The sequel to Stellar Blade will not be published by PlayStation, developer Shift Up has confirmed — something that could point to a multiplatform launch for the forthcoming game.

Instead, Korean company Shift Up will take on publishing duties itself for Stellar Blade 2, or whatever the game ends up being called. In an earnings relase, Shift Up said this move would help ensure its franchise's "unique appeal" was communicated to players "more directly and effectively."

The first Stellar Blade launched as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive in April 2024, with a PC port then launching just over a year later in June 2025. Its arrival was received positively on both platforms, with players saying its gameplay mixed elements of NieR: Automata and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Despite fan expectation of further Stellar Blade ports — particularly for Switch or Switch 2 — nothing has yet been confirmed by Shift Up. However, as part of the same earnings presentation, Shift Up said it was "actively exploring further platform expansion" for the first game. No launch window for the sequel has yet been set.

"Development of the next Stellar Blade title is progressing smoothly, on track to meet our targeted quality standards," Shift Up stated. "Notably, starting with this next title, Shift Up will transition to a first-party service model. This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the Stellar Blade IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively.

"With three key tailwinds – high-quality self-publishing capabilities, a sales maximization strategy, and a proven IP fanbase – we are confident the next title will deliver meaningfully improved results compared to its predecessor."

IGN's Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10 and branded the hack-and-slash adventure as "a gorgeous and well-crafted action game with very impressive strengths and very clear weaknesses."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Michael Pennington — better known to Star Wars fans as Return of the Jedi's Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod — has died aged 82, The Telegraph has reported.

British actor Pennington starred in Return of the Jedi as Jerjerrod, the Commander of Death Star II. He made a few brief appearances, including when Darth Vader warns him that the Emperor is coming to visit the new Death Star because construction has fallen behind schedule. A clearly terrified Jerjerrod responds: "we shall double our efforts."

While no-one actually says the name of the Imperial officer in Return of the Jedi, and in the final cut Jerjerrod serves little purpose other than to hype up the Emperor's arrival, deleted scenes released by StarWars.com for Return of the Jedi's 40th anniversary show he could have played a beefed up role, even standing up to Vader at one point.

Battle of Endor: The Lost Rebels includes one deleted scene in which Jerjerrod and two of the Emperor’s Royal Guards try to slow Vader down on his way to see the Emperor. Vader chokes Jerjerrod through the Force but doesn't actually kill him, only relenting when Jerjerrod just about manages to tell him he's acting on the Emperor's orders. Another unused scene shows an alternative sequence where the Emperor orders Jerjerrod to destroy the Endor moon if the rebels succeed in blowing up the shield generator. A later scene shows Jerjerrod and several Imperial officers following that command, despite the fact doing so means killing his own men.

Though he spent most of his career on stage and TV as a celebrated Shakespearean actor, Pennington never begrudged the supporting movie role, telling an interviewer in 2003: "Let’s not make too much of it, but I’ve done 20 years of plays since, and people still write for autographs, saying, 'If you ever do any more acting, please let us know.'"

Pennington was married to actor Katharine Baker, with whom he had one son. His other credits include the TV movie The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Wars of the Roses, and The Iron Lady.

The Telegraph reported he allegedly turned down the chance to star alongside Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman to perform as Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company, saying: "I realized I couldn’t let Hamlet go. It is one of the prizes."

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.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire, the stylish first-person shooter dressed up as a 1930s cartoon, has topped 730,000 sales since its launch in April.

Publisher PlaySide confirmed the milestone during its financial presentation to investors, revealing that publishing and marketing costs have now been "recouped," which means that from now on, funds collated from the "continued strong sales performance" will contribute to PlaySide's FY26 revenue. That's now expected to be around $36-£38 million — up from $34.7 million.

"The upgrade primarily reflects stronger than-expected unit sales and ongoing wishlist conversion of Mouse: P.I. For Hire across PC and console platforms, and has been achieved despite the delayed launch of the title and the absence of major external project wins during the year to date," the publisher said.

Interestingly, PlaySide also revealed that "console units have increased to 50% of total units sold as the title retains significant visibility on console storefronts."

Mouse: P.I. For Hire, developed by Fumi Games, sees you join private investigator Jack Pepper on a guns blazing, jazz-fueled adventure, combining "the charm of hand-drawn rubber hose animation inspired by the classic cartoons of the 1930s with the adrenaline and action of an explosive first person shooter." It's currently sitting on a 'Very Positive' user score on 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.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight fans are bracing themselves for spoilers after some Xbox owners who bought the game digitally from Walmart found they were able to download and play.

Redditor Dramatic-Track-9935 said they obtained a digital code from Walmart, which, when redeemed on their Xbox, let them download the game. Once the “ready to start” message flashed on-screen, they were able to jump in and play. Dramatic-Track-9935 published images to back up their claim.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight officially launches on May 22, although Deluxe edition owners can play from May 19. IGN has asked Warner Bros. Games for comment.

After the Reddit post caught attention, others tried to repeat the trick, and some reported having success. One person said they were able to play “all night,” although the game did show a “required update available.” Some who have made use of the trick are disconnecting their Xbox from the internet in a bid to avoid an update that would prevent the game from being playable early.

It seems Warner Bros. Games or developer TT Games have now clamped down on the exploit, although it’s not entirely clear what happened here. Was this a preload error, as Forza Horizon 6 suffered this weekend? Or were incorrect codes issued by Walmart for redemption on Xbox? Either way, fans are now issuing spoiler warnings.

It’s unclear whether Warner Bros. Games will now alter its release plans for Lego Batman. Over the weekend, IGN reported on the addition of DRM software Denuvo to the game ahead of launch, which sparked concern amid controversial PC system requirements.

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.

Most who have seen the recently released Mortal Kombat II agree: the fight between Liu Kang and Kung Lao is the best in the movie.

Liu Kang, played by Ludi Lin, and Kung Lao, played by Max Huang, are in full martial arts movie star mode as they zip about a big screen adaptation of the iconic Portal stage from the Mortal Kombat video games. Kung Lao, revived as an undead Revenant after biting the dust in the previous movie, fights for Outworld against a fired up Liu Kang. The once best friends are now deadly foes, destined to fight to the death.

Huang and Lin are in top form here, but the fight itself — without spoiling anything — is the movie's most effective at fusing VFX into stuntwork. Liu Kang displays plenty of fire power, but Kung Lao’s razor sharp hat, perhaps the most iconic weapon in all of Mortal Kombat, steals the show. It darts this way and that as if it were a third member of the fight. The way both Huang and Lin work with it as well as against it while battling each other is truly impressive. As a result, Liu Kang vs Kung Lao is the centrepiece of Mortal Kombat II — and it leaves us wanting more.

In an interview with IGN, Huang revealed the eight-month prep work for his return as Kung Lao, this time as a villain, and his fight with Ludi Lin. He told us that he actually trained with a shaolin monk to help him get into character (in the games Kung Lao and Liu Kang are Shaolin monks). “I wanted to give Kung Lao more depth and I wanted to bring him back to his origin,” Huang explained.

Preparing for the fight, the pair used an iPhone to record each other while trying to capture the same framing for all the movements we see in the movie. Huang and Lin filmed their fight scene for a solid week. Huang, who performed almost all his own stunts, called the experience “brutal.” At one point — day six, he said — he was lying on the floor and was meant to get up, but just couldn’t. “I was like, okay, I just need one minute,” he said.

But his experience filming Mortal Kombat is a cake walk compared to his decade-long work as a member of the great Jackie Chan’s stunt team. “In China, we used to have sometimes 16-18 hour days of nonstop working, and you would be lucky if there was coffee around on set. It's just like, ‘Boom, boom, boom, one shot after another. And I feel like when I come to Hollywood, it's almost like a vacation to be honest. You work with Jackie Chan and you're not surprised by any other action design or action team.”

On screen, Kung Lao effortlessly interacts with his hat, commanding it as if with his mind. It moves extremely quickly; as a viewer it’s sometimes hard to keep up, but the hat makes the fight truly special. Of course, mastering the hat took a great deal of work. Thankfully for Huang, his background in Chinese kung fu gave him a natural advantage.

