • The Ultimate Weapon
• When playing as a different character in instanced quest battles, actions on the additional hotbar can now be rearranged
• Character portraits have been implemented for battle dialogue during instanced quest battles from the 5.x series.
• New items are available in exchange for bicolor gemstones from Gemstone Trader NPCs in each area.
• New craftable items
• Plots of land in Empryreum can now be purchased
• A lottery system for the purchase of land has been implemented
• New prizes are available for purchase using MGP.
• New hairstyles for Hrothgar
• New hairstyle options for male and female Viera
• Duty Support added, a system that allows solo players to tackle duties with a party of NPCs.
• Class Reworks

For a full list of patch notes, including a full breakdown of class changes check out the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker 6.1 Patch Notes here.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Patch 6.1 is the first major patch since the release of Endwalker. You can read IGN’s Endwalker review here. We also have an interview with Final Fantasy creator and FFXIV fan Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Update 4/12 4:58 pm PT: PlayStation Network is back up according to the official Network Status page.

PlayStation's official PSN Status page is now listing all online services as up and running. If you log into PSN on your PlayStation device now, you should be able to engage with online services.

PlayStation has not acknowledged the temporary outage that lasted a little under an hour.

PlayStation Network is currently down.

Reports from PlayStation owners online as well as the PlayStation status page indicate that PSN is currently experiencing some technical difficulties.

As shown on IGN sister site DownDetector, there have been over 13,000 reports of an outage with PSN since 4 pm PT.

According to the official PlayStation Network status tracker, all services, from Account Management, online gaming, PlayStation Now, and the PSN Store are experiencing issues.

No official word yet on why exactly there's an outage or how long it will be until services are back to normal. So check back with IGN as we'll update this story when services resume, or there's an official announcement.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

PlayStation Network is currently down.

Reports from PlayStation owners online as well as the PlayStation status page indicate that PSN is currently experiencing some technical difficulties.

As shown on IGN sister site DownDetector, there have been over 13,000 reports of an outage with PSN since 4 pm PT.

According to the official PlayStation Network status tracker, all services, from Account Management, online gaming, PlayStation Now, and the PSN Store are experiencing issues.

No official word yet on why exactly there's an outage or how long it will be until services are back to normal. So check back with IGN as we'll update this story when services resume, or there's an official announcement.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.