Dead or Alive 6 recently added the option to change a character's hair colour on PS4, but it costs money each time to do so. Players must purchase a Premium Ticket in order to pick a new hair colour for their fighter. However, purchasing a new hair colour doesn't unlock it forever, as it also costs a Premium Ticket to revert hair back to a previous colour.

The Premium Tickets can only be purchased at a minimum of two, which costs $1.99. They can also be bought as a bundle of 10 at $9.99, or you can get a discount if you purchase them in larger quantities - specifically 20 at $19.99, or 50 at $44.99. That means to change a character's hair even once it costs at least $1.99.

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The new hair colours were added to the PS4 version of Dead or Alive 6 on February 25 with the v1.20 update. Part of this update removed the limit on the maximum number of Premium Tickets that can be purchased - previously it was set at the number of Tickets needed to purchase all the game's costumes.

The FAQ also reveals that "hair color change data is stored in the save data and any hair color changes you have purchased will be reset if you clear your save data." So if you lose your Dead or Alive 6 save then your characters' hair colours will return to their defaults and you'll have to buy each hair colour again.

The price of changing a Dead or Alive 6 character's hair colour has not gone down well with some of the game's fans.

Dead Or Alive 6. Long story short the new hair colours are one dollar each, you can revert them back to the original hair colour for 10,000 in game currency; But if you do that then you have to re-spend a dollar to buy the same hair colour because you did not own it. Bullshit!

— LionHeart100 (@Androktasai) February 25, 2020

Dead or alive 6 is just in a terrible place atm with all the micro transactions

— #IMtrash@COD (@CombatxxWombat) March 1, 2020

Thought about buying Dead Or Alive 6 since I used to love playing the games back on the Xbox and PS2 era of consoles. But seeing Ninja Theory charge just to change a characters hair color in the game is shameful. I can change the hair color of my character in most AC games. Lol

— Josh Bieker (@BiekerJosh) March 2, 2020

Some fans thought that the being charged each time to change hair colour may have been a mistake on the developer's part. But Dead or Alive community forum Free Step Dodge reached out to developer Team Ninja and reports that a representative got back to confirm that it's intentional design.

The v1.20 update also came with new DLC costumes that are available on the PC and Xbox versions of the game too. Some of those costumes are mashups with the characters of Gust, one of Tecmo Koei's game developer studios, mostly known for its Atelier and Ar tonelico series.

Those new DLC costumes are sold separately or as a pack that costs $39.99 / £32.99. The costumes are also included in the Season 4 pass, along with other DLC released between January and March 2020, and that costs $89.99 / £73.99.

This new DLC adds to the long list of DLC that is now available to purchase for Dead or Alive 6, which at its smallest cost when bought on Steam as season passes totals to about $343 / £280. If you were to buy each DLC individually, and therefore at the highest cost, you're looking at a grand total of around $900 / £776. It's worth noting that the Dead or Alive 6 base game costs $59.99 / £54.99.

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In comparison, Tekken 7 offers season passes at $24.99 / £19.99 while all of its DLC sold individually costs about $94 / £77. Street Fighter V sells character passes at $9.99 / £7.99 except its fourth and most recent one which costs $19.99 / £15.99. Mortal Kombat 11 offers a Kombat Pack with new characters and extras for $39.99 / £32.99, and sells individual characters for $5.99 / £4.99, with a max cost of $78 / £65.

