It seems there's time for one more Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced leak before the game's big reveal — with part of its trailer now circulating online.

The trailer clip shows our first look at in-game footage, featuring pirate hero Edward Kenway, the legendary Blackbeard, ship combat, and lots of explosions. And already, fans have begun lining up the comparisons with the original Black Flag to see how the two versions of the game may compare.

The short snippet shows Edward in his iconic pose, cutlasses drawn, then a scene on deck with Blackbeard and his telescope. There's a quick shot of Adéwalé mustering the crew to load the Jackdaw's cannons, before Edward takes the wheel and ship-to-ship combat begins. Kenway's original voice actor Matt Ryan can be heard too, following hints from the actor himself that he had returned to the role.

First look at Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced gameplay.

Reveal showcase coming this Thursday.pic.twitter.com/J7RNOA81JC

— KAMI (@Okami13_) April 21, 2026

A shot featuring Edward and Blackbeard is now being pored over by fans, who have noted Resynced's vastly improved character models and lighting. Which, to be honest, you would expect considering that the original Black Flag launched back in 2013.

Assassin's Creed Blackflag - Original vs Remake !! pic.twitter.com/rFthV58eBv

— AMIT ROY (@GamerInVoid) April 21, 2026

"At least graphically Black Flag Resynced looks really faithful," wrote one fan on social media. "I fear I'm getting excited." Said another: "It doesn't seem like a simple remaster either. It looks like we're getting a pretty decent, fun remake."

Yesterday, Ubisoft announced that it would fully reveal Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced this week, following years of leaks. The publisher even poked fun at itself by naming the project as the "worst kept secret" in video games — something that only continues to be true.

The Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: Worldwide Reveal Showcase will be available to watch this Thursday, April 23 at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK time. Tune in then for the full reveal — and all the details here on IGN.

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

Ubisoft has confirmed when it will officially unveil Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, via a dedicated showcase later this week.

The Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: Worldwide Reveal Showcase will be available to watch this Thursday, April 23 at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK time. Ubisoft is even having a bit of fun here, and branding the event as the full reveal for "gaming's worst kept secret."

Assassin's Creed fans will be able to tune in via YouTube at that point and see exactly what Ubisoft has in store for this freshened up version of its beloved pirate game. Already, however, today's announcement offers up one clue: Ubisoft is calling Black Flag Resynced "the iconic solo pirate adventure" — suggesting that the game's multiplayer mode is no longer included.

The project's official name, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, was first spotted last December, when it popped up via a European ratings board listing. But fans have been following the project's development for years, following internal leaks that pointed to the project's existence and hints from the original game's lead actor, who is expected to return.

Previous reports have suggested that Black Flag Resynced will be a substantial remake of the series' beloved piratical entry, with visual and gameplay upgrades that see the game closer in quality to last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows. New story content will reportedly be added to flesh out more of hero Edward Kenway's life, though the game's modern day gameplay sections have apparently been excised — something that many fans aren't happy about.

Tune in later this week for the full reveal — and all the details here on IGN.

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

Microsoft has announced the games coming to Xbox Game Pass during the rest of April 2026, and the early part of May.

As confirmed in a post on Xbox Wire, there are a number of day-one releases coming, including Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard, Kiln, Aphelion, Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era, and Sledding Game. Final Fantasy V rounds out the lineup, arriving on May 5.

Cozy, machine building RPG Little Rocket Lab (Cloud, Console, and PC) and emotional narrative adventure game Stolen Potato (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) both join Game Pass Premium on April 21, having already been on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Also on April 21, Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one launch.

On April 23. Double Fine's Kiln (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one release, which is expected for a Microsoft game. This latest game from the team behind Psychonauts is described as a "pottery power‑fantasy celebrating both creativity and destruction."

Moving on to April 28 and we've got Aphelion (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) as another day one launch across Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. This is a third-person sci-fi adventure developed by Don’t Nod, the studio behind Jusant and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage). The story is rooted in real-world science, created in partnership with the European Space Agency.

A day later, on April 29, gory FPS Trepang2 (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass. Then, on April 30, three games hit Game Pass: Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (Game Preview) (PC) as a day one launch on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, Sledding Game (Game Preview) (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC), also a day one launch on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and TerraTech Legion (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

And finally for April 2026 Wave 2, Final Fantasy V (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) joins Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass on May 5.

Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Wave 2 lineup:

• Little Rocket Lab (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 21, Now with Game Pass Premium; joining Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass
• Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) – April 21, Now with Game Pass Premium; joining Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass
• Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) – April 21, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Kiln (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) – April 23, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Aphelion (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC) – April 28, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Trepang2 (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – April 29, Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass
• Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (Game Preview) (PC) – April 30, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Sledding Game (Game Preview) (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – April 30, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• TerraTech Legion (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – April 30, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Final Fantasy V (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC) – May 5, Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass

As always, a number of games are set to leave Game Pass this month. You can save up to 20% off your purchase if you buy them.

Leaving Xbox Game Pass on April 30:

• Citizen Sleeper (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Creatures of Ava (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Endless Legend 2 (PC)
• Goat Simulator (Cloud and Console)
• Goat Simulator Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Hunt Showdown 1896 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• NHL 24 (EA Play) (Cloud and Console)
• Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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.

