War for Westeros is a real-time strategy game for real-time strategy enthusiasts, but the developers at PlaySide know they’re going to get inundated with Game of Thrones fans who have never played an RTS before when the game comes out — so they’re planning accordingly.

The Game of Thrones franchise is, as everyone knows, incredibly popular, and that popularity is maintained by spinoff HBO shows such as House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms years after Game of Thrones itself came to an end. And so, War for Westeros will surely find itself beset by players from two camps: RTS fans who are looking for their next strategy hit, and Game of Thrones fans who fancy playing a game set in Westeros.

RTS games, though, can be pretty complex and hard to get into. RTS developers have for years tried to solve this problem with various systems and tutorials. War for Westeros will, obviously, have tutorials to help newcomers learn its systems, but PlaySide has built approachability into the very design of the game to help.

“That's what we want!” game director Ryan McMahon told me in an interview at gamescom, when I asked if the studio was prepared for the flood or RTS-shy Game of Thrones fans to descend upon War for Westeros.

“Approachable is the key word,” he continued. “So you've got accessibility and approachability. We kind of look at it more through the approachability lens. It's not trying to dumb down what makes a good RTS, but more so how we onboard players to that experience.”

So, expect a “very robust” tutorial at launch to onboard new players to skirmish mode and teach players its various systems through campaign mode. But most interesting to me is that War for Westeros’s worker units do not require any high level micro mastery. In many RTS games, you need to assign workers to farm resources and construct buildings, then, once they’re done, you need to give them another job to do. And another. And another. In short, workers require constant attention.

War for Westeros, however, employs a ‘set and forget’ system where buildings will farm resources on their own once they’re build, leaving you free to focus on other things, like killing super powerful dragons.

“At the base top level of the game, there's no high level micro mastery required of your workers or your builders,” McMahon explained. “All they need to do is build a building and it's ‘set and forget.’ You don't have to assign workers to buildings to farm resources. The buildings will farm the resources on their own once they're built. So that reduces a lot of macro or mental overload of what you're trying to think about while you play the game, and allows you to focus more on the units you're building, the heroes you're fielding, what type of buildings you're placing, and creating the moments that you want to see.”

Meanwhile, the AI is tuned to give players the breathing room to learn how War for Westeros works through single-player in the hope that they’ll come away considering giving multiplayer a chance. “If they ever want to dip their toes into multiplayer or play with their friends, there's enough layers of complexity that they've been onboarded to over time without having to master straight away to enjoy a game,” McMahon said.

Certainly, War for Westeros will have plenty that is familiar for Game of Thrones fans. It has iconic characters complete with their likenesses from the HBO show — although soundalike voice actors were employed for dialogue ("Obviously choosing the actual actors would be a very expensive endeavor and also some of them aren't necessarily available to work with us on the timelines that we have"). Jon Snow, with his likeness approved by actor Kit Harington, is just one example. At gamescom, PlaySide announced Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane and Arya Stark. The Mountain can be recruited by House Lannister, “utilising his massive size and strength to shock battlelines and strike fear into the hearts of those who stand against him.” Arya, on the other hand, “is a master assassin for House Stark, trained under the Faceless Men of the House of Black and White.”

I had suspected that Jon Snow would be the most popular pick in playtests because, well, it’s Jon Snow. But according to McMahon, as the game has evolved and staff have got to grips with it, other famous characters have risen to the top of the popularity tree — and with good reason.

“Tywin [Lannister] and Robb [Stark] are actually the most popular,” McMahon revealed. “The cavalry definitely helps so they can get around the map really quickly. But they have a strong kit in how they buff units around them as commanders, which helps reinforce the army rather than being individual strength.

“But it changes a lot. We do weekly play tests every Friday afternoon after lunch, we just play the game for the rest of the day. And at the end of every milestone we do an internal tournament as well where we basically play whatever the game is currently at, and we have a bracket system and whoever wins gets the trophy and that gets passed around desk to desk based on who won the last tournament.

“So we get a lot of data from that because we've got data in the game that we're tracking and we can see win rates from different factions. We can see how many heroes get spawned. We get a heat map of where people build buildings on the map that informs our level design and informs our faction balance and informs how we basically gear up heroes in different factions against each other.”

Currently, players are picking heroes based on what they believe will be most effective on the battlefield as opposed to going with their heart and their favorite character. That makes a lot of sense if you're running internal tournaments.

“As the game gets more mature, it sort of moved that way,” McMahon said. “For a while it was Jon [Snow] and Jaime [Lannister] because they were very strong heroes. But now if we put more emphasis on the units being important, because the game needs to be grounded. You can't just have one hero fighting off hundreds of people. Commanders start to become more important because they're not that strong on their own, but they're also reinforcing the units they're paired with.”

I suspect when War for Westeros comes out on PC next year, Jon Snow might rise to the top once again.

Andrew Garfield has said he hopes that any billionaires who see his new movie, The Uprising, are “scared s**tless” by it.

The former Spider-Man actor spoke about The Uprising as part of a Q&A alongside director Paul Greengrass ahead of the movie’s launch this week. The Uprising depicts the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, which was fueled by King Richard II’s brutal tax on the poorest members of English society. Garfield plays Ploughman, a farmer who leads the rebellion. Some of the marketing has suggested it’s a Robin Hood origin story. The Uprising is even a game within Fortnite.

In the Q&A, Greengrass and Garfield said that The Uprising is an immediately relevant story, despite it being set 700 years ago. And Garfield specifically singled out today’s billionaires, saying The Uprising should act as a cautionary tale.

“I hope it's galvanizing,” Garfield said of The Uprising. “I hope there's some awakening that people feel, that we all feel like our own struggles are being reflected in the struggles of these characters from a distant time and place, and that it could be directive.

“And I hope that if any billionaires watch it, that they're scared s***less.”

There’s a long list of billionaires Garfield could be referencing here, but it’s easy to imagine his comment referring to everyone from X / Twitter owner Elon Musk to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. And at a time when the desperation to win the AI arms race has thrown caution — and, some say, our humanity — to the wind, there is growing concern that mass job losses and societal upheaval caused by our relentless pursuit of AI may cause civil unrest.

