Horror visionaries James Wan and Jason Blum are working with Paramount Pictures to summon a new Paranormal Activity movie into theaters.

Word on a revival for the found-footage franchise comes from THR, which reports the series’ first new film since 2021’s Next of Kin is already in the works. Wan, best known for his work as director for The Conjuring and the original Saw, is on board as a producer alongside Blum via Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Paramount is attached as co-financer, co-producer, and distributor, with original director Oren Peli also in the mix as a producer via Solana Films. Room 101 Inc.’s Steven Schneider is also on board to executive produce alongside Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear and Judson Scott. Alayna Glasthal will oversee for the company.

Details related to the creative team behind the new Paranormal Activity movie, as well as its plot and release date, remain a mystery for now. Though it’s unclear when exactly the project will fully materialize, it's said to be a “priority for both Paramount and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.”

Wan has touched everything from Insidious to Aquaman, but working with Paranormal Activity’s supernatural entities marks new ground for the filmmaker. The low-budget original installment launched to massive success upon its premiere in 2007, drawing a global box office haul just short of $200 million (via Box Office Mojo) with its small scale, simple premise, and commitment to found-footage horror.

“I’ve been a huge admirer of Paranormal Activity since the brilliant first movie, with its creeping slow burn and subtle ability to make the unseen terrifying,” Wan said. “I’m looking forward to expanding on its legacy and helping shape the next evolution of this scary found-footage franchise.”

Paranormal Activity’s strong start naturally spawned sequels before taking a break with its sixth film, The Ghost Dimension, in 2015. Next of Kin had been propped up as somewhat of a reboot for the ghost story film franchise before its Paramount+ release but failed to gain much traction amongst critics (we gave it a 4/10) and fans. It’s unclear if Wan, Blum, Peli, and Paramount’s eighth crack at Paranormal Activity will acknowledge the events of past films.

“Diving in with James for this exciting rebirth of the franchise that started it all for Blumhouse is exactly what we dreamed of when we merged with Atomic Monster,” Blum added. “I’ll be actively involved with him to introduce this new chapter. Thankfully, we’re able to spend a little more than the $15,000 we had on the first movie, but one thing will remain the same — do not see it alone.”

We gave Paranormal Activity an 8/10 review upon its release. We called it one of our favorite haunted house movies in 2018. For more, you can read up on the official Paranormal Activity video game set to launch in 2026.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer 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).

Micron is pulling Crucial, its consumer products business – not because people aren't buying it, but because shoveling the products directly into the insatiable maw of AI data centers is more profitable. The company announced today (via The Verge) that it will be winding down the sale of Crucial consumer products – think high-quality budget RAM and SSDs – at the end of February 2026.

"The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage," EVP and chief business officer of Micron Sumit Sadana said, "Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments."

To quote Ronny Cox's Dick Jones, the main corporate villain of the 1987 movie Robocop, "Good business is where you find it."

Micron's announcement is just further heartbreak for PC builders, especially those who have relied for years on Crucial parts' quality and affordability to upgrade or assemble their computers. (The Crucial MX500 has been our go-to budget SSD for years, while the T500 is our favorite value SSD for PS5.) But Crucial may only be the first big casualty of the massive and growing memory demand of the AI industry, which has already lead to unpredictable catch-of-the-day style price swings in RAM, as PCWorld reported last month. And the pressure on components prices could reverberate across high-end gaming for years to come. For instance, rumors last month suggested that Microsoft will yet again raise prices on its Xbox Series X/S consoles – or that they could become unavailable altogether – due to the cost of RAM.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Following months of rumors, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z TriFold. The company says it's releasing the phone in the first quarter of 2026, but it's apparently not yet ready to say how much this phone will cost. Based on the nearly $4,000 price of the Huawei Mate XT tri-fold, I'd guess not cheap.

