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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pixar veteran Pete Docter has discussed the company's current struggles when trying to create new films and franchises, as current release Elio faces an uphill battle at the box office.

Stressing that Pixar needed to "find out what people want before they know it," Docter said that the alternative was just feeding audiences "more of what they know" — leading to endless sequels and more of the same.

"We'd be making Toy Story 27," Docter said, speaking at Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Summit, shortly before the studio's new film opened.

In the U.S., Elio earned just $20.8 million from its opening weekend, the lowest of any Pixar debut, amid tough competition from fellow new release 28 Years Later and the recent How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake.

Internationally, Elio has earned $14m, for a current worldwide total of $34.8 million — far short of the film's $150 million budget, a total that also does not include marketing costs.

"It's a rough time, and all we can do is try to make movies that I think are led by us. We have to believe in them," Docter said. "It takes as much work and effort to make something that doesn't make money as it does for something that does. And you can't really plan on this stuff. Sometimes you just hit the right little combinations of things."

Elio has received positive reviews by critics, but clearly has not sparked the level of interest among audiences Pixar had hoped for. It's a marked change to the audience response for Pixar's last movie, Inside Out 2, which overperformed versus expectations and became Disney's biggest box-office hit ever after netting $1.69 billion.

Aside from interest in individual films, there are longer term trends at work here too — lingering audience hesitation due to the effects of Covid, and an expectation from that era of animated movies quickly becoming available on streaming services.

To mitigate risks, Docter said Pixar was now sticking to a rough schedule of one original film followed by a sequel to a past hit — and, sure enough, 2026 will see the launch of Toy Story 5. While it's not quite the Toy Story 27 that Docter referenced, it will see Pixar adding yet another entry to a story many felt had been perfectly wrapped up in Toy Story 3, after the flop of Buzz-centric spin-off Lightyear.

Looking ahead, Pixar's future slate is as Docter suggests: a mix of original ideas and sequels. As well as Toy Story 5, next year also brings human-animal body-swap comedy Hoppers, while feline-focused Gatto debuts in 2027. These are followed by Incredibles 3 in 2028, and Coco 2 in 2029.

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

Mahershala Ali has issued a number of updates on Marvel’s M.I.A. Blade movie while promoting his new film, Jurassic World Rebirth, and none are particularly positive.

Blade was first announced at San Diego Comic Con back in 2019 and if all had gone to plan, the movie would have launched this November. But the troubled project has cycled through several directors at this point, and now, six years after it was announced, Blade starring Mahershala Ali is no closer to becoming a reality.

Indeed, it's been eight months since Blade was removed from Marvel’s release schedule — and the studio has yet to confirm a new release date. That said, a month after the film was pulled from the calendar, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige insisted the company still planned to make a Blade movie happen at some point.

"We are committed to Blade. We love the character, we love Mahershala's take on him. And rest assured: whenever we change direction with a project, or are still figuring out how it fits into our schedule, we let the audience know. You're all up to date on what's happening," he said during an interview with Omelete in November 2024. "But I can tell you that the character will indeed make it to the MCU.”

But what does Mahershala Ali have to say about it? Speaking to Variety, the Oscar-winning actor issued a brief and vague update that will do little to convince fans Blade is on the way. "Call Marvel," Ali said. "I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready."

The Hollywood Reporter also asked Ali for an update on Blade. Here, he said a little more, but it still sounds very much like nothing’s happening any time soon.

“I would love for Blade to happen; we’ll see, I don’t know where Marvel is at right now,” he said. “I’m just looking for the next great part, I really am.”

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom said it is aware that "players are reporting being cut out of the endgame due to the extremely competitive nature of the Deep Desert."

Last week, Funcom assured players in an AMA it was already "formulating a plan" to improve PvP in the Deep Desert, which players have previously branded as "toxic" due to griefing even after patching out the ability for players to squish other people with their Ornithopter.

In a candid letter from the creative director, Joel Bylos said: "So let me start by stating this unequivocally — we want PvE players to be able to play the endgame and have access to the content of the endgame. Our goal is not to force PvE players to interact with a PvP system that they may have no interest in.

"We still believe in the core concept of the Deep Desert — an endlessly renewing location that resets every week and creates an activity loop for great rewards. The tension of heading out there, head on a swivel, eyes peeled for foes as you enter the most dangerous part of the most dangerous planet in the universe, Our wish was that players would embrace this loop, forming guilds to work together to overcome the bleakness of the Deep Desert. But as Stephen King says, 'Wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, see which one fills up first.' One of my hands is overflowing right now and sadly not with wishes."

Bylos admitted that the "extremely competitive nature" of the Deep Desert was forcing players to engage when they may prefer PvP, and consequently, some areas of the Deep Desert will now be flagged as "Partial Warfare (PvE)" where players can grab rare resources without getting ambushed. The largest spice fields, shipwrecks and Landsraad control points will remain "War of Assassins (PvP)" as "high reward, high risk" areas.

That said, the whole game is balanced around guilds and groups, so if you prefer to be a lone wolf, you can expect it to be "grindy if [you] play solo."

As for the Orni griefing? "Thopters will always be incredibly important for crossing the desert, but they shouldn’t also be the dominant force in actual battles," Bylos said, adding that the following will be implemented "shortly":

• Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers attached will have their speed maneuverability reduced
• Rockets fired from Scout Ornithopters will have increased heat generation
• Thrusters will provide a max speed bonus regardless of wings, ensuring that thruster equipped scouts will be the fastest vehicles in the game
• A new T5 infantry rocket launcher will be added to help improve the dynamics of vehicle/ground combat

Finally, the Landsraad. Bylos defines it as "an umbrella for all endgame activities," such as dungeons, contracts, and "more specialized delivery tasks."

"As a system it is an activity driver that is designed to promote the conflict between the factions, internal politics between the guilds, while providing goal thresholds for individuals and groups to work towards getting personal rewards," the director explained. "And the Landsraad should be doing that for everyone who wants to participate in the elder game, be they PvEer or PvPer. The Landsraad should be giving you things to do every day and every week.

"It’s nothing new, from a design perspective, we’ve seen daily/weekly quest systems in games for a long time. Our approach was to try and frame this system around the greater politics of the Dune universe, by having players engage in activities to earn the votes of the various Landsraad houses." Consequently, Funcom will shortly be addressing "key flaws" in the Landsraad design, too, including stockpiling, which is currently rewarded but was not designed to be that way.

"Once a live game launches, it becomes a collaborative effort between the developers and the players to make it something amazing," Bylos concluded. "We appreciate your feedback on what we hope is the beginning of a long journey together.

"Bear with us — our intention is to be clear and open in our communications and to make Dune: Awakening a game that everybody can enjoy."

We gave Dune: Awakening a Great 8/10 in our review, writing: "Dune: Awakening is an excellent survival MMO that captures Frank Herbet’s sci-fi world incredibly well, mostly to its advantage and occasionally to its detriment. The survival climb from dehydrated peasant to powerful warlord of Arrakis is a joy almost every step of the way, and the story and worldbuilding filled this nerd with absolute joy. There’s still plenty for Awakening to work on though, as its combat never really hits its stride, the endgame is a bit of a chaotic mess not worth the effort."

If all that's got you interested, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our in-progress Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. To help you survive on Arrakis, we've got Dune: Awakening resource guides that'll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide.

Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a 'very positive' user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom's survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve's platform, and hit a new high earlier this month of 189,333 players. And it's already clocked up over 1 million players, too, making it Funcom's fastest-selling game ever.

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.

On July 9, Samsung will host its third and final Galaxy Unpacked Event of 2025. Samsung hasn't revealed much beforehand other than its tagline "Ultra Unfolds," however the company is widely expected to release new foldable variants in its Galaxy smartphone lineup. In advance of the event, you can place a reservation online in order to get some early bird perks if you end up placing a preorder. These include:

• A bonus $50 Samsung credit
• Up to $1,150+ in additional savings (most likely from trade-ins)
• A chance to enter the sweepstakes for $5,000 in Samsung credit

If you're even slightly interested in getting your hands on the new smartphones, there's no reason not to reserve. Since this isn't a pre-order, you don't have to place any kind of deposit, and there's no commitment to buy.

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked July 9, 2025: Reserve Now

Great news, everyone: The latest Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set has arrived, and it includes some great cards.

The arrival of a new set has already given rise to refreshed synergies with some forgotten cards seeing a boost, but naturally, the latest influx of cardboard has caused prices to climb and others to fall.

