Last week and over the weekend, one of, if not the, largest board game and tabletop conventions, Spiel Essen, was held in Germany. Board game designers and publishers the world over made their way over to not only demo their games but also reveal brand new upcoming ones. One such game was Blade Runner 2099 from the folks over at Lucky Duck Games which is slated to launch on Kickstarter next year.

Lucky Duck Games, publisher of other such great titles as Unconscious Mind (a game we ranked as one of the best worker placement games you can play right now ) pulled back the cover -literally- of Blade Runner showing off the box during the show over the weekend. Details are still sparse about it but speaking with Lucky Duck, we were able to get a little more information to share. This latest tabletop adventure set in the Blade Runner universe will be a narrative-driven game that you will play alongside a digital app, providing the narration among other features. This time around humans will be the ones being persecuted the game and promises a detective-based cooperative adventure.

Fans of Ridley Scott’s neo-noir science fiction series have a lot to look forward to in the coming year. In addition to Lucky Duck Games’ Blade Runner 2099 Kickstarter campaign launch, a brand new Amazon Prime series is also inbound. Launching in the November, we recently had a chance to sit down and talk with showrunner Silka Luisa about the upcoming “undercover police story”. One thing to note, outside of the name, Lucky Duck’s board game will feature a separate story from that in the Amazon Prime series, though there is no word on whether or not characters may make appearances.

Stay tuned for more details coming in the coming months leading up to the Kickstarter launch next year. Currently, the page is live so head over there and make sure you are notified when it launches.

Full spoilers follow for VisionQuest Episodes 5 & 6, which are streaming now on Disney+.

At this point, I'm fully on board with VisionQuest and the story of robotic reinvention it's telling. But as compelling as Paul Bettany's White Vision is, he's small potatoes compared to the series' real star, James Spader's Ultron. Episodes 5 and 6 go all-in with Ultron and his romantic obsession with the fair robo-lady Jocasta (T'Nia Miller), and the results are pretty darned impressive.

That's especially true of Episode 5, which is definitely the high point for VisionQuest so far. This one kinda, sorta takes the form of a bottle episode, as Vision and his fellow A.I. units find themselves locked in Ultron's attic prison and forced to observe his machinations from afar. This episode is cleverly constructed in how it presents bits and pieces of Ultron's conversations from different vantage points while still leaving the character's true motivations somewhat shrouded in mystery. As ever, the series gets a lot of mileage out of conveying complex digital processes through very hokey, analog representations. See also - the exorcism scene from Episode 4.

Visually, Episode 5 is a real treat. I really enjoyed the transitions between grainy video footage and more elaborately staged black-and-white environments. There's a very cozy feel to Ultron's conversations with Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica) and Jocasta that serves to highlight the dialogue and the tense back-and-forth. Having Vision and his full-color comrades patrolling in the background only makes the whole effect work that much better. It's almost like watching a well-choreographed stage play unfold.

Ultimately, though, it all comes down to the terrific chemistry between Spader and Miller. Sure, the earlier Tommy/Ultron conversation is strong, but even that can't hold a candle to the pure scenery-chewing fun of watching Ultron and Jocasta take each other's measure. Miller is able to bring a whole new level of nuance and charm to her role in this more human form, and she expertly matches Spader's gravelly blend of menance and good humor. I almost didn't want their exchange to end, but at least that element carries over into Episode 6.

Both the Ultron/Tommy and Ultron/Jocasta scenes do a fantastic job of exploring the troubled psychology of this maladjusted creation of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Tommy cuts right to the heart of the matter when he accuses Ultron of failing to understand connection. Yet paired with Jocasta, Ultron feels the pull anyway. He was already a fascinating villain in his original cinematic appearance, but the series has found newer and more complex layers to delve into. And now, though his intentions are entirely self-serving, he's no longer so clear-cut an antagonist.

Given how enthralling Episode 5 is, it should come as no surprise that Episode 6 is a bit of a comedown in comparison. After a bottle episode spent in purely digital space, it's a slight adjustment getting used to a more real-world conflict and the return of Paladin (Todd Stashwick). Part of me would be just as happy to see that character shuffled offstage, but Episode 6 does eventually justify his return. There's a fun little standoff between Vision and Paladin that unexpectedly leads to the two enemies becoming temporary allies, and the reveal that the Handler (Diane Morgan) is herself an oppressed AI unit is an amusing twist (as is the MCU origin of Tommy's Speed codename).

