This week’s digital (and physical) shelves are groaning under the weight of some truly tempting game deals. Whether you're keen to revisit a cult classic, explore bold new IPs, or finally fill in a few of those backlog gaps, there’s never been a better excuse to buy now and play... eventually.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I’m lighting a 31-candle cake for Night Trap, a live-action FMV horror-adventure that dropped onto my Mega-CD in 1993 and quickly became ground zero for one of gaming’s first big moral panics. The premise was simple: switch between surveillance cameras to protect teens from trench-coated “Augers” using elaborate traps. The execution, however, was campy, confusing, and about as scary as a haunted house staffed entirely by local drama students.

Its controversy sparked US Senate hearings that led to the creation of the ESRB, but that ripple effect reached our shores too. At the time, Oz didn’t even have a national classification system for video game; just a film-based workaround that couldn't keep up with new tech. Titles like Night Trap fuelled the push toward formalised ratings here, eventually paving the way for the OFLC's gaming guidelines in the late '90s and, later, the R18+ classification us Gen Xers and Millennials went to war for. You're welcome.

• Super Mario RPG (-18%) - A$65.90
• Persona 5 Royal (-33%) - A$66.80
• Burnout Paradise Rem. (-27%) - A$29
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• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (-48%) - A$44
• What Remains of Edith Finch (-75%) - A$7.40

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• One Piece Odyssey Del. Ed. (-20%) - A$68
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Earlier this month, Sega confirmed Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds guest characters such as Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga (Yakuza), Joker (Persona 5), and even Steve, Alex, and Creeper from Minecraft. But the guest characters do not stop there. Sega has now announced a Nickelodeon collaboration that brings SpongeBob SquarePants to the track — and teased Avatar and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters down the line.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a kart racer packed with Sega characters and as such celebrates the company’s history. In addition, big-name guest characters are helping to flesh out the roster of racers. As part of that, those who buy the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Digital Deluxe Edition get the Season Pass, which includes the Nickelodeon content as well as the recently announced Minecraft characters, vehicles, and tracks, characters from the Netflix series, Sonic Prime, and two more yet-to-be-announced collaborations.

The trailer below shows off SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star racing the Patty Wagon, a vehicle shaped like a Krabby Patty from the SpongeBob SquarePants series, across the Bikini Bottom track (Bikini Bottom is the main setting in the SpongeBob SquarePants series).

Sega has said CrossWorlds will feature a huge roster of over playable characters, if you include DLC. Characters you’d expect to see, such as Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Knuckles, Shadow, and Tails are present and correct, but now you can add the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants into the mix.

CrossWorlds is of course going up against Switch 2 exclusive kart game Mario Kart World, which has so far resisted adding guest characters from outside the Nintendo pantheon. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is set for release on both the Switch and the Switch 2, so it looks like we’ll be set for some old-fashioned Mario vs. Sonic kart racing rivalry when Sega's effort launches in September.

IGN recently went hands-on with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and came away impressed. “It’s a vibe,” we said, “and one that I’ve enjoyed and will look forward to drifting through.”

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.

Elio has suffered the lowest opening ever for Pixar at the box office, with How to Train Your Dragon continuing to dominate at the box office.

The original animated feature opened to $35 million globally, with $21 million domestic and a worryingly low $14 million internationally. That’s the worst three-day opening in Pixar history, behind even Elemental’s $44.5 million opening weekend haul in back in 2023. To add context, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 launched to a whopping $295 million globally during its opening weekend last year.

But Pixar and parent company Disney will be hoping Elio follows in Elemental’s footsteps, given the latter ended up with just shy of $500 million globally during its theatrical run. In Elio’s favor is that it has yet to release in China, Japan, and Spain, and it will be in theaters as schools break for the summer holidays next month. It’s also well-received. IGN’s Elio review saw a 9/10. We said: “The latest animated feature from Pixar, Elio boasts dazzling animation — and even more striking emotional depth.”

Elio’s opening weekend struggles may have been fueled by the continued success of fellow family movie How to Train Your Dragon, which is up to $350 million worldwide on its second weekend and remains the number one movie in the U.S. A sequel is already in the works.

