Microsoft and Meta have teamed up to release a limited-edition Xbox-branded version of the Meta Quest 3S. The virtual reality headset comes with 128GB of built-in storage and a custom “carbon black and velocity green” color scheme. The bundle also includes an Elite Strap, a limited-edition Xbox Wireless Controller, plus three months of Meta Horizon+ and 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition is available starting today, June 24, for $399.99. Microsoft says “quantities are extremely limited. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Buy Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition

Microsoft has announced the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, the first limited edition ever for the Quest virtual reality headset.

The company behind Xbox has yet to release a virtual reality headset of its own, but it seems happy to partner with Meta to expand Xbox cloud gaming on Quest.

In a post on Xbox Wire, Lori Wright, Corporate Vice President, Gaming Partnerships and Business Development, said the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition is “crafted for Xbox fans.” It’s out now (see it at Meta) and costs $399.99.

The Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition Bundle contents:

• Custom 128GB Meta Quest 3S in Xbox Carbon Black and Velocity Green
• Matching Touch Plus controllers and a limited-edition Xbox Wireless Controller
• Elite Strap
• 3 months of Meta Horizon+
• 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

You can pair any Xbox Wireless Controller, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, or Xbox Adaptive Controller to Quest using Bluetooth, but the included limited-edition Xbox Wireless Controller will share the same look as the other accessories.

The Xbox app on Quest lets you access Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is available as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Game Pass Ultimate members can also stream select cloud-playable games they own, even if they are not included with Game Pass Ultimate (there are over 100 supported titles in the Stream Your Own Game collection).

The marketing for the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition leans on Microsoft’s ongoing “This is an Xbox” campaign, which pushes the idea that Xbox isn’t confined to consoles, but playable on most things with a screen.

The Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition is available now at meta.com, Best Buy (USA), Argos (UK), and EE (UK), but quantities are extremely limited. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft has so far resisted the temptation to release a VR headset of its own, even as competitors such as Sony went all-in. Back in 2019, ahead of the launch of the Xbox Series X and S, Phil Spencer confirmed that virtual reality wasn't a focus for the consoles because there wasn't enough demand for it.

“We’re responding to what our customers are asking for and… nobody’s asking for VR,” Spencer said at the time. “The vast majority of our customers know if they want a VR experience, there’s places to go get those. We see the volumes of those on PC and other places.”

Sony went on to release the PSVR2 for the PlayStation 5, which now appears to have been left behind.

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’s a new Chicken Run video game in development, and its voice cast is sure to ruffle some feathers.

Chicken Run: Eggstraction, from Outright Games, is described as an “action-stealth” video game that is of course based on the Chicken Run franchise. It’s a top-down, heist game that picks up where Aardman's 2023 film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget left off. Expect a launch this fall on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.

What’s interesting here is Chicken Run: Eggstraction’s voice cast. It sees Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie in HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation, and Josie Sedgwick-Davies return to voice Molly and Frizzle from Dawn of the Nugget. But it’s also got Chicken Shop Date creator Amelia Dimoldenberg, too.

On the surface, Grave Seasons might look like any other nice, cozy farming sim like Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon: you’re a stranger who’s come into a farm in the small town of Ashenridge, full of seemingly friendly people. You plant and harvest crops, craft items, and make friends. But there’s a mysterious, unnerving sense that tugged at the back of my neck during my half-hour playing Blumhouse Games and Perfect Garbage’s not-so-cozy farming sim. One that kept me much more engaged than your garden-variety farming game, with its impressively intriguing threads that added a little drop of poison to the well.

After a brief intro to the player character, who’s escaped a prison sentence in search of a new beginning, things start getting weird. Hari, a neighborly caretaker who’s maintained the property since falling into ruin, greeted me with an incredulous (but charming) hello, which doubles as a quick tutorial. At first glance, the stuff he introduced me to wasn’t that strange. I had the standard tool wheel, complete with a shovel, pickaxe, watering can, and so on. But I also had a crowbar?