“The philosophy in Chinese martial arts is always to enhance the weapon as part of your body,” Huang explained. “And I try to do the same with the hat. The approach was to bring it all together and make the hat become part of Kung Lao instead of being separate.”

Huang distanced himself from the well-trodden idea that performing in fight scenes is like performing in a dance. Indeed, he insisted fight scenes aren’t even choreographed, when it comes down to it. “It's actually the opposite and it's very spontaneous,” he said. “It's very reactive out of the moment. If you look at the UFC, you never know what the next moment will give you. There's always a surprise that lies ahead.”

Instead, Huang tries to find “the truth of the moment” within his action scenes, rather than fuss over carefully choreographed movements. “I'm not really interested in choreography to be honest with you,” he said.

“I'm more interested in the connection between the two characters and what it is about,” Huang continued. “What do we want to express? I think that's part of the reason why this scene works so well, because instead of just moving in a fancy way, this fight is telling a story.”

When you’re playing Kung Lao, you don’t just have to prepare physically, you have to do your video game research. For Huang, that came before he filmed 2021’s Mortal Kombat, and it revolved around Mortal Kombat 11. He looked at Kung Lao in that game, settled on his top five iconic movements, and studied those to capture the essence of the character’s style.

Based on what we're treated to on-screen, all the hard work has paid off. “A huge amount of time went into this one,” Huang said of Mortal Kombat II's Liu Kang and Kung Lao fight, “but I am personally pretty happy with the result. It’s probably the best fight scene I've done so far. It’s the fight of my life.”

Warning! Spoilers for Mortal Kombat II follow:

At this point, we’ll veer into spoiler territory for Mortal Kombat II. Liu Kang ends up using Kung Lao’s hat against him, tearing the Revenant in half in typically gory fashion. Eventually, Liu Kang seemingly ascends to godhood — something that won't surprise anyone who’s played recent Mortal Kombat video games — and he vows to rescue his old friend from the afterlife (this is Mortal Kombat, it’s probably best not to dwell on logic).

The upshot is Kung Lao will return for Mortal Kombat III, and Liu Kang’s rescue act will be one of the main storylines in the sequel. Poor Kung Lao doesn’t have a particularly impressive survival rate; he died in each of the Mortal Kombat movies so far. It’s safe to assume Kung Lao will get another go in Mortal Kombat III, but what does Huang want to see happen to his character?

“Well, first of all, I hope that he doesn't suffer another death!” Huang said, keeping his cards close to his chest. “Give him a break, let him live for a second. But yeah, there's so many possibilities where this whole franchise can go.”

With Mortal Kombat III already in the works, perhaps the powers that be will also consider spinoffs. If that happens, Huang — like Lin — would love to see a Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks film. This would be an exciting prospect for fans considering Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a video game spinoff itself. The 2005 action adventure game sees players control the eponymous Shaolin monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao as they protect Earthrealm from the forces of Outworld. It's easy to see a movie version do much the same, while fleshing out both characters' backstories.

“Something that I personally would love to explore would be a Shaolin Monks spinoff,” Huang said. “Ludi has talked about it. I've been talking about it. It would be great to see those two characters' origins and how they were raised by Bo' Rai Cho and trained and exploring the White Lotus. Yeah, the lore of Mortal Kombat is huge.”

After his performance in Mortal Kombat II, Max Huang might just get his wish.

For more, check out IGN’s Mortal Kombat II review. And once you’re done with that, check out the biggest burning questions we have going into Mortal Kombat III.

Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

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.

Forza Horizon 6 suffered a significant leak after the entire game was reportedly made available via an unencrypted Steam preload.

According to various online reports, 155 gigabytes of unencrypted Forza Horizon 6 files were spotted on SteamDB over the weekend, four days ahead of early access and nine days before full launch. As a result of the leak, Forza Horizon 6 was made available to download from piracy websites.

It appears the leak stems from the Forza Horizon 6 preload, which under normal circumstances allows players to download files in an encrypted format. When a game goes live officially, Steam will push an update through that decrypts the files so players can use them. It looks like the Forza Horizon 6 preload and its decryption update were released early.

While the damage is essentially done, Microsoft may be working to plug the leak. One prominent Reddit thread detailing Forza's availability on piracy websites saw its opening post removed by Reddit’s Legal Operations team, according to an online message. There are also reports that people are streaming the game early, although Microsoft will no doubt be keen to ban those doing so.

IGN has asked for comment.

It’s a major error from Microsoft, one that may end up costing the business and Forza Horizon 6 developer Playground dearly. The hotly anticipated racing game is set to launch across PC and Xbox and, as a Microsoft game, straight into Game Pass, but Steam is expected to be a significant driver of sales. Currently, Forza Horizon 6 is the second top-selling game by revenue on Valve’s platform (you can prepurchase it now). That suggests that despite this leak, it will enjoy significant success. It’s the third most-wishlisted game on Steam, too.

Microsoft has yet to say exactly when Forza Horizon 6 will officially unlock and become playable, or if this leak will affect the game's launch plans. Its general release date is May 19, but early access starts four days early, from May 15.

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.

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has released this week’s update as promised, and it adds what it said it would add. But it also adds a whole lot more, including a surprise claw machine mini-game that gives unique rewards.

Update 1.06.00, rolling out across all platforms now, adds the extraction feature that lets players recover materials used in refinement. We knew this was coming, but we now know exactly how it works. The details are in the patch notes, below, but the upshot is special materials such as Artifacts and Aeserion's scale are recovered at 100% of the amount used (thank goodness!), and common materials such as iron ore, copper ore, and bloodstones are recovered at approximately 70% of the amount used. This should make the endgame grind to fully upgrade your favorite equipment a lot faster.

As for the special mounts, there are a number of animals that you can now tame to be summonable mounts: bears; boars; wolves; deer; mountain goats; kuku birds; iguanas; raptors; camels; lions; and tigers. Ferocious animals can be tamed by subduing and feeding them, Pearl Abyss explained, while certain species require unique methods to tame.

Meanwhile, there’s a new Display Sheath option that lets you choose whether your character's sheath is shown, a new Sigil of Valor item that, when equipped, makes pet dogs attack enemies (take that, cats!). And, brilliantly, a new claw machine at the Laughing Marionette. There are unique rewards tied to this: 12 types of lighting items; one type of chair; one type of special headgear; Abyss Artifacts; and Abyss Gears.

The new Night Tone Mode makes overall colors softer, and darker, shaded areas appear slightly brighter. When it’s disabled, overall colors become sharper, and darker, shaded areas appear slightly darker, Pearl Abyss said.

The pace of these updates, which have arrived pretty much weekly since the game’s launch, is remarkable. Pearl Abyss has only just improved the entire endgame, adding the boss Rematch and Re-blockade features, rounding out what we thought was coming to the game by June. But now we have even more surprise features. In a recent interview, Pearl Abyss PR and marketing director Will Powers pointed to MMO Black Desert, which Pearl Abyss has updated on a weekly basis for over a year, as informing its post-launch support for Crimson Desert. Crimson Desert began life as an MMO follow-up to Black Desert before it was re-jigged to become a single-player game, and you can see some of the MMO-ness in Crimson Desert’s design as well as its post-launch support.

The patch notes, courtesy of the Crimson Desert website, are below.

