Halo Infinite's Joseph Staten has discussed the year-long delay to the game, saying that while it was "very, very hard", he is "so proud of the studio and Xbox" for make the decision to prioritise player experience over putting an unfinished game out.

With Halo Infinite's multiplayer is out in the wild, and apart from early criticisms of the game's Battle Pass system, the game is largely receiving praise from fans. While final verdicts on next month's campaign are still to come, the multiplayer's positive reception is the first step in what could be a huge redemption story for Halo Infinite.

After a reveal that left many fans underwhelmed and led to Craig the Brute's rise to internet stardom, Halo Infinite was delayed from its Holiday 2020 launch window all the way to Q4 2021. In hindsight, even Phil Spencer said he regrets how the reveal went down.

Now, we're learning even more about what was going on inside Xbox and developer 343 during the delay of Halo Infinite. Speaking on IGN Unfiltered, Halo veteran Joseph Staten went in-depth on his experience working on Infinite, from joining the project part way through development, to the tough decision to delay the game out of the Xbox Series X's launch window.

On a hot summer day in 2020, the internet was ablaze with negative reactions to Halo Infinite's big reveal. Staten, who is known for his work on Bungie's original Halo trilogy, wanted to see if he could help. He called Bonnie Ross, VP at Xbox Game Studios to see if he could help at all with the seemingly troubled development of Halo Infinite. Now, Staten says that was the start of a "brand new career."

Staten, who was instrumental in the success of Bungie's Halo games, was all of a sudden thrust into the role of Project Lead for Halo Infinite's campaign.

Inside 343's Decision to Delay Halo Infinite

In August 2020, shortly after Halo Infinite's big campaign debut, the news of the delay came out. Staten says there was a lot of stress and pressure involved with the delay, even though it ended up being the right choice.

"[There was] a huge amount of pressure to stay the course. I think a really wonderful example of Xbox leadership doing the right thing for our fans, doing the right thing [...] for players, even though it hurt them, Even though there were costs associated with that." Staten said. "It was 100% a player-first decision, and I'm so proud of the studio and Xbox for making that decision."

Staten says the campaign benefitted the most from the delay because it's the "largest Halo campaign we've ever made." The team was also grateful for more time to work on the multiplayer, Staten says the difference is that multiplayer, "doesn't have the same surface area as the campaign."

The team looked at 10 different main areas of the game they wanted to work on. Staten says two of the 10 areas were how to identify and find equipment easily, and how to use the grapple hook, which he calls the "fourth leg" of Halo combat, in addition to weapons, melee, and grenades.

Staten added that another main goal was to finish the game in a healthy way for the studio, to prepare them for moving onto supporting the live service aspect of Halo Infinite. Even though the game is coming out in full next month, not every feature will be there at launch. Fan-favorite modes like campaign co-op and Forge won't show up until May 2022 at the earliest.

Delaying Halo Infinite co-op was "very, very hard," according to Staten. He says the simple truth is that, "co-op wasn't ready," and 343 decided to prioritize effort in other areas, like making sure performance is stable on all platforms.

"If we don't maintain a high bar, if we don't commit ourselves to excellence and commit ourselves to every time we launch something to delighting our customers, living up to their expectations, ideally exceeding our expectations, I don't think we're doing this job right," Staten said.

For more on the development of Halo Infinite, check out the full interview with 343's Joseph Staten. And, be sure to check out our preview of Infinite's campaign.

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

Ahead of the long-awaited launch of Halo Infinite's campaign, 343 Head of Creative Joseph Staten has revealed that his favorite Halo game is Halo 3: ODST.

Staten, who was instrumental in the success of Bungie's Halo games and joined Halo Infinite's development shortly after its delay in 2020, spoke to IGN for our Unfiltered interview series and shared why Halo 3: ODST meant so much to him.

