UK-based collective rights management organisation PRS for Music has “commenced legal proceedings” against Valve over the use of music in PC games sold and distributed via Steam, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

PRS for Music claims that Valve has “never obtained a licence for its use of the rights managed by PRS on behalf of its members, comprising songwriters, composers, and music publishers” since Steam was established.

“The litigation will progress unless Valve Corporation engages positively with discussions and takes the necessary license to cover the use of PRS repertoire, both retrospectively and moving forwards,” said the organisation in a press statement that namechecked “high profile series” such as Forza Horizon, FIFA/EA FC, and Grand Theft Auto (none of which are published by Valve, but rather Microsoft, EA, and Rockstar, respectively).

In the UK, however, licensing music for video games (that is, what happens when a developer or publisher negotiates a deal to place a particular song in their game) is a separate element of the copyright to what occurs when the game is subsequently downloaded or streamed by a player. PRC website documentation indicates that storefronts like Xbox use the same “General Entertainment Online Licence” that covers non-broadcast streamers like Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix, and notes previous deals with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the use of copyrighted music within games and games-related content downloaded across Europe.

This is the latest in a string of legal hurdles for Valve. In January 2026, a UK tribunal gave the go-ahead to a £656 million ($901 million) collective action lawsuit targeting Valve over alleged anti-competitive practices on PC storefront Steam. On top of this, last month the attorney general of New York Letitia James announced she is suing Valve, alleging the platform illegally promotes gambling to children.

The PRS for Music made headlines back in 2009 for pouncing on a woman who played classical radio to her horses to keep them calm without paying for a public performance licence, and for threatening large fines against a shop assistant who it accused of singing to herself without a performance licence while she stacked shelves, which it subsequently apologised for.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Today’s movie-focused Nintendo Direct has delivered the final trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie while revealing new members of its cast – including Donald Glover (Community, Solo, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Lion King) as Yoshi.

The trailer itself is relatively straightforward, putting the spotlight on Bowser Jr. as he begins his plot to save his papa from the Mario brothers. We see Princess Peach’s castle ripped from the Mushroom Kingdom as Bowser reclaims his spot as the ruler of the Koopa army before getting a first look at Super Mario Bros. 2 villain Wart, but the biggest surprises actually revolved around its cast.

Illumination’s Chris Meledandri made an appearance during the Nintendo Direct to put theories concerning Yoshi’s actor to rest by announcing that Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) will play Mario’s green dinosaur companion in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It’s a twist not many expected, even after the internet did its best to figure out the name behind the familiar voice featured in previous trailers.

Other new cast additions are Luis Guzmán as Wart, who gets just a few seconds of screentime in today’s trailer, as well as Issa Rae as Honey Hive Galaxy’s Honey Queen.

“Since September of last year, we’ve been taking various initiatives for the Super Mario Brothers 40th anniversary,” Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto said during the Nintendo Direct. “This movie will be the centerpiece of the anniversary. We hope you enjoy Mario and friends’ new adventure on the big screen.”

Today’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer expands its already large cast with a classic Super Mario Bros. 2 boss ahead of its April 1, 2026, release date. Previous have unveiled first looks at returning characters like Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser, while also teasing appearances from newcomers, such as Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), Rosalina (Brie Larson), and Yoshi. Now that Wart has entered orbit, there’s still no explanation for one mysterious figure that many believe could be Star Fox leader Fox McCloud.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie comes to theaters in just a few weeks. In the meantime, you can read about a leak that has fans expecting to see another one of the biggest names from the Super Mario Bros. universe. You can also check out another leak that suggests the movie may include a cameo from a classic NES icon.

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).

Humble has launched a new bundle packed full of great games in honor of the ESA Foundation’s Nite to Unite event. All the games are fav favorites, and have a $259 value, but Humble is giving you the chance to get all for just $10.

The games included are:

• Pentiment
• Mafia: Trilogy
• Horizon Chase 2
• Tetris Forever
• Far Cry Primal
• Dishonored 2
• State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition
• Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions

IGN Entertainment is the exclusive media partner for this year's Nite to Unite fundraiser, which aims to support diversity and inclusion across the games industry.

"IGN Entertainment is thrilled to once again partner with the ESA Foundation for Nite to Unite," said Ziff Davis Gaming & Entertainment president Yael Prough. "This event is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when the entire gaming community comes together."

"Our partnership extends across our family of brands, including Humble Bundle, which, through its gaming ecommerce platform, has raised more than $272 million for over 34,000 charities worldwide."

Prough continued: "The ESA Foundation's impact on future generations of game makers is vital, and we're honoured to continue standing alongside them in that mission."

Humble is owned by IGN Entertainment, a subsidiary of Ziff Davis.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

A major shakeup to how shiny odds are handled in Pokémon Go has quietly made many species' coveted shiny versions harder to find.

That's according to fans who have been keeping a keen eye on the shiny chances for the nearly 1000 Pokémon species now available in Pokémon Go, using reliable crowd-sourced information gathered en masse from bot accounts to see the hidden impact of recent changes by developer Niantic.

Approached by IGN for comment on the changes, a spokesperson for Niantic said it did not discuss exact shiny odds as a matter of standard policy, despite the hunt for shiny Pokémon being a core reason that many players engage with the game.

At the start of the game's new season, Niantic advertised the fact that it would allow players to encounter the shiny versions of evolved Pokémon in the wild for the first time - a move which on the surface seemed like it would mean players would encounter more shiny Pokémon than before. (Previously, just a Pokémon's base species would normally be found in its shiny version within Pokémon Go, unlike in the main series games, with a small number of exceptions.)

Additionally, Niantic said it was permanently boosting the shiny chance of all Pokémon found in eggs and in raids, meaning that players who regularly hatch creatures or raid (and who pay to do so more frequently) would also likely be rewarded with more shiny creatures.

