Jeopardy’s got one of us, folks. Current reigning champion Scott Riccardi just completed an insane 10-day streak on the beloved game show — and it turns out he’s an active Super Smash Bros. competitor online. Can we get a W in the chat for Scott, please?

Riccardi has amassed a whopping $262,101 over the course of his streak so far, and it seems he isn’t showing any signs of hitting the breaks in the competition. He beat the record for the most wins in season 41 back on July 15 when he hit his 9-day streak, so he’s really giving his other competitors a run for their money at this point.

The Epic Games Store is giving away Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Platinum Edition away for free on PC for an entire week starting today.

The latest addition to the Fortnite maker’s free game offerings is no doubt one of the biggest deals of 2025, giving players a chance to pick up 2K and Firaxis Games’ 2016 strategy title at no extra cost from July 17 – 24. It’s an $80 value that nets players the base experience along with a whopping six DLC packs and two premium expansions, all free to own even after the offer expires. You can click here to claim the offer for yourself.

Everything Included in Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Platinum Edition

• Sid Meier’s Civilization 6
• Civilization VI: Rise and Fall expansion
• Civilization VI: Gathering Storm expansion
• Civilization VI – Vikings Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack
• Civilization VI – Khmer and Indonesia Civilization & Scenario Pack

Firaxis launched Civilization 6 nearly 10 years ago, with the historically based 4X strategy game now available to play across PC, mobile devices, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It’s an experience we gave a 9.4/10 in our review upon its release, saying at the time that it was “fully loaded with features and makes some very smart changes to its winning 4X strategy formula.”

The project was the primary way for fans to enjoy the Civilization franchise all the way up to February of this year, which saw Firaxis release its long-awaited follow-up, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7. Although the 2025 iteration adds new features, updated visuals, and more tools from across history to play with, it’s still got a few scratches to buff out. We gave it a 7/10, and in May, Take-Two addressed its “Mixed” Steam reviews (which have now dropped to the “Mostly Negative” for recent reviews), promising that Firaxis' work will result in a better game in the future.

Civilization 6, meanwhile, remains a complete experience, boasting “Very Positive” overall Steam reviews and a 4.7/5 stars from players on the Epic Games Store. If you play your PC games through the latter – or even if you don’t – there’s no reason not to pick up the Platinum Edition for free now that the deal is live.

While you wait for Civilization 6 to download, you can read up on how the first human Neuralink patient and how he used the experimental technology to stay up playing Firaxis’ 2016 video game. You can also check out its Android update trailer, which premiered just last month.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).

IGN is excited to share with you the brand new trailer for Mortal Kombat II, which you can watch via the player embedded below. The trailer debuted during a live stream Thursday morning between IGN, Warner Bros. Pictures, and IMAX. Ahead of the trailer’s global online debut, I was able to chat exclusively with actor Karl Urban – who brings the iconic Johnny Cage to life in Mortal Kombat II – as well as director Simon McQuoid and producer Todd Garner in their first extensive interviews about the highly anticipated sequel.

The 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat, also directed by McQuoid, was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max during the COVID-19 pandemic, where it became the streamer’s most successful movie launch ever.

“When we made the [first] movie, Warner Bros. didn't know how people were going to react. They didn't know. We didn't have a huge budget to do whatever we wanted to do,” Garner recalled. “We certainly couldn't compete with the huge superhero movies by any stretch of the imagination, so we were limited by the scale and scope of that movie because they didn't really know what they had.”

“The fact that the movie did so well on HBO Max, and obviously now that we have Mike De Luca at Warner Bros. and Pam Abdy, they really knew not only what they had from the numbers from HBO Max, but they also knew, Mike knew because he has such a fondness for the series. They gave us more scale, more scope to do the fights, more fighting, which is expensive quite frankly.” (De Luca, it should be noted, was a young executive at New Line Cinema in the 1990s where the original Mortal Kombat movies were produced.)

Watch the new red band Mortal Kombat II trailer:

"Most franchises don't start with the prequel. Most franchises start with the movie and then you do the prequel, because we have a movie that sets up the rules and sets up the world. It doesn't have a tournament, and now we wanted to make sure that we did the tournament and what people expect from the Mortal Kombat franchise," Garner explained. "And so coming into the movie with Johnny Cage being new to the tournament, [it's] not hard to follow."