There have been hundreds of ways you could fight dragons in Skyrim, but have you ever tried engaging them in the marketplace of ideas? Well, a bizarre mod will finally let you do just that.

This is far from the first wild mod to be made for Skyrim, which has basically built its entire legacy on its modding scene. But, still, every now and then a mod comes out that completely boggles the mind. Skyrim modder BlurbsTV just made like six of them, and turned them all on at once.

As spotted by GamesRadar+, Blurbs asked his Twitch chat to give him a bunch of unhinged ideas for mods, and just made them. Dragon shouts shooting chickens everywhere, a self-replicating Nazeem, randomly spawning Khajiit that make you ragdoll, and of course, the ability to debate dragons on Tamriel geopolitics and memes. Exactly what I want out of a modded install in 2026.

I modded Skyrim so you can only defeat dragons by debating them on the geopolitics of Tamriel.

Unfortunately, Twitch chat forgot the geopolitics part almost immediately... pic.twitter.com/Ad6Grw87ZR

— Blurbs (@Blurbstv) April 15, 2026

The debates with the dragons take the place of combat: a dragon will spawn and then a text-to-speech bot will ask a question. In classic debate style, the Dragonborn gets 20 seconds to respond, with the dragon getting time to issue a rebuttal. The catch is that chat decides who won the debate, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

In the clip, there was one dragon debate that Blurbs was able to actually win, which involved a question about banning the internet due to Stormcloak propaganda. But, once the debate was over he trips over a randomly spawned Khajiit and flies off the side of a cliff. Incredible.

Unfortunately, none of these mods are available on Nexus Mods or the Steam Workshop, so you can't download them yourself, but BlurbsTV's video is absolutely worth watching for a laugh. If for nothing else, it'll remind you just how weird Skyrim can still get, 15 years and more than a dozen releases later.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

In March, Ubisoft released the first piece of concept art for Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, confirming the existence of the remake of the beloved pirate installment of the series, and today we have a release date, July 9. The date was reported by Insider Gaming but hasn't been confirmed by Ubisoft as yet.

In a (now deleted) March blog post from Ubisoft's Jean Guesdon, Head of Content did hint at the rumors of the remake. "Speculation around Assassin's Creed is not new, but it's worth repeating: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." Well, except in this case, some whispers have a little more wind in their sails. Keep your spyglass on the horizon. 🦜"

The project's official name, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, was seen in December, when it popped up via a European PEGI ratings board listing. That sighting followed a few hints from the original game's lead actor.

"Players can be excited about some remakes,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in June 2024, “which will allow us to revisit some of the games we've created in the past and modernize them; there are worlds in some of our older Assassin's Creed games that are still extremely rich.”

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

Marty O'Donnell, the former video game composer known for his work on Halo and Destiny, has seen his latest bid for Congress endorsed by Donald Trump.

Writing on X/Twitter last night, O'Donnell said he was "honored" to have Trump's support, following a social media post by the U.S. president which described the ex-Bungie composer as an "America First Patriot."

O'Donnell's renewed bid to enter politics follows a failed attempt at the same Congressional seat back in 2024, which ended with him landing fourth place in its Republican primary. Long known for his conservative views, O'Donnell previously seemed dissatisfied with Trump, who he reportedly labelled as an "idiot" in a Twitter post back in 2016 and said he "loath[ed]" in 2017.

"I appreciate the trust that the President has put in me and look forward to working with him in Congress to continue delivering for working families and keeping our nation safe," O'Donnell wrote now, confirming that with Trump's support he would continue his plan to try and unseat Nevada's 3rd Congressional District Democrat incumbent Susie Lee.

"Marty O'Donnell is a World-Class Composer and Entrepreneur," Trump declared yesterday. "As your next Congressman, Marty will fight tirelessly to Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Ensure LAW AND ORDER, Strengthen our Brave Military/Veterans, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment."

"The stakes this midterm could not be higher," O'Donnell continued. "That's why when I started running, I promised I would drop out unless President Trump supported me so that Republicans could avoid wasting resources on a needless primary.

Much like President Trump, I didn’t come from the world of politics. I spent my entire career in the business world. I had the honor of working with some incredible people and composing music for some of the greatest video games of all time."

Collaborating with Michael Salvatori, O'Donnell composed the score of numerous Bungie games, from 1997's Myth to the classic sounds of Halo: Combat Evolved, in a lengthy tenure that ended with his work for 2014's Destiny.

2014 also saw O'Donnell fired from Bungie, resulting in a legal tussle over witheld pay. Bungie later initiated its own legal dispute with O'Donnell in 2021, after the composer uploaded unreleased Destiny music to YouTube.

Recent years have seen O'Donnell demonstrate an increasing interest in politics, after a lengthy period spent establishing his own game development studio, Highwire Games, that worked on VR title Golem back in 2019, and controversial shooter Six Days in Fallujah, which launched in early access form in 2023. O'Donnell's Halo themes will also be heard again later this year with the launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved, which will bring Master Chief's adventures to Xbox, PC and PlayStation.

Photo by Paul Conrad/WireImage.