Magic: The Gathering - Crashers

Summer has arrived and neck fans are once again increasing in popularity. These portable fans wrap around your head and are a simple and effective way to keep your noggin cool and breezy. If you're not sure whether a neck fan is worth it for you, at least you can give it a try with minimal risk. Right now Amazon is offering 50% off Tunise Rechargeable Portable Neck Fans with coupon code "8Z2BHHVD". For Amazon Prime members, prices start at just $13.50 after the code is applied. To be honest, most of these inexpensive neck fans on Amazon look like they came from the same factory, so it really just comes down to finding the lowest price. Also, if you don't like it, Amazon offers an easy 30 day return policy.

Tunise Rechargeable Portable Neck Fan for $13.49

Clear the digital cobwebs off your wishlist and stretch those thumbs because some absolute gems are on sale across every major platform this week. Whether you're chasing a retro-style indie for loose change or something AAA to chew on until tax returns hit, there’s something to tempt just about everyone. Enough talk, though. Let's get amongst some bargains!

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 28th birthday of my personal favourite moustache racer, Mario Kart 64. What sold me was its first-in-series 4P multi, and probably about a hundred hours spent doing "winner plays on" 150cc VS. Mode and Block Fort balloon battles at a mate's house. When the surf was crap in Kiama, his headland-based abode basically became the local youth drop in centre—just a constant state of shoulder-to-shoulder competition and trash talk. Truly, some of the best gaming years of my life.

• Pokémon Legends: Z-A (-13%) - A$78
• Sonic x Shadow Generations (-35%) - A$49
• Inside (-90%) - A$2.90
• Front Mission 1st: Rem. (-66%) - A$17.80
• Sniper Elite 3 Ult. Ed. (-80%) - A$10.50
• Overcooked! All You Can Eat (-66%) - A$19.30

Expiring Recent Deals

• Super Mario RPG (-18%) - A$65.90
• Persona 5 Royal (-33%) - A$66.80
• Burnout Paradise Rem. (-27%) - A$29
• EA Sports FC 25 (-62%) - A$34
• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (-48%) - A$44
• What Remains of Edith Finch (-75%) - A$7.40

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

Back to top

Reach is one of the coolest VR games I’ve played in a long time. Chasing the high of classic cinematic action games like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, I had a blast climbing ledges, jumping between buildings, and popping enemies while dual-wielding pistols in NDreams' latest. With dynamic movement and a surprisingly accurate sense of full-body awareness, I can’t wait to see more from this one, even if I got a little dizzy jumping as I platformed my way through the first level.

VR games often need to tow a delicate balance. Moving in a 3D space with stick-based movement is a surefire way to cause motion sickness for a lot of players, so a majority of VR games are designed in a way that takes both point-and-teleport-based movement and stick-based movement into account. But after a demo that featured a lot of running, jumping, and platforming, I’m pleased to say that I didn’t feel that creeping, bottom-of-the-stomach sensation I sometimes feel in VR.

A majority of the demo I played focused on platforming; I scaled up walls and grabbed onto ledges like in The Climb or Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Combined with sprinting, jumping, and even jumping between holds while climbing, the movement here felt surprisingly smooth and dynamic. Before long, I felt like an acrobatic action star pulling off the kinds of stunts only Tom Cruise could accomplish. Multiple times in my demo, I nearly bungled a jump but managed to snag a ledge in the nick of time, swinging in in a way that felt far more real and natural than I could’ve imagined in VR.

Moreso than any kind of cool action setpiece or stealth encounter, this kind of little detail – snagging a ledge just in time, saving myself from falling to certain doom – helps break free from the often on-rails feeling VR games can have. In sections where I wasn’t so lucky and wound up replaying a few times, I found myself skipping jumps and getting from point A to B in new ways each time. I love finding ways to maximize the tools in my toolkit to improve my movement in any game I play, but that kind of drive is rarely satisfied in VR. Reach answered that question in spades.

Exploring Reach’s first level wasn’t all running and climbing, though. I wound up in a handful of shootouts with generic militia guys as I made my way to rescue some hostages. There’s a bow with unlimited ammo strapped to your shoulder. With just a reach over your shoulder, you can snipe away at enemies from a safe distance before climbing, jumping, or running to where you need to go. While the section I saw didn’t really focus on stealth, I did run guns-blazing into what was probably supposed to be a stealth segment set in an office space.

There seemed to be some kind of enemy alert system, though by the time I realized what that little bubble above my targets’ heads meant, the arrow destined for my last enemy’s chest cavity had whistled off my bowstring. After that, there were a few more shootouts, though they didn’t task me with navigating an enclosed space in quite the same way. Instead, they took the shape of more traditional shooting gallery-style encounters like you’d find in plenty of other VR games with guns. Bad guys popped out of shutters and stood on balconies, with conveniently placed pistols littering the level for me to grab and unload.

These were considerably less fun and interesting than that stealth segment. As anyone who’s spent even a little time in VR will tell you, plenty of VR games make their bones in these shooting galleries – they have for nearly a decade at this point. So going from a more open, interactive design to a handful of moments I’d already seen before in a handful of other VR shooters was pretty disappointing. But after I cleared them, I went right back to platforming, exploring the very ledges my victims fell off of.

After one last shootout, things escalated. A helicopter started firing at me as I clambered my way to safety after a truck barreled through and propped open a gate, letting me scurry up a high wall. This little extra jolt of danger and tension, with walls exploding and ceilings collapsing behind me as the helicopter closed in on my location set off a last-ditch moment of platforming madness.

Blazing through Reach’s first level was the most fun I’ve had in VR in months, capped off with a charming way to end a demo like this. I can’t wait to see the rest of what NDreams cooks up when it eventually releases sometime later this year on Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR2, and SteamVR.

The Flash star Ezra Miller is eyeing a return to Hollywood following abuse and harassment allegations, as well as a series of other controversies, that began in 2020.

All eyes were on Miller when they showed up at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (via Variety). The actor’s presence at the premiere for We Need to Talk About Kevin filmmaker Lynne Ramsay’s latest feature, Die My Love, marked one of their most public appearances in years, signaling that a more formal return to Hollywood is on the horizon.

Tucked into a corner of Summer Games Fest, Spine is definitely the kind of game meant to turn heads and grab attention. There is a decidedly late-’90s arcade style to the third-person action title that compels players to grab a controller and see what is going on for themselves. While it’s still early, in my hands-on demo with Spine, I can safely say that it’s absolutely something I’m excited to see evolve as it develops.

Aesthetically, Spine fits the cyberpunk-Blade Runner mold of an overcrowded dystopian city with profuse neon-yet-dark corners everywhere. The player assumes the role of a street artist named Redline who, in the demo, has been accused of a crime she did not commit and quickly finds herself surrounded by thugs at a bar. Redline fights off the enemies with deadly force and keeps going while punching and shooting everything that gets in her way.

Players familiar with Sifu will notice an immediate resemblance to that game in the form of the quick jabs, special attacks, and parry-driven finishing moves, but the developer shies away from that particular comparison. Instead, they insist it is a little bit more like Rocksteady’s Arkham series of Batman titles, with a heavy focus on reading tells more than predicting enemy movements.

Regardless of inspiration, the true carnival-game feel of Spine comes from the flashy and over-the-top finishers that are earned by parrying enemy attacks. Not for the squeamish or meek at heart, Redline will often force enemies to swallow a bullet with a gun shoved between their teeth or spin around them like John Wick with a well-placed shot to the back of the skull. The camera zooms, spins, and pans around the finishers to showcase the most dramatic and cinematic angles for her gunkata before Redline quickly moves on to the next goon coming her way.

Parrying also works at enemies throwing things or shooting at her as well, allowing her to spot-dodge the incoming projectile with a quick lean or turn that feels immensely satisfying, regardless of the ease to pull off.

Occasionally, Redline will pick up another weapon with limited ammo, such as a shotgun, and blow enemies away in one hit. These sections feel more like Hotline Miami than anything Batman has ever done, and sometimes even adopt that overhead camera angle to complete the allusion, intentional or otherwise.

There is some degree of Sega Genesis vibe going on with Spine that I cannot quite put my finger on, but it absolutely evokes an alternate reality where beat-‘em-ups became the biggest genre in the world in the ‘90s and iterated on that formula for decades. While there is a lot more to see before deciding where in that storied hierarchy Spine will land, I am more than interested in watching it get there.