But what Niantic did not mention was that, seemingly, it had balanced these changes against a general flattening of existing shiny odds which had long given a boost to rarer species. Within Pokémon Go, fans are aware that the game's base shiny rate is 1/512, though certain species have had a longstanding "permaboost" to 1/64. This includes uncommon species such as Chansey and Onix, as well as those which debuted via eggs or raids such as Rockruff, Sandile and Mawile.

In the past, the trade-off here has been that some species which are harder to find (or which don't typically spawn in the wild at all outside of certain in-game events) were more likely to be found shiny, as the chance of finding them at all was more remote. This was also the case with evolved Pokémon that could be featured in Mega Raids (the only main exceptions to the game's previous lack of shiny evolved Pokémon in the wild).

Now, according to player-sourced data, almost every Pokémon found in the wild has that same base rate of 1/512, whether it's a common Pidgey, an uncommon Charizard, or a member of the Legendary Lake Trio. The only exceptions look to be leftover errors on Niantic's part, rather than any general rule.

In a vast thread on the changes posted to top Pokémon Go fan reddit The Silph Road by user ch33psh33p, the move away from tying shiny odds to specific species is suggested to really only benefit "junk Pokémon in eggs and raids" that previously would have been set as 1/512. This is because many desirable creatures here (Drampa, Duraludon, Honedge, etc.) were already boosted, meaning that change has mostly acted as a nerf to those rare species' previously boosted odds in the wild.

With shiny odds officially kept opaque, and more than a little uncertainty over how specific species are actually meant to be handled, fans are once again calling for more clarity from Niantic, particularly when it comes to spawns of the ultra rare Lake Trio and Galar Legendary Birds, which appear to have had their shiny rates flattened alongside everything else.

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

Arnold Schwarzenegger may be pushing 80 these days, but the iconic action movie star could well be entering one of the busiest periods of his Hollywood career. Schwarzenegger has revealed that 20th Century Studios is currently developing Conan 3, Commando 2, and a new Predator movie, with an eye for him to star in all three.

As reported by Variety, Schwarzenegger dropped this bombshell at a panel at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. The actor revealed that he's been in talks with Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg about reprising the role of Dutch from 1987's Predator. Meanwhile, there appears to be new movement at 20th Century Studios with both Commando 2 and the long-in-development Conan 3/King Conan movie.

“They did an additional Predator and the director has been doing a great job of that. Now, he wants me to be in the next Predator. We’ve talked about it,” Schwarzenegger said at the convention. “As a matter of fact, Fox Studios has kind of rediscovered Arnold. They’ve come to me and said, ‘We want you to do Predator, we just got a script for you to do Commando 2.”

Schwarzenegger also revealed that the studio has “just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise’s last four movies to write and direct King Conan.” Presumably, Schwarzenegger is referring to Mission: Impossible veteran Christopher McQuarrie.

All in all, it’s looking like Schwarzenegger could be keeping very busy in the years ahead, as the actor prepares to return to three of his biggest action franchises. Trachtenberg seems to have a deep-seated interest in bringing Schwarzengger back to the Predator fold, as ScreenRant recently reported that 2025’s Predator: Badlands nearly featured a cameo of Dutch in the same scene where Amber Midthunder’s Naru reappears. Now it appears that the two are in talks for a more substantial Dutch appearance in the next Predator movie.

On top of that, fans could be in for sequels to both 1985’s Commando and 1982’s Conan the Barbarian. Conan 3 has been trapped in development hell for decades at this point, with the project being alternately known as King Conan, King Conan: Crown of Iron, or The Legend of Conan. Reportedly, the movie sees Schwarzenegger’s aging barbarian on the throne of Aquilonia, building on the ending of the original film and ignoring the 1984 sequel Conan the Destroyer.

While there’s no guarantee that any of these projects will materialize (we’ve certainly been burned by Conan 3 rumors before), this is definitely an exciting time for Schwarzenegger fans. Let us know which of these three sequels you’re most excited for by voting in our poll and posting in the comments below:

As if this weren't all enough, Schwarzenegger may also be returning to another opular Hollywood franchise. Back in 2021, we learned that he signed on to star in a Twins sequel called Triplets, with Danny DeVito also reprising his role and Tracy Morgan cast as the pair's long-lost other brother. However, there's been little movement on the project since, and the death of director Ivan Reitman likely set the project back.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood has said he doesn’t want anyone else playing Frodo “as long as I’m alive and able,” with his involvement with 2027 movie The Hunt for Gollum all but confirmed.

Speaking to The Times, the 45-year-old actor danced around his as-yet-unconfirmed appearance in next year’s The Hunt for Gollum, but admitted he felt similar to Ian McKellen, who recently said he couldn’t see anyone else playing Gandalf.

“It hasn’t been officially announced, but at a convention last August, Ian sort of let the cat out of the bag,” Wood said, referencing last year’s Lord of the Rings panel at London's For the Love of Fantasy fan convention.

“So there is a good chance. I’m not able to officially say anything until it’s announced, but I will say I’m thrilled with the prospect of another film. It’s always a little nerve-racking when people talk about new movies for a world like Middle-earth. Everyone gets a little protective and hopes it retains its level of integrity, but this story is fun, thrilling. There is a genuine feeling of getting the band back together. “I’m just excited.”

Then, referencing McKellen’s feelings on playing Gandalf again, Wood said: “I certainly wouldn’t want anybody else to play Frodo either as long as I’m alive and able. And I can also recognise what fun that is going to be — when you are in the cinema and you see the hat turn around and it’s Gandalf. Because I’m also a fan, and excited to see how it all comes together.”