"Halo 3: ODST is my favorite," Staten said. "And not just because I was helping to lead that project, but for me it was... any game developers that are watching will understand this. It was the game that we made in the most stable technology base that we'd ever had. You know, it was Halo 3 ODST. It was built in the Halo 3 engine, very few feature changes, so as almost entirely a content exercise.

"And we just had the flexibility to go in and create an experience, a story that didn't have to wait for the engineers to do all their hard work, rebuild tools and pipelines, implement big features. All of those things are wonderful part of game development, but it just makes things challenging. It extends your timeline."

He also discussed a bit more about its development and talked about how Bungie's studio head Harold Ryan and project lead Paul Bertone came to him and said they need this game to be finished in just six months, which is an incredibly short amount of time for a AAA game.

"So I believe the original charter for ODST was we needed it in six months," Staten continued. "Harold Ryan, our studio head at the time famously came to me, and Paul Bertone, the other project lead and said, 'We need it in six months. Something like Halo 3, but backwards at night.' And we're like, no, we're not gonna do a Halo 3 backwards at night, but we get what you're saying. It needs to be efficient, it needs to reuse assets. We need to be smart about the new things that we put in."

Luckily, that timeline was extended after Staten and the team proved how special this game could be. As it turned out, Halo 3: ODST was delivered in just about 18 months for its September 22, 2009, release date for Xbox 360.

"So we set up a prototype and people saw what we were going for and believed in it enough that they said, okay, well now you've got 12 months total," Staten said. "And it turns out at 12 months for a variety of reasons, we ended up actually getting closer to 18, and we were able to spend those last months just layering on as much polish as we possibly could.

"So for me, in terms of stable technology, just a really tight, cohesive, happy team, everybody marching forward with the same clear vision, it just a really wonderful game to work on. Very different than the vast majority of other games that I've worked on."

It was even more of a dream project for Staten as he got the chance to take risks again in a franchise that was so beloved and established. Furthermore, he got the chance to tell a noir detective story, something he had always wanted to do.

"It was an experimental game too in many ways," Staten says. "When you're working on a franchise like, it's challenging to innovate. It's very risky to try new things. We certainly are in Infinite, which is very exciting. But ODST was a noir detective story, the kind of that I had always wanted to write, and the fact that I was able to do it in Halo was pretty cool. I didn't think that was gonna happen in my career."

While we still have to wait until December 8 to see how truly innovative Halo Infinite's campaign ends up being, fans can jump into its free-to-play multiplayer right now.

If that wait is too tough and you need to learn more Halo Infinite's campaign, be sure to check out our four-hour hands-on preview of the story, the first Craig meme Easter Egg that's been found already, and how hidden audio logs will help tell the larger story of Zeta Halo.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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

Mario movie co-producer Chris Meledandri has suggested that Chris Pratt's performance as the main character won't be using Mario's usual accent, and that his chosen voice is "phenomenal".

Speaking to TooFab, Meledandri was asked about the divisive casting choice, replying, "All I can tell you is the voice that he's doing for us in Mario is phenomenal. Yeah, I can't wait for people to hear it."

With regard to that performance, he suggested that Mario's normal tones might not be what we should go in expecting: "We cover [that accent] in the movie, So you'll see we definitely nod to that – but that's not the tenor of the performance throughout the film."

Asked about the response to Pratt being asked to play a character traditionally depicted as Italian, Meledandri said: "Well, as an Italian American myself, I understand. You know, I understand the comments. Charlie Day, who's playing Luigi, actually comes from Italian heritage. Yeah so that's our nod."

Pratt was cast alongside Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Foreman Spike. Mario video game voice actor Charles Martinet will appear in at least one cameo role.

The animated movie, being created by Despicable Me studio Illumination, is scheduled to hit theaters on December 21, 2022. The project was originally announced in 2018, with both Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri and Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto attached as producers.

Nintendo is also exploring animation projects beyond Super Mario, and early reports suggest Seth Rogen might be getting his own Donkey Kong movie.