That’s because Grave Seasons isn’t just a grim or slightly spooky take on farming: it’s also a mystery game. And while I didn’t have a chance to use a crowbar during the early section I played, it sounds like you’ll need to use it to break open locked doors later on in the story. But given the mysterious circumstances under which my character came into their new home, I’m curious to learn about their motives and means.

After working my new land, picking some chilis, cabbage, and tomatoes that Hari so neatly planted – and doing a little planting of my own, burying some carrot seeds my new friend offered as a welcoming gift – I did some exploring. To my shock, I found a severed hand and a bloodied ring amidst the weeds and garbage littering the far reaches of the property. I tugged at this new thread immediately, taking it to Hari to see what he had to say about it, rendering shock and horror from my musclebound, tutorial-dispensing neighbor.

Nothing really came from this interaction, beyond that reaction, and the revelation that I could talk to Hari about other stuff, and even offer them a gift. Obviously, I’m sure there are opportunities to spend more time with them (or any character, as I met later) and figure out what he might actually want. But a half-hour demo isn’t exactly designed for that kind of long-game mindset. So I gave them the chocolate ice cream cone in my inventory as a sign of friendship (and maybe more). Unfortunately, he reacted to the frozen treat about as well as he did to the hand… I didn’t get another chance to try my hand (no pun intended) at offering them something else, but given Grave Seasons’ dark, slightly comedic tone, I’m curious to see what winds up tickling their fancy in the full game.

Then I retreated to my shed, where I found a pickling and fermenting station a while earlier to put my chilis and cabbage to good use by making some kimchi. This highlighted one of my favorite parts of Grave Seasons. Although it’s decidedly horror-focused, Grave Seasons doesn’t skimp on the stuff that makes farming games great in the first place. With a diverse menu, well-realized in a sharp, pixelated art style, this demo made me hungry as I marveled at the pixel art of garlic, hummus, pickles, and salads. Kimchi in hand, I set back out to my house to find a new character sitting on the edge of the well in my yard.

Pilar, a fashion designer with a passion for vintage clothing, greeted me with another warm welcome before telling me about their plans to forage for some rare herbs that night. After agreeing to explore my new home a bit, I tried talking to them more, again about the hand, getting another shocked response. I gave them my fresh kimchi to see what they thought about it, but just like Hari, no dice.

Here was another favorite part of the demo: just talking to Pilar and Hari. Their dialogue was consistently engaging, funny, and distinct in a way that conveyed loads of personality and life. I would’ve sat there for the entire demo just gifting them every last radish, head of lettuce, and cigarette in my inventory if I could. Based on the trailer and other materials Perfect Garbage has shared, I’m excited to see what other characters I get to meet. And I’m eager to watch them play out their roles in this mystery, which deepened at night.

After cleaning up some trash, mining for some minerals and iron, watering my carrots, and putting some crops into storage to be sold, it was time to take a walk in the woods with Pilar. Upon walking into the gulley, something was immediately off. Then, a pair of bright red eyes opened behind them, claws emerging at Pilar’s ankles, illuminated by their lantern. In the blink of an eye, some kind of eldritch beast mangled Pilar. It took me about a minute to refix my dropped jaw after seeing that… I can’t believe how expressively gory Grave Seasons would get, or that they just killed off Pilar like that.

That was the end of the demo, but it absolutely left me wanting more. Setting up a story that blends in all sorts of seemingly disparate threads like this – from small-town murders to bloodthirsty creatures beyond comprehension lurking in dark woods – created just the right kind of intrigue. I’m sure I’ll wind up investigating my now-dead friend’s witchy ways, make more friends (and enemies), and grow crops to make tasty food while doing it.

