At the turn of the new year, on January 1, LEGO released a big new Stranger Things set that synced up nicely with the fifth and final season of the show. It’s the Creel House, the large and imposing Gothic manor that played a pivotal role in the endgame. The set is comprised of 2,593 pices and includes 13 minifigures, along with Steve’s car, Will’s bike, and the WSQK radio van. Unfortunately, LEGO Stranger Things: The Creel House sold out almost immediately after it became available and has been unable to purchase – untili now (see it at the LEGO Store).

LEGO Icons - Stranger Things: The Creel House

LEGO Minifigures Included

Buy this set, and you’ll also get 13 minifigures based on characters from the show.

• Will
• Mike
• Lucas
• Dustin
• Vecna
• Mr. Whatsit
• Holly
• Steve
• Nancy
• Robin
• Jonathan
• Max
• Eleven

This isn’t the first collab between LEGO and Stranger Things. LEGO has released a number of BrickHeadz sets of the characters, including a Demogorgon, plus an awesome (but now sadly retired) set called The Upside Down.

And if you're wondering what LEGO sets are scheduled to come out soon, you have plenty to look forward to. There's a new play system called LEGO Smart Play, which is getting eight Smart Play Star Wars sets on March 1. Also out that day are sets based on the upcoming video game LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. And just two days earlier, on February 27, we'll get the first LEGO Pokémon sets. And for Lord of the Rings fans, an awesome display build of Sauron's Helmet is also coming soon.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

A sizable Nintendo Direct is expected next month — and potentially as soon as next week, according to one report.

Word of a major announcement showcase comes hot on the heels of two other, smaller Nintendo Direct broadcasts dedicated to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (held last weekend) and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (due tomorrow, January 29).

Aside from those, Nintendo is still to lay out the majority of its 2026 Switch 2 release slate — something fans now expect to find out sooner rather than later. Indeed, noted Nintendo leaker NatetheHate, who correctly reported the Switch 2's big reveal date last year, has leant his weight behind the Direct landing next week, likely on Thursday, February 5.

Speak this week via his podcast, the leaker said he expected this year to feature a swathe of smaller Nintendo IPs, before the long-awaited next 3D Mario platformer finally ground pounds onto Switch 2 in time for the holidays.

This is something that is also widely expected by fans, not least because it has been almost nine years since Switch blockbuster Super Mario Odyssey, but also because Nintendo's 3D Mario team has been conspicuously quiet ever since. While some veterans did assist with Donkey Kong Bananza, many did not — including the company's usual Mario producer Yoshiaki Koizumi.

Will we see a first glimpse of Nintendo's big Mario game next month? So far, no leaker has made that claim. Still, there's a feeling among fans that 2026 will be when it finally debuts, to give the Switch 2 a boost as it enters its sophomore year.

Another major boost expected this holiday will be the widely-anticipated next-generation of Pokémon games, details of which were spilled online last year via hacked information taken from the servers of developer Game Freak. Like Mario, fans expect these to also arrive later in 2026 — which is the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise.

One final expectation among fans touched on by NatetheHate is for Nintendo to discuss more of its plans for Mario Kart World, the Switch 2 launch title it charged $80 for which landed to solid if not spectacular reviews. Many fans have criticized the game's empty open world, and Nintendo has recently begun tweaking parts of it, but there is also an assumption that Nintendo will add major new content to the title over time.

Will this arrive in the form of paid DLC, as with Mario Kart 8? It's possible. But NatetheHate makes the point that pushing the game's total buy-in closer to $100 may ultimately prove unpalatable to Nintendo fans, particularly after many feel the base game is still yet to justify its $80 asking price.

Here's hoping we don't have too much longer to wait until Nintendo does nail down its next major Direct date. Pokémon's big announcement show, meanwhile, is now an annual event taking place on the franchise's anniversary — February 27.

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

If it were up to me, I’d watch movies and play games exclusively on a projector. It not only turns any free wall into a cinema-grade screen, but also feels far more immersive than my 55-inch TV. But more often than not, and especially when playing videogames, I reach for the TV’s remote over the projector’s, as it just looks brighter and smoother, no matter the lighting. Xgimi’s new, flagship Horizon 20 Max projector changes that.

The Horizon 20 Max pushes the boundaries of how bright a projector of its size can get. Its triple-laser light engine can project an image as large as 300 inches at a 4K resolution and, more importantly, at an unprecedented 5700 ISO lumens of peak brightness. This means, even against direct lighting, its projection is bright and sharp, unlike other projectors that make you close the curtains in daytime to be at all visible. The rest of the Horizon Max’s hardware is maxed out, too: it’s calibrated for IMAX Enhanced, HDR10, and Dolby Vision, and lets you game at 1ms input lag and 240Hz motion.