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

Rockstar Games hackers ShinyHunters released the stolen data early, revealing revenue for GTA Online and Red Dead Online. But, crucially, no GTA 6 information appears to have leaked online.

The stolen data was viewed by GTA Forums user Lexiture and reported on by Kotaku. It shows GTA Online allegedly generates much more money than Red Dead Online, which doesn't come as a big surprise given the difference in support Rockstar gives each live service. It also shows that PS5 is the platform with the most GTA Online players and revenue, with PC lagging behind even the last generation of consoles on both counts.

With the Rockstar leaks circulating, I put this together to illustrate the weekly spending in GTA Online on a platform basis.

The data speaks for itself.

Per data from GTA Forums, PS5 generates more than half weekly GTA Online bookings, with $4.486M earned per week. pic.twitter.com/lBdqCZBc1B

— Derek Strickland (@DeekeTweak) April 13, 2026

GTA 6 is planned for release this November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only.

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.

Grand Theft Auto 5 actor Jay Klaitz has shared that he "wouldn’t be surprised" if the satire in Grand Theft Auto 6 doesn’t hit as hard because of "what we see happening in the real world."

The performer behind heist mastermind Lester Crest gave his thoughts on the next Rockstar Games title in an interview with Eldorado. When asked about how GTA can approach humor given the state of the world, Klaitz said he could see its impact not hitting quite the same as many may expect.

"Don’t get me wrong. It’s still f**king GTA," he clarified. "It’s going to be massive. People will lose their shit. It’s going to be huge, obviously. But it’s a different world to the one 13 years ago when the last one came out. I mean, it's a very different world than it was even a year ago."

The tone Rockstar crafted through each GTA game helped transform it into the juggernaut it is today. In IGN’s own 10/10 review of GTA 5, we called attention to how it "drips satire" by ripping into "the Millennial generation, celebrities, the far right, the far left, the middle class, the media," and everything in between.

That, however, was in 2013, and as long as everything goes according to plan, GTA 6 is set to launch November 16, 2026. Klaitz refrained from speaking too directly about what has changed in the more than a decade since the launch of the last mainline game, and admitted that there is still plenty to dig into.

"What seemed so far-fetched and insane just a short while ago now feels like just another day, so maybe GTA 6 can't make that same splash as previous games. That said, I don’t know. Maybe that’s bulls**t. I know there will be plenty of commentary and satire woven into it. There’s a lot of the Florida Man stuff and lots of territory like that still to cover.

"The political spotlight often veers over toward Florida, and maybe for that reason, it'll still sink its hooks into people, but what we see happening in the real world is definitely going to make it harder for a GTA game to work those angles."

While some hope to see Rockstar stick the landing with GTA 6, others are a bit more concerned with a third-party data breach that took place last week. Despite ransom demands, the company has assured players that the “incident has no impact on our organization or our players.”

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

Former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell has explained how the developer eventually began to believe workplace crunch was necessary to make games like The Last of Us at its "level."

Russell left the Sony studio in 2015 after eight years of working on games like The Last of Us and Uncharted, and now, he’s opened up about his experiences in an interview with Kiwi Talkz. One talking point to have emerged from the conversation revolved around the company’s long history with crunch, which he said, "from Uncharted 1, only got worse."

He clarified that Naughty Dog leadership "tried to fix it" at some point in the early 2010s by implementing guidelines that kept employees from working past midnight. However, he said, "When push came to shove, that midnight rule went right out the window."

After The Last Of Us shipped, Naughty Dog made the admission that crunch is a requirement to make games at the level they make them and they would no longer even attempt to shy away from it.

That's why crunch has progressively gotten worse with every project since and that's why… pic.twitter.com/Ge8TVdwcQv

— Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly (@kiwitalkz) April 13, 2026

"Every meeting after that was always like, 'Hey, what are we going to do to try and mitigate crunch? How are we going to make this better?'" Russell said. "And eventually it was just an admission in the meeting. It was like, 'Well, we’ve just come to realize this is what it takes to make games at our level, and we understand, if you don’t want to do that, that’s fine. We understand. We’ll write you a great letter of recommendation.’ That was the answer."

He added: "The company runs the way it wants to run. You either want to be a part of it, or you don’t. They’re not technically breaking any laws, and it’s not like a requirement, it is a 'Hey, we really could use your help, please come here,’ and you’re incentivized to do it because your bonuses will be bigger."

Russell also spoke about the retention rate at Naughty Dog, recalling that "some people left" during the development of Uncharted 4, and then, around the time of The Last of Us Part 2, “they really started leaving." The timing of Russell’s departure places him in the first camp, with the fourth mainline Nathan Drake game having launched the following year in 2016.

Elsewhere in the interview, he said the part of the reason for his exit was that he "didn’t see a promotable future," but crunch culture at Naughty Dog also had its role to play, too. Some examples of the latter he shared included an increase in long workdays and weekend workdays, sometimes totaling in "multiple months of seven-day weeks" and 12-to-14-hour days.

"We had flex hours, where it's like, you had to be between this time and this time, minimum, so those are core hours so people can overlap, and then you manage that however you need to. The problem is crunch comes in, and then it's like, all bets are off," Russell said. "On The Last of Us, I had to drastically cut my crunch time down. I still put in a lot, right? I ramped it up over time, over the last year and a half or so, of the project."

