Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds has revealed new content coming to the underwater survival game in the weeks and months ahead, teasing a new vehicle and new region centred around the Collector Leviathan as part of update 1.1.

Smaller upcoming updates will improve the currently limited Biomods system, adding more passive slots and new options for “deepening early-game survival strategies.” To improve the multiplayer experience, proximity voice chat, emotes, and expanded character customisation are all in the works. Unknown Worlds has indicated the popularity of multiplayer in Subnautica 2 took the team by surprise, so it’s playing a little bit of catch-up here.

But the most exciting additions are set for a larger content update (early access 1.1), which will add a new vehicle and a new region to explore centred around the Collector Leviathan. In a developer update, design lead Anthony Gallegos discussed the new region, which will contain new creatures, new resources, and will be progression and story driven. It will also add a new chassis, which “brings back one of the most requested player experiences,” Gallegos teased. “So, get ready to get stompy.”

That suggests a Subnautica 2 version of the Prawn suit, a bipedal mechanical walker from the previous game, which is sure to go down well with players. “Our goal is to let you jump in without having to start a new save,” Gallegos continued. “Rather, pick up right where you left off. I really think it's going to be the scariest the game has been yet, and I can't wait for you to try it.”

The announcement comes following the release of a hotfix that modifies the behavior of creatures in response to complaints about not being able to kill predators. Not being able to directly kill fish in Subnautica 2 is the game’s hottest topic, and while Unknown Worlds has promised to add “mitigation” to the game so you can better deal with predators, it will never allow you to kill them.

Earlier this week, we reported on fresh comments from Gallegos, who countered the narrative that Unknown Worlds set out to create a “pacifism game.” That, Gallegos told MinnMax in a fascinating new interview about the design of Subnautica 2, just isn’t true.

While the killing fish debate rages on, Subnautica 2 is a clear success. It has sold a huge 4 million copies since its early access launch on May 14, achieving more than 467,000 peak concurrent players on Steam — success Gallegos said took the team by surprise. Subnautica 2 has sold so well that publisher Krafton has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million earnout to the developers — a bonus that was at the heart of its high-profile legal dispute with the fired Unknown Worlds leadership.

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.

If you found yourself lurking around Kickstarter a few months back, or really the internet in general, you probably heard something about The Official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game.

Pulling in more than $28 million dollars and taking the top spot as the most-funded game on the crowdfunding platform, the TCG based on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 RPG continues to evolve and change post-campaign.

Recently, the folks at WeirdCo have released big updates coming to the game that not only tweak terminology but also add in some massive game-design-shifting changes. Here is the full blog post, but here are the changes that are coming to the Cyberpunk TCG:

• The starting phase has gotten a name change, and its structure has been tweaked
• The “Play” and “Attack” phases have been combined into a single “Main” phase
• Opponents can react to a declared attack
• A new “Quick” keyword on cards has been created that can be played in response to an attack
• The cost to flip one of your legends has been reduced to 1 Eddie instead of 2
• You need 7 gig dice now to win instead of 6

So let’s break things down a bit. The changes that Weird Co. has shared range from minor adjustments for the sake of clarity to large new mechanics that, debatably, are some extensive game design adjustments. On the lighter end, the name change for the first phase of a turn and the creation of the “Main” phase, and the more malleable and flexible early turn structure are welcome and act more as just solidifying and adapting to how folks have naturally played the game. As someone who has played Magic: The Gathering for over 20 years, changes like these feel natural. Untap, draw, play. Familiar.

The new Main phase is also a pleasant change that focuses on giving players more flexibility in how they take their turns. The big update here is that you can take the available actions of selling a card for a resource, calling (flipping) one of your Legend cards, playing cards, activating effects on your cards, or making an attack in any order. Previously, the order was rigid, where you had to play your cards before making the attack, and once doing so, your turn was over. Now, being able to attack and play cards as you wish and giving you control over when you pass will go a long way in improving the general feel and flow, which I am 100% here for.

The two changes I would classify as mid-tier changes, ones that will impact the game but not in a drastic way. Previously, the game would end if you started your turn with six “gig” dice in front of you. Considering each player has six dice they will assign, this meant that the first player could simply turtle up and play completely defensively and win due to meeting that criteria first. This has been increased now to needing seven dice to win, requiring you to have stolen at least one die from your opponent. It makes sense, will help the game go on a bit longer, and force some interaction beyond simply hiding behind a wall of blockers.

The second of these tweaks is that flipping one of your Legend cards, calling them to action, now only costs a single Eddie resource instead of two. Honestly, the fact that you don’t know which Legend is which (unless you use another card to peek), I’m still not entirely sold on the mechanic in general, but this cost reduction does help things. With games playing out fast, spending two of your rather limited resources on your turn to flip one of your Legends rarely felt like a better proposition than playing a cheap unit to serve as a blocker or another attack to steal more dice.

A prospect that appears to be shared by many, as in the update announcement, the team specifically mentions “During Alpha testing, we discovered that it was possible to win games consistently without flipping multiple Legends. While we don’t necessarily want players to have to flip all three of their Legends every game, we do want flipping Legends to be an exciting and impactful highlight in the vast majority of Cyberpunk TCG games,” so fingers crossed.

By far the biggest change, well, more like an addition, is that the person being attacked can actually do something more than just blocking (if they have a Blocker that is)! Hallelujah! Now, when you are attacked, you can react by assigning a blocker as you could before, but now you can also flip one of your Legends (for the updated cost) or utilize cards with the new “Quick” keyword. This new mechanic, which allows cards either from your hand or that are already on the field, will allow players to pull off battlefield tricks and make attacking a bit more exciting, since you will never know what your opponent may have in their hands.

I love this, as tricks like counters and trap cards are some of the most exciting parts in card games, and their absence during the Alpha rules and cards was an uncomfortable void in the game. To be clear, this is a great addition, and what has me the most excited from the announcement, but it also is a pretty big change, and I find myself wondering - how many of the cards will have to be redesigned now around this new mechanic?

I am someone who is no stranger to backing games in crowdfunding and am well aware that “all rules are subject to change” is a pretty standard note on the campaign pages. Balancing and adjustments are common with games evolving all the time, but to me, this is a massive game design change. A far rarer occurrence, and one that I can’t recall seeing in other TCG crowdfunding scenarios. It makes me start to wonder if the Cyberpunk TCG may have come to Kickstarter a bit underdone, or had its focus devoted elsewhere. A concern that I have mentioned previously is that backers are a bit like ‘guinea pigs’ right now, with the folks at WeirdCo laying down the tracks while the train is going full steam ahead. A feeling only made a bit stronger that they are looking to fill a Senior Game Designer role currently.

It will be interesting if Cyberpunk 2077 TCG gets any more big changes leading up to launch. I am firmly in the camp that all of these updates are great for the game in the end. I am eager to see what sort of nifty effects are planned to use the Quick keyword and if the Legend cost reduction will actually change my mind on their value. Players still have a bit of a wait until they will be stealing gigs in their local game store, but with the success that the Kickstarter had, the team at WeirdCo has the funds to really massage the systems to knock the gameplay out of the park. Now, we just have to wait and see what the final product will look like.

Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.

Crimson Desert continues to evolve at a rapid pace. This week’s update adds a number of quality-of-life changes, makes the Wyvern a mount, and adds a pinball minigame, because why not?

Pearl Abyss has released major updates for the single-player open world action adventure game pretty much every week since launch. It has changed significantly, with everything from combat to endgame reworked. And every now and then, Pearl Abyss will just throw a curve ball in a patch, seemingly just for fun, to keep players on their toes. This week, it's a pinball machine. Random, but brilliant!

The Pinball minigame is located to the inn near the Delesyian Institute. The patch adds the Marni Token Exchange where tokens obtained from the Pinball machine can be exchanged for various items, including the Material Box of Fortune, Abyss Artifact, two types of Artifact Chests, a Helm, 13 types of furniture, and three types of gear crafting recipes.

Pinball isn’t the only minigame added with today's patch. Crimson Desert also now has the Orb Roll minigame at the Great Gate of Urdavah.

Meanwhile, the Re-Blockade feature is improved with the addition of the Battle and Reconstruct stages. For major strongholds, players can request Protection through the contribution assessor (formerly known as the manager of the contribution shop) in each region to suppress Re-Blockades. Liberating strongholds rewards contribution, provisions, trade goods, and other items.

Elsewhere, Kuku Bird Chicks and Baby Wyverns can grow after being fed. After reaching a certain level of growth, they can be registered as special mounts. And here’s a really helpful user interface change: the category tabs in the Mission Dispatch menu are now mission-based, not region-based. The patch notes, courtesy of Steam, are below.

The release of update 1.10 comes hot on the heels of Pearl Abyss’ announcement of a summer roadmap of content, as well as confirmation that DLC is in development. Outlining content updates planned for June to September, Pearl Abyss confirmed story refinements, new combat challenges, cross-save support, and quality-of-life improvements set for the single-player open world action adventure game. Pearl Abyss only teased the DLC, confirming its existence and that it was being worked on. But it did describe it as a “meaningful addition to the player’s journey.”