This isn’t the first time Wood has spoken about The Hunt for Gollum. In October last year, he said the film, set between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, had a great script and production team behind it.

While some have debated the need for a Smeagol spinoff, especially after mixed reactions to The Hobbit movie trilogy, Wood piled praise on plans for The Hunt for Gollum, which will reunite The Lord of the Rings director and scriptwriters Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens with Gollum actor Andy Serkis, who is set to both star in and direct the film.

"I know a great deal about it," Wood said at the time. "I've read it [the script]. It's really good. There are some wonderful people involved. The thing that is so exciting is that it is really getting the creative band back together.

"The brain trust behind Lord of the Rings, Fran, Peter, Philippa, they are heavily involved," he continued. "And then, the same production designers. It is going to be shot in New Zealand. So, it is going to carry with it such continuity with so many people who are a part of Lord of the Rings, and I am really excited about that. It feels like getting that old machine up and running again with all of the right people."

It has now been more than 20 years since audiences first saw both characters sail off from the Grey Havens at the end of Return of the King. With Hunt for Gollum set several years prior to this, it remains to be seen whether some form of digital de-aging will be used. Indeed, Legolas actor Orlando Bloom has previously expressed interest in also returning, though suggested "AI would have to come into play."

To date, only Serkis himself has confirmed he will appear in the film, though Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen has said he is also open to returning. The Hunt for Gollum is due to begin filming in New Zealand next year, ahead of its release on December 17, 2027.

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.

Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi has warned fans over screenshots that supposedly show him confirming (or at least, strongly hinting) who Leon S. Kennedy has picked as his long-term partner.

Unlockable concept art found in Requiem confirms that the series' most eligible bachelor is now married, while the game's ending sequence subtly seems to show Leon putting his wedding ring back on at the conclusion of his time in the field.

It's a detail that has drawn huge interest from fans, and particularly those who believe Leon has wed one of two potential love interests from earlier games: either Ada Wong, or Claire Redfield. Exactly who he has married, however, Requiem leaves frustratingly unclear.

In the hunt for clues, fans have been contacting Requiem director Nakanishi via his social media accounts, requesting more information. Last week, a collection of screenshots purportedly showing Nakanishi responding to these queries was then posted online - with victory claimed by Team Ada.

"Requiem doesn't make it clear, but if you've played the previous games, you should get an idea!" reads one response supposedly by Nakanishi. "You already know the answer, don't you?" he also allegedly replied, to a fan who asked if Leon and Ada had tied the knot.

I saw so many people messaging Nakanishi about Leon’s marriage. I know it might not be the right thing to do,but I can’t hide how happy this makes me.After all these years,all the waiting, all the debates we can finally say it. Congratulations,Mrs Ada Wong Kennedy pic.twitter.com/FYpGvh20Bj

— Ada Wong (@urfavadawong) March 4, 2026

Now, however, the matter has been muddied once again - this time by Nakanishi himself, who in an Instagram story (spotted by Kotaku) said he had been "called out for screenshots of edited messages." Seemingly, it was now Team Claire's turn to cheer.

But what's unclear here is if Nakanishi is referring to "edited messages" to mean that the messages supposedly written by him were deliberately faked, or whether he's simply referring to the collage of messages now being passed around social media as being edited together.

The only person who can clarify the matter further is Nakanishi himself, but alas the director has apparently declared he is going into "hermit mode" - presumably to avoid the topic altogether. He's not the only one, either. Speaking last week, Leon's English-language voice actor Nick Apostolides held back from answering his thoughts on who Leon had married, as "half the fans would want to hang me" if he did.

If you're still negotating Requiem's monsters as well as Leon's love life, IGN's Resident Evil: Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.

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

EA has laid off an unknown number of individuals from across its Battlefield teams, including workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios, IGN understands.

Individuals are being informed that the layoffs are taking place as part of a "realignment" across the Battlefield studios, as the team continues its ongoing, live service support for Battlefield 6 following launch. All four studios will remain operational, though the layoffs seem to be impacting a variety of teams across multiple studios and offices.

IGN asked EA for comment on total number and types of roles impacted, as well as for the specific reasons for the layoffs. An EA spokesperson told IGN: "We’ve made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we’re continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs."

Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of 2025 in the United States. It sold a "record shattering" 7 million copies in three days and was the best launch ever for a game in the franchise. While its campaign received a bit of a mixed response from critics including us, we gave its multiplayer an 8/10 at launch.

However, the months since Battlefield 6's launch have seen the game begin to struggle from patch to patch. Fans have criticized a number of updates due to reasons ranging from cosmetics to movement, and three months in, Steam reviews have fallen to "Mixed" from a "Mostly Positive" start. Major issues reported include criticism of heavy monetization, use of generative AI for in-game cosmetics, and fewer content updates than expected. The criticism was heavy enough that the teams delayed the start of Season 2 to allow more time to implement community feedback. EA recently published a three-month roadmap for its expected updates.

Steam concurrents have also dropped significantly following Battlefield 6's big launch, when it hit a huge 747,440 peak. Steam concurrents are now, typically, in the tens of thousands. For example, Battlefield 6 hit 67,000 peak concurrent players on Valve's platform yesterday. Of course, Steam numbers do not paint the whole picture of a game's popularity or success, given Battlefield 6 is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. But they do give us a sense of where a game is at, and in Battlefield 6's case the drop-off may have been more dramatic than EA had expected. Meanwhile, the free-to-play Battlefield battle royale, Redsec, has had problems of its own, with a 'Mostly Negative' Steam user review rating for recent posts.

