It's 2025, and Sony PlayStation has finally designed its own wireless fight stick for PS5 and PC.

Edwin Foo, VP of product development at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said the stick — codenamed internally as Project Defiant — will give players "more flexibility to play their favorite fighting games."

Sony promises ultra-low latency through a wireless connection on PS5 or PC, as well as the option to play with a wired connection. This is essential for fighting game fans who need their combo inputs to be as precise and as instant as possible.

It also boasts an ergonomic design, a "high-quality digital stick" that's been custom-designed by Sony, and toolless interchangeable restrictor gates, so players can choose between square, circle, or octagon, all of which can be stored in the controller's handy compartment when not in use. It even comes with a sling carry case.

What we don't yet know is the cost, or when it will go on sale: right now, Sony will only commit to a 2026 window.

Sony's fight stick is well-timed, given it's working on Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a new 4v4 Marvel fighting game from Arc System Works, the developer of the Guilty Gear series. That's also out 2026, so perhaps we'll see the game and stick come out around the same time.

Sony kicked off the summer reveal season with a bang, presenting a smorgasbord of new games to whet our appetites going into Summer Games Fest Week. Here's everything announced at PlayStation State of Play 2025 last night, including 007 First Light, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Romeo is a Dead Man, and Silent Hill f's release date.

If you're new to fighting games or it's been awhile since you indulged, here's our picks of the 10 best fighting games of all time. Did your favorite reach the top spot?

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.

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has discussed the future of Fortnite, and the developer's continued desire to grow the game from something known primarily as a battle royale into a platform that offers experiences of numerous different genres.

Several years after Fortnite's much-promoted Big Bang event that launched Lego Fortnite, Rock Band developer Harmonix's Festival and Rocket League maker Psyonix's Rocket Racing, Sweeney told IGN at Unreal Fest 2025 that Epic Games' key issue remained the fact that people still think of Fortnite simply as its leading battle royale portion.

"That's our central challenge, to have everybody recognize that Fortnite is the everything game and you can experience anything there," Sweeney said, "and that's going to take time. We're going to have to deliver on a lot of other really awesome genres."

Progress towards that goal has, so far, been steady. Festival continues to attract big name music acts to headline its seasons with new player skins and music drops. Lego Fortnite Odyssey, a survival crafting experience, has a solid player core. But Rocket Racing has largely been retired, and newer shooter-centric modes such as Reload have found more success.

During its State of Unreal show this week, Epic Games noted that a third-party experience in Fortnite had momentarily overtaken Epic's own core modes for the first time, something that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. But Epic Games' own non-shooter modes currently show no signs of replicating this success, with player numbers well below that of the developer's main Battle Royale and Zero Build playlists, let alone Reload or the game's Fortnite OG throwback offering.

When asked by IGN whether engagement for modes such as the musical Fortnite Festival and various Lego Fortnite experiences were where Epic Games wanted them to be, Epic Games executive vice president Sax Persson replied: "I don't think we're ever happy."

"I think the shooter modes have done well," Sweeney added. "I think we've not yet achieved the magic that we've been hoping to achieve with the music gameplay. It's funny, we brought in the Harmonix team, [they] joined Epic, built Rock Band and Guitar Hero in the past, they're an awesome team, and they've been riffing on approaches to that genre and Fortnite.

"They've also been bringing in all kinds of music items into Fortnite with Jam Tracks, which have not only a song, but all the beats associated with them, and ability to play them on your instruments."

Still, despite Fortnite's hugely-popular musical live events generating massive interest and player numbers in the millions, Epic has not yet found a formula that generates regular engagement of the same kind.

"Music has done extraordinarily well in Fortnite, but ironically, not so much in music games," Sweeney noted, "more just in Battle Royale and elsewhere. Our next step is to figure out music at a large scale.

"I think as Rock Band and Guitar Hero themselves achieved in their day, which was a decade or two decades ago, there's an opportunity for a music game with tens of millions of monthly active users that people just absolutely love and come to every evening or weekend for the coolest concert and competitive gameplay of all sorts."

How about Lego, then, the brand that's perhaps now the most deeply entrenched within the Fortnite ecosystem, and the offering that's most popular of all Epic's non-shooter modes.

"I think Lego is interesting, Persson said. "We are super proud of [the] journey and it has a really dedicated fan base. But is it as big as we would want it to be? No, we would love to have it bigger and figure out a way to get more Lego fans to see that this exists."

Again, it sounds like Epic is still facing the issue that Fortnite currently remains a brand associated with being a battle royale more than anything else.

"What's our primary challenge? Our primary challenge is Fortnite is Fortnite, and historically Fortnite was a shooter game," Persson continued. "It is not a shooter game anymore. It is the everything game, and we need to tell that story better than what we've done."