The Uprising’s tagline is “there will be no peace until we are healed,” and Garfield passed the sentiment on to the aforementioned billionaires.

“I'm going to include the billionaires in that as well cuz they're the ones that might be the most soul sick,” he declared. “They're the ones that might need the healing the most in a way.”

While we wait for a fresh uprising, Garfield might find the time to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. He recently admitted he hadn’t yet congratulated his Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland on the incredible success of both movies because he hadn’t seen them.

It looks like Nintendo has inadvertently revealed how much its remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will cost on Switch 2.

Ahead of today's dedicated Legend of Zelda Nintendo Direct broadcast, Ocarina of Time's digital edition appeared on the Australian Nintendo Store, priced at AUD $94.95 (thanks, Vooks). The listing is now offline.

How does this compare to other Switch 2 games? Well, this is the same Australian price point as Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, which costs $59.99 in the U.S. or £49.99 in the U.K. In other words, this is the cheaper Switch 2 price point, rather than the premium $69.99 cost charged for Mario Kart World or Donkey Kong Bananza.

Remember, of course, that Nintendo now employs a range of prices for its Switch 2 games (this year's Star Fox was cheaper still, at $49.99). Newer Switch 2 games also now typically cost more for a physical copy, with the digital download version less expensive.

What does this mean for the Ocarina of Time remake itself? Well, it's hard to say — though naturally this suggests the game will not be presented in the same way as an all-new title akin to Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. Both of those cost $79.99 for their Nintendo Switch 2 versions.

Stay with us on IGN throughout today as we discover much, much more of Nintendo's plans for The Legend of Zelda, including Ocarina of Time and (hopefully!) a first trailer for the live-action movie. As ever, we'll be reporting live.

EA Sports is using generative AI to create voiceover for its in-game commentators in NHL 27, according to veteran sports commentator John Buccigross.

When speaking on the Chirping Zebras podcast (initially spotted by Insider Gaming's Mike Straw), Buccigross was talking about his experience working with EA Sports on the NHL games. He revealed that he will be in NHL 27, but EA also used generative AI to add voice lines as well.

"They're using some AI now; they played me some stuff back of my voice," said Buccigross. "It's like 'Wow, that's pretty good!' If that means less work but the same check, I'll take it. Sometimes AI will get something wrong. One of the guys was playing it back, and a lot of these guys maybe aren't hardcore sports fans; they're video game extrordinares. They're not always up on the vernacular. So they're playing back my AI voice, and they're like, 'Score! And the crowd gets out of their chairs!' I was like, 'No, they're not chairs. They look like chairs, but we call them seats.'

"So, little things like that, you gotta go back and listen because words matter. [...] But then you can make AI smarter; in the future they'll say seats, they won't say chairs. You have to manually put that in. That was kind of a funny anecdote from the process."

Generative AI is becoming increasingly common in the gaming industry, despite some fans pushing back on it. Call of Duty faced backlash for using AI to generate cosmetic items such as calling cards last year, and now, EA Sports seems to be embracing it in many of its games this year. This year's installments of College Football, Madden, and FC all have labels on their respective Steam pages that notify players of the use of generative AI in development. NHL is not on Steam, so there's no such disclaimer.

IGN has reached out to EA for comment on how AI is being used in the case of NHL 27 and if it extends beyond the game's voiceover content. NHL 27 launches for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S September 11, 2026. IGN reviewed the game and gave it a 6/10, noting that, although it's fun, it doesn't do much to improve upon its predecessor.

"Hockey is one of the greatest sports in the world, and NHL 27 remains enjoyable largely due to that simple fact," reads an excerpt from the review. "The satisfaction of delivering a bone-crushing hit or snapping a wrist shot past a goaltender is just as effective as ever, and tiny tweaks to stuff like stadiums and music continue to add authenticity in small doses – but there are no illusions that anything truly substantial has changed this year."

If you were upset to hear that pop star Ariana Grande wouldn't return in Final Fantasy Resonance, a new mod is here to save the day.

In case you were unaware, Square Enix's Final Fantasy Resonance will arrive as the long-running RPG franchise's first proper HD-2D game when it launches next month, and it also happens to be a bit of a remake. The game it's based on, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, is a free-to-play game with turn-based gameplay that launched for iOS and Android devices in 2015 and shut down in 2025 – but what does that have to do with Ariana Grande?

The performer behind hits like "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored," who also played Galinda in the recent Wicked films, isn't a newcomer for the Final Fantasy series. Grande actually joined Final Fantasy Brave Exvius in the form of pixelated characters – including one fit with her Dangerous Woman era bunny outfit – in 2017. The announcement (below) even detailed some in-game love for the pop star's song "Touch It," but when it comes to Final Fantasy Resonance, Grande's contribution to the series will be lost to time.

Producer Keisuke Nakashima recently confirmed to Kotaku that Grande "unfortunately" would not appear in the October Final Fantasy game. At the very least, it sounds like a decision Square Enix put some thought into.

"It’s also part of the worldview, you know?" he told the site. "Ariana Grande’s character would not fit within the vibe that we’ve created for Final Fantasy Resonance."

Modders, it seems, disagree. As spotlighted by the FFR Vision Studio mod (via Eurogamer), Grande can feel right at home back in Final Fantasy Resonance along with a collection of other guest characters. That means you can add other names like Sora from Kingdom Hearts and 2B from Nier Automata to join the fight with only a few clicks.

Keep in mind that this is all more than one month before the game actually comes out. From Grande to Sora, these characters are only available to join Final Fantasy Resonance as part of its recently released demo. The demo does, however, allow players to carry their progress over to the full release, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see former Final Fantasy Brave Exvius characters show up in the launch build, too.

Final Fantasy Resonance launches for PC, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S October 22, 2026. Until then, you can check out IGN's final preview for the game.

Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images.

The Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan, recently pitched a "Sicario-esque" Bucky Barnes movie to Marvel Studios leadership.

When speaking to New York Magazine, Stan revealed that he pitched Kevin Feige on a solo Bucky Barnes film in the vein of Denis Villeneuve's 2015 movie, Sicario. The film would have been smaller in scope, with a tighter budget, and focused on a more personal mission for Bucky. Stan noted that he was "half-joking" with his pitch, but Feige responded well to it and said it sounds cool.