Crimson Desert update 1.06.00 patch notes:

New Additions

Major ImprovementsContent

• Improved certain equipment, such as Visiones, so that they can now be enhanced, and sockets for equipping Abyss Gear have been added.
  • The number of sockets matches the default number of sockets for that equipment type.
  • However, some equipment and Kuku equipment have fewer sockets than other equipment of the same type.
• Adjusted the elemental resistances of certain cloaks to better match their characteristics.
• Fixed an issue where certain comrade missions did not restart automatically.
• Fixed an issue where pets could not be summoned in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where "Sweet Taste of Bounties" could not be completed when progressed in a certain order.
• Fixed an issue where Sotdae of Bond would disappear from the Recoverable Items. Additionally, Sotdae of Bond has been reissued.
• Fixed an issue where the Iron Eagle could not be tamed if it was not tamed on the first attempt.
• Added the “Clean All,” “Butcher All,” and “Obtain All Seeds” functions to the inventory.
• Fixed an issue where horse tack could not be dyed in certain situations.
• Added new ways to obtain previously unobtainable knowledge for certain factions.
• Changed refinement using identical equipment so that it is only available up to the level immediately before an Abyss Artifact is required.
• Improved certain items so that they can now be stacked.
• Affected items: Furniture and Ornaments

Combat / Action

• Improved the default stance and movement animations when fighting unarmed.
• Changed "Blinding Flash" so that it can now be used even without a weapon equipped.
• Added additional effects when firing two-handed cannons.
• Adjusted the base attack power of two-handed cannons.
• Improved chain attacks that follow the unarmed combat skill "Roundhouse Kick".
• Improved targeting when aiming ranged weapons at small animals.
• Fixed an issue where certain bosses would take excessive damage when struck with heavy objects.
• Fixed an issue where arrows could not be fired after loading the game, even when they were in the inventory.

Controls

• Improved convenience of object placement on bookshelves during house decoration.
• Added an animation that plays when you fail to turn a large valve all the way.
• Improved climbing over windows so that it can now be done from either side while hanging on a wall.
• Improved camera angle so that, after following an NPC for a certain period of time, it automatically adjusts to align with the player's direction of movement.

UI

• Fixed an issue where certain input prompts were not displayed depending on the input method.
• Improved the Character Customization and Dye menus to display the amount of currency you are carrying.
• Added a search function to the Skills menu that allows you to search for specific skills.
• Improved fishing so that the relevant guide is also displayed while waiting.
• Improved the UI of research institutes to make it more intuitive.
• Fixed an issue where the UI would freeze in certain situations when changing customized presets for keyboard and mouse controls.

Graphics & Settings

• Added Night Tone Mode option.
  • When enabled, overall colors become softer, and darker, shaded areas appear slightly brighter.
  • When disabled, overall colors become sharper, and darker, shaded areas appear slightly darker.
• [Mac] Improved HDR support detection for each display so that HDR can be enabled on supported external monitors and will not be enabled on unsupported monitors.
• [Mac] Fixed an issue where GPU crashes could occasionally occur during gameplay.
• Fixed a rendering issue that occurred at 5120 x 2160 resolution.
• Fixed an issue where colors would appear inverted when using Photo Mode in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where enabling HDR would disable Direct-to-Play, and improved HDR quality.
• Fixed an issue where the Adaptive Triggers option in Settings > Input was not being applied correctly.
• Fixed an issue where the game would close when changing the HDR or Frame Generation option while playing the game with external overlay programs.
• Fixed an issue where waterfalls would appear unnatural at certain distances.
• Fixed an issue where the Headgear On/Off option was not displayed when selecting the Body Tattoo option at the Barber.

Localization

• Fixed various localization errors and improved localization quality across all languages.

Others

• Fixed an issue where Contribution equipment would disappear from Recoverable Items.
• Fixed an issue where the collar area of the Elegant Carmine Leather Armor could not be dyed.
• [Damiane/Oongka] Fixed an issue where face and body tattoos were not applied after applying them and reloading the game.
• [Damiane/Oongka] Fixed an issue where the equipped horse tack would appear in Kliff's horse tack slot.
• [Damiane] Fixed an issue where Damiane was unable to equip a scythe.
• Fixed an issue where fish would not bite when the hook was cast into certain areas.
• Increased the selling prices of fish.
• Increased chances of obtaining Abyss Gear Blueprints at certain strongholds.
• Fixed an issue where books could not be examined while on horseback.
• Fixed an issue where "Elemental Meteor Kick" would not execute properly.
• Fixed an issue where Oongka's "Explosive Leap" would be canceled before landing.
• Fixed an issue where Oongka would stop flying when a ranged attack was quickly canceled while airborne.
• Fixed an issue where Damiane could not use "Counter" when equipped with a greatsword.
• Fixed an issue where "Focused Charged Shot" could not be used while airborne.
• Improved "Focused Evasive Shot" so that the reload animation no longer plays if the shot is not fired.
• Fixed an issue where "Repel" could be used with a spear even if it had not been acquired.
• Fixed an issue where Spirit was not consumed when using certain grappling skills.
• Fixed an issue where "Lightning Surge" would not be maintained depending on the selected "Evasion Control" option.
• Fixed an issue where relevant effects would trigger in certain situations even when the "Electro-Mecha Longsword" was not drawn.
• Fixed an issue where the speed of the monster in combat would decrease significantly.
• Fixed an issue where certain bosses' attacks would be interrupted when they were attacked from far away by the player.
• Fixed an issue where the Giant Green Iguana could not be struck.
• Fixed an issue where "Counter Stance" would get canceled even when there was enough spirit remaining.
• Fixed boss's stun gauge to slowly recover when the player leaves the combat area.
• Fixed boss behavior so that bosses now quickly return to the combat area after leaving it.
• Fixed an issue where the warning message for leaving the combat area would be displayed incorrectly during rematches against certain bosses.
• Fixed an issue where the character would become invisible during rematches against certain bosses.
• Fixed an issue where the boss combat area indicator would occasionally remain on the minimap and the map when loading a save during a rematch.

Applied bug fixes and improvements regarding specific bosses. (To prevent spoilers, details are listed in the dropdown menu below.)

• Fixed an issue where lock-on was unavailable for acid spiders that spawned during the Queen Spider battle.
• Fixed an issue where a rematch with Titan would begin with the player being struck by Titan.
• Fixed an issue where Titan would stop moving if the player moved too far away from the combat area.
• Fixed an issue where the player would occasionally be unable to attack Dreadnought from behind.
• Fixed an issue where explosives placed by Storm Crusher and Thunder Crusher would not deal damage to the player.
• Fixed an issue where the Abyss Gate would not disappear upon entering the chamber of Awakened Caliburn.
• Fixed an issue where an unintended combat pattern would trigger for "Myurdin, the Avatar of Umbra"

Fixed issues related to certain quests. (To prevent spoilers, details are listed in the dropdown menu below.)

• Fixed an issue where, if "Face the Inner Self" from Chapter 9 and Damiane’s quest to obtain “Sword of Starlight” were active at the same time, the character switch message would repeatedly appear when attempting to enter Jijeong Temple as Kliff or Damiane.
• Fixed an issue where missions would be canceled after saving and loading the game following dispatch to certain strongholds.
  • Additionally, any Contribution Points spent on the canceled missions have been restored.
• Fixed an issue where, while viewing a stronghold in detail, the current stronghold mission UI would be displayed incorrectly when a mission at another stronghold was completed.
• Fixed an issue where fishing shop would buy items from the player at higher prices.
• Fixed an issue where the player could cling to a friendly NPC while airborne.
• Fixed an issue where certain items such as the Kuku Gardening Pack could not be used.
• Fixed an issue where certain sanctums could be cleansed without using Fusion Reactor Cores.
• Fixed an issue where the player would respawn at unnatural locations.
• Fixed an issue where, if the wagon the player was driving collided with an NPC, a passenger on the wagon would attack that NPC.
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would sit on the same chair as the player.
• Improved the quest log to be immediately updated after rescuing bound Pailune refugees.
• Fixed an issue where Greymane NPCs would say hostile lines to the player.
• Adjusted the positioning of weapons worn at the waist to appear more natural.
• Fixed an issue where the aiming animation would occasionally repeat abnormally when aiming a bow at a jail.
• Fixed an issue where same types of animals would be displayed with different prices.
• Fixed an issue where the passengers of the Ironcrawler were placed in an unnatural way.
• Fixed an issue where certain plants could be obtained endlessly when using the Kuku Gardening Pack.
• Improved the quality of certain outfits.
• Fixed an issue where the game window could be moved or resized with mouse input while playing in fullscreen mode.
• Fixed an issue where rain could be seen indoors while using Photo Mode in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where water from certain waterfalls would splash in unnatural directions.
• Fixed an issue where certain objects appeared unnatural.
• Fixed rendering issues in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where using Blackstar's Breath would occasionally cause frame drops.
• Fixed an issue where the camera would shake when locking on to a target while riding a mount.
• Fixed an issue where audio would continue to play after a cutscene has ended when fast-forwarding.
• Fixed an issue where guards could not be attacked with a combat mount while in a wanted state.
• Fixed an issue where the game would load indefinitely in certain save files.