How well do these specs translate in real-world conditions? Over the last few weeks, I binged countless movies and played some of the most demanding videogames to find out, and at $3000 , while the Horizon Max is far from affordable, it’s an easy choice for those who are looking for a no-compromise cinematic experience.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Build and Design

The Horizon 20 Max may not look like it, but it’s a hefty projector. Weighing over 16 lbs, it’s a task to pull it out of the carrying case it ships in and set it up on a floor stand. That said, it’s on the lighter side of the spectrum in this category, and its dimensions, also, are fairly compact for its calibre. It features a relatively plain look, which may not seem high-end, but over time, I began to appreciate its refined and clean appearance that’s easy to blend into the rest of a living room’s decor. It’s only available in a single grey finish and comes encased in a leather-like exterior.

Many of its functional elements add further character to the look. The front, for example, is dominated by the Harman/Kardon-tuned stereo speaker grills, while the back features rubberized vents for the cooling fan. Its highlight, though, is that it all sits on an integrated, swiveling stand that makes repositioning the projection a breeze. I also appreciated that the stand has enough friction to remain sturdy at the angle you set and not feel stiff when you try to adjust it.

One glaring omission from the Horizon 20 Max is that there’s no lens cover. Many of Xgimi’s earlier high-end projectors came with a motorized one. Several times, therefore, I ended up cleaning the lens before powering it up.

Other than that, you’ll find a series of ports on the rear, including pairs of HDMI and USB-A slots, another for optical output, and an audio jack. I do wish, though, that Xgimi had included a USB-C and placed the row of ports at the rear bottom instead of the top for better cable management.

The included metallic remote, like previous Xgimi projectors, is a joy to hold and operate. It has all the buttons you’d need, including for launching a custom shortcut, auto-focus, and more. More importantly, the essential ones, like going home or back, are backlit, and thanks to a built-in light sensor, the remote automatically illuminates them in dark rooms. Also fun is the spring-loaded battery tray, which pops out when you press its switch on the back.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Software and Performance

The Horizon 20 Max runs on Android TV 14 and, thanks to its MediaTek quad-core processor and ample 4GB of RAM, it’s one of the snappiest projectors I’ve used. It boots up instantly, and scrolling through the Google TV interface or executing voice commands is smooth, too. The Google TV home screen, where you’ll also find smart TV show and movie recommendations, is infamous for slowing down projectors, but the 20 Max had no trouble there, either.

Similarly, on most projectors I’ve tested, loading files and high-res videos from external storage is often a laggy experience. The 20 Max proved to be an exception here, handling large files without any stutters.

While the Google TV interface it ships with is largely clean and bloatware-free, Xgimi has added a few of its own handy tools. The eye protection mode, for example, automatically pauses the projection when someone passes through its field of view, as opposed to blinding them with lasers. You can also exclusively use this projector as a Bluetooth speaker or connect headphones, courtesy of the built-in Bluetooth 5.2.

In most day-to-day conditions, the Horizon 20 Max remains quiet and cool. However, at max brightness in modes like High Power, its fan does kick in, and you will especially hear its low-pitched thrum when whatever you’re watching isn’t loud enough itself. A couple of hours in this mode can also lead to the projector throwing an overheating warning, but it never shuts down or pauses the projection.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Picture Quality and Speakers

The Horizon 20 Max is the first projector that has convinced me it can replace my TV, and all credit goes to its excellent picture quality. What stands out about the 20 Max is that its output remains consistent throughout conditions and doesn’t appear, for example, washed out in daytime. I don’t have to go through a multi-step process, whether that’s adjusting the image settings or my room’s curtains, to use it anytime other than at night.

The 20 Max’s triple-laser engine produces a bright and vibrant Ultra HD projection in most scenarios. It can push the brightness up to 5700 ISO Lumens, which means visuals look sharp even when played opposite a window. The projector’s software enhancements also actively tune the image’s contrast so that highlights and shadows stay balanced and vivid. Its high contrast ratio also made streaming darker content, like The Batman, appear punchy while retaining its original cinematic nuances.

While the Horizon 20 Max supports the usual picture standards, like HDR10+, it has a few premium, rare certifications, too. The IMAX Enhanced mode, in particular, stood out for me. It only activates automatically for selected, compatible media, and when it does, it can truly upgrade the home cinema experience. It digitally recreates the IMAX quality by further darkening the blacks and switching to a wider aspect ratio to fit more of the otherwise hidden scene in.

With the Horizon 20 Max, Xgimi has improved its suite of image calibration tools, too. In most scenarios, it takes the hassle out of adjusting the projection and intelligently figures out how to avoid obstacles and resize the image to fit a wall or a white screen.

When you do need to take control, there are plenty of options to help you precisely tune it. Two of those stand out: one that’s a first for Xgimi’s home projectors and allows you to shift its lens vertically and horizontally from the settings to reposition the image. Similarly, you can optically zoom in and out to resize it. This meant I didn’t have to physically move the projector to adjust its projection or resort to doing so digitally, which can lead to distortion and quality trade-offs.

