Tribeca Games, which operates within the yearly Tribeca Film Festival, has announced an expansion to its efforts, including a new advisory board featuring big names from both video games and film like Hideo Kojima, Jon Favreau, and more. The Tribeca Film Festival will expand its gaming footprint with the 2021 show, including the first-ever Tribeca Games Award and the first-ever gaming Official Selections for the Tribeca Film Festival. The new advisory board includes: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/09/death-stranding-the-story-of-kojima-productions-video"]

• Nia DaCosta, director of the upcoming Candyman

• Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man, The Lion King, and more

• Bing Gordon, EA co-founder

• Geoff Keighley, The Game Awards producer

• Hideo Kojima, Kojima Productions head, creator of Death Stranding

• Sam Lake, creative director of Control studio Remedy Games

• Kiki Wolfkill, head of Halo Transmedia & Entertainment

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/10/why-control-is-igns-game-of-the-year-for-2019"] The board will help shape Tribeca Games going forward, and its formation comes on the 10th anniversary of the TFF first featuring games in the festival with the inclusion of L.A. Noire as the first game to be designated as an Official Selection. Submissions for the Tribeca Games Award are now open, with three deadlines to submit. Games eligible include games developed for "web, console, virtual reality, augmented reality and mobile devices." TFF will make more announcements about panels and conversations planned for the show in 2021. Past years have included Hideo Kojima appearing to discuss Death Stranding, as well as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and God of War demos and panels. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-game-of-the-year-winner&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, and host of Podcast Beyond! Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Nier: Replicant ver. 1.22474487139 – an upgraded version of the 2010 Japanese RPG – will be released in Europe and North America for PS4, Xbox One and PC via Steam on April 23, 2021. Announced during Tokyo Game Show, the... taxingly titled remaster also saw a gameplay demo, showing off combat and exploration in the game's updated world. The game will be released in western territories with new cover art (although the Japanese boxart will be a reversible sleeve on physical editions). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/24/nier-replicant-ver122474487139-tgs-trailer"] Japan will receive a White Snow collector's edition, including a display box, "unusually heavy" Grimoire pins, full voiceover scripts and more. It's not clear if this edition will be released outside of Japan. Nier Replicant was a Japan-only version of the original Nier, featuring a young version of the titular character. This new version will mark the first time that version of the game has been released in western markets, but significantly updates the original, expanding the story, world, and quests, and altering combat animations to make it more familiar to Nier Automata players. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nier-replicant-screenshots&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

Microsoft Flight Simulator will get a Japan World Update, set to go live on September 29 free of charge for all users. Announced at Tokyo Game Show, the update enhances the game's coverage of Japan thanks to digital elevation mapping of the entire country. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=microsoft-flight-simulator-japan-update-screenshots&captions=true"] Beyond the national refresh, which pledges to deliver a higher-definition look at "Japan's proud buildings, nature, and culture," multiple specific locations around the land of the rising sun will get an HQ overhaul. Six cities – Sendai, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Tokyo, Utsunomiya, and Yokohama – will be recreated via high-resolution 3D photographic surveying. Six airports – Hachijojima south of Tokyo, Kerama and Shimojishima in Okinawa, Kushiro in Hokkaido, Suwanosejima in Kagoshima, and Nagasaki – will be upgraded with detailed models. Additional landing challenges around Japan will also be added as part of the free upgrade, as well as a "digital elevation map" of the entire country. A highlight reel of the new upgrade in action showed planes of all sizes soaring over Japanese cities and scenic vistas alike, including a look at all the cities and airports listed above, as well as famous locations like Himeji Castle, Tokyo Skytree, and the famed "three beautiful views" of Japan: Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima, and Amanohashidate. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/24/microsoft-flight-simulator-japan-world-update-trailer"] Microsoft also confirmed that the Xbox Series S and Series X will launch in Japan alongside the rest of the world on November 10 with preorders in Japan starting this Friday, September 25. Among the upcoming games "optimized for Series X/S" showcased in the presentation, the 2019 SNK fighting game Samurai Shodown (locally known as Samurai Spirits), trippy puzzler Tetris Effect: Connected, space shooter R-Type Final 2, and indie titles Bright Memory v1.0 and RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, will all be available at the Series X/S launch in Japan. Capcom's Pragmata, a brand-new IP which debuted at the PlayStation 5 reveal event earlier this year, was also confirmed to be available from its planned 2022 launch on Xbox Series X/S. Microsoft also announced that Project xCloud, the cloud gaming service which was added to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate last week, will be available in Japan "in the first half of 2021." Allowing Japanese Android users to play Xbox games on their phones could be a big deal for Microsoft as the Xbox console has struggled to compete locally with Sony and Nintendo, but the Android platform is very popular in Japan. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