Elio also has Disney’s own Lilo & Stitch to contend with — the live-action remake is up to $910.3 million globally after just five weekends, and looks on course to become the first movie of 2025 to break the $1 billion barrier.

The other release of note was 28 Years Later, the horror zombie sequel from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland. It got off to a strong start, with $60 million globally. The domestic haul of $30 million is the biggest for a Boyle-directed movie, and the $30 million international launch is higher than Sinners managed.

The question for Boyle will be whether 28 Years Later does well enough to get the green light for the planned third film in the new trilogy to move forward, with the second already filmed. IGN’s 28 Years Later review returned a 9/10. We said: “28 Years Later is as potent and timely an exploration of cultural strife as the original, and Danny Boyle and Alex Garland tug at the heartstrings with bloody, deadly skill.”

And for film fans keeping count, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now on $540.9 million after five weekends, John Wick spinoff Ballerina is up to $104.5 million, Final Destination Bloodlines is on $280.1 million, and Sinners has an impressive $363.8 million worldwide.

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.

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Monster Hunter Wilds for $55.99

This week, 28 Years Later hits theaters, two real-world decades after Danny Boyle first rocked our world with his savage and sublime take on the zombie mythos. I remember sitting captivated in the theater as a young adult, spellbound by the revolutionary use of digital photography, the incredible articulation of an abandoned London, and the absolutely visceral storytelling. I’d seen good zombie movies before, but nothing like this, a film that took exported American zombie apocalyptic themes and retooled them through a British lens of geographic and personal isolation. The film trimmed all the fat away from the genre, but also refused to sand down any rough edges, resulting in a movie that was equal parts honest and terrifying.

Five years later, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo carried Boyle’s vision into the franchise wars with a remarkably different movie, a seemingly-post-apocalyptic family drama that surprised us all with its complex characters, superb performances, family themes, and perhaps most of all by being a sort of backdoor pilot to the true end of the world, a reality that unfolds mostly offscreen or in the final few shots.

28 Days Later exploded in 2002, 28 Weeks Later landed in 2007, and here we are 18 years later looking at another high-budget sequel, this one by the original director. Each installment of the story takes us further and further from the first day of apocalypse, carrying us into a stranger world of bizarre imagery yet startlingly familiar themes of betrayal, hopelessness, and the seeming inevitability of decay. And we are happily buying it.

I think the success of these movies bears asking the question: How do these films, and similar tales, keep happening? Why are they still made, why are they still good, and why do we keep flooding into theaters to see them? The answer perhaps lies in a more fundamental question: Why are we so obsessed with the end of the world?

The End

It is not a new phenomenon, to be sure. So let’s lay out the thesis, gentle reader; my imperfect but entertaining theory is as follows. The intersection of the inevitability of death and the unpredictable nature of existence is inherently terrifying. I think that’s true for most people, and especially true for Americans and folks largely raised on America’s entertainment influences.

Every zombie story is about death: The stars of the show are the shambling deceased, generally working hard to swell their ranks through bites and brain-eating. Death is inevitable, and zombie movies punch us in the mouth with that fact. But that’s only half of it. While we know death is certainly coming, we do not know when or how. We can predict that it must take place, but we typically have so little info on or control over how it will happen.

Every hospital you’ve ever seen is built to facilitate a delaying action against death, every ambulance ride is, at best, a brief reprieve before annihilation. You may pray at your church and believe you are heard and that you will live on past death, but you do not, you cannot, know. This is the maddening puzzle the zombie film unveils: that we all face obliteration and rot, but lack the power to face that event with surety of time, place, or purpose.

The end of the world carries with it the inherent heft of existential gravity. The final breaths of humankind means the end of anthropological history, art, and science, all that we have collectively built since we stopped being monkeys. It’s as consequential as anything our mind can wrap around: a cosmos that goes on without us, proving by going on that it doesn’t really need us at all. A terrifying indictment of our inconsequentiality before nature.

Let’s look at two traditions of prior art.