Director McQuoid said a very large percentage of the film was shot in IMAX, which allowed for the scale of not just the fight scenes but the world of Mortal Kombat itself to level up.

“We've got some new characters coming in and some of those new characters are wild and otherworldly, like Shao Kahn. And when you've got characters like that, you have to swing for the fences, really,” McQuoid said. “I wanted to use what Mortal Kombat had by going to new realms and giving it a bigger, more wild [feel], more scope, and use the material that's just sitting there ready to be used. And so, in pushing into those new realms, and we go to Edenia and we spend a lot of time there, and that was exciting because it hasn't really been portrayed all that much… It was great to bring massive scale to that. And also some of the levels from the game, we were able to take those things and scale them up to a big and beautiful place.”

The director added that “there's some things in the IMAX version, some little story moments and little gems for the super fans that, if you see the IMAX version, you'll see something in that version that you won't see in the regular theatrical version. I just wanted to try and innovate and use the format in a way that really makes it a rewarding experience for the audience.”

With McQuoid back in the director’s chair and a script by Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater, the next step was finding the right actor to play Johnny Cage, a fan favorite character from the games who was only teased at the end of the first film but is the main protagonist of the sequel.

“We didn't know if the general audience would buy an arrogant actor as the lead of the first movie, or would it be strange that it would be this arrogant actor in this basically martial arts movie? Did it feel weird?,” Garner said.

“For people who didn't know the game and didn't know the franchise, would it just feel like, ‘Wait, you have these guys with these superpowers that are doing incredible martial arts and this arrogant actor from the nineties? What is this?" It just felt like it was all over the place. So Liu was used in the first movie as the sage, the teacher, the wise one, which he is, and we knew we had to ultimately get to Johnny Cage because he's such a big presence in the franchise.”

Garner was candid about the challenges of casting Johnny Cage while also keeping fans happy. “I get it. Everybody comes to the franchise with their own love of it and their own feeling of what it should be,” the producer admits. “I'd have to make a hundred thousand different movies to please everybody.”

Garner specifically cites the factions of fans who lobbied for wrestler-actor The Miz, martial artist-actor Scott Adkins, or movie stars like Ryan Reynolds and Glen Powell. “Those two gentlemen have massive careers and schedules and they make untold lots and lots of money that probably wouldn't have necessarily fit into our budget, let alone our schedule,” Garner said.

“What we tried to do with this movie in the casting from the get-go is not have celebrity casting of like, oh, it's so-and-so playing Liu Kang. We wanted it to be Liu Kang, we wanted it to be Scorpion, we wanted it to be Sub-Zero, Jax, and so forth. So it wasn't like we were going for the biggest star. We wanted to try to bring the best to the characters, and Karl, he's an incredible actor. I'll put him up against anybody, and for this journey of this movie, we needed somebody to embody Johnny Cage, and he did that.”

The Johnny Cage of Mortal Kombat II, however, is not quite the same blowhard typically depicted in the Mortal Kombat games or past film and TV adaptations. Not initially, anyway. “When we first discover Johnny, he is sort of lacking a lot of that quintessential spark that I think fans of the game will know,” Urban told IGN.

“We start him at a very low point. His career is completely in the dumps. He has no self-confidence. He has neglected his martial arts training. And at his lowest point, he gets called up to, essentially, be a warrior that represents the Earthrealm and fight for the very future of humanity. And as I read the script, I found it just such a compelling, interesting, dynamic journey. We start this character in one place, and as an audience, we get to see him evolve and grow.”

“A wonderful facet of the writing is they really humanize the character of Johnny and he's not some [two-dimensional] character, not that he ever was, but he has room to grow. And he certainly does that as he gains his confidence and gains his belief in his self, [and] some of that sort of cockiness and swagger starts to come through.”

While Urban has long known of Mortal Kombat, he credits playing the game with his kids – and losing soundly to them – with making him fall in love with the franchise. “When Mortal Kombat first came out, and I think it was around '92, I was so broke, I couldn't even afford a PlayStation, let alone the game, so I sort of missed out on the initial wave in it,” the Star Trek and The Boys actor recalled.

“When I heard that they were doing a second installment of the film and that Johnny Cage was going to be a huge part of it, we were very proactive about seeking out the director and the producers and getting a hold of the script, which was fantastic,” said Urban. “Jeremy Slater wrote an amazing script. And yeah, I just couldn't be more thrilled, not only to portray this version of Johnny Cage, but just to be a part of the Mortal Kombat world.”

