Sony says that it expects Microsoft to honor contracts it has with Activision and "continue to ensure" that Activision games are released on its platforms – but there's some room for interpretation about what exactly the PlayStation manufacturer means.

Naturally, after Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion, many began speculating about whether the company would turn traditionally multiplatform releases into Xbox exclusives. Sony has now weighed in on that idea:

“We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform,” said a Sony spokesperson to The Wall Street Journal.

It's no surprise that Sony would expect Microsoft to honor any current contracts it has with Activision – as it did during the Bethesda takeover, leaving Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo as PS5 console exclusives. It's not clear what contracts Sony currently has with Activision, nor how long they're set to last.

It's also unclear from the wording of the statement whether the spokesperson is referring to specific contracts that ensure Activision games are multiplatform, or if the company more generally expects Microsoft to allow games to be released for PS5 post-acquisition. We've contacted Sony for clarity on that point.

The issue of exclusives will be a divisive one in the run-up to the acquisition and beyond. Sources have previously suggested that Microsoft plans to keep selling "some" Activision games on PlayStation, but it's not yet clear which ones. IGN readers are almost perfectly split on whether they want Activision Blizzard games to become Xbox exclusives, and some investors have clearly been spooked by the move, with almost $20 billion wiped off of Sony's stock value following the announcement.

In our opinion, gaining the opportunity to release exclusives exclusives isn't about winning a console war for Xbox – it's about winning a content war.

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.

In celebration of the launch of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, IGN is proud to partner with Ubisoft to give fans a look at the end-game mode known as Maelstrom Protocol. Join IGN’s Stella Chung, Get Flanked, and Velly as they work their way through the Containment Zone as an elite REACT squad.

IGN will be carrying the stream and, as usual, this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the let's play, including when it starts, a list of places you join us, and what you can expect to see.

IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol Start Time

The IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction livestream will take place on Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 2:45pm PT/5:45pm ET/10:45pm GMT. If you are tuning in from Australia, that translates to Friday, January 21, at 8:45am AEST.

Where to Watch IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol

If you’re interested in watching the IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction livestream, we’ll be hosting the stream here and across our many channels on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the show with us:

• IGN.com (homepage)
• IGN's Facebook Channel
• IGN’s Twitter
• IGN's Twitch Channel
• IGN’s Youtube Channel
• IGN's TikTok
• IGN's iOS App
• IGN's Android App
• IGN's PlayStation 4 App
• IGN's Xbox One App
• Roku
• IGN App for Android TV
• IGN for Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• IGN 1 on Samsung TV Plus
• Pluto TV
• Plex Live TV

What to Expect at IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol

IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction will give players an early look at the end-game mode known as Maelstrom Protocol. Completing this mode the changes weekly will require you and your team to be at their best, as it challenges players to complete nine difficult objectives that each have mutations that make them different than they would be normally.

If that wasn’t enough, the difficulty ramps up after completing three objectives alongside the time limit being shortened and ammo and health stations becoming scarcer and scarcer. While this mode does offer greater rewards, it also only lets you choose from six Operators at any given week.

To help get players ready for the dangers that await, IGN’s Stella Chung, Youtuber GetFlanked, and host and analyst Velly will be trying out Rainbow Six Extraction’s Maelstrom Protocol in a Let’s Play that will give you some tips and strategies to take on the mode yourself.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction will be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Amazon Luna on January 20, 2022. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

In celebration of the launch of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, IGN is proud to partner with Ubisoft to give fans a look at the end-game mode known as Maelstrom Protocol. Join IGN’s Stella Chung, Get Flanked, and Velly as they work their way through the Containment Zone as an elite REACT squad.

IGN will be carrying the stream and, as usual, this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the let's play, including when it starts, a list of places you join us, and what you can expect to see.

IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol Start Time

The IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction livestream will take place on Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 2:45pm PT/5:45pm ET/10:45pm GMT. If you are tuning in from Australia, that translates to Friday, January 21, at 8:45am AEST.