In addition, the Horizon 20 Max’s 24W stereo speakers do a decent job of filling the room without making the sound feel concentrated in one corner. I was surprised to discover how clean and rich the audio stays, even at the highest levels, possibly thanks to the integrated deep bass extension. They get decently loud, and I rarely felt the absence of a dedicated home theatre unit.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Gaming Experience

The Horizon 20 Max’s DLP display also makes it an ideal projector for gaming. It supports variable refresh rate (up to 240Hz) and can lower the latency down to 1ms at a 1080p resolution. At 4K, the latency comes up at a still-reasonable 3ms. In my experience, there was minimal screen tearing, and high-res visuals were fluid even after hours of gameplay.

Plus, Xgimi offers a bunch of gaming modes to further boost the projector’s performance, like FPS, RTS, and one called Assassin’s Creed Mode made in partnership with Ubisoft. I had a delightful time with the latter while playing the Ghost of Yōtei, as the projector tuned the picture to enhance the contrast for a more immersive stealth experience.

Since December, we've been seeing (and writing!) headlines discussing the seeming slowdown of Nintendo Switch 2 sales going into the holiday season.

And that narrative feels right, doesn't it? We've seen prices on everything rise this year, and increasing economic uncertainty especially in the U.S. The Nintendo Switch 2 also didn't have a huge holiday game release (my apologies to Metroid Prime 4) to bolster sales through Black Friday and December. It just makes sense that holiday sales were down.

But there's some nuance to this narrative, and not just because so many people seem to be taking this as a sign of doom for the Nintendo Switch 2. So I kicked off the new year by bugging all the analysts I knew for some further context on Nintendo Switch 2's holiday sales: if they were down, why they were down if so, and what it all means for the Switch 2's future.

Did the Nintendo Switch 2 actually have a bad holiday?

Nah.

Were sales slower than they were earlier in the year? Sure. But that was neither shocking nor concerning to any analyst I spoke to.

Manu Rosier, director of market intelligence at Newzoo, described the Nintendo Switch 2's sales thus far as having a strong initial surge of adoption, followed by "normalization." “There are signs of a Q4 normalization versus the launch window, reflecting a shift from launch-driven demand (scarcity, bundles, pent-up interest) to a more typical, steady-state demand mix," he said. This trend was echoed across the globe, with Rosier and several of the other analysts I spoke to all confirming something roughly similar going on in their respective tracked regions across the U.S., UK, and Europe.

Yes, there was a drop off in sales over the holidays from the initial launch surge. As Joost van Dreunen, NYU Stern professor and author of SuperJoost Playlist explains, "The device is more expensive than its predecessors, for one, and went into the holiday season without a clear blockbuster title to incentivize audiences. Don’t get me wrong, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is well worth your time, but it lacks the cache held by Mario and Zelda titles. More so, everyone who was going to buy a Switch 2 at launch has had a chance to do so, especially since Nintendo had been stocking its new console for months prior to its release in anticipation of tariff-related volatility and potential supply chain issues.”

But as every single analyst I spoke to also said, this was extremely expected and normal, and not really an indicator of anything especially concerning. For instance, Circana's annual report on the U.S. games market had the Nintendo Switch 2 as the best-selling console of the year in both unit and dollar sales. It sold 4.4 million units total for 2025 in the U.S., 94% higher than the Nintendo Switch 1 at the same point in its life cycle.

It is worth noting, of course, that the Nintendo Switch 1 launched in March in its release year, while the Switch 2 dropped in June. This means that the comparison point here, seven months into each console's life cycle, includes the holiday period for the Switch 2, but not the original Switch. And it's true that reporting suggests Switch 2 holiday sales underperformed Switch 1 holiday sales in some markets, especially the UK and parts of the U.S. So it's possible in the coming months we see that difference shrink.

Or, maybe not! The Switch 2 has one heck of a lead, and there's a good reason for it: supply. "Switch 2 sales [in 2025] were expected to be more front-loaded than other consoles historically due to the strong rate of supply early on," says Mat Piscatella, senior director at Circana. "Which, of course, is how the Switch 2 has been able to set the record as the US market's fastest selling console ever over the first 6 months in market. You can't sell units that don't exist, etc etc."

Switches 'Round the World

Additionally, the Switch 2's holiday wasn't on the slower side everywhere. In Asia, Niko Partners director of research and insights Daniel Ahmad says the Switch 2 had a good holiday. "In Japan, sales of the Switch 2 during the holiday period were in line with the Switch 1," he says. "Nintendo’s expansion in Southeast Asia is also paying off, with an official launch in the region earlier this year helping drive sales growth. While there is no official release in China, demand for grey market imports is high."

Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, backs this up too. "In the case of the Japanese market in particular, the numbers are very clear: Switch 2 sold like hot cakes over the holidays."

One reason for that is supply. The Switch 2's initial sales success in the U.S. can be attributed partly to Nintendo ensuring there was an ample supply at launch, which also resulted in U.S. total sales being more heavily frontloaded than they would have otherwise. But the console has been difficult to come by in Japan, Toto says. That was true even over the holiday when supply improved, and he suspects the Japan sales would have been even higher if there had been enough Switch 2s to go around.