To prepare for the role, Urban consumed everything he could about his iconic character and the Mortal Kombat franchise and he also underwent training that he described as “the most difficult fighting that I have ever done in my career.” But while the physical aspects were “a huge challenge,” Urban said his main objective as an actor was making Johnny Cage feel like a real person.

“For me, the challenge, really, was to ground the character in a reality and to give him a backstory. And my research, apart from absorbing everything I could about Mortal Kombat and what had been done with Johnny Cage previously and what had been done with him in the games, was to then really formulate a backstory,” Urban said.

“Part of my research is I went along to a bunch of karate tournaments and looked at young kids coming through and just absorbing myself in the culture and imagining young Johnny before he was plucked out of that into movie stardom, what that was like. And I found that just a really wonderful and fascinating experience and a real eye-opener.”

Urban assured me that “fans of Johnny Cage are going to be super delighted by the signature moves and all the nods and elements that we've worked so hard to infuse into the movie.” While Urban spoke of the reverence and fan service the filmmakers have put into Mortal Kombat II, he also acknowledged that “the objective is also to make it accessible to a new audience. We are making this film also, not only for fans of Mortal Kombat, but for fans of cinema and for fans of fun, action, adventure, martial art movies. And you don't have to have even played Mortal Kombat or even seen the first film to jump straight into this.”

Urban then paid the film one of the highest compliments an action movie could receive: “I think Mortal Kombat II is to Mortal Kombat what The Road Warrior is to Mad Max. I think that everybody across the board has leveled up in a significant way right across the entire production. And I think this representation of this world and these characters is the best we've seen. And I'm super excited for an audience to see it. As you've seen from the trailer itself … it looks like a significant level-up.”

Mortal Kombat II opens in theaters October 24, 2025. Look for more from IGN’s exclusive interviews with the filmmakers soon.

We hope you’ve been testing your might and practicing your combo moves and animalities, because Mortal Kombat 2 is nearly upon us. This sequel to the 2021 reboot features many returning characters, like Lewis Tan’s Cole Young and Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion, but it also introduces a brand new kast of kombatants. That includes Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage, who looks to be the star of the show this time around. That’s judging from the first Mortal Kombat 2 trailer, which features a lot of Urban’s Cage along with several other new players.

Are you a little rusty on your MK mythology? Are you having trouble making sense of the many colorful characters in this new footage? Not to worry. Let’s break down the characters we see in the new Mortal Kombat 2 trailer, along with the others confirmed to appear in this sequel.

New Characters in Mortal Kombat 2

Karl Urban as Johnny Cage

Johnny Cage was probably the most significant MK character not to appear in the 2021 movie. Fortunately, the sequel looks to be making up for lost time. All signs point to Karl Urban’s Cage being the central protagonist of Mortal Kombat 2, perhaps even pushing Tan’s Cole Young into a secondary role (we’ll get to him in a minute).

Urban’s Cage is introduced in a way that will be familiar to fans of the franchise. He’s played as a middle-aged, washed-up action hero long past his moviemaking prime and the days of box office hits like Uncaged Fury. (Warner Bros. even released a fake trailer for Uncaged Fury this week too.) But unlike most Hollywood action stars, Johnny actually has the moves to back up his bravado. That’ll come in handy as he’s reluctantly drawn into the conflict between Earthrealm and Outworld.

“We start him at a very low point,” Urban told IGN. “His career is completely in the dumps. He has no self-confidence. He has neglected his martial arts training. And at his lowest point, he gets called up to, essentially, be a warrior that represents the Earthrealm and fight for the very future of humanity. And as I read the script, I found it just such a compelling, interesting, dynamic journey. We start this character in one place, and as an audience, we get to see him evolve and grow.”

We also see a shot of Cage flirting with Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade in the trailer. That’s significant, as in the games their romance eventually results in a daughter named Cassie Cage, a very formidable fighter in her own right.

Cage was first played by Linden Ashby in the 1995 movie. The character also appeared in the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, played by Matt Mullins in Season 1 and Starship Troopers' Casper Van Dien in Season 2.

Adeline Rudolph as Kitana

Another fan-favorite hero is joining the cast in MK2, as Adeline Rudolph plays the steel fan-wielding Kitana. In the games, Kitana is the princess of Edenia, the daughter of Queen Sindel, and a love interest for Liu Kang. She’s also one of the most important figures in the fight to stop Outworld from conquering all of reality. We don’t get the impression any of that will be changing for Mortal Kombat 2, though with a cast this large, we’ll see if there’s much room to build a romance between Kitana and Liu.