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.

Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay $31 million to the studio behind House of Cards following his firing from the hit TV show.

The 62-year-old actor played politician Frank Underwood in House of Cards for five seasons, but was written out of the sixth and final season after sexual misconduct allegations halted production, and the actor was ultimately fired.

Arbitrators have now ruled in favour of MRC, the production company behind the Netflix production, finding that Spacey violated the terms of his contract – ruling that the actor will have to pay $31 million for this breach of contract.

According to Deadline, arbitrator Bruce Friedman ruled in favour of MRC over a year ago, but the details of his rulings remained confidential until Spacey was denied his motion for appeal.

The ruling states: “The Arbitrator found that Spacey’s conduct constituted a material breach of his acting and executive producing agreements with MRC, and that his breaches excused MRC’s obligations to pay him any further compensation in connection with the Show.

“The Arbitrator further found that Spacey’s egregious breaches of contract proximately caused and rendered him (and his affiliated entities) liable for the tens of millions of dollars in losses MRC suffered when it had no choice, upon the revelations of Spacey’s pattern of harassment, to halt the production of Season 6 of the Show, to rewrite the entire season to omit Spacey’s character, and to shorten season 6 from 13 episodes to 8 to meet delivery deadlines.”

Kevin Spacey’s acting career effectively ended after fellow actor Anthony Rapp accused the actor of making sexual advances towards him when Rapp was just 14 years old. Spacey quickly apologised, and in a statement via Twitter, said he was “beyond horrified to hear his story.”

“I want to deal with this honestly and openly, and that starts with examining my own behavior,” said Spacey. Following these accusations, fifteen others came forward alleging similar misconduct.

In a statement, MRC said: “The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability.”

According to MRC, the arbitration included eight full days of live testimony and twenty hours of videotaped testimony from those involved. “With one exception, the Arbitrator found the third-party witnesses to be credible, and found the allegations against Spacey to be true,” said MRC’s filing.

However, Spacey filed a counterclaim, stating that he was owed money from MRC after he was fired from House of Cards, and he did not breach his contract. His claim was rejected.

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

A 24-year-old man from Brooklyn has been arrested following an attack on wrestler Seth Rollins during the live broadcast of WWE's Monday Night Raw at the Barclays Center last night. Thankfully, Rollins walked away relatively unharmed.

The attacker, named by police as Elisah Spencer, came at Rollins as he was walking ringside during the event. As can be seen in the tweeted footage below, Spencer tackled Rollins to the floor where the pair remained until security and WWE officials were able to separate them.

Seth Rollins just attacked by fan??? #RAW #WWE pic.twitter.com/FIv6csAW28

— Tommy Lavelle (@tomlavelles) November 23, 2021

According to the NYPD (as reported by ESPN) Spencer is being charged with an attempted violation of arts and cultural affairs (for the disruption of a live sporting event) as well as attempted assault on Rollins. In the article, the NYPD confirmed that the event had taken place at around 21:20 local time, at which point Spencer jumped the metal barricade that separates fans from the action before attacking Rollins.

The wrestler is said to have refused medical attention despite suffering swelling to his lip and was able to walk away from the incident once the attacker had been restrained.

Despite footage of the altercation appearing on social media, WWE cameras were relatively quick to cut away from the scene. "WWE takes the safety of its performers very seriously," the wrestling organization told ESPN in a statement. "The individual who attacked Seth Rollins has been turned over to the NYPD and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Developer Cloud Imperium Games has now raised an eye-watering $400,000,000 for its space trading and combat sim Star Citizen - a game that's now been in development for the best part of a decade.

According to Star Citizen's official website, the game has now generated more than $400,000,000 from fan-raised funds. Despite its community's generosity, however, Cloud Imperium Games is still yet to release a full version of the game even though its crowdfunding campaign started back in 2012 - you know, the same year that Bethesda released Dishonored and Ubisoft made waves with Far Cry 3.