Piers Harding-Rolls, games industry analyst and researcher at Ampere Analysis, offered an in-depth take as to why the Switch 2 is in the position it's in right now. For one, the market conditions are different than they were when the Switch 1 came out. Not only is there more stock and fewer massive gamers as the other analysts mentioned, but the Switch 2 is also a "known quantity."

"When the original Switch launched it followed a failing Wii U generation - there was a lot of interest but hype and momentum built up in the run up to the holiday sales at the end of 2017," Harding-Rolls says. "This time around at the Switch 2 launch demand was predictably high because of the success of the Switch. Following a record launch, it’s not surprising that Switch 2 sales have not been able to maintain the same massive sales lead on the original Switch. For the record, Switch 2 shipments in 2025 should outperform the original Switch in 2017 and over a shorter period of time.

"...Then there is the whole macroeconomic situation, less disposable income and higher priced hardware. This may be softening demand to an extent especially as lots of new games are still available on the original Switch."

Put all together, it sounds like there's a lot less cause for alarm(o) than some were making Switch 2 sales out to be.

The Switch in Twenty-Six

But what about the future?

Harding-Rolls continues: "I’m expecting Switch 2 exclusives to become more plentiful in 2026 so this will drive upgrades for those sitting on the fence. Overall, Switch 2 games look pretty strong in 2026 so I remain quite bullish on the performance of the platform this year. Longer-term I don’t expect Switch 2 to outperform the original Switch as there were special conditions - primarily the pandemic - which supercharged demand for Switch later in the cycle and elongated it to an extent."

Everyone else agrees 2026 will be a good year for Switch 2, though with some asterisks related to the broader global market. Toto thinks for the current fiscal year ending March 30, Nintendo will be closer to 20 million units sold than their own forecast of 15 million, contingent on them building a more impressive game line-up. Ahmad predicts that the Switch 2 will sell more than 50 million units by the end of 2027, which would be a similar amount to the Switch 1 over the same time frame. He's predicting a price hike, though, specifically a tariff-related one: "Tariffs were already squeezing margins last year, component costs are increasing rapidly, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo passes those costs on to consumers in one way or another."

Van Dreunen doesn't think we'll see component-related price changes that would discourage sales, saying that Nintendo has already priced those in and that he expects sales in Japan especially to remain strong thanks to regional discounts and a heavy focus on the domestic market. "If it looks like Nintendo is selling fewer consoles in the US, you can look to the current administration for an explanation."

Memory Goes Boom

But hardware pricing is a pretty big sticking point for James McWhirter, senior analyst at Omdia. He provided a fairly detailed breakdown of what he thinks is coming not just for the Switch 2, but for the entire console market, insofar as hardware pricing increases could eventually price consumers out of new purchases.

McWhirter thinks that the big story for all console hardware this year will be the effect that demand for AI infrastructure is going to have on pricing. In his estimation, about six months ago, RAM in a base PS5 accounted for at least a fifth of the bill of materials. But by the end of 2025, that cost will have risen by at least 50%.

"Suppliers obviously have the upper hand with any new negotiations, so it’s only a matter of time until Nintendo – and Sony and Microsoft – run through their inventory of memory and renegotiate at higher prices," he says. "Any rise in the cost of console hardware will be passed on to consumers via multiple means: directly, or via a mix of increased software, services, peripherals pricing.

"But this comes at a tricky time for consoles – we are of course simultaneously seeing the spending power of middle-income households declining. This leaves Nintendo more exposed as they are keen on transitioning their Switch audience onto Switch 2 as quickly as possible, with no more cross-gen releases on the horizon."

It's not just hardware that's impacted, he adds. He expects the "memory boom cycle" to impact Switch 2 software specifically soon, due to physical games shipping on NAND memory. "The rising cost of NAND memory places upward pressure on the cost of Switch 2 Game Cards. Switch 2, like its predecessor, is still a physical-first platform. When including bundled software, Omdia estimates 57% of Switch 2 games sold in 2025 were at retail."

What about Game Key-Cards, you say? Sure, that would help, but they're controversial…and may not be enough anyway.

"The upward pressure on NAND memory prices mean Game Key-Cards will be here to stay - even Nintendo has begun experimenting with them starting with March 2026's Pokémon Pokopia. A publisher recently suggested Nintendo is introducing smaller capacity Game Cards, but the cost savings they provide may be eventually wiped out in future.

McWhirter expects that all of this will likely impact the "middle market" of gaming, people who purchase consoles sometime after their initial launch boom or general non-enthusiast gamers, may not be purchasing consoles in the same volume that they have in recent history. These are the people that pushed the Switch 1 to global sell-through of 151 million by the end of last year, but he's not so sure they're going to show up for the Switch 2, especially if it gets more expensive. He recalls the Nintendo 3DS, which had extremely frontloaded sales (17% of systems were sold in the first year on the market) compared to the Nintendo Switch 1 (9% in the first year). A similar scenario could happen again.