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.

All 10 episodes of Rooster Season 1 are airing on HBO.

The first season of Rooster just wrapped, but the team behind the breakout HBO comedy is already deep into planning Season 2. I spoke to showrunners BIll Lawrence, who also created Scrubs and Ted Lasso, and Matt Tarses (Sports Night, The Goldbergs) ahead of the Season 1 finale to break down what we can expect from a new batch of episodes – which are coming sooner rather than later.

Season 2 of HBO’s Rooster will consist of 10 episodes and air within a year.

“We’ve broken the first four episodes,” Lawrence says. “We’re doing 10, and HBO wants it on within a year or less. They’ve got us grinding, so we’ve been at it for a while.”

“Bill’s looking to his right and seeing the board,” Tarses added, referring to a wall of notecards breaking down episode and story beats for Season 2. Lawrence pointed the camera at the cards but slyly whipped it away before I got the chance to read any details.

The Rooster Season 1 finale saw tons of major decisions and milestones from the staff and students at the fictional Ludlow College. Bestselling-author-turned-college-instructor Greg (Steve Carell) decided to stay at Ludlow after finding both professional personal fulfillment. Meanwhile both Greg’s daughter Katie (Charly Clive) and grad student Sunny (Lauren Tsai) both dumped pompous professor Archie (Phil Dunster) and started new chapters. According to Lawrence, the finale’s trajectory remained largely unchanged because the writers were anticipating a renewal.

“We were feeling pretty confident because the show premiered really well,” Lawrence says. “[There were three] things that we kept [in the finale] that we knew we wanted to do at the start. One was we wanted to do a big parallel from Greg at the beginning as a lonely guy who had to invent people that were giving him a going away party [who then] at the end gets to realize his self-worth a little bit [and be] super important to a bunch of people.

“We [also] wanted to make sure that Connie Britain [took] Greg's world and made it her own at the end with a little cliffhanger. And then the last thing we wanted to do – we knew we wanted to end the year with both Sunny and Katie as women that [were] free of the burden of a toxic guy. That's a story generator for next year.”

Rooster showrunners reveal which characters will have expanded roles in Season 2.

Key to feeding Season 2’s “story generator” is the array of characters that inhabit the show’s universe.

“I've been doing this forever on [shows like] Scrubs,” Lawrence says. “We would be remiss if we didn't open up Annie Mumolo’s life as [as Walt’s] assistant [Cristle] or Maximo who played [Cristle’s son] Tommy. The same for Robby Hoffman who plays Mo. [They should be] bigger characters in the show because I found myself going like, ‘Wow, they're doing amazing work.’”

“It was an embarrassment of riches,” Tarses says. “Rory Scoville [who plays campus police officer Mullins] is just, the minute he opens his mouth, I can't stop laughing. I love Scott MacArthur, [who plays] the hockey coach. He’s going to be back in a significant way if we can steal him away from [Netflix’s] Running Point for enough time. I think we saw a side of Sunny at the end in the last episode that kind of gave her depth that we hadn't seen as much of, and I think we're going to explore that.”

Will John C. McGinley’s Walter Mann return in Rooster Season 2?

When I spoke to John C. McGinley about his role as Ludlow college president Walter Mann, he teased that “everyone at Ludlow College [was] expendable.” In the Season 1 finale, Walt finds himself out of a job and replaced by Greg’s ex-wife Beth (Connie Britton). But don’t fret, McGinley is confirmed to return in Season 2.

“He’s a regular,” Tarses says. “Next semester is a transition semester and then [Beth] is not coming until the semester after that. So [Walt] talks about his swan song with Greg. He’s going to be dealing with this new situation and Greg's going to help him through it as we go forward. It would be mean of us to just send him away.”

Will Greg and Dylan get together in Rooster Season 2?

One of the biggest threads in Season 1 of Rooster was the will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic between Greg and his colleague Dylan (Danielle Deadwyler). Lawrence and Tarses say that question will persist into Season 2.

“Matt and I always bicker about it because I'm a big believer in male-female friendship,” Lawrence says. “Matt says he's a basic bitch all the time.”

“I'm against male-female friendship!” Tarses jokes. “I like romance!”

“We did a lot of [Dylan]’s professional life and didn't see her personal life,” Lawrence says. “[Danielle] is such a ridiculously talented actress. That's part of the storybreaking we're doing now. We have [a Season 1] Easter egg [where she] said ‘I love you’ to a professor once. We had planned to meet that guy last year and turned it into this year. [We’re] rounding out who she is and where she's at in her life because you can't not give her more material.”

“I think there's more stakes to every friendship when you know there's a subtext that might go deeper than that. I would just say a good spoiler is that I think no matter what we do, we owe it to ourselves to explore [Dylan’s] personal life in deeper one way. And we're definitely doing that early in the year.”

Rooster showrunners reveal how big the world of the show is.

It seems like there will be plenty of main character drama to dive into when Season 2 of Rooster arrives, but both Tarses and Lawrence say they’re only scratching the surface on how expansive the show might become.

“It was an embarrassment of riches,” Tarses says. “With all these [college] kids [ane everyone else]. “So I want all those people [back for Season 2]. The regular characters too.”

“I think now there's somewhere close to 600 characters we have to service,” Lawrence adds. “It is a college after all.”

Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton

“An expansion is not about fixing; it's about evolving,” Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred’s Associate Game Director Zaven Haroutunian tells me. “And if we do our job, they are expanding and evolving toward solving existing problems. That’s a win-win. I look at our teams as being heavy hitters when it comes to this stuff. They're operating at such a high level, and they've got enough experience under their belt where they can do just that.”

Diablo IV debuted three years ago, and like previous entries in the groundbreaking action-RPG series, it has been evolving and expanding ever since. From regular seasonal updates and overhauls of existing systems to new activities and a story-driven campaign in the form of Vessel of Hatred, there’s been a lot.

With that, Diablo IV’s second major expansion, Lord of Hatred, on paper might sound like more of the same, albeit supercharged. Instead of one new class, there are two, with the return of the fan-favourite sword-and-board-wielding Paladin and the new demonology-and-apocalyptic-fire-obsessed Warlock. And with the action shifting to the Mediterranean-inspired and ancient Amazon homeland of Skovos, you’ve got the ideal setting and all of the pieces in place to take on the titular Hatred head-honcho, Mephisto.

However, even with a well-received expansion already under its belt, and several game-changing seasons adding to and expanding the core experience, Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred still stands tall as the single most important update to the game since its initial debut.

It not only delivers an engaging, action-packed conclusion to the story but also changes, updates, evolves, and touches just about every part of the game. There’s a confidence here that is immediately noticeable, a sense that the Diablo IV development team was firing on all cylinders with a clear understanding of what works and what needed work. Again, not about fixing, but evolving.

“Here’s an example,” Zaven Haroutunian continues. “When we’re adding the Horadric Cube, which is this thing that’s going to evolve and expand our crafting beyond anyone's wildest imagination, in the process of doing so, it’s also significantly upgrading our itemisation systems. Without the Horadric Cube and without an expansion like Lord of Hatred, you don’t get that. And this is true of every single feature, from the new Skill Trees to War Plans and, well, everything.”

Redefining the Endgame, One Town at a Time

You could say that the Diablo series, especially when it comes to the more recent titles, has always been a game of two halves. There’s the fun pick-up-and-play action-RPG that puts you in the middle of a cinematic story-driven battle between the Angels of the High Heavens and the Demons of the Burning Hells. Then there’s the other half, which in modern gaming vernacular is referred to as the endgame. The loot chase. That idea of putting together an incredibly powerful build that makes even the most challenging parts of the game feel trivial. Not in a bad way, either. In Diablo IV, it’s the feeling of becoming more powerful than any being or creature, no matter the size or how many horns and spiky bits they have on their carapace.