Rumors have put the Z TriFold's price around the $3,000 price point, which could be reasonable to expect based on its specs. The phone is thin when it's unfolded – 3.9mm at its thinnest point, Samsung says – which is impressive but just a bit thicker than the 3.6mm thick Mate XT. All folded up, the phone is 12.9mm thick, which is only 0.1mm thicker than Huawei's phone. The Z TriFold's 10-inch display, when unfolded, will be a bit smaller than the Mate XT's 10.2 inch internal screen. The display also has a lower resolution and pixel density – 2160 x 1584 and 269ppi versus the Mate XT's 2232 x 3184 and 382ppi. All of this folds up to be 12.9mm thick, which is only .1mm thicker than the Mate XT.

The TriFold has a 6.5-inch OLED cover display with a 2520 x 1080 resolution and 442ppi, capable of up to 2600 nits peak brightness. Like the interior display, it's capable of 1 – 120Hz refresh rate. The phone features five cameras – a 10MP selfie camera on the cover display and one on the inside, a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, a 200MP wide-angle camera with 2x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto with optical image stabilization and 3x optical zoom, as well as 30x digital zoom.

Inside, the phone sounds a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which we gave an 8/10 and called the best folding phone yet – and therefore one of the best smartphones overall – in our review. Like that phone, it's packing a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and 16GB of RAM. Samsung is offering it in 512GB and 1TB storage tiers. It's got a three-cell, 5,600mAh battery split up amongst each of its sections, and supports 45W wired fast charging and 15W wireless fast charging – so, Qi2, not Qi2.2. And great news for eSIM haters: it still supports dual physical SIM cards.

Of course, the big question around this phone, besides cost, is durability. Rather than the Mate XT's Z-fold – which, come on guys, it's in the name! – this phone folds inward to protect the interior display. The phone also only manages an IP48 dust and water resistance rating, like the Z Fold 7; I guess Samsung still hasn't cracked the code to the IP68 rating that Google gave its Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Needless to say, more than any other foldable, this is not a phone you want to leave in the unsupervised, candy-caked hands of a child.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Bose's best noise canceling headphones has a huge discount going into the holiday season. Right now Amazon is offering a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra noise canceling headphones for just $279.00 with free shipping. The average sale price during Black Friday and Cyber Monday was $300, so this is a better deal. This is Bose's best (aka flagship) noise canceling headphone and competes with other top-end competitors like the Sony WH-1000XM6. It would make a great upgrade if you're still rocking older generation QuietComfort headphones, and a fantastic gift idea for just about everyone else.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones for $279

There’s a new block on the block, or at least there will be soon. The Steam Machine, Valve’s new cuboid mini gaming PC disguised as a game console is coming early next year. And that’s exciting! I mean, when was the last time anybody had a shot at squeezing into this market lorded over by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for more than two decades? And how will it fare, specifically, against the PlayStation 5?

I wish I could say this is a straightforward choice, but it’s just not. The Steam Machine will come with all of the full richness of the Steam game library, and it will have certain capabilities beyond what Sony offers for the PS5 – it is a full-on Linux computer, after all. Yet it’s likely that the PS5 will be the cheaper, more performant machine, and will continue to be home to some huge exclusives, or games that run better simply because developers know exactly what hardware they’re making them for. Optimization matters!

But the choice isn’t just about specs and price. The gaming industry is in flux: every month brings more high-profile game industry layoffs; prices have shot up in response to President Trump’s tariffs; and 2025 has seen a lot of high-profile cancellations in series like Perfect Dark and Kingdom Hearts. Picking a game console, now more than ever, is a bet that it’ll give you reasons to keep coming back to it. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of us that can just buy every console we want and pay rent – so hopefully I can help you decide: should you buy a PS5 or a Steam Machine?

Specs and Performance

We won’t know how well the Steam Machine truly runs until we’ve gotten to put it through its paces, partly because of its custom chipset. But we can sure guess based on what Valve has revealed so far, as well as on our own time spent with the hardware when it was announced.