Crimson Desert update 1.10.00 patch notes:

New Additions

• Improved Re-Blockade.
  • Improved the flow before and after blockades by adding the stages "Battle" and "Reconstruct".
  • For major strongholds, players can request "Protection" through the contribution assessor (formerly known as the manager of the contribution shop) in each region to suppress Re-Blockades.
  • Liberating strongholds rewards contribution, provisions, trade goods, and other items.
• Added the "Pinball" minigame to the inn near the Delesyian Institute.
  • Added the "Marni Token Exchange" where tokens obtained from the Pinball machine can be exchanged for various items.
  • Obtainable items: Material Box of Fortune, Abyss Artifact, 2 types of Artifact Chests, a Helm, 13 types of furniture, and 3 types of gear crafting recipes
• Added the "Orb Roll" minigame at the Great Gate of Urdavah.
  • Obtainable items: Material Box of Fortune, Abyss Artifact, 2 types of Artifact Chests, golden apple, 3 types of carpets, 3 types of lights
• Added a new mount: "Wyvern".
• Added a new pet: "Kuku Bird Chick".
  • Kuku Bird Chicks and Baby Wyverns can grow after being fed. After reaching a certain level of growth, they can be registered as special mounts.
• Added new mount equipment, the "Wyvern Saddle".
• Added new pet equipment, the "Small Kuku Bird Eggshell" and the "Small Wyvern Aviator Hat".

New Additions

Content

• Improved locked items so that Abyss gear can be removed from them.
• Improved the Large Farming Scythe so that it can used to obtain gatherable items.
• Added a "Carpet" category to the house decoration category.
• Added carpets to the items sold at some dyehouses.
• Added a cat tower to Furlington Farm in the Azerian Estate.
• Improved the animation of feeding certain wild animals while holding them.
• Changed the item description for "Sigil of Valor".
  • Can be equipped on: Dogs, Baby Wyverns
  • After the next patch, the Iron Eagle and Phoenix will also be able to equip the Sigil of Valor.
• Added a map to the constellation research journal and improved it so that the location of constallations can be found through it.
• Changed the carry postures for certain pets.

Controls

• [Controller] Changed the basic interaction (Y/△) to not operate as a long press when using the "Default" customization preset.
• [Controller] Changed Axiom Force so that its buttons can be customized.
• [Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where, when customizing secondary keys, the customization setting would not save properly.

Combat / Action

• Added a ground attack skill to Blackstar.
• Improved it so that, if you change your element slot or arrow/bullet/small cannonball slot during a boss battle, the changes are kept even after dying and retrying.
• [Damiane] Adjusted the damage of unarmed skills.
• Improved arrows so that normal arrows are used first when Replenishing Arrows run out.

UI Fixes & Improvements

• Changed the category tabs in the Mission Dispatch menu from region-based to mission-based.
• Added knowledge on "Dye Colors" and "Small Tools" in the Journal > Knowledge > Gatherables menu.
• Fixed an issue where some key guide information displayed at the bottom-right would not appear in certain situations.
• Added a level of growth UI to the inventory, allowing you to check the growth levels of pets and horses.
• Improved the Photo Mode UI.

Localization

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

Others

• Fixed an issue where, after winning a Rematch, progress would not be maintained properly and revert to a previous state.
• Fixed an issue where some bosses would damage themselves while attacking.
• Fixed an issue where attack animations would cancel when using Axiom Force or Force Palm while on a mount.
• Fixed an issue where a double jump would sometimes activate even when the controls for Vault were inputted only once.
• Fixed an issue where Vault could not be used as a Counter.
• Fixed an issue where the character's attack power was not properly reflected when using Kliff's Nature's Echo and Damiane's Reckoning.
• Fixed an issue where Force Current could not be used properly during the "Repair the second pensive statue" mission of the "Jijeong Temple in Chaos" quest.
• Improved homing skills and items so that they no longer target unintended objects.
• Fixed an issue where, if a pet picked up certain items while the inventory was full, the items would disappear without being obtained.
• Fixed an issue where, after placing a Legendary Fish in the pond and loading, additional Legendary Fish appeared in the pond.
• Changed Legendary Fish so that they cannot be used from quick slots.
• Fixed an issue where some knowledge could not be obtained in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where the map could not be closed in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where crashes would occur on the dye menu in certain situations.
• Improved terrain and object placement in passage areas so that wagons can travel more smoothly in some regions.
• Fixed an issue where characters mounted on a mount could not be controlled in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where horses could not be changed at the stable in some save files.
• Fixed an issue where the Contribution UI would sometimes appear upon re-entering the game.
• Fixed an issue where the effect of Focused Force Palm would continuously remain in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where disbanding comrades while mounted on a horse would dismiss the horse as well.
• Fixed an issue where bounty quests would not progress properly in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where dialogue would overlap during combat with Sir Catfish.
• Added animations for placing live fish into and taking them out of the inventory.
• Changed the release function so that summoned pets can also be released.
• Fixed an issue where bird pets would sometimes lift gimmick elements.
• Improved the appearance of some outfits and characters to look more natural.
• Changed the circus sign lights so that they shine even from a distance.
• Fixed an issue where evade could not be performed while using Examine during the faction quest "Bandits Riding Wolves".
• Fixed an issue where NPCs related to the quest "Swift Delivery, Safe Borders" would not appear.
• Fixed an issue in the quest "Harvest of Greed" where the wagon disappears upon retrying the quest after the culprit dies.
• Fixed an issue where certain objects would sink abnormally into the terrain.
• Fixed an issue where, if Kliff died while accompanying the player, he could not be summoned again even after sufficient time had passed after being disbanded.
• Fixed an issue where the camera would not follow the locked-on target while in Focus mode.
• Fixed an issue where unnatural effects would appear when the character collided with certain furniture.
• Fixed an issue where the patterns of certain tattoos would not display properly.
• Fixed an issue where notifications for knowledge entries that did not exist in the Knowledge menu would display abnormally.
• Fixed an issue where rain would appear indoors.
• Fixed an issue where rendering was unstable in certain areas when the terrain was wet from rain.
• Improved the visual effect of rain to show the rain making the ground wet appear more clearly.
• Mitigated an issue where the appearance of the previous equipment would briefly appear when changing equipment in shops.
• Fixed an issue where the power core would intermittently fail to operate after moving to the Fleet of Archives Abyss.
• Fixed an issue where the barrier in the 'Fleet of Archives' Abyss would become disabled when approached.
• Fixed an issue where some text UI overlapped when buying the Writ of Absolution on a 5K monitor.
• Fixed an issue where two alchemy materials were consumed at a time when using alchemy materials on Hard difficulty.
• Changed the contribution shop and manager of the contribution shop's name to contribution office and contribution assessor.
• [Keyboard/Mouse] Improved archery/shooting contests so that the character immediately enters aiming mode when the contest begins.
• [Damiane] Added a turn and a roll animation while equipped with a musket.
• [Damiane] Fixed an issue where the greatsword's appearance would appear abnormal after giving up during a Rematch.
• [Damiane] Fixed an issue where the shield's appearance would remain abnormally after using the Shield Toss ability.
• [Oongka] Improved the effect of the Devastation ability.

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.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 players are having a blast with the games new mode, Black Ops Classic. The new mode was released today as part of the game's Season 4 update and brings some radical changes to the gameplay of Black Ops 7. The new limited-time mode strips out omnimovement, sliding, and simplifies the overall gameplay experience to be more akin to classic Black Ops games like Black Ops 1 and 2. Players also can't use things like stims, an equippable that lets you immediately heal mid-battle.

"We wanted to get as close to a classic movement set (Black Ops 2 as a target) as we could, so Omnimovement, Wall Jump, and Slide are restricted in Black Ops Classic along with some additional feature restrictions," said Black Ops 7 design director Matt Scronce on X.

The mode also limits players to maps from classic Black Ops titles, including Firing Range, Summit, Raid, Nuketown, and more. It's by all intents and purposes Black Ops as you remember it, save for some changes to the visuals and different weapons.

So far, players seem to be really enjoying the old-school throwback.

"Black Ops Classic is exactly what Black Ops 7 should have been," said one player, and they're not alone.

Another player concurred, stating that the mode should remain in Black Ops 7: "Played one match of Black Ops Classic and yeah I’m gonna need this to be a permanent mode."

"Very fun and fixes a ton of issues I have with BO7. Almost got a nuke," said another fan.

Some are noting that the changes are so radical they're having a hard time adjusting to them, because they're so used to the controls of modern Call of Duty. As of right now, it remains to be seen whether or not this will actually drive players to the game. The mode comes eight months after Black Ops 7's initial launch, and four months before the release of Modern Warfare 4 – which may mean it's too little, too late for some players who bounced off the game in its earliest days.

The movement of Black Ops 7 has been a hot topic since its arrival, with some feeling like omnimovement and wall jumping overcomplicates the gameplay. More traditional movement, however, focuses on a player's gun skills rather than their ability to dodge bullets by moving around like a lunatic.