When it came to developing Lord of Hatred, which began development before the base game's launch, the team knew early on that, for it to deliver, it would need to bring these two halves together and ensure that one informed the other, and vice versa. Now, this might be a strange concept because these two halves are still very much distinct. That said, the best way to describe this approach is to take a closer look at how the team at Blizzard approached and designed the new Skovos region’s main town, or player hub, called Temis. For endgame players, it’s the ultimate hub.

“Towns are always annoying to make in Diablo games, and that's just been true as far back as my experiences on Diablo III,” Zaven Haroutunian explains. “Traditionally, you make them, and they generally end up serving the story. And then they tend to be awful deep into the endgame.”

“By the time we were making Temis, the game was mature,” Zaven continues. “We all knew what made a good town, but we also knew what the campaign needed from its town. The campaign doesn’t care about the exact positioning of a Blacksmith. We made a very early decision: the campaign can define the layout of Temis, but it doesn't need to. For us, that meant building parts of the city in instanced spaces for the campaign, which made sense because Temis is on a mountaintop, so that can be the action-RPG hub.”

“On day one, we knew endgame was going to be a major focus,” Zaven says. “When we think about endgame, it’s not just a pillar for the systems and the action-RPG side for the ‘blasters’; it's also an endgame for the narrative. So, having that be this unifying thread between these two parts of the game and these two audiences, everyone's going into this with the same sense of finality and resolution.”

War Plans bring Balance, Focus, and Context to the Endgame

As Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred’s development began, the continual evolution of the live game informed Lord of Hatred’s design in unexpected ways. For example, the game’s Infernal Hordes activity, a rogue-lite-style horde mode that added player choice and agency to the idea of fending off waves of enemies, was originally going to be a part of the expansion.

“Throughout the entire development of Lord of Hatred, the number of activities varied, is the right way to put it,” Zaven Haroutunian tells me. “Part of this was because we had such a long start on this project; we've been developing it in some way since before the base game launched, so it's been cooking for a while. And along the way, some things that were in prototype or development ended up being deployed early. It was like, a horde mode would be cool, but what would be even cooler is if we ship that earlier.”

And so with the release of Lord of Hatred on the horizon, not only was the horde mode deployed early for players, but when you added up all of the endgame activities, the list was now long and varied. Nightmare Dungeons, Helltides, The Pitt, The Tower, The Undercity, Lair Bosses, and more. The initial plan for Lord of Hatred was to introduce something similar in size and scope to The Undercity, the major new activity introduced in Vessel of Hatred.

“There has been this constant, almost skunkworks approach where we'd be thinking about stuff that could be really good for the game and generally made sense,” Zaven adds. “So what we were left with near the end was this idea that we'd have one activity, a brand-new capital ‘A’ activity, and something a little smaller, and that eventually became Echoing Hatred. We had the idea that this new big activity would have a customisation angle. And then, as we took stock of where the game stood, we realised we had seven activities. Do we really need an eighth?”

And when that realisation hit, that the game didn’t need more activities; the focus shifted. “The game needed depth way more than breadth,” Zaven confirms. “The game was already big, so let's make it as deep as we can.”

Before this revelation, the team knew that with so many existing endgame activities, Lord of Hatred would address the issue of structure. That is, a way to bring everything together, and reinforce the idea that its “endgame” design was for both narrative and hardcore players. With the credits rolling, the big battle with Mephisto over, and Sanctuary saved from complete destruction, what happens next? Well, that would be giving players agency and control, for the first time, with the survivors rallying together to take the fight directly to the remnants of the demonic threat.

This is where War Plans come in, a war table where players map out a strategy and battle plan by leaning into Diablo IV’s many activities. How it works is simple, and you could even describe it as Diablo IV’s Spotify Playlist. Players choose which activities they want to tackle, creating an endgame flow with narrative context and structure that had been missing.

“At that point, when it came to the playlist part [of War Plans], we were already sold, we’re going to do that,” Zaven explains. “But also, that wasn’t enough. I think there is a rightful critique of the game, that we had all these activities, but they were mostly pretty static. Very easy to approach and understand, but not much depth. It wasn't like they were bad, but if we added activity progression, we could preserve the approachability of our endgame, where it’s easy to get into Helltides or a Nightmare Dungeon. And the trees mean that our core audience, hardcore players, and blasters, know that the endgame is also for them.”

“The modifiers we put in, it was really important that they weren’t numerical,” Zaven continues. “There can't be a 5% chance of this happening. No, this one changes the way this activity can be played. This one adds The Butcher to The Pitt. Most people haven't caught onto this, but there’s one node on the Nightmare Dungeon tree that says it affects all Treasure Goblins. And it means what it says: all Goblins in the game. Not all Goblins in Nightmare Dungeons. All Goblins in the game, everywhere, no matter where they show up, are modified by that node.”

Again, it’s expanding the game while addressing pain points. And for War Plans, it also lives up to Blizzard’s long-standing design philosophy or mantra, ‘easy to learn, difficult to master.’ “There are seven activities; set your playlist and go play them,” Zaven adds. “But, as you get deeper into it, you start learning the systems, you get to the depth, you add to the difficulty, and you play around with modifiers. I can't wait to see all the crazy stuff players come up with.”

The New Talisman Was About Items First, Set Bonuses Came Later

Perhaps the biggest and most notable addition to Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred for players putting together a build is the Talisman system, which includes equipping Charms and Seals. It deepens the itemisation, while also introducing Set Bonuses to the core experience. That feature alone, which defined Diablo 3, has always been a lingering question for the team and players. Does Diablo IV need Set Items? And would that even be possible, considering the game’s existing and expansive itemisation that includes Legendary, Unique, and Mythic Items? Well, as it turns out, Charms weren’t created to address this question.

“The starting point was quite simply: can we expand the surface area that players have to be able to optimise their gear, their stats, and their build?” Zaven Haroutunian recalls. “A very high-level problem, and that’s where we start with these things. It wasn’t, ‘Oh, I want a Whirlwind Set.’ We have a general idea. In Diablo IV, different classes have different pressure points when it comes to optimising stats or gear. We knew going in that you can't just keep slamming more things onto the ‘paper doll.’ That's what we call your equipment, your Helm and Armor pieces.”

Adding a new layer was something the Diablo IV team and hardcore players felt was needed, and they also agreed that it shouldn’t override or be tacked onto existing systems in the game. The ‘paper doll’. So the first step was giving Charms their own custom inventory, with the Talisman serving as the storage system. And that really was all the team had going in, as it still needed to figure out what they actually did or added to the game.

“So, you have the Talisman, the storage system, and you put Charms into it,” Zaven explains. “But then, for us, it was figuring out what Charms do and how they can be interesting. From there, we got the Seals and eventually the Sets, and the interaction among those three was a very late addition. We were struggling to figure it out, all these pieces in place, interacting without being convoluted. Once Sets entered the picture, everything was clarified and anchored. I can equip Sets, and they come in different counts. I have a Set of Charms, this amount of slots, and the Seals modulate all this stuff.”

“It also solved a bunch of problems that have prevented Sets from ever making it into Diablo IV,” Zaven adds. “I look at the Talisman as our developers just being really experienced, good at their craft, and good at expanding things, as expansions ought to do. We’re also solving problems along the way. Long-standing problems, deep problems.” And in keeping with the idea of the endgame being this holistic thing, the Talisman is introduced in the opening of Lord of Hatred’s campaign, a rare Horadric item from a fallen ally that you carry into the final battle with Mephisto.

Revamping the Skill Trees Breathes New Life into the Growing Roster of Classes

Going all the way back to Diablo IV’s initial reveal, where the visual tone of its iconic cinematic reveal signalled a return to the dark fantasy of Diablo II, there was a sense that the core experience would blend the depth of that groundbreaking second instalment with the arcade-like, fast-paced combat of Diablo 3. And this could be seen with the game’s Skill Tree system for its playable classes, where power and customisation came together.

“One of the things that we realised with the Skill Tree, was that it was serving multiple masters,” Zaven Haroutunian tells me. “It was trying to offer customisation and experimentation with the two choices, the little twigs as our players called them. But it was also trying to be a source of power. And you can see both of these things in Diablo II and Diablo III. I would characterise the Diablo II Skill Tree as giving me power. I put points in the ranks, they go up, synergies form, it’s a source of power.”