At roughly six inches cubed, things are cramped inside the Steam Machine. Under its black plastic facade is a collection of good, but largely laptop-friendly components. The company has been careful not to frame it as a hot rod, making clear, for instance, that it’ll be relying on upscaling to hit its 4K resolution targets. As IGN has written before, the Steam Machine’s custom RDNA 3 GPU is about on par with a mobile RX 7600. For the CPU, Valve went with a slightly older 6-core Zen 4 chip.

You know what’s even older? The PS5’s components. But age is just a number, and you’ll find more compute in the PS5’s 8-core Zen 2 CPU and its RDNA 2 GPU than what the 5-year-newer Steam Machine offers. We’ll see how the two stack up when the Steam Machine’s GPU actually hits our test bench, but it would be surprising if it was an even match.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Remember, the Steam Machine is console-shaped, but as far as your games are concerned, it’s still just another gaming PC. Very little, if anything, that runs on it will have been created with its specific hardware in mind. Meanwhile, PS5 game developers will have known exactly what hardware they’re programming for (PS5 Pro notwithstanding). That doesn’t mean every PS5 game is perfectly optimized – but it does mean it’s a little more likely to have great-looking AAA games, even as it continues to age.

It’s possible, if the Steam Machine sells well enough, that some developers will start to make games with Valve’s hardware in mind, but I wouldn’t count on that happening frequently, if at all. Heck, even on the PS5 it can feel like developers got about 80 percent of the way there before studio execs called it good, released the game, and laid off the team that made it.

Now, all of that said, will games look bad on the Steam Machine? Oh my, no; there’s plenty of debate over just how well it’ll perform. Just don’t expect its games to be the absolute cream of the crop.

Winner: PS5

Library and Features

Deciding will be tricky if you’re looking at what actually runs on these consoles. The PS5 can only play games one generation back, not counting older remasters and the like. Meanwhile, the Steam Machine will be packed with decades of digital games, via Steam, right at launch. You might already have a huge library at your disposal! That’s a huge advantage that can’t be overstated.

But what about those sweet PlayStation 5 ‘sclusies? Sony hasn’t quite followed Microsoft down its magnanimous path of making its exclusive games multiplatform, so the PS5 is the only way you’ll play titles like Ghost of Yotei or Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. With more than 80 million PS5s sold, there’s no guarantee that the company will veer meaningfully from that strategy. Then again, some games have jumped to other platforms, like the Spider-Man games; and the list of remaining exclusives isn’t long at all.

There’s also approachability to consider: the PS5 is a game console, through and through. When you want to play a game on it, you buy the game, load it, and, generally speaking, play it – so long as it doesn’t require you to log into an account before you can play. (He wrote, while looking askance at Star Wars Outlaws.) That’s mostly how it works with SteamOS, too, but you’ll still have to fiddle with settings in some games, particularly those Valve hasn’t already given a Steam Machine verified badge.

There’s also a very real difference to consider in terms of physical size and hardware features. The Steam Machine is tiny, like a Very Serious take on the GameCube (a GabeCube, you might say), while the PS5 is a behemoth that looks a bit like a black-and-white vampire when it’s sitting upright. Just finding somewhere to put the dang thing is a real challenge. But on the flipside, you can get a PS5 with a disc drive, meaning you can fill your shelves with physical game cases if that’s your thing. (No judgement, friend, I used to be you.) Sure, Valve could have stuck a disc drive on top of the Steam Machine, but in a world where physical PC games have all but vanished, what would have been the point? To play Blu-ray movies? Actually, that would be rad.

Outside of their games libraries, size, and plug-and-playability, the PS5 and Steam Machine are almost bizarro versions of each other. Both systems have touch pad features on their controllers, and both have a handheld story to tell, via the game streaming-only PS Portal and the standalone (but also streaming-capable) Steam Deck. The latter is a standalone system that starts at $400, the PS Portal only streams games and is half the price. That’s not to mention VR – a similar dynamic plays out between the Steam Frame and PSVR 2.