I’ve had a lot of trouble sticking with most farming sims because they lacked a certain sense of intrigue; that hook to keep me looking forward to the next day for something other than fresh crops. This is exactly what the developers at Perfect Garbage are looking to remedy with Grave Seasons; I’m sure this first day was a condensed version of the kind of pacing we’ll see in the full release, but I love the balance of visual novel-like mystery with the more relaxing pace of farming gameplay, ensuring that fresh crops grow in time with the narrative and dramatic tension.

Grave Seasons promises to inject something sinister into the farming sim genre with a compelling horror-mystery that seems on track to deliver personality, fright, and charm in spades. I’m interested to see and learn more about Grave Seasons’ community of charming townsfolk and the secrets lurking underneath Ashenridge’s small-town veneer when it ships on PC and consoles sometime next year.

Fans are warning others to be mindful of Nintendo's new anti-piracy policy when buying a secondhand Switch 2 — or risk buying a console that's permanently stuck offline.

As reported earlier this month, Nintendo fans suspect the company has begun blocking access to all online functionality on Switch 2 consoles that have used the MIG Switch flash card — a device used to play unofficial copies of games.

This tactic, which is seemingly permanent, leaves a Switch 2 console displaying the error code 2124-4508 when accessing any online functions. Impacted consoles are unable to download and play any digital games or Game-Key cartridges, access system updates or game updates, play using online multiplayer, communicate using GameChat, or use any Nintendo Switch Online functionality, including the subscription's retro game catalogues.

If you're buying a Switch 2, you likely want to do some of those things. And, unfortunately, someone has already reported the first instance of picking up a pre-owned Switch 2 at a discount and finding they have been sold a console that's been banned.

Writing on reddit, user Bimmytung reported buying a pre-owned Switch 2 from Walmart, and checking the box in-store to ensure that everything physically looked as it should.

"Physically it's fine, everything seems there," Bimmytung wrote. "Notice that the Mario Kart code is scratched off. Hmm. Naturally wonder if the original buyer redeemed the code and returned the system. They knocked $50 off the price so I figured I'd roll the dice and at least have the hardware. Bought a Pro Controller 2 while I was at it.

"Get home and go to finish the setup - quickly get Error Code 2124-4508. A quick Google search shows me I'm screwed. FML. Thankfully my local Walmart accepted the return without any fuss but still... I wish nothing but enthusiastic double gonorrhea to the lowlife scum that did this."

As word spreads of the MIG Switch card's risk, and as more Switch 2 consoles get banned by Nintendo, the likelihood grows that further impacted consoles will end up on eBay, or in secondhand retail shops.

Fans have suggested that anyone buying a secondhand Switch 2 console should now ask for proof the device still has access to its online functionality, and an assurance the previous owner had not used a MIG Switch previously, in order to avoid being caught up in a later ban wave.

Back in May, ahead of Switch 2's launch, Nintendo updated its Nintendo Account Agreement to make clear that any attempt to use "hardware or software that would cause the Nintendo Account Services to operate other than in accordance with its documentation and intended use" risked "the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device [becoming] permanently unusable in whole or in part."

Still, reports that Nintendo was swiftly bringing down the ban hammer on users who had inserted a MIG Switch into their console came as a shock to many Switch 2 owners, who found their new purchases banned from accessing online functionality almost immediately.

IGN contacted Nintendo at the time to ask for more detail on the bans, but did not receive a response. IGN has asked the company today for detail on what impacted customers should do if they purchase a blocked secondhand Switch 2, whether Nintendo would acknowledge this situation and remove bans, and whether the console maker would issue guidance to retail chains that handle secondhand stock warning them of the situation.

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

Firaxis and 2K are committed to reversing the fortunes of Civilization 7 with an all-new update, much of which has been "influenced by the community."

This month's "hefty" Update 1.2.2 brings a raft of long-awaited features like Large and Huge Maps, expanded Advanced Game Options, and a community favorite: Steam Workshop support. There's also new Town Specializations, City-State Bonuses, Beliefs, balance changes, UI improvements, and — best of all, of course — "a very pettable Scout dog."

