Mafia 2 and Mafia 3 are coming to PS5 and Xbox Series consoles with some prettier graphics, according to an ESRB rating. Both games are rated Mature 17+ by the board, with each title featuring violence, nudity, and so… many… slurs.

Previously, Mafia: Definitive Edition released for modern consoles in September 2020. A full-blown, ground-up remake of the original 2002 game, it acted as a great starting point for people jumping into the series for the first time. Mafia 2 and 3 Definitive Editions already exist for the last-gen consoles, so these listings presumably relate to current-gen upgrades that will, hopefully, include 60fps gameplay, rather than full-blown remakes.

Publisher 2K recently released the Mafia: The Omertà Collection, which includes all the Definitive Editions alongside Mafia: The Old Country Definitive Edition. This launched alongside a PS5 and Xbox Series update to Mafia: Definitive Edition that seems likely to be replicated for Mafia 2 and 3.

Interest in the series is at a new high following the release of Mafia: The Old Country earlier this year. A prequel story set at the height of the mob’s power in Italy, it followed the series’ template of plonking players into an open world that serves as a backdrop to the story, rather than a character in it.

IGN’s Mafia: The Old Country review scored it an 8/10, and called the game an “effective return to the linear and tightly story-driven format of the original Mafia and Mafia 2.” Mafia 3 split critics at launch because it leaned into its open world and made players complete repeatable missions to capture territory and progress the story. Amazing soundtrack, though.

Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes previously told IGN that Mafia and GTA — despite sharing a parent company — exist in two separate camps. “I think that genuinely at the studio, we've got our own path,” Baynes said. “It genuinely never ever comes up in conversation as a touchpoint or steering our strategy or anything like that.”

The ESRB posting doesn’t give much away, besides rehashing themes you’d expect from a game series named after an organized crime group. It’ll be interesting to see which side of GTA 6’s release date this November these Definitive Editions end up. Because while the games are fairly different, the audience only has limited disposable income and that choice has probably already been made if the games land anywhere near each other.

IGN just put out a big GTA 6 interview with Rockstar North studio head Rob Nelson, in which we spoke to him as he played a section of the game in front of us. Nelson spoke about its approach to open world design, and creating a game where “just existing” is a viable playstyle, living in Vice City and playing it almost like a life simulator.

It’s a very different approach to Mafia, in which the open world is simply a backdrop to the story. Still, isn’t it great that we live in a world where both approaches are viable and we get to experience it all?

A Mafia 2 and Mafia 3: Definitive Edition announcement is likely imminent, either way. My best guess would be The Game Awards this December, with a launch early next year. While you wait to find out, check out IGN's in-depth feature, 25 Years of Mafia Video Games: An Oral History.

The AI video game clone explosion continues at pace. Now, someone has made Minecraft playable inside X / Twitter with working multiplayer. X user jaivin used AI to make Mojang’s Minecraft playable inside posts on Elon Musk’s social network, and is letting people buy in-game sponsorships with cryptocurrency.

“Tweetcraft is a block game in a post: every world is a link on X, and everyone who opens it plays together,” reads the official blurb. “Put your ad at the top of the server list, in a world’s sponsor leaderboard, or your logo on the Block Dragon.”

So, what’s going on here? Essentially, "Tweetcraft" is a custom browser-based Minecraft clone where you generate a shared world and post its unique link on X / Twitter, which acts as a shared entry point. Anyone who clicks on the link joins the same real-time multiplayer session. The game itself renders in your browser.

This “port” is, obviously, unauthorized, and will no doubt draw the attention of Microsoft’s lawyers sooner rather than later. Jaivin’s launch post has had 7.4 million views already. Various follow-up posts detail an explosion of popularity as people try it out.

Perhaps in a bid to downplay any potential trademark or copyright infringement, jaivin has called the game “Tweetcraft,” although it’s clearly Minecraft in shape and form. Jaivin also insisted that “Tweetcraft uses none of Minecraft's assets and is not associated with Mojang or Microsoft.”

Responses are similar to those we’ve seen over the last two weeks amid this AI-powered video game clone and “game-merging” mod explosion, which has spawned a number of viral gameplay clips of famous video game franchises mashed together. There’s a mix of excitement and disgust, with some saying a clampdown is inevitable.

“The name is brilliant because now you can lose two separate trademark lawsuits,” one person said of Tweetcraft.

“The ‘I do not own this music video’ description when uploading a music video on YouTube defense,” another said.

October has already seen GTA 5 and the original version of Halo on Xbox made playable on a browser, with more surely to come. The GTA 5 clone was hit by a takedown, as was a Fallout: New York game that was released in-browser.

Clearly, this Whack-a-Mole between IP owner and AI-generated video game isn’t sustainable, so the question will be what the video game industry does long term to prevent this sort of thing happening in the first place. Indeed, can it do anything? With AI models becoming increasingly powerful, the time it takes for unauthorized versions of established video games to appear outside of official platforms will reduce potentially to just hours or even minutes. With GTA 6 releasing on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S only, how long will it take for someone to use AI to make it playable on PC via a browser?

A new Ape Escape video game is reportedly in the works, helmed by the team that successfully rebooted a certain blue hedgehog with Sonic Mania. Developer Evening Star also made Penny’s Big Breakaway, which launched to mixed reviews compared to Sonic Mania’s near unanimous praise.

The report comes from journalist Jeff Gerstmann, corroborated by VGC sources. “So yeah, some other folks have said that they also heard that Ape Escape is being made,” Gerstmann said on his podcast.

“I don’t think this game is close to being out or anything like that, but I guess it’s been almost a year since we started talking about Ape Escape. “Who is making it? That’s a good question.

“My understanding is that it’s an external studio. People were immediately like, ‘Oh, Team Asobi (Astro Bot) is making it.’ My understanding is that an external team has been working on that. What do they make… Penny’s Big Breakaway. Evening Star. I heard that they were working on it.”

According to the report, Sony is looking at using third-party studios to revive dormant series across its entire portfolio. Last month, rumors were circulating that PlayStation is looking to bring back Killzone, though the obvious choice of developer for that one would likely be first-party original studio Guerrilla Games.

The last game in the Ape Escape series is PlayStation Move Ape Escape, released for PS3 in 2010. The last mainline game was Ape Escape 3, five years earlier, for PS2.

“At the time that I initially heard it, it sounded like it was a game that had been just barely greenlit and just getting underway," Gerstmann continued.

“You know, not necessarily the most corroborated, multiple-source thing, but that is what I heard about an Ape Escape Game. I was asking people questions at DICE this year about this Ape Escape game. So that was February. So there ya go.”

IGN reached out to Sony for comment about its rumored third-party licensing strategy last week, but so far there’s been no response.

Grand Theft Auto 5 was made playable in a browser before it was pulled offline, amid an explosion of AI-fueled games across the internet.

Footage of GTA 5 running in a browser spread via social media yesterday, though the game's website is now offline — with reports that hosting service Cloudflare stepped in to intervene.

This latest development follows last week's cease and desist sent by Bethesda to block the AI-generated Fallout: New York fan project, which was also made playable via a PC browser. That game had been built by Claude Opus 5.5, and it seems likely that the PC build of GTA 5 was compiled similarly.