Winner: Tie

Price

Price is where the PS5’s biggest advantage may lie. Even after tariff-induced price hikes, it starts at $499 for the digital edition, which is much cheaper than the $700-$800 that the Steam Machine could cost. The same goes for the $200 PS Portal and $400 Steam Deck, or the $400 PSVR 2 and the Steam Frame, which could easily cost $500 or more.

But there’s more to consider, like the size of your Steam library and the depth of your restraint. If you’ve already got enough compatible games, you could easily get a Steam Machine, then avoid buying any new games for a while to let your wallet cool off. Meanwhile, the PS5 is limited to its own library, plus PS4 games and remakes of older titles. Even if you have a healthy PS4 library, the PS5’s identity is all wrapped up in what a power plant it is. You’ll want some new games that show that off. And it doesn’t take much – one Ghost of Yotei here and a Death Stranding 2 there – before the price differential starts to become a wash.

Assuming a $700 Steam Machine price point, the calculus swings a bit back toward Sony if you buy a disc edition. A lot of PS5 games have come out in the five years since the console landed, and you can get some great secondhand hard copy deals on some of the best PS5 games out there. If Valve just says “to hell with it” and charges $500, though? The Steam Machine is practically a no-brainer from a price perspective. But that’s probably not going to happen.

There’s a lot of “if this, then that” that goes into whether the PS5 is a better deal than the Steam Machine, so for right now, this one is a tie that could tip either way depending on how much Valve asks for its new gaming PC.

Winner: Tie

The Winner Is… the PS5 (For Now)

Sony gets the edge here, but just barely. It’s a more powerful system for one thing, and as this console generation wanes, it will probably age better than the Steam Machine, at least when it comes to AAA games, purely because of console optimization – when developers know the hardware they’re aiming for, their games tend to play and look better.

But the delta between the performance of the Steam Machine and the PS5 is still unknown at this point. And even if it’s about where we think it is, it may not be a meaningful difference for all but the most pixel-peeping among us. The rest won’t notice a difference unless you stick visuals from both systems right in front of them. And even then, most won’t care.

In every other area, the two consoles come up about even, although that depends on certain things. If you have a huge and growing Steam library already, then the Steam Machine could be the obvious choice, even if Valve charges $200 more for it than Sony does for the PS5. If your Steam library is lacking or nonexistant, the PS5 might be the better bang for your buck.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Max is officially back to being HBO Max. Even though the name has changed (returned?), the library is still full of great films and shows to watch. HBO Max is home to some incredibly high-quality watches, including House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Sinners. You can tune in to Season 2 of Peacemaker and even catch up on James Gunn's Superman beforehand.

If you've been hoping to start up an account to dig into that library, we're here to help. While HBO Max recently increased the price of all of its monthly plans by around $1, we're keeping track of the best price for subscriptions, along with any deals as they appear. Let's get into what's available right now.

Our Top Pick: The Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max Streaming Bundle

Upcoming multiteam MOBA game Project ZETA announced today that signups are open for its next beta test, which will begin on Steam on December 12. This final closed beta will be the last chance to jump in early before the game goes public, and the developers have asked for opinionated players to help shape its future.

If you’re not already familiar with Project ZETA, we can catch you up to speed. Developed by Nirvanana, a team built of former Eternal Return devs, it mixes up the traditional MOBA formula in two key ways. First, instead of the standard of having two teams go head-to-head, it pits five teams against each other at the same time in a race to capture Prisms, the game’s most precious resource. There are multiple ways to get Prisms, giving each team the opportunity to follow different paths to victory. And second, it uses a third-person camera rather than an isometric one, making combat more dynamic and action-focused.

That combat is PvPvE, with monsters and bosses populating the map. Defeating monsters will score you XP and shards, which can upgrade your abilities and provide buffs to your stats, cooldowns, and more. Defeating bosses gets you all of that plus Prisms. However, just picking up a Prism isn’t enough, you need to return it to the center of the map in order for it to actually count toward your score.

And that’s where the PvP comes in. Competing teams can ambush you on your way to deposit your Prisms and steal them from you. And that looming threat constantly affects the strategy your team chooses. Do you blitz bosses and try to rush their Prisms to the center of the map to win quickly? Do you bide your time, taking down monsters to scale your team's power and enter the next fight better prepared? Or do you lie in wait near the center of the map to pounce on opposing teams and take their Prisms after they’ve already done the work for you?

These are all viable strategies, but the reality is within one match you’ll jump between all three. In Project ZETA, strategies shift dynamically from one moment to the next. With five teams roaming the Aran Plateau, improvisation matters most. Focus too much on one adversary and another might stab you in the back, or worse, run up the score to take a commanding lead.

Your strategy will also be driven by the heroes your team members choose. There are currently 13 heroes, with more to be revealed in the future, and they’re grouped into four categories: Fighter, Marksman, Assassin, and Mage. Each hero has unique abilities that can synergize with other heroes, some of which can trigger devastating multikills if you pull them off at the right time.

It’s been six months since Project ZETA’s second closed beta, and a lot has changed in that time. In fact, it’s been the period with the biggest advancements in the game to date. There are two new heroes, reworked visuals and abilities for most heroes, new game-changing equipables, revamped environments, simplified Prism scoring, team respawn fixes, and lots more, all based on player feedback.

The final beta test will offer another chance to provide more feedback and further enhance the game. Anyone in North America or Europe can sign up for it on Steam, and both regions will have devoted servers running on two weekends: the first will be December 12–14, and the second will be December 19–21. For those who can’t stop playing, there will also be a custom game server that will stay live for the entirety of the beta, from December 12–21.

Project ZETA is also available to wishlist on Steam, and if you want the latest info and updates, you can join the official Discord server, follow on Twitter or Facebook, or check out its official website.

Lenovo has dropped the price on one of its best equipped gaming laptops to its lowest price ever. The Legion Pro 5 Gen 10 gaming laptop, featuring an OLED display, Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, and RTX 5070 Ti GPU, is down to $1,469.99 after you stack two coupon codes "LENOVOHOLIDEAL" and "EXTRAFIVE". That's $1,000 off in combined savings and beats the lowest price I saw during BLack Friday and Cyber Monday. The RTX 5070 Ti is a powerful mobile GPU that will easily run game you throw at it, even on the display's 1600p resolution.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Gen 10 RTX 5070 Ti Laptop for $1,470

It’s December, and that means one of the most epic fan conventions in the world is set to showcase some of the biggest upcoming movies, streaming series, and much, much more.

IGN will be on the ground at CCXP25 in Brazil starting Thursday, December 4 bringing you all the biggest news, panels, and celebrity interviews. Over 4 jam-packed days, we’ll be featuring inside looks at some of the most hotly-anticipated properties in entertainment. Check out the full line-up below, and be sure to check back as more movies and shows are added.

Thursday, December 4

• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max)

Friday, December 5

• Fallout (Prime Video)
• Marty Supreme (A24)

Saturday, December 6

• Disney +
• Paramount +
• The Boys (Prime Video)

Sunday, December 7

• Primal (Adult Swim)
• IT: Welcome to Derry (HBO)

You can check out the full CCXP25 schedule here.

Last year, IGN was on the ground at CCXP with up-close looks at movies and series including Severance, The Gorge, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Invincible, and more including interviews interviews with Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Adam Scott, and Norman Reedus, and Ana de Armas.

Stay tuned starting Thursday for up-to-the minutes details about everything happening at CCXP25.

Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium is celebrating its first anniversary, introducing a major update with brand-new Crew Deck gameplay. Now there are more ways than ever to interact with your T-Dolls, with exclusive animations and story content for nearly 40 characters. Each Doll has unique behaviors that come out as you spend more time with them, and there are interaction scenes between certain Dolls when they show up together.

New Features Land in Crew Deck Upgrade

With the Crew Deck open, Commanders will find fully realized 3D versions of the collectible cabinet and armory in addition to the new interactive story moments. Commanders should have received mail with an item that lets them unlock the interactive story scene for the hard-eyed but soft-hearted sniper, Makiatto. The story scene "Time Capsule - Pulse-Racing Night" will be available for free. If you already have Makiatto's Outfit ("Embroidered Bamboo, Blooming Shadows"), you'll be able to experience Makiatto's scene after unlocking the relevant area. You'll also be able to get 35 Outfit Access Permissions at no charge through upgrade rewards, mail rewards, and other limited-time events.

An interactive story scene is available for the elite Doll Klukai alongside the release of her new "Cerulean Breaker" outfit, which gives you the unlock item "Time Capsule - Body Maintenance Technician." For a limited time, you will also be able to make exchanges for more Outfit Access Permissions.

Speaking of Klukai, she's the highlight of the Crew Deck's new Holography Function. You can collect 3D trinkets, customize your living space, cook, play minigames in the Crimson Arcade, and lots more.

Anniversary Rewards Overflowing

'Tis all about giving during the Starry Season, and developer Mica Team has tons of limited-time event rewards to put on GFL2’s plate for its first-year anniversary celebration. By joining in, players can earn more than 130 pulls and more than 13,000 Collapse Pieces.

The Crew Deck Date Reward includes 10 Access Permissions, an Elmo Model ornament, 300 Collapse Pieces, and more growth materials. The season also delivers two free outfits: Dragon Chef for Qiuhua from the Glory Store and Enjoy the Fragrance for Springfield are unlocked for free once your collectibles reach the required level. Additional Access Permissions can be earned from daily activities, furniture exchanges, gift packs, mail rewards, and the seasonal Battle Pass event.

Check out the Video of 404 Squad, with More to Come

Commanders can look forward to meeting two new Dolls, Leva and Lenna. These additions from the original 404 Squad use electricity to attack and debuff their foes, and they're sure to give Electric teams a boost.

Check in with GFL2's main site and social media (Including Twitter and YouTube) for more information about the timing of prize drops, stay up-to-date on upcoming collabs with other games and franchises, and to see a new trailer that reunites the 404 Squad when Lenna, Leva, Klukai, and Mechty are reunited under the Commander to carry out a dangerous mission. There are intense battles with gatling guns, helicopters, humvees, and other heavy machinery. Commanders and their Dolls should expect to stay busy for quite a while, but don't forget to relax on the Crew Deck from time to time. That's what it's for.

IGN recently hosted a special screening of the first two episodes of Spartacus: House of Ashur in Los Angeles before its two-episode premiere on December 5. Series creator Steven S. DeKnight and star Nick E. Tarabay were on hand for the event and took part in a Q&A after the screening where they discussed the series, how it came to be, and what we can look forward to seeing.

For those who don’t know, Spartacus: House of Ashur is an alternate history that returns to the world of Spartacus and follows previous series antagonist Ashur. In this version, he lives through the events on Mount Vesuvius and becomes owner of the ludus (a gladiator training ground) that once owned him when he was an enslaved gladiator.

It’s been 12 years since the original run of Spartacus ended, and DeKnight said getting to work with Tarabay again and expanding on the groundwork they laid for Ashur were two of the major reasons he wanted to return for the show.

“The Ashur character, to me, is so intriguing,” he said. “Here’s a guy, when he first got to the ludus as a gladiator, he just wanted to be part of the brotherhood. I always say if Ashur had gotten a hug back then, he would’ve been a different person. But he was mocked and ridiculed and humiliated, and it turned him bitter. So I love the idea of taking this man and giving him a chance to be a better person. Can he be a better person? Or will his demons keep dragging him down?”

Tarabay expanded on that, saying that now that the story is told from his perspective, we’ll see new facets to him that we haven’t before.

“In this season, you’ll see a softer side of Ashur,” he said. “A loving side, a kind of vulnerable side to Ashur. And because of this, because of his feelings now, he’ll do things that you won’t think that he would do. And that’s all I can say about that.”

Through the original run of Spartacus, Ashur was the character the audience loved to hate. Now he’s the protagonist and given a chance at redemption, but Tarabay isn’t worried about how the audience will receive him.

“My job as an actor is to honor the writing, that’s all I do,” he said. “How you guys perceive it, that’s up to you. I leave that to your imagination. I wouldn’t dare to tell you how you should feel or shouldn’t feel. Whatever you feel is how you feel. I do my job, and the rest is up to the gods.”

The original run of Spartacus included real historical events, but telling this new story that takes place in an alternate timeline has allowed the show to stray from history in a way that DeKnight called “very freeing.”

“We have some historical guideposts, but after that… In the first episode, you see Ashur breaks from history by introducing the first female gladiator,” DeKnight said. “Historically, that actually came about 80 years later. But now that Ashur’s alive, he upsets history, and that’s just the first ripple. There are many more surprises coming.”

While Spartacus: House of Ashur is obviously focused on an existing character, DeKnight made it clear he intends for the show to be approachable for newcomers too. Episode 1 begins with a segment meant to introduce new fans to the show’s world.

“We really wanted that opening to be an homage to the original fans and a primer for the new fans,” DeKnight said. “To really set the world, reset the stage, and then we’re just diving right into it and we figure everybody will catch up.”

The show will debut with a two-episode premier on December 5 on STARZ and the STARZ app, with subsequent episodes airing each Friday afterward. The screening IGN hosted also showed those first two episodes, and DeKnight and Tarabay said they’re just the tip of the iceberg of what this season has to offer.

“Seriously, it’s a roller coaster,” Tarabay said. “I always said by the time we get to Episode 5 and from 5–10, I don’t know what the hell’s going on. Really, it’s so good. There’s a couple of episodes that I truly felt that we are in a Greek tragedy, it was so good. And the very last scene of the first season in Episode 10, all of you are gonna be like, ‘What the fuck just happened? Did they really go there?’ I cannot wait.”

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there were surprisingly few GPU deals. Fortunately, If you've been waiting for one of the more affordable Blackwell cards to come back in stock at a reputable retailer, there's a good deal available right now. Walmart is offering an MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 5070 12GB Graphics Card for just $499.99 shipped, or $50 below MSRP. The RTX 5070 is an excellent GPU for gaming at up to 1440p with high framerates, especially with DLSS 4.

MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12GB Graphics Card for $499.99

EA and Battlefield Studios are preparing Battlefield 6 players for Season 1: Winter Offensive with a community letter with a list of changes set to be introduced with the upcoming 1.1.3.0 update.

The message, which aims to roll out the welcome mat for what will be yet another feedback-driven update, was posted on the official Battlefield 6 website today. It comes with a breakdown for some of the community talking points BF Studios has attempted to address so far, while giving fans a closer look at what’s to come when Winter Offensive launches December 9.

With anticheat, challenge/progression, and Escalation updates topping the list of recent highlights, BF Studios is turning its attention to a number of key issues across combat, REDSEC, and the overall Battlefield 6 experience. One especially troublesome issue for the community that the team is seeking to fix with update 1.1.3.0 are audio issues that have existed since launch. Players should notice, for example, that footsteps have been tweaked to “improve clarity, distance definition, and positional awareness across the game.”

“We have also continued to work on performance and memory issues that could cause sounds,” BF Studios says, “such as vehicles or footsteps, to sometimes not play as intended, which has been particularly noticeable on larger Battle Royale maps.”