Players can also finish their current save under a previous version by using the legacy Steam beta branch. Backwards compatibility for existing saves is also available, although you should note that "some new abilities or effects may not appear until you start a new game or advance to the next Age in your current campaign."

"For the best experience, we recommend starting a new game, or continuing your current game into the next Age," Firaxis said.

Large and Huge map sizes — which I'm afraid aren't available on Switch, along with Standard — default to 10 players, but multiplayer campaigns max out at eight people, inclusive of AI companions. The team hopes to expand Huge to accommodate 12 players eventually, but right now it "needs a bit more time to make sure increased player counts won't compromise game stability or performance." That said, because of the size, these maps have been spruced up with Pantheons (and two new ones have been added to Antiquity), Religious Beliefs, Discoveries, and City-State bonuses to "ensure there’s enough content for all the players in a game."

"One of the best things about Civilization is how many ways there are to play," the update added. "Some players are happy to peacefully build the biggest, best Cities while others want to ignore all that and go conquer the world ('Yes, your amazing City does look great in my empire'). With 1.2.2, we’ve added several new advanced game setup options to give you even more control over how you play."

This means you can now decide whether to enable, disable (or turn off entirely) Legacy Paths per Page, specific Crises, as well as disable Score Victory. AI difficulty can be amended, too, and you can bypass Civ Unlocks On Age Transitions now.

"We’ve had a lot of fun playing with different Legacy Paths on or off in each Age. While Legacy Paths that don’t lead to a Victory are always optional, sometimes it’s nice to just tune them out entirely and focus on playing into the unique strengths of your leader and civ," Firaxis added. "For a fun sandbox game we’ve been playing in the office, try turning off Legacy Paths for Antiquity and Exploration, and setting the game to Abbreviated Ages. If you want to lean into the sandbox feel even more, try turning off Legacy Paths in Modern and the Score Victory, too."

Feedback from fans about Religion has necessitated changes, too, with the team now adding new Beliefs and updating existing ones to give bonus incentives for converting your own Settlements. There are "bigger and bolder changes" also on the horizon for Religion, but we'll find out more about those at a later date. You can also expect Town focus bonuses to help them feel more "impactful."

"Urban Centers in particular have received a glow-up, and now gain access to many of the Buildings that were otherwise only available in Cities (like Libraries and Monuments in Antiquity)," the update explained. "Fort Towns gain the ability to purchase multiple walls so they can really lock down strategic chokepoints. We also introduced a new type of Town Focus: the Resort Town. These relaxing scenic retreats gain extra Gold and Happiness on Rural tiles with Happiness and increased Yields on Natural Wonders.

"Lastly, we felt massed Hub Towns were overshadowing some of the other options and gave them a slight nerf from +2 Influence per connected Settlement to +1 Influence. We’re going to keep our eye on them to see how they compare against the other newly buffed Towns."

Players will also now be able to find and install mods from Steam Workshop. Oh, and there's even a new loading screen, with rewritten and re-recorded narration from Gwendoline Christie.

There's also an absolute smorgasbord of tweaks and fixes, but if I wrote all those out here, we'd be here until Christmas. You can head on over to the official website to see it.

Civilization 7 has had a rough launch on Steam — that much is clear. The strategy sequel has struggled for players on Valve’s platform ever since its launch in February. Despite a number of patches issued by developer Firaxis to reverse things, Civilization 7 finds itself in the unenviable situation of having fewer players on Steam than Civilization 6 and even the 15-year-old Civilization 5. According to Steam user reviews the game is 'mixed,' although the last 1,500 or so reviews has it falling to a 'mostly negative' rating.

Update 1.2.2 is out now, although Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 players will have to wait a little longer as the team works "diligently to get these updates through the additional Switch submission requirements." Players still experiencing issues or bugs are encouraged to disable mods and make the team aware.