Naughty Dog has made headlines multiple times in the last few months as players eagerly await its highly anticipated big-budget sci-fi adventure, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The excitement surrounding the project is something Sony is all too aware of, with a Bloomberg report sharing late last year that the company had required employees at the game studio to work a minimum of eight extra hours per week in order to meet an internal deadline.

Meanwhile, rumors that Naughty Dog may be working on The Last of Us Part 3 started swirling following a potential tease late last month. Another post from a member of the team has some fans thinking an Uncharted 5 may be on the way, too.

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

UPDATE: Microsoft has confirmed plans to debut Metro 2039 as part of an Xbox First Look showcase with developer 4A Games and publisher Deep Silver.

"Xbox has always been a home for the franchise, and we’re honored to continue that relationship by bringing you a first look at this next exciting chapter," said Will Fulton, Xbox Wire Editor, in a post on Xbox Wire.

Xbox First Look: Metro 2039 is set for Thursday, April 16, at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK.

ORIGINAL STORY: A brand new Metro game is reportedly set to be revealed this week as part of a so-far unannounced Microsoft Xbox showcase.

NateTheHate, who has a number of accurate leaks, including the correct dates of Nintendo Directs, to their name, took to social media to say the new Metro game is called Metro 2039, and it will be announced as part of a Microsoft show set for April 16. It’s unclear at this stage what type of show Microsoft has up its sleeve, or whether it will also include first-party Xbox game news. There’s also a rumor that Sony plans a State of Play showcase for this week, although that’s unconfirmed for now.

News of a new Metro game shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given developer 4A Games has talked about working on it in the past. But the name of the game is new, as is significant gameplay footage from a previous version of the game, which leaked over the weekend.

The subterranean survival-horror Metro video game franchise, which is based on Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky's post-apocalyptic book series, so far includes Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, and Metro Exodus. VR game Metro Awakening came out in 2024. Metro Exodus came out in 2019, which means it’s been seven years since the last mainline entry in the franchise.

IGN’s Metro Exodus review returned an 8.5/10. We said: “Metro Exodus brings its survival horror to the surface without sacrificing any of the series’ signature tension.”

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.

EA is set to shut down servers for BioWare's beloved Dragon Age: Inquisition later this month on PlayStation 3.

A message on EA's service update website shows that Inquisition's PS3 servers will go dark on April 28, more than 11 years on from the game's 2014 arrival. However, it looks like servers will remain online (for now) on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox.

While it's sad to see any older game get its functionality depreciated, it's perhaps surprising that Inquisition's PS3 multiplayer mode lasted this long — through two console generations, and the arrival (and shutdown) of BioWare's big live-service attempt Anthem.

Multiplayer, of course, was not the main focus of Inquisition — BioWare's sprawling fantasy RPG threequel that remains the company's best-selling game. Fans look back on Inquisition now as the game where we met our favorite elven frenemy Solas, got horny with Iron Bull, and stayed too long in the Hinterlands.

However, following the success of Mass Effect 3's own multiplayer portion, BioWare was keen to experiment with a similar offering in Dragon Age. Another PVE affair where players used various races and classes to tackle enemies from the game's campaign, the mode was supported for a little while with new maps and loadouts. Alas, the idea never took off as Mass Effect's own multiplayer offering had — and it didn't return at all for Dragon Age: The Veilguard (which, after a spell as a live-service game, ultimately launched as fully single-player).

Is BioWare done with multiplayer gaming for good, especially after the failure of Anthem? While the company is known to be working on Mass Effect 5 (release date: still unknown) there has been no mention made of another multiplayer offering there. Indeed, after EA's recent cuts to slim down the studio, anything not critical to ensuring the Mass Effect franchise's future seems unlikely to come into fruition.

Speaking of Mass Effect, according to a report earlier this month, Amazon's Mass Effect TV series is now on "the verge" of a series order, although the boss of Amazon TV has allegedly requested rewrites to make it "more appealing to non-gamers."

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

We’re still talking about Skyrim in 2026. While Bethesda continues (or maybe even starts) to chug along on Elder Scrolls 6, I am one of many who find themselves going back to the 2011 classic. Or, at the very least, still watching video essays about it.

Bethesda quickly caught on to the power of its own lore, releasing a series of hardcover ‘Skyrim Library’ books between 2015 and 2017. The full set of all three volumes normally costs $110, but a new Amazon deal has dropped that price by 45%, down to just $68.

Skyrim Library Drops to Lowest Price This Year

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed star Sam Witwer says he would be “very happy” to shave his head if Lucasfilm were to ever ask him to return as Starkiller.

The actor, who is also known for portraying many versions of Darth Maul in the galaxy far, far away, touched on his interest in returning as the powerful Force user during an interview with Polygon. Not only does he say he’d love to spend more time wielding his lightsaber, but he’d be up for the hairstyle change that would come with it, too.

“I would shave my head in an instant. Very happy to do so,” Witwer said. “I love that character, and he's really the reason I'm here.”