"We keep a real small budget," said Stan. "It's about a guy who thinks he recognizes someone from his past that had something to do with when, you know, he was brainwashed, and he gets obsessed with this person. He goes on a whole journey to try to figure out who this person is. It's a thriller."

Although the MCU is intricately mapped out, the franchise has always had room to add in these kinds of unique passion projects. Ghost Rider, for instance, is something Ryan Gosling personally campaigned for and pitched to Marvel. The vision for the project was strong enough for Gosling to get the green light, and now, he'll make his MCU debut in summer 2028. Whether Stan's passionate about pursuing this idea enough to make it a reality remains to be seen, but joke or not, the idea does sound like it could be a breath of fresh air for the franchise. It would also put a beloved character front and center after being relegated to a supporting character for over a decade.

Stan will reprise his role in Avengers: Doomsday this December, and he could play a role in next year's Secret Wars as well. Of course, Bucky Barnes could be killed off in either of these films, but death has never stopped a character from appearing again. Outside of multiversal/time travel shenanigans, Black Widow got a solo film after dying in Endgame. Marvel used it as an opportunity to fill a gap in the MCU timeline, and a similar thing could be done for Bucky should he be decimated by Doctor Doom.

Stan is also set to star in The Batman Part 2, which he is filming until December. His role is being kept under wraps, but he's rumored to be Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Some have questioned the legitimacy of this rumor, as he's sporting a bald haircut in the film and Dent is known for his dashing appearance. He could sport a wig as Dent before being transformed into a more deformed, balding version of Two-Face, but we'll likely have to wait a while before knowing for sure.

Forza Horizon 6 is still planned to launch on PS5 this year, despite not having a firm release date yet.

Playground Games has confirmed it still plans to release Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 this year, following rumors that it might be delayed. Nothing else was shared about the port, but the clock is ticking for this new version.

"If you’re planning your trip to Discover Japan on PlayStation 5, stay tuned!" Playground said in a post today. "Forza Horizon 6 will be releasing on PS5 later this year, and you can add the game to your Wishlist on the PlayStation Store to be notified of availability."

September and October are loaded with big releases like Marvel's Wolverine and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, but there is enough difference in the audiences for these respective titles for Forza Horizon 6 to still succeed. November, however, is a different story. Launching Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 in November seems like a death wish given GTA 6 is set to dominate the industry upon its release. GTA 6 is expected to have an in-depth car customization system and races in addition to all of the other features one expects from GTA, making it hard to imagine players choosing Forza over GTA.

December may be more feasible, though the GTA 6 hype will still be very high and a hot item for the holiday season. It's hard to say, but Microsoft and Playground don't have too much time to build up to the PS5 release. Forza Horizon 5 was a massive hit on PlayStation 5, despite coming to the platform very late, so players will be attracted to it regardless.

Forza Horizon 6 is one of the biggest games of 2026, which has been a very busy year for gaming. It's one of the best-selling games of the year and has garnered a ton of critical praise, including from IGN, which gave the game a 10/10.

"Technically, Forza Horizon 6 has not skipped a beat, and it runs like a titan," an excerpt from our review said. "Aesthetically, it’s the best-looking and best-sounding game Playground has produced to date, set in the most wonderfully realised map it’s ever crafted – full of dense, authentic details and stunning driving roads. It’s rewarding to explore, the campaign is well-paced with a great payoff, and I simply cannot stop playing."

Early Grand Theft Auto 6 details have sparked debate about whether Rockstar Games' latest is too realistic for its own good.

We've learned a lot about GTA 6 since its big extended look reveal. While the 13-year wait for Jason and Lucia's story already seems worth it for some, others fear Rockstar has taken its commitment to realistic gameplay a bit too seriously when it comes to its new open-world video game.

The studio is known for packing its games with details that fans could spend years combing through – and for better or worse, GTA 6 seems no different. Co-development lead Rob Nelson promised as much during a recent interview with content creator TGG. One element where the new Grand Theft Auto will differ from its predecessor involves how NPCs react to guns, with Nelson teasing that you can't just wander around with an RPG and expect zero pushback.

"The reactions are much more nuanced than before," he said. "So, if you've got a long gun on your back, you should be fine. If you've got one in your hand, people don't like it, and they react and start moving away from you. The more guns you carry and the way you carry them matters.

"If cops see you they will give you a warning. If you hold a long arm in both hands as though you are ready to fire it, things begin to escalate."

It certainly sounds more Red Dead Redemption 2 than Grand Theft Auto 5. Fans generally feel the 2013 GTA game thrives on mayhem, whereas the 2018 cowboy simulator found strength in its quiet, grounded moments. Nelson admitted that, in 2026, times have changed, explaining that Rockstar didn't "feel that works any longer at this resolution – with the behavioral sophistication we need from our population now."

"In GTA 5 you can pull out a shotgun from nowhere in front of people and they don't react," he elaborated. "That doesn't work here."

Even a slight shift toward a more realistic Vice City is something fans have expected from GTA 6 for some time, but that doesn't make Nelson's comments any less worth discussing. Should Rockstar lean on the cartoonish chaos GTA is known for, or sprinkle in the realism that made RDR2 special? That's the question many have found themselves asking the last few days.

"Next this game will make you file tax returns," one fan joked.

"I'm here for as full of an immersion as they can make," another argued, "RDR2 is the best game I've ever played and I love that they are making GTA 6 more like it."

Other fans fall somewhere in the middle, with one Reddit user pointing out that "At the point I pull out a gun I’m probably gonna do something worse than brandishing so this is fine."

remember carrying c4, rpgs, molotovs and like 10 guns at once in gta5 those days are over
😓

— kashmarth (@kashmarth) September 4, 2026

When does a video game stop being a video game

— emosxyual (@emosxyual) September 7, 2026

Rockstar is surely keenly aware of the balancing act it needs to pull off, but that didn't stop it from adding in more realistic elements. One mechanic present in other open-world sandbox games that will make its GTA debut in November will ask players to keep an eye on their car's gas. Yes, really.