There are things Nintendo could do to stave that off. Switch 2 hardware bundles over the holiday providing a "soft" discount would help push sales. Regional discounts extended beyond just Japan would also probably work. He also posits a future docked-only Switch 2 Lite that would help reduce component costs and pass that savings on to consumers.

What does all this mean? It sounds like, as has been reported, 2025 was overall a fantastic launch year for the Switch 2, and that energy will likely continue for some time to come. But there are a number of hurdles the console needs to overcome in the next few years in order to maintain that success long-term. Some of them are obvious and manageable by Nintendo now: does it have a strong 2026 and 2027 game line-up, or not? But others, such as tariffs and component costs, are harder to predict and will require deft handling on the part of the hardware maker in order to drive the Switch 2 generation to a comparable level of success as its predecessors had.

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

Silent Hill fans, make some room in your movie collection. If you enjoyed Return to Silent Hill, preorders are already live for the film's 4K steelbook, standard 4K release, and Blu-ray. At the moment, there is no release date for any of these formats since the film only just opened in theaters, but steelbooks like this often sell out. It's worth preordering ahead of time so you can feel content knowing you definitely have a copy on the way when launch day comes around.

Details on where you can preorder these physical versions can be found below. Alongside a lack of release date, no bonus features have been revealed yet, either. However, once they're announced, we'll be sure to add them to this page.

Preorder Return to Silent Hill Amazon Exclusive 4K Steelbook

While Walmart's 4K steelbook for Return to Silent Hill has already sold out, Amazon's offering its own exclusive steelbook right now. It features quite a creepy cover and comes with the film on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. That's not all, though, as this Amazon Exclusive version also comes with a 4x6 collectible lenticular with Pyramid Head on it, which you can check out below.

• 4K UHD (non-steelbook): Amazon | Walmart
• Blu-ray: Amazon | Walmart

Unfortunately, the film hasn't quite taken off at the box office. Our own review of Return to Silent Hill found that it "isn’t completely without merit. It’s certainly a better follow-up to Cristophe Gans’ original 2006 film than 2012’s Silent Hill: Revelation, one that finds some success drawing on the creepy imagery and sound design of the games." However, IGN's Jesse Schedeen notes that it's "ultimately an adaptation that fails to improve upon the source material or do anything particularly new and interesting."

Even so, if you found you liked it, this is a great opportunity to set yourself up with a physical copy for a rewatch later.

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

The director of Resident Evil Requiem has said that the game's female staff members worked hard to ensure hero Leon S. Kennedy "would make anyone's heart throb."

Fans have praised Leon's appearance in Requiem, which sees the rookie cop turned grizzled agent sporting stubble, wrinkles, but still a full head of floppy hair. Online, may have dubbed Leon as an "ikeoji" character — an attractive older man that is also referred to as a "hot uncle" — and it's this definition which has now been put to Requiem's director by Automaton.

"We've spent quite a lot of time polishing Leon's visuals," director Koshi Nakanishi said when asked about Leon's ikeoji status. "Leon has many fans among Capcom employees, and women in particular were pretty strict when reviewing his design.

RuneScape maker Jagex has insisted it will never use generative AI to make content players actually see in-game, in one of the hardest stances on AI yet seen from a video game developer.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jagex SVP of product, James Dobrowski, said that the UK company is “open” to using genAI for development processes, such as “tooling efficiency.” But he promised Jagex will never use genAI to "drive creativity."

"We've got a pretty hard line stance with the team, which is a commitment that no generative AI will ever be present in any asset that a player can touch, hear or feel,” Dobrowski said. “There will be no generative AI in the game that they experience.”

That rules out the likes of AI-generated art, which we have seen in games such as Call of Duty, AI-generated voices, which we have seen in Arc Raiders, and AI-generated text / dialogue, which, again, we have seen pop up in a number of games.

"Where we are open to the use of AI is in things like tooling efficiency,” Dobrowski continued, “how do we make the way we work more efficient in order to make our staff's lives easier and allow us to produce better content. But we do not want to be using AI to drive creativity." Jagex is even speaking with its external partners to make sure no genAI is being used in “inappropriate ways in any of their work that might filter through to the end game."

The use of generative AI in game development is one of the hottest topics in the industry, and it has sparked a number of controversies. Following the reveal of Divinity at the 2025 The Game Awards, Swen Vincke, boss of developer Larian, met with a backlash after he said the studio was using genAI in various capacities. Larian ended up having to address AI concerns in a reddit AMA in which the studio confirmed a U-turn on some aspects of its use.