Starkiller, whose real name is Galen Marek, first appeared in The Force Unleashed for the Wii, DS, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in 2008 and is known as the secret apprentice of Darth Vader. Originally born under the wing of the Jedi order, he’s eventually taken by the infamous Sith Lord and trained to be a powerful tool for the Empire.

Following the first release and its 2010 sequel, Starkiller falls into the “Legends” category of Star Wars. It means that, although the character, as well as other The Force Unleashed characters like Juno Eclipse and Proxy, isn’t currently considered canon, a reintroduction isn’t exactly off the table.

Witwer is a well-known Star Wars fan who has also gone on to voice Emperor Palpatine and other minor characters across the series’ wide universe. Aside from Starkiller, most fans will probably recognize him as the voice of Darth Maul in a variety of spinoffs, including Solo: A Star Wars Story and the recently released Maul – Shadow Lord. However, it’s his role in The Force Unleashed that kicked off his Star Wars journey, and it’s the part he may be most interested in returning to.

In the past, Witwer has teased that his beloved secret apprentice nearly appeared in the animated Rebels spinoff show, though plans for his surprise return ultimately never materialized. For now, Disney has shown no sign of official plans to bring Starkiller back in a video game or even a live-action project. While we wait to see if the star may reprise his role as the character that started his Star Wars journey, you can read our original 7.3/10 The Force Unleashed review.

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

Hollywood actors keep bringing up a potential Red Dead Redemption movie and saying they would love to be in it. After Jack Black revealed he’d love to star in a Red Dead Redemption movie, despite the fact he doesn’t think Rockstar would ever greenlight it, Karl Urban has thrown his hat into the ring.

Urban, star of The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Boys, Dredd and so much more, even suggested the character he’d love to play: John Marston.

In an interview with Square Mile, Urban was asked if there were any other video game adaptations he’d love to star in, having played Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2.

“Red Dead Redemption is one of my favourites,” he replied. “Red Dead is a fantastic game. It’s interesting because I didn’t really have too much of an opportunity to get that heavily invested in the gaming culture. Although I absolutely enjoy the opportunity to indulge in that kind of escapism, when gaming consoles came out in 1994, I was an unemployed actor living in Sydney. I couldn’t afford those consoles.

“By the time I could, I was so busy working on various projects around the world that I was never able to get into it. From time to time, when I did get the rare opportunity, Red Dead was certainly one of the games that spoke to me.”

Then, Urban delivered the kicker: “I mean, come on, John Marston! I’d love to play that character.”

John Marston, for the uninitiated, is the protagonist of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, and a secondary protagonist of its sequel, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2. He’s a former outlaw trying to escape his violent past and protect his family while being forced by federal agents to hunt down his former Van der Linde gang members.

While Urban does seem perfect for the role, it seems unlikely he’ll ever get the chance to realize this particular dream. Rockstar and parent company Take-Two have shown no indication of allowing Hollywood anywhere near their prized properties, and that includes Grand Theft Auto. In 2024, Rockstar Games co-founder and former head writer Dan Houser said a Grand Theft Auto movie "never made sense,” insisting it would have been a "huge risk" considering the reputation of the GTA brand.

"Why would we do this?," Houser and the other Rockstar leads asked the film executives. "What you've described is you making a movie and us having no control and taking a huge risk, that we’re going to end up paying for with something that belongs to us."

"They thought we’d be blinded by the lights and that just wasn't the case. We had what we considered to be multi billion dollar IP, and the economics never made sense. The risk never made sense. In those days, the perception was that games made poor-quality movies."

Photo by Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Sonic’s official 35th anniversary doesn’t land until June, but Sega is already treating 2026 like one long victory lap for the blue blur - dubbed as "Forever Fast" celebrations.

That means early deals, and plenty of them. Amazon has kicked things off with a genuinely massive sale across Sonic the Hedgehog games, 4K Blu-rays, and comics.

There’s a lot here, maybe too much, and not all of it is worth your time. So instead of throwing everything at you, here’s a quick run-through of the deals that actually matter, plus the ones I’d personally spend money on.

Listen, I’m not pretending to be objective here. I love Sonic. Played everything, stuck with it through the rough years, and still show up every time. It’s one of those series that’s just been a constant for me.

I am absolutely giving you my personal recommendations, with expert opinion on prices, but also, this is purely a sale for the Sonic fans like myself.

For starters, I wanted to highlight a couple of standout deals over on Woot. It’s basically Amazon’s scrappier sibling: same account, same Prime perks, but consistently better when it comes to properly steep discounts. If there’s a weirdly good deal floating around, there’s a decent chance it’s hiding there.

The standout is on Sonic X Shadow Generations for just $12.99 on PS5, Switch, and Xbox - undeniably a massive bargain. I love this game so much, and the Shadow portion is some of the best "Sonic" gameplay I've ever had the joy to experience. Play it!

The other highlight at Woot is the latest, and critically acclaimed, game - Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. It's just $29.99 for Nintendo Switch, and you can upgrade that to the Switch 2 version for just $10 as well!

But let's take a look at what else is up for grabs as well. This time, directly from Amazon, you can save big on all three of the live-action Sonic films, with my favorite deal being on the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Steelbook 4K Blu-ray, which is now just $17.14 (down from $25.99).