While it could be argued that Star Citizen's lengthy delay in development is in part down to its long list of community-led stretch goals, the developer's last date-marked funding target was reached in 2014 as the game eclipsed $63,000,000.

Last year, Star Citizen creator Christopher Roberts explained to fans that features promised in the game several years ago were "not a pipe dream" and that they would not take another "10 to 20 years" to implement into the game. Since then, the developer has made further efforts to update fans on the latest changes that it's making to the game - CIG's last update post came on November 17 and includes a number of notes detailing the latest build for the game's alpha.

Despite the updates, earlier this year, fan frustration around the game peaked as one Reddit user reported the company to the UK Advertising Standards Agency for a lack of transparency over its sale of "concept ships" for the game. Following the complaint, which claimed that the studio had misled its customers by not clearly indicating that the concept ships on sale weren't actually available in the game, the studio was issued with an Advice Notice from the ASA explaining that it must be more transparent in the future.

For more on CIG's space trading and combat sim, make sure to check out our official IGN page for Star Citizen where you can find a range of the latest news, clips, and features from the game.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Nintendo has joined the likes of Sony and Xbox, speaking out against Activision Blizzard due to recent reports of sexual misconduct and toxicity.

In a new report by Fanbyte, Doug Bowser reportedly expressed concern over the ongoing situation at Activision Blizzard in a company-wide email, calling the allegations "distressing and disturbing."

“Along with all of you, I’ve been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company,” he explained. “I find these accounts distressing and disturbing. They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs, values and policies.”

The email reportedly goes on to explain that Nintendo is committed to providing an “open and inclusive” workplace and expects the same from the industry and its partners. Bowser also states that Nintendo has been “in contact with Activision, have taken action and are assessing others.” Although the email apparently stops short of giving further details.

However, the Nintendo chief does reportedly confirm that the company has been working with the ESA – a lobbying organization in which both Nintendo and Activision Blizzard are members. Bowser wrote that Nintendo has been working with the ESA since last week in order to “strengthen its stances on harassment and abuse in the workplace”.

“Every company in the industry must create an environment where everyone is respected and treated as equals,” the email reads. “And where all understand the consequences of not doing so.”

IGN has reached out to Nintendo of America for comment but has yet to receive a response at the time of publishing.

Nintendo’s comments follow PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan who is said to be "disheartened and frankly stunned" by the Activision Blizzard scandal. Xbox boss Phil Spencer also added that he is “disturbed and deeply troubled” by the ongoing events.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has found himself under pressure to resign, and has reportedly told the company he would consider stepping down if he’s unable to quickly fix the ongoing issues at the company.

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

IO Interactive announced a new roadmap for Hitman 3 Year 2 with new content coming in January 2022, including ray tracing, PC VR, and an Elusive Target Arcade.

The game is already optimized and enhanced on PC with support for 8+ core CPUs and variable rate shading. Working together with Intel, IO Interactive will also bring ray tracing to Hitman 3 sometime in 2022. PlayStation owners can already play Hitman 3 with PSVR support, but now it's also coming to VR PC in January 2022.

IO Interactive will reveal full technical details, including the platforms that it is supporting before Year 2 starts on January 20, which coincidentally is exactly one year after the game originally launched. Hitman 3 has a timed Epic Games Store exclusivity deal on PC, so it's possible that the PC VR version could come to SteamVR as one of the supported platforms.

Elusive Target Arcade is a new take on the franchise's Elusive Targets. It's the ultimate Elusive Target challenge and will be a permanent add-on to the game, rather than one-time-only events like previous entries.

IO Interactive will reveal another major update to Hitman 3 in Spring 2022, and new maps, storylines, and modes are lined up for the next 12 months. The World of Assassination trilogy has also reached 50 million players so far, with Hitman 3 being the most successful entry in the series of all time.