In what leans more into the realism department, Nelson confirmed to TGG in a separate video that gas stations will allow players to repair and even refuel their vehicles. The YouTuber said filling up your car "typically isn't very expensive" and takes only about 10 seconds to do. It's no surprise to hear Rockstar already anticipated players being a bit torn when it asked players to bring car chases to a halt with a quick pitstop.

"That's pretty fast for a fill up," Nelson said when getting gas during TGG's preview event. "You can't complain about that!"

GTA 6 fans have, in fact, complained about that.

So in GTA 6 I have to:

-eat
-sleep
-go to the gym
-nurture my relationship
-fill up my car with gas

Isn’t the entire point of a video game to do things you can’t do in real life? This ultra-realism shit sounds exhausting

— brick (@FreeMarketDog) September 3, 2026

imagine seeing this in gta6 pic.twitter.com/E4RJ6AKHl1

— 🏆 - Andy (@codedandunited) September 7, 2026

I love that they added refueling to GTA 6

Imagine being chased by the cops and then suddenly your gas runs out near the swamps, so now you have to ditch the car and run through the swamps, dodging alligators AND cops.

It's gonna result in so many unique gameplay moments! pic.twitter.com/87XIX6OpsC

— Synth Potato🥔 (@SynthPotato) September 7, 2026

"Oh I can complain buddy," one Reddit user said. "I don't even know anything about this and I'm complaining already."

"It should make gameplay more interesting: you steal a car, run out of gas, have to continue on foot, try to find a gas station, or a new ride," another theorized. "More variation than driving indefinitely until you crash or escape. I'm into it."

"If I can’t pull up, standing their filling up whilst complaining about the price, then go inside to pay, standing behind someone who is buying 15 different chocolate bars and a s**tload of scratch cards then I don’t wanna play this realism simulator game!" one fan joked.

Rockstar's desire to drop players into a realistic Vice City extends beyond a few new gameplay mechanics and features. This version of the Miami-inspired sandbox will also feature what is promised to be the most realistic map players have explored in the series thus far. With more lifelike guns and characters comes potentially more realistic romance options, too. Some couples have reported that falling in love with Jason or Lucia, or heading to an in-game strip club, is grounds for a real-life break-up. Ouch.

But wait, there's more! GTA 6 will also track how Jason and Lucia are getting along in Vice City, including whether they've gotten enough beauty sleep in between heists. Nelson told TGG that players know whether the protagonists are well-rested enough, with sleep able to affect "regens of certain attributes." One mechanic Rockstar eventually cut for being too realistic would have had players purchasing groceries to restock their refrigerator.

"We are always trying to find the right balance between realism and ease of play," Nelson told Famitsu (translation by GamesRadar). "Rather than just going to the fridge to grab a snack or visiting a restaurant just to roleplay, we want to give meaning to each action."

GTA 6 has (predictably) kicked up discourse months before its November 19 release date for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. That said, when it comes to the realistic elements in the game, one Reddit user nicely summed up how most will actually feel when they get their hands on the full release: "Just hope they remember to put the fun in. Realism is great, but if it's too tedious it'll be a bummer."

We'll know just how realistic gun restrictions, strip clubs, and fuel tanks will be when GTA 6 launches in a few months. While we wait, be sure to read up on IGN's interview and preview. You can also learn about the new PS5 controllers Rockstar announced last week.

Rockstar will launch Grand Theft Auto 6 at midnight local time in most countries on November 19 — meaning some fans are already planning to adjust their console region and play early.

Rather than offering a fixed time worldwide, the midnight local rollout means players in New Zealand will get a roughly 20-hour headstart on Mexico and elsewhere in Central America.

Of course, there are no GTA 6 discs to get started with early — even though Rockstar's long-awaited release will arrive as an entirely single-player experience. While pre-loading will be available, the game itself will not unlock until your timezone's allotted window.

Timestamps spotted on the PlayStation Store by GTAVice show 15 major release times for GTA 6 across the world's various timezones, beginning in New Zealand at 11am UTC on November 18, which is midnight on November 19 for our Kiwi friends.

If you're playing on Xbox Series X/S and want to adjust your console setting, this will be your earliest opportunity to play. If you have a PlayStation 5, this trick doesn't work — though you could technically play early with a separate New Zealand account, funded via a New Zealand gift card. (I guess this is one way GTA 6 actually plays better on Xbox.)

After New Zealand, the game's rollout then continues through timezones in Australia, Japan, India, through mainland Europe to the U.K., then to the U.S. — though at least here, all the country will get to play at midnight Eastern. So, if you're on the west coast, you'll get a few extra hours to play before bedtime (if you actually plan on going to sleep).

As a reminder, GTA 6 launches on November 19, just 72 days away. If you've preordered the game, you'll be able to start pre-loading from November 12, which is also when boxed copies (containing a digital download code) will ship. Rockstar is yet to say how much free space you'll need to get the game installed, but keep an eye on IGN for all of the details you'll need.

Lilly Wachowski has said she’s “kinda done” with The Matrix, and suggested the recently announced The Matrix 5 may not move forward without the Wachowski’s blessing.

Warner Bros. announced The Matrix 5 in 2024, with The Martian and The Cabin in the Woods' Drew Goddard on board to write and direct. If it goes ahead, The Matrix 5 will be the first The Matrix movie not to have either Lana or Lilly Wachowski in the directing chair, although Lana Wachowski was reportedly down to executive produce.

“Drew came to Warner Bros. with a new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world, by both honoring what Lana and Lilly began over 25-years ago and offering a unique perspective based on his own love of the series and characters," Warner Bros. Motion Pictures President of Production Jesse Ehrman said in a statement issued two years ago. "The entire team at Warner Bros. Discovery is thrilled for Drew to be making this new Matrix film, adding his vision to the cinematic canon the Wachowskis’ spent a quarter of a century building here at the studio.”

Fast forward to now, and Lilly Wachowski has poured cold water on excitement around The Matrix 5. “Warner Bros., they wanna make another thing,” she said in an interview on KCRW’s The Business, as reported by Variety. “They’re always gonna wanna make another thing. Personally, I don’t wanna play in that sandbox anymore. I’m kinda done.”

Wachowski went on to say that Goddard wants the Wachowski’s blessing before moving forward with The Matrix 5, which in turn has created a “complicated situation.”