GTA 5 is now playable on web browser

Here I am playing GTA 5 on chrome https://t.co/W7L7qfuI2Z

— Pixel Gamer 4k (@4k_isn) October 6, 2026

The owner of the GTA 5 browser website is now asking "Who wants the source code?" https://t.co/pEs6lLSXhP

— Pixel Gamer 4k (@4k_isn) October 6, 2026

Last week, IGN reported on the original Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved, which was made available to play in a web browser. This is not a port of Bungie’s seminal 2001 first-person shooter, rather the original Xbox game running in your browser.

There's no doubting the popularity of these AI-built clones or derivative games, with images and gameplay videos being shared widely on social media alongside impressed responses from fans. But the owners of these franchises such as Rockstar and Bethesda will inevitably take a dim view of what they will likely see as piracy — particularly in the case of GTA 5's port.

Still, it remains to be seen exactly how the rapid progress of AI will be checked — or how AI-generated versions of popular games will be policed in future, beyond publishers simply playing whack-a-mole as popular examples pop up.

AI is making what was traditionally a painstaking process of reverse-engineering and recompilation significantly faster, which has prompted some to wonder about the future of commercial video game development. Why buy a Switch 2 if you can have AI generate a clone of one of Nintendo's exclusives for free in your browser?

Others, though, have pointed out that none of the "game-merging" mods or clones display any creativity or present any new ideas, rather take existing popular video games and either mash them together or simply replicate what is already playable better elsewhere.

The question for Rockstar and parent company Take-Two now is, how long will it take for GTA 6 to be made playable in a browser, and what can it do to stop it?

Don't hold your breath for a new Watch Dogs game anytime soon.

As reported by Game File, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was asked by an investor about the future of the Watch Dogs franchise. The CEO noted that Ubisoft considers the IP "to be an important brand for the future" but neglected to explain how. Game File's Stephen Totilo stated that Guillemot suggested that there are no Watch Dogs games in active development at the moment, which suggests Ubisoft may still be figuring out where to take the series from here.

There is a Watch Dogs movie on the horizon, but there's no word on when it will be released. The film wrapped production two years ago and had reshoots last year, but there hasn't been any sort of meaningful promotion for the film to date. As of right now, it doesn't even have a release date, which makes it even more of a mystery.

Watch Dogs made its debut back in 2014, though it was initially meant to launch simultaneously with the PS4 in November 2013. Ubisoft hyped it up as a direct competitor to Grand Theft Auto 5, which released in September 2013. Unfortunately, many felt it was unable to reach some of its ambitions, but it still managed to make a dent in the open-world crime genre. Two years later, Ubisoft launched a much more impressive sequel set in San Francisco, but failed to keep the momentum going with its third installment.

Watch Dogs: Legion was released in 2020, also boasting ambitious ideas, such as the ability to control any NPC in the world. Unfortunately, the game received generally mixed reception from fans. Since then, there have been a lot of question marks around the future of the franchise. It seems Ubisoft wants to do more with Watch Dogs, but it may be trying to figure out how it can separate itself from a game like Grand Theft Auto 6, which is set to shake up the genre in November.

There may be more Watch Dogs games one day, but don't expect them within the next few years.

Mighty Mike Plays dad Dave has promised refunds and issued a lengthy explanation after the internet demanded more information about the YouTube ads allegedly purchased by his son and the drama that followed.

The saga began when a father took to his son's YouTube channel, Mighty Mike Plays, to announce that his child had allegedly used a company credit card to purchase $118,000 in video ads. It was a painful and highly relatable story that snowballed into a full-fledged internet spectacle when pricey AI-generated T-shirts and questionable details led many online to look for concrete answers.

The controversial father figure came clean in a new video titled "Allow me to Explain" that was uploaded to the Mighty Mike Plays channel last week (via Dexerto). Dave started the hour-long explainer – which has since been deleted and re-uploaded on a new YouTube channel called Coffee Time with Dave – promising that everyone who purchased one of those T-shirts would receive a refund.

“this might be the end of Mighty Mike Plays…” is the funniest thing you could say in front of your dad after putting him 118k in debt and getting him fired

— Mako Fukasame 🦈👩‍🏫 | Vershion AU (@MakoFukasame) September 15, 2026

"Dave here. A.k.a. Devoted Dave. A.k.a. Dazzling Dave. A.k.a. Dependable Dave, and the list goes on," Dave said. "I want to give you guys an update: First off, I'm going to say that everyone that got a shirt got refunded whether they asked for it or not. So, whether you wanted a refund or not, you got it."

The full video covers allegations related to the Mighty Mike Plays drama and also covers a lot that has nothing to do with it at all. Dave's headline he wants to share, though, is that this all blew up so much faster and so much bigger than he ever expected it to be.

He explained that he thought he was simply "venting" about his son's spending with a story that sounds like the kind of thing you'd tell a friend at a bar. Millions of views and a sea of video responses later, and it's clear it didn't pan out the way he ever imagined it would.

"I remember thinking, like, you know, I wonder if this video will hit 10,000 views," he said. "That's kind of where I thought it would cap. I didn't think it would go so viral. Everything happened real-time, organically, and I obviously didn't handle everything the right way, essentially, but just to make it clear: I didn't come to YouTube to ask for help. I wasn't looking for any sort of help."

Part of the reason why the internet gathered with Minecraft fans to help out is because Dave said the $118,000 hole his son put in his company card resulted in him being fired. He also stated he had just 30 days to make up for the missing money, but in the new video, Dave has clarified some of those details.

Instead of losing his job, Dave suggested he technically was not fired in a traditional sense, with that part of the story being a "simplified version" of what actually happened. The reality, he said, is that "the contract between company A and company B just got terminated," adding, "isn't that the same thing?" As many had suspected, he doesn't just own his own company – he owns 12.

"Yeah, I own my own company. So what?" Dave clarified. "In fact, you guys didn't even see – I have like 12 companies. Not all of them are productive, as we speak. Some of them are just collecting dust, and just because someone has a company or is a CEO doesn't mean that, 'Oh, OK. Just by having those titles you're actually conducting a profitable business.'"

He continued: "But just to clarify, I consider that being fired. If my company lost a contract with this important company, then, I mean, how is that not being fired? Fine. I'll be more specific next time."

As for those controversial T-shirts and why he's issuing refunds, Dave said he "didn't want to sit around and let these actual scammers sell people who wanted to be involved in this story." His plan for an official merch page, which allegedly put him "another $10K in the hole," still drew much ire from the internet, at least partially due to its prolific use of AI-generated designs. He explained why he's issued refunds – even if not all that many people found something to buy.

"In retrospect, was AI and the merch the way to go? Was the price the way to go? No," he said. "Look, I'm going to admit when I was wrong: That was not the move. I shouldn't have used AI. Although, at the time, I know I defended it. There is a now-infamous deleted post, which I crashed out."

He later added: "I do agree now, and if I could go back, I'd do it differently, but again, I didn't have the luxury of time. Time was running out. We had to figure something out, so yeah, I had AI create some designs. I still feel like those designs were flawless, gorgeous, beautiful, superb, and there is about 100 people who got free shirts."