Hitman 3 has received plenty of updates so far, such as its Seven Deadly Sins expansion of which the final one, Wrath, launched on October 29.

In IGN's Hitman 3 review, Luke Reilly said, "Rich, rewarding, and highly replayable, Hitman 3 is a superb installment of IO’s idiosyncratic but much-loved stealth series."

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

The Last Duel may have been a critical success, but it was a box office failure. Now, director Ridley Scott thinks he knows why.

During an interview on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast, Sir Ridley Scott complained that The Last Duel’s box office calamity was all down to millennials.

“I think what it boils down to — what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cellphones,” said Scott. “The millennian [sic] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you’re told it on a cellphone.”

“This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook,” he explained. “This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”

The Last Duel has earned just $27 million worldwide after its debut last month. Starring Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer, Matt Damon, and Adam Driver, the film delivered staggering combat as well as poignant social commentary. But The Last Duel has so far failed to capture the imagination of audiences, as well as failing to recoup its $100 million budget.

Although Scott was originally concerned that Disney would undersell his historical epic, that turned out not to be the case.

“Disney did a fantastic promotion job,” he admitted. “The bosses loved the movie… I was concerned it was not for them.”

Despite this, The Last Duel still performed abysmally at the box office. But Scott stands by the movie, and states that the studio’s decisions were sound from start to finish.

“That’s the call you make,” he said about taking on the project. “That’s the call Fox made. We all thought it was a terrific script. And we made it. You can’t win all the time. I’ve never had one regret on any movie I’ve ever made. Nothing. I learned very early on to be your own critic. The only thing you should really have an opinion on is what you just did. Walk away. Make sure you’re happy. And don’t look back. That’s me.”

IGN’s own review said The Last Duel is “a grueling watch and certainly not for the faint-hearted. However, it rewards you with social commentary that’s as relevant today as in 14th century France… The Last Duel offers several bloody, brutal battle scenes and a fierce final duel that’s up there among director Ridley Scott’s finest fight scenes.”

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

One thing that has always set Battlefield apart from its competitors like Call of Duty is the over-the-top tank, airplane, and helicopter-related shenanigans you can get up to.

But in Battlefield 2042, players are finding said shenanigans difficult to counter when on foot due to the limited toolkit of anti-vehicle weaponry available. In fact, a reddit user going by SheroxXx found that the NWT-50 sniper rifle can kill a tank significantly faster than the M5 recoilless, which was purpose-built by the developers to be an anti-armor weapon.

One of the main factors seems to be the rate of fire, with the NWT able to fire far faster than the M5. In fact, it can take out a tank almost twice as fast. It's also more forgiving, as missing a shot or two still leaves you with a pretty decent amount of damage left in the magazine. As user DovahBornKing points out in the comments, tanks in 2042 take at least four rockets to kill, even from behind, and you can only carry three without having to resupply. This serves to make tanks feel really scary, but it doesn't feel especially balanced if you're the one on foot

The NWT takes a long time to unlock, but typically late-game sniper rifles aren't straight-up twice as good as a rocket launcher. Ideally, unlocks should give you more options and new ways to play. This situation makes the M5 feel like a wet noodle launcher you're forced to use until you can unlock a real anti-armor gun, and ensures that there really is no playstyle niche for our poor, recoilless friend once you have access to the NWT.

This situation tracks with the fact that Battlefield 2042 is both one of the most played and lowest-rated games on Steam right now. Missing features from earlier games in the series, such as tanks no longer taking extra damage from the rear and sides as noted above, are among the most common complaints. Everyone wants to play the new Battlefield enough that the many launch issues haven't stopped them from jumping in, but they're such a constant distraction that over 30,000 people took the time to post their own cautionary tales for potential buyers.

How do you deal with tanks in Battlefield 2042? We have some tips that might help over on our Battlefield 2042 wiki guide.

Thanks to VG247 for the tip.

Leana Hafer is a freelance contributor at IGN