These layoffs come just months after the unexpected death of Battlefield franchise head Vince Zampella in a car accident. They also come as EA is preparing to be acquired by an investor group composed of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for approximately $55 billion. However, the acquisition has not yet closed (it's expected to close in the first quarter of the 2027 financial year, or April, May, and June of this year). IGN understands internally, EA is stating that the layoffs are unrelated to the acquisition.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Fortnite has confirmed that The Foundation, its heroic character voiced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, will return next season - and begun an Avengers: Doomsday-style countdown for his reappearance.

A cinematic teaser trailer released today shows The Foundation currently frozen in ice, captured by The Ice King (another important character in Fortnite lore). Still, players expect they'll be able to break out The Rock's character in the battle royale mode's next season, which begins in shortly over a week's time.

Indeed, today's teaser reveals the official name for Epic Games' next slice of Fortnite, and riffs on the wording seen in recent Avengers: Doomsday teasers (not that they're actually teasers, apparently) to confirm the return of several key characters.

"The Foundation and The Ice King will return in Fortnite: Showdown," the teaser states, before the words shift into a date (March 19, 2026) and then a countdown clock revealing the weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds left to go until the update drops.

The teaser itself reveals a new in-game location, which looks to be a fresh and more detailed version of The Ice King's classic Polar Peak fortress. Previous in-game imagery had teased this wintry palace, and suggested it was home to one of the game's current Zero Point shard macguffins.

The suggestion here is that this new Ice King is working with Fortnite's current baddie, The Dark Voyager, to reunite the Zero Point's broken shards for nefarious means. But previous Fortnite lore, doled out through graphic novels, painted the original Ice King as something of a more noble figure, who freezes beings he has deemed a threat to reality. Fans have suggested the Dark Voyager is capable of corrupting previous Fortnite characters (such as Lynx) to do his bidding. Or maybe the Ice King really has just broken bad?

The original Ice King was a mysterious character who kept a prisoner in his dungeon back in Fortnite's first chapter (something recently glimpsed again via the Fortnite OG mode, which retells the game's original storyline). In today's teaser, however, the new Ice King is shown to have several other captives, too, including golden skeleton lady Orelia and Marvel's own Steve Rogers (though his may just be yet another nod to Doomsday).

The teaser concludes with The Ice King sidling up to The Foundation, frozen mid-punch. How he'll escape remains to be seen, though one things for certain: with newly-tweaked designs for The Foundation and The Ice King on show here, fans will have several must-have new skins to obtain next season.

Recent weeks have seen several surviving members of Fortnite's heroic Seven faction return in game, including a new version of The Visitor voiced by a very familiar-sounding actor. Fortnite is yet to officially confirm the return of Dwayne Johnson to his own role, though fans seemingly won't have long to wait until The Foundation speaks once more.

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

A UK newspaper has posted a major leak from the set of HBO's Harry Potter TV reboot, revealing the series' lavish new incarnation of Diagon Alley.

The major set leak, first published by The Sun, has now spread further online, where Harry Potter fans are poring over the details. The video itself encompasses a minute-long walkthrough of the long Diagon Alley set, where numerous magical stores can be seen.

Diagon Alley is of course the Potter universe's main magical shopping street in London, hidden away from Muggles behind the Leaky Cauldron pub. It is visited numerous times throughout the series, and looks to have been constructed a standing set for use throughout the HBO show's lengthy run.

The Sun has released the first video from the set of Diagon Alley in the HARRY POTTER TV series

We also have a better look at Gringotts and some of the new shops

🔗: https://t.co/irt7d91WXp pic.twitter.com/ohErcr83Mt

— Wizarding World Direct (@WW_Direct) March 9, 2026

Already, fans are comparing it to the version of Diagon Alley seen throughout the original Harry Potter movies, where Harry Potter first receives his wand, and in later years visits the Weasley twins' joke shop, or investigates its darker side street Knockturn Alley.

Noticeably, the new version of Diagon Alley is much narrower than seen previously. It looks, really, more like an actual London alley and less like a film set, though other details do stand out.

A new business not previously mentioned in the books or movies is Acciocoffee!, which looks to be a barista spot with a (magical?) neon sign. At the far end of the street, as expected, is Gringotts Bank. This does not look too dissimilar to how fans have seen the location represented previously, though is now situated in something of a leafy square.

Quite how this footage has managed to find its way onto the internet is still a mystery, as filming for the series has been kept top secret, with codenames used to hide the production's brief appearances on locations around England. Otherwise, much of the shoot is being hidden behind closed doors at Warner Bros.' Leavesden Studios, where this set is likely located.

HBO's new Harry Potter TV series is expected to debut in early 2027 with an eight-episode first season. Filming began last summer, with various glimpses spotted by fans including work on fresh scenes not from the prior movies or books. Indeed, last month we learned the surprising news that we'll be seeing more of Draco Malfoy's home life, as the show won't be told from "over Harry's shoulder" like the books or movies.

As for other big changes, the show plans feature John Lithgow's Dumbledore meeting Nicolas Flamel, reintroduce History of Magic lessons with Richard Durden as Professor Binns, while Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father played by Johnny Flynn, is expected to join the story in the first season of the show, before his introduction in the books and movies.

Image credit: Warner Bros./HarryPotter.com

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

Sony is reportedly testing dynamic pricing on the PlayStation Store.

As first reported by PSprices, Sony is allegedly running an A/B testing system that shows different prices to different users as part of an experiment. The report suggests the test has been running since November 2025, and currently impacts over 150 games in 68 territories.

You may remember the backlash to dynamic pricing when concert ticket vendor Ticketmaster was accused of hiking the price of high-demand tickets for the Oasis reunion tour, prompting intervention from the UK government and new rules to prevent the resale of tickets for live events above the original cost. Of course, the issue there was scaling prices up when demand surged, whereas Sony's test appears to be examining the impact of discounts and a customer's prior purchase history.

PSprices said it spotted the trend because it "tracks PlayStation Store prices in more than 50 regions."