We thought Civilization 7 was 'good,' awarding it a fitting 7/10, writing: "Civilization 7's improved warfare and added bits of narrative flair give me reasons to keep clicking one more turn late into the night, but the desire to streamline and simplify this legendary 4X series feels like it has also gone a bit too far, particularly when it comes to the interface."

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Carrie-Anne Moss has discussed the backlash to her characters’ death early on in Star Wars Disney+ show The Acolyte, insisting she had no idea it would be a big deal.

Episode 1, Lost / Found, launches straight into the action as a mysterious assassin (Amandla Stenberg) — later revealed to be Osha's twin sister Mae — enters a bar to confront Moss' Jedi Master Indara. Mae challenges Indara to "attack her" with all her strength and then forces her into a duel. Mae ends up striking Indara down, resulting in her death, which some fans felt was premature for a screen legend like Moss.

Series creator Leslye Headland has offered an explanation for the death, insisting it was essential for the show to throw down the gauntlet and highlight the threats faced by the Jedi.

"From a filmmaker perspective, I just felt like with the cold open, especially with a new story, that you just have to go hard," Headland explained in an interview with GamesRadar last year. "You have to say the Jedi are going to take some Ls; you're not going to know who the good guys and the bad guys are. And it's going to feel very visceral."

"Even if you already know it's going to happen, it doesn't have to be a big gotcha moment," she added. "It just has to be a moment where the emotional and the physical — meaning the fights — melt together. Carrie-Anne, not just being an action legend, is also a phenomenal actress. She was able to play all those beats within the fight as well as, of course, her death scene."

Still, fans took to social media as soon as the episode was shown to issue their complaints. Some were unhappy with the actor's short-lived appearance, feeling the character did not get enough screen time. Others criticized her heavy inclusion in promotional materials, only to be cut early on.

Why yall make Carrie-Anne Moss get out of bed if you’re just gonna waste her like that #theacolyte pic.twitter.com/d58TJbacI1

— Boka MAX (Formerly “Boka”) (@BokaLaBoca) June 5, 2024

Now, speaking to Business Insider a year on, Carrie-Anne Moss revealed she knew her character's fate when she signed on to play Indara, but admitted she underestimated the fan reaction to her death, and, looking back, feels she should have called it.

"The reaction to it from the fans, I kind of thought, 'Wow, how did I not think of that?'" she said. "I mean, I serve the writers and the directors. It didn't cross my mind. But afterward, when people made a big deal about it. I was like, 'How did I miss that?' I didn't think it would be a big deal at all."

Indara does appear in later episodes of the season in flashback form, but for many fans the damage was done. Indeed, Star Wars owner Disney canceled The Acolyte after Season 1, leaving a number of plot threads, chief among them the dramatic first appearance of Darth Plagueis in live-action form, dangling, perhaps never to be resolved.

Since the cancelation, a number of actors who appeared in The Acolyte have said they still hope for a Season 2. In December, Manny Jacinto, who played Qimir, said Darth Plagueis would have had a bigger role in further seasons of The Acolyte, but didn't reveal too much because "we could come back."

Sol actor Lee Jung-Jae said he was "quite surprised" to hear it wouldn't get a second season, which Headland was thinking about even before Season 1 premiered. Others, including Stenberg, have said they weren't shocked by the cancellation, however. "I'm going to be transparent and say that it's not a huge shock for me," she said. "I was in the bubble of my own reality, but for those who aren't aware there's been a rampage of vitriol that we've faced since the show was even announced. When it was still just a concept and no one had even seen it."

Mother Aniseya actress Jodie Turner-Smith raised this issue too, calling out Disney for not doing enough for the cast who faced waves of racist slander online. "They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting f**king dog-piled on the internet with racism and bulls**t," she said. Jacinto is still eager to create more of The Acolyte though, calling Season 2 his life's goal not long after its cancellation.