What this episode doesn't quite justify, however, is the sudden and inexplicable return of Faran Tahir's Raza. On some level, it's sort of neat seeing the very first MCU bad guy putting in an appearance nearly 20 years later, but why dust off that old chestnut in an Iron Man-free context? The character doesn't serve any particular purpose beyond providing Vision and Paladin with the necessary goons to battle, and he's taken out of the picture as suddenly as he appears. It comes across as continuity mining for the sake of continuity mining.

Fortunately, Episode 6 does still have a healthy dose of Ultron/Jocasta banter to fall back upon, and that's where the series continues to shine brightest. The interplay between the two characters really is the show's biggest selling point now. Every time it seems we've sussed out Ultron's motivations or that the character has bitten off more than he can chew with Jocasta, he surprises us again. We still don't know who the ultimate villain of the series is meant to be (Phineas Horton? J.I.M.?), but I'm having a blast on the road to VisionQuest's endgame.

One of LG's most popular OLED TVs for 2026 is on sale ahead of Black Friday. For a limited time, LG's online store is offering the 55" LG Evo C6 4K OLED TV for just $999.99 with free shipping. LG calls this a "guaranteed Black Friday price). Better yet, if you purchase it from LG, you get a free Xbox wireless controller with purchase. Simply add it to the same order as the TV. You get additional perks like free TV stand or wall mounting installation and $100 in Rinse credits.

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Super Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai explained why the boom in AI-created games isn’t likely to create a lasting demand for such projects, comparing them to “low-quality goods” that could never compare to human-made titles like Shadow of the Colossus.

Sakurai made these remarks in an interview with Denfaminico Gamer after he was asked for his thoughts on the huge boom in games that have been released on Steam since 2010. The interviewer noted that, since 2010, this amount skyrocketed from 275 titles to 19,000 titles.

“19,000 is amazing, but I think that number will increase even more from now on. I'm sure of it. That's because AI will increase the number. However, I think most of them will become ‘unprofitable titles.’ There are too many to keep track of, and it's impossible to understand them all,” he said.

“When it comes to things created with AI... or things mass-produced with poor quality, I think most of them will simply be reproductions of systems seen in various other games. I think there are already a lot of those now.”

He went on to mention conceptually simple games that fall into the puzzle genre, even calling out the viral Needle in a Haystack Simulator as part of his example. According to Sakurai, these types of games are easy for AI to recreate, as artificial intelligence cannot make something original, but only iterate on what has come before.

“Titles like, ‘The supermarket has been turned upside down, let's rearrange the products,’ ‘Let's put the screws back in place,’ or ‘Let's find a needle in the haystack’ have become incredibly common. They're also part of the puzzle game genre. I think that kind of imitation should be very easy for AI. However, even if AI can create various works, it's possible that we might see AI creating something similar to the works that Ueda (Fumito) has created — for example, by studying the atmosphere of ICO or Shadow of the Colossus.

“But what Mr. Ueda plans to create in the future is something that AI simply cannot replicate. What kind of artistic style will his future works possess? That's something only he can create. I think that's where human creativity lies. Basically, AI refers to ‘things that have been created so far,’ but it can't refer to ‘things that haven't been created before.’ I think this is true not only for AI, but for various kinds of creative works, as well.”

Sakurai concluded this line of thought by saying that people like Ueda, who “forge their own path” and “can create their own unique flavor," will become "increasingly important from now on," saying this is “especially true in an era of mass production and low-quality goods.”

Sakurai’s remarks couldn’t come at a better time. Over the last few weeks, AI mods have become a wildly popular trend in the gaming space, with players using the technology to port games to web browsers, combine two totally different games into a single experience, and even create ‘new’ games using pre-existing properties. As more and more layoffs hit the industry, and giants like Epic shift to “AI-first” production models, it’s looking grim — but Sakurai’s humanistic vision for a future that prioritizes human-made games with originality and depth paints a brighter picture.

This is the latest news to come from Sakurai after he was forced to abandon his Game Designer Award for the Japan Game Awards when was unable to find a successor to take over his duties after a 16-year-run.

Image Credits: Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, YouTube

The creator of a viral indie game where players must literally find a needle in a haystack is tired of his project getting cloned. So, he made a new game mode, where players must find the real game in a pile of fakes.

Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, it’s getting easier and easier for players to 'reverse-engineer' video games and even outright copy projects that haven’t been released yet.

It’s been a hellish situation for developers in the industry, particularly for small studios without the funds for legal backing or, even worse, single creators who made their games all by themselves.

