Eric Barone, the creator of Stardew Valley, has officially announced the Stardew Valley Cup — meaning that the famed relaxing farming simulator has now become... an eSport?

The Stardew Valley cup will pit four teams against each other: Sandy's Candies, Pierree's Cherries, Pam's Yams, and Krobus's Crocuses. The four teams will compete against one another in the Cup on September 4 where they will complete a range of tasks to earn points and a shot at almost $40,000.

In collaboration with @UnsurpassableZ, I'm pleased to announce the 1st official Stardew Valley Cup! It's a competition of skill, knowledge, and teamwork, with a prize pool of over $40k. See some of Stardew's most dedicated players in their element! Main event is Sept. 4th 9am PST pic.twitter.com/qtDW5e5LvD

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) August 21, 2021

The competition is being run in coordination with Unsurpassable Z, a YouTuber known for creating content about the game. In a video on YouTube, Unsurpassable Z explained that they had come up with a list of a hundred different challenges that the teams would have to complete in the Cup. Each completed challenge is worth a varying number of points which Unsurpassable Z has calculated and assigned it based upon the difficulty. Each of the teams is set to compete compete simultaneously to rack up as many points as possible across the duration of the tournament.

Challenges in the Stardew Valley Cup range from completing tasks in the community center to reaching floor 100 in the Skull Cavern. Each of the teams has been granted a two-week period to view the challenge list and prepare their strategies accordingly. In addition to the task list already provided, Unsurpassable Z has said that there will be an additional five challenges added to the competition that teams won't know about in advance. With approximately $40,000 on the line, we imagine that the competitors will be revising possible contingency plans for the unknown tasks across the coming weeks.

With the immense popularity of the game, it's perhaps not surprising to see an official competitive tournament announced for Stardew Valley. Having been previously ported to Switch, mobile, and consoles, Stardew Valley will make its debut on Xbox Pass later this year whilst a Stardew Valley board game was released earlier this year.

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

A reboot of The Office is not actively in the works, but an NBCUniversal executive has suggested the studio is very open to the idea of returning to Dunder Mifflin.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International TV Festival, NBCU content chief Susan Rovner confirmed to Deadline that the studio had not yet ruled out a reboot of the Steve Carrell-fronted sitcom. Rovner initially refused to comment on plans for a reboot, but then revealed an interest in the project, saying, "whenever Greg Daniels wants to do one, we're standing by."

In other words, any potential reboot of The Office would need to go through executive producer Greg Daniels, who shepherded the U.S. adaptation of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's comedy to the small screen. Earlier this year, Daniels told Collider that he "would want to be involved" with any kind of reboot of the show but he was busy with other projects.

Despite ending in 2013 after a successful 9-season run, The Office found a resurgence of popularity when the series joined Netflix's library, where it reportedly became 2020's most-streamed TV series in the United States, with over 57 billion minutes watched ahead of its official departure from the platform on December 31.

NBCUniversal acquired the rights to the show for its streaming service Peacock, where Peacock unveiled a never-before-seen cold open for the show in which John Krasinski's Jim Halpert plays a prank on Rainn Wilson's Dwight, plus 23 extended episodes dubbed The Office: Superfan Episodes featuring longer runtimes and footage that was previously cut.

Peacock has also played host to themed playlists of episode clips geared around Jim's best Dwight pranks, Michael Scott's various words of wisdom and the series' most memorable romantic moments. The streamer also offered a special Office Zen channel, with a continuous stream of office-related ambient noise designed to make the workday go a little bit faster.

NBCUniversal's Peacock service launched in July 2020, though The Office didn't join the platform until January of this year. Now fans can clock in to see Carrell, Krasinski and Wilson, together with co-stars Jenna Fischer, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, BJ Novak, Amy Ryan, Craig Robinson, Ellie Kemper and James Spader back together again in the workplace sitcom.

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

Dune hasn't even hit theaters yet, and Denis Villeneuve is already thinking about how the movie could potentially evolve into a trilogy.

According to Collider, Villeneuve discussed his plans for Dune and the sequels it could spawn during an interview with CBC Radio Canada. He explained that, while the first two movies are planned to cover the first novel in Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi series, a third movie could serve as an adaptation of Herbert's 1969 sequel novel Dune Messiah.

"There is Dune's second book, 'The Messiah of Dune,' which could make an extraordinary film," Villeneuve teased, sharing his ambitions for the Dune franchise beyond the first movie, which is due out in October. "I always saw that there could be a trilogy; after that, we'll see. It's years of work; I can't think of going further than that."

The first book in Herbert's Dune series is an incredibly dense and multi-layered story, with many rival factions and characters, set against the backdrop of a futuristic human civilization. The sprawling saga has been notoriously difficult for filmmakers to adapt for the big screen, which is one of the reasons behind Villeneuve's decision to split the story across two films.

The filmmaker has addressed some of the changes that had to be made for the movie, such as keeping one of the villains, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, in reserve for Part 2. "The book is so rich. There are so many fantastic details about the different cultures," he said. "In order to preserve and have the time to bring that to the screen, we had to make important choices."

Villeneuve recently shared his eagerness to work on Part 2, revealing that Zendaya's character Chani would emerge as the female protagonist of the adaptation's next installment. She would star alongside Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides who would remain the central focus of the sequel, in keeping with the scope of the roles set out in the original novel.

While Part 2 hasn't officially been greenlit yet, Villeneuve has already expressed optimism about getting to make the second part of his Dune movie. As it stands, Dune Part 1 is set to be simultaneously released in theaters and on HBO Max on October 22 following the movie's world premiere on September 3 at the Venice Film Festival.

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

A lifelong fan of The Simpsons: Hit and Run has taken to remaking the game in Unreal Engine 5 and Joe McGinn, the lead designer on the original title, is impressed by the feat.

