Anthem turned one year old this weekend but, despite the milestone, developer BioWare held no in-game celebration, nor recognised the date on the BioWare or Anthem Twitter feeds. While the developer may have decided to not celebrate the game’s birthday, Anthem fans took to Reddit to cheer it on. Anthem turned one year old on February 22. As perhaps a sign as to the game’s current state, Christmas decorations from the Icetide event still litter the Fort Tarsis social hub, and snow still falls gently from the sky. These were not replaced with birthday or anniversary elements to mark Anthem’s 12 months of being live, unlike what many other MMOs or shared-world games typically do. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/10/anthem-getting-major-overhaul"] While there seemed to be no movement in-game to recognise the anniversary, the Anthem Reddit hub had several posts celebrating the day. “Thank you guys for this amazing experience and I hope nothing but the best for the game’s future,” said user Velocity_Prime in a celebratory post. “You guys made a game that has an amazing and highly supportive community so know that you’ll always have at least a few gamers on your side!” Others posted significant gameplay moments and montages showing off the game at its best, with Javelins flipping and flying among Anthem’s beautiful world. One fan shared their favourite character build, while a few others discussed their memories and experiences, which naturally opened up both positive and negative comments. Bioware’s lack of attention to this anniversary may be due to the developer putting all its attention towards a major Anthem rework. The studio recently announced that it is focusing on “a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop”. This will hopefully turn around the game’s fate and help it find new players. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-bioware-game-review&captions=true"] When it launched, our Anthem review found the game barebones and repetitive, meaning it failed to offer any compelling reason to become invested. While it’s nice to see a small community of players have stuck with Anthem, hopefully BioWare’s plans for the future will make the co-op RPG an easier sell and make that community much larger. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Jens Nygaard Knudsen, who created the iconic LEGO Minifigure, has died at the age of 78, his former colleague told AFP. In speaking to the news agency, veteran LEGO designer Niels Milan Pedersen confirmed that Knudsen passed away on February 19 after spending a week in hospice care due to complications with his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

We're very sad to hear that Jens Nygaard Knudsen, the creator of the LEGO Minifigure, has passed away. Thank you Jens, for your ideas, imagination, and inspiring generations of builders pic.twitter.com/7YixYvHtRW

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) February 24, 2020

"It is with great sorrow and dismay that I must announce that an amazing man, the best colleague of many years, an unforgettable friend, the most loving husband, father, father in law and grandfather: Jens Nygaard Knudsen has passed away on 19th February 2020," Pedersen said in a statement, per Brick Fanatics. "Among all those who have worked for, built with, and generally known and loved LEGO over the years Jens should be known and remembered as one of the most important designers ever. He was the man who created the LEGO Minifigure, he was behind all the classic themes: Space, Pirates, Castle, Trains and countless more besides. He was a leader and an inspired builder. "Few have ever had as much imagination and creative power as he and no one who has got to know, or simply met Jens will be able to forget his amazing, lovely and positive personality. LEGO fans around the world should know that perhaps the most important ever creator of the LEGO Universe is no more. Honour his memory. His equal no longer exists." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/06/30/where-do-lego-minifigures-come-from"]

A Look Back at the Life of Jens Nygaard Knudsen

Knudsen was a set designer for The LEGO Group from 1968 to 2000. He was reportedly hired by the Danish toy brick maker after responding to a job advertisement for a model builder, which appeared in the local newspaper. During his years in service, he was tasked with building hundreds of small LEGO Town cars and basic sets, along with larger sets that incorporated several of his innovative ideas, including the Fire Station and Police Station.

The LEGO Minifigure

Knudsen designed the concept of the LEGO Minifigure in the 1970s. He created multiple prototypes before settling on the now legendary Minifigure design, with its interchangeable body parts, which allows the user to assemble the head, upper body and lower body, according to each individual's personal preference. The Minifigures were released in 1978 and have proven to be a huge success, collected by both adults and children worldwide.

A Tribute to Jens Nygaard Knudsen

Matthew Ashton, vice president of design at LEGO, expressed his condolences on social media, tweeting, "While I never met Jens,  what he created played such a huge part of my childhood as well as for many other millions of kids around the world. "Without him, I would have never been inspired to do the things I do today, without him I wouldn’t even have my job today! What an amazing man, and what an incredible legacy he leaves behind." In conclusion, Ashton vowed to "protect, care and nurture" Knudsen's little piece of toy history for as long as his LEGO career lasts. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Rob McElhenney has explained why the animated Minecraft movie he was going to direct ended up not going ahead.