It's unclear if Dave's explanation video will be enough to satisfy the many online who looked into the Minecraft YouTube channel after the events surrounding it kicked off last month. If this is the first time you're hearing of Mighty Mike Plays and the drama surrounding AI-generated T-shirt designs, there's no need to fear. We broke down everything you could ever want to know about the story right here.

Former NFL coach Mike Tomlin spent 19 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and won Super Bowl LXIII, and now he's added another major accomplishment to his resume: becoming a Minecraft YouTuber.

The former coach gave football fans a little something different when he launched his new YouTube channel earlier this week. With a profile picture taken in front of NBC's Football Night in America logo, watchers probably weren't expecting Tomlin's first upload to see him confess how his love for architecture and family led him to work on a Minecraft city he spent 12 years building.

"You know, 12 or 13 years ago, when my kids were in middle school, they'd be in their room all weekend and have friends over. They were obsessed with playing this game, Minecraft, that I knew nothing about," he explained as his son and channel operator, Dino, sat in the background. "I got interested because I just was mesmerized by what could occupy their attention for such large periods of time."

He admitted he lacked the "stick control" to handle something like Minecraft's Survival mode but still managed to find enjoyment in Creative Mode. That's where Mojang's systems really started to click.

"I like to build," he said. "I've always had an interest in architecture, and so forth, so I started doing this creative city. It was a means of spending time with them. They participated all over this city. All my kids have buildings."

However, as his kids went off to high school and college, their interest in Minecraft waned. For Tomlin, it was just beginning. In 2026, after 12 years of building, the sandbox phenomenon has become therapeutic for the former NFL coach, and what he's built has the internet in disbelief.

"This is where it all started for me," Tomlin said as a blocky blue pond surrounded by detailed city buildings faded into view. His tour then begins with a closer look at a hotel. This one building features a fully fleshed-out interior with labeled rooms, a lobby, a ballroom, a pool, bathrooms, and more. Tomlin even factored in how lighting might affect the views in some of these rooms – and that's just one of many locations he's made.

"I was always inspired," he added. "I'd go places, and I'd see things and buildings, and I get inspired, I go home, and I work on it."

Tomlin then referenced the off-campus housing around universities that he recreated after dropping Dino off at college. The color, floor plans, and other memorable elements all came from these memories, with much of his creation also built around different bodies of water.

Tomlin stepped down as the Steelers' coach in January 2026, with today's video showing how he's spent at least some of the downtime since. He spent years in the NFL, but it's his work as a Minecraft YouTuber that has everyone talking today.

Mike Tomlin has been working on his Minecraft world for over a decade

It’s UNREAL pic.twitter.com/XWxu9zMinY

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 1, 2026

Aaron Rodgers: “CALL THE F*CKING PLAY!”

Mike McCarthy: “F*cking asshole”

*Loses to the Cleveland Browns*

Meanwhile, Mike Tomlin: pic.twitter.com/axnE3655rT

— NFL Memes (@NFLMemes) October 2, 2026

Steelers down 20 in a playoff game.

Mike Tomlin: pic.twitter.com/J4u56digNW

— Donny Football (@DonChed54) October 1, 2026

Mike Tomlin leaving the presser early to go finish building the Executive Spa in his Minecraft world pic.twitter.com/yHF2FOzeiZ

— ant ☘️ (@anthshiesty) October 1, 2026

"I'm obsessed why is he genuinely a better builder than me," content creator @Krtzyy said.

"Mike Tomlin becoming a Minecraft YouTuber was not on my bingo card for 2026," one X/Twitter user said.

Tomlin signed off, promising to take a closer look at his city in future videos. He also teased plans to show off something that "I think you're going to find interesting." Despite being maybe the most creative celebrity gamer to come out of 2026, the ex-NFL coach isn't the only notable name to share their love for gaming in the last year. Obsession breakout Inde Navarrette garnered attention for her The Last of Us and Call of Duty streams a few months ago. Newly announced X-Men star, Samara Weaving, is also a big gamer.

Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.

I have spent the last three days scrolling through some of the most insane mod videos I've ever seen. Modders are taking games that have been decompiled with Claude, and mashing them up with other games. As the week has gone on, there have only been more clips of these mods pouring out on X/Twitter.

One person created a mashup of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: World at War; another combined Escape From Tarkov with Skyrim. There’s even one that takes Insomniac’s Spider-Man and combines it with Batman Arkham City, where the player is able to swing around Batman’s turf.

These mods are everywhere online right now, though they thankfully haven’t filtered into modding websites like Nexus Mods yet. But, with the sheer volume of these mods and with how accessible Opus 5.5 is, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before the gates are fully torn down. And if that happens, it could change the face of the modding scene entirely.

Why Now?

Claude Opus 5.5 launched last week, promising cheaper tokens and more efficient code work. I'm sure that Anthropic meant for it to be used by professionals, but gamers have used it to create some of the weirdest mods I have ever seen.

Opus is a model that can power AI agents, which can be deployed to create entire games from the engine, to the art and enemy behavior. Brendan Jowett has a great video on YouTube of the model in action: He develops little slices of video games and compares them directly with the same tasks from OpenAI’s Astra 6 model. While the results of both are far from what you’d expect from a fully featured game, Claude’s new model has clearly come a long way.

The problem with the examples in Jowett’s video is that while the models are good at piecing together disparate parts of a game, enemy AI (lol) and art assets are lackluster to say the least. In one of the slices, a space combat sim, the space fighter flys at a diagonal angle, while moving in a straight line ahead, and shooting. In another slice enemies completely ignore the player character.

As good as Claude Opus 5.5 seems to be, it’s still lightyears away from developing something like a true mashup of Minecraft and Elden Ring from scratch. But the model doesn’t have to start from scratch.

The big, driving force behind a lot of these mods is decompilation, where people are pointing Opus at a game and letting the agent break it down to its source code (here’s a handy blog if you want to really get in the weeds). Just earlier today, we covered Halo: Combat Evolved being decompiled and ported to run natively in a browser. Once that step is complete, it takes little effort to take that source code and work huge swaths of games into other games as mods, and with very little input from the user.

Couple that with the relatively affordable tokens, and it shouldn’t be surprising that X/Twitter’s generally pro-AI users went wild with it, creating hundreds of mashups. And it doesn’t seem like it’s slowing down any time soon; what started off as a weird video that my boss sent me on Tuesday has now evolved to the point where I can’t even open X/Twitter without seeing a deluge of these mods.

Piracy?

The obvious problem with all of this is that these models are breaking open games developed by real people, getting the source code and then just mashing stuff together without consideration or permission from the original developers. That’s nothing particularly new – the modding scene is definitely no stranger to mashups, all the Thomas the Tank Engine mods are proof of that. However, this trend might be breaking into new territory, thanks to decompilation.

This could be another reason none of these mods have made their way onto any distribution platforms. Nexus Mods doesn’t outright ban AI-generated content, but it doesn’t let people use AI tools to upload content that they don’t have the rights to.