The Acolyte earned a 6/10 in IGN's review. We said: "The Acolyte takes us to an earlier era of Star Wars than we’ve seen on screen with mixed results. Awkward dialogue and a small scope rob it of some of the series’ signature space magic, but these old-school Jedi are a thrill to watch in action."

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.

Back in March this year, game industry veteran Masahiro Sakurai received a lifetime achievement award at the 30th AMD awards. In an interview by ITMedia Business Online conducted at the time (recently republished on Yahoo Japan), Sakurai revealed why he doesn’t hire people, reflected on how the games industry has changed, and touched on the potential use of generative AI in development.

Sakurai is best known as the creator behind two of Nintendo’s big franchises, Kirby and Smash Bros. After working at game dev studio Hal Laboratories from 1989 to 2003, Sakurai became a freelance game creator, founding his own company Sora Ltd. in 2005. In 2022, he created the award-winning YouTube channel “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games,” in which he shared insight and advice on all aspects of making a game.

Sakurai’s approach differs from that of many game creators who have gone on to form their own companies. “When a game creator becomes the president of a company, it is difficult for them to fully engage in creative activities,” explained Sakurai. “There was a conflict between making interesting games and making management decisions — the problem was that being overwhelmed by the duties of being a president made it hard to focus on the vital part, game creation.”

This led Sakurai to his current approach, which involves creating games without directly hiring or managing any employees. “Basically I work together with other game companies to avoid having to manage a company,” Sakurai explained. “This method has worked well so far. I am able to continue being creative and concentrate on making things without becoming extremely busy running a company.”

However, Sakurai noted that his method is not without its challenges. Working with different game devs means that Sakurai has to “build up trusting relationships and working styles from scratch every time. So, I think it is necessary to have a certain degree of flexibility.”

According to Sakurai, one of the most important elements when working with a team on a new project for the first time is to make sure everyone is on the same page and has a clear, shared vision of the game. “I make sure that many members of staff can share the same information at the same time, regardless of their job or whether they are designer or programmer.” Although this takes more time and planning, Sakurai said that in his experience, this approach “reduces the risk of information gaps” and misunderstandings. “Conversely, if I just conveyed my ideas to the producer, and then they assign work to various other people, then some kind of misunderstanding would occur, or even a 180 degree difference (in what was intended).”

However, when asked whether his approach would be the best for the game industry as a whole, Sakurai was hesitant. “It depends on the person. As for me, I had built up a track record and trust through working on Kirby and Smash Bros. titles in the past. If you don’t have this, if you don’t have any track record at all, then the work won’t come to you. This is a way of working that becomes possible through gaining more allies by continuing to make good games, and it is not a style of working that works well for everyone.”

Director Danny Boyle has discussed how Britain's most iconic tree features in 28 Years Later — despite the movie being shot more than a year after vandals chopped it down.

Boyle's post-apocalyptic 28 Days Later film series has always included a heavy focus on British culture, and new entry 28 Years Later is no different, with references to the children's classic TV show The Teletubbies and a particularly notorious cultural figure who is best left behind a sizable spoiler warning.

But as British fans of the series flock to see the film, one other notable inclusion that's been spotted is the tree at Sycamore Gap — an iconic location in the English countryside that dominated national headlines when the tree was illegally felled.

For those unfamiliar, the 150-year-old Sycamore Gap tree was positioned in a photogenic tourist hotspot in the northern English county of Northumberland, next to an ancient Roman structure, Hadrian's Wall, that once divided the country from Scotland.

The tree gained particular fame from being featured in the 1991 Kevin Costner classic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves — with some dubbing the sycamore as 'the Robin Hood tree' as a result.

In the early hours of September 28, 2023, the tree was cut down in an act deemed by police to be "deliberate vandalism." Two men in their 30s who filmed themselves felling the tree on their mobile phones were later arrested and charged with causing £623,335 worth of criminal damage to both the tree itself and Hadrian's Wall, upon which the sycamore had fallen. Both have since been found guilty, but await sentencing.