McElhenney, known for playing Mac in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, was lined up to direct Minecraft: The Movie based on a script he co-wrote. It was going to star Steve Carrell and was due to be released in May 2019, but he dropped out in August 2018 with no proper explanation given as to why.

Now McElhenney has revealed his side of the story on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "I'm comfortable talking about it, because f**k them, at this point," McElhenney began.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/16/minecraft-movie-gets-2022-release-date"]

At first, he explains that he loved playing Minecraft with his kids, and got the idea to turn it into a movie after The Lego Movie came out in 2014. "I thought one of the greatest assets of Minecraft is that it didn't have a fixed narrative, that it was an open-world experience," McElhenney said. "And that all you were essentially given were the building blocks to do what you want."

After spending some time at Pixar to refine his pitch, McElhenney went to Warner Bros and met with Greg Silverman, who ended up giving him a budget of $150 million to make Minecraft: The Movie. McElhenney said the theme of his movie pitch was, "people taking agency over their own experience in this digital landscape."

Unfortunately, Silverman left Warner Bros. in 2016 and was replaced by Toby Emmerich, just one month before production was due to begin. McElhenney said that's when his Minecraft movie fell apart. "Toby [Emmerich] who runs the studio there - I dunno if he still runs the studio there - he was actually really gracious. He never actually said 'I don't believe in you' or 'you can't do this', it just slowly died on the vine."

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McElhenney said he doesn't "harbour any resentment," as he wasn't Emmerich's choice, and he had a different vision for Warner Bros. But he adds that "the thing that bummed me out was that it was two-and-a-half-years of my life, and I was a month away from moving to Vancouver to start prep. Steve [Carrell] was already locked in, his deal was done, we were making the movie."

McElhenney said he learned a valuable and important lesson, which is that these projects can fall apart at any time, which means "you just have to live in that mystery" when it does. "So you better really, really love the process, and I did enjoy the process, but I didn't love it enough to do it again," he said.

McElhenney has been able to work on and finish a project based on video games since then. Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is a show about the game industry made for Apple TV that McElhenney and his fellow Always Sunny star Charlie Day wrote together. It's already been renewed for a second season.

As to Minecraft: The Movie, it now has a new director in Peter Sollett, who previously worked on Raising Victor Vargas and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and who has written a whole new script for the adaptation. Minecraft: The Movie has a new release date of 2022.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

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

Rob McElhenney has explained why the animated Minecraft movie he was going to direct ended up not going ahead.

McElhenney, known for playing Mac in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, was lined up to direct Minecraft: The Movie based on a script he co-wrote. It was going to star Steve Carrell and was due to be released in May 2019, but he dropped out in August 2018 with no proper explanation given as to why.

Now McElhenney has revealed his side of the story on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "I'm comfortable talking about it, because f**k them, at this point," McElhenney began.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/16/minecraft-movie-gets-2022-release-date"]

At first, he explains that he loved playing Minecraft with his kids, and got the idea to turn it into a movie after The Lego Movie came out in 2014. "I thought one of the greatest assets of Minecraft is that it didn't have a fixed narrative, that it was an open-world experience," McElhenney said. "And that all you were essentially given were the building blocks to do what you want."

After spending some time at Pixar to refine his pitch, McElhenney went to Warner Bros and met with Greg Silverman, who ended up giving him a budget of $150 million to make Minecraft: The Movie. McElhenney said the theme of his movie pitch was, "people taking agency over their own experience in this digital landscape."

Unfortunately, Silverman left Warner Bros. in 2016 and was replaced by Toby Emmerich, just one month before production was due to begin. McElhenney said that's when his Minecraft movie fell apart. "Toby [Emmerich] who runs the studio there - I dunno if he still runs the studio there - he was actually really gracious. He never actually said 'I don't believe in you' or 'you can't do this', it just slowly died on the vine."

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=midseason-tv-2020-34-shows-we-cant-wait-to-watch&captions=true"]

McElhenney said he doesn't "harbour any resentment," as he wasn't Emmerich's choice, and he had a different vision for Warner Bros. But he adds that "the thing that bummed me out was that it was two-and-a-half-years of my life, and I was a month away from moving to Vancouver to start prep. Steve [Carrell] was already locked in, his deal was done, we were making the movie."