NasNakarus is the driving mind behind Needle in a Haystack Simulator, which is exactly what it sounds like. Such a simple concept is easy to copy, and there are currently oodles of similar titles clogging online marketplaces. But he’s not taking it personally; instead, he’s poking fun at the ordeal with some well-timed commentary and a new ‘mode’ for his game.

NasNakarus posted about the mode on October 27, along with a quick demo of what it would look like. In this joke mode, called ‘Find the Original Game,’ players would sift through a pile of game cases with the wording ‘Needle in a Haystack Clone,’ with the ‘Clone’ being in a bright red box. And while players noted that this version of the haystack would be far easier to sort through, it’s less about the mode itself (which may or may not be actually coming to the game), but more about the fact that the developer felt a need to comment on the swath of clones by going to such lengths, at all.

“Our needle in a haystack game has been cloned so many times we made a new game mode,” the dev joked.

Our needle in a haystack game has been cloned so many times we made a new game mode

find the original game https://t.co/DH4nBMoYhg

— Nas (@NasNakarus) October 27, 2026

“This is what is called a ‘tragicomedy.’ A situation in which you find yourself, unsure whether to laugh or cry,” one fan replied.

“Someone recreate this on Roblox but you have to search for a specific Roblox game,” another suggested.

Needle in a Haystack Simulator isn’t actually out yet. It’s set to launch in Q4 of 2026, with playtests scheduled for this week. Some users remarked that clones may have taken advantage of this fact, while others pointed out that the concept isn’t exactly a novel one and is, due to its nature, prone to being cloned.

As previously mentioned in this article, the continued evolution of AI is making modding and cloning games easier than ever. Using the technology, modders have been able to port games onto web browsers, combine games (like putting Spider-Man in Batman: Arkham Asylum, for instance), or outright making ‘new’ games based on existing IP. And while some developers are taking legal action against these mods, others — somewhat surprisingly — are speaking out in favor of the trend.

Relive Marty McFly's time traveling adventures in glorious ultra high definition. Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon is offering the Back to the Future Trilogy: 40th Anniversary Edition in remastered 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray for just $29.99 after a 47% off instant discount. That's the best price I've seen this year. Even if you already own it on Blu-ray, the 40th Anniversary Edition is still worth it because the 4K remaster is widely praised for its significantly upgraded visual fidelity.

Back to the Future Trilogy: 40th Anniversary Edition for $29.99

Backrooms director Kane Parsons says he is working on three different "dream projects," which has caused no end of speculation regarding a possible collaboration with Valve.

When speaking on The Kyle Buchanan Show, Parsons confirmed he has three "dream projects" currently in the works, all while wearing a Valve hoodie. The young director has made no secret of his love for Valve, particularly Portal and Half-Life.

Earlier this year, Parsons made his big-screen debut with Backrooms, a film adaptation/expansion of his highly popular web horror series. Ever since then, he's been a hot commodity in Hollywood. The filmmaker expressed interest in making a Portal movie around the time of Backrooms' release, which excited fans.

Tomorrow, Kane Parsons comes on The Kyle Buchanan Show to talk about life since the BACKROOMS movie and what he’s working on next. Tune in for the full conversation wherever you watch or listen to podcasts! https://t.co/qu2F31jw1h

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) October 27, 2026

Following the release of his debut film, Parsons visited Valve's office, which has led some to believe that he's been actively meeting with the developer to bring their IP to life. This wouldn't be the first try at adapting Valve's franchises, as J.J. Abrams was attempting to bring Half-Life and Portal to the big screen. Abrams said in 2021 that he was still developing Portal, and that a script was being actively worked on. However, no one has heard anything since then.

It's possible Abrams could help produce a Portal film from Parsons, or that Parsons could band together a new creative team. Either way, given the filmmaker's experience and love for Valve's IPs, he'd be a great fit. Whether or not Portal or Half-Life are part of these three "dream projects" remains to be seen, but he did note that they belonged to "powerful forces." He joked that he would be hit with space lasers if he said too much about them, something that doesn't seem as likely if it were an original IP or a continuation of Backrooms.

In an interview with Yahoo Japan, executive producer Jun Takeuchi outlined Capcom’s plans for its flagship horror franchise, revealing that its encompassing narrative has a definite conclusion — and that end could come shockingly soon.

Takeuchi began by explaining how the team had expanded on Resident Evil’s overarching story with every game, saying that a ten-year strategy was crafted during the planning stages for Resident Evil 2 Remake.

“The series' story wasn't planned out from the beginning; it expanded with each new game. When we were planning RE:2 and creating a 10-year branding concept, this was the most challenging aspect. If you play through all of them, I think you'll realize the meaning behind the order of the remakes,” he said.

