Joe Ziegler, who was part of the Valorant team for eight years and served as game director, has left his role to work on a new, secret project at Riot Games.

Ziegler shared the announcement on Valorant's website, saying that, "it is with a heart full of gratitude and a deep excitement that I come to you today with news."

"After 8 years of working on VALORANT, building it from the ground up with a team of dedicated and passionate developers who’ve worked tirelessly to serve you all with the respect and admiration that you deserve, I am giving up the mantle of game director of the VALORANT tac-shooter to my good friend, Andy Ho," Ziegler said.

Ho had the position of Senior Director, Game Direction since June 2017 and Ziegler promises that this transition will keep Valorant in great hands.

"Andy is someone who I am proud to say has put many years of his own into VALORANT, and whose personal dedication to deliver to the highest standards inspires all who work with him," Ziegler said. "He has my full faith and trust that he will continue to grow and evolve VALORANT year-over-year to become even better than what I could imagine it to be.

He then gave a bit of a tease as to what he will be working on next - a new, secret project at Riot Games.

"As for me, I’ll be starting something new (*wink, secrets…) in the hopes that we can even scratch the surface of the amazing impact VALORANT has already had so far," Ziegler said.

We already know Riot Games is working on a fighting game called Project L, a League of Legends MMO, and a mysterious LoL social game called Project F. Ziegler's words could be taken as he is working on a new project, but it also could be related to one of these already announced ones.

While he may be leaving the Valorant team, he won't be far away and will always support the game he helped create.

"That said, I’ll not be far from the game and the team and they’ll always have my support," Ziegler concluded." Thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support VALORANT, and a special shout out to all who've supported me and my work. You’ve made my time as your game director a truly joyous and memorable experience. Much <3."

For more on Valorant, which was one of Twitch's most-watched games in 2021, be sure to check out seven Valorant Champions moments we think are neat, how Sentinels imploded at Valorant champions, and Riot devs reacting to unreal Valorant kills and fails.

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

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

Joe Ziegler, who was part of the Valorant team for eight years and served as game director, has left his role to work on a new, secret project at Riot Games.

Ziegler shared the announcement on Valorant's website, saying that, "it is with a heart full of gratitude and a deep excitement that I come to you today with news."

"After 8 years of working on VALORANT, building it from the ground up with a team of dedicated and passionate developers who’ve worked tirelessly to serve you all with the respect and admiration that you deserve, I am giving up the mantle of game director of the VALORANT tac-shooter to my good friend, Andy Ho," Ziegler said.

Ho had the position of Senior Director, Game Direction since June 2017 and Ziegler promises that this transition will keep Valorant in great hands.

"Andy is someone who I am proud to say has put many years of his own into VALORANT, and whose personal dedication to deliver to the highest standards inspires all who work with him," Ziegler said. "He has my full faith and trust that he will continue to grow and evolve VALORANT year-over-year to become even better than what I could imagine it to be.

He then gave a bit of a tease as to what he will be working on next - a new, secret project at Riot Games.

"As for me, I’ll be starting something new (*wink, secrets…) in the hopes that we can even scratch the surface of the amazing impact VALORANT has already had so far," Ziegler said.

We already know Riot Games is working on a fighting game called Project L, a League of Legends MMO, and a mysterious LoL social game called Project F. Ziegler's words could be taken as he is working on a new project, but it also could be related to one of these already announced ones.

While he may be leaving the Valorant team, he won't be far away and will always support the game he helped create.

"That said, I’ll not be far from the game and the team and they’ll always have my support," Ziegler concluded." Thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support VALORANT, and a special shout out to all who've supported me and my work. You’ve made my time as your game director a truly joyous and memorable experience. Much <3."

For more on Valorant, which was one of Twitch's most-watched games in 2021, be sure to check out seven Valorant Champions moments we think are neat, how Sentinels imploded at Valorant champions, and Riot devs reacting to unreal Valorant kills and fails.

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

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

The Nintendo Switch has been a wonderful home for Indie Games of all shapes and sizes, and 2021 was no different. In celebration of the year that was, Nintendo has shared which of these creative and special indie games were the best-selling on its latest console.

