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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has commented extensively for the first time on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the planned launch of Xbox Series X later this year and more. Speaking to IGN, Spencer said he wants people to know that first and foremost, the safety and security of its teams is what is most important to him during this time of crisis.

“The thing I’m going to put front and center is the safety and security of the team,” Spencer said. “There is no decision that I will make, or frankly anybody at Microsoft would even ask me to make, that would compromise the safety and security of the teams for a near-term financial or product gain. The teams are the most important thing.”

Pragmatically, Spencer said he has observed that the supply chains in China have “started to come back,” which would enable the parts to be assembled for Xbox Series X for launch this holiday.

Right now, Xbox Series X remains on track to launch on schedule this holiday period, but Spencer stressed time and again that this is a fluid situation and nothing is set in stone right now.

Also in the interview, Spencer said the game development teams are coming to terms–not always easily–as they shift to a work-from-home setup. “Building a video game from home–a large, distributed team of hundreds of people–is not easy. Video games are big, and there are massive asset bases that each one of these games have,” Spencer said.

Some of the Xbox Game Studios titles that have already been delayed due to COVID-19 have included Wasteland 3 and Minecraft Dungeons. Many are wondering if Halo Infinite, which is a launch title for Xbox Series X, might also be delayed, but Spencer said nothing is decided yet. Right now, Halo Infinite is still on track to launch this holiday with the next-gen console.

“Things right now aren’t easy. Things are stretched. I can feel it in the teams–they are stretched,” Spencer said. “We have nothing right now that says we’re not going to make the dates that we’ve been planning, but I’ll also say this is real-time stuff. I’m gonna put the safety and security of our teams at the top, along with a quality product. I don’t want to rush a product out if it’s not ready.”

Overall, Spencer said he is “feeling good” about where Xbox stands today with regards to preparing to launch the Xbox Series X on schedule this holiday. “Feeling good, but also being eyes wide open,” he said.

Spencer confirmed that Microsoft has no “plan B” in place right now for what could happen if COVID-19 crisis continues for an extended period of time. That being said, Spencer said he does not want to launch the Xbox Series X on a staggered basis as it did with the Xbox One. In Japan, for example, the Xbox One launched a full nine months after the system arrived in other parts of the world. Spencer said he wants the Xbox Series X to have a global simultaneous rollout.

This brings up an interesting scenario with Halo Infinite. Spencer said Microsoft “won’t hold the launch of the platform for any individual game.” Based on this comment, it sounds like Microsoft will ship the Xbox Series X this holiday even if Halo Infinite–or any other marquee first-party game–is delayed. No matter what happens, Spencer said Microsoft plans to be “very transparent” with people about their plans.

Halo Infinite being delayed would be a big loss for the Xbox Series X, as Microsoft hasn’t launched a new Xbox console with Halo as a launch title since the original Xbox back in 2011. For its part, Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has said the COVID-19 crisis “may get worse before it gets better.”

Final Fantasy VII Remake is nearly upon us, and the latest installment of the Inside Final Fantasy VII Remake video series is here to prime us for the game’s battles. While episode 1 was a general introduction and episode 2 focused on story, the third episode of this documentary series, embedded below, dives deep into the new combat system for the remake.

The reworked combat system came about because action is “the mainstream style right now,” according to director and concept designer Tetsuya Nomura. However, the numbers and stats that fly off enemies during combat were maintained because “they make Final Fantasy what it is.”

The battle system has been designed with the thought that this is how it would work if it was designed for the first time today, but the developers report that it was difficult to decide just how action-focused it would be, and whether things like reflexes would be important. Classic Mode, which automates a lot of the fighting and lets players focus on making choices through menus, was included because a lot of fans online were worried about not being able to play because they are not good at more action-heavy games.

Materia will play a bigger part in this game compared to the original, and the developers are hoping that players who die in boss fights will change their Materia before trying again to see what will work. Speaking of bosses, they’ve been overhauled pretty substantially, as this video shows. They’re all phase based now, moving between different stages punctuated by cutscenes, and follow the principles of Jo-Ha-Kyu–that is, a slow start, a swift break, and then a rapid end.

There’s also a Chocobo stampede attack shown off, which is a real treat.

The story is discussed further in the video too, and it’s said that in the second half of the game the characters will experience a lot of growth. Subquests have been moved around to better suit the pace of the remake’s storytelling, and minigames are designed to fit in with the rest of the plot. The game is said to be “story-driven” moreso than “open world”.

Depending on where you live, you might already have your hands on Final Fantasy VII Remake–it has shipped early in some places. The game, which covers the Midgar portion of the original, will be greatly expanded compared to the PlayStation 1 classic.

In a recent interview with video game magazine Game Informer, Apex Legends general manager Dusty Welch and game director Chad Grenier touched on which Legends are played the most and how characters evolve over time.

Like most games with a hero or character pool, players drifted towards different Legends more in each season, but Wraith and Pathfinder were consistently high picks across the board. In the interview, Welch and Grenier spoke about which Legends were the most popular.