Even if this mode doesn't change the tides for Black Ops 7, the future is looking bright. We recently went hands-on with Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer ahead of the game's official reveal and had plenty of glowing things to say about it. Modern Warfare 4 won't feature omnimovement, and will instead focus on fluid but more grounded movement.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

The Xbox Series S is taking some heat once again following comments made by the founder of Moon Studio, the team behind action RPG No Rest for the Wicked, which has been available on Steam Early Access since 2024.

During the PlayStation State of Play, it was confirmed the game was coming to PS5 this October in celebration of its 1.0 release, but Xbox users will have to wait. This isn't due to any kind of marketing deal with PlayStation. Rather, it has to do with limitations with the Xbox Series S. In response to a fan inquring about the lack of an Xbox release date, studio founder and game director Thomas Mahler pointed to the Series S.

"Series S is making that rough," said Mahler in a comment on Discord. "We'll ship it after in a good way once it's optimized like crazy for Switch 2 and Xbox."

Another user joked that a mobile version would follow the Xbox and Switch 2 versions, to which Mahler responded: "Series S and mobile specs aren't too far apart at this point."

This is hardly the first time something like this has happened. The Xbox version of Black Myth: Wukong was delayed by a year and it was heavily rumored that it may be due to difficulties developing for the consoles. Microsoft responded to these rumors noting that it had not been informed of such troubles, but developer Game Science later suggested those rumors may have had some truth to them. Game Science CEO Yongar Feng-Ji noted in January 2025 that the Xbox Series S' 10 GBs of shared memory was creating issues with optimization. When the game was eventually released on Xbox, the studio confirmed that the delay was a result of spending extra time trying to optimize the game specificially for Xbox.

Baldur's Gate 3 also suffered issues when it came to developing for the Xbox Series S. The game had a staggered release across platforms, arriving in August 2023 for PC, September for PS5, and December for Xbox. That wasn't by choice, necessarily. Larian had troubles getting split-screen co-op to work smoothly on Xbox Series S. The studio even enlisted the help of Microsoft's own engineers to help get it all functioning.

With all of this said, there has been a lot of discussion throughout the current console generation over whether or not the Xbox Series S is worth the hassles. Microsoft mandates that all Xbox Series X titles must also work on Series S with full feature parity, but it has led to some games being released later on the platform. It begs the question whether Project Helix, the next Xbox console, will have a cheaper and weaker variant – or if Microsoft will go all-in on one SKU. Given how aggressive Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma has been, it's hard to imagine the company doing two consoles again, but we'll just have to wait and see.

For now, No Rest for the Wicked will release on PS5 on an unspecified date in October. The Xbox release date is currently to be confirmed.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Summertime is right around the corner, but if you're hoping to avoid hot weather by hanging out inside, Humble Bundle is here to help keep you busy with some PC games. A brand new Humble Choice lineup has dropped for the month of June, and it's filled with some excellent games to add to your online library.

Octopath Traveler II, The Riftbreaker, and Life is Strange: Double Exposure are just a few of the PC games included in this month's drop, but you'll also get five more. As for how much all eight of these games cost? Just $14.99 when you sign up for a Humble Choice membership. That's a fantastic deal compared to grabbing them all at their retail prices, and that's not even the end of it.

A free month of IGN Plus is also thrown in the mix, which allows you to get rid of ads on the site, score some free games, and more. Check out the full lineup of games below, and head to the link to sign up.

Humble Choice June 2026

God of War developer Santa Monica Studio has discussed Kratos' future as the figurehead of its flagship franchise, following the reveal of its Faye-starring next chapter, God of War Laufey.

Speaking in an interview uploaded to PlayStation's YouTube channel, Santa Monica Studio head of creative Cory Barlog said that "there's always going to be Kratos games" — a position backed up by a later post from the company's official social media account, which stated that the studio had "many more stories to tell with him."

Early reaction to God of War Laufey has been mixed, with some fans praising the game's combat and visuals, while others have been criticizing the simplistic gameplay seen in Laufey's opening section — and, predictably, the fact that fan-favorite Kratos wasn't center stage. (For a full catch-up, we’ve got an explainer on Faye herself for more on her story.)

"Faye is, while it's a different thing, it's still part of the larger tapestry of what we truly really want to explore, all of these different characters in there," Barlog said of the new game. "But there's always going to be Kratos games, like, throughout the whole history. We're super excited about that."

"Oh for sure," added God of War Laufey director Ariel Lawrence. "We can't not tell stories about the big guy."

Our first glimpse at God of War Laufey, seen in a 20-minute gameplay segment aired at the end of this week's PlayStation State of Play showcase, began with Kratos and Atreus burning Faye's body — as seen in 2018's God of War. Kratos then pops up again shortly after, aiding Faye while she's briefly imprisoned. It remains unclear if Kratos will make any other appearances before Laufey's credits roll, or if these brief glimpses of the hero are it, as he's then busy with the events of God of War Ragnarök.

"Kratos is the God of War – we have many more stories to tell with him," Santa Monica Studio's official X/Twitter account wrote in a post issued last night. "For now, we're excited to take fans on a journey into the afterlife of the gods with Faye and hope you’ll come along for the ride!"

Of course, Santa Monica Studio has also announced a remake of the God of War Greek trilogy remake — which, of course, will see Kratos back in the spotlight. The original God of War launched back in 2005 for PS2, with its sequel arriving two years later. God of War 3, for PS3, then debuted in 2010. No release date for the God of War Trilogy Remake was announced, and work is still in its "early stages."

"We'll always tell stories about Kratos, but I think for us, it was just a chance to talk about somebody who was so pivotal to the beginning," Barlog told IGN previously in an exclusive interview, which discussed why Faye was chosen as the protagonist. "For us, it's not a departure; it's more of an expansion," he added.

Here's everything announced at State of Play June 2026 if you need a catch up on what else PlayStation has in store.

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

It’s that time of year when it's fun to just wildly speculate about what we might see from Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. Little is known, apart from a few games and studios that have already been teased, and so this gives me plenty of room to dream about what surprises the show may have in store. Taking place on June 5 at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm BST, here’s how to watch the stream. Let’s not waste any more time, though, and get straight into what to expect from it.

What We Know

We’ve been promised a world-first look at Star Wars: Zero Company, the X-COM-inspired take on a galaxy far, far away. A turn-based tactics game co-developed by Bit Reactor and Respawn Entertainment, it places us in control of a mercenary group tasked with fighting in the shadows of the Clone Wars. Sign me up.

Guild Wars developer ArenaNet is confirmed to be attending. Could this finally mean a reveal for Guild Wars 3? The base-game release of Guild Wars 2 came out way back in 2012, and the free-to-play MMORPG series has been ticking over with expansions and updates ever since.SGF could well be time to see the next numbered game in the series. Or maybe it’s just a new expansion. I don’t know.

Blood Message is one of those games that could blow up if it gets another impressive showing. Set during the Tang Dynasty, it blends stealth and melee combat together as you play as a messenger and his son on a dangerous, linear journey across Asia. A cinematic action-adventure from Chinese studio 24 Entertainment Lin'an, its first teaser, shown last summer, looked stunning, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it in action here.

Teased earlier this week, new driving game Clutch will also be in attendance. Made by a team of ex-Playground devs at new studio Maverick Games, let's hope this open-world narrative racer will pack some of that Forza Horizon punch.

Finally, Epic Games will be showcasing a new trailer for its upcoming new season of Fortnite, Runners, which will be revealed by its star, Ben Starr.

Hopes and Dreams

Now for the fun bit. First up, let’s try to answer the one question we all have on our lips when a Geoff Keighley show comes around. Will Hideo Kojima make an appearance? I don’t know, but I’m going to lean towards a ‘yes’ this time. It’s probably far more likely that he’ll come with a new look at his Xbox exclusive horror game OD: Knock, than it is his upcoming stealth-action PlayStation game, Physint, but honestly, I’ll take either.

Another developer that’s no stranger to a stage like this is FromSoftware. It’s been a while since we’ve heard about its Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive PvPvE action RPG, The Duskbloods. Or, if we’re really dreaming, another brand-new announcement from the Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne studio.

Speaking of dreaming, I personally would love nothing more than to finally see what Persona 6 looks like. 2026 will mark 10 years since the last mainline entry in the beloved RPG series, and I need it back in my life. I’d also take a look at remake Persona 4: Revival, just to tide me over.

The fact that some of the bigger video game publishers don’t host their own showcases anymore means the likelihood of them showing up at SGF is only increased. For example, this feels like the perfect time for Ubisoft to give us another look at Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced ahead of its July 9 release. With new Far Cry and Ghost Recon games reportedly on their way before 2029, too, could we see either of these revealed?

Similarly, EA could show up and surprise us. It feels like we should be getting closer to knowing more about the third part of Respawn’s Star Wars: Jedi trilogy, so maybe that will be here. And do we dare dream of seeing anything of BioWare’s Mass Effect 5? It’s a long shot, but I’d love it. Speaking of Mass Effect, though, there are a couple of games that appear to be taking the spirit of the beloved sci-fi RPG series into their own creations. Exodus has its own dedicated stream attached to the end of the Future Games Show Summer Showcase on June 6, so that may not turn up for SGF, but The Expanse: Osiris Reborn from Owlcat Games could well do.