“With the release of Requiem this year, I feel like the first 10 years have come to a close, so I think the conclusion will come in the next 10 years."

This is somewhat sad news for hardcore fans who were hoping to blast through hordes of zombies with Leon until the end of time, not to mention fans of all the other characters we’ve come to know and love over the years. And who’s to say if that means we won’t see these characters again in a new, different story?

As for how many Resident Evil games we can expect from Capcom in the interim, Takeuchi assured us that there will be several, though he didn’t describe any of them in depth.

"I can't say, because it would spoil the fun for everyone, but there won't be just one. There will be multiple titles,” he said.

Resident Evil has proven to be a massive hit for Capcom, particularly after RE7: Biohazard shocked life back into the series. Resident Evil 2 Remake is the best-selling game in the franchise, and its most recent addition, Resident Evil Requiem, passed $500 million in revenue after releasing earlier this year, becoming a driving factor in console sales within Japan.

Adding to this, Resident Evil 2 Remake was one of the top ten best-selling titles for Capcom in the first half of its 2027 fiscal year, with RE7 not far behind. Resident Evil 4 was also on that list, as was RE3 and Requiem — meaning that half of the company's top sellers in this period were in the Resident Evil franchise.

There’s lots for Resi fans to look forward to in the coming months; the Code Veronica remake launches early next year, and screenwriter Haris Orkin basically leaked a story mode DLC for Requiem that’s supposed to involve Spencer in some way. There’s also Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie to consider, which was met with rave reviews and a hit at the box office — though it's unlikely Cregger ever makes a sequel, even though he already has plans for what he’d do next.

Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon is offering the diminutive Daran 89.6Wh 100W Power Station for just $49.99 after applying coupon code "DDDD4999". Unlike previous iterations of this deal, you don't to be an Amazon Prime member to be eligible. This "power station" is similar in size and capacity to a high-capacity power bank, except that it uses superior LiFePO4 battery cells and has AC outlets in addition to USB ports.

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Heated Rivalry actor Connor Storrie is in talks to play the villain in Ryan Gosling's Ghost Rider movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor will go toe-to-toe with Gosling's Johnny Blaze. There were some questions over whether or not Gosling would play a different Ghost Rider, but Blaze always made the most sense, and that appears to be the case, per THR's reporting. As of right now, we're not sure which villain Storrie would portray. However, it would be a big leap forward for the actor, who exploded onto the scene earlier this year in the hockey romance series Heated Rivalry.

The actor had also previously starred in Joker: Folie à Deux, as the inmate who fatally stabs Arthur Fleck and is heavily implied to be the "real Joker." Although he had only a couple of minutes of screen time, the role was significant in terms of its impact. Now, it looks like he'll be given a chance to play a real villain in one of the biggest franchises in cinematic history.

The MCU's Ghost Rider film was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, and production has been ramping up rather quickly. The film is expected to begin shooting next year and will target a July 2028 release date. Shawn Levy will direct the film after developing a good relationship with Marvel on Deadpool and Wolverine and Ryan Gosling on his upcoming film Star Wars: Starfighter.

THR also notes that Dune Part 3‘s Linus Sandgren has already been tapped to be the director of photography on the new Ghost Rider movie, and the project will shoot on film. Although this is now a rarity, it's in vogue once again thanks to directors like Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler championing the format while successfully getting audiences on board.

Not much else is known about the new Ghost Rider film, but it will be one of the first films post-Avengers: Secret Wars, which should usher in a new era of the MCU. Only time will tell where Johnny Blaze's story will take us, but it sounds like it'll be an exciting prospect.

Acclaimed voice actor and screenwriter David Hayter opened up about his canceled Lost Planet movie adaptation, explaining why it never got off the ground in a throwaway tweet more than a decade after it was first confirmed.

Did you know that David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear games, wrote the screenplay for a Lost Planet movie? I didn’t either, until he tweeted about it today — almost twenty years after the project fell through.

Hayter spoke up about the film on October 27, 2026, reminding fans that yes, he writes for movies, and one of those movies would have been an absolute dream for fans of Capcom’s long-forgotten sci-fi shooter series Lost Planet.

Fun Fact: I wrote a huge LOST PLANET movie for Warner Brothers in 2008, and then the entire financial world crashed, and that was the end of it.

— David Hayter (@DavidBHayter) October 27, 2026

“Fun Fact: I wrote a huge Lost Planet movie for Warner Brothers in 2008, and then the entire financial world crashed, and that was the end of it,” he wrote.