The Danse Macabre and the Living Dead

The first has its roots in the middle ages. The Danse Macabre was a widespread artistic movement that set images of jubilant skeletons against the trappings of everyday life. These grinning, dancing manifestations of mortality were created to remind us of the ubiquity of death in the experience of human life, both as a constant companion near us all our days and as an inevitable ending to our existence. Zombie movies are kind of a modern take on this same illumination.

The tradition, which extended through the late medieval period, forced the beholder to graphically confront the same two fears as zombie fiction: the inevitability of destruction and the relative human powerlessness in affecting, or even understanding, that outcome. Kings, paupers, knights, clergy, none are spared from the Danse Macabre.

The symbolism at work in this art was the product of what was, in comparison to our world, a pre-entertainment culture. While there were certainly diversions in medieval Europe like gambling, alcohol, and music, the idea of commoditized entertainment like what we enjoy today was still quite primitive. Danse Macabre was, like a great deal of visual art from the era, a moral teaching tool combined with a bit of wonder, drawing on symbolism to inform and persuade. It parallels some ideas from the oft-misunderstood biblical book of Revelation: not so much intended to be read as any specific oracle of when and how the world will end, but rather, a symbolic telling of how apocalyptic events previous, contemporary, and future tend to play out. Revelation is less a prophecy than an observation: a coded message to the reader that these are the types of signs and events that accompany a great and destructive moment in history. Indeed, the word Revelation itself translates to ancient Greek as “apocalypse.”

The second, more contemporary manifestation actually bridges directly into the earliest popular zombie storytelling: the awesome horror of the nuclear age, and the art it spawned prior to the zombie storytelling revolution.

Night of the Living Dead co-creator and director George Romero alludes to strange space radiation as the cause of the dead’s rise in his film, overtly connecting the nuclear paranoia of ’50s and ’60s cinema to the coming trend of zombie apocalypses. Before Night of the Living Dead, the same purpose of apocalyptic entertainment was fulfilled by the threat of nuclear war, the split atom, and the fear of Sputnik and death from on high. The invention of nuclear weapons presented humanity with an ethical and practical dilemma unprecedented in history. For the first time, humankind had the means to destroy itself in a matter of hours. A strange dichotomy took hold in life: the relative postwar prosperity (and subsequent rise in entertainment culture) juxtaposed against the constant threat of annihilation. The end of the world seemed assured. We just didn’t know when. Once again, those two complementary fears.

From that tension, a new and deeply flawed ethos was born: the illusion of utter powerlessness in the face of discovery. Rod Serling put it best in his masterpiece Seven Days in May: “The enemy's an age - a nuclear age. It happens to have killed man's faith in his ability to influence what happens to him. And out of this comes a sickness, and out of sickness a frustration, a feeling of impotence, helplessness, weakness. And from this, this desperation, we look for a champion in red, white, and blue. Every now and then a man on a white horse rides by, and we appoint him to be our personal god for the duration.”

Thus was born the great atomic menace of American popular art, the paranoia that fueled a thousand 1950s double-features. The Day the Earth Stood Still. Them! Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Incredible Shrinking Man. The Japanese cinematic masterpiece Godzilla. The accouterments are different from zombie films, but the themes are fears are the same: Death is coming, but we don’t know exactly when.

Our Greatest Enemy

One thing that these atomic pics (and the novels born alongside them like Alas, Babylon) are careful to note is that, whether the immediate foe seems to be radiation or not, it’s usually instead human nature. Most of these films hinge on the treachery of a second-act betrayal by some ordinary survivor that gets everyone else killed or in deep trouble. Zombie film watchers will instantly recognize that trope: It’s there from Night of the Living Dead onward.

Over the 57 years since Night of the Living Dead created the formula, popular culture has been selling a vision of our inevitable collapse at the hands of shambling, undead hordes. We’ve watched zombies, walkers, ghouls, biters, and the living dead devour the flesh and brains of countless thousands, shambling through malls and military bases and the seats of power. We’ve watched again and again until the genre has expertly parodied itself in Shaun of the Dead, badly parodied itself in Zombie Strippers, and spread from Magic the Gathering to board games to Zombie Dice. Hell, Michael Jackson danced as a zombie in the second-best music video ever (“Weapon of Choice” is still #1). And we still aren’t tired of it. We've coined “zombie fatigue” to describe the over-saturation of the market, but The Last of Us TV series? Fungus zombies. Fallout’s breakout character? Badass cowboy gunslinger zombie. We are still buying the end of the world, I suspect because we feel it getting closer.

