Amazon’s Prime Day is here in a big way, and while we’ve already covered the biggest PlayStation and Switch games on sale, it’s Microsoft’s turn.

Aside from savings on big releases like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and Split Fiction, there’s a nifty voucher code for Newegg to help you save on Xbox Game Pass Core, too.

But, looking away from Amazon, Newegg is also offering 12 months of Xbox Game Pass Core for $59.99, with a saving of $15 with the voucher code ‘FTTEU7268’.

Core includes titles like Control, Dishonored 2, DOOM: Eternal, Fallout 4 and Batman: Arkham Knight, as well as Xbox franchises like Halo, Grounded, Hellblade, and Psychonauts.

Mega sales like Amazon’s Prime Day (which runs now through July 11) are a great way to save money, but they can be overwhelming. You can find items on sale in pretty much any item category you look up. With so much on sale, it’s hard to pick what makes the most sense to buy. To that end, I’m going to help walk you through how to make the most out of $50. Just note that you have to be a Prime member to take advantage of most of the deals below (sign up here). So grab your Ulysses S. Grant-branded bill and let’s dive in.

Free Services with Prime

Before we spend any money at all, let’s take a look at the extended free trials Amazon is offering for Prime Day. You can grab six free months of Prime Student, if you’re a student. You can also try out Audible Premium and Kindle Unlimited free for three months. And if you’re not taking advantage of Prime Gaming, which gets you free PC games you can keep, you’re also missing out.

Video Game Deals

Prime Day and Black Friday are, far and away, the best times of year to buy physical video games. If you have a PS5, Xbox Series X, or Nintendo Switch (or Switch 2), you can pick up lots of games for under $50. Above, you’ll find our picks for the best of the bunch.

Buy 2, Get 1 Free Sale

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sick of streaming services constantly jacking up their prices. Also, sometimes the internet goes out and I want to have physical media as a backup. In any case, I always keep my favorite movies and TV shows on hand in physical form. Amazon is running a Buy 2, Get 1 Free deal on 4K UHD Blu-rays, but it also works on books, music, and even office supplies – and you can mix and match. Pick three items you want and save.

Amazon Devices on Sale for Under $50

Amazon has a vast array of hardware by now, and a lot of it is on sale for under $50. You can pick up various models of Amazon Echo, a Ring doorbell, Fire TV Stick 4K, and more for cheap right now.

Save an Extra 30% on Amazon Resale

Amazon doesn’t just sell new items – it’s also a bustling marketplace for previously owned stuff ranging from books and smartphones to Apple Watches. Now I personally don’t mess with anything in poor condition no matter how cheap it is (except maybe books), but lots of items are available in “like new” condition. Lots of video games are in the sale, dropping prices below $50. Just make sure the item you’re buying has a “Prime Day deal Save 30% at checkout” label, or you might not get the deal.

More Items Under $50

Obviously in a sale this big, there will be plenty of items available for under $50. All the ones above are certified deals that we hand-picked, so they're definitely worth picking up if you could use any of them in your daily life.

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

Amazon Prime Day is here, and it’s packed with deals for gamers of all platforms, ages, and interests. From state-of-the-art VR, to superfast SSDs, entire gaming rigs, and whole hosts of games to add to your collection, we’ve got the best Prime Day gaming deals rounded up right here. Let’s a-go!

PlayStation Portal for $124

After weeks of build-up, Amazon Prime Day 2025 is here at last with tons of great deals across gaming, tech, Blu-rays, appliances, and more.

Although this is a four-day event spread across July 8-11, a multitude of unique offers drop each day, making it worth coming back to see what's on offer.

TL;DR - Best Prime Day 2025 Deals in the UK

Even at the start of Prime Day, there are some unmissable deals you won't want to miss out on, whether you just want to catch up on games, upgrade to a new air fryer, or snag a cheeky and cheap 4K movie.

Throughout the week, we'll be scouring the entirety of all the new deals releasing, so keep this buyer's guide bookmarked to keep you informed without having to look through all of Amazon yourself this Prime Day.