From June 23 until August 6, LEGO Ideas is holding a build contest with some hard to find and expensive prizes. The contest's theme is "A Night to Remember in the Shire", with LEGO calling for fans' best birthday party ideas set within the iconic peaceful hamlet. Creativity and cleverness is the name of the game, so if you're interested in entering the contest, you have quite a while to come up with an idea and get to building.

Winners will be announced September 22, which also happens to be Bilbo Baggins' birthday. Be sure to check out the contest page for full details.

LEGO Ideas Contest Prizes

Other than bragging rights, the main draw to try to win the contest is the prize structure. You can win some of the coolest, most intricate, and of course most expensive LEGO Lord of the Rings sets by making it far enough in the contest. Here's how prizes will work, taken from the contest page:

If you are the Grand Prize Winner of this challenge, you’ll receive the following:

• 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, signed by a designer
• 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire, signed by a designer
• 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook, signed by a designer

If you are one of two Runners-Up of this challenge, you will receive the following:

• 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire
• 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook

If you are one of the other two finalists, you will receive the following:

• 10367 The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook

If you're curious how these sets look throughout the build process, we've built both Rivendell and the Shire, with the Balrog Book Nook coming soon.

Contest Details

The contest is broken up into multiple phases to ensure every entry is given equal and fair attention. Here's how they break down:

The Building Phase

This runs from now until August 6 at 6AM EST, with the possibility of submitting edits until end of day August 7.

The Expert Phase

Once all submissions are in, LEGO experts will review and choose five builds. These five will then move onto the Fan Vote, which takes place August 25.

Voting Phase

LEGO Ideas members will have just one vote to cast between August 25 and September 8, and this will determine the overall contest winner.

Winners Announcement

The results will then be posted onto LEGO Ideas on September 25. Winners will be contacted via email for their LEGO ID, then the prizes listed out above will be sent out.

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

Sometimes, a story finds you at the right time, hits you in the right place, speaks to a part of you you’ve kept buried, deep down. When we find a connection with a piece of art, much of that connection is forged because of when we find it, not just what it has to say. I stumbled onto Ambrosia Sky at the right time, and it spoke to me. No game at Summer Game Fest hit me harder, but I like to think that Ambrosia Sky would have resonated with me no matter when I found it, which is a testament to how developer Soft Rains has crafted this world.

Part of this is the conceit, which is unlike anything else I’ve seen in a video game. Ambrosia Sky follows Dalia, a deep-space disaster specialist known as a Scarab. Scarabs are mystical field scientists whose job revolves around the dead. They’re not soldiers; a Scarab can’t save you. Their job is to catalogue a space, restore it, and say goodbye to the dead. They’re a loose-knit organization of scientists with one purpose: they seek death to understand what kills us, so they can prevent it. They believe that in understanding death among the stars, they can find the key to preventing cellular death and decay. The Ambrosia Project is their attempt at finding immortality. Dalia doesn’t believe in the spiritual side of being a Scarab (for many, it’s a religion, not just a job), but she’s good at it and enjoys the work.

But at the same time, this isn’t just a scientific exercise for Dalia. Ambrosia Sky sends her to the Cluster, an agricultural colony on Saturn’s rings. Once paramount in humanity’s voyage of discovery and expansion among the stars, it’s now little more than a relic of a previous age, a crucial but forgotten fixture of an age long past. Time has literally passed it by. But it’s where Dalia grew up and escaped from in her own search for something more. And now she’s returning to investigate a crisis that killed almost everyone she knew. It’s hardly a happy homecoming, and it’s forcing her to come to terms with both her own choices and the relationships she left behind, as well as her guilt for surviving what killed most of the people she knew.

It’s a lot of setup, I know. But that’s what you have to understand to get where my demo started. I played two levels of Ambrosia Sky (one at SGF, one at home; both are accessible in the Steam demo available now), but I want to focus on the one I played at SGF. My goal was simple: find out what happened to Gerald Parker, and if he was dead, take a sample of his DNA to send back to the Ambrosia Project, then perform a “bioremediation” on the body. See, Sacarbs can only perform death rituals on people who have consented to having their DNA included in the project; even then, getting a viable sample is tricky. You’ll only get one if the person in question has been dead for less than 48 hours.

I entered the area armed with a chemical sprayer and a couple of upgrades built from the fungus Dalia was studying on the Cluster. One essential made my chemical sprayer into a flamethrower – perfect for cleaning out pesky contamination. The other essentially served as an electrical conduit, allowing me to power things like doors by connecting them to anything else that uses electricity. Handy.

From the moment I entered, the environment felt hostile. I found bodies that had been overgrown by fungus, killed by a disease called clusterlung. Contamination was everywhere. Energized roots charged with electricity covered the walls, spread out like the limbs of an overgrown tree, short-circuiting any electronics they touched. The thick, bulbous roots of the exploder fungus, which does exactly what its name implies, wouldn’t hurt me unless I triggered it, but it did block my path. I had to be careful. Spraying indiscriminately risked a lot of things exploding. If I wasn’t careful where I stepped, I’d get zapped for my trouble. I even saw a small alien life form (Dalia muses that she was told all the aliens were wiped out before she was born) that can transform into a small turret and shoot at me. I had to stay alert.

But there are other reasons to be careful, too. Dalia is a scientist first and foremost, and like any good scientist, she needs to take samples of the fungus here to understand what it is. That means harvesting it carefully. And that means detaching the fungal fruit (think a mushroom fruit vs. its roots) from the stalk safely, which means precision. I didn’t wanna use my sprayer on the fruit itself. I wanted to sever it from the stalk and then collect it. And the samples I got could be used to upgrade my sprayer later on.

As I cleaned and collected samples, I learned more about the cluster and the people who lived there. I read messages from Dalia’s former best friend, Maeve, and notes from Gerald. He sounds rude, perhaps condescending. But Dalia knew him. She was one of the only people he seemed to like. One terminal houses an ominous warning from an anonymous sender, sent to Dalia’s stepmother, Hale, who was in a leadership position on the Cluster. “It sleeps but does not dream,” they write. “If it dreams, its dream will end all of time.” What is it? The fungus? Is it true? Neither I nor Dalia know, but we push forward. We are patient. We are careful.

I come across an unpowered door. Remembering my sprayer-as-electrical-conduit, I clean out the electrical contamination and connect from a monitor to the door, opening a room with the area’s gravity controls. I switch them off. That opens up the way forward. In zero-gravity, time seems to slow down. I can move more freely, access places blocked by the fungus, get into position, and more easily sever the explosive fruit from its stalk without burning everything down. It also allows me to get the most out of Dalia’s tether, which can pull me from place to place or snag fruit out of the air. It’s a nifty tool with the gravity off, but with it on? I’m zoomin’.

The farther I get, the more dire the messages on the terminals get. Gerald sends a message to his friend Lorrie telling her to stop the whispering at night. Lorrie tells him it’s not her, it’s the food they’re growing. “It knows we eat it,” she says. As things get worse, and the contamination spreads, I learn Lorrie asked Gerald to leave with her. He refused, and stayed to tend the crops alone.

Eventually, I find his unit. The door is open. It’s a small apartment with two floors. As I explore it, I see the remnants of a life. Little decorations, placed with care, that tell me so much in a sparsely furnished space. I find Gerald’s personal terminal. There’s a message from Dalia there that’s fifteen years old, explaining why she had to leave, thanking him for letting her hide in the fields. Dalia can scarcely believe that he saved it. But you never know how what you say or do will resonate with someone else.

At last, I meet Gerald. His body is slumped in a chair, overtaken by fungus. And the weight of what I’m doing comes back to me. I am retrieving a corpse, someone she knew. And when she greets him, there’s a sadness, an acceptance, in the writing that haunts me. She reads his Last Will, his consent to be part of the Ambrosia Project. He tells us he’s recording this because he has to, and that he doesn’t care what happens to his body because he’ll be dead. “Make moonshine or save humanity. It’s yours now,” he says. We see what happened to him as a series of beautifully illustrated panels that look like they were plucked from a comic book. And then Dalia performs his Death Rite, an organic act of cremation that spreads out from the panels and his body, until everything is covered, and then falls away. It looks like a time-lapse of a tree sprouting leaves after a long winter. It’s beautiful, in a way. Rebirth. Dalia tells Gerald she was able to do this last thing for him. And then she collects his DNA, and I have to leave.