There's also Sonic 3 for $19.99, alongside the OG film for $12.59 on 4K, or the Limited Collector's Edition on Blu-ray for $9.09. That also includes the exclusive mini posters for the film, alongside physical copies on Blu-ray and DVD, and a code to download the film digitally.

To finish up my highlights, I wanted to call out the discounts on the Sonic the Hedgehog (2018-) IDW collection of comics, with volume 1-3 collection currently down to just $26.92.

The hardcover collections are a little pricier, but also experiencing hefty discounts right now as well. It's worth noting that these hardcover options are titled as "Volumes" but they shouldn't be confused with the "Volumes" that they are also encompassing.

For example Vol. 1 of the IDW Collection collects the first 12 issues from volumes 1-3 (Fallout, The Fate of Dr. Eggman, and Battle For Angel Island), while Vol. 2 of the collects issues #13–20 from volumes 4 and 5 (Infection and Crisis City), and so on.

Sonic the Hedgehog, Vol. 21: Reprise is also up for preorder with a small discount, currently available for $15.83 and releasing later this month on April 21 as one of the biggest comics of the year so far. Vol. 20 released in December last year, and is also discounted at Amazon right now, down to $13.93.

Robert Anderson is IGN's Senior Commerce Editor and resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.

A brand new free-to-play Borderlands game has suddenly launched today on iPhone, and you'd be forgiven for not knowing it was due for release.

The game was quietly published today by mobile giant Zynga, though is developed by British studio NaturalMotion, which previously worked on Star Wars: Hunters.

Right now, Borderlands Mobile currently exists on the App Store as part of a "limited-time test", according to a statement about the game — something that also reveals Borderlands creator Gearbox was involved simply in an advisory role.

"We are always exploring ways to introduce Borderlands to new audiences," a spokesperson for Zynga said in a statement passed to IGN. "Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio is currently conducting a limited-time test for an untitled Borderlands mobile project, with Gearbox providing creative guidance on the franchise's design, history, and lore. We hope that players enjoy this new Borderlands experience and look forward to their feedback."

Described as a free-to-play "epic looter shooter", Borderlands Mobile is currently only available on iPhone (there's no Android version, yet) and only in the US. We've tried accessing the game from elsewhere, but simply get an error message stating that it's unavailable in the region.

"Create Mayhem YOUR way!" reads an official blurb. "Loot wild weapons and blast enemies in this mobile Borderlands experience. Join other Vault Hunters in an ever-evolving universe to fight greedy corporations and open legendary Vaults. This action-packed looter shooter brings the signature chaos, art style, and gun-slinging adventure to mobile for the first time!

"Hunt down legendary loot drops and power up your abilities to customize the way you play," the blurb continues. "Use everything from pistols to rocket launchers to make your enemies wish they never crossed your path! Master devastating action gameplay that's been fully optimized for mobile. Fight skags, bandits, and bosses as you battle through a variety of exciting mission types, including Campaign Missions, Tower of Terror, and Circle of Slaughter."

Right now, there's little else announced about the game. There's no trailer, and curiously no mention of its existence at all from any of Borderlands' official social media accounts, which seem busy posting about Borderlands 4 updates instead. After a turbulent first six months, it just got its first big DLC, and Gearbox has high hopes it'll be enough to draw back fans.

In the meantime, if you give Borderlands Mobile a go, let us know what you think.

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

In a new interview, development veteran and Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey (Dead Space, Call of Duty: WWII) has detailed how a decision on a development partner to handle the PC port of 2002’s 007 Nightfire could have had huge ramifications on the actual existence of the Call of Duty franchise as we know it today. Condrey discussed the matter with writer Cade Onder during the production of a documentary the latter has produced on the making of 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Back around the early 2000s, Condrey spent eight years working at EA on a number of James Bond games – as a producer on The World Is Not Enough, Agent Under Fire, and Nightfire, and later in a development director role on Everything or Nothing and From Russia With Love.

“GoldenEye sits on this pedestal, as you know, right?” Condrey began. “Arguably one of the greatest, most transcendent shooters on console. And so we were working on the sequel to that, The World Is Not Enough, and from there we continued to build out experiences.

“Eventually in the series order we were working on a title called Nightfire. We were looking for a PC developer. Now this would’ve been 2001, 2002. We were shopping the game for PC developers who could come in and take our console game – we were focussed on consoles at that time – and deliver a PC version. And there were several interesting PC developers we talked to; one of them happened to be Vince [Zampella] and Jason [West].”

At this time, Zampella and West were part of Oklahoma-based developer 2015, Inc., the studio behind 2002’s highly esteemed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, published by EA.

“They presented us 2015,” said Condrey. “They were shopping for their next gig; they needed funding. They pitched to do [007 Nightfire] PC. I still have Vince’s card, God rest his soul.”

However, EA ultimately partnered with Gearbox to handle the PC version of 007 Nightfire, which was received very poorly and went on to earn an unenviable reputation as an infamously terrible PC port. Despite the significant critical and commercial success of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, EA opted to bring the Medal of Honor franchise in-house and ended its relationship with 2015, Inc. Resultingly, a number of key personnel from 2015, Inc. – including Zampella and West – accepted a deal from Activision that led to the founding of Infinity Ward and the establishment of the Call of Duty series. Had 2015, Inc. been hired to take on the 007 Nightfire port at that time, Condrey is uncertain that things would have played out the same way.