3 Months of Audible for Free for Prime Day

Throughout July, Audible is offering Amazon Prime members free three months of its Premium Plus audiobook subscription, instead of its £8.99 rate. Even at its non-Prime member offer rate of £0.99 per month for those three, it's still a stellar deal if you're needing to catch up on reading but don't have time to sit and read an actual book.

In the land of epic fantasy, few authors are as big as Brandon Sanderson right now. He is one of the most prolific modern fantasy writers with quite a few different series' of books, many of which take place in the same universe: The Cosmere. During the Prime Day sale this year Amazon is having a great ‘Buy 2, Get 1 Free’ sale on a large number of books, which also include some of Sanderson’s Cosmere works. Whether you’re already a fan and looking to fill some of those Cosmere gaps you have, or are simply interested in checking out some fantastic books, there is no better time to jump in and start experiencing this literary universe.

If you are new to the Cosmere, before you click that “buy” button, we recommend you check out our detailed reading order guide to help you navigate the series and get a grasp on which of the series may be the best place to start for you.

To get the full list of Sanderson's books that are part of this sale, head to the deal page, and under the "Brands" tab, check the box next to "Brandon Sanderson".

Brandon Sanderson Books Are Buy 2, Get 1 Free

Despite being a shared universe, the various series feel really unique and distinct from one another, and that’s one of the appeals of Sanderson’s books. With creative takes on magic systems and subtle little nods and easter eggs for fans to pick up on sprinkled throughout the different books, the Cosmere is an experience all its own. Feel like a Victorian/western detective-esque story with characters who have powers, Mistborn Era 2 has you covered. What about tales of knights and spirits? Then, check out the Stormlight Archive. With deals and prices like these, though, if you find your copies of these books breaking down from multiple reads, why not pick up some brand-new copies as backups or grab a set for your best friend so you have someone to share your theories with? Join us in the Sanderlanche.

More Prime Day Deals

While there are plenty of great Amazon Prime Day deals on tech and gaming gear, sometimes you just want something soft and adorable to squeeze when you're stressed or are looking to add a little bit of quirky character to a space. That’s where Squishmallows come in; many of these ultra-plush, top-tier plushies from Jazwares are included in the Prime Day sales this year.

From original stuffed plushies with a unique charm to Squishmallows based on major franchises, there’s something for everyone. If you’re a Prime member, looking for a cute gift, or want to keep these lovable creatures all to yourself, Squishmallows are at their lowest prices of the year. Some are up to 60% off or more, but the sale only lasts until July 11th.

Amazon Prime Day discounts for PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC gamers have been abound since the four-day sale’s start yesterday, but Seagate’s plug-in expansion SSDs for the Xbox Series X|S consoles have gotten some big bargains of their own, now up to 42% off.

Amazon’s Prime Day is more of a Prime Week, but it is giving us even more opportunities to dig up fantastic deals, like a big discount on one of the best PS5 SSDs (that’ll also fit nicely in your PC).

The Samsung 990 Pro is seeing a 29% discount as part of the sale festivities, meaning you can scoop up a 2TB model for just $149.99, instead of the list price of $209.99.

My gaming buddies are an eclectic group. Some also write about games; some I’ve known for twenty years; some are friends of friends. They all play different kinds of stuff and all look at the hobby differently. But when they all agree on a game, it tends to have the juice, to hit on something, somewhere, somehow that somehow makes it compelling to a bunch of different folks who look for very different things. They started playing Mecha Break with me because I asked them to; now, they’re the ones asking me to play. Mecha Break’s team-based robot throwdowns quickly became one of our group’s go-to multiplayer options in the week since it was released, and there’s a reason for that: it’s really damn good.