“But there may be a thing that’s happening with Drew Goddard, and he doesn’t wanna go forward unless he gets our blessing,” she said. “And so, it becomes this complicated situation where, maybe we’re gonna stick our noses in a tiny bit and see how we feel, and if we wanna pass on our blessing to Drew or not. So, it could be something that’s coming down the road, but it’s still unknown.”

The groundbreaking The Matrix exploded onto the scene in March 1999, and was followed by The Matrix Reloaded in 2003, then The Matrix Revolutions in 2003. Nearly 20 years later, The Matrix Resurrections hit theaters in 2021. Lana Wachowski directed without Lilly, but Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprised their iconic roles as Neo and Trinity, respectively.

The Matrix Resurrections saw mixed reviews and disappointed at the box office, grossing $157 million globally on a reported budget of $190 million. It's worth noting that it debuted while COVID-19 lockdowns were still affecting movie theaters, and it was one of the films to be released both in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day.

Nothing is known about The Matrix 5 other than Warner Bros. has announced it. If it does get made, will Reeves and Moss return once again? Based on Lilly Wachowski’s comments, it may be some time before we find out.

Capcom looks like it has yet another hit video game on its hands, with Onimusha: Way of the Sword selling over 1 million copies on launch day.

The milestone pushed total Onimusha franchise sales over the 10 million units sold mark, 20 years after the last new game in the series came out.

“... through several marketing initiatives prior to launch, such as multiple demo releases and hands-on exhibitions, Capcom worked to expand awareness among a broad range of users, resulting in sales surpassing 1 million units on the day of its release,” Capcom said in a statement online.

But of most interest here is Capcom’s comment about repeating the Onimusha trick with other games from its back catalog.

“In addition to regularly releasing major new titles each year, Capcom is focusing on re-activating IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently,” Capcom said. “The company is working to further maximize corporate value by leveraging its rich library of content, including this title.”

So, which series deserve the Onimusha treatment? I imagine there will be Dino Crisis fans screaming from the rafters here (Capcom is often asked about a new Dino Crisis game in interviews). We haven’t had a new Devil May Cry game in a while (Devil May Cry 5 came out in 2019), but I’m not sure I’d pop DMC in the same bucket as Onimusha, which hadn’t had a brand new game in two decades. Ace Attorney is another popular pick, as are Viewtiful Joe, Breath of Fire, and Lost Planet. Capcom has published a long list of games over the years. Take your pick.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword, meanwhile, continues Capcom’s hot streak, which has seen Pragmata establish itself as a potential franchise following strong sales. IGN’s Onimusha: Way of the Sword review returned a 10/10. We said: “Onimusha: Way of the Sword is an incredible action game with an excellent story to match.”

The Japanese games company has released hit after hit, from Monster Hunter to Resident Evil, Street Fighter to Dragon’s Dogma. What’s next? Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance is due out next year, as is Resident Evil Veronica and Mega Man: Dual Override. Further away is Okami 2, which is in the works at Hideki Kamiya's new studio, Clovers.

Gary Oldman has said Amazon has finally decided which actor will play the new James Bond, and he’s backing his Slow Horses co-star.

Speaking to Canada’s The Morning Show to promote Slow Horses Season 6, Oldman teased 36-year-old Jack Lowden as Bond. Here’s exactly what Oldman said:

“Jack… it’s been rumored that he’s on the shortlist, or he’s one of… we’re gonna find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him. They have made their choice. But they have not announced it yet. So, my fingers are crossed for Jack.”

Does that sound like Oldman is in the know here? Perhaps Jack Lowden let the good news slip during some downtime on-set. Perhaps this is just odd wording from Oldman, and he’s simply backing his colleague and doesn’t actually know. But he does sound convinced that a decision has been made, and an announcement is imminent.

In June, it was reported that Amazon had narrowed its shortlist of actors to play 007 in director Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming movie, with a second round of auditions set for August. The casting process officially began in the spring. At the time, Deadline reported that Harris Dickinson, Callum Turner, and Jacob Elordi "fit the prototype" of what producers were looking for from the next Bond. Amazon was said to be planning to make an announcement by the end of this year, with shooting set to kick off in 2027.

There's currently no release date for Bond 26, but presumably it will debut in 2028.

Photo by Euan Cherry/Getty Images.

One of the most impressive games I played at gamescom was Tarae: The Unbound, a new action RPG developed by South Korean studio Boundary and published by PUBG company Krafton. There’s a huge amount here that will feel familiar to fans of Diablo, not least in the way the game actually plays. But it’s how Tarae: The Unbound looks that its developers hope fans of the genre will find something unique.

Tarae: The Unbound is based in east Asia between the 15th and 17th centuries (most action RPGs, including Diablo, are set in medieval Europe), and it leans heavily on Eastern aesthetics and folklore to come up with a different take. You can see this in everything from the class design to the monsters you fight and the environments you fight them in. But the boss fights (there are over 80 at launch!) are the best example of this Eastern aesthetic — a mix of Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese influences coming together to form designs I’ve not seen in an action RPG before.

As a big fan of Diablo, I was able to settle into Tarae: The Unbound quickly, my fingers resting on the number keys for abilities, my thumb on the space bar for a dodge, and my mouse fingers clicking away to delete mobs via the weighty combat. You can even pull the camera back to get a wider view that presents almost the entire battlefield on-screen, so you can see the waves of enemies coming from a decent distance. There’s a steady stream of loot to fuss over, various skills to pick from, and, of course, build crafting.

So far, so very Diablo. But, speaking to Inyoung Koo, CEO of Boundary, art director Byung Ho Park, and creative Myung Sang Ryu in an interview following my hands-on time, I could tell that Boundary feels Tarae: The Unbound has a lot more to offer.

There are six classes in the game, each reinterpreted from Eastern cultures: the Samurai melee dealer; the Tiger Hunter (guns and traps and summon animals); Manshin, the Korean shaman who uses spiritual channeling; Geomancer (area-of-effect damage dealer); Kunoichi the ninja; and Warfiend the brawler. The campaign is made up of six acts, each of which has three or four chapters. This isn’t an open world but a linear game, so you’ll have a narrative to progress through.