“Caustic has been from a pro player or tournament standpoint. He’s been an interesting player favorite, especially when they get into the final areas,” said Welch.

“We’ve seen in competitive play Wattson has been a popular pick. It also changes with the game. When we released the Winter Express game mode, Gibraltar was by far the favorite,” said Grenier.

Ever since the 4.1 update, Wattson has become less of a must-have pick thanks to Respawn nerfing some of her more unfair characteristics. Before the patch, Wattson was able to hold six grenades in only three inventory slots, allowing players who found big enough backpacks to stockpile grenades and bombard others with what seemed like a never ending supply of grenades.

Players used this method a lot, with interior spaces becoming a death sentence in most games. The only counter to this was to have a Wattson yourself, with her Interceptor Pylon destroying incoming ordinances, like grenades. Respawn responded to this infuriating meta by patching the character, limiting her to one grenade per inventory slot and bringing the bombardments to an end.

Legends character Bloodhound was changed in patch 4.1 as well, with his abilities being altered to reflect his original concept more. Bloodhound is a recon character, with the ability to track down or “hunt” down players with the Eye of the Allfather, which now has three times the range.

Before the update, this ability was only good for locating a player inside the same building or behind a rock, now Eye of the Allfather can be the hunter he was always meant to be. The only downside is the ability now takes twice as long to recharge.

Welch and Grenier also hinted at what else could be coming in Season 4: Assimilation, with Grenier being cautious to reveal too much.

“I don’t want to spoil too much. We will be having some stuff announced shortly that will be pretty exciting for everyone. I will tell you that we just locked in our plan for some major content coming in 2020 which has made the team very excited… We’re trying to tell more story and we’ll have more characters and depth there. We have more great animated content coming, It’s an exciting year for sure,” said Grenier.

Apex Legends Season 4: Assimilation is currently running on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Now is a great time to jump back into Apex, with Season 5 set to link the Apex canon with Respawn’s other popular title, Titanfall.

UPDATE 4/1/20 7:55pm PT – George Takei announced on Twitter that his announcement was actually an “April Fools prank, a bit of levity in an otherwise dark time.”

Original story follows.

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George Takei, best known for playing Hikaru Sulu in the original series of Star Trek, will be the final torchbearer for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Takei revealed the news on a Facebook post, explaining due to the current global situation he’s had to keep it under wraps until now.

“I am honored beyond belief to have been selected to be the final torchbearer who will light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo in 2021!” the post reads.

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“This will be such a unique moment, before the eyes of a billion people, lighting the torch as a symbol of hope for the future in 2021 in Tokyo. As a life-long runner, I’m especially grateful to have been chosen, and hope to do everyone in the US of A proud!”

He included a picture with his post which featured him holding the Olympic torch amongst various memorabilia from his career, which included his Starfleet uniform from the show.

Takei’s not just a Star Trek superstar and avid runner: recently we awarded his graphic novel They Called Us Enemy the best original graphic novel of 2019. He’s also working on the AMC horror show The Terror, which made it into our best 20 horror shows of the last 10 years.

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Last month the 2021 Tokyo Olympics made history by being the first Olympic Games to be officially postponed. They’re now set to be held during 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Scalebound, which was poised to be a major Xbox console exclusive from Platinum Games, was sadly cancelled back in 2017. Rumors persist to this day that the game will eventually be re-revealed, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that it is not happening, and that he regrets how things played out with the title.

In an interview for IGN’s Unlocked podcast, when asked about the huge passion fans still have for Scalebound, Spencer clarifies that the game is not coming, and seems sad about the situation around its announcement and cancellation. “Yeah, it’s a tough one,” he says. “Because I have a ton of respect for Platnium, (director Hideki Kamiya), the team…and I have feel no ill-will. And we talk to those guys, there’s no animosity between the teams.”

Spencer says that he wishes he had held back on the game’s reveal. “We tried to go do something, and it didn’t work,” he says. “And I regret that we were as public about what we tried to go do.” He cites the also-cancelled Fable Legends as another example of a time when a game was shown off too early, and says that he learned a lot from both projects. “I did some learning around Fable Legends, I did some learning around Scalebound, about being public about things before I kind of know that we’ve got a real believable plan in something I’ve felt in my hands.,” he says.

“We just didn’t get there with Scalebound, and with the team,” Spencer continues. “And I say that across both teams.” This echoes earlier comments from Platinum boss Atsushi Inaba in 2019, who said that Microsoft was not solely responsible for the game’s cancellation either, and that “both sides failed”.

“We loved some of the ideas that we were trying to do, and obviously we wanted to ship a great game to our customers,” a contrite Spencer says, before clarifying that the game is definitely not in development. “We’re not working on it, I’m not at Platinum today but I’m almost positive they’re not working on it. It’s something we’ve all moved past, and it’s not a moment I see as a high-point for me in my role, having to cancel a game that we had talked about for years.”

Platinum Games has bounced back from Scalebound’s cancellation, and has since released Nier: Automata and Astral Chain, among others. It is currently working on Bayonetta 3, The Wonderful 101 Remastered, and a new hero-based action game.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Phil Spencer talked about the impact of COVID-19 on the Xbox Series X launch, and plans to announce more games for the system.

Gaming giant Activision has emerged victorious in a lawsuit brought against it by the makers of Humvee vehicles who claimed the publisher was infringing on their trademark.

A New York judge has dismissed the lawsuit from General Motors, bringing an end to this case. The lawsuit dates back to 2017 when GM sued Activision for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising, among other things. Activision responded (via The Verge) by saying it had the protection of the First Amendment to use the image of real-world military equipment in its franchise.

Activision’s lawyers said GM was acting in bad faith by trying to use a trademark to control the creative use of a US military vehicle paid for by American taxpayers and used in every war and conflict for decades.

Judge George Daniels said the Call of Duty franchise passed the “Rogers test,” a landmark ruling from the 1980s which relates to trademarked names in creative uses. According to Daniels, Activision’s use of Humvees in Call of Duty games “have artistic relevance.”

“Featuring actual vehicles used by military operations around the world in video games about simulated modern warfare surely evokes a sense of realism and lifelikeness to the player who assumes control of a military solider and fights against a computer-controller or human-controller opponent across a variety of computer-generated battlefields,” Daniels said.

The judge went on: “Upon reviewing a copy of the Call of Duty game, the court explained that the uses of the plaintiff’s name and logo easily met the artistic relevance requirement under Rogers because they have players a sense of particularized reality of being part of an actual elite special forces operation and served as a means to increase specific realism of the game.”

“Any reasonable juror would conclude that the presence of Humvees in Call of Duty games possesses an artistic value that is at least above zero.

The judge also ruled that Activision’s use of Humvees in Call of Duty games is not “explicitly misleading.” The Call of Duty games never position Activision as the owner or creator of the vehicles.

The full ruling offers more details and gets into the nitty-gritty specifics of why Activision won this case. You can read the document here, as uploaded by The Hollywood Reporter.

In other Call of Duty news, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is out now on PlayStation 4, while Warzone and Modern Warfare continue to receive new updates and events.

According to Respawn, fans of Titanfall and Titanfall 2 may be excited to see what Respawn has in store for Apex Legends at the start of Season 5. Season 5 is scheduled to begin in late May or early June, as Season 4: Assimilation is halfway done, having gone through its ranked series split.

In an interview in Game Informer Issue 324, Apex Legends general manager Dusty Welch and game director Chad Grenier spoke about the future of Respawn’s battle royale game, with one of them saying, “We’re always bringing in stuff from the Titanfall universe. We built an awesome world in Titanfall 1 and 2 and want to make sure we’re bringing that forward. I will say this: There could potentially be a pleasant surprise for Titanfall fans in Season 5.”

Neither Welch nor Grenier provided further details beyond that, though Season 5’s tie to Titanfall could be hinted at with the arrival of Bloodhound’s town takeover. The arrival of the technological tracker’s town takeover was teased with a prowler, a vicious wolf-like creature native to the planet Leviathan (the setting of Titanfall 2’s incredible Effect and Cause level). Perhaps, just as Apex Legends left Kings Canyon after two seasons, the battle royale is getting another brand-new map after two seasons on World’s Edge–one that will be located on Leviathan.

Elsewhere in the interview, Welch and Grenier also talk about which of Apex Legends’ playable characters are most popular. Grenier says that the rankings change from season to season, though Pathfinder and Wraith are almost always among the top picks and that Wattson is popular on the competitive side. “Caustic has been [popular] from a pro player or tournament standpoint,” Welch added. “He’s been an interesting player favorite, especially when they get into the final areas.”

So heartbreaking to learn that Andrew Jack has passed away. He, along with Roisin Carty, lead all of us through the many accents of Middle-Earth. He was a kind and lovely human being. My love to his family and friends.

— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) April 1, 2020

Andrew Jack, a beautiful soul. So many wonderful memories with this amazing man, he had the best stories and always excited to hear others. Such an honest beautiful spirit. Sleep well Andrew , I will miss you. X https://t.co/eQ9dhCaEto

— Billy Boyd (@BillyBoydActor) April 1, 2020

So sad to hear Andrew Jack voice coach on #LOTR and #StarWars and many more films passed away #RIP. A good friend. Will miss him.

— Kiran Shah (@littlekiranshah) March 31, 2020

Andrew Jack made a mean curry
Andrew Jack was powerful & gentle in equal measure
Andrew Jack was funny
Andrew Jack was brilliant
Andrew Jack loved a unique theory of gravity, that we are all being pushed down, instead of pulled down
We loved Andrew Jackhttps://t.co/PNxMop2udN

— Sean Astin (@SeanAstin) March 31, 2020

Andrew Jack was the dialect coach on SOLO, and a kind and thoughtful man. We asked him to teach Alden to speak Shyriiwook, and I’ll always remember listening to them gargle-roar at each other back and forth.
RIP https://t.co/ivlE7q4guB

— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) March 31, 2020