One solution to this will be the forthcoming rollout of improved capabilities for third-party teams working within Fortnite's Unreal Engine-powered editor, UEFN, Sweeney said. Epic currently has a better toolset than other creators, but this will change over time — to the point that Epic's own battle royale seasons will eventually (now in 2026) be made with the same tools as any creator could have access to.

"When we develop our modes, we're working with C++ and the entire Unreal Engine, [while] creators working with the toolset that we built, it's Verse and some APIs," Sweeney noted.

"Our big task now is to get the two of those development frameworks to converge so that we, Epic, and creators are working in the exact same tools with the exact same capabilities and creators will have way more power at their disposal there, and that's been the thing that we've been working so hard on for the last two years."

But why not just settle with being a brilliantly successful battle royale? For Epic Games, the future of Fortnite as a continued experience — and source of enormous income for the company — rests on its continued evolution and ongoing cultural relevance, amid the ever-changing landscape of popular video game tastes and genres.

"I would say we're only successful with Fortnite as an ecosystem," Sweeney concluded. "If somebody else actually beats us at our game, and builds something that's bigger and cooler and better than battle royale... I think there's a high probability of that happening.

"If you look at the shooter genre, it evolved with new game types coming out over time based on what was possible with the current technology," he added, noting the evolution of shooters from simple games of Deathmatch to modes with larger player counts and vehicles. "Battle Royale just happens to be the best shooter genre yet invented — and thanks to both the Japanese movie makers and [PUBG creator] Brendan Green for discovering the magic there. But it's definitely not the last. There'll be more and it'll get even better and new technologies are going to make things that are currently impossible, possible, and I think that's going to unleash unexpected surprises and creativity."

It's been a busy week for Epic Games, which has been talking about the future of AI in its Unreal Engine and in Fortnite following the recent release of a very chatty AI-powered Darth Vader. We've also heard from Epic and The Witcher 4 developer CD Projekt Red on that eye-catching Witcher 4 demo — and whether the final game will actually look anything like it.

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

Fans of secret agent James Bond haven't taken long to decide who they think is the (not so) mysterious actor playing the role in 007 First Light.

The game's new trailer, revealed at Sony's State of Play broadcast, shows off a notably younger-looking Bond, fresh out of the Royal Navy and keen to earn his 00 agent status. But who is playing the title role?

Minutes after the trailer aired, fans on reddit began guessing that Dexter: New Blood star Patrick Gibson was the behind the new Bond — and he certainly shares a strong similarity with the character in the trailer.

"I clocked it THE SECOND I saw the dirty smirk of his," wrote one 007 aficionado. "Yeah I peeped that as soon as I seen it," said another.

"Watching the trailer and knew the face looked familiar," said a third. "After about a minute or so I screamed 'DEXTER.' I'm pretty sure it's him."

Aged 30, the Irish actor is just a few years older than the 26-year-old version of Bond he looks set to portray in the upcoming game — and, if IO Interactive gets its way, several sequels.

And if Gibson looks familiar to you too, well, the actor already has a swathe of TV and film roles under his belt, including appearances in Shadow and Bone, The Tudors, and The OA. But it's his role as a younger version of Dexter Morgan in prequel series Dexter: Original Sin for which he's most famous.

A fresh patent for a new Nintendo game controller has set tongues wagging that a Ring Fit Adventure sequel is on the way for Switch 2.

The patent, dug up by the appropriately-named Nintendo Patents Watch, was filed at the end of May 2025 and published online publicly this week — albeit with all of its images currently redacted.

Nintendo is named as the owner of the patent, which is listed as being for "video game controllers (accessories)." Most importantly, Nintendo employee Fumiyoshi Suetake is mentioned as the controller's specific designer.

Suetake was a key figure in the development of the original Ring Fit Adventure, which launched in 2019 for Nintendo Switch and has now sold more than 15 million copies. The game is packaged with a pilates ring-style accessory, which players squash and stretch while exercising.

The appearance of Suetake's name on the patent is a big clue that the currently unannounced controller may be a new Ring Fit accessory.

Additionally, Nintendo Patents Watch pointed out that Nintendo recently extended the patent on its original Ring Fit Adventure controller, suggesting the company still wanted ongoing legal protection for a product that was already available.

And finally, manufacturing giant Foxconn, a long-time Nintendo partner, has previously noted it is helping to develop new "force sensing technology" for a gaming firm, and has published a diagram showing what looks to be an updated Ring Fit controller.

Amazon UK customers have been treated with an exclusive opportunity to get a beautifully gross Silent Hill f steelbook with their physical preorders, either on PS5 or Xbox for £69.99. (Update: Release date has been confirmed for September 25, 2025).

It's been some time since we've heard from Goichi "Suda51" Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture, but both he and the studio were back with a vengeance at last night's State of Play, showing off a bombastic trailer for upcoming "ultra violent" sci-fi adventure, Romeo Is a Dead Man.