Kitana was originally played by Talisa Soto in the 1995 movie, while Samantha Jo played Kitana on both seasons of Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Tati Gabrielle as Jade

The masked bo staff expert Jade will now be portrayed by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Tati Gabrielle. In the games, Jade is Kitana’s bodyguard and best friend, meaning she’s got her work cut out for her.

Jade was originally played by Irina Pantaeva in 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

Damon Herriman as Quan Chi

Since Skate’s announcement way back in 2020 (originally dubbed Skate 4) we’ve seen an influx of skateboarding games, from sims like Session, to the arcadey Tony Hawk remakes, and unique experiences like VR Skater and Olli Olli World. No matter how you look at it, skateboarding video games are definitely back, but they’re still missing that open-world sandbox feel that the Skate series popularized back in the late 2000’s. When I got the chance to play an alpha build of Skate 3’s long awaited sequel, I was excited but also skeptical of how the Skate revival would work as a live service game, and most importantly, would it be able to recapture the magic from the first three entries?

Within minutes of my nearly six hours with Skate and after a few moments of me spectacularly ragdolling around San Vansterdam, I was able to reactivate my long dormant muscle memory to find myself grinding and kick flipping my way around Skate’s sandbox world. From the extremely intuitive and easy-to-digest first handful of missions that smartly taught me its gameplay mechanics in small digestible chunks, to its cleverly designed world that never slowed me down when I was cursing around, and its unique traversal system that plays more like an Assassin’s Creed and Spider-Man game than what I would expect from a skateboarding sim, it’s obvious that developer Full Circle took an “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” approach to this and made sure that Skate is a game that can be played and understood quickly.

In addition to the classic control scheme, Skate offers two variations of controls that can make the difficulty curve easier for new players as well as a multitude of quality-of-life features that, quite frankly, are a welcome addition. While I stuck with the original control scheme and didn't mess with any of Skate's accessibility features outside of a few less button presses, there's definitely a way to make Skate’s unique playstyle a little easier for both series newcomers and die-hard Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater fans. Regardless of how you want to play, Skate’s controls make pulling off gravity-defying tricks an easy and really fun process, thanks to its flick controls and intuitive movement system.

Simply put, I had a ton of fun with my time cruising around San Vansterdam discovering cool things to skate on while riding from objective to objective. At its core, Skate is a big open sandbox where you jump on and off of things and do cool tricks in-between that. Because of this, I never felt pressured to complete any nearby objectives on my map, I never paid much attention to my score, nor did I feel stuck in that carrot-on-a-stick gameplay loop so many live service games rely on. While you are encouraged to complete objectives in order to unlock new areas and level up your character, I found myself ignoring that and just vibing around to the in-game soundtrack and finding new cool places to skate on.

Thankfully, discovering those spots is extremely simple thanks to the ability to hop off your board and parkour around the map. I was able to easily scale buildings with Skate’s easy-to-use climbing controls and drop markers wherever I needed to spawn back to, which happened whenever I tried something stupid – like attempting to heelflip off a skyscraper onto a park bench. Which never worked out, by the way, but I still found myself trying over and over again. A movement system like this makes Skate less frustrating to mess around with and find fun and ridiculous areas to skate on all over the map. That being said, there are a hefty amount of objectives and story quests to complete that range from following a premade line, to getting a high score, and even one where I had to skydive off a building into a nearby bridge.

Tonally, Skate looks and feels a bit different than the direction the original trilogy had. While I'm definitely nostalgic for the pseudo-realistic look of the originals, the world in Skate seems to be a bit more exaggerated and saturated. Early on in my session I had to complete a mission where I jumped off a building into a dumpster. The in-game narrator explained that nobody in that world feels pain when falling because a tech start up called ImpervaTEK figured out how to make people invincible. When asked to further elaborate, I was told to not worry because its science and the topic was never mentioned again. That’s pretty dumb, but OK, whatever. Let’s me keep skating, I guess. And while I loved the simple world building of Skate, the character models took a bit of time to get used to, since they kind of look like next generation Sims. But eventually, after a few costume adjustments, I was happy with how my bleach-blonde, mullet-wearing self looked, and I was back to landing triple kick-flips in no time.

