William Shatner's TekWar novel series is set to become a mixed-reality adult animation show, produced by Shatner through his Shatner Universe, together with Pure Imagination Studios.

According to Deadline, the new series will be developed and written by Matt Michnovetz, who has previously served as a writer on Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and the more recent Disney+ show Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The plan is to adapt the sci-fi world of the TekWar novels to bring it to the screen as a mixed-reality, adult animated series.

The mixed reality element of the project will reportedly encourage viewer participation across different forms of technology, including mobile, tablets or wearable devices. The idea is to immerse audiences into the show's narrative by giving them the option to become part of it themselves, though viewers can also watch the series without having to interact with it.

As reported by Deadline, Shatner's TekWar novels are set in the year 2043 and present a cyberpunk-esque mystery centered around a former detective who is framed for dealing an illegal mind-altering drug in the form of a bio-digital microchip that poses a great threat to humanity and has the potential to become a virus that will lead to an unrecoverable future.

"We are very excited to work with the legendary William Shatner to reimagine the world of TekWar at a post-pandemic time," said John P. Roberts, CCO of Pure Imagination. "TekWar was truly ahead of its time envisioning a future filled with AI and the world of simulated reality. It's becoming our reality now, and we’re excited to build a storyverse around it."

"We want to do something that hasn't been done before," added Joshua Wexler, Pure Imagination's Chief Executive of Fun. "The world and story of TekWar transcends traditional linear media and has the potential to be experienced on multiple entertainment platforms, some that exist today and some we'll have to invent, and we can’t wait to get started."

"My association with Pure Imagination is beyond my sheer imagination," Shatner said of the project, which is being viewed as the first step towards building a real-time multiverse around a property. "Imagine bringing to life this wonderful character in a variety of ways, so technologically advanced. This is the future, and I am looking forward to it."

Shatner became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek television series, steering the USS Enterprise through its voyages between 1966 and 1969. He reprised his role in Star Trek: The Animated Series, as well as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He played Kirk in the next six Star Trek films prior to the character's demise.

The legendary actor has been involved with plenty of pioneering projects before. For his birthday this year, the Star Trek legend announced a special collaboration with Los Angeles-based tech company StoryFile and revealed that they would be creating an interactive AI-powered video of himself, so family and friends could interact with him for years to come.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

New World was absolutely huge at launch yesterday, to the point where it became very hard to actually play the game. Thankfully Amazon Games has been working on lowering queue time across the globe to help get new players into the MMO.

The developer has been updating the New World forums throughout its first day of release. So far, the EU Central, North America West, North America East and Australia servers have had additional worlds added, with the aim of offering more of an even spread of players. With the team promising to monitor world congestion, you can likely expect more expansions as time goes on.

If you're looking to jump in while the hype is hot, a new fan-run website, New World Status aims to offer live data for player counts across the world, including numbers of people waiting in the queue for any given in-game world, and an estimated average wait time.

It's quite possible that even Amazon was taken by surprise with New World's launch day popularity. It very quickly became Steam's most-played game of the year, reaching over 700,000 concurrent players, smashing Valheim's huge record from earlier in 2021.

We've begun a review-in-progress for New World, praising its looks and player-based economy, but expressing some early worries about combat and character customisation. It will be updated as time goes on, but initial impressions feel positive.

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 [email protected].

EA has finally revealed the dates for its upcoming Battlefield 2042 Open Beta, and it starts real soon. Early access will be starting on October 6, with only those who have preordered (see at Amazon), alongside EA Play members, playing the Beta until October 7.

From October 8-9, the Beta will open up to everyone, with downloads freely available. If you want to jump into the Battlefield 2042 Open Beta from October 6, here's how you can get early access.

Battlefield 2042: How to Get Early Access to the Beta

Battlefield 2042's Open Beta will commence in two stages in the coming week. Starting from October 6 at Midnight PT, those who have preordered the game, or are a member of EA Play, will be able to get early access to the Open Beta. This also means that any Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to jump in, and the service includes EA Play within the subscription. If you haven't got access to EA Play (or Game Pass Ultimate), then your best bet is preordering the game. Once you've preordered the game, you'll receive a unique code to download the game with.

Thankfully, this won't cost you a penny, and you can even cancel the preorder after the Beta has been finalised. This is because retailers like Amazon won't charge you anything until the game has been dispatched closer to the launch day of November 19. For more information on Battlefield 2042 preorder options, check out our preorder guide.

Preorder Battlefield 2042 to Get Early Access to the Beta

UK Preorders

Battlefield 2042: How to Download the Open Beta

If you're not interested in early access, then you don't need to take any further steps other than download the beta once it becomes available to you. Pre-loading the beta will start on October 5, so you won't need to wait once the open beta truly kicks off.

It will be available to play on PC (via Origin, EA app, Steam, and Epic) and console (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S). PlayStation Plus is not needed to participate in the Open Beta, however, if you're playing on Xbox you will need to be at least an Xbox Live Gold subscriber (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate includes a Live Gold subscription).

Only one map will be on display during the Beta, and it's called Orbital. Orbital features a massive space rocket counting down, with the fight on this map taking place around its imminent launch. You can see the chaos that's sure to occur throughout the new Battlefield 2042 official open beta trailer, so be sure to check that out for an in-game look at Orbital.

For more information about this Battlefield 2042 open beta, be sure to check out EA's official blog post which features PC requirements, tips and tricks, and more.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

The long-running spy comedy Archer has been renewed for a 13th season over at FXX. But the next season will be the first without actor Jessica Walter, who died earlier this year.

As reported by Collider, the animated spy comedy Archer has been renewed for another season but the series will have to go on without Walter, who voiced Malory Archer. Malory is the mother to the lead character Sterling Archer and formerly the head of the spy agency the show centered around.

While she was able to record her full voice lines for Archer’s 12th season, which is currently airing, Walter’s passing means showrunner and creator Adam Reed will need to figure out whether to write out the character or recast the role for season 13.

In the past, Reed has retired characters whose actors have died. In 2015 when actor George Coe passed away, his faithful butler character Woodhouse was written off the show. And in an interview with Collider Reed has said he has ideas on how the show will handle Walter’s passing.

Jessica Walter died in March 2021 and is best known for playing sharp matriarchs like Malory as well as Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development where she earned an Emmy Award for Oustanding Supporting Actress for the latter role.

Archer is currently airing its 12th season. Although the series began as a spoof on the spy comedy, subsequent seasons have taken some detours into different genres like a classic noir mystery, or a recent amazonian adventure. The current season is a bit of a return to form as the characters are once again spies, though they’re competing with a large international spy conglomerate.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Battlefield 2042's short delay has set up a heck of a Fall/holiday season for first-person shooter fans. We discuss each of the five major FPS games out between now and the end of the year: Far Cry 6, Back 4 Blood, Call of Duty: Vanguard, the aforementioned Battlefield 2042, and Halo Infinite. And please welcome back guest panelist NeoGameSpark!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our new YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our Halo Infinite Flight performance preview, which does a deep-dive tech analysis on the still-in-development slice of Halo Infinite multiplayer:

Oh, and you can be featured on Unlocked by tweeting us a video Loot Box question! Tweet your question and tag Ryan at @DMC_Ryan!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.