Mecha Break scratches a very specific kind of itch: the kind that drives someone to seek perfection in their multiplayer games. Not overall – there’s no such thing as a “perfect” piece of art. But perfect moments? The perfect shot, the clutch dodge, confirming the last kill that wins you the match? They’re out there, in that things come together just the way you need them to… man, it’s something special. Mecha Break is the kind of game that lets you build your own stories that worm their way into your group's conversations, the kind that spawns somebody shouting “Did you see that shot?” midmatch or the whole group going “clip that!” when somebody makes a great play. It’s the kind of game where you’re planning a strategy pre-game and gassing up your friends when they win MVP, where you’re celebrating your wins and trying to figure out your losses. It pulls you in.

Your time with Mecha Break is going to start with its fairly detailed character creator. For men, your options range from “conventionally attractive dude” to “taller, buffer conventionally attractive dude.” For women, they could be summed up as “extremely slender, conventionally attractive woman” and “yo, girl, are you the Tower of Babel? Because you are stacked in defiance of God.” As you’d expect, the men are steady as a rock. But whenever the women move (and this includes when you rotate them in the character creator), there’s quite a bit of jiggle. You’ll never guess what body type is more popular online. I’m here for the hot mech-on-mech action, personally, but there’s no denying that Mecha Break is also unapologetically a game for horndogs based on the human characters. That’s not a slight against it (we love a game where everyone is hot, which basically just makes Mecha Break The Mummy), but it is extremely funny.

Once you’re done building your hot person d’jour, you’re dropped into tutorial missions meant to teach you the basics of piloting your Legally Distinct Gundam Break Striker while setting up Mecha Break’s story. Basically, humanity is fighting for crystals called Corite, a power source capable of solving Earth’s energy crisis. However, it’s also a massive health risk and seems to be able to infect people (and Break Strikers) fairly easily. The opening missions set up the stakes (and let you fight a pretty slick boss battle) while also giving you an idea of how Mecha Break’s extraction shooter mode works. But the reality is that story isn’t important for more than a “here’s why you’re doing this” backdrop and, honestly, I’ve forgotten most of it in the 20 hours I’ve played since. You can walk around the base if you’d like, and it is cool to be able to both see your Break Striker up close and spend a little time running around Mecha Break’s world (and you are rewarded for doing so), but it’s one of those “huh, yeah this is neat” things in a game where your overriding motivation is “I would like to use my giant robot to blow up other giant robots.” Oh, and you can watch your character take a steamy shower if you’re into that, I guess. Again, Mecha Break is a game for horndogs.

Like I said, though, I’m here for the violence, and Mecha Break has three modes for you to get your mech killin’ game on in. We’ll talk about Operation Storm first because, like a middling appetizer that comes out before your main course, I ate enough of it to determine what it was, decided that I didn’t care, and moved on to tastier plates.

Operation Storm is an extraction shooter. You – or you and a couple buddies or complete strangers – drop into a map called Mashmak with one goal: take everything you can and get out while the getting’s good. Oh, and you’ll have to avoid Corite storms, which look like massive tornadoes that move across the map. “Taking everything you can” generally means killing the computer-controlled enemies (often mechs, sometimes rare enemies, occasionally big bosses), and opening chests scattered across the map. Standard extraction shooter stuff. Of course, you can pick up and equip anything you find, offering your mech new options for superior firepower (though you always have access to your base loadout). Survive long enough for an exit point to appear, and you’ll get to keep everything. Die, and you lose it. And, of course, there are other players/teams looking to take you out and steal your things.

It’s… fine? I don’t know, reader, I played it after I had already tried Operation Verge and the Ace Arena (more on those in a minute) and I was mostly bored. Mashmak is huge, so travelling across it takes a while in most Break Strikers, and fighting the initial CPU enemies is dull. Unless you’re willing to stay a while so the challenging stuff shows up or go looking for a scrap with other mechs you’re hoping to turn into scrap metal, it just isn’t all that interesting. It’s neat that you can call in supplies and find new weapons, but your kits are already pretty strong. New stuff helps, but the central appeal of an extraction shooter is that you can both get stuff and lose it, and since you can’t really lose any of your core Strikers, I don’t know if this idea works here because your base build is never going to be bad. Yeah, you can lose whatever you bring in with you (and there is a whole economy built around upgrades, weapons, paint jobs, and all that) and whatever you find, but the overall risk is pretty low so I just… didn’t care? And, wonderfully, since no other part of Mecha Break is tied to Operation Storm (besides cosmetic stuff), I don’t have to. That rules, and I hope other developers will take note.

My attention was elsewhere, and that elsewhere is Operation Verge. This 6v6 online mode is where I spent the majority of my time during this review because, well… it’s basically what Mecha Break’s all about. Once you squad up with your guys, gals, or nonbinary pals, you choose from one of the 15 different mechs available. 12 are unlocked immediately, with another 3 locked behind either real money or in-game currency. As of right now, you can only buy one with real money; all three can be unlocked in-game and none feel crucial to building a great team, so it's not a huge deal that they're not there from the jump. And you can try them for free for 7 days before you buy them, so you won't waste your currency if it turns out that you don’t like one.

One of the things I appreciated most was how much variety there is. Mecha Break has every kind of mech you could want: heavies like the Stego with the ability to plant itself in the ground, sit behind a shield, and launch a massive missile barrage; the Falcon, which transforms into a plane, Starscream-style, making it an ideal choice for folks who like to zoom across the expansive battlefield and rain death from above; the all-powerful-in-the-right-hands Aquila, whose sniper rifle and ability to hover above the fray make it a must for most maps; the ultra-heavy Tricera, which combines four gatling guns, a shielded turret mode, and mighty howitzer that will chew through other Break Strikers for unparalleled defense; and my personal favorite, the Alysnes: a medium-weight, more traditional mech that becomes smaller and more agile after its armor is blown off. Survive long enough in this form and you can reapply your armor, like some kind of mech-flavored Magical Girl.

That isn’t all of them, of course. There are support mechs for healing and shielding your friends, melee mechs for getting up close and personal, and so on. Everyone has different armaments to manage, and I had to tailor my playstyle to the mech I tried. Picking the right one is important, because once you’re locked in and the match starts, you’re stuck with it. There’s also no customization beyond cosmetic stuff like patterns and paint in Operation Verge. Two teams enter an arena, one team leaves victorious, and the one is already queuing for their next game. That’s how it should be.

The thing is, though, they’re all fun. Everything in Mecha Break feels amazing, whether you’re flying a Falcon, slamming into someone with the Panther’s spear, launching the Stego’s missile barrage, unleashing the Tricera’s howitzer, or just wailing on some poor Striker with the Alysnes’ battle halberd. The fastest Strikers zoom across the map, and even the the slowest ones comes equipped with a solid dodge. From a moment-to-moment gameplay perspective, Mecha Break is a joy no matter what you’re playing. It just feels good. You remember that old saying about “30 seconds of fun?” Yeah. That’s this. And when you land that awesome kill and get an execution animation? Oh, baby.

Mecha Break also (smartly) prevents you from having duplicate mechs on a single team, which leads to some really great fights. I had a particularly tense rivalry in one game where my Alysnes faced off against another player’s camo-enabled, melee-focused Stellaris. We clashed several times, and they were long, drawn-out duels that tested everything from our overall map awareness and positioning to when we decided to attack. In others, my Tricera went-to-toe against the heavy brawler that is the Welkin, or I stayed away from the fray and picked off the fast-as-hell Skyraiders and Falcons before they realized they’d taken a bad fight. You build rivalries in real time in Mecha Break, and it made for some memorable moments. Some I lost, others I clutched out, but the fights were all exciting.

The other cool things Mecha Break does is marry its maps to how you’ll play on them. The multi-level, industrial Gracelynn Skycity only offers traditional deathmatch (first to eight kills wins; best two out of three), as does Babylon Sky Fortress. But there’s more here than Deathmatch. The waterlogged Poseidon Armory sports a King of the Hill-esque data retrieval mode where you have to capture and hold points to win, as does my beloved Kraub Sinkhole. Eye of Misra and Vigil Imbrium ask you to capture launch keys and upload them to a nearby turret, while Longmen Launch Site and Palmbay Harbor queue up good ol’ fashioned payload escorts. Cape Blanc Observatory and Stella Observatory Island switch it up by asking you to destroy objectives rather than capture them.

The maps themselves are a smorgasbord of interesting locations, too. Stella Observatory Island is a combination mountain range with a valley and a destroyed city. I could set up and snipe at other mechs from the high ground with the Stego, but to get the objectives (and stay in the fights over them) I needed to head down where I was more vulnerable. Stego is a great choice, but it does take a minute for it to get from place to place. It's easier to play the Aquila or the Alysnes on that map, and if you’re smart, you’ll build your team accordingly. Longmen Launch Site is at a missile facility where you can choose between fighting outside with limited cover, or getting up close and personal in the tight corridors indoors. It’s perfect for the Tricera; where you can sit your happy ass on your payload (or the other team’s) to speed them up and send them back, respectively. Combine that with the healing powers of the Pinaka, and it’s hard for the other team to deal with. Vigil Imbrium is set on a crater-covered moon that includes both open skies and small canyons just big enough to squeeze through, ideal for dodging enemy fire or moving around out of sight. The real trick there is the pulse storms, which damage your mech unless you take cover. The Aquila’s an absolute monster here, but a well-piloted Falcon or Panther can straight-up roll the other team if you’re not careful.

By far my favorite map in Operation Verge is Kraub Sinkhole, a King of the Hill style map with three points all placed in very different areas. Any team composition can work well here if you play it right, and I’ve had fun and been able to make plays on it no matter what I was piloting. I don’t think there are any bad maps in Mecha Break, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t rather play stuff like Stella Observatory, Kraub Sinkhole, and Longmen Launch Site over the others because I think they reward good teamplay over their counterparts. I never thought I’d say this, but my least favorite maps are built on Team Deathmatch. Not because it’s bad, mind you, but because dealing with objectives means more focus on team comps, communication, and clutch plays. When an opponent is straight up better than you, you’ll know it, but a single player can’t break a team over their knee in an objective-based mode the way they can in Team Deathmatch. You gotta work together, and that's where the good stuff lives.

Building the right team and coordinating pre-match is essential (you can tell what map you’re on ahead of time, though it isn’t obvious unless you remember a map’s name; that will thankfully be changing in a coming update). Our pre-match discussion was about what we should have, who should play it, and what our strategy should be. Certain mechs are kind of a necessity: you should probably always run an Aquila (or the lighter, faster, “I can go invisible” Narukami) because snipers are hilariously powerful, but running both a Falcon and a Skyraider is a risky proposition. On the other hand, you can never have too much beef, so a Stego/Tricera combo is strong. You’re just not gonna be fast. And you should probably always run a support mech like the Pinaka because being able to heal through hits once your armor is gone (mechs have both armor, which regenerates, and health, which doesn’t) is pretty incredible.

In-game, teamwork is crucial. We were calling out targets (pro tip: if you see an Aquila, you need to bully it relentlessly and kill it as soon as you can), coordinating who was going where, and pinging each other for help. That’s the best way to play Mecha Break, and it’s led my team to a 70% win rate. Are certain mechs stronger than others? Yeah. Aquila, Welkin, Narukami, and the unlockable, melee-and-stealth focused Stellaris can all run you over if you let them. But if you coordinate properly, they’ll die real fast.

But no matter what we played or what map we were on, I appreciated that Mecha Break let me contribute regardless of what I was doing. Even keeping another mech distracted while your team hits the objective (or killing them outright) can swing a game, especially because respawns take longer than they do in most comparable games. If you can take a piece off the board for a bit, that matters. For example, while piloting a Stego against another player in the same heavy-hitting mech on the opposite team, keeping him out of the fight long enough for us to secure the last objective helped decide that match. Prioritizing an Aquila or Pinaka can be the difference between winning and losing. Hell, even just sneaking behind the enemy and capturing a point while they’re busy forgetting this isn’t Team Deathmatch has won us a lot of games. Mecha Break gives you a lot to learn about your mech’s various weapons and abilities and how to beat other Break Strikers you run into, but if you really dig into it, you’ll be rewarded. The person that realizes a Panther’s airborne strikes bypass a Tricera's shields is gonna have a much better time than the one who doesn’t.

But wait, there’s more! I’ve spent most of this review talking about Operation Verge, Mecha Break’s best mode, but Ace Arena, a 3v3 mode, is also pretty slick. There are only four maps (one of which has a cool environmental hazard in the form of test-firing rocket engines that you don’t wanna stand behind), but it’s a good time, and I appreciate that you can switch mechs when you die, something you can’t do in Operation Verge. When I took part of my Operation Verge team into Ace Arena for the first time, we smoked the other team 8-0, so… you know. Transferable skills.

Mecha Break also has a training mode where you can practice against various enemies, tutorials and challenges for each of the 15 mechs, and custom rooms if you just wanna play with friends and not venture into Casual or Matchmaking. I spent most of my time in Matchmaking for this review as Casual doesn’t yet have rewards, though that is allegedly coming in a later patch.

Okay, now for the boring stuff. There is a real-money auction house you can sell things in, whether it’s a character customization item, paint, or stuff to equip your mech with in Mashmak. Most prices are pretty reasonable, but the rare stuff is very expensive. I don’t really care about this because I don’t care about cosmetics and I’m not going to play more Operation Storm, but it should be noted that you can get most of this stuff just by playing. It does make Operation Storm somewhat pay to win, the competitive integrity of Ace Arena and Operation Verge is fully intact. And there’s plenty of stuff you can only unlock with in-game currency, which is handed out fairly generously if you just play and do missions, which are basic things like “Do X thing Y times with Z Striker.” You’ll also earn it through various progression systems like the Rally Orders, which you get by teaming up with friends and completing challenges, or stuff like Christian’s Challenge which puts you in a scoring race against a story character. All of this stuff is free. And, of course, there are log-in bonuses, match bonuses, and so on.

If there’s a real issue with Mecha Break’s monetization, it’s in the the stuff that developer Amazing Seasun Games is selling directly. Paying $22 ($13 at the current sale price) for one of the locked mechs and a ton of in-game currency bonuses is whatever if you don’t wanna take the time to unlock it yourself. What’s wild are the prices on the cosmetic Ace pilots. You can recruit Falcon pilot Leonie Fèvre, her custom Falcon, and three character-specific (boarding, execution, and MVP) animations for the low, low price of $47.99, which is frankly outrageous. Listen, I get it. Mecha Break is a really gorgeous video game, everyone’s hot, and anime waifu stonks are through the roof. But $50 for three animations, a character model, and a custom mech design is nasty work. $10? All right. $15? Okay. Even $25? That might be tempting. But $50? Good Lord, man. That is solely for the people who are too horny to live or have more money than sense. I’m sure a bunch of people will buy this, but the pricing here feels obscene.

So the monetization is as mixed as a bag of spare parts and something I could see people spending way too much money on if they’re not careful. But Mecha Break does give you a decent amount of stuff for in-game currency, and frankly, I’m not sure that I care about monetization in a game like this anyway. If you really want to go crazy customizing your character or buy that shiny new pilot and her mech, you’ll have to pony up. Otherwise, you can unlock paints and patterns for your mechs for free at a reasonable pace. And, let’s face it, unless you’re somebody who is playing the shower sequence on repeat, that’s probably what you’re gonna spend most of your time looking at, anyway. I’m here for the gameplay, and these extras don’t drag down how much that part rules.

Jack Kirby has a legacy like no other — and considering one of his most beloved creations, The Fantastic Four, is getting an all-new film revamp later this month, the city of New York saw fit to honor the prolific Marvel comic artist in a major way.

