Once again, it looks like those internet rumors are proving to be, you guessed it, untrue. Stranger Things creator and showrunner Ross Duffer made it a point to squash the speculation about the runtimes for the upcoming Season 5 episodes that started online.

"Lol not even close to accurate," one half of the Duffer Brothers explained via his Instagram stories, including nothing else in his statement other than the graphic with the fake, elongated runtimes to illustrate his point.

In the original post, which was seen making its way around Twitter recently, it shows most episodes clocking in at two and a half hours or more, with some even hitting beyond three hours — a generally absurd notion for just one episode of a TV series, let alone an entire season. The graphic was faked to look like it came directly from Netflix as well, which was able to fool many fans online for a period of time.

🚨 CODE RED 🚨

THE STRANGER THINGS 5 TEASER IS HERE pic.twitter.com/xklBxyJ11N

— Netflix (@netflix) July 16, 2025

Some of what must have bolstered the rumor is what cast members have previously said about the runtime of the finale episodes. Maya Hawke revealed during an episode of Podcrushed last year that season 5 will be "basically eight movies" with "very long" episodes, while Finn Wolfhard told Collider in January that "not every episode is like a full-blown movie, but there are definitely some episodes this year that the runtime is definitely film-length."

For what it’s worth, Ross Duffer in particular has been vocal about Season 5 lately, taking to social media to also quell audience worries about spoilers for the final season. “Don’t worry about spoilers,” he wrote in an Instagram grid post that included the recent teaser trailer. “This teaser pulls from every episode except 7, but it’s mostly Volume One and just barely scratches the surface.”

Volume One of Stranger Things season 5 premieres on Netflix on November 26.

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

Developer Massive Entertainment and publisher Ubisoft have announced that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the very good 2023 first-person shooter set in the titular world of Pandora, is getting another big update timed to the third anniverary of the game's launch on December 5 (and the release of the third Avatar movie, Fire and Ash, on December 19) that will add an optional third-person perspective mode as well as a New Game+ mode. Watch the new trailer above.

Massive says it has "reworked animations, controls, audio, and camera systems to ensure the experience feels seamless and intuitive" when playing in third-person perspective. Meanwhile, your inventory and skills will persist when making another run through the campaign in New Game+. More powerful gear will be available to put to use against more difficult enemies, and you'll have a new skill tree to work with.

Previous updates since Frontiers of Pandora released have added a 40fps mode for consoles, "The Sky Breaker" and "Secrets of the Spires" story packs, and a revamped Hunter's Guide.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

It's time to open up some space amongst your collectibles, especially if you're an X-Men fan, as S.H.Figuarts and TAMASHII NATIONS are releasing a brand new Gamerverse action figure of Cyclops that's now available to preorder (see here at Amazon). This incredibly cool figure is currently listed for $100 and is set to be released next year on January 30. If its caught your eye, it's worth it to get your preorders in now just in case it sells out, which you can do at the link below.

Preorder Cyclops S.H.Figuarts Action Figure

This Cyclops Gamerverse action figure stands about six-inches tall and comes with a wide variety of interchangeable parts, including various Optic Blasts, so you can fully customize him to stand out in your collection. He even comes with a cool background mount, which makes for an extra special effect when you put him on display. You can see the full list of interchangeable parts that this Cyclops figure comes with below:

• 4 types of interchangeable wrist parts (left and right)
• 2 types of interchangeable facial parts
• Interchangeable eye mask (Wavering Optic Blast)
• Interchangeable eye mask (Optic Blast)
• Interchangeable eye mask (Super Optic Blast)
• 2 types of interchangeable neck fixing parts
• Background mount

Cyclops isn't the only Marvel action figure getting the Gamerverse treatment, though. Hasbro is dropping their own line of Marvel Gamerverse action figures and currently has a Juggernaut figure up for preorder. If you have a growing collection of Marvel collectibles, this is another option that's worth picking up for it. There's plenty more where this Juggernaut figure came from, though. It's worth it to check out Hasbro's full lineup of Marvel vs. Capcom-inspired Marvel Legends figures to see if there are any other figures coming out later that catch your eye.

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

The Dying Light series quickly earned its place in the pantheon of great zombie games by blending brutal first-person combat with satisfying parkour movement – all set within dangerous open worlds. The series has thus far delivered on offering a slick and thrilling survival experience, but with the upcoming Dying Light: The Beast, we see developer Techland return to its roots for a more focused concept that lets an amped up returning protagonist Kyle Crane loose in an even more hostile setting.

I got to spend over four hours playing the opening of Dying Light: The Beast, getting reacquainted with Kyle Crane as he comes to grips with a more feral world after the events of the second game. Playing The Beast was very much like a turbo-charged version of the original game, so much so that you may as well call it Super Dying Light. So with that, here are six of the most exciting and game-changing upgrades that the upcoming sequel brings to the table.

1. A More Focused Story, and the Return of Kyle Crane

Dying Light 2 took a bold step towards building an RPG-style story with game-changing events defined by your choices. While certainly ambitious, it didn't quite reach its full potential in the broader sense. For The Beast, we instead see a more defined story about the return of Kyle Crane, who has undergone some horrific experiments following the shocking ending of the Dying Light 1 expansion The Following. Now hellbent on revenge against the mysterious antagonist known as The Baron, Crane has to relearn his skills as a survivalist while leveraging some powerful abilities to level the playing field.

The Beast draws inspiration from Dying Light 2 and does more to make Kyle a more central figure within his story. Along with new third-person cutscenes, there are now more opportunities to help build Crane's understanding of the state of things in Castor Woods. Several interactions with key characters also play out in Mass Effect-style chats, which can give you more insight into plot developments and to pick up on Dying Light lore. I really appreciate the more focused take on storytelling and character growth from these moments, especially with Kyle Crane front and center. And it's a cool opportunity to catch up on what's changed in the world following the events of Dying Light 2.

2. You Hit the Ground Running

Dying Light: The Beast does well to show its teeth early, making the point that this is a more brutal take on the series. Many of the combat encounters in the opening show how aggressive and imposing the infected can be, with even the common foes managing to get the jump on me when I let my guard down. Fortunately, Kyle Crane is a far more capable survivalist than before. So much so that many abilities locked off in different skill trees from previous games, such as the parkour-based high jumps and pulling off counter grabs, are a part of Crane's core kit and can be used immediately. Furthermore, you can even use new takedowns on weakened enemies, which act as glory kills for the lesser and more elite infected.

I certainly appreciated being able to do so without having to endure much of a retread of the familiar power grind back to securing vital skills. This made me feel a bit more confident to face down foes armed with a hammer or machete, thanks to some amped-up beast powers running through Crane's body. That said, I still sometimes felt overwhelmed by combat encounters and had to make tactical retreats often to heal. But thankfully, new skills that can be unlocked can help level the playing field, such as the return of the flying drop kick and the array of new beast powers that Kyle can unleash.

3. A More Organized Way to Acquire New Skills

The previous games featured skills spread across the combat, parkour, and survival trees, with your playstyle defining growth for each. Dying Light: The Beast ditches the specialized leveling system in favor of more traditional leveling, with earned skill points spent across the different combat and traversal branches at your leisure. This helps to even out character growth, with The Beast avoiding the lopsided growth that could occur in the first two Dying Lights.

However, the special Beast skill tree will require some more effort to unlock, as only by defeating the various Chimera bosses hidden throughout Castor Woods, which reveal themselves during story missions and hidden locations. Once you defeat one, Crane will acquire a sample of the Chimera, which will expand his more powerful skills.

4. Going Beast Mode

Dying Light: The Beast finally grants players new abilities and skills that have been long-teased throughout the series. As a powered-up state that goes into effect once you've dished out or sustained enough damage, Crane will automatically enter beast mode, amping up his melee strikes and agility in ways that let you cut loose against common and elite foes alike. Additional Beast powers add new abilities like a running jump, a ground slam, and even the ability to pick up boulders and toss them at foes, just like those annoying bruiser enemies from earlier games.

The Dying Light series has always balanced that sense of power with feeling vulnerable in a fight, but entering beast mode offers up a satisfying burst of strength that not only comes in clutch, but can also lead to a fantastic finish to a fight. The developers even likened the mode to acquiring a power pellet in Pac-Man, which will turn your enemies into weaklings in no time. And while beast mode can come in handy, it’ll unfortunately activate the moment the meter is filled, which can lead to some awkward moments where the action is winding down and you’re still pumped up.

5. Re-embracing Survival Horror by Adding More Danger

One moment that instills a sense of dread for every Dying Light player is right when nightfall hits. In that moment, the game transitions into a full-on survival horror experience as the powerful, volatile infected come out to play. While Dying Light 2 eased the tension of nighttime gameplay to make it more approachable, this ultimately came at the expense of its larger experience. This was later patched with further updates, and The Beast fully embraces the original vision of survival during the night.

Even with Crane's enhanced beast powers and arsenal of weapons, I still found myself rattled when it came to trying to find safety during the evening. During one particular instance, I found myself trapped on the rooftops of the Old Town district, and I was surrounded by three volatile infected that were actively on the hunt for me after I mistimed my jump and landed into the streets below. The volatile are more aggressive and intelligent than ever, and the nighttime is seriously unsettling to explore. Still, The Beast manages to strike a great balance with making you capable of surviving the odds, but totally vulnerable when left to fend for yourself.

6. This Is Not an Expansion, but a Proper Sequel

A prevailing worry other fans, including myself, had with Dying Light: The Beast was that it was going to be a more bite-sized follow-up, but after my hands-on time, developer Techland had proven me wrong with the upcoming standalone game. The scale of The Beast is much closer to the original Dying Light, which the devs have stated was the sweet spot when it came to playing the more aggressive take on their open-world survival game.

What makes Dying Light: The Beast work well, based on my limited time with it, is that it combines the best aspects of both the original and the first sequel. It adopts a more thoughtful approach to presenting its main narrative and characters from the second, while retaining the more confident and hard-hitting, tense action from the original. Without the decision paralysis that could come from Dying Light 2's complex narrative, The Beast goes all-in on Crane's revenge story that's chock-full of the thrills and scares that the series is all about – and that seems to be what fans are most looking forward to with the next entry in this series.

Our third "Mafia Monday" in July offers you an introduction to the Torrisi crime family members you'll meet in Mafia: The Old Country, the upcoming prequel to and fourth major entry in the long-running narrative-driven action-adventure series. You play young Enzo Favara as he works his way up in the Torrisi family.

This is the third entry in our IGN First series of exclusives on Mafia: The Old Country. Be sure to check out the exclusive gameplay and our hands-on preview that we've already posted. And next week we'll have a deep-dive interview with the game director and development studio president about returning Mafia to its linear roots. For now, though, get to know your early-20th-century Sicilian family by clicking through the images and character bios provided by the Hangar 13 development team in the gallery below.

Mafia: The Old Country will be released for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on August 8.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Following the combined launch of both Pokémon TCG expansions last week, the new Black Bolt and White Flare Elite Trainer Boxes (ETBs) have been hotly sought after, with prices skyrocketing well above MSRP.

However, Amazon has recently dropped the price of the Black Bolt ETB to $78.75, down from the retailer's inflated list price of $109.99. That's a 28% reduction if you're looking for market price, but still over $28 more than the standard $50 MSRP.

Heads up, longtime PlayStation fans: the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition DualSense PS5 controller is coming back in stock at PlayStation Direct. The restock will happen in two waves. The first wave is for PlayStation Plus subscribers only, and it kicks off today at 10 a.m. ET. (You can sign up for PS Plus here). The second wave will begin Wednesday, July 23 at 10 a.m. ET, and will be open for everyone.

Superman saves a lot of people in the recently released DC Universe kickstarter. But he saves more than just people — much to the annoyance of some.

Warning! Spoilers for Superman follow:

As the world is coming to an end around him, Superman saves a lone squirrel. That’s right, he takes the time to save a squirrel from certain destruction, and we see the heroic save front and centre even as Metropolis and its citizens are under threat.

This, it turns out, wasn’t the most well-received moment in the film among test audiences. In fact, according to writer and director James Gunn, the squirrel moment was one of the most "hotly debated" in the entire movie.

Speaking to Rolling Stone as part of a spoiler-filled Superman interview, Gunn revealed he cut the squirrel out of Superman at one point in response to the feedback, but then put it back in even though people on his own crew were telling him not to.

“... although it was probably the second- or third-most hotly debated moment in the movie,” Gunn said of the squirrel.