Reuben Ward, an Unreal developer, has seen recent success on his YouTube channel after remaking games in Unreal Engine 5. Following a polished-up version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the developer's latest project features a shiny new remake of The Simpsons: Hit and Run.

In a comment on the YouTuber's video, lead designer on The Simpsons: Hit and Run, Joe McGinn said "Amazing what you accomplished! Really gives a taste of what a full modern remaster could be. Impressive work!" - high praise for a project that apparently only took the developer a week.

Ward began his remake of The Simpsons: Hit and Run with its in-game map of Springfield. After importing the map using a tool created by another developer, Ward took a number of inventive shortcuts to reskin the game's outdated textures. Using AI-led image resolution enhancement software and a bit of DIY photoshopping, he was able to reskin the entire map and give it a more modern feel. The YouTuber even added in a few stylized trees to give Hit and Run's "New" Springfield a bit of extra life.

After the map, Ward got to work on other elements of the level. As the game's initial playable character, Homer Simpson received a few tweaks in the remake. The developer worked on coding advanced animations for the character and also enabled a first-person mode - because, as Ward so adequately puts it, "Why the hell not?"

The developer also made upscaled changes to the game's UI, added missions and collectables, ripped audio from the original game for voice work on his characters, and enabled ray tracing. The whole package was then released by Ward as a playable demo. Unfortunately, however, the developer has since had to remove the demo over copyright concerns. Despite not being able to play Ward's modern take on this Simpsons classic, you can still watch the full video detailing the changes the developer made to the game over on the Reubs YouTube Channel.

With Simpsons Hit and Run nearing its twentieth anniversary, fan-made remakes might be the closest we get to a true modern remaster. We recently spoke to Simpsons writer Matt Selman who explained why we might not see a remake anytime soon. Selman explained that whilst he "would love to see a remastered version of [Simpsons Hit & Run]", it would be "a complicated corporate octopus to try to make that happen.”

Ward's Hit and Run remake isn't the only fan-made content to come out of Springfield this week. We recently wrote about a fan-made Simpsons' TV set that has been brought to life by way of a miniature 3D-printed replica. The miniature set acts as a working TV and plays the show's first eleven seasons at random.

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

Netflix has shared the first images of its upcoming live-action Cowboy Bebop series starring John Cho. As an added bonus, Netflix announced that the live-action series will debut on November 19.

In the first images revealed for the upcoming Cowboy Bebop series, the three main members of the Bebop crew are front-and-center. There’s John Cho as Spike Spiegel, a gun-toting, martial arts expert bounty hunter; Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black an ex-cop and Spike’s partner; and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine an erstwhile ally of the crew when she’s not off pulling off one of her own scores.

Check out the first-look images in the gallery below:

Also in the cast but not shown are Alex Hassell as Spike’s nemesis Vicious, and Elena Satine as Spike’s former lover Julia. No look, however, at Ed the Bebop’s resident hacker who the showrunners have confirmed will appear in the live-action series. But so far no casting has been announced for the role.

The first images, which you can see in the gallery above, are all very Bebop-y for sure. Cho is rocking Spike’s classic blue and yellow outfit, while Jet’s metal prosthetics are in full view. Faye has just the slightest bit of a wardrobe update where it seems like she’s just wearing the jacket she always has around her elbows. And if you peak closely you can see Ein the Corgi.

This is the cast since earlier this year when Netflix announced that original composer Yoko Kanno will return to make original music for the live-action series.

Based on the casting announcements so far, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop series will be adapting episodes from the original anime. Though we won’t know how closely these adaptations will adhere to the anime until the live-action series premieres in November.

Cowboy Bebop isn’t the only anime Netflix is adapting for live-action. Along with Cowboy Bebop, Netflix is also working on a live-action adaptation of One Piece. And though not technically an anime, Netflix also revealed the live-action cast for its upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

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

The Simpsons' TV set has been brought to life by way of a miniature 3D-printed replica, which imitates the titular family's animated version.

A Twitter user brought the classic Simpsons screen to the screens of our many devices this morning by sharing a Reddit post that details the inner workings of the incredible replica, designed and printed by u/buba447. The accompanying video demonstrates the capabilities of the TV set, which "plays the first 11 seasons at random," and has working knobs too.

A Redditor has 3D printed a working replica of the Simpsons’ TV set.

It plays the first 11 seasons at random. The knobs work too!

“Inside is a raspberry pi zero with a 32gb and card. The Pi is connected to a 640x480 tft display. The Pi is running Jessie Lite” pic.twitter.com/LSAJbrygD5

— Jackie✨ (@hackingbutlegal) August 23, 2021

The creator revealed that the TV itself and all of its parts were designed in Fusion 360 and then printed on an Ender 3 Pro. "Inside is a raspberry pi zero with a 32gb and card. The pi is connected to a 640x480 tft display," the Redditor explained, sharing more information about the tech inside the 3D-printed model. "The pi is running Jessie Lite."

"The episodes were all compressed specifically for the screen and loaded onto the SD card," they added in the post, which has received more than 80,000 upvotes. "When the Pi is powered up, through the USB port on the back of the tv, it starts playing episodes at random. When [an] episode ends the next is randomly selected."

The video shows the TV functioning, with the top knob turning the screen on and off while also muting the volume, and the turning of the bottom knob to raise and lower the volume on the episode as it plays on-screen. The creator explained that the first button has been wired up to GPIO while the second is a POT that is connected to a speaker inside the model.

If you don't have a replica of The Simpsons TV set, then you may have to opt for a more traditional way to watch episodes of the long-running animated series. Fox has already renewed The Simpsons for seasons 33 and 34, ensuring the series will remain on the air until at least 2023 with lots of new episodes, including one with "wall-to-wall music."

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