GigaBash, the B-movie styled 4-player arena brawler in which giant kaiju, monsters and ranger heroes cause merry mayhem as they battle for supremacy, revealed a new character ahead of Tokyo Game Show 2020: Gigaman. A new stage, Siberia, was also unveiled.

Now, IGN has an exclusive 17-minute gameplay video showing the new character in action in five matches, along with recently unveiled new monster Skorak and stages including Sibera, Hawaii and Tokyo. Check it out below:

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/24/exclusive-17-minutes-of-gigabash-gameplay-with-new-character-gigaman"] Power-suited hero Gigaman is a homage to Japan’s tokusatsu effects series, firing laser-based projectile attacks with his Giga Beam that ricochet around corners and aerial boost attacks in addition to fighting with his fists. As a limited special move, he can target and fire a powerful volley of lasers that burns a “G”-shaped emblem into the ground, for an extra adorable touch of collateral damage. His suit is blue by default but several color skins are available, as shown in the gameplay video. According to the character’s profile, he is a once-mighty hero who has emerged from retirement to kick kaiju keister. Although he has seen better days, he has managed to retain his acrobatic skills, pulling off cartwheels, flying kicks, dive kicks, somersaults and tornado kicks. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/23/gigabash-gigaman-character-reveal-trailer-tgs-2020"] The press release accompanying his unveiling says “Gigaman is ideal for players looking for a high mobility type, fast-paced, combo-oriented character. His core mechanics require mastery in spacing and precise timing in each attack. In the right hands, Gigaman can overwhelm his foes in an unending string of air juggles and combos, perfect for players who prefer to beat their opponents with style points.”

The Siberia map is a snow-covered industrial complex of factory buildings, most of which are destructible. The gigantic statue of a pickaxe-wielding worker at its center can be toppled during play, to launch a missile from the silo hidden within and damage your foes.

Developed by Malaysia’s Passion Republic Game, GigaBash will feature 1-vs-all battles as well as team battles among other modes when it is released on PlayStation 4 and PC in 2021. For more information, check out GigaBash’s website, Twitter account or Discord server.

Tokyo Game Show 2020 is taking place 24-27 September as an online-only event. IGN will be covering the show in collaboration with our Tokyo-based team at IGN Japan, so stay tuned for much more. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Daniel Robson is Chief Editor at IGN Japan. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on life and games in Tokyo.

IGN is happy to exclusively show off a new trailer for The Medium, which reveals a little more about the upcoming next-gen horror game's story, and helps introduce two of its key characters, the mysterious Sadness, and Troy Baker's antagonist, The Maw. Revealed as part of Tokyo Game Show, the trailer shows us lead character Marianne across both of the realities she can perceive, introducing The Maw, and talking about the stalking entity with Sadness, "a mysterious masked girl who resides at the abandoned Niwa Hotel." Check out the trailer below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/24/the-medium-official-story-trailer"] We also have some brand new concept art to exclusively show off (click to enlarge), showing Marianne, "as she readies her psychic energy against the backdrop of the material world and the spirit world": The Medium - which arrives for Xbox Series X & S, and PC via Steam this holiday - comes from Bloober Team, the horror-focused studio behind Layers of Fear, Observer, and Blair Witch. It will use next-gen power to render two separate worlds simultaneously, with players forced to solve puzzles and overcome challenges in both to proceed - all while avoiding The Maw. Storied voice actor Troy Baker has described his villain as "something I've never done before", and even gave a brief demonstration of how he performs The Maw's voice for us during Gamescom 2020. The Medium is just one of two Bloober Team games coming to next-gen this year, with Observer: System Redux also arriving on launch day. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-medium-xbox-games-showcase-screenshots&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