Capcom has plenty going on already, but could it throw another new game into the mix? Rumours have been circulating about a new Devil May Cry for a while now, so perhaps, if it exists, we’ll see it here. More likely, though, is some story DLC for Resident Evil Requiem. And what about Konami, who has seen a bit of a resurgence of late. Is it time to see what Bloober’s remake of the original Silent Hill looks like? Or, which Metal Gear Solid could be undergoing the remake treatment next, following the success of Snake Eater?

And then there’s Square Enix, which has yet to reveal what the third part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be called. Could June 5 be the day we find out? Let’s hope so. And, yes, there will always be whispers of Kingdom Hearts 4, as fans clutch their keyblades close to their hearts in hope of a reveal. I wish you all the best.

I’m sure that one day, Judas will eventually come out. Ken Levine’s ambitious project has been teased for years and years now, and we’d love to know a release date. We’ll take more gameplay, though. Levine’s previous creation, Bioshock, is, of course, getting a fourth entry of which we’ve heard nearly nothing about. Again, it feels like a long shot, but you never know.

As for things that are incredibly unlikely,, no, we won’t see anything related to GTA 6, nor would I get your hopes up for a look at The Witcher 3’s freshly announced Songs of the Past expansion in action, as CD Projekt Red has said that won’t come until later in summer at Gamescom. Feel free to still dream, though.

And that’s all the speculation I have for you ahead of the show. I can’t list literally every video game that is, or may be in development around the globe, but I’ve given it a decent shot. What are you most excited to see at Summer Game Fest 2026? Let us know in the comments!

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

During PlayStation's June State of Play, a brand new trailer for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis revealed that the game would be released next year on February 10. While that may be quite a way away from now, the good news is preorders are now live for it, which is great for fans hoping to secure a copy of this remake.

There are three editions available to preorder: Standard, Deluxe, and a huge Collector's Edition. Of course, each of these comes in at different price points and also comes with different bonuses, which we've broken down below. Only a select few retailers have preorder pages up at the moment, but we'll be sure to update with more as they pop up.

Preorder Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis – Standard Edition

PS5 (Physical)

• Best Buy - $59.99
• GameStop - $59.99
• Amazon - $59.99

Xbox Series X (Physical)

• Best Buy - $59.99
• GameStop - $59.99
• Amazon - $59.99

Nintendo Switch 2 (Physical - Game-Key Card)

• GameStop - $59.99

Digital

• See at PlayStation Store - $59.99
• See at Xbox - $59.99

PC

• See at Steam - $59.99

The Standard Edition of the game is listed for $59.99 and can be purchased as either a physical or digital copy. Physical copies are available for PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch 2. It's worth keeping in mind that the latter comes as a Game-Key Card, meaning you'll have to download the game to play.

Digital versions are available to preorder from places like the PlayStation and Xbox storefronts, and PC players can get preorders from Steam. There's also a fun preorder bonus you'll get for buying early, which you can learn more about below.

Preorder Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis – Deluxe Edition

PS5 (Physical)

• See at Amazon - $69.99
• See at Best Buy - $69.99
• See at GameStop - $69.99

Xbox Series X (Physical)

• See at Amazon - $69.99
• See at Best Buy - $69.99
• See at GameStop - $69.99

Nintendo Switch 2 (Physical - Game-Key Card)

• See at GameStop - $69.99

Digital

• See at PlayStation Store - $69.99
• See at Xbox - $69.99

PC

• See at Steam - $69.99

Similar to the Standard Edition above, the Deluxe Edition comes in both physical and digital formats, though it comes with some extras alongside the main game and preorder bonus. They are:

• Lara Croft Parisian Fugitive Outfit
• DLC Story Pack
• Preorder Bonus for Deluxe Edition: 48-Hour Early Launch Access

Preorder Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis – Collector’s Edition

PS5

• See at Best Buy - $199.99
• See at Amazon - $199.99

Xbox Series X

• See at Best Buy - $199.99
• See at GameStop - $199.99
• See at Amazon - $199.99

Nintendo Switch 2 (Physical - Game-Key Card)

• See at GameStop - $199.99

The Collector's Edition is for those who want to go all-out with their purchase. Priced at $199.99, it comes with plenty of fun extras alongside the full game and main preorder bonus. Here's what you can expect from it:

• Premium Steel Case
• Croft Signet Pin
• Triumvirate Talisman Keychain
• Mini Art Book
• Lara Croft vs. The T-Rex Statue
• Lara Croft Parisian Fugitive Outfit
• DLC Story Pack
• Preorder Bonus for Collector's Edition: 48-Hour Early Launch Access
• Collector's Box

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis Preorder Bonus

While the Deluxe and Collector's Editions come with an exclusive preorder bonus of 48-hour early access, every version comes with the Survivor Outfit preorder bonus, which you can see above. Look familiar? It's Lara's outfit from the 2013 Tomb Raider game!

What Is Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis?

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a reimagining of the original Tomb Raider from 1996, featuring "visuals powered by Unreal Engine 5, modern game design, and new surprises, while honoring the spirit and atmosphere of Lara’s debut adventure," according to the Tomb Raider website.

Global Head of Content and Community at Amazon Game Studios, Michael Lovan, adds to this in a PlayStation Blog post, writing "From your first plunge into Peru’s Lost Valley to your first glimpse at the crumbling ruins of Greece, every environment has been expanded with stunning new visuals, an immersive soundscape, and modernized gameplay that makes exploration, combat, and puzzles feel fresh."

If you can't wait to jump into Lara's original adventure rendered in brand new, modern graphics, get a preorder in at one of the links above so you're ready to play in February.

More Preorder Guides

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

Elden Ring Tarnished Edition launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, 2026, FromSoftware has announced. The additional content included in the Tarnished Edition will also be available to buy on other platforms on the same day via the Tarnished Pack DLC.

I've been sneaking through the same corner of a London museum for two hours, crouching behind display cabinets as I memorize guard positions, patrol patterns, and camera locations. I restart whenever I'm spotted and, through repetition, I've honed my silent route between the three data discs I need to grab to complete my mission.

Open the door from my starting spot, zap the camera, smoke bomb the guards and steal the first card. Through a vent, vault a ledge, choke the guard carrying the second. Hop outside, over some scaffolding, drop into the courtyard garden. Crouch in a bush beneath a window – the names Gamgee, Samwise Gamgee – as I wait for the guard carrying the third card to walk by. Pounce and head for the exit.

After what must be 20 attempts I finally nail a clean run and shoot into the top 250 of the global leaderboard.

This is 007 First Light's Tactical Simulation challenge mode, or “TacSim”, at its best. This specific level, called The Garden Party, is perfect for stealthy speedruns: it's small enough that you can understand it within 30 minutes, but mazey enough to reveal new hiding spots a couple of hours in. Slowly mastering it failure-by-failure has been a delightful digestif for the main story, and I've enjoyed it as much as any individual slice of the campaign.

The trouble is, it's the only bit of TacSim I actually like.

The mode is split between escalations (challenges with three unlockable difficulty tiers) and operations. These are single standalone missions, including The Garden Party, with modifiers that will presumably change over time. One makes enemies hit harder, another disables your Q-lens, so you can no longer see enemy outlines through walls.

It's essentially 007 First Light chopped into chunks and jumbled – small sections of campaign levels remixed with new objectives. Kill all the enemies in a shipping yard you passed through during the story; throw eight guards over the railings of an alpine research centre you see towards the campaign's climax. By completing them you earn a leaderboard spot and points to spend on new weapons, gadgets upgrades, and outfits, including the ludicrous Day of the Dead one (as worn by Daniel Craig in Spectre's prologue) I'm wearing in the above screenshot.

It's a fine philosophy, but it's at odds with what makes First Light special.

The campaign bounds forward, carried by its cheeky tone, jump-cutting between stealth and set pieces. It understands when to embrace Hitman – building up slowly in social stealth sections – and when to abandon it for bang-bang action. TacSim wants to secure the same replayability as Hitman but lacks the big sandbox levels and flexibility that make developer IO Interactive's masterpiece so moreish.

That's not to say it can't work, of course. Extra modes of any game don't necessarily need to match the main campaign, and IO is the master of this stuff. In many ways, Hitman looks completely different today than it did at launch, and that same dev team has a whole roadmap planned for TacSim. But I'm not convinced its skeleton is sturdy enough to carry the weight of an entire endgame.

It's barebones. It comprises five escalations, although two of them are essentially repeats of campaign tutorial sections, and two operations. With so few levels to choose from, the strength of TacSim rests on how good they are individually and The Garden Party aside, they're just not.

One of the escalations is pure shooting. First Light is a competent third-person action game but it often places enemies all around you, making firefights feel sloppy and random. The same is true here: you spawn with enemies in front of you, and enemies up high to the left. Trying to find cover from both is fiddly. It emphasises speed but it's too easy to rush ahead of the action, getting shot from the front, behind, and to the side.