Jagex's "hard line stance" is in contrast to the approach of some video game companies that have gone all-in on the tech. The CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed "consumers generally do not care" about generative AI, and stated that: "Gen Z loves AI slop." EA CEO Andrew Wilson, meanwhile, has said AI is "the very core of our business," and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be "aggressive in applying AI." Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: "... if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”

Outside of video games, some entertainment companies are banning the use of genAI altogether. For example, Games Workshop recently banned the use of generative AI for the production of its designs and content, a decision many Warhammer fans welcomed.

As for RuneScape, it was in the news recently after a UK court ruled stealing RuneScape Gold was criminal theft in a case that could have wider repercussions for the video game industry.

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.

Last year, IGN broke the news that the wildly popular web series Murder Drones is making the jump to comics, with Oni Press releasing a graphic novel adaptation of the first season. That comic was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but now it's making its way to comic shops as it sees a wider release in 2026.

IGN can now exclusively debut an extended preview of Murder Drones #1. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

Murder Drones is a collaboration between Oni and animation studio Glitch Productions. The comic is written by Wyatt Kennedy (Nights, Marvel United) and drawn by Jo Mi-Gyeong (Eve, Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). The comic serves as an adaptation of the first season of the Murder Drones animated series.

Here's Oni's official description of Murder Drones:

In the far future on the desolate exoplanet designated Copper 9, the humans are long gone but the robotic worker drones they created to mine the planet’s resources are still hard at work. Together, they have managed to forge their own makeshift society . . . or so they thought until a previously unknown kind of robot - the dreaded “Murder Drones” - are activated by a long-forgotten possibly-eldritch protocol to disassemble any worker that deviates from its original programming. But when a rebellious young worker drone named Uzi forms an unlikely alliance with two disassembly drones—Serial Designations N and V—can they, together, uncover the secrets of their origins . . . and survive the deep twisted horrors awaiting them?

Murder Drones #1 will be released on February 11, 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.

In other comic book news, find out which series was selected as IGN's best comic book of 2025, and see which comics we're most excited for in 2026.

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

Developer Hoothanes and publisher 4Divinity have announced The Defiant, an upcoming story-driven, cinematic, single-player World War II-set first-person shooter that sees players take part in China’s War of Resistance against Japan.

Powered by Unreal Engine 5 and created by "a veteran team of filmmakers and game developers," according to its publisher, The Defiant clearly aims to mix things up from the usual WWII FPS fare we've seen a hundred times now. "Missions shift fluidly between stealth infiltration, close-quarters firefights, sniping, urban espionage, code-breaking operations, vehicular combat, and sudden large-scale assaults," 4Defiant said. Check out the first trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

The Defiant's developers said they're aiming to convey a reverence for history, noting that "weapons in The Defiant are treated as historical artefacts, not just tools" and that the campaign "aims to reframe how the FPS genre approaches history, offering a perspective rarely seen in interactive entertainment." The team added, "The game unfolds across occupied villages, frozen forests, fortified supply routes, and enemy-controlled urban zones, where every environment is shaped by the realities of guerrilla warfare and survival behind enemy lines."

You can wishlist The Defiant on Steam if you're interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders and The Finals are suffering from what the studio has described as “extensive, coordinated” Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.

The attacks were said to be “ongoing” today while the studio battles to mitigate their impact on each game.

Arc Raiders players have been complaining of server issues all morning, with some unable to reconnect to or abandon matches. Some affected players are hoping they will see lost loot return once the issues are fixed. “Was just rubber banding and died because it was of course in front of a shredder, and now stuck on the loading screen while trying to join a new lobby,” said one affected player.

It's unfortunate timing for Arc Raiders in particular, given the DDoS attacks come hot on the heels of Arc Raiders’ Headwinds update, which added a solo vs. squads matchmaking option, a Bird City map condition, and much more.

Meanwhile, Embark said it’s working on a hotfix that will “solve some of the issues and unintended changes” made by the Headwinds update. That should be out later today.

Arc Raiders is one of the biggest games in the world, having sold an incredible 12.4 million copies in just 10 weeks. The enormously popular extraction shooter has seen impressive staying power, too, setting a new concurrent player peak of 960,000 in January 2026. To put Arc Raiders' success into context, the similarly priced Helldivers 2 set a record for the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time by selling 12 million in 12 weeks. Arc Raiders, which launched on Xbox as well as PC and PlayStation, hit the 12 million sales mark even faster. It's done so well so quickly, that it crossed over into the world of South Park with a surprise appearance that was put together in just a few days.

Headwinds is the first of a four-phase roadmap that has content scheduled out through April 2026. Next on the docket is the Shrouded Sky update, which adds a new map condition, Arc threat, player project, map update, Raider Deck, and more sometime in February. Flashpoint will then arrive in March with another map condition and Scrappy update, with Riven Tides rounding things out with a new map and a new large Arc in April.

If this has tempted you into giving Arc Raiders a try, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates… or you can just wait for the inevitable TV show or movie adaptation, although Embark says it hasn't been swayed just yet.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched in November 2024 and has remained the best gaming processor ever since. So, when AMD quietly announced the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a slightly faster version of the 9800X3D at CES 2026, it seemed like a no-brainer. After all, this new chip takes the successful gaming chip and lifts the max turbo speed by 400MHz, what could go wrong?