Where to Watch IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol

If you’re interested in watching the IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction livestream, we’ll be hosting the stream here and across our many channels on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the show with us:

• IGN.com (homepage)
• IGN's Facebook Channel
• IGN’s Twitter
• IGN's Twitch Channel
• IGN’s Youtube Channel
• IGN's TikTok
• IGN's iOS App
• IGN's Android App
• IGN's PlayStation 4 App
• IGN's Xbox One App
• Roku
• IGN App for Android TV
• IGN for Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• IGN 1 on Samsung TV Plus
• Pluto TV
• Plex Live TV

What to Expect at IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol

IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction will give players an early look at the end-game mode known as Maelstrom Protocol. Completing this mode the changes weekly will require you and your team to be at their best, as it challenges players to complete nine difficult objectives that each have mutations that make them different than they would be normally.

If that wasn’t enough, the difficulty ramps up after completing three objectives alongside the time limit being shortened and ammo and health stations becoming scarcer and scarcer. While this mode does offer greater rewards, it also only lets you choose from six Operators at any given week.

To help get players ready for the dangers that await, IGN’s Stella Chung, Youtuber GetFlanked, and host and analyst Velly will be trying out Rainbow Six Extraction’s Maelstrom Protocol in a Let’s Play that will give you some tips and strategies to take on the mode yourself.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction will be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Amazon Luna on January 20, 2022. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Activision has announced it is delaying the start of Season Two for Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Vanguard. The new multiplayer season will now begin two weeks later on February 14 instead of February 2.

In a blog post, Activision says that the additional time before the next season will allow the developers time to keep adding fixes to the different Call of Duty online games currently up and running, including 2021’s Vanguard and the ongoing Warzone battle royale.

“To date, we’ve deployed a number of updates, but more needs to be done,” Activision writes in its blog. “For this reason, we have decided to reschedule the start of Season Two across Warzone Pacific and Vanguard to February 14.”

The studio says that developers will use this time to “deliver updates, including optimizations to gameplay, game balancing (including weapon and equipment balancing), to fix game stability and bugs, and to ensure an overall level of polish to improve the experience for players across Vanguard, Warzone Pacific, Black Ops Cold War, and Modern Warfare.”

In particular, a focus will be made to improve the core gameplay loop and balance for Call of Duty across both consoles and PC.

Furthermore, the Call of Duty team says that going forwards there will be more updates regarding the state of Call of Duty online. Even with the blockbuster news of the Microsoft acquisition, “Studios remain focused on continuously improving” the Call of Duty experience.

Maintaining an online game, let alone four within the same series, is no small task. Other developers working on ongoing online multiplayer games like 343 are having difficulties as well, such as Halo Infinite’s issues with Big Team Battle.

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

Activision has announced it is delaying the start of Season Two for Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Vanguard. The new multiplayer season will now begin two weeks later on February 14 instead of February 2.

In a blog post, Activision says that the additional time before the next season will allow the developers time to keep adding fixes to the different Call of Duty online games currently up and running, including 2021’s Vanguard and the ongoing Warzone battle royale.

“To date, we’ve deployed a number of updates, but more needs to be done,” Activision writes in its blog. “For this reason, we have decided to reschedule the start of Season Two across Warzone Pacific and Vanguard to February 14.”

The studio says that developers will use this time to “deliver updates, including optimizations to gameplay, game balancing (including weapon and equipment balancing), to fix game stability and bugs, and to ensure an overall level of polish to improve the experience for players across Vanguard, Warzone Pacific, Black Ops Cold War, and Modern Warfare.”

In particular, a focus will be made to improve the core gameplay loop and balance for Call of Duty across both consoles and PC.

Furthermore, the Call of Duty team says that going forwards there will be more updates regarding the state of Call of Duty online. Even with the blockbuster news of the Microsoft acquisition, “Studios remain focused on continuously improving” the Call of Duty experience.

Maintaining an online game, let alone four within the same series, is no small task. Other developers working on ongoing online multiplayer games like 343 are having difficulties as well, such as Halo Infinite’s issues with Big Team Battle.