“The playstyles are very different,” Boundary insisted. “So if you choose a different class you will actually feel something very different.” If you finish the campaign with one character, you don’t have to progress other classes — you can then use all the different classes in the endgame.

The developers spoke of a “balance” at play in the combat, and for me that comes mostly from the god system. There are eight different friendly or unfriendly gods who can either assist or hinder you in combat, and you’ll have to contend with these modifiers as you work your way through the campaign. Indeed, yin and yang is a common theme throughout Tarae: The Unbound; the idea that there are opposing forces at play in everything from the story to the combat.

“East Asia is where we got the inspiration from,” Boundary told me. “We wanted to take the most beautiful parts of east Asia, and we have the Buddhist cosmology as our basis — the six realms of rebirth.” There’s a human realm, an Asura realm, a beast realm, a hungry ghosts realm, and a hell realm. In the endgame, you cross the boundary of the realms to engage in battles.”

Boundary and Krafton of course face a challenge convincing western gamers to ditch their current favorite action RPG to try something new, especially considering the time investment they'll no doubt have made. But the developers are confident that they have something enticing on their hands.

“In the market, there are a lot of action RPGs, but it's mostly based in the medieval west,” Boundary said, making its pitch. “Tarae is an Eastern dark fantasy action RPG and it's got its own charms. And I talked about the combat, right? The balance in the combat is different from the existing RPGs, I believe. So I hope you can come and try.”

Boundary plans to release new content via a seasonal model, adding new characters in each season. Each year will see the release of a DLC adding a new region. “We are in this for the long haul,” Boundary said.

Tarae: The Unbound is due out on PC and consoles in 2027.

There's a feeling that Mewtwo is being milked too hard, as Pokémon Go continues to capitalize on the creature's popularity and monetization potential.

The announcement of yet more Mewtwo coming to Pokémon Go later this year is being greeted with surprising apathy by fans, following a disappointing end of summer event this past weekend marred by yet more technical issues.

Mewtwo raids returned to Pokémon Go this summer after an extended absence, fuelling FOMO ahead of the long-awaited Mega Mewtwo X and Y release at Go Fest events in May, June, and July. Mega Mewtwo was also the star of the game's controversial New York anniversary event, disquiet over which preceded all players being gifted a unique 100% stat Mewtwo.

Go Fest Global in July, the game's biggest annual event, was essentially a Mega Mewtwo raid weekend for all players, which was fine — except for technical glitches that saw raiding impacted over a series of timezones across the world. A makeup event then took place in late July with more Mega Mewtwo offered.

All of which brings us to this past weekend, Go Fest: Mega Finale. There was some new content here — the addition of Mega Chesnaught, Mega Delphox, and Mega Greninja — but players could only acquire one of the three. Otherwise, the event was centered around (you guessed it) more Mewtwo. Mega Mewtwo X and Y returned yet again, alongside the creature's unique Armored Mewtwo version last seen in 2020.

Ahead of this weekend, Pokémon Go developer Scopely Explore stated that Armored Mewtwo would feature, but not yet be available in its Shiny version. Now, the developer has released an Avengers: Doomsday-style teaser video promising Armored Mewtwo will be back yet again later this year — which is when players widely expect its Shiny version to finally arrive, requiring more raiding to try and chase.

Armored Mewtwo isn’t done yet. Keep an eye to the sky for its return later this year. pic.twitter.com/at0UMAWEkB

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) September 7, 2026

For players who may have spent the weekend raiding many Armored Mewtwo while it was available, the announcement it will be back again so soon is being seen as hasty at best, as accusations mount that the game is becoming too greedy, and against a backdrop of more complaints about technical issues.

Scopely Explore has acknowleged that raiding was impacted yesterday due to a "short network disruption that affected raids in the Americas," and gifted two raid passes as compensation. But while the company said it was continuing to monitor the issue, it also began directing further calls for recompense to its customer support team, with mixed reports of success.

"Armored Mewtwo will return in: give us more money," reads one response to the above teaser on top Pokémon Go fan reddit Silph Road. "Doing whatever it takes to milk the players left and right," reads another reply. "They've thrown so much Mewtwo at everyone that people are sick of it now," reads a third.

And the fact that yet another big Pokémon Go event has experienced technical issues has renewed calls for the game to change how it deducts raid passes from players' accounts, which differs from newer in-game battle currencies such as Max Particles and Link Charges. When a player begins a raid battle, their entry pass (free or paid) is taken as soon as the battle begins, which means it must be manually claimed back from the game's customer support team if the battle fails due to technical errors. For newer currencies, these are only deducted at the successful completion of a battle, meaning players don't lose out if something goes awry.

In another lengthy Silph Road thread, there are growing calls for this to finally change, and raid passes to only be deducted when the game detects a battle has successfully been completed. "This predatory practice by Niantic and then Scopely needs to stop," wrote one fan. "Today's debacle still would have resulted in a waste of people's time, which is unacceptable, but at least people's raid passes and money would not have been stolen by this widespread glitch. There is no player-friendly reason for raid passes to be consumed just for entering the raid."

IGN previously raised this issue with Pokémon Go senior producer John Funtanilla, who acknowledged that Max Particles and Link Charges had been built to be consumed following battles as a learning from raids — though there was no suggestion this would retroactively change for raid passes in the future.

"We really pushed for Max Particles not being consumed until you win," Funantilla said earlier this year. "Raid passes, meanwhile, are applied to the gym or Power Spot when you join the battle and that means until you win, you can keep trying. Max Particles and Link Charges [work similarly], so those will be consumed at the end of the battle once you win. That's a key learning that we wanted to carry forward.

"We're constantly talking with the player experience team for raiders, and they're looking at players trying to understand what problems are coming in. So we see that a lot and we try to build ways to reimburse if there's a crash, things like that. I understand it's not the best system, but we're trying to improve it with everything that we put in the game."

Sony is reportedly in the early stages of bringing its first-person shooter series, Killzone, back from the dead.

Guerrilla Games’ Halo killer fell by the wayside after the developer found enormous success with Horizon Zero Dawn back in 2017. It has focused on the Horizon franchise ever since, but Killzone retains a loyal following, and fans often call for it to return.