While Lost Planet’s demise has been thoroughly catalogued at this point — and it’s been so long that newer generations were completely unaware that it even existed, in the first place — this appears to be one of just a few times Hayter has spoken on the 2008 financial crisis playing a part in the project’s premature end.

Previously, Hayter said that internal company politics was to blame, telling MTV in 2010 that there were “some internal issues between a couple of the companies, which I think has caused a delay there.”

And in 2014, Hayter told IGN that the movie — which he described as a “Lawrence of Arabia on an ice planet” — was interrupted by the financial crisis. “Unfortunately, right about the time I was delivering the script, the financial crash hit, and it just devastated the business — in ways that I don't think people grasped. Like, I would get phone calls saying, ‘Well, Disney wants to do such-and-such, but they're out of money until August,’” he explained.

“I heard that about a number of studios. ‘Oh, they're out of money until January,’ or whatever, and I'd never heard that about a movie studio before. So in the midst of all of that turmoil, it just went away, as these things tend to do. So, you know, I guess Warners probably still owns it, and they have my script. I don't know if there are any plans to bring it back up or not. But that was just one of those Hollywood casualties, unfortunately.”

Hayter expounded on some details about his Lost Planet movie in his interview with MTV, saying it “had this incredible visual world. Great suits of armor, great creatures, and its story was about energy — the dwindling energy resources of the Earth and how we’re going to other planets to [solve that problem]. So I thought it was really timely and the world was beautiful. And the other thing that I really felt as a screenwriter made it ideal for adaptation was, the original story in the game was… not… great."

"It was sort of presented in a very Japanese storytelling fashion. It’s very elliptical and difficult to follow, and you’re not really sure who’s who. That’s fine in a game because… you’re really trying to get to the next level. It’s a great opportunity for me as a screenwriter to step in and infuse that incredible visual world with a really compelling — for lack of a better term — American-structured film."

For now, all fans can do is pine after what could have been… though, given Capcom’s renewed interest in “reactivating IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently," on top of its successful movie adaptations for Resident Evil and Street Fighter, it’s possible that Hayter’s long-awaited Lost Planet flick could come to light. (But maybe that’s just me trying to cope.)

Curry Barker, writer and director of the brilliantly twisted Obsession, is releasing a new short film on YouTube on October 29. The filmmaker shared the news on Instagram along with its title, Mama Bear. The project appears to be part of some sort of Microsoft Windows partnership, but the title suggests something that links to Obsession, rather than an ad for Outlook.

Obsession fans will immediately spot that the title probably relates to the movie's lead character, Baron "Bear" Bailey. We learn early on that he's living in a house he inherited from his grandmother, but his parents are absent from the movie. It makes sense that Barker could explore either Bear's early life or his mother's reaction to the events that happen at the end of the film.

In interviews, Barker has revealed that there's potential for a follow-up to Obsession, telling Deadline:

“I obviously have a couple more things that I’m excited about next, but I do see Obsession 2, maybe. Or even what really is exciting to me is maybe an anthology, like a one-hour episode. Each episode is a different wish that goes completely off the rails. Maybe I’ll direct the pilot with the same DP, and you could invite other filmmakers to kind of give their spin at it. That would be really cool.”

Obsession was a hit in terms of both capitalism and audience reactions. It raked in $520 million worldwide (not bad for a film made on a budget that fell somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000), has already taken home a bunch of awards, and scored high with critics and the public.

An October 27 statement from employees of Don't Nod, the developer best known for making the original Life is Strange games, warn that the company is in danger of insolvency and layoffs, and accused its management of "illegal" practices that have caused staff "uncertainty and anxiety."

The damning statement comes from employees who are members of the French game industry union Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo, which revealed that Don’t Nod is currently under a safeguard to help protect itself from insolvency (meaning that the company wouldn’t be able to pay its debts).

The statement claims employees were approached by management and given “several financial scenarios” that could happen in the near future, both of which “included redundancies," with the worst case forecasting the “liquidation of the company through 2026.”

The message states that “nearly all of the non-managerial jobs” were cut at Don’t Nod, which reportedly included all animators, character artists, concept artists, associate producers, and most environmental artists, sound designers, level designers, programmers, QA testers, HR and developers. Half of its game designers were also laid off, according to the statement.

“Management is extremely clearly going for heavily individualized targeting and hasn’t been shy about their intent to keep selected people in rather than jobs, which is illegal,” the union wrote.