McElhenney said he learned a valuable and important lesson, which is that these projects can fall apart at any time, which means "you just have to live in that mystery" when it does. "So you better really, really love the process, and I did enjoy the process, but I didn't love it enough to do it again," he said.

McElhenney has been able to work on and finish a project based on video games since then. Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is a show about the game industry made for Apple TV that McElhenney and his fellow Always Sunny star Charlie Day wrote together. It's already been renewed for a second season.

As to Minecraft: The Movie, it now has a new director in Peter Sollett, who previously worked on Raising Victor Vargas and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and who has written a whole new script for the adaptation. Minecraft: The Movie has a new release date of 2022.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

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

If you buy Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One, you'll receive its eventual Xbox Series X version for free, thanks to Microsoft's new Smart Delivery feature. As part of a massive drop of new Xbox Series X details today, Microsoft announced Smart Delivery, which will give players both current and next-gen versions of cross-generation games for the price of a single purchase. This will be available on all Xbox Game Studios games, but Microsoft said any third-party developer could opt in - the Cyberpunk Twitter account duly obliged:

Gamers should never be forced to purchase the same game twice or pay for upgrades. Owners of #Cyberpunk2077 for Xbox One will receive the Xbox Series X upgrade for free when available. https://t.co/nfkfFLj85w

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 24, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 will be released on September 17 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, but no release date has been given for next-gen versions of the game. Last time we heard about it, we were being told to assume that it wouldn't be around the launch timeframes of the new consoles (likely to be around November), so you might be playing your Xbox One version for several months before you get that upgrade. It's a fairly monumental move from developer CD Projekt Red - imagine if Rockstar had promised GTA V buyers that their 360 version of the game would get them the Xbox One edition for free later on. It'll be very interesting to see if Sony adopts (or has already adopted) a similar policy. We asked CD Projekt Red if it would theoretically make the same move between PS4 and PS5, should it be available, but got a no-comment. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=100-new-cyberpunk-2077-screenshots-gangs-characters-and-playstyles-revealed&captions=true"] The Cyberpunk 2077 collector's edition is still available for preorder at Walmart in the US, so this is a great opportunity to pick it up and upgrade later for free. Cyperpunk 2077 now joins the growing list of Xbox Series X games, and you can see the full list of confirmed Xbox Series X games here. Of course, even those current-gen versions of the game feel far away after Cyberpunk was delayed, but we've got 7 similarly themed games to tide you over in the meantime. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

If you buy Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One, you'll receive its eventual Xbox Series X version for free, thanks to Microsoft's new Smart Delivery feature. As part of a massive drop of new Xbox Series X details today, Microsoft announced Smart Delivery, which will give players both versions of cross-gen games for the price of a single purchase. This will be available on all Xbox Game Studios games, but Microsoft said any third-party developer could opt in - the Cyberpunk Twitter account duly obliged:

Gamers should never be forced to purchase the same game twice or pay for upgrades. Owners of #Cyberpunk2077 for Xbox One will receive the Xbox Series X upgrade for free when available. https://t.co/nfkfFLj85w

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) February 24, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 will be released on 17 September for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, but no release date has been given for next-gen versions of the game. Last time we heard about it, we were being told to assume that it wouldn't be around the launch timeframes of the new consoles (likely to be around November), however, so you might be playing your Xbox One version for several months before you get that upgrade. It's a fairly monumental move from developer CD Projekt Red - imagine if Rockstar had promised GTA V buyers that their 360 version of the game would get them the Xbox One edition for free later on. It'll be very interesting to hear if Sony adopts a similar policy. We asked CD Projekt Red if it would theoretically make the same move between PS4 and PS5, should it be available, but got a no-comment. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=100-new-cyberpunk-2077-screenshots-gangs-characters-and-playstyles-revealed&captions=true"] The Cyberpunk 2077 collector's edition is still available for preorder at Walmart in the US, so this is a great opportunity to pick it up and upgrade later for free. Developing...