If you weren’t already aware, Skate is a free-to-play live service game, and while that is a major departure from the previous titles, its heavy focus on multiplayer gameplay really makes this version of Skate seem like it could be a game I would return to long after its release. The developers on site told me that there could be well over 100+ players on the map at once, and while proximity chat was not featured in my demo, I never really felt like I needed to speak out loud to anyone whenever I ran into another skater. Seeing other people casually mess around in Skate’s sandbox world is a unique experience that very few live service games seem to get right, and with its numerous customization features and evolving world, I’m pretty optimistic about the world feeling alive once it's released and I can absolutely see a map full of people hanging out and skating.

Finally, there is a level progression system where you can earn in-game cosmetics, one of which is that same pair of Vans a lot of us have been wearing for the past twenty-something years, notable decks from major skate brands, emotes, and a ton of cool and weird clothes to put on my custom character. As expected, there is also an in-game store full of cosmetic items and costumes, but I never felt like I needed to buy anything and was reassured that there are no “pay to win” microtransactions in Skate. While this is only from pre-alpha gameplay and that can all change, I didn't seem to find any of the typical trappings from other free-to-play live service offerings. Let’s hope it stays that way.

After playing Skate for well over five hours, not only I can clearly see the direction developer Full Circle is taking the series, but I can also say that Skate is shaping up to be a game worthy of being the long-awaited sequel to 2010’s Skate 3. The gameplay seems refined and lives up to its predecessors, the world is big and fun to explore, and the overall sandbox’s “do what you want” vibe is really making me look forward to diving back into Skate – and hopefully add it to my rotation of games that I can pick up and relax to after a long day.

It's never difficult to stay busy at San Diego Comic-Con, but Comixology has something new in store for this year's event. IGN can exclusively reveal that Comixology and Kindle are partnering up to create a unique scavenger hunt game at Comic-Con.

Dubbed the "Comixology x Kindle Colorsoft Scavenger Hunt," this promotion tasks fans with traveling to the booths of various participating publishers to find and scan hidden QR codes. These codes unlock free comics, discount codes, and even the chance to win a Kindle Colorsoft.

The list of participating publishers includes:

• Abrams ComicArts
• BOOM! Studios
• Comicraft
• ComicMix
• Dark Horse Comics
• Fantagraphics
• Ghost Machine
• IDW
• Image Comics
• Kodansha
• Mad Cave Studios
• Oni Press
• Red 5 Comics
• Silver Sprocket
• Titan Entertainment
• Top Cow Productions
• Zenescope Entertainment

"We’re thrilled to be teaming up with Kindle for SDCC 2025,” said Jeff DiBartolomeo, GM and CTO of Comixology, in a statement. “We’re excited for fans to join us and our many publishing partners in our first-ever in-person scavenger hunt. The Comixology x Kindle Colorsoft Scavenger Hunt is a celebration of comics, of reading, and the massive, diverse library of comics – from classics to today's newest releases – available through more than 150 publishers on Comixology and Kindle.”

The Comixology booth (#1935) will also have plenty to keep attendees busy, including a giant gumball machine whose prizes include exclusive enamel pins and more chances to win Kindle Colorsoft devices. The booth will also feature Kindle demo stations, creator signings, and live drawing sessions featuring artists like Michael Avon Oeming and Tula Lotay. In addition, Comixology is hosting no fewer than seven panels at SDCC, with panelists including Thomas Jane, Taki Soma, Marc Bernardin, Tula Lotay, Paul Cornell, and Scott Snyder.

San Diego Comic-Con 2025 runs from Thursday, July 24 through Sunday, July 27. You can check out the list of panels for more on what to expect from this year's show.

In other comic book news, Cult of the Lamb is returning to comics for the new Schism Special, and Marvel introduced David Colton, the forgotten post-9/11 Captain America.

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 Cherrypick Games and publisher Frozen District have announced Quartermaster, a new management sim/base-builder where you run a secret spy agency where you develop gadgets, train agents, and manage your staff. It's in development for PC and due out late this year or in early 2026.