We gave Dead or Alive 6 a 7.7 in our review when it came out a year ago, saying that it "proves there's plenty of depth to this fighter beneath its skimpy outfits, but its story mode is disjointed and its multiplayer features are currently bare." Team Ninja is currently getting ready to launch its next game, Nioh 2, on March 13, 2020.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake features Red XIII, but the beloved character will not be playable in the first game in the remake series. Talking to VG247, Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi said "We felt the point at which Red XIII joins the party in the story is very late on so we thought okay, if we’re gonna have him as a full character and try and get the player to enjoy his character development arc and growth as a character through that, it’s not really enough time to do that." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/02/final-fantasy-7-remake-full-chapter-1-gameplay"] Instead of being a playable character, Red XIII will instead be an AI-controlled 'guest' party member, fighting alongside your playable team. "We thought that the best way to have him involved was as a guest character," Hamaguchi explained. "Normally throughout the game you’ll be playing as a three-man party, but you will have him as a guest character that fights alongside you during the the last part of the story.” Hamaguchi reassures that the talking wolf/dog/flame-tailed canine will still be equipped with all his "nostalgic" moves, so it seems sensible to expect a bit of Sled Fang action in the Shinra building towards the end of the game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Not explained in the interview is if Red XIII is confirmed to be playable in the second game in the remake series. Square Enix is not talking about the next game in general, though, so this isn't necessarily a sign of anything. For more from Final Fantasy 7 Remake, check out our latest hands-on preview, as well as a close look at one of the biggest changes revealed so far, and our discussion with producer Yoshinori Kitase about Sephiroth's expanded role in Midgar. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake producer, Yoshinori Kitase, has explained why Sephiroth features in the game, despite the character not being present in the section of the original game that the new project recreates. Remake only covers the Midgar section of the original story. The opening hours of the 1997 original holds back the reveal of the game’s big bad, Sephiroth, instead opting to just hint at his existence with snippets of dialogue. But for Remake, Square Enix did not feel the need to be so cryptic. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Talking to IGN at a Final Fantasy 7 Remake hands-on event, Kitase - who also directed the original game - said: “In the original players had no prior knowledge of that world or many of its characters, so I really wanted to build Sephiroth up as this really major threat. You don't see him, you see the after effects of what he's done. You hear rumors about him to build up the fear of this massive evil presence without actually seeing it. “Obviously nowadays, of course, everyone knows who Sephiroth is, so I thought we didn't really need to go quite as far to hold him back and to hide so much,” he explained. “Looking at the the remake overall, it's clear that Sephiroth is going to be this massive presence overarching throughout the whole of the story, and this rival of Cloud’s throughout the whole story,” he added. “So I really felt I want to include that in this first game in the project, to really have that feeling of him as a really clear presence right from the start.” Sephiroth can be seen in many of the Remake’s trailers, sometimes even clashing blades with Cloud. It’s unclear from this footage if Sephiroth is actually present in these sequences, or if it’s just a figment of Cloud’s imagination, but no doubt veterans of the original game will be able to come to their own conclusions about this. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/31/final-fantasy-7-remake-theme-song-trailer"] In regards to “everyone” knowing who Sephiroth is, this is actually one of the reasons Square Enix opted to remake Final Fantasy 7. “There's a lot of people who may not have played the original Final Fantasy 7, but who know the characters,” Kitase said. “They have come to love the lore and the story of the characters, but never really saw their origins. And when these people will come to say ‘Okay, I want to play, I want to see what the start of story was’, the only game available to them was the original Final Fantasy 7 with PlayStation 1 generation graphics. So I felt that I really wanted these people to be able to experience that story with this more modern, more realistic style of Cloud and Sephiroth.” More graphically advanced titles such as Crisis Core, Kingdom Hearts, and the Final Fantasy 7 movie Advent Children helped more realistic depictions of characters such as Sephiroth permeate pop culture. It’s easy to understand how after seeing those interpretations, for some the blocky polygons of the 1997 original may have been a difficult sell. For more, check out our latest preview of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, as well as our breakdown of one of the new game’s biggest changes from the 1997 original we’ve seen so far. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a faithful retelling of the original story, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t big changes. In a new hands-on preview, it has been revealed that the Sector 5 Reactor - the second target of the Avalanche freedom fighters group - has been substantially reworked in a couple of key ways. As you’d expect of the remake, the area is notably larger and more detailed, with wider spaces to allow for the action-focused combat to unfold. The core journey through the reactor remains the same as in the 1997 original game; Cloud, Tifa, and Barret must place the bomb, use a simultaneous button switch to unlock the gates, and then fight the Airbuster boss battle. But the route through the reactor to this techno soldier fight involves a new mechanic unseen in the original game. Spoiler warning: the following paragraphs reveal in detail how the contents of Sector 5 Reactor have changed. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] As the party enters the reactor, they discover that this is not just an electric power plant. It is also an assembly line for anti-armour robots known as Airbusters. Pretty much the first thing you see is a powered-down shell of one held in a docking clamp. After placing the bomb and setting a remote trigger, the party is confronted by huge holographic representations of both President Shinra and Heidegger, Shinra’s head of Public Safety. They threaten the team with the Airbuster, but cannot immediately deploy it due to the robot not yet having been assembled. Subsequent rooms contain the production line being used to manufacture the Airbuster, which introduces a new mechanic for the reactor. Components can be removed from the production line, which prevents them from being installed into the robot and thus allowing for a slightly easier fight. Removing components is done by plugging a keycard into a console. After defeating a room’s enemies, the card is easily found, but there is a catch: there are not enough keycards to deactivate every console. After the first room, which has one card and one station that can deactivate one of the Airbuster's three ‘M Units’ that provide Mako-fuelled attacks, the further two rooms each have one keycard, but two and three consoles each respectively. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/14/final-fantasy-7-opening-movie-comparison"] This setup forces players to make a decision about which element is removed. Available to deactivate are 3x M Units, 3x Big Bomber Shells (hugely damaging explosives), and 4x AI Programming Cores (which enable a stunlock ability). The options provided in each room means you’re unable to completely deactivate any one of these attacks, but allows you to focus on reducing abilities you know you struggle with. For instance, if you know you’re often tripped up by stuns, then you can spend the keycards on removing two of the AI Programming Cores. For more Final Fantasy 7 Remake, check out our big hands-on preview for extra details on the Airbuster fight, the party’s abilities, and summons. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a faithful retelling of the original story, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t big changes. In a new hands-on preview, it has been revealed that the Sector 5 Reactor - the second target of the Avalanche freedom fighters group - has been substantially reworked in a couple of key ways. As you’d expect of the remake, the area is notably larger and more detailed, with wider spaces to allow for the action-focused combat to unfold. The core journey through the reactor remains the same as in the 1997 original game; Cloud, Tifa, and Barret must place the bomb, use a simultaneous button switch to unlock the gates, and then fight the Airbuster boss battle. But the route through the reactor to this techno soldier fight involves a new mechanic unseen in the original game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Spoiler warning: the following paragraphs reveal in detail how the contents of Sector 5 Reactor have changed. [poilib element="accentDivider"] As the party enters the reactor, they discover that this is not just an electric power plant. It is also an assembly line for anti-armour robots known as Airbusters. Pretty much the first thing you see is a powered-down shell of one held in a docking clamp. After placing the bomb and setting a remote trigger, the party is confronted by huge holographic representations of both President Shinra and Heidegger, Shinra’s head of Public Safety. They threaten the team with the Airbuster, but cannot immediately deploy it due to the robot not yet having been assembled. Subsequent rooms contain the production line being used to manufacture the Airbuster, which introduces a new mechanic for the reactor. Components can be removed from the production line, which prevents them from being installed into the robot and thus allowing for a slightly easier fight. Removing components is done by plugging a keycard into a console. After defeating a room’s enemies, the card is easily found, but there is a catch: there are not enough keycards to deactivate every console. After the first room, which has one card and one station that can deactivate one of the Airbuster's three ‘M Units’ that provide Mako-fuelled attacks, the further two rooms each have one keycard, but two and three consoles each respectively. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/14/final-fantasy-7-opening-movie-comparison"] This setup forces players to make a decision about which element is removed. Available to deactivate are 3x M Units, 3x Big Bomber Shells (hugely damaging explosives), and 4x AI Programming Cores (which enable a stunlock ability). The options provided in each room means you’re unable to completely deactivate any one of these attacks, but allows you to focus on reducing abilities you know you struggle with. For instance, if you know you’re often tripped up by stuns, then you can spend the keycards on removing two of the AI Programming Cores. For more Final Fantasy 7 Remake, check out our big hands-on preview for extra details on the Airbuster fight, the party’s abilities, and summons. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