The statement goes on to claim that management is betting on outsourcing to take on the workload of these fired team members — a decision that the union feels is “out-of-touch.”

The letter then says Don't Nod employees have been “living on the edge, in uncertainty and anxiety” for the last two years, to the point where six workplace accidents occurred this year and an inquiry was recently launched into a “serious and immediate danger.” It also alleges that management “refused to let those who would be willing to leave earlier go through a voluntary leave plan,” saying they “do not care about the damage it deals to employees’ health.”

The statement ends on a striking note; a government agency that represents employees is set to make its ruling on November 3. After that, management will have 21 days to decide on a plan. If this plan is accepted by the government agency, it’s possible that employees could “get their firing letters on November 25.”

“If it were to be rejected however, management would have to go back to the drawing board and improvise because, as you might have gathered, planning for contingencies isn’t their forte,” the letter concludes.

This is the latest news to surface regarding Don’t Nod’s dire financial straits after it was warned by auditors in a financial report that it could run out of cash as early as November. Its latest game, Aphelion, was released earlier this year to middling reviews, and given this recent union tell-all, its next project could be in peril.

A few new details on the story for A24’s Elden Ring movie have emerged, including its possible runtime. And, if that remains the case, it’s going to be epic.

Deadline reports that writer-director Alex Garland’s screenplay, based on FromSoftware’s acclaimed fantasy video game, “runs to at least 180 pages with visuals, implying the movie could push towards three hours. While plot details are largely being kept under wraps, we understand that in-demand Heartstopper actor [Kit] Connor is the protagonist and the ‘faithful’ film will follow his journey. There are said to be battles between his character and impressive monsters and dragons.”

The site also claims that A24 is allowing potential international buyers to read Garland’s Elden Ring script, but only with a studio staff member present (for security reasons, naturally).

It was reported last week that the Elden Ring movie is the most expensive film A24 has ever produced – Deadline’s report today pegs it at “between $175 million-200 million, but closer to the latter” – and now comes word that the studio, which fully financed the film, is looking to mitigate some of that risk by bringing in a partner with very deep pockets: Amazon.

According to Deadline, Amazon MGM Studios has now acquired “a bunch of international pay-1 streaming rights... The pact is understood to cover a large number of international markets, and sources speculate to us that it is easily worth tens of millions of dollars. We hear the deal could also potentially lead to interesting activations on Amazon’s Twitch platform.”

The film’s huge price tag makes Elden Ring one of the most expensive films that will be shopped at next month’s American Film Market, which touts itself as “the premier marketplace for the acquisition, development, financing, and distribution of independent film, television, and premium content for audiences worldwide.”

Potential buyers at AFM will reportedly be treated to an Elden Ring movie presentation of some kind, including possibly seeing the very first footage from this highly-anticipated film.

After some set photos made their way online, Elden Ring wrapped filming in July and is scheduled to open in theaters on March 3, 2028.

In addition to Kit O’Connor, the cast includes Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny, Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Jonathan Pryce, Nick Offerman and Peter Serafinowicz.

Are you excited by the prospect of a three-hour Elden Ring movie? Let us know in the comments.

Shipment, one of Call of Duty's most iconic maps, has officially been added to Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's Shipment is now available in the standard 6v6 map rotation, as well as in a playlist known as Shipment 24/7. Call of Duty fans are likely well-versed in the latter, which allows players to exclusively play Shipment, with the only variable being the mode you play. The playlist is preferred for camo and challenge grinding, as you can just farm kills ad nauseam. Needless to say, it should be pure chaos, just the way Shipment fans like it.

You know what to do 😤

Shipment is LIVE NOW in #MW4 https://t.co/FSX7GmbZ0r

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 27, 2026

The map was introduced back in 2007, nearly 20 years ago, and was reportedly a total accident. The map was meant to be a simple test environment for certain features like split-screen, but was mistakenly left in the final build. This was right before the days of constant game updates, and if a developer did want to make a change, it cost money. So... it stayed. Fans liked it, and then it became iconic for its fast-paced, chaotic nature. It has returned in a number of Call of Duty games, but is a prominent staple of the recently rebooted Modern Warfare saga.

Shipment makes for the first post-launch map in MW4, but more is on the way. The game's first season of post-launch content will debut next week. We don't currently know what will be part of the first season, but you can likely expect new weapons, a battle pass, skins, and potentially new maps and modes, if history is anything to go by.

IGN posted its full review of Modern Warfare 4's campaign and multiplayer the other day, giving the two modes a collective 7/10. Although the review praised the campaign, it noted that the multiplayer didn't push the franchise forward in any major ways, despite still being fun.