“When I think about Diablo III, the whole Rune system was a source of customisation and expression,” Zaven continues. “We were trying to marry these two things but it wasn’t clicking and one of the things that we eventually realised was, it can't be a primary source of power. So as we were trying to abide by Diablo II rules, we had early respec costs that were fighting against the idea of the Skill Tree being a place for customisation and expression.”

That respec cost was something the team addressed pretty early on with seasonal updates, but Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred's revamped Skill Tree represents a complete overhaul for the game’s eight playable classes, including the new Paladin and Warlock. It removes passive abilities, those little sources of power, for a good reason. Power, in Diablo IV, derives from itemisation, your gear, Charms, Runes, and more. Having passives in the Skill Tree, especially with the new Talisman system, meant that item numbers needed to be artificially inflated, which in turn made those passive choices on your Skill Tree relatively weak or minor.

“We were inflating the numbers on gear because it felt like our Skill Tree system was undermining the loot chase, to put it bluntly,” Zaven explains. “So then the discussion became, what do we need from the Skill Tree? Well, it doesn't need to be a source of power; that's what items are chiefly for. What’s more fun? Playing a build you don't want, hoping to find items that let you play the build you do want, or being able to create a build using the skill tree that you like to play, and then making it better as you find items. We believe the second one is more fun.”

Even a casual glance at Diablo IV’s new Skill Tree is enough to showcase that it offers more choice and freedom to support various playstyles, transforming abilities and skills for every class in the game. This means that, in addition to the two new classes, every single legacy class has been reworked, refined, and expanded.

“A lot of it is just repositioning,” Zaven adds. “Making sure everything is in the right place to have the right impact. Customisation in the Skill Tree. Power with the items. Crafting in the Horadric Cube. The Talisman bringing depth. Every skill has options, and every class will reap the benefit of the work we've done. It solves a problem while refreshing every class in the game.”

“In the course of development, we're often faced with solving real problems,” Zaven concludes. “And we don't always have the ideal solution in front of us. In fact, there's often no ideal solution. Often, we just have to pick a thing. It's only after you step back from the stuff you've made that your perspective changes and you understand the impact of your decisions, both positive and negative. Really, that’s only when you can get a clear picture of what you've actually made.”

Sanctuary is Still Infested with Demons, and the Future is Bright

In Season 11 of Diablo IV, the team presented a complete overhaul of enemy behavior and the strategies needed to overcome them, making each encounter feel just that little bit more engaging and different. Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred’s foundational changes not only build on top of this but also expand on this already well-received update. And that’s just one example that highlights what a foundational or game-changing update can bring to a Diablo game.

It makes the familiar feel new, recontextualises existing systems, and expands player choice and the freedom to create their very own hero, right down to how their Gauntlets should look and what colour works best with that particular weapon.

And with Blizzard completing the story that it set out to tell with Diablo IV, where interestingly enough, Mephisto in wolf-form is the first character you see and hear from in the base game, this new foundation and “endgame” could also point to an endpoint for the game’s story-based, major expansions. As Blizzard isn’t quite ready to talk about the game's future, short- or long-term, the big question of where to go from here will obviously become a talking point among players in the months ahead.

However, with the initial consensus being that the team has accomplished what it set out to do, the exciting thing is that fans are too busy playing and enjoying Lord of Hatred to stop and even think about Sanctuary’s future. One that will no doubt be brighter thanks to the evolution we’ve seen here. Because, as Zaven summarised, right now, “everything is in the right place.”

Darkest Dungeon developer Red Hook Studios has said it won't use AI to replicate the voice of deceased voice actor Wayne June.

Studio co-founder Chris Bourassa spoke about how the passing of the iconic narrator will affect the series going forward in a reply to a post on the Darkest Dungeon subreddit (via Kotaku). He told fans to rest assured that Red Hook will "never, ever erode" June's legacy by using AI to attempt to copy his performance.

"In one of his last emails to me, Wayne gave us permission to train an AI on his voice, something he'd staunchly opposed prior to the end," Bourassa said. "We'd never asked to do it. I think he was trying to put the game/team/fans first - offer us a 'way forward.' I declined, and we donated to his family anyway."

Red Hook confirmed that June had passed away in January 2025. Bourassa shared a message at the time, saying that it was "one of my life's greatest honors to have written for him" for the 10 years the actor contributed his voice to Darkest Dungeon. He added, "Though I never got to shake his hand, I knew him to be a friend."

June's work on Darkest Dungeon helped bring its dim-lit world to life with the launch of the original in 2016 and again with the sequel in 2023. Bourassa is all too aware of the important role the narration played in the franchise, which is exactly why you won't hear a hollow imitation made by artificial intelligence in any future installments.

"I would never, ever erode his incredible and timeless performances by teaching a machine to sound like him," Bourassa added in the Reddit reply. "His voice and delivery was *human, and I'm forever grateful I got to write for him."

Fears of AI replacing both the living and the dead have only heightened in recent years. Master Chief actor Steve Downes spoke out against AI versions of his voice in January of this year. In 2024, Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. threatened to sue any executive who recreated his likeness using artificial intelligence, whether he is alive to see it happen or not.

As Deep as the Grave came under fire from movie fans just this year after the team behind it announced that it would feature an AI recreation of actor Val Kilmer, who died last year. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, meanwhile, announced rule updates earlier this month that will bar AI performances from being nominated for Oscars in 2027.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Mortal Kombat II brought in $40 million domestically and $23 million internationally for a box office global opening weekend of $63 million.

The video game adaptation, starring Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, performed best in North American theaters, although it has yet to launch in some major international markets. Mortal Kombat II is on course to outperform its predecessor's $84.4 million global haul, but you would expect it to, given 2021’s Mortal Kombat launched during cinema restrictions and alongside a release on HBO Max.

According to Variety, Mortal Kombat II was produced for $80 million, so the movie has some way to go before it turns a profit during its theatrical run. Still, Warner. Bros has confirmed a third film is in development (check out our burning questions following Mortal Kombat II to find out what to expect).

Mortal Kombat II is currently sitting on a 65% score on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer. IGN’s Mortal Kombat II review returned an 8/10. We said: “The bar for video game movie sequels isn’t very high, but this one not only clears the bar, it twirls it around like a bo staff.”

Mortal Kombat II’s release could do little to stop the box office powerhouse that is The Devil Wears Prada 2, which brought in a hugely impressive $118.8 million during its second weekend. It’s now up to $433.2 million globally ($144.8 million domestic and $288.4 million international). The Devil Wears Prada 2 remains the number one film domestically, internationally, and globally.

IGN's The Devil Wears Prada 2 review returned a 7/10. We said: "If you're looking to effortlessly slip back into the glossy and charming world of New York high fashion, you'll be delighted by the familiarity The Devil Wears Prada 2 provides. But if you want exact same characters that you met in the first movie, you might find the movie quite a change of pace."

Michael, too, continued to perform at the box office. The record-breaking biopic brought in $95 million this weekend, and is now up to $577.3 million worldwide. Meanwhile, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is on $941.2 million. There is a question mark over whether it will cross the $1 billion barrier, as its predecessor managed so effortlessly. Still, Mario remains a massive movie franchise, and further sequels and even spinoffs are inevitable.

And finally, Project Hail Mary is still hanging in there at the box office, bringing in a further $9.8 million during its eighth weekend. It's now up to $655.7 million worldwide, after Amazon extended its stay in theaters. Project Hail Mary is doing so well at the global box office that there’s already talk of turning it into a franchise with a sequel. However, author Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian, is said to be “in the driver’s seat,” which suggests he’d have to write a Project Hail Mary follow-up for further adaptations to take place.

Is this likely? In a recent interview with The New York Times, Weir was asked if he would ever do a sequel in some way. He replied: “Absolutely, I have ideas for sequels for Project Hail Mary, but I just don’t have a good enough one yet. My next book, the one I’m working on now, is not a sequel to anything that I’ve written.”

Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

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.

A new weekend has arrived, and today, you can save big on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Super Mario RPG, Star Fox for Switch 2, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and more. Check out our top picks for Sunday, May 10, below.