Hytale, the Minecraft competitor announced in 2018, is canceled and its developer is shutting down.

Hypixel Studios announced that the ambitious, Riot Games-backed Minecraft-style game had ended development, and the studio itself was in the process of winding down.

Hytale was announced in December 2018 with a trailer that has an incredible 61 million views on YouTube. Here’s the official blurb, as it was back then:

Hytale combines the scope of a sandbox with the depth of a roleplaying game, immersing players in a procedurally generated world where teetering towers and deep dungeons promise rich rewards throughout their adventures. Hytale supports everything from block-by-block construction to scripting and minigame creation, delivered using easy to use and powerful tools.

Excitement around Hytale was fueled by the experience of the developers themselves, who co-founded Hypixel, one of the most influential Minecraft servers in the world. Riot Games, maker of League of Legends, invested in the project and eventually bought the studio.

However, the Hytale dream is now over. “This is not the outcome any of us — at Hypixel or at Riot — wanted,” a statement attributed to co-founder Noxy published to the Hytale website reads. “But after years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise.”

So, what went wrong? According to Noxy, Hytale’s technical ambitions grew more complex, and even after a reboot of the game engine, the team “found that Hytale still wasn’t as far along as it needed to be.”

“It became clear we’d need a lot more time to get it to a place where it could support the ambitious vision for the game,” Noxy continued.

Options such as reducing scope and pushing the game back were rejected as they “would have meant compromising on what made Hytale special in the first place.” “It wouldn’t have been the game we set out to make,” Noxy explained. “And it wouldn’t have been the game you deserve.”

As for Riot, it tried to find investors to save the project, but it sounds like those efforts failed to go anywhere. The affected staff are getting “generous severance and resources to help them find what’s next.”

Confirmation of the cancelation comes just a few months after Hypixel issued a spring 2025 development update, where the studio revealed some of the progress it had made in the first few months of the year. It even finally revealed a new character that it had teased at the end of 2023. New engine progress was called out, with improvements highlighted.

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.

Sarah Michelle Gellar wants the upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot to bring back the show's original cast of characters — including "everyone who has died."

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Gellar said her vision for the series would be that it offers a mix of storylines featuring both new and returning faces, and have a lighter tone than the original show's Season 6 and Season 7.

As well as being an executive producer, Gellar will star in the series' new pilot episode and then appear in a recurring role afterwards, as she passes the Slayer baton to new series lead Ryan Kiera Armstrong. But it sounds like she won't be the only classic cast member returning when the Buffy reboot arrives.

"It will be lighter than the last few seasons of the original," Gellar said. "We will try to find a balance between new and old characters. My dream is to bring back everyone who has died, but space will have to be made for new stories as well."

Gellar's comments are the first time we've heard of plans to bring back other classic characters as well as herself, and the suggestion that deceased characters could return as well opens up some intriguing possibilities.

Main character deaths in Buffy's original run were rare, though later seasons saw fan-favourite witch Tara tragically murdered, while the show's finale offed former demon Anya.

Buffy spin-off Angel killed off a slew of its cast characters, however, including several that debuted in its parent show. Cheerleader turned seer Cordelia sadly passed in the series' later episodes, while Watcher turned rogue demon hunter Wesley fell in the series finale.

In the world of Buffy, death does not pose a huge problem for returning characters, with numerous actors reprising their roles — or beginning them — as characters who have died, become undead, or been resurrected. Buffy herself died several times throughout the series' original run, and several of her closest pals (lovers) were vampires.

Gellar recently recorded a video reuniting with her former co-star Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow, putting to bed internet rumours of a feud. Fans had hoped this meant Hannigan's character might also return — though there's been no confirmation as yet.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer originally aired from 1997 to 2003, starring Gellar, Hannigan, Nicholas Brendan as Xander, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia, David Boreanaz as Angel and Anthony Stewart Head as Giles. The series was created by Joss Whedon, who is not connected to the reboot.

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