I've said it a ton over the last few weeks, but interest in Magic: The Gathering is at what feels like an all-time high. With the recently released Final Fantasy Universes Beyond crossover set, new players that may have never picked up a card are now inching ever so slowly towards one of the most addicting and time-consuming hobbies around. If you're one of these people, or someone looking to dip your toes into the wonderful world of hundred-dollar cardboard, IGN has you covered with our Magic: The Gathering beginner's guide.

Where to Start Playing in Person

For newcomers, the best place to start playing in person is with what we call "kitchen table" Magic. No formats, no banlist, no meta, just good old fashioned vibes. Find a starter kit you like, grab a friend, sleeve them up, and jump in. These starter decks are great ways to learn the rules. I'd also highly recommend picking up MTG Foundations, as this set is specifically designed with brand new players in mind.

MTG Formats

Every store is different, and not everybody enjoys playing the same formats all the time. Here's a quick breakdown of some of the most popular formats:

• Standard: This is the most entry-level 60-card, best-of-three format in Magic. You can use cards from the last two years, and cards will rotate out every Fall.
• Limited: Limited formats are 40-card events where you don't show up with your own preconstructed decks. The two options are Booster Draft, where pods of eight players will open booster packs and pick a card one by one, passing their pack to the next player until three packs have been drafted. Sealed is where you get six booster packs, open them, and build your deck from this pool.
• Pioneer: Pioneer is the next step up in terms of power level from Standard. This format is non-rotating, and only cards from Return to Ravnica to current sets are legal. No supplementary sets are allowed, like Commander decks or sets like Modern Horizons.
• Modern: Easily the most popular format among competitive players, Modern allows you to use cards from Mirrodin onward, save for Commander deck cards. Direct-to-Modern sets like Modern Horizons are legal, and are big contributors to the format's current meta.
• Legacy: Every Magic set is legal in Legacy, including Commander decks. This means it has some of the most powerful decks in the game, the most expensive, and is the most difficult to learn. If you're starting out, you likely will not touch Legacy any time soon, if ever.
• Pauper: One of my personal favorite formats, Pauper is essentially Legacy Lite. Every set is fair game, but you can only use common rarity cards. Many of Legacy's strongest cards are common, like Brainstorm and Ponder, so Pauper is a great format to learn when you're curious about these interactions.
• Commander: Commander is the format most new and casual players are familiar with. Commander is a format where up to four players battle it out with 100-card decks, where each deck is built around their Commander (a Legendary creature of their choice). You can only build your deck using your Commander's colors.

TCGPlayer Is a Great Place to Buy Cards

Where to Start Playing Magic Online

MTG: Online

Magic: The Gathering Accessories and Supplies

Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.

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Puzzles are always a fun gift idea, no matter if you're new to the hobby or a passionate puzzler yourself. If you're shopping around for a puzzle gift to give to someone this year, it can feel a bit overwhelming looking through all of the options available, given how many shapes and sizes there are to choose from. But we're here to help. We've gathered up a variety of great puzzle gift ideas in 2025 to help you find the perfect one.

There's more than just the puzzles themselves to look through, too. We've included a few more gift ideas that any puzzler is sure to appreciate, including puzzle tables and boards, storage options, and frames to show them off in once they're finished. No matter what you decide to pick up, there's a little something for a puzzler of any skill level to enjoy. Have a look through our selection of the best gifts for puzzlers below and stock up on the items you think they'll enjoy the most.

The Best Jigsaw Puzzle Gifts

There's an incredible amount of puzzle options to choose from nowadays. Above, we've highlighted just a few of our favorites that can be found in our roundup of the best puzzle brands. We believe that the puzzles from these companies are well worth your time and money, and they each offer a fun variety, too. These range from large 2,000-piece puzzles to ones with a fun spin that feature a surprise ending after piecing them together (Magic Puzzle Company puzzles), so you can find a fun pick to gift this year.