NYC renamed the corner of Essex Street and Delancey Street on the Lower East Side to Jack Kirby Way and Yancy Street, highlighting the New York native’s contributions to his home neighborhood. Kirby was born on that corner and lived at 147 Essex Street, a place he later paid homage to by inventing the iconic Yancy Street, the home of Ben Grimm AKA The Thing.

Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief C.B. Cebulski took to social media to gush over the ceremony, in which the city unveiled two brand new street signs corresponding with the new names. Kirby’s family and Marvel friends and family attended the milestone moment.

"Honored to have been a part of this morning's ceremony honoring Jack Kirby by renaming Delancey St… Jack Kirby Way/Yancy St,” Cebulski wrote on Instagram. “Thanks to everyone at Marvel who helped make this happen, to the city of New York for working with us on the project, and to the Kirby family who flew in to be a part of this special day."

Kirby created Captain America in 1940, which put him on the map in the comic book scene. By the 1960s, he’d gone on to create many of the characters we know and love today, like the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Hulk, Silver Surfer, and the X-Men. Basically, no one deserves a street named after him more than this guy. The beloved artist died of heart failure in 1994.

In 2023, Jack Kirby's son, Neal, accused Disney's Stan Lee documentary of minimizing his father's contributions to Marvel. Kirby's granddaughter, Jillian, shared Neal's statement on Twitter, and he began by discussing how the documentary fed into the legend of Stan Lee, who passed away at the age of 95 in 2018, that was built upon him having the "fortunate circumstance to have access to the corporate megaphone and media."

"I understand that, as a 'documentary about Stan Lee,' most of the narrative is in his voice, literally and figuratively," Neal Kirby wrote. "It's not any big secret that there has always been controversy over the parts that were played in the creation and success of Marvel's characters.

"Stan Lee had the fortunate circumstance to have access to the corporate megaphone and media, and he used these to create his own mythos as to the creation of the Marvel character pantheon. He made himself the voice of Marvel. So, for several decades he was the 'only' man standing, and blessed with a long life, the last man standing (my father died in 1994)."

For more, check out our look at the influence of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko on the MCU and the cosmic side of things. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, meanwhile, comes out July 25 and kicks off Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Last month, a new trailer revealed The Thing's rock beard and Silver Surfer's metallic voice.

Image credit: @Kirby4Heroes / X.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

IGN can exclusively reveal a new action scene from director James Gunn’s Superman. The clip is introduced by Superman star David Corenswet.

In the scene, the villainous Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) directs his staff in programming The Hammer of Boravia's fight moves against the Man of Steel as they brawl over the skies of Metropolis.

The Hammer of Boravia is an original character created by writer-director James Gunn and who was first revealed in a faux Daily Planet article – written by Clark Kent, no less – that was used as marketing material for the first DCU movie.

Clark’s article said the Hammer of Boravia came to Metropolis seeking "retribution for the recent political interventions in Boravia by Superman."

"Boravia has been the source of numerous headlines worldwide in recent weeks as it invaded its neighboring country Jarhanpur, only for the brief war to be swiftly ended by the Superman,” according to Clark’s article. “The President of Boravia, Vasil Glarkos, maintains the Hammer of Boravia is not a representative of the national government, but rather an independent vigilante."

The clip revealing that Luthor is actually behind the Hammer of Boravia’s actions may seem like a spoiler to some but, honestly, are you really surprised that Lex Luthor is behind something that makes Superman look bad?

As IGN’s Jesse Schedeen observed when the trailer first showed the Hammer of Boravia in action, the armored villain’s mission to Metropolis “makes it clear that Gunn’s Superman will explore the challenges Kal-El faces trying to be not just a force for good inside Metropolis, but on the world stage. He’s doing his best to protect all innocents and creating an international incident in the process. In that sense, the new film seems to share a little in common with Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman, which also dealt with the unintended consequences of Superman operating outside the boundaries of the US.”

For more, read IGN’s Superman review wherein our critic, Tom Jorgensen, hails Gunn’s film as “a wonderfully entertaining, heartfelt cinematic reset for the Man of Steel, and a great new start for the DC universe on the big screen.”