The playable demo for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake is now available to download from the PlayStation Store. The demo allows you to play the first chapter of the game that includes the iconic Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission and the Guard Scorpion battle (now known as the Scorpion Sentinel). Downloading the demo not only allows you to dive into the game and experience the FF7 remake over a month before release, but will also bag you a PlayStation theme that will unlock when the game launches. If you want to check out what's in the demo before you play, check out the full Mako Reactor 1 in the gameplay video below. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/02/final-fantasy-7-remake-full-chapter-1-gameplay"] It should be noted that any progress that you make in the demo won't be carried over to the full version upon release however. A demo for Final Fantasy 7 had previously been leaked back in February, which resulted in spoilers making their way across the internet. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Final Fantasy 7 Remake launches April 10 this year on PS4, and could come to additional platforms in 2021. It will feature new boss fights alongside remakes of the classic ones, as well as new characters. Many elements have been remixed, including the Sector 5 Reactor and how much of Sephiroth is shown. You can see everything we know about Final Fantasy 7 Remake right here, too, or read our latest hands-on preview. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

The playable demo for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake is now available to download from the PlayStation Store. The demo allows you to play the first chapter of the game that includes the iconic Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission. Any progress that you make in the demo won't be carried over to the full version upon release however. A demo for Final Fantasy 7 had previously been leaked back in February, which resulted in spoilers making their way across the internet. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Final Fantasy 7 Remake launches March 3 this year on PS4, and could come to additional platforms in 2021. It will feature new boss fights alongside remakes of the classic ones, as well as new characters. You can see everything we know about Final Fantasy 7 Remake right here, too.