The Best Puzzle Table Gifts

It's important to have enough space to build a puzzle on, which is why a puzzle table is a great investment. There are numerous different design options to choose from, whether you want something larger to have set up in your home or would prefer to have a more portable option. Some even feature drawers to hold pieces if you're working on a larger puzzle, which is very helpful to keep everything organized.

The Best Puzzle Storage Options

Speaking of organization, some puzzles are simply too big to finish in one go, so a good storage option can be helpful to have around. With solid puzzle storage, you can keep track of where you last left off with a puzzle without any fear of losing pieces if you move it around. We've included quite a few different options so you can keep your latest venture neatly put together, no matter which size of puzzle you're choosing to tackle.

The Best Puzzle Frame Gifts

A puzzle frame is an excellent idea for the puzzler who wants to keep their latest creation. Why take it apart if you've fallen in love with the final product? There are plenty of different puzzle frames to choose from, each catering to various sizes of puzzle, so you can find an option that will look the best hung up proudly on your wall.

To make sure your puzzle stays together properly before fitting it into a frame, you're going to want a reliable puzzle glue to help you out as well. This RoseArt Jigsaw Puzzle Glue is a great option to go for, coming in at just $5.

The Best 3D Puzzle Gifts

For the puzzler who loves a challenge, you can't go wrong with a 3D puzzle. There are so many different options to choose from that each create an exciting build. Here we've included just a few of our favorites, from a miniature pinball machine to a huge puzzle of Winterfell castle and a fantastic Millennium Falcon build. These 3D puzzles are exciting options to piece together, and the final result is sure to look impressive once it's put on display. If you're looking for an affordable alternative to LEGO, all of these options are great place to start.

More Puzzle Guides

If you're curious to see more puzzle options that we recommend, it's worth having a look through our best puzzle brands roundup alongside our pieces on the best puzzles for adults and the best Magic Puzzle Company puzzles. If you're shopping for a movie fan, we also have breakdowns of the best Star Wars puzzles, the best Lord of the Rings puzzles, and the best Harry Potter puzzles that could help you find the perfect pick to buy.

With Amazon Prime Day on the horizon as well, now is a great time to shop around with various discounts popping up. The official sale event kicks off this year on July 8 and runs through July 11, so you'll have a full four days to track down some nice puzzle deals from the sale event.

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

Bleach may not get quite as much franchising attention as its "Big Three" counterparts Naruto and One Piece, but Ichigo Kurosaki's journey to help lost souls reach the afterlife certainly struck a chord back in the day. In the U.S., the focus on Japanese culture and mythology gave Bleach a unique look, with the Shinigami making for memorable creatures. Even after 20 years, the combination of supernatural action, comedy, and a little bit of edginess still holds up.

Bleach has stood the test of time and also made it beyond just a TV show, with several movies and even a continuation two decades after its initial release. If you’re jumping into the series in 2025 or want to fill the gaps of what you watched back in the day, I’ve put together this chronological guide on how to watch all of Bleach in order.

How Long Is the Bleach Anime?

Adapting Tite Kubo’s manga of the same name, Bleach has been airing since 2004, amassing 366 episodes across 16 seasons. The show originally ended back in 2012, right as the manga was entering its final arc. The anime had caught up to its source material, so rather than do a long filler arc, the show simply ended.

Thankfully, in 2020, during the 20th anniversary of the manga, it was announced that Bleach would return to adapt the last arc. This more recent anime adaptation is known as the Thousand-Year Blood War.

In addition to the anime, there are four films in the Bleach franchise. Like most with most shonen series, these movies don't directly adapt the manga and are technically not canon, as they feature entirely original plots and even original characters (though, in the case of Bleach, they are designed by the original manga creator Tite Kubo). Still, the films can be great fun, and often tease upcoming surprises in the anime.

How to Watch Bleach in Order

1. OVA 1: Memories in the Rain

This OVA (original video animation) was shown at the Jump Festa convention in Japan in 2004. It serves as a pilot episode for Bleach, so it technically goes first in the order. Sadly, the OVA is not available to watch legally, but an alternate retelling of the events of Memories in the Rain were remade in episodes 8 and 9 of the first season.