The developers of Among Us have cancelled a planned sequel to the game to focus on updating the original, with all content designed for the sequel to be added to the original. Innersloth co-founder PuffballsUnited broke the news on the game's Itch.Io Devlog, revealing that – despite only announcing the sequel last month – the team has decided to cancel Among Us 2 and fold planned features for the sequel into Among Us. Innersloth held "several long discussions" about the future of the game in the wake of its viral success. Initially, Innersloth had been focusing on the sequel due to the outdated nature of the Among Us codebase, which is "not built to support adding so much content." However, given how many people have flocked to the game recently, the studio decided that they wanted to focus on supporting the original instead. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=among-us-screenshots&captions=true"] "All of the content we had planned for Among Us 2 will instead go into Among Us 1," PuffballsUnited explains. "This is probably the more difficult choice because it means going deep into the core code of the game and reworking several parts of it. We have lots of things planned and we’re excited to bring new content to everyone as you continue to enjoy playing!" The blog also gave us a glimpse at what features will be headed to Among Us in the near future. The team is "working very hard" to figure out server issues at the moment, but will be bringing new features such as colourblind support, a new, Henry Stickmin-themed stage and a friends/account system, something Innersloth has been wanting to implement for a while now. Among Us is an online social game in which a crew of players prep a spaceship for takeoff, but are faced with impostors trying to murder them. It's become a viral success two years after its initial release, thanks in large part to streaming influencers beginning to play the game in front of huge audiences. In the last month, it peaked with the third-highest concurrent players on Steam, with 388,000 people playing simultaneously. If you want to figure out how to play Among Us, check out our handy guide to help you understand the game's mechanics. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Microsoft announced during Tokyo Game Show today that the price of the Xbox Series S in Japan will be reduced by about $28. Originally the Series S was announced at 32,980 yen (about $313 USD) plus tax. This is in contrast with the Series X, which was announced for Japan at 49,980 yen, which is about $474 USD – much more in line with the US price of $499. The new price of Series S in Japan is 29,980 yen plus tax, or about $284, which is closer to the US price of $299.

Xbox Series S価格改定 29,980円（税抜） 次世代ゲーム機を、より多くの皆さんにお求めやすく https://t.co/AXMUjPbEm9

— Xbox Japan (@Xbox_JP) September 24, 2020

No reason was given for the price drop. PlayStation 5’s disc edition and digital edition are priced at 49,980 yen ($474) and 39,980 yen ($379) respectively, plus tax. Since the PS5 price was announced after Xbox Series X/S, it may be that Microsoft wanted to offer a more aggressive price difference between the cheaper models of the rival consoles. Xbox has failed to break into the Japan market with past consoles, being beaten by a very wide margin by PlayStation and Nintendo with every generation. This time around, it is encouraging to see a more aggressive pricing strategy around the Series S, and indeed the Series X, which surprised gamers in Japan with its sub-50,000 yen price point. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/24/xbox-showcase-nier-livestream-tgs-2020-in-japanese"] Tokyo Game Show 2020 marks Xbox’s first appearance at the show since TGS 2014. Tune in to IGN for a livestream of Xbox’s TGS showcase (Japanese only), which begins at 5am Pacific / 8am Eastern / 1pm UK / 10pm AEST today. Preorders for Xbox Series X/S in Japan begin at midnight JST on 25 September, a few hours from now. Both units go on sale in Japan on November 10, the same date as in the United States. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Daniel Robson is Chief Editor at IGN Japan, and he loves it when you follow him on Twitter.