DJI Mini 3 Drone for $379

Developer TT Games and publisher Warner Bros. Games have quietly added controversial DRM software Denuvo to Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight ahead of its launch later this month.

PC players were quick to raise the alarms after Reddit user luffy_3155 shared that the Lego Batman game's Steam page now features a 3rd-party DRM tag. The last-minute addition sees the anti-piracy measure baked into the game just weeks ahead of its launch for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S May 22, 2026.

Game developers often include Denuvo to fight back against piracy, but the tech has faced backlash from PC players due, more than anything, to its negative effects on each individual game's performance. Now that Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is confirmed to use it, too, some players are saying they're ready to write off buying a PC copy altogether.

"Oh well if they ever fix performance and remove Denuvo, I'll buy it on a steep sale," one player said.

"Bruh, the game already has INSANE system requirements," another added. "Now, Denuvo is gonna TANK performance even more."

Adding insult to injury are the recently revealed PC requirements for Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. The Unreal Engine 5 title demands 16 GB of RAM and requires frame generation to be turned on just to achieve 30 fps. With Denuvo thrown into the mix, the fear is that most hardware will struggle to run at all, much less run well.

Batman doesn't have the best history on PC, with many Lego Batman fans worried they could be facing another disaster similar to the launch of Batman: Arkham Knight in 2015. It's hard to say what state Legacy of the Dark Knight will arrive in until its release date arrives in a few weeks.

"Performance was already an issue with this game. This will surely help," someone else commented.

Reddit user voices38 became the first to crack Denuvo DRM in 2026 when they reported finding a workaround for Resident Evil Requiem last month. It seems players were able to bypass the technology for all single-player, non-VR Denuvo games only a few weeks later.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight launches for PC and consoles later this month. TT and Warner Bros. published a launch trailer for the tongue-in-cheek spinoff featuring Seal's Kiss from a Rose just a few days ago. You can check out our final preview for the Arkham-like Lego game here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Whether you grew up building with physical blocks or digital ones (or both), you've almost certainly experienced the magic of LEGO at some point. This beloved property has been bringing joy to children and adults alike for nearly a century, after all, and shows no signs of slowing down. So, it makes sense you might be interested in checking out as many LEGO games as possible on your PS5.

Luckily, there are over 30 LEGO games available to play on PS5 across three generations — though it's worth noting that any from the PS3 era can only be streamed using a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription.

Every LEGO Game on PlayStation 5 in Release Order

Note: These are the LEGO games have native PS5 versions.

LEGO Brawls (2022)

LEGO Brawls is a straightforward, family-friendly platform brawler akin to Super Smash Bros. With tons of customizability and no shortage of chaotic showdowns to be had against other players online, this is one of the more action-oriented ways to get your LEGO fix.

LEGO Builder's Journey (2022)

LEGO Builder's Journey is a geometric puzzle title that asks players to solve a variety of environmental puzzles, all while following along with a simple but sweet narrative. It's widely considered one of the best LEGO games for those who have a true love of physical bricks, due to its authentic approach to the property.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022)

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga acts as a reboot of the Star Wars-themed Lego titles. This time, it encompasses all nine mainline films, offering perhaps the most comprehensive dose of a galaxy far, far away we've seen yet in LEGO form. Oh, and there are plenty of awesome lightsabers, of course.

LEGO Bricktales (2022)

LEGO Bricktales features gorgeous LEGO-themed dioramas to explore while solving puzzles and honing your building skills, all for the sake of helping the folks you come across on your adventure. It's an ideal place for your LEGO creativity!

LEGO 2K Drive (2023)

LEGO 2K Drive takes the property into the racing sphere. In this open-world kart racer, you can thoroughly explore a variety of locations, build your vehicles brick-by-brick, and even race other players online to see who comes out on top.

LEGO Horizon Adventures (2024)

LEGO Horizon Adventures blends together Sony's popular Horizon franchise with Legos for a retelling of Horizon Zero Dawn, main character Aloy's first adventure. Get ready to platform through perilous levels while fighting plenty of robotic dinosaurs in this action-packed spin-off, either solo or in co-op.

LEGO Harry Potter Collection - PS5 Remaster (2024)

LEGO Harry Potter Collection combines the previously separate Years 1-4 and Years 5-7 titles into a comprehensive package. This PS5 remaster features upgraded visuals and performance, as well as additional DLC, making it the best way to play through the entirety of Harry's journey from beginning to end.

LEGO Voyagers (2025)

LEGO Voyagers is a brief co-op experience with two cute Lego characters and a whole lot of charm. With a simple goal of helping each other solve puzzles and build things, this is one of the best options for cooperative play with youngsters — though it remains wonderfully fun for adults alike.

LEGO Party! (2025)

LEGO Party! can be thought of as a LEGO version of Mario Party. In this 4-player party game, you and some friends can tackle 60 minigames on the path to seeing who can win a virtual board game. If you dive into this one, remember not to let it ruin any friendships, okay?

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (2026) - Releases May 22

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is the latest entry in the long-running LEGO Batman series. Unlike the previous games, however, this one tells an entirely original story set during the origin era of this iconic superhero. It features an all-new combat system, fresh stealth mechanics, and a whole lot of secrets and collectibles to find for those seeking to truly master Gotham.

Grand Theft Auto 6 players are hoping Rockstar Games will have news to share this week after some fans reported receiving marketing emails from Sony.

Rumors of an impending announcement kicked up yesterday when some fans shared that Sony had sent emails instructing them to upgrade from a PlayStation 4 to a PlayStation 5. As collected by X/Twitter user @videotech, images of the alleged marketing push have been published by a growing number of users online, with the message seemingly tied to those who have wishlisted the game but have yet to pick up a PS5.

"Grant Theft Auto 6 is on your wishlist," the email being shared around says. "Get a PlayStation 5 today to be ready for when Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19, 2026."

According to reports, Sony is sending emails to some people who currently don’t own a PS5 and who have GTA VI wishlisted on the PlayStation Store to market them to buy a PS5 https://t.co/YgtmDaQxos

— ben (@videotech) May 8, 2026

The email itself is far from confirmation that Rockstar will begin to roll out more information about GTA 6 in the near future, but fans are including it in what has become an expanding list of what they believe is evidence. For starters, the emails are said to be coming from Sony, which, as recently reaffirmed by Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick in a Bloomberg interview, continues to have a marketing deal with Rockstar. There's also the mention of that November 19, 2026, release date, suggesting the studio is confident that no further delays are expected.

While what seems to be a relatively small selection of users have reported receiving the email, some Grand Theft Auto Online players have also reported receiving different notifications from Sony. Like the email, these messages have allegedly been received directly on PlayStation consoles and refer to users as "a top Grand Theft Auto 5 player" before pushing them to upgrade to PS5.

Head further down the rabbit hole to find that some fans believe Rockstar will soon open a pre-order option after Sony removed it from its "Just Announced" tag on PS5. There are also similarities between a "2026 Great Games" graphic featured on the PlayStation Store and the GTA 6 logo, though, as some have already pointed out, the former is quite old.

Perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence of all is that Take-Two announced in February that it has plans to ramp up marketing for the new Grand Theft Auto game sometime this summer. The company also recently revealed its plans to deliver an "exciting" update for GTA Online in the next few months, too. Like most GTA 6 theories, though, it's important to take all of this with a grain of salt until Rockstar has something more official to share.

"They got to [get GTA 6] out before society collapses," one fan joked, "They can't wait any longer."

Right or wrong, GTA fans are notorious for coming up with some of the most out-there theories gaming has ever seen. One fan literally looked to the stars to help them come up with a wild theory for the release date of GTA 6 trailer 3.

For more on GTA 6, you can read about the estimated budget for the new game. You can also see what Zelnick had to say about the lack of PC support at launch.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has offered his reaction after fans pointed out that his Prime Video superhero series accidentally predicted the emergence of a golden statue of U.S. President Donald Trump.