In a blog post from 2023, Nexus laid out its rules around AI generated content. The policy states that, “In order to prevent any issues with your mods, we encourage you to avoid using these tools unless you have explicit permission to use all the assets. This is particularly true for AI-generated voice acting but also covers images, models, code and anything else that you can use this technology to create.”

Every single one of these passthrough mods are using images, models, and code that the people generating them don’t have the rights to. But it’s only a matter of time until some platform holder allows these mods to be hosted, and I’m sure a massive legal battle will happen immediately afterwards.

The Modding Community Hates This

Way before all of these Claude-authored mod videos started cropping up online, people had been creating mods by hand for years, typically out of pure love for the game. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that a lot of mod authors aren’t fans of this phenomenon.

Mod authors have been expressing their frustration on X/Twitter as this has been happening. “I mod games and I'm not shy about the fact that I use AI to do it. I hate this bullshit ‘trend’. Pure slop, there's nothing creative about this at all,” kran27_ posted. “AI has a lot of potential in the modding scene, but the shit that's getting the clicks is this jingling keys bullshit.”

Kran wasn’t alone, with discountmodder ready to just leave the scene, saying, “Dude I'm really disappointed. If this becomes the permanent state of modding, this may be my last project. I don't wanna be involved in an AI slop-factory.”

I can’t escape the feeling that most of these mashups are born from people just playing with a new AI model and seeing what will happen, and I hope that this weird trend will die off soon. Modding is one of the best parts of PC gaming, and there is a lot of incredible content that people make just because they love a game. Some of the best games started off as mods, after all, and without them we never would have got the likes of Half-Life or League of Legends.

I hope that this is just a trend, rather than a sign of where the modding scene is heading. Fortunately, because these mods seemingly only exist to farm engagement on Twitter (at least so far), you don’t have to worry too much about them if you just want to start a new modded run of The Witcher 3 Remastered. If anything, it just means that if you want to avoid AI content, you need to pay even more attention to who you’re getting your mods from.

Once merged, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones company Warner Bros. will exist alongside Paramount as a sub-brand of Skydance.

The historic film and TV studios are being slapped together by David Ellison and backed by his billionaire dad Larry Ellison in a deal worth $110 billion, following a hostile bid for WB last year and despite various regulatory blocks that have attempted to scupper the deal in the U.S. and abroad. Concern has been raised that the merger may lead to thousands of job losses through corporate consolidation, afford control over a huge chunk of Hollywood to the Ellison family, and in turn risk the independence of news networks such as CNN.

However, opposition to the deal has now largely melted away and, with the merger's completion appearing imminent, Ellison has now confirmed that "Skydance" will be the name of his soon-to-be enormous entertainment empire. The Warner Bros. and Paramount branding will still be kept for their relevant subdivisions.

Indeed, a bombastic new trailer for Skydance has also been revealed, showcasing the vast swath of Warner Bros. and Paramount intellectual property that Skydance will have access to, including the DC Comics, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter franchises.

What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.

Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for… pic.twitter.com/uInLRY3IrE

— David Ellison (@ellisonskydance) October 2, 2026

"These brands are more than a destination, they are the launch pad," a voiceover for the trailer states, in a script that sounds like it was written by an AI. "They don't just live on screens, they move through culture. Each one, distinct. Built on story. Driven by technology. A new center of gravity. A constellation. A shared vision to go beyond. Look up. What once was the peak, is now just the beginning."

Whatever that's supposed to mean, the trailer includes clips from notable WB and Paramount movies and TV series such as Inception, Titanic, Superman, Barbie, Minecraft, The Godfather, The Sopranos, Star Trek, The Matrix, Game of Thrones, The Shawshank Redemption, Casablanca, A Star is Born, Grease, Sinners, Forrest Gump, Dune, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Great Gatsby, and Euphoria.

A selection of brand logos shown at the end of the trailer highlights that Skydance will own Paramount, WB, DC Comics, CNN, Paramount+, CBS, Nickelodeon, and HBO Max, plus MTV, TCM, Showtime, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, Eurosport, Miramax, NewLine Cinema, Animal Planet, the UK's Channel 5, and many, many more.

The deal that will cement ownership of all this under Skydance is now expected to close on October 6, the companies have said.

Metro 2039 is not terribly far away now, launching on February 4, 2027. While that game will truly bring the franchise to current generation consoles, developer 4A Games is launching next-gen updates for the first two games.

Both Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light were incredible tech showcases for their time, but they haven't exactly aged gracefully. Despite getting an intial remaster all the way back in 2014, Metro 2033 doesn't play super well with modern hardware, and I've needed to tweak it every time I've gone back to play it. Luckily, these next-gen updates should bring some long-needed bug fixes to the game.

The update will look different on console and on PC. For PS5 and Xbox Series X, the Metro games will run at either native 4K at 60 fps or an upscaled 4K at 120 fps, with PSSR on PS5 Pro and traditional temporal upscaling on the Xbox consoles. Over on PC, though, the game will finally have DLSS support, along with some unnamed quality-of-life improvements.

4A Games hasn't shared a lot of details on the updates coming to Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light, but it does promise to share full patch notes ahead of its October 22 release on PC and October 29 release on consoles. Either way, as long as the games are more stable, I'm all in.

As a lifelong PC gamer, all three of the Metro games hold a special place in my heart, for all the torture they've put my graphics cards through in the past. Luckily, if you don't like putting your hardware through the wringer, it doesn't sound like 4A is going to add ray tracing or anything crazy to 2033 or Last Light, so they should be significantly easier to run at high settings than they were when they launched in 2010 and 2013.

We've already gone hands-on with Metro 2039, and it seems like an incredible and brutal post-apocalyptic shooter — just like I'd want out of the franchise. The visuals we've seen so far look incredible too, so I can only imagine that it's going to stay true to its roots of pushing PC hardware to its limits. Although, it is launching in the middle of an ongoing RAM crisis, which is going to limit its already niche appeal a bit when the benchmarks start rolling out. Here's to hoping 4A Games finds a way to make a Metro game scalable at launch for once.

Jason Jones, one of the co-founders of Bungie and a co-creator of Halo and Destiny, has announced his new studio, Stone Kite, which will work on projects across various entertainment mediums. The studio's first release is One Zero One, a limited-series comic book based on a manuscript written by Jones. Check out some page selects in the gallery below.

The Los Angeles-based studio is a partnership with Margaret Stohl, a Bungie veteran who has written 14 books as well as numerous games and Marvel Comics in her career. She serves as Stone Kite's CEO. “I've spent my career creating books, games, comics, film and television, and I've seen how often the medium that tells the first story ends up defining everything that comes after it,” she said. “Stone Kite is about breaking down those old media silos. Instead of starting in one medium and adapting outward, we bring the best global creators from different disciplines into the room from day one to shape the world together. We change the conversation. We never say that’s how it’s traditionally done. We build communities, and we listen to them. That’s how we’re creating worlds that people can explore for decades, in whatever ways they want.”

“I’ve spent my whole life making games, but I’ve always wanted to write,” Jones said. “I used to bike fifteen miles along Lake Michigan to the used bookstores in North Chicago, and bike home again with a backpack full of sci-fi paperbacks. Margie was the first person to believe I could write a book of my own, the first person to read it, and the one person I trusted to help me develop it into epic entertainment that leaves the world a better place.”