It's your job to research gadgets, equip your agents, and make sure their gear is good enough that they don't die in the field. Cherrypick gave some examples of the gadgets you can expect to craft in Quartermaster: "Under-the-coat jetpacks. Top-tech spy glasses. Robots disguised as attaché cases. Hologram-generating devices. Watches that shoot glass-cutting lasers. Undetectable latex disguise masks." Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Cherrypick sums up Quartermaster as such: "Research, develop, prepare, monitor mission success rates, and adapt to build the most efficient and commercially successful top-secret agency in the world!" In short, it seems as though fans of Q from the James Bond films who never thought that character got their due can now play a whole game built around them.

You can wishlist Quartermaster on Steam if you're intereseted.

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.

Netflix is finally ready to move forward with its live-action Assassin's Creed series, five years on from when the project was first announced.

In a press release today, Netflix said it had now officially greenlit its Assassin's Creed project, which will now be headed up by Roberto Patino and David Wiener, previously showrunners on DMZ and Halo, respectively. Both will serve as creators, showrunners and executive producers on the series, alongside input from Ubisoft.

"Beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story — about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny and faith," Patino and Wiener said in a joint statement.

"It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance," the pair continued. "But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time. And it's about what we stand to lose as a species, when those connections break."

So, what's been taking so long? Over the past five years, several creatives have joined and left the project — including Die Hard writer Jeb Stuart — though details of what's been happening behind the scenes remain scarce.

There's little to go on now, either, regarding a potential historical focus for the series, or how deeply it may tie into the franchise's established video game universe.

"When we first announced our partnership with Ubisoft in 2020, we set out with an ambitious goal to bring the rich, expansive world of Assassin's Creed to life in bold new ways," said Peter Friedlander, Netflix's Vice President, Scripted Series. "Now, after years of dedicated collaboration, it's inspiring to see just how far that vision has come.

"Guided by the deft hands of Roberto Patino and David Wiener, the team has carefully crafted an epic adventure that both honors the legacy of the Assassin's Creed franchise and invites longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience the thrill of the Brotherhood as never before."

Of course, this isn't the first live-action Assassin's Creed adaptation. The franchise's big budget Michael Fassbender-starring movie launched in 2016, albeit to something of a mixed reception — and Ubisoft has subsequently reflected on the lessons it learned from making that.

Back in the world of video games, the main Assassin's Creed series shows no signs of slowing down. The feudal Japan-set Assassin's Creed Shadows is due its first major expansion before the end of 2025, and fans are now awaiting the highly-anticipated announcement of an Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remaster. After that, the witchy-looking Assassin's Creed Hexe is already in development, for launch sometime in the back half of this decade.

When will Netflix's own Assassin's Creed effort debut, in amongst all of that? Today's announcement does not say, but things do at least seem to be moving in the right direction.

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

Razer has brought its officially licensed Pokémon collection of accessories to territories outside of Asia, meaning you can now get your hands on an official Pokémon mouse, keyboard, headset, or deskmat.

Razer announced today that it has partnered with The Pokémon Company to bring an official line of Pokémon accessories to the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Previously, official Pokémon x Razer accessories were only available in Asia.

The initial set consists of a Razer BlackWidow V4 X keyboard, a Razer Kraken V4 X headset, a Razer Cobra mouse, and a Razer Gigantus V2 deskmat. All four items feature the same theme, solid yellow and a pattern of Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander's faces similar to the art used in mobile game Pokémon Shuffle.

Prices are as follows:

• Razer BlackWidow V4 X – Pokémon Edition: $169.99 USD / €199.99
• Razer Kraken V4 X – Pokémon Edition: $99.99 USD / €109.99
• Razer Cobra – Pokémon Edition: $59.99 USD / €69.99
• Razer Gigantus V2 - Medium – Pokémon Edition: $29.99 USD / €39.99 MSRP

All four items are now available for purchase.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered development studio Virtuos has said it remains "fully committed" to ongoing work on the game, as well as its contributions to Cyberpunk 2077 and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, despite shedding up to 270 staff.

In a statement today, Virtuous said it was "evolving to meet the changing needs" of its partners and the wider video games industry by cutting several hundred staff members, predominantly from its Asian workforce.

Describing the job losses as a "rebalancing of roles across our studios and geographies," Virtuos said its changes would impact 200 roles in Asia and a further 70 roles in Europe.

Still, the company has made clear that its team behind the recent, well-received Oblivion Remastered is not among those hardest hit. "Fewer than 10" roles will be impacted in France, Virtuos continued, "where the core team working on Oblivion Remastered is located." Oblivion Remastered update 1.2 will soon be released widely.