Xbox Series X will have 12 teraflops of GPU power, support backwards compatibility back to original Xbox games, include hardware accelerated raytracing, supports up to 120 frames per second, and supports quick resume for multiple games simultaneously. Those are just some of the technical specs of the new console listed by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an Xbox Newswire blogpost today. The post goes into detail on several key themes for Series X: power & speed, instant immersion and game compatibility. Much of what's being discussed has been touched on previously, but this is a more definitive, technical rundown of the console than in previous statements from Microsoft. On power and speed, Spencer points out the Series X's custom AMD processor, capable of 12 teraflops of GPU performance, which he says will result in higher framerates and larger worlds. Alongside that, variable rate shading support will allow developers to prioritise how effects are applied to their games, resulting in "more stable frame rates and higher resolution, with no impact on the final image quality." Spencer also says that hardware-accelerated DirectX raytracing will be a first for consoles. On instant immersion, Spencer points to the console's solid state drive (replacing the hard disc drives of previous Xbox consoles), which should improve load times. The console will also have a Quick Resume feature that allows you to re-enter suspended games with almost no wait times. Latency is seemingly being improved for both controllers and HDMI, and the console will support up to 120 frames per second. On game compatibility, Spencer promises that all Xbox One games – as well as 360 and original Xbox games already supported by Xbox One – will work on Series X, and will benefit from the better hardware, with no developer work required. Spencer also announced Smart Delivery, which will allow games to be bought once and work across all compatible consoles, despite being technically different versions of the same game - this will apply to all Xbox Game Studios titles, and developers can even apply it to games they release on Series X later than Xbox One. Xbox Game Pass will continue to feature first party games at launch, and that includes Halo Infinite. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-console-power-levels-compared&captions=true"] This news seemingly confirms a past leak that said Series X would have 12 teraflops. That leak also said that the PS5 would reach 9.2 teraflops (although that latter point remains unconfirmed). It's a jump from existing platforms: PS4 Pro has 4.2 teraflops, Xbox One X has 6, and Google Stadia is capable of up to 10.7 (but that's tempered by your internet speed). Teraflops are a measure of trillions of Floating Pointing Operations Per Second (FLOPS). Essentially, this is a measure of how many complex calculations your machine can handle every second, allowing for more high-quality graphical output - in theory. This is just one measure of console power, however, and doesn't take into account storage speed, CPU power or RAM - essentially, teraflops are a useful way of indicating an element of console power, but not the be-all and end-all. If you want a more complex rundown on just what a teraflop is and how, er, floppy(?) previous console generations have been, IGN Executive tech Editor Bo Moore went into more detail in a recent episode of Next-Gen Console Watch: We still don't know how many terfalops the PlayStation 5 is packing, but you can see a full Xbox Series X vs. PlayStation 5 comparison chart that's continually updated with everything we know so far. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/07/next-gen-console-watch-how-powerful-ps5-xbox-series-x-may-be"] [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Xbox Series X will have 12 teraflops of GPU power, support backwards compatibility back to original Xbox games, include hardware accelerated raytracing, supports up to 120 frames per second, and supports quick resume for multiple games simultaneously. Those are just some of the technical details of the new console listed by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an Xbox Newswire blogpost today. The post goes into detail on several key themes for Series X: power & speed, instant immersion and game compatibility. Much of what's being discussed has been touched on previously, but this is a more definitive, technical rundown of the console than in previous statements from Microsoft. On power and speed, Spencer points out the Series X's custom AMD processor, capable of 12 teraflops of GPU performance, which he says will result in higher framerates and larger worlds. Alongside that, variable rate shading support will allow developers to prioritise how effects are applied to their games, resulting in "more stable frame rates and higher resolution, with no impact on the final image quality." Spencer also says that hardware-accelerated DirectX raytracing will be a first for consoles. On instant immersion, Spencer points to the console's solid state drive (replacing the hard disc drives of previous Xbox consoles), which should improve load times. The console will also have a Quick Resume feature that allows you to re-enter suspended games with almost no wait times. Latency is seemingly being improved for both controllers and HDMI, and the console will support up to 120 frames per second. On game compatibility, Spencer promises that all Xbox One games – as well as 360 and original Xbox games already supported by Xbox One – will work on Series X, and will benefit from the better hardware, with no developer work required. Spencer also announced Smart Delivery, which will allow games to be bought once and work across all compatible consoles, despite being technically different versions of the same game - this will apply to all Xbox Game Studios titles, and developers can even apply it to games they release on Series X later than Xbox One. Xbox Game Pass will continue to feature first party games at launch, and that includes Halo Infinite. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-console-power-levels-compared&captions=true"] This news seemingly confirms a past leak that said Series X would have 12 teraflops. That leak also said that the PS5 would reach 9.2 teraflops (although that latter point remains unconfirmed). It's a jump from existing platforms: PS4 Pro has 4.2 teraflops, Xbox One X has 6, and Google Stadia is capable of up to 10.7 (but that's tempered by your internet speed). Teraflops are a measure of trillions of Floating Pointing Operations Per Second (FLOPS). Essentially, this is a measure of how many complex calculations your machine can handle every second, allowing for more high-quality graphical output - in theory. This is just one measure of console power, however, and doesn't take into account storage speed, CPU power or RAM - essentially, teraflops are a useful way of indicating an element of console power, but not the be-all and end-all. If you want a more complex rundown on just what a teraflop is and how, er, floppy(?) previous console generations have been, IGN Executive tech Edtor Bo Moore went into more detail in a recent episode of Next-Gen Console Watch: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/07/next-gen-console-watch-how-powerful-ps5-xbox-series-x-may-be"] [poilib element="accentDivider"]