One Zero One is a four-part limited comic series about an impending face-off between humans and a rogue army of AI-driven robots. Part 1 is available now in digital form on the Stone Kite website, which is also where you can preorder a physical copy.

Jones co-founded Bungie in 1991 and stayed with it until his position as Chief Vision Officer was reportedly part of the widespread studio layoffs enacted by Sony earlier this year, which today's Stone Kite announcement would certainly seem to confirm. Jones is regarded as a visionary game designer and rarely gives interviews. In fact, his career-spanning interview with IGN in 2013 was his first interview in over a decade at the time, and he's rarely spoken publicly since.

Bungie, meanwhile, which had officially ended support for Destiny 2 earlier this year, announced last week that it is in fact not finished yet.

A modder who was porting GTA 5 to Nintendo Switch taunted Rockstar Games and was immediately hit with a cease and desist.

The modder, known as Mojso, was planning to bring GTA 5 and GTA Online to Nintendo Switch for modded versions of the console and got a bit cocky. After Rockstar Games recently posted its guidelines for modding (which forbids unofficial ports), the modder posted: "Try me Rockstar, [I don't give a f**k.]"

Three days later, the modder's Discord server was taken down for copyright infringement, but it didn't seem to deter them. After many warned them about how litigous Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two are, the modder suggested they aren't worried about it: "Copyright infringement is anything but enforced in Serbia."

Less than a week later, the modder confirmed they had received a cease and desist from Take-Two Interactive and thanked the company for its "mercy." As a result, the port will never see the light of day, as Mojso has stated that they don't want to risk any legal issues.

"Paralympics Productions is shutting down on October 3rd. Thank you everyone who supported us through tough times and lenghty development. I am sorry for not fulfilling your expectations and leaving you high and dry. I am thankful for Take-Two's mercy so this is the definitive end," they wrote.

When people pointed back to the modder's post about taunting Rockstar, Mojso noted that they didn't actually expect Rockstar to do anything.

"They tried me," Mojso said. "[What the] f**k [do] you want me to do? Fight with them in court? I wasn't expecting them to hit back hard."

The modder had been working on this port using leaked GTA 5 source code, which has resulted in a bevy of other leaks and issues. Ultimately, it's probably in your best interest to not taunt massive corporations that are known for hunting down people that mess with their IP.

Acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro confirmed that he was involved in early concepts for a BioShock movie, but said the project was ultimately scrapped after a “disastrous” phone call.

Speaking with IGN as part of the IGN30 Icons series, del Toro admitted that he “never” wants to make a video game again — and while he was previously open to adapting existing games into films, his last attempts at doing so ended in disaster.

It’s been long-rumored that del Toro was involved in a movie adaptation of BioShock that never got off the ground. Back in 2017, he even admitted that he’d love to see the game’s story brought to the silver screen after a previous attempt, with Gore Verbinski attached, never got made.

Years later, he has officially confirmed his relationship with a BioShock adaptation, though it never saw the light of day — and it seems there was some drama behind its premature demise.

“You know, I tried,” he told us when asked if he’d ever want to make a film adaptation of a game. “We had a very contentious call about a couple of games. I find that the dynamics of a video game are very different than a movie. They may be cinematically similar in terms of the camera moving and this and that, but the storytelling is very different, because you're not solving puzzles. You're not assembling.

“When we made the structure for Insane, we created what I call a mandala. You have to give the illusion of an infinite sandbox and you lead audiences to the right or to the left through their ‘own decisions,’ but you sort of have to corner them. So it's a very different thing.

“So adapting it, BioShock, we had a couple of calls. They are probably one of the most disastrous calls I've ever had. So no, f**k no.”

While he didn’t go into detail about what made these calls so “contentious” and “disastrous,” the conversations seem to have put a sour taste in his mouth — which is a shame, because a BioShock movie with del Toro at the helm sounds like the best thing since sliced bread.

It’s one of his favorite games, after all, a fact that he also shared with us in this same interview. It’s one of several titles that he listed off the cuff, though not the most surprising one; that title goes to Angry Birds, which del Toro says he plays almost every day.

And although Del Toro has been involved with several major video games over the years (PT, Death Stranding), he told us he’s hesitant to make his own games after Insane, his planned trilogy of dark, cinematic games, never got released.

“Never again,” he told us. “No, not at all — we developed Insane, and then that went down. A lot of the ideas later, I saw stuff that was done in other video games that was similar. And I went, ‘Well, somebody did it. That's great.’ But we were aiming really high.”

Speaking of PT and Death Stranding, The Pan’s Labyrinth creator has expressed no shortage of love for Kojima’s games, calling him a “pure artist” and admitting that the grand majority of PT was entirely Kojima's idea.

“I mean, I'm glad to get on the ride for free, but everything that ended up being PT, it was him,” he said. “…I love that man. He's one of those guys you meet that you go, you might as well be in the Renaissance. You are in front of a pure artist and he cares about one thing, stories. That's it.”

Our full, extended interview with Guillermo del Toro is available to watch now. If you're hungry for more interviews, you can check out a previous episode of the IGN30 Icons series, where we chatted with Ken Levine, creator of famed games like System Shock 2 and its spiritual successor, BioShock.

Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann concluded this year's The Last of Us Day by giving updates on the developer's current projects, teasing two new The Last of Us projects that "will expand the canon of The Last of Us beyond Part I and Part II" without confirming whether or not either one of them is a game, as well as saying that its next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Project, will be "fully reveal[ed]" next year.

Writing on the Naughty Dog blog, Druckmann thanked fans for helping raise over $11,000 for AbleGamers before addressing the status of the studio's ongoing projects. Regarding The Last of Us, which he recently said the developer was "not done" with, Druckmann clarified that previous tease by specifically saying that the team has two TLOU projects on its plate.

"We have a couple of very exciting new projects in very early stages – so we can’t say much about them at this point," he said. "I will tell you that both projects will expand the canon of The Last of Us beyond Part I and Part II. The world of The Last of Us means a great deal to us, and we wouldn’t return to it unless we had something meaningful to say. We believe these stories are worth telling."

Regarding Naughty Dog's next game, the sci-fi Intergalactic: The Heretic Project, Druckmann said that the studio will stay quiet for the few remaining months of the year, but "in 2027, that changes. We’ll fully reveal Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and give you a proper look at Jordan’s wild sci-fi adventure." He also called it Naughty Dog's most ambitious project yet, and asked fans for their patience, perhaps an indirect olive branch to fans who were frustrated by Intergalactic's no-show at the recent Sony State of Play.

"There’s an electricity around the studio right now as all the pieces come together, and we’re stoked to finally unveil Intergalactic in all its glory," he said. "But…we need to cook for just a little bit longer."

Druckmann concluded with, "We know it’s been a long time since we’ve had much to share with you. We don’t take your continued support for granted. We’re working incredibly hard to make something worthy of your patience."

Meanwhile, it looks like the HBO TV series adaptation of The Last of Us will wrap up with the upcoming third season.