In another escalation, your challenge is to push guards off a mountaintop platform. The main mechanic – grab a guard, run towards an edge as you're holding them, steering them left and right, and shove them over – was just one of many tools in Bond's belt during the campaign, meant to be pulled out sporadically. When you zoom in on it for an entire level, though, it feels shaky.

You can't grab guards stealthily from behind so every time you do, they shout, your stealth indicator turning red to show you've been spotted (nearby enemies, thankfully, are deaf). And steering guards towards the edge after you've grabbed them is like trying to move a fridge through a lake of porridge.

The way these escalations morph between difficulty tiers isn't particularly imaginative either. In the shipping yard you need to kill eight enemies to complete the first tier, 10 for the second, and 12 without enemies firing a shot for the third. The lack of significant difference between these challenges makes it feel like playing the same mission three times over.

Every mission in TacSim has a long list of sub-challenges, such as finishing the level without being spotted, crushing five enemies with an object, or only killing enemies with a shotgun. But only the most hardcore completionist will care because the core missions simply aren't solid enough to justify playing dozens of times. Even as much as I love The Garden Party, I feel no need to go back to it and rampage with a 12-gauge.

Operations definitely hold the most promise: they are the most sandbox-y, the most like Hitman.

Alongside The Garden Party is Clean Infiltration, set in the laundry room of a Slovakian hotel, where hanging sheets obscure guards' vision and washing machines are deadly electric traps. Your task is to collect three notes and escape. It's a tight space with little room for error and, at first, I enjoyed figuring out key sightlines, working out the best order to dispatch guards or sneak by them without raising the alarm.

But as soon as you collect all three notes, all the guards inexplicably go weapons free and four heavily armed military brutes spawn at the exit, blocking your path. You can pull out your gun and blast away – bringing guards running from all angles – or try to muddle through with your gadgets. Unless you've already dispatched every guard in the place, then, the chokepoint that finishes the level just isn't built for stealth, and it ruins all the satisfaction of a well-planned silent run.

Outside of each mission, some of the design decisions in TacSim are baffling, too. It's a mode all about speed but it doesn't tell you how long a successful run took and there's no in-game clock timing you, so you never know if you're set to break your record.

Unlocks arrive too slowly. You only get points after a successful run so if you restart it – and if you're anything like me, you will do that over and over until you get it right – you earn nothing. You'll need to play for several hours before you unlock a single gadget upgrade.

You start completely naked, without even the most basic gadgets from the campaign. If you've just finished the story you're infinitely less powerful than you were five minutes ago. Good luck escaping that laundry room!

And there's simply no need for its explorable hub to exist. You have to interact with separate terminals to select missions, pick your loadout, upgrade gear, and select an outfit. Every time you quit a mission to start another you waste two minutes shuttling between them. This should've been a menu.

More missions are coming, and if they're all as good as The Garden Party then I'll eat my words. But the next TacSim is a driving-focused mission called Valhalla Protocol, and I'm all full up on floaty cars and their wonky shooting, thanks very much. In fact, after completing its excellent campaign, I think I'm all full up on 007 First Light. It'll never match Hitman's delicious all-you-can-eat buffet.

Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition is now available to preorder for Switch 2, and we now have a confirmed release date - August 28, 2026.

The upgraded release was announced during a Nintendo Direct last year and includes new armor sets and starting classes in addition to the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

The recent preorder listing confirms the Tarnished Edition will be priced at $79.99. However, it also confirms that the new edition only comes with a game-key card.

Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition Preorders Now Live for Switch 2

It’s June, so you know what that means: a week packed full of video game reveals and announcements. As ever, Microsoft will be at the heart of the action with its annual Xbox Games Showcase, showing off a range of its own first-party games, as well as a selection of third-party offerings. But how can you watch this packed stream? That’s what we’re here to tell you.

When Is Xbox Games Showcase 2026?

The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 will be held on Sunday, June 7. The event is a two-parter, starting with the Xbox-focused presentation that will showcase first and third-party Xbox games. Following that, there will be a dedicated Gears of War: E-Day Direct. The stream kicks off at the following times, depending on your region:

• US (West Coast) - 10am PDT
• US (Central) - 12pm CDT
• US (East Coast) - 1pm EDT
• UK - 6pm BST
• Europe - 7pm CEST

For our Australian readers, the Xbox Games Showcase begins early on the morning of June 8 at:

• Australia (Western) - 1am AWST
• Australia (Central) - 2:30 am ACST
• Australia (Eastern) - 3am AEST

Where To Watch Xbox Games Showcase 2026

You can watch the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 and the Gears of War: E-Day Direct right here on IGN. We show all the big summer showcases on the IGN homepage, so simply visit IGN.com to see it all happen. If you’d prefer, you can also watch it on our YouTube channel.

If you’d prefer to watch the stream on Microsoft’s official channels, head to Xbox’s YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook page. For those who wish to watch with American Sign Language, the stream will also be available on the Xbox ASL Twitch channel.

What Will Be at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026?

So far, Xbox has remained pretty tight-lipped about what we can expect to see in this year’s showcase, aside from the dedicated Gears of War: E-Day Direct. Following in the footsteps of Xbox’s previous two summer “Direct” shows, which focused on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and The Outer Worlds 2, you can expect around 25-30 minutes of deep dive into the upcoming Gears of War prequel.

Beyond the Gears Direct, it seems sensible to expect news about the recently delayed Fable, as well as the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved (dubbed “Campaign Evolved”) which is due to land later this year. We wouldn’t be surprised to see updates for Forza Horizon 6, too. But beyond that, it’s all guesswork. You can read what we expect from the Xbox Game Showcase here.

It’s also worth remembering that Xbox’s showcases include many third-party developers working on multiplatform games, so it’s worth tuning in even if you don’t own an Xbox or PC (plus, many Xbox-developed games come to PS5 now.) Last year’s GOTY, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was first shown as part of the Xbox Games Showcase in 2024, so there’s potential for another future game of the year to turn up here.

Other Summer Game Showcases

The Xbox Games Showcase is just one of many summer game showcases taking place in June 2026. In a post-E3 world there are now many different online shows that take place throughout the start of June, all hosting their own reveals and surprises. The ones still to come are:

• Latin American Games Showcase - June 4, 2pm PDT
• Women-Led Games Showcase - June 4, 4pm PDT
• Access-Ability Showcase - June 5, 8am PDT
• Summer Game Fest 2026 - June 5, 2pm PDT
• Day of the Devs SGF Edition - June 5, 4pm PDT
• Southeast Asian Games Showcase - June 6, 8am PDT
• Wholesome Direct - June 6, 9am PDT
• Story Rich Showcase - June 6, 10am PDT
• Green Games Showcase - June 6, 11am PDT
• Gayming Pride Parade - June 6, 12pm PDT
• Future Games Show Summer Showcase - June 6, 12pm PDT
• Frosty Games Fest - June 6, 3pm PDT
• Xbox Games Showcase - June 7, 10am PDT
• PC Gaming Show - June 7, 12pm PDT
• Deutsche Indie Showcase - June 7, 2pm PDT
• India Games Showcase - June 8, 10am PDT

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

Images allegedly showing leaked Persona 6 characters and logos have been scrubbed from the internet via copyright claim, with Sega believed to be behind the takedowns.

The copyright enforcement comes ahead of this weekend's Summer Game Fest livestream and Xbox Games Showcase, with fans now expecting the game to get a formal announcement in a matter of days.

Grainy images of a blond-haired boy in school uniform and a girl with black and red hair initially surfaced via social media last week. At the time, top Persona fansite Persona Central suggested the images originated from an outsourced animation team, and that the artwork had subsequently been verified as legitimate by several noted Persona leakers.

This week, further leaks showed a better look at the game's logo — a green "P6" in a circle. Now, various instances of the concept art and logo have been scrubbed from social media, and replaced by a copyright takedown notice. That said, numerous more examples remain.

"Got a DMCA takedown request by Sega," wrote X/Twitter user Dkmariolink, one of those hit by copyright removals. "Not posting it again, but if you know, you know." IGN has asked Sega for comment.

It's been a decade since the launch of 2016's Persona 5, though the hugely popular role-playing series has offered numerous spinoffs and re-releases in the years since, with the franchise receiving a notable push on Xbox since 2022, including a day one launch via Game Pass for P4R: Persona 4 Revival last year.

Just yesterday, Xbox announced that Persona 5: Royal would land on Xbox Game Pass next week, on June 9. I wonder if we might hear more at Xbox's big show? Tune in this Sunday, June 7, at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK via IGN to watch along with us for all the big reveals.

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

It starts with a helicopter fishing me out of the water with another survivor. The year is 2029: The Federation of Central Usea has been shattered by the Republic of Sotoa. My savior is the Endurance, a relic of an aircraft carrier still fighting the good fight even if victory no longer seems possible. After a perfunctory medical exam, I’m shoved back into a cockpit. But not as a pilot. Instead, as the navigator to Jan “Rex” Cope, the Wings of Theve, Usea’s legendary ace pilot.

It’s a lie. All of it. Cope has never shot anyone down. His kill count is entirely fabricated. Mostly, when trouble comes, he and his squadron kick in their afterburners and run. His job is to stay alive to make sure the Wings of Theve lives to fight another day. Folks need heroes. Gives them hope. And that’s more important than whether or not any single pilot is a legend.