According to MP1st, Sony may be working on doing just that, with Bulletstorm and Outriders maker People Can Fly drafted in to co-dev. But what is this new Killzone game? Apparently it’s a Killzone remaster or remake, and while we’re not sure which Killzone is getting a fresh coat of paint, the first Killzone game, released on the PlayStation 2 in 2004, is a safe bet.

There’s a lot going on at Guerrilla right now. PlayStation recently rebooted Horizon multiplayer spinoff Hunters Gathering following negative feedback, and, according to MP1st, the studio will move on to Killzone after it’s done doing that. According to Bloomberg, Guerrilla has until December to impress PlayStation bosses with Hunters Gathering’s next milestone, but already some Hunters Gathering staff moved over to another Guerrilla project with a milestone due at the end of this year. Apparently a “tiny team” is working on the next Horizon single-player game, which we’ll call Horizon 3 but will undoubtedly carry a new subtitle, but it’s still years away.

Perhaps a Killzone remaster or remake is a way in for PlayStation to potentially reboot the series with a brand new game at some point down the line. Either way, it’s exciting news for Killzone fans, who haven’t heard a peep out of the franchise ever since PlayStation 4 launch title Killzone Shadow Fall (save a T-shirt in The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered) and a Helldivers 2 crossover.

Speaking in 2024, Guerrilla Games art director Roy Postma declared the studio’s preference for the brighter, more vibrant world of Horizon over the dark and violent world of Killzone it had spent the previous decade working on.

“We were done with it as a team,” Postma said. “As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of Killzone.”

Postma added that Horizon’s world has a wider appeal than Killzone’s: "I think the themes that this story and the characters represent are relatable for all ages and people, like having a found family of friends and finding your place in the world."

Nintendo is developing an all-new Super Smash Bros and Nintendogs, a notable leaker has claimed.

The details come from Malo932, who recently stated that Nintendo would hold two Direct presentations this week (correct), and who previously stated that a classic Star Fox, Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, and new Switch Sports would all be announced and launched this year (all correct too).

Word of a new Smash Bros. game is enormously exciting to the fighting game series' huge fanbase, though perhaps not a huge surprise considering how well Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold on Nintendo Switch (at 38 million copies, it is the console's third-best selling game, behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons). But one notable detail here is more surprising — that this is a new game, rather than a souped-up version of Ultimate. How the company plans to beat the Switch's hugely ambitious installment remains to be seen.

A fresh Nintendogs is another surprise, more than a decade on from Nintendogs + Cats, the franchise's last release back on 3DS in 2011.

Other claims made by Malo932, rounded up by Centro Leaks, include Mario Kart DLC coming next year featuring Fox McCloud, a new Star Fox Adventures game, a new Wario Land game, and a 2D Metroid. There's also mention of next year's widely-expected 3D Mario.

Many of these claims have subsequently been backed up by the more well-known Nintendo leaker NatetheHate, whose corroboration of the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake made headlines earlier this year. NatetheHate has a strong track record of Nintendo leaks, and previously also reported the Switch 2's reveal date accurately. Now, the company appears to have a second prolific source of leaks on its hands, too.

Nintendo will likely have been "furious" to see Zelda: Ocarina of Time and other surprises leak over the past six months, two former Nintendo staff members previously claimed. The console maker relies on its ability to surprise fans as a large part of its marketing. Instead, fans now believe they have a good idea of the company's upcoming product pipeline well into next year.

How many of these titles will make it into this week's pair of Nintendo Direct broadcasts, however, remains to be seen. Nintendo will use this week to lay out its plans for the Zelda series' 40th anniversary, with a deep dive into Ocarina of Time and a peek at the upcoming live-action Zelda movie both widely expected. Beyond that? Well, we'll just have to tune in and find out. As ever, IGN will be reporting on all of the official announcements as they happen.

Nicolas Cage has insisted just one season of Spider-Noir is “perfect” after Amazon canceled the Prime Video show.

Spider-Noir sees Cage play Ben Reilly, a down-on-his-luck private investigator and the city's sole super-powered vigilante in 1930s New York City during the Prohibition Era. Season 1 debuted on MGM+ on May 25, 2026, followed by a global release on Prime Video two days later. You can watch Spider-Noir in both black and white, and in color.

IGN's Spider-Noir review returned an 8/10. "Nicolas Cage’s Bogie-meets-Bugs Bunny pulp hero invigorates the highly entertaining, genre-bending Spider-Noir," we said.

As reported by Deadline, Spider-Noir saw a strong start in terms of viewing minutes, but it fell away soon after launch and dropped out of Prime Video’s top 10 chart. This, coupled with the high cost associated with producing the show, apparently contributed to Amazon’s decision to give it the chop.

In a statement issued to Deadline, Cage sounded philosophical about Spider-Noir coming to an end after just one season.

“For me, one season is perfect, having said what I wanted to say with this dangerous, innovative, pop-art Spider-Man,” Cage said. “Onwards, upwards, inwards.”

Spider-Noir was part of a multi-title deal between Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television based on IP from Sony's slate of Marvel characters. Spider-Man spinoff Silk, which was part of this deal, was canceled just days after Spider-Noir was greenlit. According to Deadline, Spider-Noir’s cancelation hasn’t put an end to the deal, and multiple projects are in development.

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day breaking all sorts of box office records, our next taste of Spider-Man is Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which hits theaters June 18, 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.

Amazon's canned Stargate reboot would have starred Michael Shanks' fan-favorite character Daniel Jackson, trapped in a parallel universe.

Jackson confirmed he had been involved in the project this weekend at the Starfury: Ascension 2 convention in Birmingham, UK this weekend (thanks, Gateworld) prompting more details on the project to be spilled via prolific Stargate fan podcast Dial the Gate.

Those details included the series' proposed setting: an alternate universe where numerous plot elements from past Stargate series would not have occurred. The idea here, it seems, would have been to offer a soft reboot of the franchise's continuity in order to cater for a new audience.

At the same time, the franchise's original Daniel Jackson would have been a regular character — giving returning fans a familiar face to tune in for, who still carried the knowledge of the original Stargate universe.

Later seasons had the potential to shift the series' narrative back to that Prime universe, it's reported, while the parallel universe setting would have allowed other Stargate veterans to make cameos, presumably as alt-universe versions of themselves.