Rumors of an LA Noire 2 have been floating around the internet lately, but is there actually any truth to them?

Over the weekend, eagle-eyed fans dug up an old GTA 6 leak from 2023. The leak originated on 4Chan and revealed a bunch of details that have actually since been confirmed. Perhaps one of the most notable bits is that Rockstar once planned to have four protagonists in GTA 6, but eventually settled on two, which was recently confirmed by Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson. However, it is worth noting that this tidbit was also buried in a report from Axios a year prior to the 4Chan leak, as well.

The post went on to reveal details about the game's relationship mechanic, which has also since been confirmed, and teased some spoilers that have been loosely corroborated in other legitimate leaks in recent years. However, the reason people are digging this post back up is because it claims that Rockstar's next game is a sequel to LA Noire, set to release in 2030.

The game would be set in San Francisco and center around the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized the city in the '70s. If there ever were to be an LA Noire followup, this would be the most ideal story to tackle, given that it's rich with unique crimes, people, and has a great setting. So... is any of this real? Let's look at all of the evidence.

For starters, LA Noire was developed by the studio Team Bondi, led by a man named Brendan McNamara. Rockstar published the crime game and lent some developers to assist on the project. Unfortunately, Team Bondi dissolved shortly after LA Noire's release. Not long after, McNamara founded a new studio to make a successor known as The Whore of the Orient (which we reported new details on earlier this summer) without the help of Rockstar.

The game was scrapped due to funding issues and McNamara founded yet another studio known as Video Games Deluxe, which helped port LA Noire to VR devices. The studio was acquired by Rockstar in 2025 and renamed to Rockstar Australia, leading many to wonder what they're up to, exactly.

Presumably, they're helping with GTA 6, but a lot of the studio is comprised of ex-LA Noire creatives, including McNamara, who is a renowned storyteller. It seems hard to imagine that a creative like him would be relegated to leading a support studio, so it seems feasible that there could be plans for more games with him at the helm.

Rockstar has also shown an interest in the IP multiple times over the years. LA Noire was the second Rockstar game behind GTA 5 to be ported over to Xbox One and PS4, which raised eyebrows, given fans were more interested in titles like Bully, Red Dead Redemption, or even GTA 4. A condensed version of the game was also ported to VR around the same time, which was an unusual level of investment for Rockstar.

More recently, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked about the possibility of LA Noire returning. He noted that the door is open for Rockstar to revisit the game, so long as there's a team that's passionate about it.

“Broadly, we’re looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property,” he said in April 2026. “There’s nothing to announce on LA Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me. But in any case, with regard to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that’s passionate about working on that?”

Whether McNamara is invested in another period crime drama remains to be seen, but his team would likely be the ones most gung-ho about going back to LA Noire. In 2012, Rockstar also teased that an LA Noire sequel wasn't off the table, as it was pleased with how the game performed, and Take-Two even noted its importance as a "franchise" moving forward.

"Don't count out the possibility of a new game in the LA Noire franchise in the future," said Rockstar during a fan Q&A. "We simply have not decided anything. We're all very pleased with how that game turned out and are considering what the future may hold for LA Noire as a series. We don't always rush to make sequels, but that does not mean we won't get to them eventually – see Max [Payne] and Red Dead for evidence of that – we have so many games we want to make and the issue is always one of bandwidth and timing."

Either way, it's an exciting prospect to consider, but there are a lot of questions over what direction Rockstar will take post-GTA 6. The game is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch in history, and the studio will likely support the hell out of it with updates over time, especially when its online mode launches in the future.

Will that be all-consuming, eliminating any chance of "smaller" games like an LA Noire sequel, or will the financial success afford Rockstar the opportunity to make more interesting artistic plays? We'll just have to wait and see, but Rockstar is already set to publish a pair of Max Payne remakes, developed by Remedy, so there are opportunities outside of heavily monetized online games.

Mojang has teased Minecraft’s next game drop, giving fans a sneak peek at some of its features.

As revealed at Minecraft LIVE, Ice Caves are coming to the game, adding a new and rare underground extension of cold biomes with glowing ice crystals and environmental variety. Ice Caves include a new hostile mob, the frozen zombie, which can apply freezing effects and throw damaging ice balls. The ice balls can also be used as weapons or to craft potions, adding strategic options for combat scenarios.

Mojang said Ice Caves add a whole new layer of variety to cold biomes, making exploring underground even more interesting, thanks to the increased environmental diversity. “Though they may be beautiful, these caves are far from safe,” the developer said.

Ice crystals can be found in ice caves and can be placed both vertically and horizontally, providing lots of potential for decoration and building. They can even be used as a light source. The Frozen Zombie, meanwhile, applies a stacking freezing effect with its melee attacks. If you take enough hits, you'll freeze. It also throws ice balls at you, which apply knockback and deal damage. Normal zombies can convert into Frozen when exposed to powder snow. Players can already convert Husks into Zombies, and now Zombies into Frozen, opening the door for advanced mob farms.

Frozen drop ice balls on death, allowing players to use them as well, but they can also be crafted and used to brew a new potion. As a weapon, ice balls deal damage and apply knockback, and as a potion it can freeze players.

For more, check out everything announced at Minecraft LIVE.

Minecraft World got two announcements at Minecraft LIVE today: the world’s first official Minecraft hotel, and the name of the first ever Minecraft rollercoaster.

Minecraft World Hotel and the Escape the Nether rollercoaster are confirmed for the Minecraft experience at Chessington World of Adventures Resort, and are set to open their doors at some point next year, Merlin Entertainments and Mojang Studios announced.

Check out all the new Minecraft World images and photos in the slideshow below.

Concept art already released for Minecraft World features wooden houses, Creepers, TNT blocks, and even a Nether dining area. Expect interactive adventures, blockbuilt playscapes, and themed retail.

For more, check out everything announced at Minecraft LIVE.

Minecraft developer Mojang has announced that the Sift is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027 — the game's first new dimension in over 14 years.

As revealed at Minecraft LIVE September 2026, the Sift, which had been announced for upcoming dungeon crawler Minecraft Dungeons 2, is also coming to Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition next year. It joins the Overworld, The Nether, and The End as Minecraft’s official fourth dimension.

Today at Minecraft LIVE: Dungeons II, our first new dimension in more than 14 years, new ways for creators to build, Minecraft on Nintendo Switch 2, and more.

More than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day. After 17+ years and 425M+ copies sold, I… pic.twitter.com/fdhkwuh258

— ASHA (@asha_shar) September 26, 2026

Mojang said next to nothing about the Sift in terms of how it will work in vanilla during Minecraft LIVE, and only teased how it will look during the stream. Here's Mojang's official blurb on the Sift, which briefly touched on the new mob which we can see in the image above.

Minecraft LIVE revealed that the newest Minecraft dimension isn’t just finding its home in Dungeons II, it’ll also be coming to Minecraft Java & Bedrock Edition next year. This will be the first new dimension in over 14 years – joining the Overworld, the Nether and the End as our fourth dimension. During the broadcast, you got a glimpse into this dimension in Minecraft – and even one of the mobs that calls it home. But surely that’s not enough! Luckily you can experience it for yourself in Minecraft Dungeons II – coming September 29, 2026.