“[2015, Inc.] wanted the game,” he said. “They wanted the game, and we went with a different PC developer. And you want to talk about a weird multiverse… we met with them, walked through the process, did the due diligence; had we hired Vince and Jason and 2015 to do James Bond PC, who knows what? That’s a weird moment.”

Condrey would go on to leave EA in the wake of his work on the original Dead Space, and in November 2009 he founded Sledgehammer Games with his former Visceral Games colleague Glen Schofield. Sledgehammer Games would later partner with Infinity Ward for 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

“It’s kind of a funny story of just all the creative decisions and business decisions that led to them starting Call of Duty and, of course, us joining with them on MW3,” said Condrey.

GTA 5 has three playable characters. Nice one. Lego City Undercover has over 300. Look, my tongue is firmly within my cheek here; I don’t actually believe that Rockstar’s much-heralded efforts were surpassed by this once Wii U exclusive Lego game that came out just months before Michael, Franklin, and Trevor’s story. But while Undercover is by no means a masterpiece, there are some areas where it genuinely shows ambition beyond Rockstar’s. Please stick with me. I haven’t gone mad.

Yes, we’re all clinging on through this multifaceted apocalyptic present to make it to GTA 6, and you’ll no doubt have several recommendations about what to play in its place over the months preceding its launch. Red Dead 2 is my favourite game ever, but that’s an obvious one. The Saints Row games are fun, but we’ve already got a new Scary Movie coming this year if you want to revisit that puerile place in time. Sleeping Dogs will forever be the hipster pick thanks to its stylish Hong Kong action, but have you played it recently? It’s fine. That’s why I come here bearing the gift of Lego City Undercover — a good, if not quite great, take on the open-world city genre, but one that was forgotten all too quickly.

GTA 4’s Four Leaf Clover, you are not going to get here, with Rockstar’s trademark sprawling, cinematic missions not part of Undercover’s offering. Missions instead are limited in scope, with chases short and rarely taking advantage of the scope of the larger city map, instead taking place in small puzzle-filled pocketed environments outside of the free-roam area. The same limits can be seen in combat, which almost entirely consists of hammering down the attack button and putting plastic fist to face. In that regard, though, it's very similar to a Rockstar game; Let’s face it, you’re not playing GTA for its rudimentary cover-based gunplay, but for those high-stakes set-piece events that you rarely find elsewhere.

Whether it’s Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead, the very first gunfight or car chase will ultimately feel almost identical to its first, albeit with slightly more exotic weaponry. What you will discover in Lego City, though, is greater systemic progression when it comes to problem-solving than that found in any Rockstar game. Abilities unlocked throughout the story mode can then be taken advantage of when exploring the open world, providing the key to unlock its many secrets. This approach gives you a genuine reason to switch up which minifig you’re playing as, since each harbours its own unique skill.

GTA 5 may have had three protagonists, but outside of each having their own story missions, there was little reason to switch between them. Sure, they each had special abilities, such as Franklin slowing down time while driving, but those skills weren’t effectively integrated into the gameplay. Lego City Undercover, meanwhile, makes great use of characterful, unique abilities which are directly tied to problems and objectives. There are some genuinely nifty detective-like quirks, such as scanning heat signatures in a surrounding area when searching for suspects. Could the bank-robbing clown be the orange silhouette sporting an oversized curly wig hiding in a shed? Probably. In that sense, its crime-stopping borrows as much from L.A. Noire as it does GTA, just without the often unintentionally hilarious interrogation sequences where you can falsely accuse foreign diplomats of major offences involving minors. That wouldn’t quite fit the happy-go-lucky Lego mould, I guess.

Undercover, just like every other entry in TT Games’ library, is made for the whole family to enjoy, and so takes that rock-solid Rockstar open world base and tweaks it with every age of player in mind. There’s a charm to every interaction, such as a film noir-ish, jazzy double bass being plucked while you sweep an area for footprints using a UV light. Nearby chattering NPCs, meanwhile, provide a PG version of what you may hear on a Los Santos street corner. In great Lego fashion, each item you collide with along the city’s roads is packed full of studs, just like the backstage area of a Magic Mike show.

With hundreds of golden bricks, disguises, and vehicles to unlock across its map, the collecting in Lego City Undercover seemingly never ends. It’s something GTA has never quite cracked. Yes, some of Rockstar’s games have had their list of collectibles, such as Liberty City’s horde of lost pigeons, but they always feel like stumbled-upon surprises, rather than rewards hidden behind puzzles in the style that the Batman Arkham games kicked off with their Riddler trophies. Perhaps this makes the city feel a little too artificial for Rockstar’s tastes, but Lego City’s embracing of all things plastic means its metropolis is stacked full of things for its 300 minifigs to find.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Lego Games. Indeed, Undercover’s precursor, the Lego Island series, formed many of my earliest gaming memories, as pizza boy Pepper Roni tussled with The Brickster in very limited open worlds. Lego City Undercover feels like the natural evolution of those turn-of-the-century adventures; a grown-up version of that idea — not necessarily tone-wise, but certainly mechanically. It was also an opportunity for developer TT Games to tell a story and build a world outside of established licenses, like Star Wars, Marvel, or Harry Potter, and while I’m not going to pretend Undercover is a crime opus akin to GTA's finest, its solid original story does help make it a genuinely legitimate GTA clone for all ages. Even its titular metropolis is a mishmash of American cities such as New York and San Francisco — something Rockstar has been doing for decades with Grand Theft Auto.