CD Projekt Red is now the second most valuable game developer in the whole of Europe. This has been confirmed recently after the studio's market valuation surpassed $8 billion (via Reddit).

Can you guess which is the number one studio in Europe in terms of market valuation? It's Ubisoft, which is currently sitting pretty at $9.52 billion. CD Projekt Red isn't all that far behind now, though.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/19/how-does-the-witcher-3-run-on-switch"]

It's tricky to be sure exactly why the value of any company goes up or down, but you can have a good guess, especially when it comes to CD Projekt Red. For starters, the number of people playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt soared after the Netflix series launched.

This would suggest that sales of the game also got a boost, and that seems to be the case, given that CD Projekt Red recently announced that the game has made $50 million in revenue through Steam alone since October 2018.  That number is significant as it's the threshold at which Valve's cut from a Steam game's revenue goes from 30% to 20%, meaning that CD Projekt Red make a bit more dosh from every sale of The Witcher 3 on Steam than before.

The Witcher 3 also released on Nintendo Switch recently and has probably been selling well on that platform, too. It's been made more appealing recently due to getting an update that improves the graphics as well as support for cross-saves with the PC version of the game.

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CD Projekt also has Cyberpunk 2077 on the way this year after being pushed back to September. Anticipation for the Polish studio's take on yet another popular franchise is likely also helping with the studio's current market valuation.

If that months-long wait is proving difficult for you, it's worth checking out these cyberpunk games in the meantime, as they provide plenty of future-tech dystopia between them.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

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

CD Projekt Red is now the second most valuable game developer in the whole of Europe. This has been confirmed recently after the studio's market valuation surpassed $8 billion (via Reddit).

Can you guess which is the number one studio in Europe in terms of market valuation? It's Ubisoft, which is currently sitting pretty at $9.52 billion. CD Projekt Red isn't all that far behind now, though.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/19/how-does-the-witcher-3-run-on-switch"]

It's tricky to be sure exactly why the value of any company goes up or down, but you can have a good guess, especially when it comes to CD Projekt Red. For starters, the number of people playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt soared after the Netflix series launched.

This would suggest that sales of the game also got a boost, and that seems to be the case, given that CD Projekt Red recently announced that the game has made $50 million in revenue through Steam alone since October 2018.  That number is significant as it's the threshold at which Valve's cut from a Steam game's revenue goes from 30% to 20%, meaning that CD Projekt Red make a bit more dosh from every sale of The Witcher 3 on Steam than before.

The Witcher 3 also released on Nintendo Switch recently and has probably been selling well on that platform, too. It's been made more appealing recently due to getting an update that improves the graphics as well as support for cross-saves with the PC version of the game.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=7-cyberpunk-games-to-play-while-youre-waiting-for-cyberpunk-2077&captions=true"]

CD Projekt also has Cyberpunk 2077 on the way this year after being pushed back to September. Anticipation for the Polish studio's take on yet another popular franchise is likely also helping with the studio's current market valuation.

If that months-long wait is proving difficult for you, it's worth checking out these cyberpunk games in the meantime, as they provide plenty of future-tech dystopia between them.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

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