Perhaps we should look to the Sift in Minecraft Dungeons 2 to get a sense of what to expect. In the dungeon crawler, the Sift is described as "beautiful, vibrant, and teeming with souls." It features new biomes such as the Meadow and the Carapace.

For more, check out everything announced at Minecraft LIVE.

Minecraft LIVE September 2026 featured a number of big announcements for the game, which we've rounded up below.

The headline announcement was confirmation that the Sift is coming to Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027. It's the first new dimension for Minecraft in 14 years. Elsewhere, Mojang confirmed that Ice Caves are the next game drop, and Sound Effects Packs for Minecraft Marketplace are coming later this year. We also got an update on Minecraft World, which is getting a hotel and a rollercoaster.

Alas, there was no announcement of an End update, as some fans had speculated might have been on the way. I guess those Enderman teases in the Minecraft LIVE trailer weren't teases after all!

All this and more is detailed in the report below. Check that out, then head to the comments to let us know what you think!

And that's a wrap!

Minecraft LIVE is over, and we have a clearer idea of what's coming to Minecraft for the rest of this year and even 2027. Let us know what you thought of all the announcements in the comments!

The Sift is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition!

Minecraft LIVE's big final announcement is that the Sift is coming to Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027. The Sift is Minecraft's first new dimension in over 14 years, and joins the Overworld, The Nether, and The End as Minecraft’s official fourth dimension.

Today at Minecraft LIVE: Dungeons II, our first new dimension in more than 14 years, new ways for creators to build, Minecraft on Nintendo Switch 2, and more.

More than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day. After 17+ years and 425M+ copies sold, I… pic.twitter.com/fdhkwuh258

— ASHA (@asha_shar) September 26, 2026

Ice Caves are the next Minecraft game drop

Ice Caves are coming to Minecraft, adding a new and rare underground extension of cold biomes with glowing ice crystals and environmental variety. Ice Caves include a new hostile mob, the frozen zombie, which can apply freezing effects and throw damaging ice balls. The ice balls can also be used as weapons or to craft potions, adding strategic options for combat scenarios.

Mojang said Ice Caves add a whole new layer of variety to cold biomes, making exploring underground even more interesting, thanks to the increased environmental diversity. “Though they may be beautiful, these caves are far from safe,” the developer said.

Ice crystals can be found in ice caves and can be placed both vertically and horizontally, providing lots of potential for decoration and building. They can even be used as a light source. The Frozen Zombie, meanwhile, applies a stacking freezing effect with its melee attacks. If you take enough hits, you'll freeze. It also throws ice balls at you, which apply knockback and deal damage. Normal zombies can convert into Frozen when exposed to powder snow. Players can already convert Husks into Zombies, and now Zombies into Frozen, opening the door for advanced mob farms.

Frozen drop ice balls on death, allowing players to use them as well, but they can also be crafted and used to brew a new potion. As a weapon, ice balls deal damage and apply knockback, and as a potion it can freeze players.

Sound Effects Packs for Minecraft Marketplace coming later this year

Later this year Mojang will introduce Sound Effects Packs for Minecraft Marketplace, giving players new ways to customize their experience.

Minecraft World update

Minecraft World got two announcements at Minecraft LIVE today: the world’s first official Minecraft hotel, and the name of the first ever Minecraft rollercoaster.

Minecraft World Hotel and the Escape the Nether rollercoaster are confirmed for the Minecraft experience at Chessington World of Adventures Resort, and are set to open their doors at some point next year, Merlin Entertainments and Mojang Studios announced.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 deep dive

Mojang showed off more of Minecraft Dungeons 2, as expected. Expect plenty of loot, mobs, and a new dimension. Story wise, you have to help the villages find a new home in the town of Bravehaven. When you start to explore outside the town you realize there's a soul corruption happening in the overworld.

The world is interconnected this time, so it's more open for you to take your own route with a freedom to explore. You get to know the Villagers better in this game, helping them out as a player. And you can jump! There are small parkour sections to find secrets and even jump attacks.

The big hook here is the Sift, a brand new dimension in Minecraft Dungeons 2. It's an environment rich with souls. Expect DLC post-launch, too. Minecraft Dungeons 2 launches this Tuesday, September 29.

Brave a new dimension in #DungeonsII: The Sift!

Hear what our team has to say about this beautiful new world. pic.twitter.com/EWfVrHL2JD

— Minecraft (@Minecraft) September 26, 2026

New Minecraft platform initiative

Minecraft LIVE began with Jens Bergenström, Chief Creative Officer at Mojang Studios, ruling out an End update. Bah! He did, however, announce a new creator platform designed to get more people creating experiences within Minecraft. It's all pretty vague, but it sounds like Mojang is thinking about taking on Roblox by making it easier to build experiences within Minecraft. We'll hopefully have more on how this all works soon.

30 minutes to go!

This is your official 30 minute warning for Minecraft LIVE! Not long now until we find out what Mojang has up its sleeve. Check back here for live updates, and let us know what you're hoping to see in the comments!

Silent Hill has appeared in the restless dreams of horror fans for almost three decades now. The foggy town and its various iterations, plagued by the Otherworld, continue to define the mechanics and ambience of psychological horror to this day.

Each Silent Hill game contains a relatively standalone story, tied to whatever character the Otherworld has decided to bring to its doorstep. However, the lore of Silent Hill develops across games through returning characters as well as memos, posters, and other small details. Despite its fill of contradictions, some of which are only natural for games with multiple endings, there’s a larger story lurking in the background of each protagonist’s path to atonement (or madness).

If the release of Silent Hill: Townfall has sparked your curiosity about how the timeline all fits together, we’ve got you covered.

How Many Silent Hill Games Are There?

Approximately 18 Silent Hill games have been released since the franchise debuted in 1999.

Four Silent Hill games were originally developed by Team Silent between 1999 and 2004. Subsequent games, including plenty of spinoffs, were developed by a variety of studios across Japan and North America.

Konami has also published four Silent Hill games for mobile devices: The Orphan trilogy and Silent Hill: The Escape. These have some murky connections to the rest of the franchise. For simplicity’s sake, we are not including these on the full timeline, but there’s still some lore in those for anyone trying to get the full Silent Hill picture.

We also won’t be including the Play Novel, which reimagines the original game, or the interactive streaming series Silent Hill: Ascension.

Which Silent Hill Game Should You Start With?

Where to start is really a matter of what drew you to the series and whether you’re interested in the original gameplay. If you’re looking for a taste of the series on modern consoles, Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake is a faithful recreation with some quality of life improvements.

If you’re interested in Silent Hill for lore reasons, there’s no harm in starting at the beginning or even with the original Silent Hill 2. Unless you still have a PS1 and can somehow get your hands on an original copy (very cool, if so), your best bet here is looking for emulation guides.

Every Silent Hill Game in Timeline Order

The first four Silent Hill games are considered the “major canon,” with subsequent spin-offs and standalone games making references to the original story, but also creating some contradictions. Some games are directly connected, some loosely reference one another, and others are pretty much entirely their own thing.