It's so violent, in fact, that GhM calls the violence the "main feature of this game," letting you swap between a wide array of weapons to "unleash wave after wave of splattering blood, and experience unmatched levels of violence and hyper-stimulating action."

"At this point, our development team is working at full force to get this thing finished. Back in the day, this would’ve been right around the time when staff members started bringing in sleeping bags to stay overnight in the studio, but nowadays we make sure that everyone gets enough time to rest and refresh properly," Suda51 explained.

"I’ll never forget the craziness of working all night in a frenzy back in our salad days, receiving warning mails for doing too much overtime (this actually happened). The final stage of game development is really similar to the world of the movie Beautiful Dreamer, like the night just before a big school festival. Man, it’s been awhile – now I want to watch Beautiful Dreamer again. What, you don’t know that movie...? I guess maybe a lot of you are a bit too young to remember it... It’s probably streaming somewhere, so check it out sometime."

Romeo Is a Dead Man is an "ultra-violent science fiction" action game coming from the collective minds of Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture. Romeo Stargazer — which is one of the best protagonist names I've ever seen, by the way — is an FBI Space-Time special agent searching the universe for the most-wanted fugitives. It's slated for PC via Steam and Microsoft, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S, but isn't expected to release until 2026. As for why Grasshopper has given such a vague release window?

"That’s kinda obvious, isn’t it?" Suda51 said, hinting at what can only be in reference to GTA 6. "That One Game had its release date announced, right? Every publisher wants to make sure to steer clear of That One Game’s release date. But what if we were to flex a little and release it on the same day... Yeah, nope — just thinking about that is way too scary. Alright then, see you later."

Sony kicked off the summer reveal season with a bang, presenting a smorgasbord of new games to whet our appetites going into Summer Games Fest Week. Here's everything announced at PlayStation State of Play 2025 last night, including 007 First Light, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, and Silent Hill f's release date.

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.

Update: Several Switch 2 preorders from Amazon UK have been delayed to June 6-9.

Despite several Amazon support service representatives previously stating that preorders would arrive on release day (June 5), despite indicating a June 7 delivery time once ordered, we're now getting reports that these delays were in fact accurate.

Amazon has also since restocked the base console online (not the limited-time Mario Kart World Bundle), with free delivery available for tomorrow.

Bethesda has released details of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered’s first post-launch patch, which is available today (June 5, 2025) in Steam beta form before a release across all other platforms on June 11.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - Update 1.1 is the first of two separate patches to be launched in the coming weeks, Bethesda said in a post on Steam. Both are on Steam Beta first.

This first update focuses on quests, major bugs and blockers, and quality of life fixes. The second update will focus on performance. Bethesda said it will share more details “when we are able.”

A performance patch is much needed. Oblivion Remastered has enjoyed a hugely successful launch, with over 4 million players and a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. However, if there’s one issue that continues to crop up, it’s performance problems.

The tech experts at Digital Foundry found Oblivion Remastered on consoles to have significant problems across the board. DF’s Thomas Morgan said of Virtuos’ Unreal Engine 5 overhaul:

No platform is spared of issues: whether it's PS5, PS5 Pro, or either Xbox Series machine, all struggle with traversal hitches while roaming the open world. Secondly, there's major sub-60fps frame-rates, where I've also discovered that performance slowly degrades with more playing time — quite possibly down to a memory leak. And finally, software freezes are the icing on the cake, with all PlayStation and Xbox platforms crashing to the system menu on loading a save one too many times.

How does this manifest itself in-game? According to DF, a “charged” playthrough with more continuous play time behind it performs worse than a fresh boot. Cycling through saves also introduces bugs in the charged play through, Morgan revealed. And this is particularly curious: this also leads to the camera position being too high while riding horseback. You can fix this by resetting the game.

“It's a dire position for any remaster to be in and developer Virtuos needs to address the game's stability - the crashes - as a priority,” Morgan continued.

That’s a damning assessment of Oblivion on console, but what about PC? DF called PC performance “dire.” It’s worth checking out DF’s analysis in full for more.

As for Update 1.1., highlights include ToggleHudVisibility and ShowHud console commands, which will be perfect for those looking to capture Oblivion Remastered screenshots (it’s a gorgeous game!), a fix for not automatically showing the Local Map when inside interior spaces and a fix for the Local Map being blank when opening, and a fix for the first-person camera being set above the player's head.

Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you'd expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there's lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.