Nintendo shared this list of best-selling Indie Games as part of its latest Indie World video presentation, and there are some truly wonderful choices, including Spelunky 2, Unpacking, Axiom Verge 2, Cyber Shadow, Tetris Effect: Connected, and many more.

The games themselves are not ranked, so we don't know which of the 15 indie games sold the best, but it does give players around the world a glimpse as to what resonated the most with Switch owners in 2022.

The full list of the best-selling indie games of 2021 on Nintendo Switch are as follows;

• Axiom Verge 2
• Curse of the Dead Gods
• Cyber Shadow
• Doki Doki Literature Club
• Eastward
• Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
• Islanders: Console Edition
• Littlewood
• Road 96
• Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition
• Spelunky 2
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Subnautica + Subnautica: Below Zero
• Tetris Effect: Connected
• Unpacking

We already have an idea of some of the games that will be up for this honor in 2022, as December 2021's Indie World Showcase gave a preview of some of the experiences arriving on Switch next year, inclduing Sea of Stars, River City Girls, Omori, AfterLove EP, OlliOlli World, and more.

For more, feel free to check out 16 amazing indie games you may have missed from E3 2021, our awards for the best games of 2021, and what else you can expect from Nintendo in 2022.

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

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

The Nintendo Switch has been a wonderful home for Indie Games of all shapes and sizes, and 2021 was no different. In celebration of the year that was, Nintendo has shared which of these creative and special indie games were the best-selling on its latest console.

Nintendo shared this list of best-selling Indie Games as part of its latest Indie World video presentation, and there are some truly wonderful choices, including Spelunky 2, Unpacking, Axiom Verge 2, Cyber Shadow, Tetris Effect: Connected, and many more.

The games themselves are not ranked, so we don't know which of the 15 indie games sold the best, but it does give players around the world a glimpse as to what resonated the most with Switch owners in 2022.

The full list of the best-selling indie games of 2021 on Nintendo Switch are as follows;

• Axiom Verge 2
• Curse of the Dead Gods
• Cyber Shadow
• Doki Doki Literature Club
• Eastward
• Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
• Islanders: Console Edition
• Littlewood
• Road 96
• Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition
• Spelunky 2
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Subnautica + Subnautica: Below Zero
• Tetris Effect: Connected
• Unpacking

We already have an idea of some of the games that will be up for this honor in 2022, as December 2021's Indie World Showcase gave a preview of some of the experiences arriving on Switch next year, inclduing Sea of Stars, River City Girls, Omori, AfterLove EP, OlliOlli World, and more.

For more, feel free to check out 16 amazing indie games you may have missed from E3 2021, our awards for the best games of 2021, and what else you can expect from Nintendo in 2022.

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

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

Google has announced the biggest search trends on its platform this year, revealing the gaming, TV and movie searches that most interested users, among many other categories.

Revealed by Google Trends, each section shows off the top 10 search trends within a certain category, with some perhaps unexpected results. In gaming, for example, the top 10 looks more or less expected, aside from the number 1 spot, which went to meme clicker game PopCat.

Google's Biggest Gaming Searches 2021

1. PopCat
2. FIFA 22
3. Battlefield 2042
4. モンハン ライズ (Monster Hunter Rise)
5. Resident Evil Village
6. Genshin Impact
7. Call of Duty: Vanguard
8. Far Cry 6
9. Madden NFL 22
10. Metroid Dread

The movies category was a little more conventional, with three of the top 5 searches going to MCU movies. Curiously, Spider-Man: No Way Home (which saw one of the biggest movie openings of all time) doesn't appear, but that may be down to the fact that its name offers multiple ways to search for the same thing.

Google's Biggest Movie Searches 2021

1. Eternals
2. Black Widow
3. Dune
4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
5. Red Notice
6. Mortal Kombat
7. Cruella
8. Halloween Kills
9. Godzilla vs. Kong
10. Army of the Dead

As you might expect, the TV shows section is dominated by major streaming shows, with the top spot going to easily the most-discussed show of the year:

Google's Biggest TV Show Searches 2021

1. Squid Game
2. Bridgerton
3. WandaVision
4. Cobra Kai
5. Loki
6. Sweet Tooth
7. Lupin
8. Ginny and Georgia
9. True Beauty
10. BBB21

As for other categories, Alec Baldwin topped both the 'Actors' and 'People' categories after his involvement in the tragedy on the set of Rust, while rapper DMX topped the 'Passings' section after his death at the age of just 50.