Still, we have a rough sense of when these games take place, and it’s up to you how they fit into your understanding of the Otherworld.

1. Silent Hill ƒ

The timeline of Silent Hill games actually starts with one of the most recent installments. Silent Hill ƒ takes us to the town of Ebisugaoka in the 1960s, marking the first time the series was set in Japan.

While some loose connections to the lore of the American Silent Hill are revealed through memos and documents, Silent Hill f’s characters, locations, and “version” of the Otherworld are entirely distinct. You play as Hinako, a teenaged girl living in fear of her own future and family, with a unique approach to save states and endings enhanced by writing from Ryukishi07.

2. Silent Hill: Origins

Silent Hill Origins is a prequel that, despite releasing later, directly connects to the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 as part of the “Alessa Gillespie” arc. It also marks the start of some inconsistencies and, despite its direct connection to the mainline games, is debated in its place as canon.

The story, which by in-game logic takes place around the late 70s, follows the truck driving Travis after a crash brings him to Silent Hill. There, he slowly discovers the cult-driven secrets of the town while reckoning with his own traumatic childhood. It’s specifically the “Good” ending from this game that leads into the original Silent Hill, quite literally paving the way for the character of Cheryl.

3. Silent Hill

The original Silent Hill, naturally, stood on its own two feet. It introduced us to the opaque fog that, while serving a practical purpose around real-time generated environments, became the series’ atmospheric staple.

In the late 80s (if you go by Silent Hill 3 logic), a mysterious car crash leads Harry Mason to the eponymous town of Silent Hill. There, he searches for his now missing young daughter, Cheryl, while encountering the original strange cast of characters and nightmares of the Otherworld.

While the canon on this is a bit iffy, we can now think of it as continuing from the “Good” ending of Silent Hill: Origins. And, of course, paving the way for everything else.

4. Silent Hill 2

Perhaps the best-known game in the series, Silent Hill 2 extends the lore of the town from the first game while introducing new characters and plotlines. And, of course, it gave us the iconic Pyramid Head.

James Sunderland heads to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his deceased wife saying that’s where he can find her. Art director Masahiro Ito has mentioned the game taking place in the late 70s, but documents in later games peg Silent Hill 2 as taking place about a decade after the original. The 90s timeline slot aligns with the dates we see in a number of diaries, and is thus what we’re going with.

Unlike some of the other games on this list, Silent Hill 2 does not necessarily have a “canon” ending that directly leads to future events.

5. Silent Hill: The Arcade

Now we’re getting into spin-off territory. Silent Hill: The Arcade is particularly unique, focusing more on action shooter mechanics than the eerie psychological horror elements the rest of the series is known for. Still, it’s Silent Hill, and specifically a spin-off game that takes place around the same time as Silent Hill 2.

While it’s generally its own thing, Arcade still offers some interesting insight into earlier Silent Hill history, particularly the sinking of the Little Baroness ship back in 1917.

6. Silent Hill: Townfall

Yep, things get weird again. The latest Silent Hill game takes place in 1996 on the fictional island of St. Amelia, which places it firmly in the middle of the original Team Silent games.

Protagonist Simon wakes up at the docks of the island with no memory of how he got there. In typical Silent Hill fashion, he quickly encounters some funky characters and his own variation of the Otherworld. These encounters slowly reveal his and the town’s past, and how exactly they’re connected.

Like Silent Hill f, Townfall has looser connections to the initial cult elements of the series, instead staying connected through themes of guilt. And, of course, the joke ending.

7. Silent Hill 3

While Silent Hill 3 doesn’t technically pick up the story until after Townfall, it most directly follows the events of Silent Hill: Origins and the original game, concluding the aforementioned Alessa arc. Its place on the timeline generally lines up with its own release year in the early 2000s.

The connection here is pretty blatant. You play as Heather, daughter of Harry Mason. The murder of her father (the OG protagonist) prompts Heather to return to Silent Hill 17 years after the first game to learn the true circumstances and implications of her birth.

8. Silent Hill 4: The Room

The last Silent Hill game originally developed by Team Silent carries on from Silent Hill 3 in the early 2000s. One letter in particular clarifies that it’s been a “few years” since the events of the third game.

We’ve since gotten plenty of different iterations of what exactly makes “Silent Hill,” but this was the first game to literally move the game’s location away from the specific town, instead bringing us to Ashfield. There are some character connections to the second and third games, but this one largely stands on its own as you try to help Henry Townsend escape his apartment (and the “Nightmare”).

9. Silent Hill: Homecoming

Homecoming was the first "mainline" Silent Hill game released after Konami disbanded Team Silent. It once again leaves out the actual town of Silent Hill, instead following the protagonist, Alex Shepherd, as he returns to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen.

Homecoming doesn’t have a particularly concrete place on the timeline, but it generally takes place within a few years of The Room. Travis the truck driver makes an appearance, marking a loose connection to Origins, and the game directly addresses the cultish machinations of “The Order” from the original canon.

10. Silent Hill: Downpour

Downpour is pretty standalone in the grand scheme of things. However, it does bring us back to the actual town of Silent Hill through the classic means of a sad man getting into a car (well, prison transport bus) crash.

There’s not an obvious in-game year attached to the story of Downpour, but general fan consensus places it around the release date of the game itself. Despite its titular setting, there aren’t too many references to the other Silent Hill games, but a certain Pyramid Head does make an appearance. In the joke ending, at least.

11. Silent Hill: Book of Memories

Yep, another funky spin-off. This one is particularly distinct, in large part because it’s the one Silent Hill game where you create your own character. It’s also your birthday! And it's a dungeon crawler! Again, a weird one.

In all of its weirdness, though, we do know that Book of Memories takes place very specifically in 2010. Just don’t expect too much insight into the rest of the franchise.

12. Silent Hill: The Short Message

The timeline ends with a recent free-to-play spin-off that followed the cancellation of P.T. and is once again generally its own thing. The Short Message takes place in “modern day” Germany, specifically the small town of Kettenstadt.

Events like the COVID-19 pandemic appear in-game, bringing us into the 2020s. However, the course of the game’s events are heavily influenced by the town’s history back in the 1930s as well as the childhood of its protagonist, Anita.

BONUS: P.T.

Sure, it might have been pulled from the PlayStation Store, but P.T. certainly made some waves when it was first released. P.T., which stands for Playable Teaser, was an early demo for the full game of Silent Hills, a collaboration between Konami, Hideo Kojima, and Guillermo del Toro. Unfortunately, the project’s cancellation means we’ll never truly know how it was going to connect to the rest of the series.

The Future of Silent Hill

Silent Hill fans have had plenty to chew on over the past couple of years with the back-to-back release of Silent Hill ƒ and Silent Hill: Townfall. These were two of the wonkier additions to the full timeline, suggesting Konami’s focus is now on experimenting with what exactly can (and should) be “Silent Hill”.

While Konami has openly discussed annual Silent Hill releases, we have yet to hear any official announcements about future new games in the franchise. We do know that Bloober Team is following up their Silent Hill 2 remake with a remake of the original 1999 game.

In the meantime, studios continue to take cracks at trying to make a decent Silent Hill movie.