Soon after launch, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered players started warning newcomers to do Kvatch before the level scaling makes it an absolute nightmare. We’ve also got a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

And be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - Update 1.1 patch notes:

GENERAL

• Enabled ToggleHudVisibility and ShowHud console commands

UI

• Fix for missing text when installing the Deluxe Upgrade
• Fix 'Skip' button not showing correctly during intro
• Fix for Redguard Origin stats being reversed
• Fix for not automatically showing Local Map when inside interior spaces
• Fix for being unable to name Enchanted items when using a controller
• Fix punctuation issues in Chinese translation
• Localized string fixes
• Fix for interacting with Daedric Shrines not displaying subtitles

CRASHES

• Fix crash when loading after fast travel to Vilverin
• Fix crash when exploring Crayfish Cave
• Fix crash when fighting Stunted Scamps
• Fix crash when paying the fine after stealing in Castle Bravil
• Fix for crash when loading Quicksaves
• Fix crash when loading after fast travel to Mortal Camp
• Fix for crash when loading a save in Quill-Weave's house
• Fix crash when rapidly switching between Quality and Performance modes
• Fix crash when storing items in a chest in Frostcrag Spire
• Fix crash when creating multiple potions at once using stolen ingredients
• Fix various CPU crashes

GAMEPLAY

• Fix player animation issues when mounting horses
• Fix High Chancellor Ocato arms not animating
• Fix Shambles' animations getting stuck when attacking
• Fix for Staff of Sheogorath not freezing enemies
• Fix for Cap'n Dugal not spawning
• Fix for Light spells not showing VFX
• Fix for offset Map Markers when running on a secondary monitor
• Fix for Local Map being blank when opening
• Fix Peryite Shrine's voiceover being cut off
• Fix for First Person camera being set above the player's head
• Fix for Chameleon VFX being stuck on player
• Fix for player's skin textures not matching when infected with a disease

SYSTEM

• Fix player settings being reset when updating Settings
• Fix XCloud mirroring settings from PC to XBOX
• Fix for infinite loading issues
• Fix for freezing when pressing Alt+Tab
• Fix autosaving creating a new group of saves
• Fix for old save files being renamed when the character is renamed at the Sewer exit
• Fix for small Display Resolution sizes not showing correctly in Windowed Mode

QUESTS

• The Battle for Kvatch - Fix Savlian becoming stuck after Castle Courtyard fight
• A Knife in the Dark - Fix for Vincente Valtieri losing his hair
• Finding the Thieves Guild - Fix for NPCs not appearing
• The Sunken One - Fix for a Diary page being hidden under a bowl
• The Elven Maiden - Fix for crash when Hieronymus Lex attempts to take Llathasa's Bust out of the cupboard in Myvryna Arano's house

This update will be in the Steam Beta. If you would like to opt in to the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Beta update, please follow these instructions:
- Open your Steam Library and navigate to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
- Right click on "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered" and select "Properties"
- In the new properties pop-up window, select "Betas"
- In the beta drop down to opt into, select "[beta]"
- Wait for app to download new build and launch

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.

PlayStation Plus subscribers can look forward to playing a selection of video games, new and old, as part of its Extra and Premium catalogs, including classic titles from the Resident Evil, Twisted Metal, and more.

New PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 additions to the ever-changing lineup of titles were revealed during today’s June 2025 State of Play showcase. Every game on the list is prepped to drop at some point throughout the summer, with some titles launching on the service day-one.

Sword of the Sea, an atmospheric adventure game about surfing through a colorful oasis, is the headliner here. It’s the next project from the Abzu and The Pathless team at Giant Squid and promises an experience that focuses on skateboarding-like gameplay, magical visuals, and exploration. It’ll be available for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers at no extra cost starting August 19, 2025.

Remedy Entertainment’s FBC: Firebreak, meanwhile, will offer a new perspective on the world of Control when it’s made available for Premium and Extra users’ Game Catalog June 17, 2025. These are fresh experiences from developers with proven track records, but the Premium Classics Catalog will soon allow players to revisit retro titles, too.

New Classic Catalog additions include Deux Ex, Twisted Metal 3, Twisted Metal 4, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Myst and Riven will also be added for PlayStation Plus subscribers to enjoy as part of Days of Play festivities later this month. These are simply the highlights Sony was willing to share as part of State of Play, with more games likely to be revealed in the coming months. You can see everything confirmed, along with their PlayStation Plus release dates, in the list below.

PlayStation Plus Games Coming Summer 2025

• Sword of the Sea - August 19, 2025
• FBC: Firebreak - June 17, 2025
• Deus Ex - June 17, 2025
• Twisted Metal 3 - July 15, 2025
• Twisted Metal 4 - July 15, 2025
• Resident Evil 2 - Summer 2025
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - Summer 2025
• Myst - June 5, 2025
• Riven - June 5, 2025

While we wait for concrete release dates for some of these PlayStation Plus titles, you can check out everything else announced as part of today’s State of Play presentation. You can also read up on all of the titles that have joined the service as part of its June additions.

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).

Sucker Punch Productions will debut a Ghost of Yōtei gameplay deep dive with a special State of Play presentation next month.

A promise to show off more of how the highly anticipated samurai follow-up has sharpened its blade was revealed in a PlayStation Blog post published following today’s June 2025 State of Play showcase. The Ghost of Tsushima sequel did show up for a brief appearance during the tail end of the presentation but mostly served simply as a reminder that Sucker Punch is still hard at work to meet its October release date.