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

Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle mode has been a sore point for fans for more than a month now. The matchmaking queues have had major issues, with larger parties having a tough time joining games since early December. Those who do make it are frequently disconnected.

Today's Halo Infinite hotfix was supposed to fix issues regarding Big Team Battle, but it hasn't completely solved them. 343 community director Brian Jarrard took to Twitter to say that there have been minor improvements, but acknowledged that overall matchmaking issues persist. The team is going to continue working on the problem until matchmaking is stable again.

To compensate players for their trouble, 343 Industries is offering five XP boosts and five Challenge Swaps to those who log in before February 16.

Well, damn... today's BTB hotfix does not appear to be the outcome we expected. There are minor improvements, but overall matchmaking issues are still occurring. Thanks to the folks who have been working hard and we're sorry this didn't quite get the job done. Work continues. https://t.co/lKiFibBDtT

— Brian Jarrard (@ske7ch) January 19, 2022

However, issues remain with the Big Team Battle Challenges, which may forces players to use their Challenge Swaps more quickly than usual. Jarrard responded to a user on Twitter who brought this point up, saying that because the matchmaking issues in Big Team Battle continue to occur, the team is investigating what to do about those types of challenges.

Currently, there's no timeline on when there will be additional fixes, but hopefully, it comes soon as the matchmaking issues started nearly a month ago. In the meantime, developer 343 Industries has also been focusing on reducing the cost of in-game items.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle mode has been a sore point for fans for more than a month now. The matchmaking queues have had major issues, with larger parties have had a tough time joining games since early December. Those who do make it are frequently disconnected.

Today's Halo Infinite hotfix was supposed to fix issues regarding Big Team Battle, but it hasn't completely solved them. 343 community director Brian Jarrard took to Twitter to say that there have been minor improvements, but acknowledged that overall matchmaking issues persist. The team is going to continue working on the problem until matchmaking is stable again.

To compensate players for their trouble, 343 Industries is offering five XP boosts and five Challenge Swaps to those who log in before February 16.

Well, damn... today's BTB hotfix does not appear to be the outcome we expected. There are minor improvements, but overall matchmaking issues are still occurring. Thanks to the folks who have been working hard and we're sorry this didn't quite get the job done. Work continues. https://t.co/lKiFibBDtT

— Brian Jarrard (@ske7ch) January 19, 2022

However, issues remain with the Big Team Battle Challenges, which may forces players to use their Challenge Swaps more quickly than usual. Jarrard responded to a user on Twitter who brought this point up, saying that because the matchmaking issues in Big Team Battle continue to occur, the team is investigating what to do about those types of challenges.

Currently, there's no timeline on when there will be additional fixes, but hopefully, it comes soon as the matchmaking issues started nearly a month ago. In the meantime, developer 343 Industries has also been focusing on reducing the cost of in-game items.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

The Shenmue anime will premiere on Saturday, February 5 on both Adult Swim and Crunchyroll, with the two services splitting the dubbed and subbed versions of the show.

Shenmue the Animation is based on the popular Sega video game franchise and will be an adaptation of the events from the video game. Set in 1986, martial artist Ryo Hazuki trains under his father until one day a mysterious man murders him.

Now Ryo must travel from Yokosuka to Hong Kong to uncover the mystery of his father’s death.

Adult Swim will premiere an English dubbed version of the series while Crunchyroll will stream a subtitled version worldwide outside of Japan and China.

The voice cast includes Austin Tindle as Ryo Hazuki, Scott Gibs as Lan Di, Ryo’s father’s murderer, Natalie Rial as Shenhua a young girl from a rural village, and Cat Thomas as Nozomi Haraski, Ryo’s classmate and admirer.

Shenmue was created by famed game developer Yu Suzuki who envisioned a free-flowing cinematic game. The first Shenmue game was released in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast to critical acclaim. A sequel was released in 2001.

After over a decade, a third Shenmue game was successfully crowdfunded and finally released in 2019. It was one of the fastest-funded video game projects ever to go up on Kickstarter. You can check out IGN’s review of Shenmue 3 here and how it feels like a game stuck in time.