"Our system detected unusual offer structures containing experiment identifiers (IPT_PILOT, IPT_OPR_TESTING) in PlayStation API responses," it explained. "These experimental prices are shown only to certain segments of users selected by Sony."

Games thought to be part of the test include PlayStation-published titles like God of War, Spider-Man, Helldivers 2, and Stellar Blade, with "personalized discounts" also popping up during sales, offering discounts as high as 12.5%. Some third-party games have also seemingly been involved, including WWE 2K25, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and more offering discounts anywhere from 5.3% to 17.6%.

It seems the games are designated as either IPT_OPR_TESTING or IPT_PILOT and have been tested in a number of countries, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The test has not been conducted in the US or Japan due to alleged "stricter regulation and higher market sensitivity."

Last week, a new report revealed that both Ghost of Yotei and Saros will remain exclusive to PlayStation 5 as Sony begins to pull back from PC. The expectation is Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine won't make the jump to PC, either. The news came shortly after we learned Sony may have to delay the release of the PS6 to 2028 or even 2029 as a result of the AI-fueled chip crisis.

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.

An official teaser on the Doctor Who website has sparked fan speculation that the series' upcoming climactic Christmas special will be a sequel to Doomsday, the iconic episode where David Tennant's Doctor originally bid farewell to his companion Rose Tyler.

A fresh in-universe blog post from UNIT, available on the Doctor Who website to logged in users, serves as a reminder of the "Rose Tyler (2006 Cold case)" incident — essentially, the events of Doomsday, where Rose Tyler crossed over into a parallel universe, parting her from Tennant's Time Lord, before she briefly returned to save the day once more.

"As Rose Tyler is currently both missing from this universe and flagged as a complex space-time event, maybe keep an eye out," the blog reads. "I've got the Vlinx scanning all media channels and the subwave network," the note continues, referencing UNIT's resident robot assistant. Maybe someone should tell it to check BBC1 on Christmas Day?

Of course, the final episode of last year's Doctor Who season saw the apparent return of Rose Tyler yet again, or at least someone also played by actress Billie Piper. The show dropped her latest return as a last-second shock reveal, as outgoing Doctor Ncuti Gatwa seemingly regenerated into her, somehow.

One explanation for all this was that Billie Piper had actually been cast as the next incarnation of the series' hero, but the episode's credits deliberately kept her role vague, while fans strongly suspected yet another headscratching fakeout by current showrunner and writer Russell T. Davies.

Now, in the wake of Gatwa's abrupt departure and Disney's decision not to continue funding the show, this year's upcoming Christmas Special is expected to wrap up this bizarre cliffhanger, and likely provide another dose of nostalgia for fans of Davis' acclaimed original run as showrunner back in the early 2000s.

Rumors have persisted that Davies will next mine Doomsday, the emotional conclusion to Piper's original period as a series regular, for material on which to base his next episode (which many fans have speculated will likely also be Davies' last hurrah as showrunner for the series, following a mixed response to his work over the past few years).

The stage is certainly set for some kind of Doomsday sequel, too, with Billie Piper now somehow back, and the second incarnation of The Doctor played by David Tennant also back (and parked living an apparent suburban life, for now).

As ever, reaction to the blog from Doctor Who fans has been mixed.

"You guys are gonna hate me, but nostalgia is my weakness, and I started watching Doctor Who during Season 2," wrote Listen-5980 in a long thread on reddit. "I'm hyped."

"Russell, you already undid that iconic farewell scene two years after it happened," wrote Clara_Finn. "You don't need to go back to it again boo. Original ideas that don’t fawn over the show's history, I beg."

"There was no reality where this special wasn't going to be a Tennant and Piper nostalgia fest," concluded SuicideSkwad.

Doomsday, originally broadcast 20 years ago this summer, earned Doctor Who its first perfect 10/10 episode score from IGN. "This action packed episode one of the most emotionally moving and poignant stories about loss and refusing to let go," we wrote at the time. But, two decades on, is the show finally ready to let go of Tennant and Piper?

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

Slay the Spire 2 has enjoyed an enormous early access launch on Steam, breaking into the top 20 most-played games of all time on Valve’s platform.

Mega Crit’s sequel had already become the most-played roguelike ever on Steam after it launched last week, but now, after hitting an astonishing 574,638 peak concurrent players over the weekend, it’s joined the special top 20 club — and there are some big hitters within its sights.

Chief among them in the indie space is Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong, which hit a peak of 587,150. And it’s that game the developers at MegaCrit cheekily pointed out as its target in a social media post celebrating their success.

“Our team is TOTALLY blown away by the amount of people who have been playing and sharing their love for the game we've been working on for the past half decade,” MegaCrit tweeted. “We're excited to continue to make StS2 the best that it can be!! Also obligatory joke: we'll getcha one day Silksong.”

Mega Crit had already playfully took aim at Bungie’s Marathon, which came out the same day as Slay the Spire 2, in a tweet they eventually admitted came off meaner than intended. But the truth is Slay the Spire 2 is the hottest video game on Steam right now, and is behind only the eternally popular PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2 in terms of current popularity.

You might be wondering what MegaCrit will do to capitalize on its success. Many developers would go hard on microtransactions, but it doesn’t sound like they’re coming to Slay the Spire 2. “We’re microtransaction haters,” Casey Yano, MegaCrit co-founder, told Destructoid, despite the fact that “a lot of our players threaten to buy all and any cosmetics we may ever release.”

I’m among the many playing at the moment, and I initially found it a tad confusing having not played the original. If you’re new to Slay the Spire, our Slay the Spire 2 Beginner’s Guide can help you get familiar with the basics, and for fans of the first game, take a look at the biggest changes in Slay the Spire 2. We’ve also got a guide to all the Slay the Spire 2 characters and how to unlock them, plus how to play co-op with friends.