Superman opens nationwide release in theaters and IMAX on July 11

Jim Vejvoda (he/him) is IGN's Sr. Manager, Entertainment Content Partnerships.

In 2014, Nintendo faced a financial shortfall when the Wii U was severely underperforming. To avoid layoffs, then-Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced he would take a 50% pay reduction to avoid cutting staff. This decision saved thousands of jobs, and Nintendo employees were able to stay on to help develop their next console: the Nintendo Switch, the company’s most successful home console of all time. It’s a legendary moment in games industry history, one that highlights Nintendo’s clear-eyed approach in moments of crisis. Nearly a decade later, Nintendo’s new president Shuntaro Furukawa offers his own pragmatic solution to confront the turbulence currently roiling the games industry.

In the most recent Q&A with investors to discuss the latest quarterly financials, a concerned investor told Furukawa that they were worried the improved performance of the Nintendo Switch 2 will lead to increased development times for games, which in turn will drive up Nintendo’s development costs. This is a valid worry – increased performance unlocks the opportunity for more detailed graphics, deeper gameplay systems, and more ambitious campaign designs, all of which take longer to create. One only has to look at the 13-year wait between Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto 6 to see how the shift in technology is causing games to take much, much longer to make.

But these extended timelines are not just bad for fans who have to wait a ridiculously long time for a sequel to their favorite game. As game development time stretches longer and longer, budgets climb with it. And when a game that costs hundreds of millions of dollars and takes nine years to make fails to meet its lofty financial targets, redundancies quickly follow. After the near decade-long development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League finally came to an end in 2024, the game launched to lukewarm reviews and middling sales. Rocksteady suffered heavy layoffs as a result. The studio’s parent company, Warner Bros. Games, specifically cited the $200 million loss it took on Suicide Squad when discussing its own dire finances – a situation that led to the closure of studios like Monolith Productions.

Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog July 2025 additions, revealing highlights for Extra and Premium subscribers that include Cyberpunk 2077, Risk of Rain 2, Planet Zoo, and more.

A breakdown of the full lineup of 10 titles set to arrive for subscribers throughout July arrived in a PlayStation Blog post. CD Projekt Red’s dystopian sci-fi RPG is the clear standout this time around, with Sony explaining that it, along with a 30% discount for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, are available today to help celebrate the PlayStation Plus 15th anniversary.

The rest of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog games for July 2025 will release in the coming weeks. It starts with Extra tier games like Bluey: The Videogame, Planet Zoo, and Tropico 6, which arrive July 15. Gearbox’s popular roguelike, Risk of Rain 2, is one highlight set to drop at this time, bringing co-op action to subscribers alongside other titles like New World: Aeternum and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.

Playstack and Deep Field Games’ Abiotic Factor will launch day one for Extra subscribers one week later, come July 22. PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, meanwhile, can look forward to old-school demolition derby classics, Twisted Metal 3 and Twisted Metal 4, which also launch July 15. You can take a look at the full list of new PlayStation Plus July 2025 Game Catalog additions, as well as their supported platforms, in the list below.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium Game Catalog Additions – July 2025

• Cyberpunk 2077 | PS5, PS4
• Abiotic Factor | PS5 (July 22)
• Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden | PS5
• Bluey: The Videogame | PS5, PS4
• Planet Zoo | PS5
• Risk of Rain 2 | PS5, PS4
• Tropico 6 | PS5, PS4
• New World: Aeternum | PS5

PlayStation Plus Premium Game Catalog Additions – July 2025

• Twisted Metal 3 | PS5, PS4
• Twisted Metal 4 | PS5, PS4

For more on the PlayStation Plus 15th anniversary, you can click here. While we wait for the rest of the new PlayStation Plus Game Catalog July 2025 additions to drop in the coming weeks, you can check out the new June 2025 games that arrived last month. You can also read up on the new Essential titles for July 2025, including Diablo 4 and Jusant, which launched just last week.

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).