2. Bleach Season 1 - The Substitute Soul Reaper

• Agent of the Sinigami Arc (Ep 1-20)

3. Bleach Season 2 - The Entry

• Soul Society: The Sneak Entry Arc (Ep 21-41)

4. Bleach Season 3 - The Rescue

• Soul Society: The Rescue Arc (Ep 42-63

5. OVA 2: The Sealed Sword Frenzy

Taking place after the end of the Soul Society arc, this OVA was shown at Bleach Jump Festa 2005. It follows a Shinigami who was sealed by the Soul Society being set free and wreaking havoc until Ichigo and the society try to stop him. The OVA helps expand the history of the Soul Society, highlighting their past feats as well as their mistakes.

6. Bleach Season 4 - The Bounty

• The Bount Arc (Ep 64-91)

Season 4 is a filler arc, with an original, self-contained storyline focusing on a race of humans who consume souls to extend their lives.

7. Bleach Season 5 - The Assault

• The Bount: Assault on Soul Society Arc (Ep 92-109)

8. Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody

When the town of Karakura is invaded by unknown spirits, Ichigo and Rukia meet a mysterious Shinigami. This is a unique Bleach movie in that it doesn't really contradict the continuity, and actually fits really well with the story of the anime. The movie also has a good combination of lightheartedness and action.

9. Bleach Season 6 - Arrancar Part 1

• Arrancar: The Arrival Arc (Ep 110-131)

10. Bleach Season 7 - Arrancar Part 2

• Arrancar: The Hueco Mundo Sneak Entry Arc (Ep 132-151)

11. Start Bleach Season 8 - Arrancar Part 3

• Arrancar: The Fierce Fight Arc (Ep 152-153)

12. Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion

The second Bleach movie is essentially a big love letter to fan-favorite Hitsugaya, so if you don't like the character, prepare for an entire film about why he's cool. The DiamondDust Rebellion continues to expand on the corruption of the Soul Society and shows the complexities of the organization in a way that even the anime doesn't always get to do.

13. Finish Bleach Season 8 - Arrancar Part 3

• Arrancar: The Fierce Fight Arc (Ep 154-167)

14. Bleach Season 9 - The New Captain

• The New Captain Shusuke Amagai Arc (Ep 168-189)

An original, self-contained filler season focusing on a new Soul Reaper captain. It can be skipped for the sake of pacing, but it does offer some good moments and character development.

15. Bleach Season 10 - Arrancar Part 4

• Arrancar vs. Shinigami Arc (Ep 190-205)

16. Bleach: Fade to Black

This is the Bleach movie with the best character drama, with a strong focus on Rukia, who is kidnapped by two spirits from her past, and Ichigo's attempts to rescue her.

17. Bleach Season 11 - Turn Back the Pendulum

• The Past Arc (Ep 206-212)

18. Bleach Season 12 - Arrancar Part 5

• Decisive Battle of Karakura Arc (Ep 213-229)

19. Bleach Season 13 - Zanpakuto The Alternate Tale

• Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc (Ep 230-255)
• Sword Beasts Arc (Ep 256-265)

Another filler season, but not just any filler season. This time, the Soul Reaper's swords, Zanpakuto, take human forms and declare war on their wielders. This is considered by far the best filler in all of Bleach, serving as a break from the Arrancar story arc while also offering solid worldbuilding and fun plot twists.

20. Start Bleach Season 14 - Arrancar Part 6

• Arrancar: Downfall Arc (Ep 266-299)

21. Bleach: Hell Verse (2010)

We're going to hell! Despite Bleach being all about spirits, the concept of hell isn't really that much of a part of the show, which makes this movie a refreshing addition to the lore. There are big Dante's Inferno vibes as well as some stunning backgrounds and creature designs.

22. Finish Bleach Season 14 - Arrancer Part 6

• Arrancar: Downfall Arc (Ep 300-316)

23. Bleach Season 15 - Gotei 13 Invading Army

• Gotei 13 Invading Army Arc (Ep 317-342)

Another filler arc, Gotei 13 Invading Army is about a big conspiracy in the Soul Society wherein every soul reaper is being replaced with a copy. Though not entirely canon, this season has some stunning action animation, and some great fight matchups that weaponize fan service to deliver thrilling moments.