Shenmue the Animation is directed by Chikara Sakurai who worked on the second season of One Punch Man, and with animation from Telecom Animation Film.

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

The Shenmue anime will premiere on Saturday, February 5 on both Adult Swim and Crunchyroll, with the two services splitting the dubbed and subbed versions of the show.

Shenmue the Animation is based on the popular Sega video game franchise and will be an adaptation of the events from the video game. Set in 1986, martial artist Ryo Hazuki trains under his father until one day a mysterious man murders him.

Now Ryo must travel from Yokosuka to Hong Kong to uncover the mystery of his father’s death.

Adult Swim will premiere an English dubbed version of the series while Crunchyroll will stream a subtitled version worldwide outside of Japan and China.

The voice cast includes Austin Tindle as Ryo Hazuki, Scott Gibs as Lan Di, Ryo’s father’s murderer, Natalie Rial as Shenhua a young girl from a rural village, and Cat Thomas as Nozomi Haraski, Ryo’s classmate and admirer.

Shenmue was created by famed game developer Yu Suzuki who envisioned a free-flowing cinematic game. The first Shenmue game was released in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast to critical acclaim. A sequel was released in 2001.

After over a decade, a third Shenmue game was successfully crowdfunded and finally released in 2019. It was one of the fastest-funded video game projects ever to go up on Kickstarter. You can check out IGN’s review of Shenmue 3 here and how it feels like a game stuck in time.

Shenmue the Animation is directed by Chikara Sakurai who worked on the second season of One Punch Man, and with animation from Telecom Animation Film.

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

30 years after DC Comics made headlines by killing off Superman, they're poised to do it again. And this time they're taking out the entire Justice League for good measure.

As revealed by Entertainment Weekly, the current Justice League series will end with April's Justice League #75, which is written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Rafa Sandoval There won't be an immediate replacement on the way, however, because most of the team will be killed in that story battling a team called the Dark Army. That finale is intended to serve as the foundation for an ongoing storyline that sees the DCU come to terms with the loss of so many beloved heroes.

This new storyline is intentionally designed to echo the infamous "Death of Superman" crossover from 1992, which culminated with the Man of Steel losing his life in a battle with Doomsday in Superman #75. Though Superman did eventually return to life, it was only after a prolonged absence and the rise of four temporary replacements in the follow-up crossover "Reign of the Supermen."

"I remember the experience of reading the build-up to 'The Death of Superman' and then waiting in the rain for my copy of issue #75." Williamson told EW. "I think one reason that story was so powerful was that after the 'Funeral for a Friend' story, there were no Superman comics for three months. That's part of what led us to make the decision that this is the last issue of Justice League. But then three months later, there's still not gonna be a Justice League comic. It's gonna be a while, and that's gonna be a major part of what the DCU looks like after this story: There is no Justice League."

Though Justice League #75 marks Williamson's first and, apparently, only issue of the series (current writer Brian Michael Bendis is leaving with March's Justice League #74), he confirmed this twist is part of a larger storyline that began in 2021's Infinite Frontier #0 and will continue to play out in many corners of the DCU going forward. Williamson is also currently writing the monthly Batman and Robin titles and co-writing Justice League Incarnate.

"Ever since Infinite Frontier #0, we've been building to this story," Williamson said. "Last year was a lot of fun and games, but when this story starts, it's the beginning of the third act. We're going to see things get darkest before the dawn. The Justice League gets called in to fight this Dark Army that's been building on the edge of the multiverse. They go up against this Dark Army and they lose."

Of the current Justice League roster - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Zatanna - only one member will survive their battle with the Dark Army and bring news of this tragedy to Earth. Presumably, this will force a younger generation of heroes like Jon Kent, Yara Flor, Jace Fox and Naomi McDuffie to step up and fill the void left by their mentors. This would also seem to suggest a number of other ongoing DC books will either be canceled or revamped to feature new lead characters.

Be sure to check out our full breakdown of what's coming from DC in 2022. And let us know which Justice League member will survive the events of issue #75 by voting in the poll below: