Category: Video Games

Former World of Warcraft producer Raymond Bartos has joined Riot Games, giving fans renewed hope that the League of Legends MMO might actually come out.

We found out Riot Games’ highly anticipated MMO project — announced half a decade ago now — would be “reset” back in 2024, after Riot co-founder Marc Merrill let players know that the team had decided to go back to the drawing board “some time ago.” Now, however, Bartos has confirmed his move to Riot, following in the footsteps of fellow Blizzard colleague, Orlando Salvatore.

“I’m incredibly excited to be joining Riot on the MMO team!!!” Bartos wrote on LinkedIn (first reported by MassivelyOP). “I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to join such an inspiring group of people, and I can’t wait to get started — showing up every day to provide value for Riot gamers and help deliver an MMO experience players truly enjoy.

“And as a fun bonus I’ve been barely able to contain: I’ll be re-queuing with my longtime duo partner, Orlando Salvatore,” Bartos added. “Given our track record on World of Warcraft, I have a feeling we’ll be moving fast on day one.”

And best of all, Bartos’ LinkedIn profile gives us a clear insight into what he’s working courtesy of his role descriptor: “senior game producer on the MMO [at] Riot Games.”

Concern grew in 2022, when then-executive producer Greg Street warned fans that there is “no guarantee this game will ship.” The lead then went on to announce his departure from Riot in early 2023. Two years ago, when he announced the development reset, Merrill said he understood fans’ frustration at the lack of progress on the MMO, but insisted the time spent in the dark would “help provide space for the team to focus on the incredible amount of work ahead of them.”

“Remember, ‘no news is good news,’ as it means we’re hard at work, pouring our hearts and souls into making something that we hope you’ll love,” he continued.

League of Legends was first released in 2009 and remains one of the world’s biggest, most-played games. A multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA), it was originally inspired by Warcraft 3 custom map Defense of the Ancients, and played a massive role in pioneering and popularizing the MOBA genre. It has gone on to inspire a number of spin-offs, including digital card game Legends of Runeterra, a mobile version of the game called Wild Rift, and a popular TV series: Arcane.

Last month, we reported that Riot was working on a total makeover of League of Legends. Called “League Next,” the upcoming overhaul will be an update to the existing League of Legends rather than a standalone game. It’s thought the update will fully revamp the game’s visual aesthetic, including characters, UI, and arenas and make some adjustments behind the scenes to help make future updates smoother, although it’s currently unclear if the changes will impact game mechanics.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

One of the original designers of Tomb Raider‘s iconic Lara Croft has revealed that Core Design’s then-Japanese publisher had asked for the character to be given a “Manga” redesign to “appeal” to Japanese players.

Responding to one fan who had unearthed a comment from him a few years ago, Tomb Raider co-creator and programmer Paul Douglas confirmed there had been a little pressure “quite late in Tomb Raider’s development” when publisher Victor Interactive Software “faxed over some of their own designs” over fears the western character design wouldn’t “go down well” in Japan.

“Victor wanted us to change in-game Lara to appeal more to a Japanese audience,” Douglas revealed on BlueSky. “Huge eyes/head etc. They faxed through examples really late in dev. [Co-creator and designer] Toby Gard really didn’t want to alter Lara. As a compromise, all that was changed was the manuals [and] guide. Not sure who did that render or illustrations.”

The mysterious rendering Douglas is referring to can be seen in the first image appended to this BlueSky post, republished below:

Destiny developer Bungie has finally confirmed the previously leaked launch date for Marathon, which is indeed March 5, 2026, and followed up the news with a rundown of who we can expect to hear in the English voice cast.

The bumper cast includes many, many familiar voices, such as Jennifer English (who won Best Performance at 2025’s The Game Awards for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and has had notable roles in Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3, in which she plays Shadowheart), Ben Starr (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Final Fantasy 14), Roger Clark (Red Dead Redemption 2), and Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3’s Astarion, Resident Evil 3 Remake). As one commenter responded: “That’s… stacked lol.”

Here’s the full list, along with an idea of where you may have heard their voices before:

• Jennifer English (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3)
• Ben Starr (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Final Fantasy 14)
• Roger Clark (Red Dead Redemption 2)
• Elias Toufexis (Deux: Ex: Human Revolution)
• Nika Futterman (Destiny, Doom Eternal, Starcraft)
• Erica Lindbeck (Fortnite, God of War Ragnarok)
• Reina Guthrie (Squid Game)
• Elliot Knight (Call of Duty series)
• JB Tadena (Call of Duty: Vanguard)
• Morla Gorrondona (Destiny 2: The Final Shape)
• Donnla Hughes
• Darin De Paul (Overwatch 2, Doom Eternal)
• Lee Shorten (Ghost of Yotei, Rise of the Ronin)
• Dave Fennoy (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us)
• Tracy Wiles (Baldur’s Gate 3, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)
• Fred Tatasciore (Marvel Rivals, Destiny 2)
• Krizia Bajos (The Outer Worlds 2, Mafia: The Old Country)
• Samantha Beart (Baldur’s Gate 3, Demon’s Souls)
• Beau Bridgland (Exoprimal)
• Ry Chase (Destiny: Rising, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2)
• Keston John (Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, The Outer Worlds 2)
• Sohm Kapila (Dune: Awakening, Hogwarts Legacy)
• Rich Keeble (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Total War: Warhammer III)
• Piotr Michael (Star Trek: Resurgence, Black Ops Cold War, Doom Eternal)
• Brent Mukai (Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Ghost of Yotei)
• Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil 3 Remake)
• Ariana Nicole George (Genshin Impact, Dynasty Warriors: Origins)
• Emily O’Brien (League of Legends, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, Starfield)
• Jason Spisak (Doom Eternal, Fortnite, Anthem)
• Craig Lee Thomas (Octopath Traveler 0, DC: Dark Legion)
• Oliver Vaquer (Dune: Awakening, Death Stranding)
• Erin Yvette (Oxenfree, The Wolf Among Us, Firewatch)
• Scott Whyte (Marvel Rivals, Halo Infinite, Avowed).

What we don’t know yet is what characters the actors will portray, of course, but with the list essentially in alphabetical order besides front-runners English, Starr, Clark, Toufexis, Futterman, Lindbeck, Guthrie, Knight, Tadena, Gorrondona, Hughes, De Paul, Shorten, Fennoy, Wiles, and Tatasciore, that may suggest those particular actors will be portraying the characters we’ll get to know best when playing Marathon.

Following various delays, Marathon’s launch is now less than two months away — and pre-orders are open now. The pressure is on for Marathon to succeed amid Destiny 2’s high-profile struggles and Marathon’s troubled development. At the end of last year, parent company Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a $200 million impairment charge, and Bungie found itself battling yet more accusations of plagiarism back in May after an artist accused the studio of lifting aspects of her artwork for Marathon.

Last June Marathon was delayed into 2026 as Bungie worked to respond to feedback from playtests. Things went dark until Marathon re-emerged in October, when Bungie announced the extraction shooter was ready for a limited, invite-only playtest for players in North America and Europe across PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

CD Projekt has confirmed it issued a DMCA strike on a paid Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod, after its creator refused to make it free for everyone upon the studio’s request.

The R.E.A.L. VR mod for Cyberpunk 2077 was created by Luke Ross, who, according to a 2022 report by The Verge, makes $20,000 a month modding PC games to run in VR headsets. His mods are locked behind a Patreon, which sparked CD Projekt’s concern.

In a tweet, Jan Rosner, VP, Business Development at CD Projekt Red, said the company issued the DMCA strike because Cyberpunk VR was a paid mod, which violates its fan content guidelines.

“We never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” Rosner said. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.

“We are big fans of mods to our games — some of the work out there has been nothing short of amazing, including Luke’s mod for Cyberpunk 2077. We’d be happy to see it return as a free release. However, making a profit from our IP, in any form, always requires permission from CD Projekt Red.”

Ross responded to Rosner’s tweet to take issue with his work being characterized as fan content. Rather, Ross insisted, it is independent software and thus does not infringe on CD Projekt’s IP rights.

“I’m sorry but I don’t believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free,” Ross said. “It is not ‘derivative work’ or ‘fan content’: it supports a large number of games which were built upon different engines, and it contains absolutely zero code or assets from your IP. Saying that it infringes your IP rights is equivalent to maintaining for example that RivaTuner violates game publishers’ copyrights because it intercepts the images the game is drawing on screen and it processes them in order to overlay its statistics.”

Ross went on to say he wants to find a “win-win solution,” and suggested CD Projekt make his Cyberpunk VR mod official, “or at least sanctioned by your company.” He added: “I think the current state of affairs is not the best way to resolve this misunderstanding.”

As it stands, Ross has left his Cyberpunk VR mod behind (in a post on Patreon, Ross said, “So long, and thanks for all the fish,”), and he has pulled support for the game. Ross’ tweet here has sparked a debate about the legal implications of his mod, a point he expanded on in a post on Patreon:

“As usual they stretch the concept of ‘derivative work’ until it’s paper-thin, as though a system that allows visualizing 40+ games in fully immersive 3D VR was somehow built making use of their intellectual property,” he said. “And as usual they give absolutely zero f***s about how playing their game in VR made people happy, and they cannot just be grateful about the extra copies of the title they sold because of that — without ever having to pour money into producing an official conversion (no, they’re not planning to release their own VR port, in case you were wondering).

“The bottom line is all that matters, and gamers be damned.

“Am I a little bitter about all of this? Yeah, you bet I am. Especially in the same week when Meta pulls the plug on three major VR studios. Especially after four years during which I (together with other modders) spent so much time keeping our mods alive in spite of CDPR’s constant breaking updates. Especially when they never even knew or cared during all this time that the VR conversion was there, and are only knee-jerk reacting now because somebody reported to them that it existed and it was not free.”

This is not the first time Ross has been hit by a DMCA strike. In July 2022, Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two issued a DMCA notice against Ross for his GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 VR mods, among others. He made a similar argument against the decision back then, insisting “none of my modifications are built using software belonging to Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, and the modifications are not intended to replace their games, nor are they a means of exploiting Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc’s proprietary IP or assets.”

Cyberpunk is just one of a number of games for which Ross has released VR mods, and he sounds undeterred by CD Projekt’s action here. Ross already has VR mods for the likes of Sony’s Days Gone, FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, and Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5 games. Now he’s turning his attention to Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.