While it may have been disappointing to see Ghost of Yōtei come and go so quickly, it sounds like the July State of Play gameplay deep dive will do more to help with the wait. Sucker Punch’s showcase doesn’t have a release date yet but is said to focus entirely on Ghost of Yōtei and its “evolved gameplay mechanics, including exploration, combat, and much more.”

Sucker Punch formally announced its Ghost of Tsushima sequel last September, promising to place players in the shoes of new protagonist Atsu as she embarks on a bloody journey through Japan in 1603. Although the wait for story and gameplay details has been painful for those hoping for a sequel since the original game launched in 2020, director Nate Fox has said the experience will be "a respectful representation" of Japan, just like its predecessor.

Ghost of Yōtei has a release date of October 2, 2025 for PS5. For everything else announced during today's June 2025 State of Play presentation, you can click here. To help with the wait for more information, you can read up on everything we know about Ghost of Yōtei.

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).

Being “From the World of John Wick” is not an easy thing. In this fictional universe, the threat of death lurks around every corner – and not just because those corners often conceal the members of an ancient and shadowy assassin’s guild. And out here in the real world, any newcomer to Wick’s turf has an instantly iconic Keanu Reeves character to live up to, and with that comes an expectation for innovative, jaw-dropping stunts. These are big shoes to fill, and not everyone can do it. Just ask The Continental.

Ana de Armas, as deadly, revenge-minded orphan Eve Macarro, just wants a chance to try. And as unfortunate as it is for everybody living under the High Table, I’m happy to say she goes toe to toe with the Baba Yaga. De Armas is a star, through and through. We’ve known that since Knives Out; we’ve seen her action chops a few times since, and throughout this movie, she’s equal parts angry and frustrated, dangerous and vulnerable. And she proves that Ballerina really does belong in the World of John Wick.

The challenge for a spinoff, I think, is twofold. Number one, you have to nail all the hallmarks of the original movie and/or the rest of the franchise. Number two, you have to be your own movie. That’s a balancing act bordering on impossible and mutually exclusive. And fair or not, that’s what was on my mind going into Ballerina. I admit, I didn’t have terribly high hopes for it.

The first third – maybe even the whole first half – validated those apprehensions. It’s interesting sitting down to another helping of the World of John Wick only to watch somebody get better at assassin-ing. Part of the charm of this franchise is being plunked down in the middle of a fully formed world full of legendary hitmen and rules that everybody knows, and that’s not exactly the case with Ballerina. It’s something that honestly takes a second to get used to. This section of Ballerina is okay, even good in spots, but the action is standard beat ‘em up fare. Eve’s backstory is suitably tragic, but it’s all pretty rote.

It’s that backstory – so basic it’s in the IMDB synopsis – that weighs these scenes down. We know Eve wants to avenge her fallen father, and when the time came, I found myself more just kinda waiting on him to die, rather than actually feeling his death. If this is the whole motivation for her roaring rampage of revenge, why doesn’t it carry more weight? Instead, it all feels like a shorthand, like director Len Wiseman and screenwriter Shay Hatten (and a veritable murderers’ row of uncredited contributors, including franchise boss Chad Stahelski) just assume everybody knows a father being murdered is enough backstory for an assassin, so they didn’t invest as much emotion into it. That’s fair to a point. We all get how movies work, and this is a franchise built off of a guy’s dog getting killed. But the trick with shorthand, particularly in the fifth installment of a franchise, is that it needs to be, you know, short. Either Ballerina needed a more charismatic turn out of the father and more oomph behind the connection between him and his daughter, or it all needed to just kinda get out of the way quicker.

But here’s the other thing about the first half of this movie: It is not the part that anybody will remember or talk about. There’s a point at which Ballerina earns its place in The World of John Wick, and from that moment on, it’s an absolute blast. And I use the word “blast” here quite literally, because the scene I’m referring to involved what I will forever very affectionately refer to as “great grenade stuff.”

Which brings me back to my two requirement theory of spinoff movies, the first being that you need to correctly do what the franchise does best. John Wick movies have always had a creative approach to action and fight choreography. When they’re at their peak, the fight scenes make you cringe and chuckle at the same time. It’s an entire series built by stunt people, for stunt people who are all saying “here’s a thing we do better than anybody and here’s us having a fantastic time doing it. That’s the energy Ballerina finds about halfway through. All of a sudden, Eve is using her environment and improvising weapons, taking as many hits as she’s dishing out.

I may as well mention here that yes, Keanu is back. John Wick finds himself in a little action, not much by his usual standards, but the highlight for me is a little bit meta. John and Eve square off in a way that John obviously doesn’t like. He doesn’t want to fight against Eve’s story, or keep her from what she’s trying to do. I don’t think that scene was written in there by accident, and it’s not an insignificant scene for the Baba Yaga himself to show up in.