Not only are a huge number of people playing Slay the Spire 2, but the vast majority are loving it. On Steam it enjoys a user review rating of ‘overwhelmingly positive,’ with nearly 14,000 user reviews already online. Check out IGN’s Slay the Spire 2 Early Access Review So Far to find out what we think.

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.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has offered Xbox staff words of reassurance following the exit of previous gaming boss Phil Spencer.

Last month, Microsoft announced a huge shakeup at its gaming business, with Spencer retiring, would-be successor Sarah Bond out, and Asha Sharma drafted in as new Xbox CEO.

Following the news, Seamus Blackley, who co-created Xbox at Microsoft, said that because Xbox is not a core part of Microsoft’s all-encompassing AI push, it was potentially “being sunsetted.” Blackley added that the fact Sharma came over from Microsoft’s AI team with no gaming background was further evidence of the company’s strategy. “They don’t say that, but that’s what’s happening,” Blackley said. “I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night.”

But Nadella has countered that concern by saying Microsoft is “long on gaming.” As reported by Windows Central, last week Sharma and Nadella held an internal Q&A to discuss Microsoft's gaming strategy. And in it, Nadella said Microsoft will always invest in gaming.

“Phil, he's always talked to me about how gaming is the largest entertainment category — what is gaming in its most expansive form going forward?” Nadella said. “This doesn't mean we walk away from people are doing today — when we think about a AAA game on a console. The question is about where else can we go to extend that. For me, we're long on gaming. We'll continue to invest, and we'll always do so. It's up to this team to show an excellence in execution, and creativity. Software always carries risk, but this is software with lots of creation risk. It's way different. But yet, we have to be the best-in-class at it."

Nadella’s comments emerged after Microsoft confirmed the codename for Xbox's next-generation console – Project Helix – as well as rumors that the device will play Xbox and PC games.

"Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console," Sharma posted on her Twitter / X account last week. "Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"

Sharma has already promised to deliver “the return of Xbox,” and, as part of that, has vowed to reengage with core Xbox fans. There was even a promise to commit to console at a time when so many Xbox fans feel disenfranchised with Microsoft’s shifting strategy. As for Nadella, he had previously said he was “long on gaming and its role at the center of our consumer ambition,” countering the doom and gloom.

There is also a question mark over Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy. In a previous interview with Windows Central, Sharma indicated that nothing is off the table when it comes to big decisions about recent controversial policies, one of which is Microsoft’s decision to leave console exclusives behind. Some hardcore Xbox fans are hoping for a return to the policy of old, at a time when even Halo is making the jump to PlayStation.

"Right now, I need to learn, candidly,” Sharma said. “About the 'why' of these decisions, what we were optimizing for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy today. That's the honest answer. I'm looking at lifetime value, not just what happened in a previous moment, or in short term efficiencies and things like that. The plan's the plan until it's not the plan."

Of course, it’s hard to see Microsoft all of a sudden pulling out of multiplatform game releases, especially when its studios have put so much effort into making Microsoft's policy a reality, and in some cases seen great success on the likes of PlayStation. Halo is coming to PlayStation this year, and that’s unlikely to change.

But it’s worth noting that Sony has recently done just that. Last week, Bloomberg reported that while Sony will continue to release online games on PC, single-player games will now remain console exclusive, marking a significant strategy shift and move away from PC. That means the likes of Saros, Ghost of Yotei, and the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine will remain PlayStation 5 exclusives and not release on PC.

Bloomberg suggested poor recent sales of PlayStation games on PC and the risk to the PlayStation brand, as well as a potential impact on PS5 and maybe even PS6 sales, were to blame for the policy shift. Meanwhile, there’s also the suggestion that the prospect of PlayStation games running on the next Xbox via expected Steam integration may have also encouraged Sony’s return to console exclusives.

Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance 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.

Amazon has unofficially made Pokémon Pokopia an $80 Nintendo Switch 2 game, after the retailer suddenly increased the price for the new life sim's physical edition amid supply constraints.

Numerous retailers have completely run out of Pokémon Pokopia boxed copies, though Amazon still has availability in the U.S., albeit now at the higher price of $80.

It's the second time in as many months that Amazon has jacked up the price of a physical Switch 2 game while demand is high. A couple of weeks ago, the retailer was selling Resident Evil Requiem on Switch 2 for $76.84, almost $7 more than its recommended retail price.

Pokémon Pokopia has an RRP of $70, which Amazon has maintained if you just wish to buy a digital download code. But, right now, a boxed copy of the game will cost you $79.99, up $10 for seemingly no reason other than the fact its stock is hard to find.

Physical copies of Pokémon Pokopia appear limited outside the U.S., too. This morning, The Game Business chief Chris Dring wrote on social media that the game was "seriously undersupplied at UK retail," which has resulted in less than half the Switch 2 physical launch sales of last year's Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

So, what's going on here? Has Nintendo intentionally kept physical stock low? Pokémon Pokopia's physical edition is just a Game-Key Card launch, something the company may have expected would push more people towards its digital version. The game's Animal Crossing-esque life sim genre may also have been considered more likely to attract digital sales, so that the game is always available as people continue to play for weeks and months to come.

Officially, Nintendo has only marked Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World as an $80 game, though the full price of several Switch 2 Edition re-releases of existing Switch 1 games have also hit the same high price point (such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV). Previously, Nintendo has said it will experiment with variable pricing for games on its latest console, while retailers are of course able to charge whatever they like.

IGN's Pokémon Pokopia review returned a 9/10 score, and dubbed the game as "an enjoyable building and town simulator that capitalizes on the charming personalities of its monsters in a way that appeals to both the creative and collector alike."