My mission with Cope goes well right up until it doesn’t. When the actually-legendary Shadow 22 shows up hunting for us, Cope decides to run. Cope’s good, despite his lack of kills. He’s very, very good. But he’s not good enough. As our plane sinks into the sea, I grab his dog tags. “Start swimming, soldier,” he urges me, from beyond the grave. “Make it home alive.”

So I do. The Endurance needs a new Wings of Theve, and I’m it, complete with Cope’s actual callsign, “Rex.” My goal isn’t to shoot down enemy pilots or complete missions. Not really. It’s to be a symbol, a blank canvas upon which a propaganda machine might paint whatever story they like. It’s to come back alive so that story can continue. “I am become a name,” said Tennyson’s Ulysses. Like him, I am an idea of a myth. But when legend becomes fact, print the legend. Or in this case, hope it goes viral on social media.

To be clear, none of this is a spoiler. It all happens in Ace Combat 8’s first mission, and if you’ve seen the reveal trailer, you’ve seen the core plot beats. But it makes for a fascinating setup for a story. Ace Combat has always, always been a political series. And despite the best efforts of many video games to co-opt the aesthetics and scenarios and mechanics of war while tying themselves into pretzels to avoid offending anyone or making a connection to the real world or saying anything of substance, war, even in fictional representations, is and always will be political. And as Kazutoki Kono, Ace Combat Series Brand Director, told me, Ace Combat 8’s story was very much inspired by what’s happening in the real world.

“In past Ace Combats, we think about, ‘Okay, well, where are we starting in this story? What's the circumstance of the world and what kind of hero do we want the players to feel like or become at the end?’ And we'll start reverse engineering the beats that would be required to reach that. And ultimately in the current landscape we thought about, ‘Well, how will the player feel when they become this ace pilot and hero in this world?’ And one factor was how that player is perceived through social media. And in thinking about the social media in our current society, it's flooded with timelines that you can't even tell whether or not they're true or false. So the world is in this state of chaos and we chose that as our starting point in looking at, ‘Okay, well, are these false wings or are they real?’”

It’s something that the story interrogates in the missions I play. When I take on the role of the Wings of Theve, I’m quickly forced into scenarios where I can’t just run. I have to take out enemy fighters. Tasha, a member of your squadron and former circus pilot who’s so talented on the stick that she can outfly other pilots and act as a decoy without notching kills, notices the change almost immediately. Cope’s style had its drawbacks, but it kept his squadron alive and they rarely had to shoot anyone down. Once I take over, though, things start to change, and the Wings of Theve quickly become less a legend and more of a name that inspires hatred in the hearts of your foes because you killed their friends.

But the story has an emotional core, too. You’ll spend time with the other pilots in your squadron – called Joker Flight – during briefings and chat before missions or while you’re walking to your planes. Something as simple as eating together matters, and Wings of Theve takes the time to show you that. Even the decision to have Cope stick around in your head as what Kono describes to me as the “voice of God [who] narrates you through the story” matters because it helped build a connection with my fellow pilots in the missions I played. It doesn’t hurt that all of these sequences are utterly stunning. Ace Combat has always been something of a technical marvel, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Ace Combat 8 is one of the best-looking video games I’ve ever seen, whether you’re in the cockpit or have your boots planted on the Endurance's deck.

I got to play several missions set across the early parts of Ace Combat’s campaign, and if you’ve ever played an Ace Combat game before, especially Ace Combat 7, you should feel right at home. One cool but subtle change in Ace Combat 8, however, is you can hit an enemy plane anywhere (as opposed to previous games, where you had to damage defined “containers” that would mark where the plane could take damage) and destroy them. Kono told me that he believes there are three pillars that define Ace Combat: “The first is photorealistic renditions of the sky and that sense of freedom as you fly through it. The second is the satisfaction you get from dogfights with enemies and shooting them down. And the third is this hero experience that you get from becoming the ace pilot that that story requires.”

All of those are here in spades. Wings of Theve is stunning; dogfights are incredibly satisfying (do yourself a favor and switch to expert controls, even if, like me, you’re a little rusty); and by the end of my time with Ace Combat 8, I did feel like the Wings of Theve, even though that clearly came at a cost to both myself and the other members of Joker Flight.

What I admired most about what I saw, though, was the mission design. In one, Joker Flight was tasked with taking out aircraft and ships on an island chain. As the mission opens, you run into an enemy squadron. I'd blow past them quickly, taking out what I could along the way, trying to get to the ports and airfields as soon as I could. It would take a moment for our foes to scramble their fighters and get their ships underway, and if I could beat them to it, I could take them out without much resistance.

It was a good idea, in theory, and if I was a better pilot I might have managed it. But blowing past that first squadron meant they'd be hot on our heels as soon as they turned around, and that momentary advantage we enjoyed would only matter if we could do enough damage before ships were out of port and their planes were in the air. What won it for me was a change in tactics: I took out the fighters in the air first, even if it took a little bit longer, but it meant an easier time later on as long as I was smart.

What makes Wings of Theve's levels great, though, is that there are plenty of ways to accomplish your mission. Yeah, my way worked, but I also could have taken a tricky shortcut through a tight tunnel, racking up points and kills along the way. How you approach a mission is up to you

Part of that starts with the aircraft and weapons you select before each mission. A later mission tasked me with destroying a massive land battleship (which is exactly what it sounds like) armed with rail guns (which is exactly as scary as it sounds). “Okay,” I thought, stupidly. “I’ll use the F/A-18F, load that bad boy up with air-to-surface missiles and take him out, and I’ll take some anti-aircraft missiles as insurance.”

That was a really bad plan. After getting thoroughly worked because I couldn’t do enough damage to the land battleship, I dropped the anti-aircraft missiles for guided penetration bombs. And that was still hard, because I had to get close to the land battleship. But it worked. You can also set up your squadron before each mission, too, if you like (or set them to auto if you’re like me and just looking to get to the action). What’s remarkable about that mission, though, is that despite the inherent silliness of a land battleship, it carries a lot of pathos. People are screaming and dying and terrified, and it feels like it’s on you and your squadron to stop something that feels unbeatable.

It probably shouldn’t work, but it does, and part of that is based on how much attention to detail Kono says goes into making sure those lines on the radio land. “It's hard to describe how much attention to detail we put into it, but there is oftentimes a lot of radio communication that happens while you're in the jet and I'll often tell my sound team, ‘Hey, play this line of dialogue,’ because the dialogue has a lot of information as well, and then 0.7 seconds later we want to hit them with this line and if it was one second, it would create a different kind of emotional response. So it's very important that we shave off those 0.3 seconds. So that's the sort of granular level at which I'm looking at how that radio chatter hits the players.”

By far my favorite mission, though, was the final one of my demo. It brings everything that made my time with Wings of Theve work together. Our mission was simple: take out a group of massive transports carrying land battleship parts before they can get to Rocky Island. The issue? We’d be jammed and flying through cloud cover. We’d have to keep an eye out for their contrails and spot them ourselves.

Missions like this allow you to really appreciate the level of visual detail Ace Combat 8 brings to the party, not just because it looks good, but because it tells you something. “Just looking pretty is not going to be enough in terms of the visual expression,” Kono told me. The visuals need to fundamentally tie into the function of the gameplay itself. So the shape of the cloud, for example, if it's very thin and you're going to be at high altitude, if it's thicker, it's lower altitude. And when you see water droplets on the cockpit, that means you're within a cloud and if you chase this vapored streak, you'll know that there's probably a plane at the end of whatever that is and if enemies are showing black smoke, that means they've taken on a lot of damage. So the visual expression and fidelity of the graphics is one thing, but what that communicates to the player for us was going to be equally important.”

It was something I felt as I played that final mission. Following another plane through thick clouds wasn’t just scary because I couldn’t see, but because my plane would start icing up. But flying through a thinner cloud was beautiful because I could appreciate the water droplets that clung to my cockpit. When I chased down those transports because I recognized their contrails, followed them, and got close enough to line up my machine guns with their engine, that success was mine. I had a general idea of where they were, but I had to figure out their location and the altitude they were flying at. It was a designed success, of course. All games are. But I still felt like I’d pulled it off, which is the magic trick.

When the 55th Shadow Unit showed up, I got to experience the best of Ace Combat 8’s dogfighting in one place: hitting the perfect missile shot from a long-range lock because I’d chosen weapons that worked well for what the mission was asking of me; pulling off a high-G turn to evade a missile at the last second; dropping chaff and flares to stay behind that transport plane so I could strafe its engines long enough to take it down; and shooting down the transport flying highest so its debris would crash down onto the planes behind it. At its best, Ace Combat has always rewarded split-second decision making and smart play, and that’s still true based on my time with Wings of Theve.

When I asked Kono about allowing players the freedom to play how they chose while challenging them, he told me this. I think it speaks for itself: “Whenever I approach game design or like sort of level design, I think of myself looking at like a giant fish tank and I have a stick that I'm kind of stirring things up with. And I think game interactivity is all about, ‘Well, what do we attach to this stick? What toolkits does the player have?’ And in the case of Ace Combat, you really only have missiles, your loadout, your assault rifle, and the ability to fly freely any way you want.

“So you can't suddenly use magic or change your loadout or go into an inventory while you've already started stirring the stick. And when you're stirring up this fish tank with your unique stick and toolkit, I think about, ‘Well, from a game design perspective, what's going to happen inside this tank?’ And there are different ways we calculate damage, including the containers I mentioned earlier. So what kind of chemical reaction the stick causes within the tank I think is kind of what defines how the interactivity expands… Perhaps instead of the air to surface missiles, you attach bombs to this stick and the environment respond[s] in a way that [has] a much more positive feedback loop. So it's creating that fish tank and an environment that can accommodate different types of things and react in different ways.”

It’s a level of thoughtfulness I felt throughout my time with Ace Combat 8, and when I finally put my controller down, I left satisfied, but knowing I still had so much more to do. I wasn’t the pilot the FCU needed me to be, not yet. But I wanted to see the rest of Joker flight’s story, and I wanted to get back in that cockpit and be a better stick. The Wings of Theve is an idea, but there’s very little as powerful as an idea whose time has come, and I wanted to try to live up to that legend, which speaks to what I saw of Ace Combat 8’s story. Wings of Theve understands that motivation, but I think it knows a deeper truth, too: that war is barbaric and cruel and monstrous and that the only real war heroes exist in the stories we tell one another. That sometimes propaganda and truth are, for all intents and purposes, one and the same. Perhaps there’s no reconciling those things. But maybe the right plane in the sky can give you hope. And that’s not nothing.

Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can find him on Bluesky @edgarallanbro.

The Sims 4 is a bit of an oddity. What began as the fourth mainline base game entry in the long running Sims series in 2014 is, nearly 12 years out from that initial launch, almost unrecognisable as a Sims game as we knew them up until this iteration. While history had taught us to expect a brand-new Sims generation every four or five years, The Sims 4 has broken that unspoken rule to become the first truly live-service title in the franchise. The base game went free-to-play in 2022, meaning that monetization is now exclusively through add-ons, ranging from classic expansion packs to increasingly granular microtransactions; and while other Sims games are known to be in development, the intention seems to be to keep The Sims 4 alive alongside whatever successors and spin-offs are coming next.

It's uncharted waters all round — for the many Simmers who aren't used to such a long generational lifespans (although, I regret to remind you, TS4 is old enough now that it's entirely plausible for a teenaged player to have grown up exclusively on this version of the game), but also for the development teams at EA/Maxis who handle the day-to-day of keeping a game running through its transition into live service. One such team member is Morgan Henry, a producer who joined The Sims 4 team in 2018 and has worked on multiple major additions ever since, including acting as lead producer on the Werewolves game pack and the Life & Death expansion pack.

Now, Simmers have their hands on Morgan's latest project: a hefty free base game update released earlier this month, which saw a variety of high-demand bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and a couple of brand-new features. I spoke to Morgan about the behind-the-scenes processes that go into making this update.

IGN: May 12 saw the launch of the first patch honouring EA's commitment to improve quality-of-life for Sims 4 players in 2026, tackling some long-standing bugs in the game. Which bug are you proudest to have squashed in this update, and do you have any interesting stories you can share about the testing and implementation that went into developing the fixes in this update?

Morgan Henry: Improving ‘Infant pick ups and put downs’ is probably what we’re most proud of for the May update. The work around this was very challenging and it took a lot of collaboration and fine-tuning to get right. Bug fixing is particularly challenging, because to fix a bug you have to first figure out what is happening. When does it happen, how, under what circumstances, are there connections to past changes in code (even from years back)? We joke internally that solving the mystery of a bug is 90% of the work, so it really does feel a lot like detective work at times! I’ve referred to engineers as “detectives” more than once. It’s challenging work, but we have fun with it.

IGN: Infants and toddlers are a major focus of the bug fixes in the May 12 update. Will there be a similar thematic throughline for future QoL updates like this?

Morgan Henry: Yes! We very much want to hit ‘themes’ alongside our top community-reported bug fixes with our upcoming updates. The next one is planned to be themed towards general autonomy plus cutting back on phone/TNS (The Sims Notification System) spam. After that, we’re investigating an update with fixes themed around food, dining, and drinking. We’ve been getting player feedback on Discord and Reddit to determine our focuses within these themes.

IGN: The brand new base layer feature in CAS is a first for The Sims franchise. Are there any other similar small-but-impactful brand new additions you're hoping to bring out in otherwise bug-fix-focussed updates?

Morgan Henry: In May, alongside Base Layers, we’ve also released a new Base Game Infant Playmat and more Backup Save versions. Most of our upcoming feature additions are smaller in scope than Base Layers (along the lines of our new Toggle Option to turn off Caregiver Autonomy), but still aimed at making the overall gameplay experience feel smoother and more customizable for players.

IGN: One of the highlights of the base layer feature is that it addresses a long-standing issue for Sims who wear binders, drawing attention to the game's oft-stated commitment to improving inclusivity. Do you plan to use future QoL updates to similarly strengthen representation in the game?

Morgan Henry: We’re always looking for opportunities to improve inclusivity whenever we’re making any changes or adding features to the game. Representation has always been a very important part of The Sims, and it’s genuinely meaningful to work on a team where those conversations are part of the development process every day. We have a few smaller upcoming changes focused on inclusivity and representation we’re excited about, and we’ll share more in the future.

IGN: Has the emergence of high-profile Sims-likes such as InZoi and Paralives influenced EA's decision to focus on QoL improvements for The Sims 4 in 2026?

Morgan Henry: As The Sims 4 has grown, so have the opportunities to improve the day-to-day player experience. Quality-of-life improvements have always been part of how we support The Sims 4, and we’ve been progressively honing our process for these updates. Our 150+ Community-Voted Fixes update back in November was a major step in this process. Since then, we’ve released quality-of-life updates in December, January, March, and now May. These improvements come from listening to our players and understanding the areas they have told us matter most, so everyday gameplay feels smoother, more intuitive, and more reliable.

IGN: Looking ahead on the roadmap, it seems like the Dine Out game pack will be a major focus of the planned updates in the latter part of this year. Will this pack be receiving a comprehensive refresh, along the lines of the one given to Spa Day back in 2021?

Morgan Henry: For our update on Food/Dining/Drinking, we plan to focus on addressing reported bugs in those categories across Base Game and all packs, plus responding to player feedback from our Discord and Reddit threads. A lot of the feedback we’ve received from players has centered around Base Game Autonomy, so that’ll be more of a focus for us, but I wouldn’t rule out improvements for Dine Out as well.

Rebecca Jones is a guides writer for IGN.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has outlined some major changes coming to the game, including roguelite systems called Planet Warfronts.

In a post on Steam outlining the future of community and player progression in Helldivers 2, game director Mikael Eriksson confirmed Planet Warfronts is the roguelite system Arrowhead CCO and Helldivers 2 creative director, Johan Pilestedt, revealed was being worked on back in December.

“Before we launched the game, we experimented with dynamic warfronts on planets, where players needed to make strategic community decisions on a planet level in order to liberate it,” Eriksson explained. “While it was promising, we realized we didn't have the content needed to do it justice at the time. We feel we've now added enough content to realize the vision we had for Planet Warfronts, and it's going to be the next big thing we're working towards in the Galactic War. When you've seen Johan talk about experimenting with roguelite systems, he was referring to this.”

When Planet Warfronts goes live, missions will be grouped under different categories:

• Defend missions in liberated territory
• Frontline War missions on the frontlines
• Behind Enemy Lines missions in enemy controlled territory

Eriksson said players will fight to reach key strategic locations on planets, like cities, which can have different active enemy variants in different areas of the planet. “Of course, you’ll still have the Game Masters to contend with, too,” Eriksson insisted. In the final version of this feature, there will also be gameplay altering effects and consequences for achieving planet liberation goals, like reaching and liberating a city within X time or disabling enemy artillery in one location to unlock crucial Operations.

“The intention is to make it more fun to liberate planets with your squad and deepen the Galactic War and Community Progression systems,” Eriksson continued. “We want liberating planets to feel unique and epic for everyone. We have some development and design work ahead to make these feel great and provide the best experience, but I wanted to share just one of the ideas we have in active development. More to come on these changes in the next few months!”

When Pilestedt teased the roguelite mode, he said it “changes the game fundamentally!” That was enough to set fans of the explosive co-op action shooter into overdrive imagining how a roguelite mode would work in the game, which revolves around open and shut missions restricted by time limits.

But that’s not all. Helldivers 2 will get Galactic War Campaigns this month. Campaigns are the “next evolution” of Major Orders, and will last 1-3 weeks. “The intention that it will always be clear what the active Campaign is, how it's going, what the outcomes have been, and what's at stake,” Eriksson said, admitting this has not always been the case before with how players interact with the Galactic War.