Former Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein has revealed that Nicolas Cage was originally considered for the voice of Homer Simpson's nemesis, Frank 'Grimey' Grimes. Weinstein, who was hired to write for the show on a permanent basis in the early nineties, shared the little-known Simpsons trivia on Twitter in response to a tweet which asked: "Is Nicolas Cage a good actor, bad actor, or a good-bad actor?" He replied: "Nicolas Cage is one of the only other actors we considered asking to play Frank Grimes, before we realized Hank Azaria would be the ultimate Grimey. And Hank's performance was one of the best in the show's history." The Season 8 episode "Homer's Enemy" introduced us to Frank Grimes, the man who was everything that Homer wasn't. Grimes was intelligent and ambitious, yet he could never seem to catch a break in life. And all of his pent-up aggression burst forth when he encountered Homer, a happy family man with a house, a decent job, and just about everything that Grimes couldn't attain. To this day, Hank Azaria's Grimes remains one of the most popular peripheral characters in the series. Earlier this year, Azaria, the long-time Simpsons voice actor responsible for some of the show's most iconic voices such as Moe, Chief Wiggum, and Comic Book Guy, announced that he would no longer be the voice of Apu, the proprietor of Springfield's Kwik-E-Mart convenience store. The show came under fire for the portrayal of the character in the 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu, which explored negative stereotypes, racial microaggressions, and representations in popular culture. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-time-the-simpsons-predicted-the-future&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Microsoft has revealed the price of its proprietary expanded storage cards for Xbox Series X and S, which will start at $219.99 for 1TB of extra space. As spotted by The Verge, a listing for the 1TB Game Drive for Xbox Series X and Series S appeared on Best Buy's website, confirming the pricing. According to the product overview, this is "the only available expansion card that replicates the Xbox Velocity Architecture - providing faster load times, richer environments, and more immersive gameplay." As we've heard previously, it will only be used for next-gen games.

You can continue to use your USB 3.1+ external hard drives on Xbox Series X & run Xbox One, 360 and OG Xbox games directly from the external USB HDD. Games optimized for Xbox Series X & Velocity Architecture need to be run from the internal SSD or the Expandable Storage Drive

— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) March 16, 2020

With the Xbox Series S sporting a slimmer 512GB SSD, the expandable drive may have been seen as a means of boosting the console's usefulness. That may be less of an appealing option now, given that the price of the extra storage brings that console up to around $520, more than the $499 cost of the more powerful Series X console. The Verge reports that Microsoft has said that, while this drive is currently the only one to interface correctly with Xbox Velocity architecture, other manufacturers may release their own expandable storage at a later date – that could potentially help to drive down prices. The 1 TB Game Drive will allow players to "seamlessly" play Xbox Series X games from the drive "without sacrificing graphics, latency, load times, or framerates." The drive has been developed in partnership with Seagate and will come with a three-year warranty. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/07/the-technology-behind-xbox-series-x"] External 3.1+ USB hard drives will also work with the consoles as standard, but players will only be able to run Xbox One, 360 and OG Xbox from the external drives. According to Microsoft spokesperson Larry Hyrb, "Games optimized for Xbox Series X & Velocity Architecture need to be run from the internal SSD or the Expandable Storage Drive." The Xbox Series X and S will launch on November 10, 2020 worldwide. We've already got our hands on an Xbox Series X, so stay tuned for more preview coverage as we approach the console's release date. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Nintendo has announced and released Kirby Fighters 2, a brand-new Kirby game that allows players to choose from a cast of Kirby's most iconic copy abilities and "duke it out to be the last Kirby standing." Alongside classic copy abilities and characters like Sword, Beam, Artist, Yo-Yo, Water, Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Gooey, there will also be a new Wrestler copy ability that has kirby using "Launcher Lariat to launch an enemy, then Flying Grab to catch it in midair." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/24/kirby-fighters-2-launch-trailer"] Up to 4 players can fight team battles on one Nintendo Switch system, or up to 4 players can compete in Local Play and Online modes. Kirby Fighters 2 includes a Single-Handed mode that tasks players with getting their best clear times by fighting battle after battle all alone. There will also be a Story Mode that has Items that will allow you to boost your stats, health and more. As you play, you will earn Fighters Points to level up your Fighters Rank and unlock more copy abilities, stages, characters, hats, and more. There will also many new and classic battle stages, including Fountain of Dreams, Waddle Dee Train Tracks, Bubbly Clouds, and more. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=kirby-fighters-2-screenshots&captions=true"] Furthermore, if you've played Kirby Star Allies of Super Kirby Clash, you will unlock special Rare Hats based on each game. These hats, including others you unlock, will let you customize Kirby's appearance. Kirby Fighters 2 is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $19.99 USD. [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.