So the spinoff scorecard shows Ballerina did part one almost totally right. How does it fare on part two? How well does this movie stand on its own? The short answer: Pretty well. The longer answer has more to do with that grenade stuff that I’m super into now. This is a funny movie. The filmmakers clearly understand what the audience has come to expect from the Wick-verse and use some of those expectations to create a handful of really funny, subversive moments. If it’s not grenades, it’s dinner plates or a freezer door or duelling flame throwers. Even duct tape gets some significant comedic mileage. There’s one scene in particular, all about the aftermath of an assignment, that’s maybe the most smartly crafted joke in the whole franchise.

It helps tremendously that the weight of John’s four-film odyssey has been completely shed. This movie has no real concerns about paying off any setup or sticking a satisfying landing that’s been years in the making. It seems like the filmmakers themselves felt that, because despite the characteristically tight stunt choreography, there’s a lot of loose fun happening on screen. That lighter touch shows up thematically as well. Every previous John Wick movie stacked a new golden coin of mythology on top of the already heaping pile on the High Table, and that’s true of Ballerina as well. It presents a side to The World of John Wick that allows Eve to be a heroic figure from the start. As sympathetic a character as John Wick himself has always been, there’s a murkiness to him, a sense that he’s killed countless people over his years serving the Table and maybe he’s just reaping a little of what he’s sown. Eve has no such baggage here, and that makes the light moments that much lighter.

So I’m happy to say Ballerina serves both items on my spinoff movie checklist: It continues the traditions of the Wick franchise, but in a surprising way that stands apart. We’re introduced to new corners of the world – including a new villain played by Gabriel Byrne in full-on scenery-chewing mode (that’s a compliment, by the way) – but it also offers another side of our hero’s coin. There’s the unflappable agent of chaos and death, but there’s also a choice to be a protector and a safe haven. That’s something we haven’t seen yet from a John Wick movie, and why on the balance, Ballerina is such a successful spinoff.

Arc System Works, the developer of the Guilty Gear series, is making a 4v4 Marvel fighting game called Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls for Sony.

Announced during Sony’s State of Play June 2025, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is due out on PS5 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store at some point in 2026.

In a post on PlayStation Blog, Reed Baird, Senior Producer, XDEV, PlayStation Studios, confirmed the inclusion of iconic Marvel heroes and villains such as Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, Storm, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, and Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) – each with Arc’s unique twist on their character designs and gameplay styles.

A 4v4 tag fighting game sounds overwhelming, but Game Director and Lead Battle Designer, Kazuto Sekine, insisted that wouldn't be the case.

"Generally, a team VS fighting game requires the player to learn multiple characters, but for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, you only need to master one character in order to play the game," Sekine said.

"We have designed the mechanics in such a way that you can perform a variety of actions with either traditional fighting game inputs or simple inputs. With the press of a few buttons, multiple characters can appear on screen to provide backup or attack together – creating a new and exciting team VS battle experience.”

Visually, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has the Japanimation style Arc system Works is known for. As for gameplay mechanics, each character has a bespoke set of Normal, Special, and Unique attacks inspired by their abilities and powers in Marvel lore. And of course there are cinematic Ultimate Skills.

“Team VS fighting games have a long tradition of 2v2 or 3v3 team formats, so this is something we discussed in-depth within the development team," Sekine added. "We went back and forth many times, from thinking we might be better off making a 1v1 game or sticking to the established 3v3 format.

"At its core, we felt that the appeal of team VS fighting games is the intensity of battles with multiple characters on screen at once. Additionally, one of the appeals of Marvel comics is seeing the vast cast of characters coming together to create all kinds of unique team-ups.

"With these two ideas in mind, we concluded that creating a 4v4 team VS system would be the best way to not only create those over-the-top moments, but to further evolve the tag fighting genre."

Most stages also feature multiple areas, with transitions that play a "strategic role." Sony suggested fans check out the screenshots from Marvel’s New York City to see what you can find.

In case you missed it, here's everything announced at Sony's State of Play June 2025 showcase.

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.

Today's PlayStation State of Play broadcast has provided our first proper look at 007 First Light, the upcoming James Bond game from Hitman studio IO Interactive that's due to launch in 2026.

A cinematic trailer for the game showcased a fresh-faced James Bond at the beginning of his career as an agent, who joins MI6 and meets new versions of classic characters M, Q and Moneypenny.

The trailer also revealed the involvement of The Walking Dead's Lennie James, who will portray Bond’s mentor John Greenway in the game.

007 First Light's trailer reveals this incarnation of James Bond was involved in a childhood tragedy that left him as an orphan aged 11, after which he spent the rest of his childhood in various British boarding schools. We later see Bond as a young recruit in the Royal Navy, from which he is recruited by MI6.

It's here that players pick up Bond's story as he becomes an agent, picks up an Omega watch, and starts annoying Q by trying out his gadgets in the lab.