Wondering which Pokémon you'll be able to live alongside? Check out our list of all the Pokémon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we've also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn't tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pokémon Comfort Level.

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

The Pokémon Company is actively recruiting PhD holders with backgrounds in ecology to work in Tokyo. This is perhaps the closest chance Pokémon fans have to channel their inner Professor Oak in real life.

As posted on Japanese recruitment site HRMOS, The Pokémon Company is specifically looking for those with research experience in animal and plant ecology, with Japanese and English language skills on top. In addition to the salary, there's a PhD holder bonus of 1 million yen (approx. $6,300) upon joining the company, plus another 1 million annually each March. The job listing doesn’t give specific duties, just that candidates will be considered for positions across the company’s different business units.

Although this seems a bit out of left-field at first glance, having employees with a solid understanding of real-life ecosystems and how animals and plants interact within these systems could help the Pokémon series continue to develop in a way that feels realistic and organic. Real world knowledge of predator-prey relationships, habitats and how creatures adapt to their environment are all things that could come in handy when advising on the designs of regional Pokémon and their evolutions. The job listing does not ask for any game development-specific skills like programming, the only requirements listed are for PhD holders with ecology-related research experience, and Japanese and English language ability.

Pokémon Pokopia, the franchises’ new venture into building/life sim territory, starts off by dropping players into a drought-ravaged Kanto region, which they then need to restore. The game gives the player the ability to design habitats to attract certain Pokémon, with these Pokémon themselves having varied wants and needs depending on their species. With the Pokémon series continuing to evolve in more detailed and vibrant ways, it makes sense that The Pokémon Company would want to hire experts that can make sure the Pokémon world feels as vibrant and real as our real world.

Of course, the Pokémon universe itself is full of experts and their assistants who study Pokémon for good and sometimes nefarious purposes. Professor characters pop up in nearly every game in the franchise, even in the spinoffs, from Pokémon Go's Professor Willow, who studies the regional distribution of Pokémon, to Pokémon Sleep's Professor Neroli, who researches their snoozing habits.

In the most recent mainline entry Pokémon Legends Z-A, players can assist Pokémon Research Lab’s acting director Mable by capturing specific Pokémon types to aid her with her research. But working at the actual Pokémon Company in real life and potentially using your years of PhD study to shape future Pokémon ecologies and evolutions may sound like a dream come true to some avid Pokémon fans.

Wondering which Pokemon you'll be able to live alongside? Check out our list of all the Pokémon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we've also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn't tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pékemon Comfort Level.

Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

“If I could tell you the game that I turned down twice, it would shock the world,” claims Tim Willits, chief creative officer of Saber Interactive.

The multi-studio developer has become famous of late for its impressive collection of existing IP video game adaptations, primarily taking the form of playable versions of popular film series such as The Evil Dead and upcoming John Wick, Hellraiser: Revival, and Jurassic Park: Survival, but also tabletop games in the case of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Saber is an incredibly busy, and productive, company, seemingly suffering from its own success to a certain degree, inasmuch as it can’t take on all of the dream projects it would like to. As Willits told IGN in a recent interview, “I can't say it, but there's a game that they came to me twice, and so it's my ‘like someday in the future, I will brag about it’. I can't say it now because I'll get in trouble, but it’s the coolest IP ever, and I can't make the game because we just have too much going on.”

Such is Saber’s commitment to translating movie licenses into video games, that it now finds itself in a situation where rights holders are coming to it in order to pitch games, rather than the other way around.

“Now they come to us,” reveals Willits. “We've had so much success with our past IPs and our license collaborations that big studios are coming to us. I mean, again, I'm not going to give you any specific examples, but some of the really biggest titles that we have, they came to us and it goes to show you that media companies, they know that gaming is the future and there are so many good properties in the world and there are just not enough good teams to make great games. So when you prove yourself that you can take and respect a license, and you respect an IP, and you make a great game, everyone else wants to work with you. So everybody has called us and wants to work with us.”

Willits appears to find the challenge of working with existing IPs highly satisfying, not only because it's enjoyable to play around in these already established universes and unlock the fun, but also because there’s already a huge fanbase to target your game towards.

“It is actually really exciting,” states Willits. “As someone who's created my own IPs and someone who's now worked with all these great IPs, it is truly exciting. I personally feel it's actually much better because you have millions of fans, you know the world that you can get into, but you still need to make a good game, and that is critical.”

That last part is crucial, because Saber isn’t in the business of ‘easy cash-ins’, but instead dedicated to crafting unique game experiences inside of these worlds. The IP and licenses are all a very cool base point, but Willits and the team’s focus is always primarily on creating a great game first and foremost.

“At Saber, we have embraced big licenses,” explains Willits. “I believe that we have more licensed products in development now than any other developer in the world. We have things we haven't even announced yet. One of the great things about Sabre is that we are an independent company, so we work well with every license holder. We have a great relationship with Universal, Lionsgate, and Disney. And if you have a talented development team, and if you focus on gameplay and making the experience as rich as possible, you can take all the advantages of having a licensed property and that built-in fan base and be really successful with it.”

What IP would you love to see Saber take on next? Let us know in the comments! For more from our interview with Saber’s Tim Willits, you can find some new details about the upcoming John Wick game, confirmation that the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake is still in development, and the news that extreme horror game Hellraiser: Revival has secured its ESRB rating.

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.

Today brings an ultra rare Pokémon card from the upcoming Mega Evolution — Perfect Order expansion, and it's the first time this Mega Evolved ex creature has appeared in the Pokémon trading card game.

Mega Skarmory ex sees the recently-revealed Mega Pokémon appear in powerful form, with 260 HP and a punishing special attack.

Sonic Ripper will require two Steel energy and one Colorless energy to pull off, and comes with the requirement that you shuffle all energy attached to the creature into your deck. In return, though, you'll be able to damage any one of your opponent's Pokémon, including those that are Benched.