Beyond the fact that this is a Lego game we’re talking about, there are reasons why Undercover isn’t typically discussed alongside more enduring open-world crime games. Lego City Undercover came out in the Spring prior to GTA 5’s release, and it shows. 13 years on, it's perhaps easy to forget just how far forward Rockstar’s masterpiece pushed the open-world genre. Instead, it would be far fairer to compare this plastic city to earlier Grand Theft Autos such as the PS2’s Vice City and San Andreas, and 2008’s GTA 4. In fact, it commits many of the same crimes as those now somewhat dated cities do. Perhaps the most egregious is the fact that the whole of its map isn’t open from the get-go, gated off until certain events in its story occur in an effort to prevent you from seeing all of its many locations straight away. It’s somewhat frustrating, especially, I can imagine, if you’ve got a younger child who just wants to drive around it all without worrying about story. Thankfully, this approach is something open-world games have almost entirely put behind them in the years since.

Something more positive Undercover takes from the 2000s “3D universe” era of GTA games is their larger-than-life tone, which, while remaining somewhat intact across 4 and 5, was much less nuanced back in the day, resulting in their caricature-led stories. Its crime tale crucially puts you on the other side of the law, but is similarly cartoonish, playing out like a Lord and Miller take on The Departed as performed by the cast of Anchorman. It goes big on laughs while not really attempting to pull any other emotion out of you, which is no bad thing at all. Whereas Rockstar opts for classy homage, TT Games go for whole-hearted plastic parody: less satire, more spoof. That difference in comedic values perhaps most emphasises the difference in the games, with GTA the memorable cinematic experience you’d sit down to watch with popcorn, and Undercover feeling more like the snackable popcorn itself: sweet and fun, but with no real nutritional benefit outside of the moment.

Undercover first came out just six months prior to Marvel Super Heroes, which I’d argue approaches its open-world even better, but otherwise doesn’t relate to GTA anywhere near as much, so we’ll park it to one side here. It was a real golden age for Lego Games, though, and one where it really felt like TT Games had cracked the formula as to how to pack open worlds with collectibles and opportunity, while also making getting around them a joy in itself, whether it be via police-issued grapple hooks or superheroic flight. It’s something I’m hoping the imminent Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight can recapture in its Gotham setting. Would I be so brave and bold as to suggest that it could eclipse GTA 6 this year? No, the only way that could realistically happen is if the latter doesn’t actually hit its November date.

Do I honestly think Lego City Undercover is better than any modern GTA game? No — there’s a pure, undeniable, blockbuster sense of cinema to Rockstar’s creations that’s hard to resist, especially in the way they tell their stories. Would I actually prefer to play it in 2026 over Vice City? Maybe. It’s certainly more ambitious when it comes to mission design. So, could GTA 6 learn from Lego City Undercover’s approach to packing each playable character with unique skills that unlock different aspects of its world, improving the quality of its collectibles, or maybe even introducing co-op? I’d be surprised, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see it. Imagine if Lucia were an explosives expert, but Jason specialises in safecracking, and depending on who you pick to play as on a certain mission, it dictates the events of each.

More than anything, I just want to let you know about this game that didn’t get quite the amount of love it deserved when it first arrived 13 years ago. If you need any more convincing, you can check out our fully deserved 8/10 review it got at release. It’s now on your radar in case it passed you by. Embrace the brick. Thank me later.

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

Microsoft has confirmed the batch of games leaving Xbox Game Pass this month, and among them is Grand Theft Auto 5.

As revealed on the Xbox PC app, Rockstar’s GTA 5 Enhanced and GTA 5 Legacy leave Game Pass on April 15, 2026. The timing here makes sense; GTA 5’s removal comes a year after the game returned to Game Pass, on April 15, 2025, with GTA 5 Enhanced playable via PC Game Pass. So it looks like Microsoft snapped up GTA 5 for Game Pass in a 12-month deal. But GTA 5 isn’t the only game leaving Game Pass this month.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass in April 2026:

• GTA 5
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
• Terra Invicta
• My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery
• Ashen

GTA 5 leaves Xbox Game Pass ahead of a ramp up in GTA 6 marketing, which Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has indicated kicks off this summer. GTA 6 currently has a November 19, 2026 release date for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only — there’s still no PC version announced. The price of GTA 6 remains a mystery, with some expecting Rockstar to charge up to $100 for the game, although there's no evidence either way right now. One thing Zelnick has been clear on, however, is denying rumors that GTA 6 will be a digital-only release upon its initial launch. Recently, PlayStation gamers began fooling their friends by adding GTA 6 to their Recently Played list.

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.