Ongoing work on Cyberpunk 2077 — which only today received its latest patch — will continue, Virtuos assured. The same is also true of its team working on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, due out on August 28.

Discussing its staffing changes in more detail, Virtuos said the company's focus had shifted over the past 12 months after acquisitions of teams in North America and Europe, and it was now "selectively exiting service segments where demand is weakening."

"We are grateful for the contributions of those impacted," Virtuos concluded. "We are providing separation packages, career transition assistance, and opportunities for redeployment across our global network where possible. The company's immediate focus is on managing this transition with care, transparency, and respect."

Headquarted in Singapore but with studios across the world, Virtuos employed 4,200 staff before these latest layoffs. The company is a renowned co-development partner that has contributed to a laundry list of recent blockbuster games, from Hogwarts Legacy to Call of Duty, and Horizon Zero Dawn to Mortal Kombat 1.

Virtuos' Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.3 is available today for all platforms and adds new vehicles, jobs and a photo mode to CD Projekt's futuristic open-world, while CD Projekt itself is busy building Cyberpunk 2.

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

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix recently returned to The Late Show after a whopping 15 years — but something else also happened: he apologized for his infamous David Letterman interview from 2009 that took place on the show before Letterman turned the reins over to Stephen Colbert.

“When I came on this show with Dave, I originally did the pre-interview in character and I realized that it was just a little silly, so I called them back and I said, ‘Listen, this is what I’m doing. I’m coming out here and I’m doing this whole thing. And I just want Dave to like, lacerate me. I just want it to be really dangerous,'” Phoenix told Colbert on July 16.

“That was the kind of intention,” he continued. “I just always wanted to get this reaction and see how I would respond to that. So it was beneficial for no one to know, except when needed.”

Horror fans have an exciting new 4K steelbook coming their way, and just in time for Halloween this year. The 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, directed by horror special effects legend Tom Savini, is getting a 35th anniversary 4K steelbook (see here at Walmart). It's set to release on September 23 and is available to preorder at a few different retailers. This steelbook is also filled to the brim with exciting bonus features, which you can find listed in further detail below.

Preorder Night of the Living Dead 1990 4K Steelbook

• Amazon | Walmart | Target

The movie is available for $39.99 at Walmart, and for a buck and a half more at Amazon and Target. Amazon will likely price match Walmart prior to release, but there's no guarantee.

Night of the Living Dead 1990 4K Steelbook Bonus Features

Not only does this steelbook come with exciting interviews and featurettes, but it also comes with an Uncensored Cut of the film in 4K alongside the original theatrical cut. It's a real treat for fans. Here's the full list of bonus features that come with the Night of the Living Dead 1990 4K steelbook:

DISC ONE - 4K BLU-RAY

• NEW 4K RESTORATION OF TWO VERSIONS OF THE FILM
  • NEW: Uncensored Cut – supervised by director Tom Savini, the Uncensored Cut restores moments of graphic violence and delivers an alternate vision of this horror classic
  • 1990 Theatrical Version
• DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
• NEW: Commentary with director Tom Savini on the Uncensored Cut, moderated by Michael Felsher
• English Dolby Atmos (both versions) + English 5.1 (both versions) + English 2-Channel Surround (Theatrical Version only)

DISC TWO - BLU-RAY

• 1990 Theatrical Version of the feature presented in HD resolution, sourced from the 4K master
• NEW: Interview with Actor Bill Moseley
• NEW: Interview with Actor William Butler
• NEW: Interview with Actors McKee Anderson and Heather Mazur
• NEW: Interview with Producers John Russo and Russell Streiner
• NEW: Interview with Editor Tom Dubensky
• NEW: Interview with Zombie Performers Greg Funk and Dyrk Ashton
• Archival commentary with director Tom Savini
• Savini's Night with Director Tom Savini Featurette
• Being Barbara with Actress Patricia Tallman Featurette
• Return to the Living Dead with Special Makeup Effects Supervisors John Vulich and Everett Burrell Featurette
• The Dead Walk: Making-of Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer
• English 5.1 & 2-Channel Surround

If you're looking to pick up some more movies to add to your library this year, it's worth having a look at our breakdown of upcoming 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases. Here, you can see a wide variety of films and shows that are set to release in a physical format over the next few months, so you can plan ahead to grab the ones that catch your eye. There are other popular zombie movies coming out with 4K releases worth checking out as well.

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