“Because we showed it to test audiences and some people did not like the squirrel. They’re like, ‘Why the f*** is he saving a squirrel? Why is he taking time out, saving a squirrel?’

“There was a cut where I cut it out and I’m like, ‘I really miss the squirrel. He’s gotta save the squirrel.’ In addition, there were also some geographic problems with where he ended up if I didn’t have him fly over with the squirrel. So I put the squirrel back in despite the protestations of some of my people on my crew.”

So, the squirrel wasn’t just saved by Superman, it was saved by James Gunn, too.

Check out IGN’s Superman review to find out what we think of the film, and then head over to our Superman Ending and Post-Credits Explained to find out what it all means.

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.

The success of James Gunn's Superman, the start of a new era of DC Comics movies, proves that the idea of "superhero fatigue" among audiences is a myth. That's according to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, who has also reflected on where many MCU entries have gone wrong in recent years.

With $407 million earned to date, Superman has ensured Gunn's DCU is off to a strong start. "I liked it a lot," Feige said, as part of a roundtable interview attended by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. "I love you just jump right into it. You don't know who Mister Terrific is? Tough, you'll figure it out. This is a fully fleshed out world."

But while moviegoers don't seem tired of every superhero movie, they certainly seem tired of some. Since Avengers: Endgame, Marvel has suffered from a number of high-profile flops, including The Marvels and The Eternals, and a string of medicore review scores, such as for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Captain America: Brave New World.

Even this year's Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers — by all accounts a critical success — underperformed at the box office. Now, Feige has discussed where Marvel has been going wrong — and a lot of it comes down to the sheer volume of content it has pumped out.

"We produced 50 hours of stories between 2007 and 2019," Feige said, referencing the period from Iron Man to Spider-Man: Far From Home dubbed the Infinity Saga. Compare that to the six years since, and the difference is remarkable.

"We've had well over 100 hours of stories — in half the time," Feige continued, referencing everything released since Black Widow began the subsequent Multiverse Saga in 2021. "That's too much." Add in Marvel's animated series, and the total climbs to 127 hours.

"For the first time ever, quantity trumped quality," Feige stated, before going on to explain why — a mandate from Disney to increase production and ensure streaming service Disney+ was a success.

"We always had more characters than we could possibly make because we weren't going to make a movie a month. Suddenly, there's a mandate to make more. And we [said], 'Well, we do have more'.

"It was a big company push, and it doesn't take too much to push us to go, 'People have been asking for Ms. Marvel for years, and now we can do it? Do it! Oscar Isaac wants to be Moon Knight? Do it!' So there was a mandate that we were put in the middle of, but we also thought it'd be fun to bring these to life."

Defending Marvel's decision to massively expand its output, Feige said that it had been right to take risks and that some Disney+ series had been praised for their quality — such as Wandavision and Loki. Ultimately, though, the level of expansion had "devalued" the overall offering.

"I've always thought if you take success and don't experiment with it and don't risk with it, then it's not worth it," Feige said. "What we also ended up focusing on because of Disney+ was expansion — and it's that expansion that I think led people to say, 'It used to be fun, but now do I have to know everything about all of these?'"

Feige blamed The Marvels' poor box office performance on this issue — the fact that only Brie Larsen's Captain Marvel had wide audience recognition, while co-stars Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau originated in Disney+ series some hadn't watched.

"I think The Marvels hit it hardest where people are like, 'OK, I recognize her from a billion-dollar movie. But who are those other two? I guess they were in some TV show. I'll skip it,'" Feige said.

The same issue was then experienced by Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers — despite Marvel making as much as it could out of the film's connections to the forthcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday.

"Thunderbolts* I thought was a very, very good movie," Feige said. "But nobody knew that title and many of those characters were from a [TV] show. Some [audiences] were still feeling that notion of, 'I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is.' If you actually saw the movie, that wouldn't be the case, and we make the movie so that's not the case. But I think we still have to make sure the audience understands that."

As a result, Marvel Studios will now reduce its output — with a maximum of three films in a year, and potentially just a single Disney+ series. Notably, the studio has also focused its slate on a selection of upcoming films that feel like sure-fire successes: Avengers: Doomsday, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Beyond these, a "reset" version of the MCU will continue with a new X-Men reboot. Black Panther 3 is also in production, and — at some point — Marvel says it will still launch its long-gestating new take on Blade.

Speaking in the same interview, Feige also revealed that Sony has told Marvel to "stay away" from a live-action Miles Morales Spider-Man, and that Marvel contacted Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom after realising "Kang wasn't big enough", long before the departure of Jonathan Majors.

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

Ready or Not's console port finally released last week, and it's already surpassed one million sales. Combined with sales of its early access PC version, which released in December 2023, the game has now topped 10 million units sold.

"When we launched Ready or Not on PC, it took about 36 days to reach 1 million units sold," said VOID CEO, Julio Rodriguez. "On console, it took about 3.6 days. I’m incredibly proud of the team and what we’ve accomplished together. It’s a huge moment — and one we don’t take for granted."

Rodriguez then went on to thank Ready or Not's players and "everyone who believed in the project."

Last week, July 15, VOID Interactive proceeded with changes introduced to controversial shooter Ready or Not despite widespread condemnation from fans who claimed the developer was "censoring" the game's gore and violence by "appeasing console market regulators."

VOID said it had to adjust levels of gore, nudity, violence, and the "mistreatment of children" ahead of console release, and rather than "maintaining multiple versions with different assets and mechanics" that would "increase the likelihood of bugs," some aspects of the PC version would also have to be revised.

At the time, VOID insisted the changes were "small enough that most people here wouldn't notice if we didn't say anything," but it "wanted to be transparent" with its players. Players disagreed, and the news caused Ready or Not's Steam user review rating to plummet to "mostly negative" for recent reviews. Up until the controversy, it had accured a "Mostly Positive" rating.

Within 20 minutes of implementing unpopular changes to Ready or Not, however, a mod was available to reverse the changes.

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.

Amazon has quietly become one of the best places to pick up Pokémon TCG products this week, with a surprise restock that brings several popular Elite Trainer Boxes closer to MSRP than we’ve seen in months. The best deal right now is the Black Bolt Elite Trainer Box at just $78.75. Throw in the Paradox Rift ETB for under $78 and a handful of affordable premium collections like Cynthia’s Garchomp ex and Charizard ex.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Beyond cards, today’s best deals span everything from Apple AirPods Pro 2 at a rare $169, to the surprisingly powerful KRK Kreate Studio Monitors that deliver clean, rich sound that certainly outperform the usual "gaming gear" and "cinema quality" markup. Plus, Zelda fans can scoop up hardcover best-selling books for less, and if you're still hunting for a Nintendo Switch 2, Amazon’s invite system is your best shot right now. Prepping for travel? this $19 INIU power bank should have you covered for a top up too.

Black Bolt Elite Trainer Box

Pokémon TCG Stock Update

Amazon is finally killing it for Pokémon TCG elite trainer box stock and pricing, and some are the closest to MSRP the big box retailer has been for weeks. Not only is the Black Bolt ETB vastly undercutting the secondary market, Paradox Rift ETB is even cheaper (And an overlooked set in my opinion, stock up now).

There's other great deals on ex boxes too, which are also near MSRP and around the same or just under listings on TCG Player. The sealed market is becoming more competitive, so it's more important than ever to give eBay a quick check before hitting buy.

Nintendo Switch 2 Stock Updates

As predicted, Nintendo Switch 2's launch window is seeing stock shortages. If you didn't preorder at launch, you've probably been waiting for stock drops since launch. Amazon currently has it's invitation system in place for both the standard console SKU and the Mario Kart world bundle, so it's always worth getting on the waiting list whilst you wait. If successful, your purchase link will be live for 72 hours.

2 x Nintendo eShop $50 Gift Card

The Legend of Zelda Hardcover Book Sale

Nearly every The Legend of Zelda hardcover book you need for your collection is available in this sale with some cracking discounts. It includes my favorite one, Hyrule Historia, that fills in more than a few gaps in the LoZ lore, although the timeline has already been slightly retconned. It also includes full and expanded official guides for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

KRK Kreate Powered Studio Monitors

I can personally guarantee a set of powered studio monitors will sound better than almost any sound system with or without a subwoofer. The new line of KRK Kreate studio monitors aren't just for recording music (Although they'd do an amazing job), they're a versatile sound option for content creation, editing, gaming, watching TV and movies and more. Buyers can even teather to them via Bluetooth for no fuss connections.

I've been using the 8-inch speaker models for a couple of weeks now, and they destory my soundbar and subwoofer combo that cost's nearly double the price of these. There's precision adjustments knobs on the back, which I keep mostly in neutral with volume up by half for a crisp flat sound with the right amount of bass. Although that can be cranked up when needed.

Personally I use an audio splitter so my Krate 8s can handle my Nano QuadCortex guitar amp moddler, my TV audio and gaming PC audio for the best experience. For me, going from a 3-inch to 8-inch speaker option is night and day. The clarity difference and range is top-tier, not to mention the jack, XLR and aux outputs available on each monitor that fits in perfectly in everyone's setup. You're getting top-of-the-range brand quality without the "gaming" brand tax, it's a win-win.

Apple AirPods Pro 2

INIU Portable Charger 10000mAh 45W

Donkey Kong Bananza

Someone has recreated a whole new Fallout map in the GZDoom Engine.

In a stunning and surprisingly cinematic teaser, modder Alexander "Red888guns" Berezin has been hard at work recreating Fallout's city of Necropolis from the original Fallout game. As PC Gamer points out, the Fallout: Bakersfield project was initially unveiled back in 2022, but we've heard very little since, leading some to speculate that the project may have been abandoned.

Now, however, we know Berezin is still working on recreating the Necropolis sequence, complete with the obligatory boss fight with Harry in the watershed. To be honest, it's kind of wild that this entire world has been recreated by just two people — Berezin and what's presumed to be a family member, Denis Berezin.

"Never seen a fan project get so close to the OG vibe," said one commenter on the YouTube page. Another agreed, writing: "Duuuuuuude whaaaat this looked cool at first, but the gameplay got me so hyped. This looks frickin' legit. This has more Fallout vibes than the last few actual games."

Given the quality of the teaser, you'd be forgiven for thinking the mod's release is imminent, but an infographic at the end of the teaser suggests development is only about 60% done. Berezin posits that he's about 30% of the way through creating the creatures, 50% done with making the weapons and UI, and completed 80% of walls, tiles, and scenery.

The mod's release date is simply listed as: ??.??.202?... which takes us right up until December 31, 2029, unfortunately.

Fallout Season 1 hit Prime Video in April 2024 and was an instant breakout hit. While the show’s popularity sparked a flood of new players across all Fallout games, Bethesda — and by extension parent company Microsoft — failed to make the most of it with, for example, the release of a new Fallout game. For Fallout Season 2, it's off to New Vegas, the setting of Obsidian's much-loved Fallout: New Vegas, and it sounds like tie-in content is indeed planned for Fallout 76.

Of course, a brand-new Fallout game is also coming down the pipe, with Howard confirming Fallout 5 is in the long-term plan, potentially after The Elder Scrolls 6 comes out.

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.

Despite being Nintendo’s original mascot and being one of legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s most iconic character creations, Donkey Kong has had a bit of a weird history of getting his own video games compared to that mustachioed plumber he’s frequently feuding with. Sometimes he’s the hero. Sometimes he’s the villain. Sometimes he’s a bongo drummer. But with Donkey Kong Bananza out now - DK’s first new starring role in over a decade and first new 3D platformer in over 25 years - it’s time to ride a rickety minecart down memory lane and look back at the big ape’s greatest games. Here are the ten best Donkey Kong games of all time.

10. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble

While Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble (an admittedly strange name for the third game in a series) isn’t exactly a game where you play as Donkey Kong himself, it does continue to build on the momentum based platforming gameplay that kicked off with the first Donkey Kong Country. Double Trouble tags in Dixie Kong and her cousin Kiddy Kong for another adventure, bringing more collectible coins, rideable animal sidekicks, and incredibly catchy background songs along with them. New abilities like Dixie’s ponytail hover (which feels similar to Tails’ foxtail helicopter hover seen in the Sonic games) add some interesting new mechanics to the mix, and while Double Trouble doesn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessors, it’s still an excellent and occasionally tough as nails adventure on its own and one of the best looking games on the Super Nintendo.

9. Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong’s first (and until recently, only) foray into joystick-controlled platforming wasn’t quite as strong as when Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda’s Link made the jump from 2D games on the Super Nintendo to 3D games on the N64, but hey, those were the early days of 3D gaming and there were bound to be some growing pains. Donkey Kong 64 is often derided for its over abundance of often tedious collectibles but when levels open up and progression requirements get out of your way, it’s an absolute blast to explore.

DK 64’s main hook is allowing players to control an entire family of Kongs for the first time instead of splitting them off into duos like the Donkey Kong Country series was known for. There are a ton of levels to hop around in, secret areas to unlock, and seemingly endless things to collect, plus a bonus multiplayer mode where Kongs run around shooting each other with guns, which may seem strange until you remember Donkey Kong 64 was made by Rare, the same company known for reinventing console multiplayer shooters two years earlier with their hit game GoldenEye 007. However, ask any kid who grew up playing Donkey Kong 64 and they’ll tell you their two fondest memories have nothing to do with the gameplay itself. First, the bright banana yellow cartridge the game was released on, and second and most importantly, the DK Rap theme song, possibly the catchiest title screen music in the history of video games.

8. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

During the GameCube era Nintendo experimented with a bunch of offbeat peripherals, but one of the strangest (and most adorable) were the DK Bongos, a large plastic pair of drums shaped like wooden barrels. The DK Bongos were most famously used for a series of rhythm games known as Donkey Konga, inviting players to smack the bongos in time with the beat to various songs. But the real star of the bongo supported GameCube game library was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a side scrolling platforming game that used bongo inputs to control Donkey Kong across a wide variety of stages.

By smacking the bongos individually or together, Donkey Kong can move around, interact with objects, and beat the bananas out of a ton of different enemies and bosses. And while Jungle Beat is a bit on the short side, players were encouraged to replay it to beat their high scores over and over again. Jungle Beat eventually made its way to the Nintendo Wii and Wii U with updated Wiimote motion controls so here’s hoping it gets ported to the Nintendo Switch 2 so more players can finally experience this often forgotten modern classic.

7. Donkey Kong

The first Donkey Kong game is still one of the greatest arcade games ever made, even decades later. At the time of its release in 1981, Nintendo was struggling to connect with arcade audiences and fast tracked a new game from then unknown game developer Shigeru Miyamoto. The result was the Kong Kong inspired Donkey Kong game, a unique arcade experience that showcased multiple levels, challenging platforming gameplay, and a little guy named Jumpman, now known around the world as Super Mario.

Donkey Kong was not only a massive hit for Nintendo, it also inspired two increasingly stranger arcade sequels, Donkey Kong Jr and Donkey Kong 3. It also served as the basis for the hit film King of Kong which documents the real life feud between two Donkey Kong high score world champions. For being a 40+ year old arcade game, the first Donkey Kong game ever made still holds up well today and brought the world Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pauline. Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if they let some Mario developers make a game with Donkey Kong and Pauline! Well, more on that in a bit.

6. Donkey Kong Country

It’s hard to express just how revolutionary Donkey Kong Country was when it first came to the Super Nintendo in 1994. For starters, DKC was a total reinvention of Donkey Kong, his world, and his enemies. It gave us Diddy Kong, Donkey’s acrobatic sidekick who went on to appear in tons more games, including a few of his own. It featured groundbreaking pre-rendered graphics based on scans of 3D assets and an amazing soundtrack to boot. It gave us the Kremlings and King R. Rool and a bunch of other huge bosses. And it gave us Cranky Kong, Funky Kong, and Candy Kong.

Donkey Kong Country was a massive success, spawning several sequels as well as Game Boy and Game Boy Advance ports and remakes. It’s absolutely packed with diverse environments, tricky platforming, animal sidekicks, and collectibles and the minecart levels are still tense and challenging to this day. At the time it was incredibly rare (pun intended) for Nintendo to outsource one of their most important characters to a UK-based studio instead of just making a game in house but the result was a redefining of Donkey Kong that still impacts how he’s seen today.

5. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

What do you do with Donkey Kong after the groundbreaking Donkey Kong Country? Well, you lock him in a cage so he can be rescued by Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong, obviously. Coming out just one year after the original, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest improved on nearly everything from the first game and cemented itself as the best game in the original trilogy. The levels are tougher and more clever, the graphics are better, the soundtrack is somehow even catchier, and the two playable characters are a ton of fun to control. There are dozens and dozens of secrets and collectibles to unearth across its eight vast worlds and 52 levels and finding them allows players to ultimately display a “102%” next to their save file.

4. Donkey Kong Country Returns

After Microsoft bought Donkey Kong Country creators Rare, the Donkey Kong games series was in a bit of a strange place. But 16 years to the day since the original Donkey Kong Country was released, Donkey Kong Country... well, returned again with Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Nintendo Wii, this time being developed by Metroid Prime creator Retro Studios. Returns was less of a total overhaul for the series and more of a return to form but it still managed to bring along a ton of new features and some seriously brilliant level design.

Returns featured a totally new and distinct art direction for the series which also allowed the characters and world to be much more expressive and fun. Equally inventive were the stages and locales which were teeming with life and personality and more importantly, challenging and rewarding platforming, chaotic autoscrolling levels, and more. Donkey Kong Country Returns sold over 6.5 million copies on the Nintendo Wii and has been ported to every Nintendo handheld and console since. It’s a master class in how to bring a once dormant series back, a thing that Donkey Kong seems to have a habit of doing.

3. Donkey Kong ‘94

Similar to the original arcade game, you don’t actually play as Donkey Kong in the Game Boy’s incredible Donkey Kong ‘94 even though his name is in the title. But that’s not the only thing those games share in common. Like his first game, Donkey Kong has once again captured Pauline, leaving Mario to jump and hammer his way to her rescue. But after a clever revisit of the Donkey Kong arcade four levels, Donkey Kong ‘94 opens up ninety seven more stages full of platform puzzle challenges.

Outside of how much fun Mario is to control, one of the best parts of Donkey Kong ‘94 is how expressive and charismatic Donkey Kong is here. He’s big and hulking and tough but also funny and goofy and seeing so much personality shine through the tiny and blurry original Game Boy screen was revelatory. The game saw a ton of spiritual successors in the Mario vs Donkey Kong series and spinoffs, although none were ever quite as good as Donkey Kong ‘94. Here’s hoping it gets a remake someday, but for now it’s totally accessible through the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy app and it absolutely still feels great to play.

2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Like Diddy’s Kong Quest, Tropical Freeze once again took all of the solid foundation laid down in the game before it and built an even bigger and better sequel, making it the best 2D Donkey Kong game ever made. Donkey Kong’s once peaceful world has been taken over by snow themed bad guys, and as the title suggests, that means a beautiful mix of palm trees and ice everywhere, leading to some truly genius (and very tough) platforming sequences.

But if you find things a bit too tough, just try out Funky Mode, an optional difficulty decrease that allows players to play as everyone’s favorite monkey that owns an airport. Speaking of which, Tropical Freeze features more playable Kongs than any Donkey Kong game before it including Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, and at long last, Cranky Kong who just couldn’t stay retired. Tropical Freeze is the culmination of all of the best things from the best Donkey Kong Country games mixed up in one perfect frozen cocktail. Once Retro gets Metroid Prime 4 in the rear view it would be amazing to see them return to this series one more time. But luckily for us, there’s another Donkey Kong game to hold us over.

1. Donkey Kong Bananza

As it turns out, the latest Donkey Kong game is his greatest. Developed by the team behind the incredible Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Bananza gives DK a whole new bag of toys to play with and a whole new world to destroy. De-emphasizing the tight platforming that the Country series was known for, Bananza opts instead to celebrate Donkey Kong’s brute force and heavy fists, allowing him to punch holes in the earth in search of collectibles, rip out huge rocks to ride around and throw, and so much more. It also reunites him with Pauline, this time as friends and collaborators.

Bananza is also Donkey Kong’s biggest game yet. It’s absolutely packed with secret areas, unlockable costumes, and optional challenge rooms and it can easily take players dozens of hours to find it all. It’s a loving celebration of this iconic and legendary Nintendo character, hopefully paving the way for more Donkey Kong games like it for years to come. For a character that has been reinvented a ton of times since 1981, it’s amazing to see Donkey Kong return for his first 3D game since 1999 and to do so with a game that feels both totally fresh and quintessentially Nintendo.

And there you have it, the ten best Donkey Kong games of all time. Did any of the games on this list kongfuse you? Were there any other DK games we should have kongsidered? Well, go bananas and let me know in the kongments below.

Kevin Feige has discussed Marvel's decision to replace Kang as the main villain of Avengers: Doomsday, and said talks with MCU legend Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom had begun before the departure of Jonathan Majors.

Speaking during a roundtable interview attended by The Hollywood Reporter, Feige said Marvel's pivot away from Kang had started before "what had happened to the actor happened" — referencing Majors' legal troubles that ultimately saw him convicted of assault in December 2023, and dropped by Marvel.

Without referencing Majors by name, Feige said that the "actor"'s departure had not been the sole catalyst for the series' creative changes. Instead, conversations to bring back Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom had begun before the public release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — a disappointing entry in the franchise that was largely Kang-focused.

"We had started even before what had happened to the actor happened," Feige said. "We had started to realize that Kang wasn't big enough, wasn't Thanos, and that there was only one character that could be that, because he was that in the comics for decades and decades.

"Because of the Fox acquisition, we finally had it, and it was Dr. Doom. So we had started talking about Dr. Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang," Feige continued.

"And in fact, I had started talking with Robert [Downey Jr.] about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out. It was a long plan that we had, to take one of our greatest characters and utilize one of our greatest actors."

It's worth taking a moment to consider the timeline being discussed here. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania launched in February 2023, a month before Majors was arrested for assault and harassment charges. At this point, the next Avengers film was still titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Quantumania was being billed as a key appearance of Marvel's next Thanos-level Big Bad, in the run-up to it.

What Feige's saying, then, is that Kang's status was already being questioned behind the scenes prior to Majors' arrest, and before audiences saw the character's biggest appearance yet in Quantumania. Indeed, Feige states that the idea to bring in Doctor Doom was far enough along by this point that he was already talking to Downey Jr. — although what's less clear is exactly when Doom was being lined up to replace Kang. Would it have still happened as quickly — and would Marvel have still retitled the next Avengers as Doomsday — without Majors' Marvel career coming to such an abrupt end?

Over the course of 2023, as Majors awaited trial, several reports emerged suggesting Marvel was now eyeing Doctor Doom as its next Endgame-style villain, with Majors' role downgraded — though not totally eradicated — following Quantumania's poor box office performance.

It wasn't until July 2024, at San Diego Comic-Con, that Marvel publicly announced its new plans, with Kang Dynasty retitled Avengers: Doomsday, Downey Jr. revealed as Doctor Doom, and the Russo brothers confirmed as directing both Doomsday and the subsequent Avengers: Secret Wars.

It's still unclear how Kang's absence in the MCU will be addressed going forward — if at all. The character was last seen in the finale of Disney+ series Loki, in an appearance that brought some closure to one incarnation of the character, while leaving the threat of many other multiversal Kangs (as seen in Quantumania) something of a loose thread. Perhaps Avengers: Doomsday will begin with Doctor Doom standing over a room of fallen Kang variants, immediately asseting his superiority? Or perhaps Kang will simply never be mentioned again.

Speaking in the same interview this past weekend, Feige also revealed that Sony has told Marvel to "stay away" from a live-action Miles Morales Spider-Man, and that Secret Wars would act as a "reset" for the MCU — after which, the X-Men would be recast.

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

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has chalked up Star Wars Outlaws' lackluster performance to the "choppy waters" of the sci-fi saga's fandom.

Addressing shareholders at a recent Q&A, Guillemot didn't reflect on the game's own performance issues, bugs, or complaints about repetitive gameplay, instead saying: "Outlaws was released at a time when the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters."

I's true that the Star Wars brand has taken a bit of a battering of late, with a middling reception to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and lower-than-hoped viewership of various Disney+ spin-offs like Book of Boba Fett and The Acolyte. But attributing Outlaws' mixed reception to broader issues with the fandom has raised a few eyebrows among fans for feeling slightly reductive.

Guillemot did not make note of the game's own technical problems on arrival, for example. IGN's own Star Wars Outlaws review — in which we awarded the sci-fi game a "Good" 7/10 — highlighted repetitive combat and "a few too many bugs at launch."

Furthermore, the game was mired in controversy when Ubisoft was accused of "pushing an agenda," resulting in "polarized comments" around the developer/publisher and the game long before the game released.

Star Wars Outlaws got its first story expansion in May with the release of the A Pirate’s Fortune DLC on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. A Pirate's Fortune gives players the chance to join forces with Hondo Ohnaka, head of the Ohnaka Gang. Hondo will be a name familiar to Star Wars: The Clone Wars fans and readers of the 2017 comic book series Star Wars: Darth Maul, and has even done time as one of the animatronic characters at the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction. This time around he'll be Kay's ally as she takes on Stinger Tash and her gang, the Rokana Raiders, checks out a mysterious tomb and does some smuggling for the Miyuki Trade League.

Star Wars Outlaws is getting a Nintendo Switch 2 release on September 4.

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.

Spider-Man filmmaker Sony has told Marvel not to introduce a live-action Miles Morales into the MCU.

That's according to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, who has been asked when a version of the popular young Spidey hero might pop up in live-action, after previously appearing in Sony's stylishly-animated Spider-Verse movies.

For now, though, it sounds like we'll have to wait. In a roundtable press interview attended by Variety, Feige said that Marvel's own plans for a live-action Miles Morales were currently "nowhere", per Sony's wishes.

"We've been told to stay away," Feige continued, suggesting this request will sit in place at least through the conclusion of Sony's Spider-Verse trilogy. The delayed final part of that — Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse — is currently set to release on June 25, 2027.

In the meantime, don't expect the MCU to continue setting up its own Miles Morales — something that some fans had speculated could be a part of Tom Holland's upcoming fourth Spidey film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, following several previous hints.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, Holland's first full Spidey film, features Aaron Davis/Prowler, played by Donald Glover. Davis is Miles Morales' uncle — and indeed, at one point, Davis references a "nephew" who lives in New York, seemingly confirming Miles exists in the MCU.

More recently, Daredevil Born Again briefly references an "Officer Morales", which fans suspect is a nod to Jeff Morales, Miles' father, who serves as a police officer.

With Holland beginning a second trilogy of Spider-Man movies and having previously suggested he wouldn't want to play the character forever, fans had speculated about the introduction of Miles Morales, with Peter Parker acting as a mentor, ahead of him potentially passing the Spidey baton over.

That could still happen in the future, of course, but not before at least 2027 — and therefore not in Brand New Day, which launches July 31, 2026.

In the meantime, fans at least have the combined Spidey superhero antics of Insomniac's Spider-Man series to play, where the two incarnations of the character both appear.

As part of the same interview, Feige confirmed that Marvel Studios planned to recast the X-Men when the superhero squad gets its own MCU movie — as part of a "reset" of the universe following Avengers: Secret Wars.

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 your pile of shame isn’t already toppling over, this Monday's digital sales are about to give it a cheeky nudge. Some cracking deals have landed across all the major platforms, and I’ve taken the liberty of digging through the rubble to highlight the stuff I’d personally vouch for. From genre juggernauts to indie oddballs, there’s a bit of everything on offer.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I’m using a wizard’s fireball to light 25 candles on a cake baked for Gauntlet Legends on Dreamcast, a four-player dungeon crawler where button-mash and food theft reigned supreme. Released in 2000, this home version of the arcade classic turned my lounge room into a battleground, complete with booming voiceovers and enemies that respawned faster than you could shout, “Red Warrior is about to die!”

I cut my teeth on the OG Amiga original, so I relished the crap out of clocking this remake with mates in 4P co-op. We crowded around a chunky CRT, hogged health pickups, and sprinted for keys like seagulls chasing chips. It wasn’t the flashiest-looking game going, but it delivered what mattered: fast action, chunky spells, and the kind of chaotic fun that wasn't really surpassed until Diablo III arrived 12 years later on PS3.

The Chinese Room, the acclaimed British indie studio behind last year's oil rig horror game Still Wakes the Deep, has now officially cut ties with its former parent company Sumo Digital.

The studio, which also developed indie darlings Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, has now completed a management buyout, a spokesperson for The Chinese Room has confirmed to IGN.

Today's news follows an uncertain few months for the Brighton-based studio, after Sumo's previous announcement it would be refocusing its efforts "exclusively on development services for partners", rather than continuing its work on original franchises.

In a message to press today, The Chinese Room said it had looked "increasingly likely" the company would be sold off by Sumo Digital, likely to a private equity firm or another overseas buyer — Sumo itself having been acquired by Chinese giant Tencent in 2018.

Instead, The Chinese Room will now be run as an indepedent entity headed up by studio director Ed Daly, following a deal facilitated by venture capital firm Hiro Capital.

"This management buyout allows us to scratch the creative itch of continuing to work on new, original intellectual property, but also to partner with other studios on other projects when they fit in with our vision," Daly said. "This is what we are doing and we want to carry on doing it, so we're happy to carry on in this vein."

Following the launch of Still Wakes the Deep and last month's DLC pack Siren's Rest, The Chinese Room now has two new IPs in the works, it was revealed today.

Next to launch, however, will be the long-gestating Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, set to be published by Paradox Interactive this coming October.

"The Chinese Room is a huge British success story that has rightly been recognised as a unique creative force capable of competing on the world stage," said Spike Laurie, a partner at Hiro Capital. "From hiring British people to making games set in the UK, they've been one of our foremost creative studios and now they are once again in charge of their own destiny while remaining British.

"We are at risk of overlooking these creative gems and letting them be sold to overseas corporations," Laurie continued. "That is a travesty for the $5.5 billion British gaming industry which has a world-renowned reputation. We need to nurture this talent and support it through difficult times, because it is one of our leading creative exports."

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

Although Hugh Jackman returned for Deadpool & Wolverine and several of the original cast members of the X-Men franchise will appear in Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in a recent interview that the studio plans to recast the X-Men characters when the superhero team gets its own MCU movie.

In conversations with several trade publications, including Variety, Feige pointed to the Secret Wars comics from 2015 as the studio’s inspiration for a “reset” of the MCU.

“We’re utilizing that [story] not just to round out the stories we’ve been telling post-Endgame, just as importantly — and you can look at the Secret Wars comics for where that takes you — it very, very much sets us up for the future,” Feige said.

“Endgame, literally, was about endings. Secret Wars is about is about beginnings.”

Feige clarified that the MCU’s first X-Men movie, to be directed by Thunderbolts’ Jake Schreier, will be a “reset,” not a “reboot” of the MCU.

“Reboot is a scary word,” Feige said. “Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline — we’re thinking along those lines. … X-Men is where that will happen next.”

The X-Men movie will recast the iconic mutants and return the franchise’s focus to being on the young mutants attending Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

“They have been a place to tell stories about young people who feel different and who feel Other and who feel like they don’t belong,” Feige said. “That’s the universal story of mutants, and that is where we’re going.”

Which actors would you like to see play the X-Men in the new film? Tell us in the comments.

For more MCU coverage, catch up on the state of the MCU leading into Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday, and find out who will lead the Avengers in Doomsday.

We've rounded up the best deals for Sunday, July 20, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.

Donkey Kong Bananza Out Now

Unreal Engine is probably the most well-known video game tool set in the world. Its fifth iteration is the system that forms the foundation of Fortnite and dozens of other games, including Black Myth: Wukong, the Oblivion remaster, and the upcoming Witcher 4. But did you know that Unreal Engine is used for more than just making video games? The technology, developed by Epic Games, has also been used to create theme park rides, television shows, and movies – and is fast becoming a regular tool for the entertainment industry.

Taking centre stage in Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars-themed section of Disney’s parks in Florida and California, is the Millennium Falcon. Head inside and you can ride Smuggler’s Run, a simulator experience that lets you pilot the iconic ship. It is genuinely impressive – you and your six-person crew have direct (if limited) control over the Falcon’s movements and weapons, and so as you alter the pitch and yaw of the ship, not only does the entire cockpit physically lurch around, your inputs are reflected in the flight path and enemy encounters. All this means that the world beyond the cockpit’s windows isn’t just a simple video. It’s dynamic and interactive. Simply put, the team at Walt Disney Imagineering have created a video game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s built in Unreal Engine.

During a recent presentation as part of Unreal Fest Orlando, Disney Imagineering’s Executive VP of Creative & Interactive Experiences, Asa Kalama, explained that Smuggler’s Run is based on a “custom fork of Unreal Engine version four that supports a number of special effects that we and our partners at Industrial Light & Magic felt were really important to deliver something that feels cinematic. It feels like you’re in the movie.”

“[We did] a lot of work to develop custom shaders and custom full screen space effects like bloom,” Kalama explains. “Motion blur was something that we actually had a lot of interesting philosophical conversations around, because in real life there's no motion blur, but a key quality of making something feel like Star Wars and feel really cinematic is the ability to have that effect on. So after a lot of testing and a lot of evaluation, we actually determined that that was something that made it feel more real, even though in fact it was actually slightly less real.”

Many of Unreal’s built-in effects were not usable by Disney’s team, as Smuggler’s Run’s five interlinked projectors needed to use a cube map rendering technique, which was incompatible with many typical Unreal features. But the resulting custom branch of Unreal Engine 4, complete with assets taken directly from Industrial Light & Magic’s library, means the ride’s digital effects both work as intended and feel authentic.

The current mission used by Smuggler’s Run opened in 2019, but a brand new one is currently in development, which is planned to launch alongside the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu in May 2026. While not linked to the events of the new movie, Mando and his little friend will still feature as part of the mission, which sees crews hunt down a high-stakes bounty.

“We're upgrading our show game computer, so latest generation CPU graphics cards,” Kalama reveals. “And then we're also moving from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, and we're really excited about all the additional visual fidelity that that's ultimately going to unlock for us.”

Digital Extremes just brought its TennoCon 2025 livestream to a close after revealing a smorgasbord of information about the future of Warframe and Soulframe.

The studio behind the popular multiplayer space ninja action game and its free-to-play fantasy follow-up treated in-person and remote fans to hours of announcements, including a fresh look at never-before-seen gameplay, new cosmetics, and some of the major updates still yet to come in 2025. It was yet another jam-packed showing for the Digital Extremes team as it careens toward the launch of more story expansions for Warframe and the eventual launch of Soulframe.

Digital Extremes says the "backlog" of dev kits is the reason players have yet to see an official Nintendo Switch 2 port for Warframe.

Studio CEO Steve Sinclair explained why the team behind the popular space ninja action game hasn’t created a port for Nintendo’s sequel hybrid console during a press Q&A IGN attended ahead of today’s TennoCon 2025 livestream. He said the Digital Extremes tech team is “so excited” to see what a Nintendo Switch 2 Warframe port would look like but can’t even begin development until they get their hands on the necessary hardware.

“Our tech team is so excited to take advantage of the high-speed cores and the other really cool features of it,” Sinclair said. “There’s just such a backlog for dev kits. So, yeah, if you know anyone… just one, that’s all it would take.”

Digital Extremes brought its 12-year-old multiplayer hit to Switch in 2018, allowing longtime players to enjoy all that Warframe has to offer, at home and on the go. It is available to play through Nintendo's new console but only through backward compatibility, with Nintendo including it on a list of Switch 2 titles that still suffer from start-up issues.

Digital Extremes said it’s still investigating the cause of these hangups, but it’s the enhancements that a Switch 2 version of Warframe could bring that have players truly excited. Sinclair teased faster load times as just one of the potential upgrades.

“I know our programmers are just, like, ‘Oh, I can’t wait.’ We definitely have plans. When we get a dev kit, we will be doing a custom build for Warframe. Absolutely.”

The Switch 2 launched on June 5, 2025, introducing new features such as Joy-Con mouse functionality, improved graphics, and enhanced social tools. Although its launch lineup was able to lean on third-party support with titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Deltarune Chapter 1 – 4, Split Fiction, Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, and Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, early adopters remain on the lookout for more games to fill out their libraries.

As players clamor for more games, other indie developers say they, too, are in need of dev kit access. Into the Restless Ruins creator Ant Workshop, Citizen Sleeper 2 developer Fellow Traveller Games, Unreal Engine support studio Tanglewood Games, and more spoke about dev kit scarcity with GamesIndustry.biz last month. Insider Nate the Hate also reported that many developers across the indie and third-party spaces have been unable to start work on Switch 2 games due to a lack of dev kit access (via TheGamer). It's currently unclear which publishers currently have access to Switch 2 dev kits or when they will become more available.

For now, there’s no word on when Digital Extremes or many of the other dozens of developers without dev kits will receive the tools they need to bring their games to Switch 2. As more titles slowly trickle in, you can read our 7/10 Nintendo Switch 2 launch review. You can also check out everything revealed during today’s TennoCon 2025 livestream here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

We've rounded up the best deals for Saturday, July 19, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for $47.99