24. Bleach Season 16 - The Lost Agent

• Lost Agent Arc (Ep 343-366)

25. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Part 1

• The Blood Warfare Arc (Ep 367-379)

26. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Part 2

• The Separation Arc (Ep 380-392)

27. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Part 3

• The Conflict Arc (Ep 393-406)

What Comes Next for Bleach?

The fourth and final part of Thousand Year Blood War, titled The Calamity, was announced as soon as Part 3 finished airing in December 2024. This next arc will finally bring the iconic story to a close by adapting the end of the manga, over 20 years after the anime first started airing. Expect epic fights, tragic moments, and some big revelations.

Rafael Motamayor is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything anime and animation.

Splitgate 2 developer 1047 Games has confirmed an undisclosed number of layoffs, with the co-founders of the studio opting not to take salaries as they bid to turn things around.

The free-to-play ‘Halo with portals’ shooter launched under a cloud after co-founder and director Ian Proulx took to the Summer Game Fest stage wearing a hat that read ‘Make FPS Great Again.’ During his speech, Proulx called out Call of Duty in what was considered a marketing gaffe.

When Splitgate 2 launched, it did so with a battle royale mode and a heavily criticized $145 microtransaction bundle. Splitgate 2 saw a peak concurrent player count of 25,785 on Steam, well below Splitgate’s 67,724 peak concurrent player count. Steam user reviews remain on ‘mixed.’

Steam stats do not paint the whole picture, of course, given Splitgate 2 launched across consoles as well as PC. Indeed, 1047 Games has said Splitgate 2 has had over 2.5 million players. But clearly, things have not gone as well as the studio had hoped. In an interview with IGN shortly after launch, Proulx said he was “surprised” by the reaction, admitting “we didn't expect this to be nearly as controversial as it was and we didn't intend for it to be.”

Now, 1047 Games has suffered a round of layoffs, which it characterized as “a small group” of staff in a post on LinkedIn. Also in the post came confirmation that co-founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian have opted not to take salaries, as the studio aims to improve the game.

Here’s the statement in full:

Today we parted ways with a small group of valued 1047 Games team members. We’re still perfecting the Splitgate 2 gameplay experience in response to community feedback, and we are redirecting resources to build the best game for our players. We are sad to see our teammates go, and we are actively working to help them secure new opportunities. Further, our co-founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian have opted not to take salaries as we lock in to deliver the next phase of the project. Thank you to those who’ve built alongside us — we are sad to say goodbye and would not be here without you.

To everyone who’s playing Splitgate 2, we’re continuing to work hard to deliver more things we know you’ll love. We are committed to building this game for the long haul.

While 1047 did not specify how many were let go, or who exactly, a number of key staff have announced their departures across social media platforms. Meanwhile, Splitgate 2 had a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of 10,059 on Steam, with 4,437 players on Valve’s platform at the time of this article’s publication.

Splitgate 2 secured a 7/10 in IGN’s review. We said: “Splitgate 2 is a decent successor to the original that expands on it, but never really surpasses it.”

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.

Grow a Garden has released its Summer update 1.11.0, propelling the Roblox game to comfortably the highest recorded concurrent player count in video game history. The patch notes are below.

The microtransaction-fueled free-to-play farming simulator had already shot past Fortnite’s concurrent peak of 15.3 million players, achieved during the Marvel-themed season finally back during Covid-era 2020, with an incredible 16.4 million concurrent players. At the time of this article’s publication, with players logging in for the Summer update, Grow a Garden was at an astonishing 21.3 million concurrents.

Minor spoilers follow for the opening scene of 28 Years Later.

At the turn of the millennium, a low-budget British production suddenly became an international hit. Its small gang of characters making their way in an eerily empty world resonated with millions, propelling their story into the zeitgeist, where it remains decades later.