Elsewhere, footballer Christian Eriksen topped 'Athletes' after his frightening collapse during the Euro 2020 tournament, Afghanistan was the most searched-for news term, and Olivia Rodrigo's 'Drivers License' was the biggest song of the year. And if you're looking for something to eat, the biggest food term on Google this year was 'birria tacos' – a filled taco dipped in stew – which became a major TikTok trend this year.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Google has announced the biggest search trends on its platform this year, revealing the gaming, TV and movie searches that most interested users, among many other categories.

Revealed by Google Trends, each section shows off the top 10 search trends within a certain category, with some perhaps unexpected results. In gaming, for example, the top 10 looks more or less expected, aside from the number 1 spot, which went to meme clicker game PopCat.

Google's Biggest Gaming Searches 2021

1. PopCat
2. FIFA 22
3. Battlefield 2042
4. モンハン ライズ (Monster Hunter Rise)
5. Resident Evil Village
6. Genshin Impact
7. Call of Duty: Vanguard
8. Far Cry 6
9. Madden NFL 22
10. Metroid Dread

The movies category was a little more conventional, with three of the top 5 searches going to MCU movies. Curiously, Spider-Man: No Way Home (which saw one of the biggest movie openings of all time) doesn't appear, but that may be down to the fact that its name offers multiple ways to search for the same thing.

Google's Biggest Movie Searches 2021

1. Eternals
2. Black Widow
3. Dune
4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
5. Red Notice
6. Mortal Kombat
7. Cruella
8. Halloween Kills
9. Godzilla vs. Kong
10. Army of the Dead

As you might expect, the TV shows section is dominated by major streaming shows, with the top spot going to easily the most-discussed show of the year:

Google's Biggest TV Show Searches 2021

1. Squid Game
2. Bridgerton
3. WandaVision
4. Cobra Kai
5. Loki
6. Sweet Tooth
7. Lupin
8. Ginny and Georgia
9. True Beauty
10. BBB21

As for other categories, Alec Baldwin topped both the 'Actors' and 'People' categories after his involvement in the tragedy on the set of Rust, while rapper DMX topped the 'Passings' section after his death at the age of just 50.

Elsewhere, footballer Christian Eriksen topped 'Athletes' after his frightening collapse during the Euro 2020 tournament, Afghanistan was the most searched-for news term, and Olivia Rodrigo's 'Drivers License' was the biggest song of the year. And if you're looking for something to eat, the biggest food term on Google this year was 'birria tacos' – a filled taco dipped in stew – which became a major TikTok trend this year.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) have announced today that it will conclude the tech conference a day early due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.

Originally slated to conclude on January 8, the event will now run from January 5 through January 7.

"The step was taken as an additional safety measure to the current health protocols that have been put in place for CES," the recent press release on CES' website notes.

Please note we will be closing CES 2022 one day early. Read below. https://t.co/gflyNYOCf3

— Karen Chupka (@KarenChupka) December 31, 2021

The announcement comes as no surprise due to the rise of COVID-19 cases and it follows the news that many large tech companies - including AMD, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Intel, and Meta (formerly Facebook) - have decided to forgo a physical appearance on the show floor entirely.

Those that plan to still attend CES 2022 next week will be required to be fully vaccinated with proof of vaccination status, as noted on the CES 2022 health protocols page.

Organizers of the event will also require masks to be worn indoors and while using any transportation services run by CES. Organizers will also have onsite COVID-19 testing and, while it is not required, they are recommending that attendees to take a test prior to attending the event.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) have announced today that it will conclude the tech conference a day early due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.

Originally slated to conclude on January 8, the event will now run from January 5 through January 7.

"The step was taken as an additional safety measure to the current health protocols that have been put in place for CES," the recent press release on CES' website notes.