As fans have tuned into new episodes of The Boys Season 5, they've been greeted with a slew of moments that bear a striking resemblance to real-world events before they happen. It's not something Kripke is particularly proud of, but like it or not, Episode 6 "Though the Heavens Fall" seems to have already predicted that series antagonist Homelander and Trump both share a love for golden statues.

Fans online were quick to draw comparisons after a video of a 15-foot-tall golden statue of the 47th U.S. President at Trump National Doral Golf Club appeared online earlier this week. The idea something like this could happen is ridiculous, to say the least, but that didn't stop Kripke and the rest of The Boys team from placing a similar gold statue of Homelander in the show's most recent episode, days before the footage began to circulate.

THE BOYS LITERALLY DID THE SAME BIT FOR HOMELANDER THIS WEEK

You can’t make this shit up https://t.co/AGLU39yWVS pic.twitter.com/rswrSS4uYg

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) May 9, 2026

"The Boys literally did the same bit for Homelander this week," one X/Twitter said. "You can't make this s**t up."

The Boys Season 5 has taken Homelander's delusions to a new level with each episode, with the supervillain character's current goal being to become God. As his plan came to fruition in the season's early moments, the plot just happened to line up with an AI-generated image of Trump posing as a Jesus-like figure. It was one of what has become a pile of moments from the show that reflect real life as the crew behind the series works to stay ahead of the curve.

Kripke has stated in the past that the similarities between the Prime Video version of Homelander and Trump aren't exactly an accident. That said, as events have coincided, he feels it's become increasingly difficult for the team to effectively parody real-world events.

"This is the episode where Homelander decides he’s going to be God and 48 hours before it, Trump releases an image of himself as God," Kripke said to Polygon regarding The Boys Season 5 Episode 3, "Every One of You Sons of Bitches." "A month ago when we were talking about marketing, I was like, Homelander saying he’s God is so out there. We have to be careful about how we even introduce the idea to the public because they’ll say he’s gone too far and here we are. It’s just really hard to out-satire this world."

Kripke's fears were once again justified as viewers couldn't shake the similarities between Trump and Homelander's golden statues on social media. He took to Instagram to share a brief but poignant message about the accidental prediction.

"Seriously what the f**k?" an image shared by Kripke said.

The Boys showrunner said early last month that he was "bummed out" that Season 5 had been written ahead of the Presidential Election in November 2024. With two episodes left – including a theatrical premiere for the finale – it's unclear how much the show's last few episodes will share in common with the real world. We do know, however, that Episode 7 features a Homelander line that has already come to be.

"There’s a line — I won’t give it away — but there’s a line in Episode 7 that Homelander says that was the craziest line we could think of, and it’s already happened," Kripke said.

For more on The Boys, you can read our 8/10 review of Episode 6. You can also check out what Kripke thinks of weekly release schedules and how fans have responded to the season so far.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

A new weekend has arrived, and today, you can save big on Star Fox for Switch 2, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and more. Check out our top picks for Saturday, May 9, below.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Blu-ray for $30

Psychonauts and Kiln developer Double Fine Productions has laid the groundwork to become the latest Microsoft studio to form a union.

As first reported by Aftermath, the San Francisco-based game studio filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board May 7, 2026. The organization effort with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) follows the 450 Blizzard Entertainment staff who voted to unionize in August 2025, and the union formed by 165 developers at id Software the following December, as well as others. As outlined in the petition, the Double Fine union will include 42 "regular part-time and full-time employees."

“On May 7, the workers at Microsoft studio Double Fine Productions announced their decision to form a union with CWA to preserve and extend the studio’s commitments to creative excellence, diversity and inclusion, and worker quality of life," CWA told Aftermath in a statement. "In tandem with requesting voluntary recognition from the company, workers have also filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to secure union representation. We appreciate that Microsoft has taken a neutral approach and agreed not to interfere in any way with worker’s rights to organize unions.”

Double Fine was acquired by Microsoft in 2019 and has a 25-year history in the gaming space. Its most well-known title is probably the mind-bending platformer Psychonauts, which went on to get a sequel in 2021. Other popular titles under its belt include Brutal Legend, Broken Age, and Costume Quest. Kiln, a multiplayer brawler that lets players control moldable pieces of pottery, arrived as its most recent project just weeks ago, on April 23, 2026.

Double Fine's move to unionize arrives in the midst of a period of uncertainty for Microsoft. Following layoffs that affected around 9,100 employees in July 2025 and even more in 2024, a Bloomberg report in October of last year stated that the Xbox company had allegedly been pushing its game developers to deliver a steep 30% profit margin. In addition to the layoffs, Microsoft cancelled multiple projects, including games from the now-shuttered The Initiative, ZeniMax Online Studios, and Rare, in 2025 alone.

Shakeups at the company continued in February 2026 when it was announced that both Xbox CEO Phil Spencer and Xbox president Sarah Bond would be leaving the company. Then-Microsoft CoreAI president Asha Sharma has since replaced Spencer as CEO, with Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty stepping in as chief content creative officer. Sharma's time in the spot has already been followed by a number of other changes, including a leadership reshuffle and the discontinuation of Copilot on console last week, as well as Game Pass price cuts.

The CWA said in its statement that Microsoft has agreed to take a neutral approach to unionization at Double Fine after the expiration of a previous neutrality agreement late last year. Other Microsoft developers who worked to form unions before the agreement expired include staff from the World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Blizzard Story and Franchise Development teams. Meanwhile, Raven Software Quality Assurance developers became the first Activision Blizzard workers to unionize in 2022 before scoring their first contract with Microsoft just last August.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law star Tatiana Maslany has opened up about what a return for her Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) hero could look like, and what it would take to make it happen.

Written and created by Jessica Gao, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law infamously divided Marvel fans upon its release, with its Rotten Tomatoes score sitting at an 80% from critics (IGN gave it an 8/10) and a 32% from audiences. While some assumed the show would never grow past its nine-episode run, Marvel TV head Brad Winderbaum clarified last month that it remains "one of our best-performing shows." Now, as Avengers: Doomsday approaches, fans are on the lookout not only for a Season 2 confirmation but also for any news that She-Hulk could soon join a team-up movie.

The actress behind superhero lawyer Jennifer Walters spoke about her past, present, and future in the MCU during a conversation with The Playlist's Bingeworthy podcast. It doesn't sound like she's closed the door on She-Hulk just yet, but fans should expect Gao to be involved if she is to return.

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know,” Maslany said when asked how She-Hulk could return. “I think it would take somebody like Jessica Gao to weave her into that world because she knows that character so deeply and loves her and gets her tone, but there is something about She-Hulk being the star of her own show that makes sense.

"Do you know what I mean? Because of the direct address, she is our narrator. So, I think it would be a real cool challenge to see her in some other context, but I do think like the sort of joy of She-Hulk is in the singularness of it."

This August marks four years since She-Hulk Season 1 premiered as one of the many post-Avengers: Endgame spinoff series. Despite the distance, Doomsday has MCU watchers looking to every corner of the Marvel universe for potential cameos, especially after Maslany's fellow Hulk actor, Mark Ruffalo, seemingly dropped a big spoiler for the December 2026 flick just last month. Although Marvel Studios has already shared many of the actors set to appear in the film, plenty of question marks remain.

Maslany was asked whether an appearance in something like Doomsday or a She-Hulk Season 2 was more likely. She replied, "I don’t know. I think people would be so mad at me being on their screens again."

While Winderbaum said he would "love to make more She-Hulk," the MCU will have to go on without a Season 2 confirmation for now. As far as a Doomsday is concerned, Maslany is part of a long lineup of other actors, including co-star Charlie Cox, who have yet to be confirmed to show up.

While we wait for She-Hulk to pop back up in the MCU, you can read about what Maslany had to say about Jennifer Walters' divisive twerking scene with Megan Thee Stallion. You can also learn about the Captain America: Brave New World villain who almost played a role in Season 1.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

I recently put together a list of practical Star Wars gifts for May the Fourth celebrations, and while Star Wars Day has now passed, fans are still very interested in the official lightsaber salt and pepper grinders. Amazon is offering them at a discounted price and, honestly, I can see why people love them. It's the perfect upgrade from salt and pepper shakers to that grinder lifestyle. They also look like straight-up lightsabers.