A press release issued alongside the game's State of Play appearance lists Bond's age in 007 First Light as "a young 26-year-old". Players will be traverse the globe in what is described as "a story-driven action-adventure game" where you can choose how to navigate various challenges — either with brute force or 007's trademark charm.

What looks like gameplay footage shows James Bond on a mission, stealthing around, using gadgets — and his fists — to subdue enemies, as the hero is sent off to target a rogue agent. "009 is a master manipulator," Greenway says at one point. "Whatever the endgame is, we won't see it coming." Oh, and yes you can dress up in disguises, as you'd expect from the Hitman studio.

IO Interactive's James Bond game was first announced back in 2020 as Project 007, and since then we've learned very little about it. Still, from the off, IO said that it was developing a fresh James Bond origin story and a wholly original piece of work, rather than anything that followed the events of any particular film.

More recently, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak has said he hoped 007 First Light would be the start of a new trilogy of games, though unfortunately the studio's beloved Hitman franchise is on hiatus while IO works on this game. We also learned just this past April that in addition to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, 007 First Light is getting a Nintendo Switch 2 release.

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

Digital Eclipse’s next game collection is Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, a bundle of classic fighting games that includes some of the series’ oldest entries with new features.

The company behind other retro video game remasters announced that it has turned its sights to Mortal Kombat during today’s June 2025 PlayStation State of Play showcase. Included in its announcement was a reveal trailer, promising to bring NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 1, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat 3: Ultimate, Mortal Kombat 4, and more arcade, console, and Game Boy entries to PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S later this year.

More details about the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection were revealed in a PlayStation.Blog post that was published shortly after today's State of Play concluded. Highlights include confirmation that all arcade and console games support online multiplayer with rollback netcode, as well as confirmation that there are more secrets yet to be revealed. Players can also expect the bundle to guide them through Mortal Kombat history with behind-the-scenes materials and interviews.

"Digital Eclipse's interactive documentary format explores how Mortal Kombat changed the way society perceived video games," an official description from the studio says. "By using digitized humans as player sprites in an over-the-top, martial-arts fighter, the game thrilled players, shocked critics, and laid the foundation for a franchise that has thrived for more than 30 years. Hear firsthand from the original dev team of Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel, and Dan Forden, along with other exclusive interviews, rare concept art, vintage marketing materials, and archival video footage.”

Whether you’re a die-hard fan who’s played since the early ‘90s or the kind of player who started with Mortal Kombat 11, Digital Eclipse and NetherRealm have shared a list of eight titles included in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. Even more games will be bundled in when launch arrives before the year is out, but we’ll have to wait to find out what they are. You can see the confirmed list of games below.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection - All the Games Confirmed So Far

• Mortal Kombat – 1992: Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear
• Mortal Kombat II -1993: Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, 32X
• Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995: Arcade, SNES, Genesis
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995: Arcade, SNES
• Mortal Kombat 4 – 1997: Arcade
• Mortal Kombat Advance – 2001: Game Boy Advance
• Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance – 2002: Game Boy Advance
• Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition – 2003: Game Boy Advance

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection does not have a firm release date outside of the promise that it will arrive in 2025. For more, you can read up on everything else announced during today’s PlayStation State of Play presentation.

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).

If you're shopping for a huge amount of local storage, this is one of the best deals available right now. For a limited time, Amazon is offering this massive Seagate Expansion 22TB USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive for $249.99 shipped. This is one of the lowest prices per TB of storage I've seen at $11.36 per TB. The drive is sold by a marketplace vendor - QuickDealStore - with an 85% rating out of 460 reviews over the past 12 months. Amazon, as always, has a 30 day return policy.

Seagate 22TB External Hard Drive for $249.99

Congratulations, stealth-lovers. You're getting a brand new Thief game over a decade after the last entry. However, you're going to need a VR headset to enjoy it.

In a trailer during today's Sony State of Play, we got our first look at Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow. The trailer itself looks fine and very Thief-y - you're exploring a city, sneaking around, looking for treasure you can pilfer, avoiding guards, shooting arrows from the shadows, lockpicking, finding hidden paths, all that sort of thing. It is a little weird to see those disembodied hands floating in front of you, but sure.

From the PlayStation Blog, we learn a little more: you play as Magpie, an orphan thief roaming The City, which is ruled by Baron Ulysses Northcrest. Magpie discovers a legendary artifact of some importance, which leads to a chain of unraveling secrets and conspiracies that spans the city.

Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow is coming out sometime in 2025 on PSVR2 - we have yet to hear if any other platforms are planned. It's being developed by Maze Theory, in collaboration with Vertigo Games and Eidos-Montreal.

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.

Team Ninja has officially revealed Nioh 3 today at Sony's State of Play June 2025 presentation.

The debut trailer revealed an early 2026 release window for the action RPG sequel, which is set for release across PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.