Please note we will be closing CES 2022 one day early. Read below. https://t.co/gflyNYOCf3

— Karen Chupka (@KarenChupka) December 31, 2021

The announcement comes as no surprise due to the rise of COVID-19 cases and it follows the news that many large tech companies - including AMD, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Intel, and Meta (formerly Facebook) - have decided to forgo a physical appearance on the show floor entirely.

Those that plan to still attend CES 2022 next week will be required to be fully vaccinated with proof of vaccination status, as noted on the CES 2022 health protocols page.

Organizers of the event will also require masks to be worn indoors and while using any transportation services run by CES. Organizers will also have onsite COVID-19 testing and, while it is not required, they are recommending that attendees to take a test prior to attending the event.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Betty White, the beloved and trailblazing Emmy Award-winning actress of The Golden Girls and so much more, has died at the age of 99.

"Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever," White's agent and close friend Jeff Witjas told Variety in a statement. "I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again."

White was getting ready to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022, and she recently spoke to People about how she was feeling as she approached that milestone.

"I'm so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age," White said. "It's amazing."

White also discussed more about her life and how her "upbeat nature" was due to the fact that she was "born a cockeyed optimist."

"I got it from my mom, and that never changed," White said. "I always find the positive."

As for her diet, which is always on the top of people's minds as they plan out their New Year's resolutions, she laughed and said, "I try to avoid anything green. I think it's working."

White was born on January 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Ilinois, and was the only child of Christine Tess and Horace Logan White. She and her family moved to California when she was one and she went to school at the Beverly Hills Unified School District until she graduated in 1939.

White, alongside her acting, is known for her love of animals and nature, and that passion for wildlife began during family vacations to the Sierra Nevada. She had initially dreamed of becoming a park ranger, but women were not allowed to have that position at the time, so she instead began a career in writing and then acting.

Her first performance was part of the Bliss Hayden Little Theater and she also had a few radio appearances on such shows as Blondie, This Is Your FBI, and The Great Gildersleeve. In 1945, she made her on-screen debut in the 1945 educational short "Time to Kill," which was created to promote the benefits of the G.I. Bill.

In 1953, White secured her first sitcom job with Life With Elizabeth, and would continue on with other projects, including the daytime talkshow The Betty White Show, A Date With Angels, and a series of gameshows like To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret, Match Game, and Password.

Speaking of Password, she had worked with that show's host Alan Ludden and the two became romantically involved in 1962. They would marry a year later and would be happily wed until Ludden passed away from stomach cancer in 1981. While they had no kids together, White was the stepmother to Ludden's three children from a previous marriage.

Ludden wasn't White's first husband, as she first had two brief marriages with Frederick Barker (1945) and Lane Allen (1947-1949) earlier in her life. Allen had wanted her to "stop show business," but that was something she could just not do.

In 1971, she was able to leverage her career in acting and love of animals with the talkshow called The Pet Set. This show was all about celebrities and her pets and would be just one of the many ways over her career that she celebrated wildlife.

White was a friend with Mary Tyler Moore and, while the character of Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was made with White in mind, the role was initially offered to other actresses. Some thought that her frequent appearances on gameshows caused some to overlook her for traditional acting jobs.

Thankfully, for us and the show's producers, White took on the role and quickly became a favorite and would go on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards as a supporting actress in 1974 and 1975.

After The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended its run, she would take on a variety of roles in other shows until it was time to become Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls.

White was originally considered for the role of Blanche Devereaux while Rue McClanahan was thought to be a fit for Rose, but they would switch characters at the last minute. White and McClanahan had worked together previously on Mama's Family, and the two of them would work with Beatrice Arthur (Dorothy Zbornak) and Estelle Getty (Sophia Petrillo) for seven seasons on the show that would go on to win 11 Emmy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, and so much more. White herself earned two more Emmys during her time as Rose.

The Golden Girls ended in 1992, but White had so much more of her career in front of her. She would star in The Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace, Bob Newhart's series Bob, St. Elsewhere, Lake Placid, Ugly Betty, The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Bold and the Beautiful, That '70s Show, Saturday Night Live, The Proposal, Hot in Cleveland, and so much more.