Riot Games has officially revealed the title of its tactical shooter formerly known as Project A. Valorant is a 5v5, free-to-play shooter from the developers of League of Legends that is set launch in summer 2020. Valorant features a cast of characters known as agents who are from real-world cultures and locations, meaning it’s not tied to the lore of its League of Legends series. Set in a near-future Earth, characters will come from a wide range of locations and cultures. Each agent has a set of unique abilities, though the core gameplay is focused on tactical, team-based shooting. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=riot-games-fps-valorant&captions=true"] Riot Games executive producer Anna Donlon says that the shooter will “uphold the fundamental values of a competitive tactical shooter: precise shooting, lethal gunplay, and strategic execution.” Some examples Riot gives is how "a player with steady aim and a pistol will always beat an unsteady sniper." Time-to-kill is also low, meaning headshots are usually instant kills and rifle kills take 3-4 bullets. Recoil is said to be punishing. Two teams will work together and lock in as an agent for the entire duration of a round-based, attackers vs. defenders match. The team who wins a best-of-24-rounds match wins the game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/16/riot-games-project-a-announcement-trailer"] Riot says it has high-end performance in mind for Valorant and as such implemented dedicated 128-tick servers for global players, a custom-built netcode for precise hit registration, and proprietary anti-cheat prevention and detection.

Valorant PC Specs

Recommended Specs - 60fps

• CPU: Intel i3-4150
• GPU: Geforce GT730

High-end Specs - 144+fps

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz
• GPU: GTX 1050 Ti

Minimum Specs - 30fps

• CPU: Intel i3-370M
• GPU: Intel HD 3000

PC Hardware recommendations:

• Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
• 4GB RAM
• 1GB VRAM

  Valorant is the latest game from Riot, which spent the previous decade focusing primarily on a single game, the MOBA League of Legends. At its 10th anniversary, Riot announced a variety of new projects including the League of Legends card game Legends of Runeterra, a fighting game called Project L, and a mysterious social game called Project F. For everything Riot has in the pipeline, including a new animated TV series, check out IGN’s recap of Riot’s 10th-anniversary livestream. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Riot Games has officially revealed the title of its tactical shooter formerly known as Project A. Valorant is a 5v5, free-to-play shooter from the developers of League of Legends that is set launch in summer 2020. Valorant features a cast of characters known as agents who are from real-world cultures and locations, meaning it’s not tied to the lore of its League of Legends series. Set in a near-future Earth, characters will come from a wide range of locations and cultures. Each agent has a set of unique abilities, though the core gameplay is focused on tactical, team-based shooting. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=riot-games-fps-valorant&captions=true"] Riot Games executive producer Anna Donlon says that the shooter will “uphold the fundamental values of a competitive tactical shooter: precise shooting, lethal gunplay, and strategic execution.” Some examples Riot gives is how "a player with steady aim and a pistol will always beat an unsteady sniper." Time-to-kill is also low, meaning headshots are usually instant kills and rifle kills take 3-4 bullets. Recoil is said to be punishing. Two teams will work together and lock in as an agent for the entire duration of a round-based, attackers vs. defenders match. The team who wins a best-of-24-rounds match wins the game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/16/riot-games-project-a-announcement-trailer"] Riot says it has high-end performance in mind for Valorant and as such implemented dedicated 128-tick servers for global players, a custom-built netcode for precise hit registration, and proprietary anti-cheat prevention and detection.

