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

New World recently released its Into the Void update, bringing with it a host of new features and fixes. One thing players didn't reckon with, however, was that it also made the endgame harder — much harder.

Over the weekend, endgame players began noting on Reddit and elsewhere that certain high-level enemies had received a major buff. The net effect of this buff is that certain enemies are next to impossible to take down while playing solo, further elongating an already savage endgame grind.

"This is so dumb, solo people just cannot do anything even close to endgame now," one player wrote. "I get how [Amazon Game Studio] wants people to party up as it is an MMO but soloing should still be an option, especially if youre [sic] running the normal missions. I get if you want to go clear places like myrkgard or sirens or malevolence, you should group up but relatively normal elite zones should be hard, but also soloable."

Word of the changes soon spread throughout the rest of the community, spurring further controversy in a game racked by duplication exploits, a currency crisis, and other issues. It was followed by a fresh wave of negative reviews on Steam, dropping it to a "Mixed" rating despite remaining "Mostly Positive" overall.

In response, New World designer Mike "Berserker Mike" Willette said that the "proper context" wasn't delivered on the reasoning behind the update. Willette wrote that the team's goal is to have a "variety of areas" that players can go to for crafting materials and gear. However, Amazon Game Studios also wants players to feel challenged in return.

"Our vision for end game is multifaceted, and includes Outpost Rush and Wars, Invasions and Arenas, 60+ Corrupted breaches, 60+ Elite POIs and named creatures, and Expeditions, with more to come in the future. There will not be one single source for best in slot and our desire is to encourage players to engage with various activities," Willette wrote.

He added that New World's developers are "actively looking into the activities and reward balance."

The controversy is yet another example of how New World can be a rewarding and yet frustrating experience for players. Our review notes that it saves the "best moments for the endgame," but that you have to "grind like hell" to get them. While New World's growth has leveled off since its explosively popular launch, it retains a large and very active fanbase who seem willing to roll with its more frustrating elements in exchange for its rich and rewarding PvP.

For Marvel fans driven to seek out every shred of MCU story, Guardians of the Galaxy Director James Gunn says the latest Disney ride tie-in is not part of the MCU's canon. On Twitter, Gunn wrote that the ride is, "in its own universe", meaning Marvel fans shouldn't take the story and easter eggs within the ride too seriously.

It’s in its own universe

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) November 20, 2021

Before you laugh, the canonical status of Galaxy's Edge's Star Wars rides has been discussed for years. According to Star Wars Fandom, the Star Tours business, characters, and ships are canon, while the stories that take place on the ride itself are not canon. The events that take place around Galaxy's Edge are also meant to be canon, even though the characters repeat them day after day so all guests can experience it. There's no need for MCU fans to wonder now, as Gunn's tweet can extinguish any questions of the new ride's place in the canon.

The new Guardians ride does include the actors from the MCU's Guardians, and it's coming to Disney World in Florida next summer. It includes the very first Disneyland reverse roller coaster launch, and Disney says it's one of the longest enclosed coasters in the world.

Disneyland already has its own Guardians of the Galaxy ride, called Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout. When the ride opened back in 2017, we said, "the vast majority who go on it will leave with a big grin on their face."

The Guardians are going to be busy over the next couple years. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special will premiere on Disney+ next holiday season, and Gunn has said the special does take place within the MCU, after Thor: Love and Thunder, which Chris Pratt is also set to appear in.

Then, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to hit theaters on May 5, 2023. Last month, Chris Pratt was on the movie's set as the cast and crew was gearing up to start filming. The Guardians could go quiet after these two projects, as Vol. 3 may be the last Guardians film with the current team. We don't know a ton about the movie, but it recently cast Will Poulter as Adam Warlock

For more, check out Marvel's original plan to introduce the Guardians of the Galaxy with four short films.

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

Matrix fans can look foward to a "beautiful and weird" movie when they sit down to watch The Matrix Resurrections next month, according to one of the film's writers. Co-writer David Mitchell spoke to Greek newspaper To Vima (via IndieWire) about his reactions to seeing the completed film.

"I cannot tell you what this film is about, but I could explain what it is not," Mitchell said. "It's certainly not yet one more sequel, but something autonomous that contains the three Matrix that preceded in a really ingenious way. It's a very beautiful and weird creation. It also achieved a couple of things that we do not see in action films, meaning it subverts the rules of blockbusters."

Mitchell is the author of Cloud Atlas, and he previously worked with The Matrix's Lana Wachowski on the 2012 film adaptation of the book. The two wrote The Matrix Resurrections alongside Aleksandar Hemon.

The Matrix Resurrections has already proven its willingness to be weird, as its website was reverse-engineered to let fans watch highly specific teaser trailers ahead of the movie's official reveal. Plus, certain reveals already have us scratching our heads, wondering about Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Morpheus, and how Neo is alive. After the trailer was revealed, our biggest takeaway was that The Matrix 4 seems to be calling back to the original film in multiple ways.

We're exactly a month out from the movie's release, as The Matrix 4 will arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021. While you wait for the film, you can check out the latest poster for The Matrix Resurrections, which shows Neo and Trinity reuniting.

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