That story is not 28 Weeks Later, although the lo-fi zombie thriller, which returns to the forefront of popular culture this weekend with the release of a long-awaited sequel, certainly fits the bill. But in this case, the British export we’re talking about is none other than Teletubbies, the delightfully weird kids’ show that makes a surprising cameo in 28 Years Later.

In the process, director Danny Boyle’s new horror movie may have inadvertently confirmed something that some Teletubbies fans have known all along: This children’s program about four humanoid creatures with TV screens where their stomachs should be is downright terrifying.

The 28 Years Later/Teletubbies Connection

Teletubbies only makes a brief appearance in 28 Years Later, but it’s a memorable one. In the movie’s opening scene, which takes place during the early days of the zombie-like Rage Virus outbreak that kicks off the entire franchise, we see a group of children huddled together in one room. They’re watching Teletubbies, but they don’t seem pleased about it — not necessarily because they dislike the show, but because a bunch of infected are about to burst into the house and murder everyone inside.

Moments later, that’s exactly what happens, as a gaggle of infected breaks down the door and overwhelms the children. Boyle thankfully spares us from watching it happen, but the blood splattered across the TV as the Teletubbies continue their adventures is all the confirmation we need. The movie mostly moves on from Teletubbies after that, as it jumps forward 28 years to tell its post-apocalyptic story, but the kids’ show does get one more nod in the final scene of 28 Years Later, which we won’t spoil here for anyone who’s still waiting to see the film for themselves.

But while there is plenty to say about how Teletubbies may explain where 28 Years Later is headed next in a planned trilogy of new movies, there’s even more to say about the Teletubbies themselves, and the nefarious truth behind their cold, empty eyes.

Theories of the Teletubbies

A quick rifling through the internet reveals endless theories about what Teletubbies is really about. The Teletubbies are all atoning for their sins in Purgatory, or perhaps they’re biogenetically engineered slaves, or human prisoners using a shared delusion to survive their incarceration. As for the Baby Sun that opens and closes each episode, it’s actually god — or maybe a demon. (These are all actual fan theories that people have posited about Teletubbies, most of which were rounded up by the good people at TV Tropes.)

In 2023, one disturbing theory, which claims the Teletubbies were inspired by a Bulgarian children’s mental facility where four patients died, went viral on TikTok. That theory has since been debunked, and, as far as we can tell, the facility in question never even existed. Still, the fact that Teletubbies inspires unsettling ideas like that clearly says something about the show itself.

A (Colorful) Post-Apocalypse

The most common Teletubbies fan theory centers on the idea that the show takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, and the evidence is pretty compelling.

For one thing, there’s the bunker the Teletubbies call home. The structure, which also resembles the Hobbit houses in The Lord of the Rings, is built into the landscape. But unlike those Hobbits, the Teletubbies’ home appears to go much deeper underground. It’s also technologically advanced, with various panels, buttons, and levers lining the interior walls. It looks like the kind of thing one might build if they needed to be able to survive underground for long periods of time.

Then there are the Voice Trumpets, essentially megaphones that emerge from the ground like periscopes. The Voice Trumpets give the Teletubbies their orders (and sometimes narrate the events of the show), but who controls them? Could it be surviving humans hiding even deeper below the surface of the Earth?

As for the Teletubbies themselves (Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po), they’re clearly not human. So what are they? The television sets in their stomachs suggest some sort of robotic design, while their human-looking faces could be the result of mutation — possibly caused by whatever destroyed their world in the first place.

But whether the Teletubbies are robots, mutants, or something else entirely, their purpose is likely the same. As the theory goes, these creatures have been sent up to the surface of their post-apocalyptic world to repair it for the humans surviving deep underground. Based on the state of things in Teletubbies, it seems like their mission is already well underway. But the distinct lack of life (aside from some plants and the occasional rabbit) suggests there’s still plenty of work to be done.

So what does all of this have to do with 28 Years Later? On the surface, not much, but the deeper you go into Teletubbies fan theories, the clearer it becomes that something evil is lurking beneath. Whether Danny Boyle meant to or not, his new movie gives a boost to those theories by using one post-apocalyptic story to reinforce the existence of another.

What are your thoughts on the 28 Years Later/Teletubbies connection? Let's discuss in the comments...