Well, it turns out that it’s such a small overclock that it barely impacts performance, and even leads to slightly worse multi-core performance over the original 9800X3D. I’ve spent most of the week testing this processor asking myself why AMD felt the need to even release the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. The only answer I can think of is that it costs slightly more and people are going to buy it just to have a higher number in CPU-Z.

Specs and Features

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is practically the same processor as the 9800X3D, only with a slightly higher boost clock. You still get 8 Zen 5 cores, 16 threads and 96MB of L3 Cache, only now it boosts up to 5.6GHz instead of 5.2GHz. That’s a decent boost, but the real magic of the Ryzen 9850X3D is the same magic that makes the 9800X3D great – the 3D-stacked V-Cache.

Cache is essentially memory that’s built into your processor, and it’s a lot faster than system memory, or RAM. Essentially, the more of it is there, the more efficient your CPU is in workloads that demand rapid access to data – like gaming. What makes AMD’s X3D processors, like the 9850X3D, special is that instead of having it on the same physical layer of the chip as the CPU cores, it’s printed on its own layer.

Not only does this allow the Ryzen 7 9850X3D to have more cache than other processors, but it also cuts down on the latency. Because by having the cache located right above the CPU cores, the data simply has less physical distance to travel. This is why the 9850X3D is a great gaming processor, because it can load more game data at any given time, which leads to better performance, especially when paired with a powerful graphics card.

There’s only one problem, though. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D already exists with the same exact cache configuration and core layout. So unless you’re playing a game that solely relies on single-core performance – which is becoming rare – you don’t really gain anything by shelling out an extra $30 for the Ryzen 7 9850X3D.

Of course, there is the higher boost clock, but it’s important to keep in mind that the processor will only ever hit those speeds in lightly threaded workloads. In anything that uses many cores at the same time, the clock speeds will even out to a much lower limit in order to control temperatures and power consumption.

Throughout my testing, I found that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D reaches the same peak power of 161W as the 9800X3D. That does mean that temperatures stay under control, only peaking at 85°C, but it does mean that when all the cores are being used, there isn’t much that the processor can do to get extra performance over the 9800X3D.

It is important to keep in mind, though, that because the 9850X3D comes out of the box with a higher clock speed, while keeping the same power consumption and temperatures as the original chip, it likely means it has more headroom for overclocking. That’s not something I test here at IGN, but if that’s something you’re into, this might be the chip to grab.

Performance

Because the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and 9800X3D are so similar, I was expecting the performance difference between the two chips to be small, but I was still surprised by how little that 400MHz boost clock increase matters. Throughout most of my test suite, the two processors were extremely close, trading blows depending on how heavily threaded the workload is.

The most disappointing bit, though, is that despite the higher asking price, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D turns out to be a little slower than the 9800X3D in multi-threaded workloads like Cinebench and Blender. It’s not a huge gap, to be sure, but it’s a gap that, if anything, should be the other way around.

Specifically, in the Cinebench R23 multi-core test, the 9850X3D gets 22,404 points, compared to 23,195 points from the Ryzen 9800X3D. That’s about a 3% lead for the slightly cheaper processor. This is flipped, however, in the single-core test, where the 9850X3D outperforms the 9800X3D with a score of 2208 to 2082. That’s where that single-core boost increase shows itself.

Likewise, in the 3DMark CPU Profile test, the 9850X3D gets a multi-core score of 10186, compared to 10274 from the 9800X3D. That’s another tiny gap in favor of the 9800X3D. But, again, just like Cinebench, the 9850X3D pulls ahead slightly in the single-core test, with 1265 points to the 9800X3D’s 1210.

Blender repeats the multi-core performance pattern. In the Monster workload, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is able to manage 153 samples per second, compared to 157 from the 9800X3D. That’s a difference so small that it’s within the margin of error, to be fair, but it still leans in the wrong direction for a CPU that AMD is charging more for.

In Adobe, the 9850X3D beats the 9800X3D in Premiere, getting 13773 points in the Puget benchmark, compared to 13025. However, that’s reversed in Photoshop, with the older 9800X3D getting 12929 points, compared to 12167 points from the 9850X3D.

When it comes to real-world gaming, the 9850X3D disappoints again. In Cyberpunk 2077, at 1080p, with the Ultra preset, with no ray tracing or upscaling, the 9850X3D gets 231 fps, compared to 231 from the 9800X3D.

Total War: Warhammer 3 is no different. In this CPU-heavy game, the 9850X3D squeezes 261 fps out of the RTX 4090, compared to 265 fps with the 9800X3D. Another win for the cheaper chip.

I’ve been racking my brain trying to make sense of this performance. I re-ran the tests across the 9800X3D and 9850X3D multiple times, and each time got the same results. There are likely games out there where the 9850X3D does pull ahead of the 9800X3D, particularly in older single-threaded games. But in the games I’ve tested here, the 9850X3D consistently fell short – however small that gap might be.