The introduction of Campaigns means there will always be at least one Campaign reward if the conditions are met. “We want to make these rewards special, because we also think players should earn more than just medals,” Eriksson explained. Some will alter gameplay, some will be cool items. “It also means there is more stuff for players to work towards outside of warbonds,” Eriksson teased. “Pray J.O.E.L is feeling generous, the first reward you’ll be working to unlock is a new FRV!”

Meanwhile, Personal Orders are changing into a system called Personal Campaign Progression. The intent here is for every Galactic War Campaign to come with a personal progression reward track. “That way, even if the community fails to reach a larger goal, players can still do their part toward their personal goals and get rewarded with cool things to mark their participation in various Campaigns,” Eriksson said.

“This change won't happen with the launch of Galactic War Campaigns, but we are planning to deploy it this year.”

And finally, Arrowhead has news on upgrading your ship, with an overhaul of the ship module system that significantly increases the offerings for players to progress. Perhaps more exciting, Arrowhead is also adding more ships.

“The biggest shift we've done internally is we now have a dedicated ship team, working on the first new ship,” Eriksson revealed. “Our intention is that each new ship will have their own unique progression paths, specializations and customizations. And if you like the ships, we want to keep adding them; at least the ones we've planned so far!

“I can't share when the new ship can reach your hands... yet, but I'll be sharing more details later this year for certain.”

Eriksson also outlined upcoming fixes coming to Helldivers 2, below, which I’ve rounded up here:

• Helldivers will be able to use assisted reload, as long as either the carrier or the reloader of the weapon have the corresponding backpack.
• More emotes! Helldivers will have 8 emote slots instead of 4.
• Reducing dead input on stimming.

And, looking futher ahead, Helldivers 2 is getting the following:

• Stratagem bouncing. We've assembled a task force to prototype fixes for this issue and we're hoping to have it solved by the end of the year.
• Hellpod steering. Similar to stratagem bouncing, we're also tackling this long standing issue.
• Improving enemy and player traversal, which includes environmental collision and reducing movement penalties on grass and vegetation.
• Increasing the level cap to 300
• Economy and resource improvements
• Fixes to the Warbond and Superstore menus that make them easier to navigate.
• Closed beta testing that focuses on stability and balancing, and that includes getting beta test feedback from our Propaganda Commanders.

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.

The reveal of God of War Laufey has sparked a vociferous debate coming out of State of Play, and while the internet has plenty of opinions about this first game in the franchise to star Faye as the main character, criticism has also come from an unexpected sauce: Domino's Pizza.

I want to start by noting that IGN spoke with God of War Laufey's game director Ariel Lawrence and Santa Monica Studio creative director Cory Barlog ahead of the reveal to discuss why the developer went with Faye as the main character this time instead of Kratos, and we’ve got an explainer on Faye herself if you need a catch-up on her story. So if you need some context before reading on, IGN has you covered.

Perhaps the most predictable response to God of War Laufey's reveal is complaints around the fact Kratos isn't the main character. And now, Domino's Pizza UK decided to wade into the discourse, leaning into complaints that God of War Laufey’s protagonist happens to be a woman by tweeting: “God of War game with no Kratos = Pepperoni Passion with no pepperoni.” The tweet has had 4.1 million views so far.

(As an aside, we actually do see Kratos in God of War Laufey — anyone who watched the gameplay reveal, below, would know that).

Replies to the tweet piled in, including many slamming Domino's for jumping on the bandwagon. “Shut the f**k up Domino’s Pizza UK,” replied evan loves worf. “Why is dominos pizza uk tweeting like a 45 year old chud,” asked M1das. “Stay in your lane,” suggested John Bartle. “This is why you’ll never be Little Caesars,” commented Daron in perhaps the most devastating putdown of all.

It’s worth noting that the Domino's Pizza UK Twitter account has a reputation for spicy takes. Rage-baiting is what it does, particularly when it comes to our side of the pond’s football. For example, after English Premier League winners Arsenal lost the Champions League final to PSG, Domino’s Pizza UK tweeted: “We've sold 802,137,914 pizzas since Arsenal won a European trophy.” That, as you’d expect, riled up Arsenal fans while delighting fans of other clubs, which is of course exactly what Domino’s hoped to achieve.

Similarly, Domino's Pizza UK is rage-baiting with its God of War post, and based on the millions of impressions the tweet has seen so far, it’s mission accomplished. Still, perhaps it didn’t expect Sony Santa Monica to respond with the simple: “ok thanks for the feedback, dominos pizza corporate account.” The developer’s tweet has seen 3 million impressions and 76,000 likes and counting. At the time of this article's publication, the Domino's tweet had 64,000 likes and over 1 million more views.

Social media “brandter” aside, there is a significant amount of positivity about God of War Laufey from across the internet, including from IGN readers. Many are excited by the prospect of Kratos’ dead wife having to deal with the fallout from her husband's god-killing exploits in the afterlife, in a story that runs parallel to the events of the 2018 God of War and Ragnarok. And Sony Santa Monica has insisted it’s not done with Kratos God of War games, so we know those are still planned. I imagine Domino's Pizza UK will move on from God of War soon enough, especially with the World Cup around the corner. Much more rage-bait potential there.

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.

007 First Light is estimated to have sold 2.2 million copies, generating $150 million in revenue.

Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, tweeted to say that the company’s data showed most of those early sales were on PS5. Elliott said 55.1% of sales were on PS5, 33.1% on Steam, and 11.8% on Xbox (Xbox console, Windows, and cloud combined).

The only official sales data we have comes from developer IO Interactive, which said that 007 First Light had become the fastest-selling game in the company’s history, shifting 1.5 million copies in its first 24 hours. That means it’s sold faster than any Hitman game. The impressive sales milestone was achieved without the aid of the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which is due out this summer.

The James Bond adventure is also the highest rated IOI game ever, with an 87 on Metacritic. IGN’s 007 First Light review returned a 9/10. We said: “Demonstrably obsessed with bringing the Bond fantasy to life in a way no one has ever managed before, 007 First Light is the best Bond game I’ve ever played.”

So, a strong start for James Bond, but it looks like the game still has some way to go before breaking even for IOI. According to a report by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, 007 First Light had a budget of 1.3 billion Danish krone (a little more than USD $202 million). Denmark's TV 2 said that makes 007 First Light the most expensive entertainment product in the country's history. IO had no comment to share regarding its reported budget when contacted by IGN.

Adding complication to the question of whether 007 First Light will be successful commercially is that Amazon Game Studios has a stake in the game, despite the fact Amazon bought the James Bond IP after the First Light IO deal was done. Indeed, Amazon Games Studios has suggested it will publish all future James Bond games, whereas IOI self-published 007 First Light. Clearly, IOI hopes for enough success to continue 007 First Light’s story with a sequel. Indeed, the developer has said it wants to make a trilogy of James Bond games.

IGN's 007 First Light review returned a 9/10. We said: "Demonstrably obsessed with bringing the Bond fantasy to life in a way no one has ever managed before, 007 First Light is the best Bond game I’ve ever played."

Our 007 First Light Guide has all the Essential Tips and Tricks you need to survive your first assignments, plus 6 Tips for Mastering Stealth so you can stay out of sight. There are plenty of achievements to unlock and collectibles to get your hands on, so check our guide to All Collectible Locations to make sure you don’t miss out. For a helping hand with your missions, head to our in-progress Walkthrough, and our guide to all the Safe Combinations and Keypad Codes.

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.

CD Projekt is focused on The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 right now, but it’s also got a brand new IP in the works, codenamed Project Hadar. And while Hadar is shrouded in mystery, a new job advert has teased what to expect, although given it's a CD Projekt game, perhaps none of this should come as a surprise.

As spotted by GamesRadar, a job ad for Project Hadar calls for an engineering director who will help “push the envelope for the next, immersive game in the Hadar world, creating an emotional, open-world experience that will stay with gamers.”

Based on that brief description, it sounds like CD Projekt hopes Hadar will become its third tentpole video game franchise, up there with The Witcher and Cyberpunk, and will play along the same lines. Given how successful both series have been, that’s a lofty ambition. But you wouldn’t bet against it, this being CD Projekt’s first own, original IP after developing games for existing properties for close to 20 years.

Hadar, though, is likely still years away, despite official early conceptual work beginning in late 2021. The foundation of the new setting was still in a creative exploration stage a few years ago, and is only now described as being in the "early pre-development" stage. Is Hadar a fantasy title? A sci-fi game? A game in a modern setting? Is it purely single-player or will it have multiplayer? We don’t know.

We do know Hadar is still a relatively small project within CD Projekt itself, with just 24 people working on it, according to the company’s latest financial report. To put that into context, 513 people are working on The Witcher 4, 163 on Cyberpunk 2, and 83 on Sirius, the multiplayer-focused video game set in The Witcher universe. And we now know The Witcher 3 is getting a brand new expansion, although the heavy lifting is being done by Fool’s Theory.

On top of that, CD Projekt has an extremely ambitious plan to launch The Witcher 4, The Witcher 5, and The Witcher 6 all in a six-year time period. It's this plan which essentially rules out the possibility of expansions for The Witcher 4. And then there’s Cyberpunk 2 to consider. How Hadar slots in CD Projekt's packed release plans remains to be seen.

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

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.