"The new shape-shifting Kill Block arena is certainly a highlight, but elsewhere very little has been offered when it comes to innovation or interesting map design. It’s still that familiar Call of Duty brand of fun, just not in any way I haven’t seen before. Overall, it’s a good package from Infinity Ward, with a great campaign as its highlight, ensuring Modern Warfare 4’s place as one of Call of Duty’s better recent entries."

Don't wait until Black Friday to score a great deal on some high quality earbuds. Amazon has dropped the price of the premium JBL Live Buds 3 noise canceling wireless earbuds from $200 all the way down to $91.99 with free shipping. That's the best price I've seen all year and with such a big price drop, I don't really expect to see it go down further during Black Friday. Although these earbuds work will with iPhones, it's really designed for Android devices.

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LEGO PlayStation is a new buildable set based on Sony's original game console from the 1990s. It's a near 1:1 scale recreation of the original PS1 hardware. I can say that definitively, because I dug up my old console when I built LEGO PlayStation earlier this month and compared the LEGO version to the real thing. It really is an impressively designed set.

I wanted to talk about how the set was made and how its hidden Easter eggs were conceived. So I connected with Isaac Snyder, senior model designer who worked on creating the LEGO PlayStation set. Our conversation is below.

IGN: How did you get started designing sets with the LEGO Group?

Isaac Snyder: I have always loved building my own LEGO models and would create new designs when playing with my brothers. To become a set designer was a dream of mine; one that seemed unlikely to ever happen.

I kept building, got involved with the Adult Fan of LEGO community, pursued a design degree, and applied when I saw an opening on the LEGO careers page.

IGN: What other sets have you worked on besides the LEGO PlayStation?

Snyder: Lots! I joined the LEGO Minecraft team when I was hired and have continued there ever since. I designed more than 25 products for that theme. I’ve also had the opportunity to work on some other themes: LEGO Horizon Forbidden West - Tallneck; LEGO Architecture - Paris City of Love; LEGO One Piece – The Baratie Floating Restaurant; LEGO City - Lava Land; LEGO Ideas - Viking Village; and several LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog sets.

Each product has its own challenges, yet it is always satisfying to find just the right combination of parts for a specific detail or function.

IGN: Did you play a PlayStation One console in the ’90s?

Snyder: No, we didn’t have any consoles in my family when I was growing up so I missed out on playing the PlayStation One. However, several LEGO designers who grew up playing the original PlayStation game brought their firsthand passion and memories to the project which helped shape the set through thoughtful details and authentic feedback.

IGN: How did you decide which games to feature in the hidden dioramas? Did you have to clear them with Sony first? Were there any other games you would have liked to feature?

Snyder: Of course, we collaborated closely with Sony Interactive Entertainment when selecting which games to feature.

IGN: Was it difficult to design the functionality for the Open and Power buttons?

Snyder: Yes, there were plenty of challenges including those functions. The open button especially, since there were so many variables to solve to get the lid opening as it should. Using technic shock absorber elements was the idea from the start but required a lot of experimentation to find the right connections into the rest of the primarily system based model.
IGN: What’s your favorite part about the LEGO PlayStation set?

Snyder: I’m very pleased with how the controller turned out. That was another section that saw a lot of iterations trying to find a simple, satisfying build, that still felt and looked like the original PlayStation One controller.

IGN: Are there any other video game-based LEGO sets you'd like to work on in the future?

Snyder: There are many! Video games offer such a variety of rich, exciting worlds and characters that I think there will always be more to explore.

The 1993 first-person shooter Doom is legendary. Its place in history is both untouchable and inarguable. The details of that history, though, are currently being debated on social media. Not by fans, mind you, but instead by two of the very people that created it. Doom co-creator John Romero and Doom level- and game-designer Sandy Petersen took to X (formerly Twitter) to dispute each other's recollection of the origin of Doom's groundbreaking DeathMatch PvP multiplayer mode.

It started with Petersen posting a thread titled, "How Doom changed the world." He discussed his history in the video game industry prior to getting hired at id Software to work on Doom – specifically on a real-time strategy game released in 1990 called Command HQ, and how designer Danielle Bunten Berry "thought that since 65% of gamers had modems it would mostly be played head-to-head. It bombed. I think it had about 40,000 sales." That set up a memory he shared next about working on Doom, about which he said, "We all agreed at id that it was unlikely anyone would ever play Deathmatch, except in very small numbers. After all, zero games had a robust head-to-head experience, and my personal time with Command HQ just hammered home the point. However, everyone at id loved Deathmatch, so we kept it in the game. We figured, even if no one else played it, WE could keep doing it."