The move lands a chunky 220 damage, and without Weakness or Resistance for Benched creatures. As a Steel type, Mega Skarmory itself meanwhile is double weak to Electric, and comes with a -30 resistance to Fighting.

Mega Evolution — Perfect Order expansion is the first TCG expansion based around last year's Mega Pokémon introduced to the franchise in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Alongside other cards based on Mega Clefable and Mega Zygarde, this card will arrive as part of the set when it lands on March 27.

For more on the Pokémon Trading Card Game's busy 2026 release schedule, including the best places to pre-order Perfect Order, check out IGN's full guide.

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

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 director Naoki Hamaguchi has opened up about what to expect when the third instalment of the highly-anticipated multi-chapter game releases "not too far in the future," including new gameplay mechanics and locations, some of which we have yet to visit in the remake series.

Talking to Bloomberg, Hamaguchi teased that allowing fans to visit Rocket Town and space is "one of the elements [the team] had to switch around with Rebirth," as well as Wutai, not least because "Yuffie's made a very prominent appearance, stating her case about her homeland. So if Wutai's not featured, I think the fans are going to yell at me."

Hamaguchi also revealed he has expanded on the Highwind "gameplay experience," and "flying is a very large part of the third instalment."

Sadly, he wouldn't be drawn on Chocobo breeding — "I can't say yay or nay on the actual breeding, but there is an element in the third instalment involving Chocobos that is a little different than Rebirth" — or whether or not we'll go underwater — "[Motomu] Toriyama handled the submarine portion of the game, so perhaps he has injected himself into there. And I will leave it at that," — but he did suggest that given how and where Rebirth ends, that should "hint" at how the third instalment will begin in the Great Glacier area.

He also suggested players give fantasy game Esoteric Ebb a try, describing it as very goofy and entertaining: "Disco Elysium meets Dungeons & Dragons by way of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett."

Hamaguchi recently discussed the impact of expanding the platforms on which the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is available, insisting that going multiplatform "will not in any way lower the quality of the third instalment." The director said both the Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox versions of the game's prior instalments "have been incredibly well received and generated a lot of buzz online," but did note some community concerns.

The director also recently teased that the "core game experience is almost complete," and while he "really want[s] everyone to play it as soon as possible," the team has now moved on to "refining and polishing." And yes, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Queen's Blood card game is making a “powered-up” comeback for the final chapter in Square Enix’s remake trilogy.

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.

Steve Downes, who plays Master Chief in the Halo series, has demanded the White House remove his voice from a social media video he described as “disgusting and juvenile war porn.”

In a video published to the official White House X / Twitter account, now viewed over 63 million times, Master Chief is seen and heard issuing his iconic line, “Finishing this fight.” But Halo is not the only world-famous intellectual property used in the video, which was published last week amid the war in the Middle East alongside the text, “Justice the American way.”

Also included are clips of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mel Gibson in Braveheart, Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Keanu Reeves as John Wick, and many more, all saying iconic lines of their own. The movie clips are spliced with war footage showing explosions.

JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY. 🇺🇸🔥 pic.twitter.com/0502N6a3rL

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 6, 2026

Downes, who has expressed concern about the unauthorized use of his voice in the past, took to X / Twitter to issue a statement confirming the White House did not gain his permission for this new video, and demanding he be removed from it.

“It has come to my attention that there is at least one propaganda video circulating that was either produced or at the very least endorsed by the White House that uses images of Master Chief and uses my voice to support the war in Iran,” he said.

“Let me make this crystal clear: I did not participate in nor was I consulted, nor do I endorse the use of my voice in this video, or the message it conveys.

“I demand that the producers of this disgusting and juvenile war porn remove my voice immediately.”

This is just the latest example of the White House using popular IP for its social media posts. And this isn’t even the first time the Trump administration has used Halo, owned by Microsoft, to promote its actions. In October, Microsoft remained silent after Donald Trump released an AI image of the U.S. president as Master Chief and the Department of Homeland Security used Halo to promote ICE on social media. IGN has asked Microsoft for comment on this latest video.

Last week, the White House posted a video on social media that mixed footage from its bombing operations in Iran with Call of Duty gameplay. IGN has asked Activision for comment, but it has yet to respond.

Also last week, The Pokémon Company issued an official objection after the White House used the recently released spinoff Pokopia for a meme, pushing back against the Trump administration’s repeated use of its intellectual property on social media.

As pointed out by The New York Times, Trump administration spokesperson Abigail Jackson has previously commented to double down on their social media strategy. “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s extremely popular agenda,” Jackson said. “There’s a reason so many people try to copy our style — our message resonates.”

In January, Downes said deceptive AI reproductions of his voice “cross a line that gets into an area I am uncomfortable with” — and he called on it to stop. “One of the things that can be overwhelming when it comes to attention from fans is when AI gets involved,” he said. “A lot of it is harmless I suppose, but some of it cannot be harmless. I've been very vocal about my feelings about the use of artificial intelligence, which on the one hand is inevitable and has many positive effects on not only show business but humanity in general, but it can also be a detriment. It can also be something that deprives the actor of his work.

“I've heard some things online in terms of AI and the reproduction of my voice that sounds like my voice that… like I said, most of the stuff I've seen is pretty harmless, but it can be not that way real quick. So, I'm not a proponent. I don't like it. I would prefer that it not be done.

“There's a lot of fan-made projects out there that are really cool, that are done just from the heart. But when you get to the AI part and deceiving somebody into thinking, in my case, that these are lines that I actually spoke when they're not, that's when we cross a line that gets into an area that I am uncomfortable with. I'll go on the record with that.”

Photo by Daniel Boczarski/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.