I could tell you about the trip back, about how the fungus sprouted at random and hindered my progress and I saw another little alien slug. But my mind, and Dalia’s, I like to think, was still in that room, with Gerald. I knew the way back, but it wasn’t where I was.

As I played Ambrosia Sky, the words “thoughtful” and “intimate” came to mind often. It’s a game about a crisis on an agricultural colony, yes, but the stakes are deeply personal, and every part of its design feels grounded in who Dalia is, the work she does, and her personal history. The more I spoke to Soft Rains studio head Joel Burgess and art director Adam Volker during and after my demo, the more I realized how intentional all of it was, and how much work it’s taken to create. The title, Ambrosia Sky, evokes ancient myth. Ambrosia, the food of the gods. In this case, the mushrooms that would allow us to sustain life beyond Earth. Even the title tells part of the story.

Burgess told me that he hopes players don’t notice all the work it has taken to put it all together, at least at first. “You want that work to feel invisible. But I hope we make a world and a game that people want to think about, want to spend time in, that lives in their brains well beyond the time that it lives on their screens, to where they then do appreciate the depth, the extra effort that we've put in to make sure that systems work and interact with each other, as well as the characters and their motivations in the world and the setting, and things that exist well beyond the frame of this game,” he said.

Based on my time with Ambrosia Sky, I think they may have succeeded. I played a lot of games at Summer Game Fest. But few of them stuck with me like Ambrosia Sky, and none hit me quite as hard in such a short time. I am excited to see what else Soft Rains has in store for us on the Cluster, but one thing is clear: their ambition is great. Like the humanity of Ambrosia Sky, they reach skyward, pursuing a lofty ideal. And I can’t wait to see what else they have to show us among the stars.

Alienware is offering competitive prices on RTX 5080 equipped gaming PCs to kick off June. Right now you can pick up an Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 gaming PC for $2,374.99 shipped. This is a good price for a well-engineered gaming rig with powerful current generation components, 240mm AIO water cooling, and sensible airflow design that can handle 4K gaming at high frame rates. In the current market, buying a prebuilt gaming PC is the only way to score an RTX 5080 GPU without paying an exorbitant markup. If you were to try to find a 5080 GPU for your do-it-yourself PC build, you'll probably spend nearly as much for the GPU as you would for an entire system.

Update: Price has dropped slightly from $2450 to $2325.

Alienware Aurora RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $2,375

Amazon recently revealed the dates of its annual Prime Day sale and now all of the other retailers have started piling on. Alongside a Walmart announcement this morning, Target has joined the fray with official dates for its 2025 Circle Week sale.

Target Circle Week is an annual sales event that the retailer has held consistently around the same time as Prime Day over the last few years. This year the discounts will be starting on July 6 and will run through July 12. That runs over the Amazon Prime Day sale, which will start on July 8 and end before Circle Week on July 11.

Circle Week is available to all shoppers with a Target Circle membership, which is free to sign up for. The paid version of the subscription, Target Circle 360, will grant members access to the sale a day early on July 5.

What to Expect From Target Circle Week 2025

If you're thinking of jumping on the AMD bandwagon for your next upgrade, now is certainly the right time to do so. Right now, AMD's most popular Zen 5 "X3D" processors - the AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D - are available and shipping from Amazon. They're also priced slighly below retail. These are collectively the best gaming CPUs from AMD; from a performance to cost standpoint, the 9800X3D is the CPU of choice for pure gaming builds, but the 9950X3D pulls ahead when it comes to creator workloads.

The Gamer's Choice: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU

Legendary Pictures’ live-action Street Fighter movie has reportedly picked Callina Liang to portray fighting game icon Chun-Li.

Deadline reports that the actress has signed on to star in the female lead role. It’s yet another sign that the Street Fighter movie is moving full steam ahead as it barrels toward its March 20, 2026, release date.

Liang began her acting career in the 2022 series Tell Me Everything before moving on to appear in Foundation in 2023. She’s since starred in two 2024 films – Steven Soderbergh’s Presence and J.C. Lee’s Bad Genius.

LEGO Insiders members are eligible to accrue double rewards points, but that deal is ending today. To earn, simply sign up and start shopping. This doesn't stack with any other deals, but if you're already purchasing a high volume of LEGO, you'll easily build up enough points for the promotion to be worthwhile. It's free to become an Insider, so there's really no reason not to sign up if you plan on making any purchases directly from the LEGO website.

According to LEGO, you can use points "toward discounts on future purchases, exclusive sets and items, and digital products such as merchandise, coloring activities and alternative building instructions. You’ll also be able to use your points to get tickets to events and experiences and enter member-only sweepstakes."

Popular LEGO Sets With Insider Points

This is the perfect opportunity to save on some more expensive LEGO sets you might have had your eyes on for a while. The Mario Kart and Nightmare Before Christmas sets are some awesome, fun builds to display. The Star Wars Jango Fett Firespray-class Starship is one of countless intricate LEGO Star Wars models, so the world is truly your oyster as long as you take advantage of this deal before the end of the day. Even the most recent LEGO Book Nook sets are elligible for double points.

There are plenty of LEGO sets for adults like this, but even playsets centered around younger audiences qualify, so if you're looking for a good birthday gift for a youngster, you can do so here.

Get the LEGO Tribute to Jane Austen's Books as a Gift With Purchase

Rekindling the long-running debate about whether Call of Duty skins have well and truly gone off the deep end, Beavis and Butt-Head are heading to the game.

Beavis and Butt-Head are perhaps the poster boys of the MTV generation and genuine 90s cartoon icons. Created by Mike Judge, Beavis and Butt-Head are two idiotic teen slackers who sit around grunting and giggling at rock music on MTV.

Call of Duty has form when it comes to 90s-themed skins, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to see Beavis and Butt-Head finally get their moment in the shooter. But what is perhaps surprising is how their skins look, which is a jarring combination of the cartoon style fans know Beavis and Butt-Head for, but wearing MilSim outfits.

Mike Judge’s Beavis & Butt-Head are coming to Call of Duty Season 04 Reloaded 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3QnIYMv2AN

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) June 23, 2025

“Of all the collabs to get military-themed outfits in this game, I definitely did not see Beavis and Butt-Head getting one,” said redditor RdJokr1993. “Lol these are unironically more MilSim than most skins in the game,” added LoneRogue2018.

Others are coming up with on-brand one-liners we might hear Beavis and Butt-Head say in-game. For example: “Heh heh heh heh, he said 'Duty.'”

In truth, Beavis and Butt-Head shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone who’s played Call of Duty in the last few years. This is a game that has the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a Dragon Knight that looks straight out of Skyrim, and, more recently, a skin made from strips of bacon, all running around realistic, war-torn environments. Activision releases these sorts of skins and players complain about realism, but they sell enough for Activision to keep releasing these sorts of skins. And so the cycle continues.

The question will be how much Beavis and Butt-Head cost. Activision has come under fire recently for its ultra aggressive monetization of Black Ops 6 and Warzone, with some players complaining about the high price of bundles, the introduction of event passes, and ever more expensive battle passes. Earlier this month, Activision pulled controversial adverts placed inside Black Ops 6 and Warzone loadouts, insisting they were a “feature test” published “in error.” It’s worth remembering that Black Ops 6 is a premium, $70 game, and this year’s Black Ops 7 is set to jump to $80.

And will this Beavis and Butt-Head skin carry forward into the recently announced Black Ops 7? Activision has yet to say. But given the timing of its release, the hope is that anyone who forks out for Beavis and Butt-Head will get bang for their buck.

For now, Call of Duty players are speculating that getting a headshot against Beavis and Butt-Head might be a little easier than against other skins in the game. Is this a pay-to-lose bundle?

Good luck to those sitting on them headies… 💀 pic.twitter.com/U4nd9l8PxS

— Team WaR (@OfficialTeamWaR) June 23, 2025

We don't know when the Season 4 Reloaded mid-season update is set to launch exactly, but based on how many days players have left to complete the Season 4 battle pass, it should be released on or around June 26.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

There have been a lot of LEGO Star Wars sets over the years, and 2025 alone has seen a ton of new releases for the franchise. With so many different options to choose from, it can be hard to suss out which sets are actually worth adding to your collection at any given time.

That being said, LEGO continuously retires old sets and your window to buy them at or below their typical retail price starts to shrink fast when that plug gets pulled. So the fact that the most recently retired LEGO Star Wars set is actually getting a discount right now is a good enough reason to consider it. The Spider Tank from The Mandalorian has dropped in price ahead of Prime Day and it's likely the lowest price we'll see for this set ever again.

LEGO Star Wars Spider Tank Sale at Amazon

There’s plenty of sealed Pokémon TCG stock available today, and while most Amazon listings are still above MSRP, a few products are finally trending down. The Prismatic Evolutions Super-Premium Collection is one of the most inflated at $208, while staples like the Lillie Premium Tournament Collection and Destined Rivals booster bundles are more reasonably priced. If you're looking to crack packs or complete a set, there are a few solid pickups, just be sure to compare with secondary market prices first.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Over on TCGPlayer, pricing is more competitive. The Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Box is going for $80, which beats Amazon’s $120+ listing. Cynthia’s Garchomp Premium Collection is nearly half the price on TCGPlayer as well. If you're buying for value, this is where the better deals are today, especially on ETBs, bundles, and battle decks that are still readily available.

Pokémon TCG Stock Updates

As usual we're looking at over-inflated pricing at big box stores, but it's a dependable source of sealed product for trainers looking to add to their collections or rip open boosters. Although we'd recommend checking out secondary market prices first, as big retailers are now regularly selling over market value now too. I've already done the hard work for you:

TCG Player and eBay Pokémon Sealed Product

The Most Expensive Japanese Black Bolt White Flare Cards

The most expensive cards from Pokémon TCG's Black Bolt and White Flare sets are already commanding serious prices in Japan. Top of the list are the Special Illustration Rares of Zekrom ex and Reshiram ex, both featuring intricate, hand-drawn artwork and fetching well over ¥20,000 (around $130–$150 USD) on the secondary market.

Also climbing fast are the new BWR (Black White Rare) cards and the full-art Victini promos from the themed file sets. With stunning clay and knitted art styles also making their debut, collectors are pushing prices up across the board, especially for low-population, high-style secret rares.

This Weeks Pokémon TCG Crashers and Climbers

With Black Bolt and White Flare wrapping up the Scarlet & Violet era, all eyes are now on what’s next—and Mega Evolution is officially back. The Japanese Championships 2025 confirmed MEGA Symphonia and MEGA Brave as the first entries in the new Mega Expansion Packs, launching August 1 in Japan. These sets reintroduce Mega Evolution ex cards in a powerful new form, now Stage 2 Pokémon worth 3 Prize Cards when knocked out. Cards like Mega Gardevoir ex, Mega Venusaur ex, and Mega Lucario ex are leading the charge, and collectors are already snapping up classic Mega cards in anticipation of their return to the spotlight.

MTG Live Preorders

Preorders are now live for Magic: The Gathering’s next major set, Edge of Eternities, ahead of its August 1 release. You can lock in Play Booster Boxes, Bundles, Commander Decks, and Collector Boosters, with prices already dipping below MSRP in some spots. With some chunky lore, borderless cards, and premium packaging teased, now’s a good time to grab your picks before stock tightens closer to launch.

MTG Stock Update

There's the usual suspects of insanely priced boosters such as Theros Beyond Death, but there's also some discounts such as 9% off a box of Assassin's Creed collector boosters and a massive 32% off a booster box of Lord of the Rings set boosters.

MTG Final Fantasy Chase Cards

I was going to say how insane MTG Final Fantasy's popularity is, but it's completely understandable. Whilst sealed stock is going up in value and becoming harder to get, there's plenty of option for the most in-demand cards for your deck or collection.

MTG Aetherdrift Chase Cards

Aetherdrift is one of Magic: The Gathering’s more experimental sets, blending high-speed vehicle mechanics with a bold visual style. Released as part of the Universes Beyond series, it introduced new archetypes and card types designed to shake up both casual and competitive formats.

Monster Hunter Wilds PS5 and Xbox Series X

Monster Hunter Wilds has hit its lowest price yet for the standard physical edition on PS5 and Xbox Series X at just $55.99, down from $69.99. This latest entry takes the series into a fully voiced narrative, dynamic biomes, and crossplay multiplayer. If you’ve been waiting for a price drop to jump into the Forbidden Lands, this is a solid time to grab a copy.

Symphonic Journeys Pokémon Red & Blue - IGN Exclusive Vinyl

Elden Ring Nightreign Official Strategy Guide

Serrenity Forge Storyteller's Bundle

Donkey Kong Bananza

amFilm Switch 2 Tempered Glass Screen

Dune: Awakening has sold over 1 million copies in two weeks.

Developer Funcom announced the news earlier today, confirming that to go along with a superb launch with a "very positive" user review rating on Steam, over 1 million players "have awakened," making it Funcom's "fastest-selling game ever."

"Dune: Awakening launched June 10 and 1,000,000 players have awakened!" the studio said. "It’s now Funcom’s fastest-selling game ever. To put it into perspective, it took Conan Exiles one year to reach this number. We’re truly humbled and thankful for this reception. It must also be noted that you certainly don’t live up to your title, because you have been busy since launch.

"Launch has been a Coriolis storm, and we’re still riding that mighty gale. We have seen so many amazing things from all of you — the bases, the close calls with Shai-Hulud, the epic vehicle jumps, the struggles, discoveries, victories, heroic deaths, and so much more... We salute you, Sleepers."

Within hours of going live, Funcom's survival RPG had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve's platform, and hit a new high last weekend of 189,333 players. We gave Dune: Awakening 8/10 in our review, writing: "Dune: Awakening is an excellent survival MMO that captures Frank Herbet’s sci-fi world incredibly well, mostly to its advantage and occasionally to its detriment. The survival climb from dehydrated peasant to powerful warlord of Arrakis is a joy almost every step of the way, and the story and worldbuilding filled this nerd with absolute joy.

"There’s still plenty for Awakening to work on though, as its combat never really hits its stride, the endgame is a bit of a chaotic mess not worth the effort, and there’s quite a few technical bugs yet to be squashed, but even these rough patches felt like tiny desert mice next to the leviathan shai-huluds that are this survival game’s wonderful successes."

Funcom is already "currently formulating a plan" to improve PvP in the Deep Desert, which players have previously branded as "toxic" due to griefing. Funcom has already patched out the ability for players to squish other people with their Ornithopter, but senior game director Viljar Sommerbakk also revealed the team was considering tweaking Ornis further, such as equipping them with rockets that "reduces overall maneuverability and max speed."

If all that's got you interested, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our in-progress Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. To help you survive on Arrakis, we've got Dune: Awakening resource guides that'll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide.

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.

Considering what it offers, Disney Plus is one of the best streaming services on the block. From classic Disney animated films to the latest Marvel shows and Star Wars movies, excellent kids' programming like Bluey, and so much more, Disney Plus puts an incredible range of high-quality viewing options at your fingertips. And with so much to check out - including the new live-action Snow White and Ironheart premiering on June 24 - you'll want to find a plan that best suits you. We're here to help.

At the moment, one of the best Disney Plus bundle deals available is the massive Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle. This starts at $16.99/month to get you all three streaming services with ads. It's one of the best bundles available at the moment, but we've included more Disney Plus bundle deals worth exploring below. If you're looking for more streaming deals from other services, check out the best Hulu deals and bundles and the best Max deals.

How to Get the Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max Streaming Bundle

The Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle can be purchased through any of the three streaming services and starts at $16.99/month for the ad-supported tier or $29.99/month for ad-free access across the three platforms.

If you currently own all three and want to cut down on costs, this is a great way to bundle them together and save big on what you'd pay for them separately per month – 43% on the ad-supported plan and 42% on the ad-free plan.

What Is the Paid Sharing Plan on Disney Plus?

In an effort to crack down on password sharing, Disney has added a paid sharing plan for individuals outside of your household. Basically, anyone using your account that's not within your household will have to be added as an "Extra Member" to your account. This costs an additional $6.99/month for the ad-supported Basic subscription and $9.99/month for the Premium ad-free plan, and only one Extra Member slot is available per account. You can learn more from Disney's paid sharing explainer here.

What Are the Different Disney+ Subscription Tiers?

Disney+ is available in a couple of different tiers. You can get the least expensive option (called Disney+ Basic) for $9.99/month, which gives you access to everything except the ability to download select shows to watch on the go. This tier is ad supported. If you want to get rid of ads and be able to download certain shows, you can spring for the $15.99/month or $159.99/year Disney+ Premium package.

What Are the Different Disney+ Bundles?

Want a way to save on your Disney+ membership? Bundles are a great, affordable way to go. As far as bundles go, there are two ad-supported bundles and two ad-free bundles. Here's the breakdown:

• Disney+, Hulu Bundle Basic is $10.99/month and comes with subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu. This plan lets you stream on multiple devices at once and comes with ad-supported versions of both services.
• Disney+, Hulu Bundle Premium is $19.99/month and comes with Hulu and Disney+ with no ads. It also includes Disney+ Premium features like the ability to download shows to watch on the go.
• Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Basic adds ESPN+ (With Ads) to the mix alongside Disney+ (With Ads) and Hulu (With Ads), bumping up the price to $16.99/month. You can also download and watch select content on ESPN+ at this level.
• Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Premium is $26.99/month and comes with ESPN+ (With Ads) and ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu. You can also download select content across all three streaming services.

Disney+ Gift Cards

If you want to help someone out and give them a gift that will keep on giving, gifting a one-year Disney+ card is a great way to go. It provides all the great things Disney+ offers and it costs a fraction of what it would take to buy even a small sampling of those movies physically.

What Can You Watch on Disney+?

There is a bonkers array of shows and movies you can watch on Disney+. Let's start at the top and simply talk about the verticals on offer here with the base subscription.

Here's what you get:

• Disney
• Pixar
• Marvel
• Star Wars
• National Geographic

Disney on Disney+

On the Disney front, you have awesome classic movies like The Sword In The Stone, Robin Hood, 101 Dalmations, Hercules, and Sleeping Beauty, modern classics like The Princess & The Frog, Tangled, and Frozen, and a wide range of animated shows, including Phineas & Ferb.

You also gain access to a ton of vintage content like Escape to Witch Mountain, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Love Bug, and a whole lot more. The Disney Junior section is home to absolutely top tier animated shows like Bluey (which, for my money, is worth the price of admission on its own).

There's way more on offer, too, including a ton of Muppet movies, new live-action films and adaptions (including the new Snow White), nature programs, documentaries, Pirates of the Caribbean, and musical programs featuring Taylor Swift (like her wildly popular The Eras Tour), Elton John, Ed Sheeran, and more.

Pixar on Disney+

When it comes to computer generated films, Pixar stands alone. Kicking off the revolution with Toy Story, Pixar has consistently put out fantastic films, and they are all here. From the Toy Story series to Finding Nemo, Cars, and more recent hits like Inside Out 2, there is a ton to love.

Beyond even that, there are incredible shorts like Bao and Party Central, as well as a wide range of originals and series based on major films, such as Dory's Reef Cam, Forky Asks A Question, Cars On The Road, and more.

Marvel on Disney+

The MCU has become a true juggernaut, and there are many viewers who subscribe to Disney+ purely for access to nearly the entire MCU lineup of films and shows.

Whether you are a fan of the blockbuster action films, you are an appreciator of the classic 90s runs of "Saturday morning" cartoons like X-Men, or you are currently vibing to the funky theme of the 1981 Spider-Man series, there is a ton of Marvel to enjoy on Disney+. And with new movies and shows being added to the MCU all the time, including most recently Deadpool & Wolverine and Captain America: Brave New World, there is always more coming.

Star Wars on Disney+

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a film that changed everything. The original Star Wars is a seminal sci-fi fantasy work that inspired generations of creators, but there is still nothing quite like that far away galaxy. Disney+ grants access to all things Star Wars, including the remastered versions of the original trilogy (hopefully some day they'll add the theatrical cuts, too), as well as the prequels and sequels.

You can also stay up-to-date on all the latest shows, including The Mandalorian and the critically-lauded Andor, which just wrapped up its second and final season. There are also fantastic short series like Star Wars Visions, and longer-form series like The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, Young Jedi Adventures, and a whole lot more.

Take a look at our list of Disney+ alernatives for additional streaming services. To play while you watch, see our roundup of the best LEGO Disney sets. For more deals, dive into our Daily Deals page.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Original story from Brian Barnett.

As Black Bolt and White Flare prepare to close out the Scarlet & Violet era, collectors are turning their attention to what’s next—and for many, that’s what came before.

The Japanese Championships 2025 revealed MEGA Symphonia and MEGA Brave as part of the first wave of Mega Expansion Packs, launching August 1, 2025, in Japan, and coming to English markets later in the year.

These sets bring back Mega Evolution ex cards in a new, glimmering style, now as Stage 2 Pokémon that take 3 Prize Cards when knocked out.

With confirmed cards like Mega Gardevoir ex, Mega Lucario ex, and Mega Venusaur ex, we’re officially entering a proper Mega revival, and collectors are wasting no time in grabbing their classic counterparts.

So while Build & Battle promos from Destined Rivals are still making short-term moves, the bigger story is the return of Mega Evolution, and how that's sending ripples down the market right now. Here’s what’s rising and falling for Pokémon TCG this week.

Pokémon Card Crashers

Can’t get enough of Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan’s new crime drama? Need another season of Helen Mirren being badass in something? Well thankfully, Paramount+ has officially renewed MobLand for Season 2.

According to the streamer, 26 million people have watched the series since its premiere on March 30 — which makes the decision to renew a total no brainer, especially with the A-List acting talent at the helm. Paramount+ claims MobLand is the second most-watched original series released on its platform to date.

Alongside Hardy, Brosnan, and Mirren, House of the Dragon’s Paddy Considine and Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt costar in the show, which follows Hardy’s Harry Da Souza, a fixer employed by Brosnan’s Conrad Harrigan and his London crime family. The series’ official synopsis ​​"showcases two generations of gangsters, their businesses, the relationships they weave and the man they call to fix their problems."

Concept art from a long-canceled Batman Arkham Knight follow-up set to star Damian Wayne as the Dark Knight has surfaced online, giving us our best look yet at an aged Bruce.

Project Sabbath, as it was known, was in development at Batman Arkham Origins studio Warner Bros. Games Montreal after the launch of 2015's Arkham Knight, and would have featured two Batmen — father and son.

Ultimately, however, the project was canceled by Warner Bros. and WB Games Montreal instead shifted focus to launch 2022's poorly-received Gotham Knights, a game with no Batmen at all.

At the time, Sabbath was planned as Warner Bros' next big Batman game, while Rocksteady itself explored concepts featuring other characters. Of course, Rocksteady itself circled back to its version of Batman (sort of) in its next project, the ill-fated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Images from a former WB Games Montreal artist who worked on the project have now popped up on Artstation, featuring a youthful-looking Damian, grizzled and bearded Bruce, plus concepts for Killer Croc and Huntress.

Whether this game would have been strictly part of the Arkhamverse canon has never been firmly established. On the one hand, some of the designs here — particularly a very different-looking Killer Croc — suggest this would have been something of a different take. That said, the same could be said of Poison Ivy's appearance in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which definitely was part of the Arkham-verse. And, of course, WB Games Montreal did make Batman Arkham Origins, a prequel that is considered canon to Rocksteady's core trilogy.

New concept art from WB Games Montréal's cancelled 2015 Damian Wayne game "Project Sabbath" has surfaced, shared by character artist Rodrigue Pralier. The pieces clearly show Damian, an older Bruce, Killer Croc, and Huntress. The style and character designs further support the… pic.twitter.com/aRwTD7caYE

— Batman Arkham Videos (@ArkhamVideos) June 22, 2025

This isn't the first time concept art from the game has hit the internet. Back in 2021, another former WB Games Montreal developer posted images of Damian Wayne in his Batsuit — a sleek outfit with red Bat signal emblazoned on his chest.

These designs also showed the same bearded older Bruce Wayne, although only inside his suit — meaning his newly-revealed face was obscured. Still, the designs suggest that, at some point, the older Bruce would still have suited up during his retirement.

"Project Sabbath", a canceled Damian Wayne Batman game at WB Games Montreal, apparently has another wave of concept art revealed - this time by concept artist Goran Bukvic. The images match how the game was first described years ago.

Credit to Reddit user thebananapeeler2. pic.twitter.com/TelAZeMVMj

— The Arkham Channel (@ArkhamChannel) November 9, 2021

After launching Gotham Knights and providing additional development help to Rocksteady on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, WB Games Montreal was downsized in December 2024, with almost 100 jobs lost. Rocksteady's attempt at a co-op game featuring Batman side-characters was a flop, though the developer is now reportedly working on a single-player Batman game once again.

Maybe this will end up finally being the Bruce and Damian Wayne game fans have been waiting for?

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

If you're looking for an affordable power bank that will fast charge your brand new Nintendo Switch 2, Steam Deck, or Apple iPhone 16, then check out today's deal. Amazon has the Iniu 10,000mAh Power Bank with up to 45W of Power Delivery over USB Type-C for only $12.99 after you apply coupon code "HO2BSDT5". Iniu power banks have solid reviews and are less expensive than equivalent Anker models.

Iniu 10,000mAh 45W USB Power Bank for $12.99

Days of Play may be over with by now, but that doesn't mean there aren't still some great PlayStation deals to check out. From games to storage, we've searched the internet to find the best PS5 deals available at the moment. These include some great game deals, including discounts on Monster Hunter Wilds, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Premium Edition, and more. The PS5 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 bundle is also still available at select retailers, but you'll want to be quick to grab it as it may not stay in stock much longer.

Alongside the previously mentioned deals, here are IGN's top picks for the best PlayStation deals today.

Best PS5 Video Game Deals

If you're looking to fill up your library with some new PS5 games, there are plenty of great discounts available at the moment. Woot's 'Video Game Super Sale!' is still going strong and features some very nice deals on Monster Hunter Wilds, Sniper Elite: Resistance, and more. The Premium Edition of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has also received a discount at Amazon, and The Last of Us Part I is still on sale after Days of Play. These just scratch the surface of what's out there, though. You can see even more of our favorite video game deals above.

PS5 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Bundle

Best PS5 SSD Deals

Where to Buy: PSVR 2 Horizon Call of The Mountain Bundle

Where to Buy: PlayStation Portal

How to Trade in Your Old PlayStation Consoles

If you're looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.

While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you'll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction. The latter of which poses its own risks.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Just last week Amazon unveiled the dates for Prime Day 2025, set to be the longest one the retailer has ever had with four days of discounts. Naturally, Walmart has just announced its own competing sale that will last a full two days more.

The Walmart Deals event will take place in direct opposition to Amazon Prime Day this year by starting on the exact same day. Running from July 8 through July 13, this six-day sale promises "thousands of deals" across electronics, home goods, toys, and more.

While the official start date of the sale is listed as July 8, Walmart+ members will get access to the deals a day early. If you have a subscription to the service, you'll be able to browse the deals starting on July 7 at 7pm ET.

Will Walmart Deals Be as Good as Amazon Prime Day?

Although Prime Day was started by Amazon, Walmart has consistently had a pretty decent competing sale in the last few years. In terms of total discounts, Amazon still tends to have a wider range of deals, but Walmart will usually match prices on some of the bigger ticket items – things like Apple AirPods, iPads, and gaming consoles tend to have the same price reductions across every major retailer.

Where Walmart really differs from Amazon is with its own exclusive brands. In the same way Amazon always has the best discounts on Amazon devices, Walmart tends to have the best deals on brands mostly associated with Walmart. This includes things like Vizio TVs, which will likely be at their lowest prices since last Black Friday. Recently, this has also included Nintendo Switch consoles, games, and accessories as Amazon still hasn't fully started offering those items again.

It's worth comparing prices between Walmart and Amazon during these sales. Sometimes one retailer or the other will offer a bigger discount to try to snag your business. And if you already have a Walmart+ account, it will definitely be worth checking out those early access deals.

A Walmart+ subscription isn't required to shop

Cyberpunk 2077's next big update — Update 2.3 — was due to release on Thursday June 26, but it's now indefinitely delayed as the team needs more time to ensure "we're happy with it."

While CD Projekt Red did not supply a revised release date at this time, it did tease that it expected this latest update to be "a scope similar to Update 2.2," which significantly expanded the game's customization options when it released towards the end of last year.

"We initially hoped to put Update 2.3 in your hands on June 26," CD Projekt Red wrote in a brief message on social media. "However, we'll need some more time to make sure we're happy with it — we're aiming for a scope similar to Update 2.2. We'll update you further as soon as we can! We appreciate your patience!"

"Turns out we're going to need more time with this one," added global community director, Marcin Momot. "Sorry for the wait and thanks for your patience, everyone!"

2.2 did not add a new game plus feature to Cyberpunk 2077, nor PlayStation 5 Pro support, but it did, however, let players change the colors of more cars in a more detailed way, with an upgraded vehicle customization user interface. It also improved the photo mode camera, adding in a drone setting, as well improved character creator options, too. You can read the full list of what was implemented in Update 2.2 here, and Update 2.2.1 here, too.

With so much added in Update 2.2, it'll be good news to fans to hear 2.3 will be similarly expansive.

"The Switch 2 might pack much better hardware than the original, but a game I’m still surprised to see running at all (much less pretty well) on a Nintendo system is Cyberpunk 2077," we wrote in our Nintendo Switch 2 Cyberpunk 2007 review update. "I spent a few days with CD Projekt Red’s latest port to get a feel for how it runs, how it holds up, and how the Switch 2’s fancy new mouse controls work when applied to a high-octane FPS. The answer across the board is impressive, and if you haven’t had the pleasure of exploring Night City before, this seems like a solid way to do so."

In case you missed it, yes, Cyberpunk 2077 sequel Cyberpunk 2 has officially entered pre-production. The studio made the announcement as part of its latest financial results last month, where it said the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 had hit an impressive 10 million copies sold.

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.

There’s a certain quaintness to Countdown, the new pulpy procedural on Prime Video. Everything about it feels recognizable – you’ve got the mile-high stakes, the peppy banter, the camaraderie in a tough job protecting the world from bad guys. In this case, the ensemble is a scrappy, interagency team-up with cops, DEA, FBI, and more coming together to avert catastrophe. Few other procedurals have the ambition to pull almost every law enforcement acronym into their lineup – though the upcoming Dick Wolf spin-off originally titled FBI: CIA sure tried – Countdown feels like an apex of the genre, pushing its core concepts to new, wildly unwieldy heights.

The “elite” task force kicks off when a Department of Homeland Security officer is killed in the middle of Los Angeles. This technically makes Countdown an ensemble series, with each member of the force having their own domain: hacking, field work, and so on. But if we have a central character, it’s Mark Meachum (Jensen Ackles), an LAPD officer who’s hiding a secret. He’s our point of view, and often far too riddled with cliches: suffice it to say he’s a cop who has an extremely specific reason (which I won’t spoil here) for putting his life on the line. As Meachum and colleagues pull at the curiosities around the murder they’ve been assembled to solve, they find that there’s a much larger, much more dangerous conspiracy at play. (Isn’t there always?) It's the sort of thing that could get way more than just a DHS officer killed.

Everything here is familiar, and none of that will bring much comfort. Countdown, for all its conventionality, is a cold show. The story moves fast, and the characters do too, which doesn’t leave space for personality. There’s a glossiness that isn’t particularly offensive but isn’t all that interesting either. Compare it to classics of the genre like 24 or Burn Notice, and there’s a distinct lack of flair to Countdown’s proceedings.

That same blandness spreads to the characters and the story: cheeky banter falls flat; it’s superficial filler, with no voice or personality behind it. Connections are forged, but they don’t feel all that meaningful. Even when they’re a bit harder won – like the one between Meachum and his DEA partner, Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho) that takes a couple episodes to spark – it’s mechanical, and their dialogue doesn’t have much heart or character.

Instead, every member on the task force speaks with the same tone. This isn’t an unheard of style for television, but there’s not a distinctive flair to the scripts either. This isn’t Gilmore Girls or Veronica Mars, where the heightened affectation paints a whole world; Countdown wants something closer to reality, but can’t imbue its characters with anything worth engaging with. There’s just not enough texture to each of their lives. When we finally see the house of team leader Nathan Blythe (Eric Dane), it’s played for a major reveal. But not once does it seem like Countdown cares about its characters enough to make any unseen home lives feel like a telling choice about who they are.

Given how much the show strives to be a sort of throwback, this seems like the missing link for the Countdown formula. Even the most repetitive procedurals like NCIS pull in viewers again and again because people like the characters; the things we see them do or the people they are outside of work is the reason to watch them solve crimes. By contrast, Countdown gives us nothing: As the team goes through the motions of a law-enforcement procedural, it all feels robotic. We get bonding scenes, action sequences, heartfelt monologues, and repeated commitments to protecting the greater good. But without room for the characters to exhale or let their hair down, it’s all far too rote.

Ultimately there’s not a lot to love about Countdown. You can get sucked into the conspiracy, twisting its way through Los Angeles with a cliffhanger deployed in the final moments of every episode. There’s also some excitement in the way that the team circles closer to the culprit through the tiny nuggets of information they track down. But for a manhunt story like this to work, there needs to be a bit more thrill to the chase. Otherwise, it’s just dull.