Valorant PC Specs

Recommended Specs - 60fps

• CPU: Intel i3-4150
• GPU: Geforce GT730

High-end Specs - 144+fps

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz
• GPU: GTX 1050 Ti

Minimum Specs - 30fps

• CPU: Intel i3-370M
• GPU: Intel HD 3000

PC Hardware recommendations:

• Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
• 4GB RAM
• 1GB VRAM

  Valorant is the latest game from Riot, which spent the previous decade focusing primarily on a single game, the MOBA League of Legends. At its 10th anniversary, Riot announced a variety of new projects including the League of Legends card game Legends of Runeterra, a fighting game called Project L, and a mysterious social game called Project F. For everything Riot has in the pipeline, including a new animated TV series, check out IGN’s recap of Riot’s 10th-anniversary livestream. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Raphael van Lierop, the director of the popular survival game The Long Dark has a bone to pick with Nvidia’s GeForce Now game streaming service. In a post shared on Sunday, Lierop said that the studio had asked Nvidia to take The Long Dark off of their service, saying the graphics card and technology company did not ask for permission to host the game. The matter calls into question what rights a game company may have when a service like Nvidia’s GeForce Now aims to sell access to their product.

“Sorry to those who are disappointed you can no longer play #thelongdark on GeForce Now,” Lierop tweeted. “Nvidia didn't ask for our permission to put the game on the platform so we asked them to remove it. Please take your complaints to them, not us. Devs should control where their games exist.”

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/21/the-long-dark-episode-3-the-first-9-minutes"]

Lierop followed up his statement by saying that “[Nvidia] offered us a free graphics card as an apology, so maybe they'll offer you the same thing,” though it’s not entirely clear if he meant the comment in jest or was serious.

Nvidia GeForce Now is a game streaming service, much like Google Stadia or Microsoft’s Project xCloud, wherein customers stream games from a central cloud hub over wi-fi or a mobile connection. The trick with GeForce Now is that you can link your account to other services, such as Steam or the Epic Games Store, to prove that you already own a game. Depending on what level of membership you’re paying for (or not paying for), you may also have to wait a few minutes for an available PC rig to open up so you can play. Check our review of Nvidia GeForce Now for more details. There’s no one centralized page listing every game available on GeForce, but those interested in checking out the catalog (which Nvidia says includes “hundreds of games from more than 50 publishers) can use a search bar to see if a game they want pops up.

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When pushed on the subject of game ownership and why The Long Dark developers should have any say in the matter (since any GeForce user playing The Long Dark ostensibly already paid for the game), Lierop reiterated that Nvidia had never formally signed any deal with the developer Hinterland Studio.

“Because they sell this service based on access to a library of content,” Lierop said. “We have the choice whether to be in that library or not. Our distribution agreement is with Valve, not with Nvidia.”

After another Twitter user pushed Lierop on the same subject, he responded: “It's our content. We determine where it lives and where it does not.”

Funnily enough, this isn’t even the first time Nvidia has found itself being asked to remove a game from its service. Activision-Blizzard, the publisher of such massive properties as Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, and Hearthstone, pulled its games from GeForce after the service exited its beta last month. Nvidia blamed the incident on a misunderstanding between the two companies, and says it hopes to work with Activision-Blizzard to bring the games back to its service.

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Regardless, the string of incidents raises the question of just what legal rights and ethical guidelines game developers and publishers have when streaming services such as Nvidia GeForce Now hope to bolster their libraries with popular titles.

Business lawyer Richard Hoeg (of Hoeg Law and Virtual Legality) generally agrees with The Long Dark developer's position, saying that Nvidia should have asked for the consent of the developer.

"I think Nvidia thought that they could convince developers/publishers of the value proposition of participating in “Now” and that just hasn’t coalesced, particularly with big publishers that may have their own streaming solutions in the works," Hoeg told IGN, adding he'd be "very surprised" if Hinterland Studio somehow gave up distribution rights to their own game.

"As you know, a developer owns the copyright to their game, and they don’t lose the rights associated with that copyright when they license their game to a 'buyer,'" Hoeg continued. "And games are, in general, licensed and not sold, with terms related to that license applied to the 'buyer.' Most of these are known or otherwise non-controversial ('you won’t reverse engineer this product,' 'you won’t use it to post speech we find hateful.' But some are probably less well known. Most licenses are going to say (some version of) 'you have the right to play a single copy of the game on a personal computer/system in your control' and you can’t use your copy for “commercial access, use your copy to run an arcade, etc.' So in this case, the Long Dark folks (and probably Steam, GoG, Epic above that too) have similar language in their EULAs, and Nvidia probably should have gotten permission."

IGN has reached out to both Nvidia and Lierop for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply. We'll update this story accordingly.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer with IGN.