Shanks' involvement in the project does not come as a surprise, following his past comments despairing at the series' abrupt cancellation by Amazon despite years of work and a triumphant public reveal. An initial report claimed that the show was scrapped due to fears it would not have appealled to anyone beyond the franchise's core audience — something that veteran Stargate writer Joseph Mallozzi, who had been working on the project, subsequently disputed.

Amazon is reportedly still interested in a future for the Stargate franchise, even if this specific revival series stays cancelled. But in a previous message to fans, Shanks suggested that this particular project represented fans' only hope of a revival built by former members of the Stargate SG-1 production team, and featuring members of its former cast.

Months later, and despite calls for fans to make their voices heard, there's no suggestion the series' cancellation will be reversed.

Image credit: MGM.

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

A24 has released a teaser trailer for Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s surprise Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything — and it’s quite something.

For the uninitiated, Elizabeth Holmes is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence at the Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas for defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup, Theranos. Holmes, who married hotel heir Billy Evans in 2019 and with whom she has had two children (one born in 2021, the other in 2023), began her sentence on May 30, 2023.

But 34 days before she was sent to prison, Holmes invited Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder and a film crew into her home to document her every move. The film is the result of this unprecedented access and a three-year journey that certainly goes places, based on reviews to a secret screening on Sunday.

This teaser offers just a glimpse of what to expect from the 174-minute documentary, but it’s an intense watch. Fielder and Holmes are extremely close, looking into each other’s eyes as the notorious Silicon Valley founder insists she’s being genuine.

“I’m not that person,” Holmes begins as she holds Fielder’s gaze with a creepy, unwavering smile. “I can promise you that. I don’t have anything to deceive you on. Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no… there’s no reason for me to do that.”

Fielder, who wears a disbelieving expression of his own, replies: “...okay. Allright. Okay, good chat. You being real right now?”

“I’m always being real,” Holmes responds, before the camera shifts and we see that she is rocking her baby with her foot.

The scene rekindles memories of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice in Silence of the Lambs, although there isn’t a prison cell to be seen. There’s even a whiff of sexual tension in the teaser, which sets up the documentary perfectly and demands further investigation.

Filming was done in secret, and its existence was only disclosed on Sunday night via a premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. A synopsis for the film reads: “34 days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss. From boundary-pushing directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim comes You Can See Everything.”

According to Vanity Fair, Fielder actually lived with Holmes and her family in the days leading up to her imprisonment. He told the publication: ”I really am struggling to this day to understand exactly what I experienced.”

You Can See Everything launches in theaters in October. Holmes, meanwhile, is scheduled to be released from prison on August 16, 2032.

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.

UPDATE: IllFonic has provided IGN with the following statement, confirming the removal of the sex minigame:

"Players may have noticed that our latest hotfix removed the Two-Person Power-Up minigame. This was due to an unintended issue that allowed end game reinforcement characters to engage with the minigame, which was a major oversight on our part. We have more content and minigames coming in the near future but current focus is our attention on immediate game needs. Keep an eye on our socials for updates as they become available.”

ORIGINAL STORY: Halloween: The Game developer IllFonic appears to have patched out a sex minigame after a gameplay clip went viral.

The video game adaptation of the iconic 1970s slasher movie lets players have sex in a closet, but one video of this minigame featuring Samuel Loomis raised eyebrows given the character, who is in his fifties during the events of the game and is based on deceased actor Donald Pleasence’s likeness, can have sex with teenagers.

Halloween: The Game doesn’t actually launch fully until September 8, but those who bought the Halloween Deluxe Edition were able to play from this weekend, and it didn’t take long for players to notice the sex minigame.

The game includes a number of playable characters made famous by the Halloween films. Bob Simms (voiced by Nicholas Leung), Annie Brackett (voiced by Kaitlyn Robrock), Lynda van der Klok (voiced by Angela Carbone), and Laurie Strode (voiced by Chelsea Krause) are all playable civilians across single-player and multiplayer.

The character of Samuel Loomis is the psychiatrist of series antagonist Michael Myers, and tries to prevent his patient from his murderous rampage in Halloween. In the video game, Loomis is a “hero civilian.”

In the game two players can hide in a closet. If you hide in a closet with another player already inside, you get a prompt to ask them out. If you do this and the offer is accepted, you get a button mashing minigame to raise a line on a bar as the camera shakes and the characters grunt. If both players keep the line in the right part of the bar for long enough, they'll fill up a heart and both characters get the “Stronger Together” buff. You don’t actually see the characters do anything.

LOOMIS FUCKIN LYNDA IN THE CLOSET? pic.twitter.com/NKYAyF6GYU

— Monto (@TheOnlyMonto) September 4, 2026

The video that went viral shows Loomis entering a closet in which 17-year-old Lynda is already hiding, then completing the sex minigame. You can imagine the Pleasance estate — if it wasn’t aware of the use of the actor’s likeness in this way before it probably is now — taking a dim view of the gameplay.

IllFonic has yet to comment (IGN has asked), but it released a hotfix this weekend hot on the heels of the game’s early access launch. The removal of the sex minigame is not mentioned in the patch notes. Here’s what IllFonic said:

The launch of Early Access for Halloween: The Game has been amazing so far and the team is so excited to finally be able to play the game with you all. Today we are rolling out our first hotfix for Halloween: The Game. This patch is primarily aimed towards addressing several crashes that have been occurring as well as a small list of other issues that the team was able to implement with this hotfix.

We are currently working on a bigger patch that addresses many issues and concerns that are being reported from the playerbase. We will continue monitoring conversations and bug reports from the community, and we greatly appreciate all your feedback. Thank you for all your love and support. See you in Haddonfield!

While IllFonic has yet to confirm the sex minigame's removal, Halloween: The Game players are now calling for it to be restored, perhaps with Samuel Loomis specifically prevented from taking part (if his inclusion is indeed the problem here). "Why did they remove it!??!?!?!?" asked redditor freetheree. "Me and my homeboy just wanna have sex in a closet? And we can’t???? Tf??????"

Some players now think they've missed out on what may go down as an early access exclusive sex minigame in Halloween: The Game.

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.