Netflix’s Devil May Cry: The Animated Series may or may not have been your favorite recent adaptation, but series creator Adi Shankar recently revealed that Season 2 of the series is going to be entirely different from what we got in Season 1 — so if you didn’t vibe that much with the first season, it might be worth giving it a second try.

“Season 2 is a vvvvveryyyyy different show. Yes, Dante levels up,” the Dredd producer replied to a fan on Twitter on June 23. “His skills improve and you’ll see him embrace more of the iconic badassery fans of the game expect. That said, I'm still telling a story, and great characters don’t just win — they grow. What makes Dante compelling isn’t that he’s unstoppable — it’s that he learns and keeps getting stronger.”

That said, some fans in the replies expressed their displeasure with how the series, which is based on the Capcom game by the same name, has been going. One had particularly adept insight as to why some fans feel the series isn’t up to snuff.

Season 2 is a vvvvveryyyyy different show.

Yes, Dante levels up. His skills improve and you’ll see him embrace more of the iconic badassery fans of the game expect.

That said, I'm still telling a story, and great characters don’t just win — they grow.

What makes Dante… https://t.co/M20Ewp4Bu3

— Adi Shankar (@adishankarbrand) June 23, 2025

“It's not just that they grow. It's about how they grow. People aren't pissed because Dante isn’t instantly a badass,” the Twitter user explained. “They are upset because you fundamentally misunderstood the nature of his journey. And Lady's for that matter.”

However, one thing can’t be forgotten: the fact that Shankar’s version of the story isn’t actually set up to be canon, which allows him to get creative.

“Each franchise is a different beast,” he told another fan on Twitter of adapting games for the small screen. “It really depends on the IP. With Devil May Cry, there was already a deep and conflicting continuity across games/manga/etc — so going non-canon and creating my own AU gave me room to honor the spirit without getting trapped in the timeline gymnastics.”

Devil May Cry season 2 has yet to secure a release date, but the series was renewed for a second round back in April.

IGN's Devil May Cry Season 1 review returned an 8/10. We said: "Devil May Cry is a fun, if predictable, video game adaptation that boasts one of the best animated episodes of the year so far."

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

Kojima Productions has confirmed the global release times for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the sequel to Hideo Kojima's open-world delivery adventure game starring Norman Reedus.

While most people will be able to play from midnight local time this coming Thursday, June 26, Kojima Productions has confirmed that those who bought the digital deluxe edition are able to jump in two days early on Tuesday, June 24.

It's at this point that we normally add in a handy map, but Kojima Productions hasn't provided one this time. That said, you don't really need a satnav to navigate this release — the game will unlock for most at midnight local time.

IGN's Death Stranding 2 review returned a 9/10. We said: "Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a triumphant sequel that emphatically delivers on the promise of its original."

Don't forget, Hideo Kojima is also working on a live-action Death Stranding film with A24, and we recently learned that a Death Stranding anime is in the works, too. He's also working on a PlayStation exclusive action espionage project called Physint, and called the upcoming Xbox-published OD "a game I have always wanted to make."

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach global release times — early access:

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

PDT (Los Angeles):

• 12am midnight

CDT (Mexico City)

• 12am midnight

CDT (Chicago):

• 12am midnight

EDT (New York):

• 12am midnight

CLT (Santiago):

• 12am midnight

BRT (São Paulo):

• 12am midnight

BST (London):

• 12am midnight

CEST (Berlin):

• 12am midnight

GST (Dubai):

• 12am midnight

CST (Beijing)

• 12am midnight

KST (Seoul)

• 12am midnight

JST (Tokyo)

• 12am midnight

AEST (Sydney)

• 12am midnight

Death Stranding 2 global release times — standard access:

Thursday, June 26, 2025

PDT (Los Angeles):

• 12am midnight

CDT (Mexico City):

• 12am midnight

CDT (Chicago):

• 12am midnight

EDT (New York):

• 12am midnight

CLT (Santiago):

• 12am midnight

BRT (São Paulo):

• 12am midnight

BST (London):

• 12am midnight

CEST (Berlin):

• 12am midnight

GST (Dubai):

• 12am midnight

CST (Beijing):

• 12am midnight

KST (Seoul):

• 12am midnight

JST (Tokyo):

• 12am midnight

AEST (Sydney):

• 12am midnight

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.

Gaming deals have steadily been coming in since Amazon’s upcoming Prime Day was announced, and this bargain on DOOM: The Dark Ages Limited Edition Xbox Controller being available for £58.49 is a big one.

Launched in line with DOOM: The Dark Ages, this once-£74.99 controller is now 22% off. There’s no “limited time deal” sticker like on other Amazon offers, so we assume this is while stocks last.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is coming exclusively for PS5 on June 24 — but only if you buy one of the more expensive editions. The standard edition releases June 26. Developed by Kojima Productions, IGN's review describes the game as "a sequel that triumphs in what it sets out to achieve, and a blockbuster fulfilment of what Death Stranding can (and should) be."

The Death Stranding sequel will be available in three editions: a standard edition available in physical or digital format (see it at Amazon), plus a digital deluxe edition and a collector’s edition that comes with a statue along with other goodies. Read on for pricing, availability, and details about what comes in each edition.

Death Stranding 2 - Standard Edition

Death Stranding 2 - Digital Deluxe Edition

• Get it at PS Store - $79.99

The digital-only deluxe edition comes with a digital copy of the game itself, plus the following extras:

• 48-hour Early Access to the game (June 24)
• Machine Gun (MP Bullets) LV1 early unlock
• Battle Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)
• Boost Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)
• Bokka Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)
• Quokka Patch
• Chiral Feline Patch
• Why Me? Patch

Death Stranding 2 Collector’s Edition

• Get it at PS Direct - $229.99

The Collector’s Edition is exclusive to the PlayStation Direct store. It costs $229.99 and comes with all sorts of cool stuff. Here’s what you get:

• Full Game Digital Download
• 48-hour Early Access to the game (June 24)
• Collector’s Box
• 15” Magellan Man Statue
• 3” Dollman figurine
• Art cards
• Letter from Hideo Kojima
• In-game items
  • Machine Gun (MP Bullets) LV1 early unlock
  • Battle Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)
  • Boost Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)
  • Bokka Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)
  • Quokka Patch
  • Chiral Feline Patch
  • Why Me? Patch

Death Stranding 2 Preorder Bonus

Preorder Death Stranding 2, and you’ll receive the following in-game items:

• Quokka Hologram
• Battle Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)
• Boost Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)
• Bokka Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)

DualSense Wireless Controller – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Limited Edition

The Art of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

What is Death Stranding 2: On the Beach?

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a direct sequel to the 2019 original. It takes place 11 months after the birth of the UCA, when the world has been connected, deliveries have been automated, and a new faction is rising up. I hesitate to describe what the game may or may not be, because it’s full of Kojima-level weirdness. You can watch the extensive trailer above to find out more about Death Stranding 2, which includes a Solid Snake-like character.

For more, be sure to check out our Death Stranding 2 hands-on preview, which is based on 30 hours of gameplay. That's a lot of gameplay.

Other Preorder Guides

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Bluesky @chrislreed.com.

It's official: Donkey Kong Bananza is the best-selling game on Amazon right now. Considering the wild popularity of the Switch 2, it only feels right that this highly anticipated game has been climbing Amazon's best seller charts.

At the time of publication, the game sits at 11th on the official Amazon chart, the highest of any single game currently, followed closely by the critically acclaimed Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (PS5), and only behind the usual mainstays of various Roblox, PlayStation, and Xbox gift cards.

Update: The Pokémon Company has officially announced its new series for its popular trading card game, Mega Evolution. Its first expansion will be titled "Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution." More information will be revealed on July 10, 2025.

It's expected to launch in September this year, while Japan's equivalents, "Mega Brave" and "Mega Symphonia", will launch in August. The original story continues below.

Just when you thought the Pokémon TCG had enough going on with Destined Rivals and Black Bolt and White Flare, in comes a brand new series altogether with the Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia sets (Update: Mega Evolution for English markets).

Originally announced at Japan's Championship tournament, as reported by PokeBeach and later confirmed by The Pokémon Company, the two new sets featuring Mega Lucario ex and Mega Gardevoir ex mark the popular trading card game stepping away from its Scarlet and Violet era.

Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia will release on August 1, 2025, in Japan, and in September for English markets as "Mega Evolution".