Throughout her legendary career, White paved the way - in front and behind the cameras - for other women to rise to stardom. She also made the decision to hire an African American performer by the name of Arthur Duncan for The Betty White Show in 1954, which was a controversial choice for many. She would not be deterred, even when pressured by viewers to remove him from the show, saying, "I'm sorry. Live with it."

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

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

Betty White, the beloved and trailblazing Emmy Award-winning actress of The Golden Girls and so much more, has died at the age of 99.

"Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever," White's agent and close friend Jeff Witjas told Variety in a statement. "I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again."

White was getting ready to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022, and she recently spoke to People about how she was feeling as she approached that milestone.

"I'm so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age," White said. "It's amazing."

White also discussed more about her life and how her "upbeat nature" was due to the fact that she was "born a cockeyed optimist."

"I got it from my mom, and that never changed," White said. "I always find the positive."

As for her diet, which is always on the top of people's minds as they plan out their New Year's resolutions, she laughed and said, "I try to avoid anything green. I think it's working."

White was born on January 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Ilinois, and was the only child of Christine Tess and Horace Logan White. She and her family moved to California when she was one and she went to school at the Beverly Hills Unified School District until she graduated in 1939.

White, alongside her acting, is known for her love of animals and nature, and that passion for wildlife began during family vacations to the Sierra Nevada. She had initially dreamed of becoming a park ranger, but women were not allowed to have that position at the time, so she instead began a career in writing and then acting.

Her first performance was part of the Bliss Hayden Little Theater and she also had a few radio appearances on such shows as Blondie, This Is Your FBI, and The Great Gildersleeve. In 1945, she made her on-screen debut in the 1945 educational short "Time to Kill," which was created to promote the benefits of the G.I. Bill.

In 1953, White secured her first sitcom job with Life With Elizabeth, and would continue on with other projects, including the daytime talkshow The Betty White Show, A Date With Angels, and a series of gameshows like To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret, Match Game, and Password.

Speaking of Password, she had worked with that show's host Alan Ludden and the two became romantically involved in 1962. They would marry a year later and would be happily wed until Ludden passed away from stomach cancer in 1981. While they had no kids together, White was the stepmother to Ludden's three children from a previous marriage.

Ludden wasn't White's first husband, as she first had two brief marriages with Frederick Barker (1945) and Lane Allen (1947-1949) earlier in her life. Allen had wanted her to "stop show business," but that was something she could just not do.

In 1971, she was able to leverage her career in acting and love of animals with the talkshow called The Pet Set. This show was all about celebrities and her pets and would be just one of the many ways over her career that she celebrated wildlife.

White was a friend with Mary Tyler Moore and, while the character of Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was made with White in mind, the role was initially offered to other actresses. Some thought that her frequent appearances on gameshows caused some to overlook her for traditional acting jobs.

Thankfully, for us and the show's producers, White took on the role and quickly became a favorite and would go on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards as a supporting actress in 1974 and 1975.

After The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended its run, she would take on a variety of roles in other shows until it was time to become Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls.

White was originally considered for the role of Blanche Devereaux while Rue McClanahan was thought to be a fit for Rose, but they would switch characters at the last minute. White and McClanahan had worked together previously on Mama's Family, and the two of them would work with Beatrice Arthur (Dorothy Zbornak) and Estelle Getty (Sophia Petrillo) for seven seasons on the show that would go on to win 11 Emmy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, and so much more. White herself earned two more Emmys during her time as Rose.

The Golden Girls ended in 1992, but White had so much more of her career in front of her. She would star in The Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace, Bob Newhart's series Bob, St. Elsewhere, Lake Placid, Ugly Betty, The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Bold and the Beautiful, That '70s Show, Saturday Night Live, The Proposal, Hot in Cleveland, and so much more.

Throughout her legendary career, White paved the way - in front and behind the cameras - for other women to rise to stardom. She also made the decision to hire an African American performer by the name of Arthur Duncan for The Betty White Show in 1954, which was a controversial choice for many. She would not be deterred, even when pressured by viewers to remove him from the show, saying, "I'm sorry. Live with it."

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

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