Romero responded to politely take issue with Petersen's recollection of the team's sentiment around DeathMatch prior to release. He posted, "Hi Sandy. Are you well? This is wrong. On January 1, 1993, we sent a press release saying that multiplayer would be in DOOM, a full 8 months before you joined the company. We knew deathmatch would be huge. In that press release, in January 1993, we said multiplayer would be 'the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world.' We were sure of it, and we needed no convincing. I understand you are proud of your work on DOOM, and you should be, but please also respect the accuracy of your statements, particularly around game history. My concern is that these false statements are designed to trigger replies (like this one), reposts, and outrage discussion, all with the view of increasing your followers and subscriptions, particularly since this false deathmatch story (among others) is so easily disproved. I’ve even welcomed you to reach out to me ahead of time. You seem to appreciate game history as much as I do. Could you not also make yours accurate?"

Petersen continued the discussion with Romero, responding with, "John. First, 8 months before release is before I joined the company. So I have no knowledge of what you did then. Second, AFTER I joined we had a discussion in which I talked about my experience with Command HQ and YOU YOURSELF agreed that Deathmatch wouldn’t be that big a deal. Do you not remember? Third yes we all wanted Deathmatch anyway. And I’m glad my predictions were wrong. Perhaps check your own memory before gaslighting mine. Hope you’re well."

Romero came back with, "I am well, thanks, and so is my memory. I do not believe your recollection is accurate and neither do other members of the team. We KNEW deathmatch would be huge from the beginning. We said so. Once it was in, those aspirations were confirmed." As of the publication of this story, that's the last post in their online discussion.

Regardless of who is correct about DeathMatch's pre-release history, it certainly blew up once Doom shipped in December of 1993, and every multiplayer first-person shooter released since can trace some part of its lineage back to Doom. For my part, Doom is one of my favorite games of all time, and I was fortunate to get to check off a personal and career Bucket List item by playing through the entire legendary first episode of Doom (called "Knee-Deep in the Dead") in co-op with Romero to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2013. Today, Doom of course lives on with the new-generation team currently at id Software, with the studio having shipped the amazing Revelations DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages earlier this summer.

Over the last decade, Discord has become the de facto community space for gaming, and there are a lot of huge servers out there that you can find by scrolling through its public servers page. But starting on November 16, some messages in these huge servers will be viewable from Google.

In a blog post, Discord laid out its plans to publish 'Server Web Pages' for every discoverable server on Discord by default. These are bespoke web pages that give a preview of a server's contents before forcing users to hit the join button. There are already several of these pages live, typically for huge online games like Rust or Dead by Daylight. These pages will be discoverable on Google, and will display a summary of the discussions going on in the server.

But while these Server Web Pages will be going live next month, another update is coming in December that'll allow answers to questions to appear in Google search. According to the blog post, "Answers to questions your members sent in public channels can be found in a web search, in their own words. Server admins decide which channels take part, and server members can choose whether their own messages appear. Usernames and avatars will not be shown alongside these messages."

It's important to note that only large discoverable servers will be affected by these changes, meaning your World of Warcraft guild or friend group probably won't be affected in any way. Discoverable server admins can opt out their servers or even individual channels by going to Server Settings, then Web Presence and choosing which channels you want to be visible. But, if you don't change anything, public channels will have the setting enabled by default.

If you're just a user in one of these huge servers and you don't want your messages to be viewable from Google, you can also opt your own messages out. Simply go to User Settings, then Data and Privacy and disable 'Show my message content from Discoverable channels on web pages.'

Discord is introducing this feature to help people find answers to questions. If you've Googled anything in the last couple of years, you've probably noticed that a lot of search results for questions will lead you to Reddit, or another similar message board. It seems like Discord wants a slice of that pie.

According to the blog, "Prior to Discord's launch, message boards were common, ranging from community-driven forums to official ones run by game studios. These message boards excelled at hosting long-form, structured conversations about helping people, theory crafting, and more. While they still exist today, many have moved into Discord servers. This has led to valuable information being locked in Discord conversations, inaccessible to the wider internet. We want to fix this."

There will likely be some useful information that you'll be able to find when these changes go live in December, but there are definitely some privacy concerns as well. So, if you don't want your messages in large discoverable servers to be seen by everyone, make sure to disable the feature today, before all the changes go live. So far, these changes will be exclusive to large public servers with more than 1,000 members, and hopefully it stays that way.

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