Even according to AMD’s claims, which you should take with a grain of salt, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is only expected to boost performance by as much as 6% in some esports games. And, then we’re probably talking about the difference between 300 fps and 318 fps in something like Counter-Strike 2. I don’t think that’s worth the extra $30.

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

Shelter will be released in theaters on January 30.

"No man is an island, entire of itself," John Donne once wrote, "every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." That's certainly the thematic core and literal setup for Shelter, Jason Statham's latest actioner. We know the drill by now: stoic killer, trying to live out his life in peace, but forced to dust off his knuckles and roundhouse kicks when a covert conspiracy knocks on his door.

This time he's playing Michael Mason, a former elite assassin for the British government who’s hiding out on a gloomy island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland with his dog sidekick, playing chess against himself and pencil drawing to pass the time. There's a lot of staring out at the sea and into space, as well as one-sided conversations with his mutt to hammer home his self-inflicted isolation.

That is, until he's forced to save precocious orphan Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), who's been delivering food to Mason by way of her uncle's trawler. On her way back to shore, her uncle's boat gets caught in a storm, leading to quite a preposterous "save the cat" scenario when he urges Jessie to return in a rowboat against 10-foot waves – seriously bad caregiving, unc! But there is some joy in seeing the former competitive diver battle the sea in a knitted jumper.

With Jessie injured and in need of medical supplies, Mason must re-enter society, where the plot unfolds, and a venerated cast of British actors enters the frame. It shows just how much affection there is for Jason Statham back home that Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie and Harriet Walters all signed on to this film. Their presence as former MI6 chief Steven Manafort, his replacement Roberta Frost, and Prime Minister Fordham, respectively, does bring some gravitas to his typically low-brow proceedings.

Fordham and Manafort represent the murky machinations of the establishment. The Prime Minister is in hot water over an unethical surveillance system called T.H.E.A., the exact computer program that captures Mason's image and launches a shoot-to-kill operation against him. Manafort wants Mason dead for so-called treacherous desertion, keen-eyed Roberta wants answers, but as much as Ackie, Nighy and Walters can imbue their characters with cool charisma, the hackneyed dialogue fails to meet them at their level.

There lies my main grievance with Shelter. Ward Parry's screenplay might offer a serviceable story in the shadowy spy-thriller genre, but it lacks finesse or depth, instead serving up clichés at every corner. Lines like "Mason isn’t just an assassin, he’s a precision instrument," and "you don't want this life" function as stock dialogue in a script divorced from subtext. Everything is just too on-the-nose, especially when it comes to Mason.

There are moments where Statham reminds us he is more than just an action star, but also a penetrating, emphatic actor. Behind his eyes, he conveys the anger, the menace and growing affection he has for his young ward as they fight their way from Scotland to London. He and an enterprising Breathnach, who was recently seen in Chloe Zhao's Hamnet, share a believable chemistry. Her sparky gumption against his rugged fatalism hints at Léon's Natalie Portman and Jean Reno.

But Léon this ain't, as the movie struggles to bolster Jessie's motivations as to why she'd want to hitch her wagon to Mason's murderous star. And instead of trusting in Statham's silent ability to communicate that internal struggle, of a man let down by his country and brought back to life by a traumatised girl, both are given banal sentences to utter that flatten the emotional core.

Where Shelter does succeed is in the creatively brutal fight sequences laced through Mason and Jessie's journey. Angel Has Fallen director Ric Roman Waugh offers bruising stakes, beginning with an island invasion evoking the ingenious spirit of Home Alone – think boulders and flame throwers – and ending with a claustrophobic nightclub bust-up.

In between, Statham faces off against Manafort's asset Workman (Bryan Vigier), a no-nonsense assassin who, one character quips, is "Mason 20 years ago." Their hand-to-hand combat is punishing, packed with so much brute force and rigor you might worry our hero won't make it out alive. These sequences do rely a little too much on tightly framed close-ups and repetitive moves, but props to the sound department as well as David Buckley's thumping score, both of which maintain that intensity with every kick, punch, stab and shot amplified to formidable levels.

Shelter is certainly a safe action vehicle for Statham, but it could have benefited from more narrative risks.

If you like mandatory co-op games, this one's for you: introducing WheelMates, a new two-player co-op action-adventure where each player controls an R/C car in the house of an eccentric scientist, working together in order to clear challenges and obstacles. It's in development for Steam for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and it's due out this year.

This is no sim, though. You'll have power-ups like jump boosters, magnet wheels, and grappling hooks in order to help you navigate the house and try to find the scientist homeowner, who's missing. Play in split-screen or online, but you'll need two players. Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

The developers at FireVolt cite Re-Volt and classic metroidvanias as inspirations for WheelMates. You'll be able to try it out soon, FireVolt said it's planning a playtest for next month. Wishlist it on Steam if you're interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.