This time, there are open fields for players to explore and both Ninja and Samurai styles to get to grips with. A demo is live now on PS5 until June 18. Players who complete the demo will unlock an exclusive in-game helmet at launch.

Here's the official blurb, from PlayStation Blog:

In Nioh 3, the protagonist is a young warrior poised to become the next Shogun. Why is he dedicated to battling against yokai? We’ll save those details for another day, but what we can tell you today is as the battles unfold, players will now be able to fight using two distinct combat styles: Samurai and Ninja.

The Samurai style provides a gameplay experience similar to previous Nioh titles. New actions such as Arts Proficiency, which enhances the power of martial arts, and Deflect, which allows players to block enemy attacks at the last moment have been added, helping create a series of intense and deadly face-to-face confrontations.

Meanwhile, the Ninja style excels in quick movements like dodging and aerial actions, giving ninjas the advantage of being able to attack from outside of the enemy’s range by utilizing a variety of “Ninjitsu” techniques according to the situation on the battlefield. Players have the ability to use techniques like Mist, which leaves a clone after an attack, and Evade, which allows for narrowly avoiding enemy strikes. Both techniques help players outmaneuver foes while delivering devastating speed attacks from behind.

Players will be able to switch between battle styles instantly at any time, playing in their preferred style in a storyline defined by the strong, the swift, and the wicked. Based on the tendencies of the enemies and stages, some players will prefer to switch seamlessly between Samurai and Ninja techniques, while others will choose to fight using only one style continuously based on the challenge ahead. Feel free to play with the style you like best as you battle some of the fiercest enemies we’ve created to date!

Aside from the new battle styles, Nioh 3 also enables players to enjoy an open field that offers a new freedom of exploration to the unique tension and confrontations that have become a defining characteristic of the Nioh series. Experience unexpected encounters with formidable yokai, explore suspicious villages riddled in violent secrets, and take on the daunting challenges of The Crucible. Enjoy the thrilling, hostile new environments as you fight to survive the cursed kingdom!

We're pretty big Nioh fans here at IGN. We gave the original Nioh a 9.6/10, calling it "an epic, unforgettable adventure carried by a fierce combat system that cleverly balances style and strategy." We similarly praised Nioh 2 with a 9/10, saying that its "many systems may be a little overwhelming, but the stellar combat and satisfying difficulty make it worth it." The Nioh series has been very, very quiet ever since the 2020 release of Nioh 2, though Team Ninja itself has kept busy with releases such as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Rise of the Rōnin, and the upcoming Ninja Gaiden 4.

In case you missed it, here's everything announced at Sony's State of Play June 2025 showcase.

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.

Surprise! Beloved PlayStation tactics game Final Fantasy Tactics is getting a full-blown remake for modern consoles, as announced at today's Sony State of Play.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will include two versions of the game — the classic original (which includes the War of the Lions translation), and a fresh new version with full-blown voice acting, revamped interface, "extensive additions and adjustments to the story", and smoother visuals.

Today's trailer also revealed a release date for the game, which launches for PlayStation 4 and PS5 on September 30, 2025.

Rumors of a Final Fantasy Tactics remake or remaster have been circulating since 2021, when a list of upcoming games were datamined from Nvidia GeForce Now's database that included a Tactics remaster. Numerous games from the list that were unannounced at the time have since tunred out to be real things, and though series creator Yasumi Matsuno denied there was a remaster in the works in 2023, it seems like he was just being coy.

This seems like it will be a great way to re-experience the classic Square tactics game given that its age has made it hard to access since. We gave it an 8.5/10 way back when it first came out in 1998, and we're looking forward to revisiting this beloved game almost three decades later.

In case you missed it, here's everything announced at Sony's State of Play June 2025 showcase.

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

Today's State of Play included a brand new trailer for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remake that showed off more of the game, a closer look at at the revamped Snake vs. Monkey mode featuring Ape Escape, and... was that a tease for Metal Gear Online?

The trailer focuses on Snake being sneaky, as he is, crawling through areas unseen, in disguise, hiding in bushes, and eventually engaging with the enemy head-on in multiple of the game's infamous boss fights.

However, the end of the trailer is a little sillier. It focuses on the previously-announced revamp of the Snake vs. Monkey mode that includes the monkeys from Ape Escape, with Snake trying to capture them by surprise. When this mode was revealed, we learned that Xbox players would be getting a different, equivalent mode featuring Bomberman instead, so it's possible we see a look at that later this week at Xbox's showcase, or in a future trailer.

And then there's the very end of the trailer that appears to be teasing...Metal Gear Online? That "and more" sure is mysterious.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid 3 that was announced in 2023. Though it's been popping up at a lot of State of Plays, it's not PlayStation-exclusive, and it's coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on August 28, 2025. We previewed it last August, and you can read our thoughts right here.

In case you missed it, here's everything announced at Sony's State of Play June 2025 showcase.

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.