Following last month’s multiplayer mode tweaks is a set of additional adjustments for Rush and Breakthrough. The studio explains the new changes as another step in the balancing act that has seen it attempting to keep matches fair, with the new update ideally improving the experience for attacking players.

Capture volumes and vehicle availability in Breakthrough will also be updated when 1.1.3.0 launches next week, with BF Studios explaining that Siege of Cairo, for example, will feature an additional attacker tank for Sectors 1 and 3 and a reworked capture area for objective B. Rush fans will notice M-COM locations for Manhattan Bridge and Liberation Peak have been adjusted to further refine attacker gameplay.

“These updates are intended to reduce bottlenecks, remove frustration points, and create more consistent and engaging fights around objectives,” BF Studios says.

“Beyond these highlights, we have also made a range of quality-of-life improvements across UI clarity, minimap behavior, controller aiming responsiveness, and more, which you will see detailed in the full notes.”

Another topic plaguing the Battlefield 6 fanbase since launch involves potential hit registration and netcode issues. It’s an area BF Studios has taken aim at before, with update 1.1.3.0 set to, hopefully, buff out even more scratches related to inconsistent gameplay across multiplayer and REDSEC. Also included in the new changes is the promise that Battlefield 6 will be easier on the eyes thanks to changes to close-range soldier visibility, lighting, prone animations, and more.

While players across the experience will likely pick up on “wide-ranging” changes to weapon handling, attachments, and recoil patterns, REDSEC fans can look forward to armor and tank availability changes. Armor changes for the battle royale experience will be detailed in its own dedicated post in the near future, with tank changes also subject to change as fans get their hands on update 1.1.3.0.

“We are actively exploring several areas aimed at improving clarity, responsiveness, and fairness in combat, BF Studios adds. “This includes further work on edge cases related to hit registration, investigating rare desync scenarios with destructible objects, and gathering deeper data on situations where players feel they were eliminated after reaching cover. These areas remain key priorities, and the findings from our ongoing investigations will inform updates planned for the new year.”

This latest communication from the Battlefield team stops short of providing full Battlefield 6 update 1.1.3.0 patch notes. Players are told to expect a more detailed list of all of the new weapon, map, and mode changes in “the next few days.”

Battlefield 6 Season 1 will deliver its third and final chapter when Winter Offensive launches December 9 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. While the two previous chapters have introduced additional weapons, modes, and two maps – Blackwell Fields and Eastwood – next week’s content update focuses on its Ice Lock event changes. Expect snowy limited-time goodies for Gauntlet and Empire State, as well as an ice climbing axe melee weapon.

Battlefield 6 launched for PC and consoles October 10. As BF Studios continues to refine its gameplay, players have found themselves divided over map sizes and goofy skins while EA boasts record-breaking launch sales.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer 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).

Stranger Things is taking over as the show approaches its series finale — and now even Google is getting in on the fun by adding an Easter egg to its search engine.

Head to the Google homepage and search for “Stranger Things,” and a Dungeons & Dragons polyhedral die will appear at the bottom of the results screen. If you click it, it’ll roll to a one — which, in turn, makes red bolts of lightning fill up the screen. From there, your results will be vertically flipped… quite literally bringing the page into the Upside Down.

It’s a fun little gimmick that highlights just how popular and powerful Stranger Things has become within the zeitgeist since it started all the way back in 2016.

Speaking of the Upside Down, the most recent trailer for the beloved Netflix series' final season teases that the gang may actually go into it at some point before the show ends. Let’s be real, that would be so cool — and chaotic, which seems to be what we can expect from the last leg of the series.

“I think what's unique about this season is that it starts a little bit in chaos because our heroes ultimately lost at the end of Season 4,” cocreator and showrunner Ross Duffer recently revealed about season 5. “We usually set up their normal life and how they’re going about school, and then we introduce the supernatural element. But in this case, this season is sprinting from the start.”

His brother, fellow cocreator and showrunner Matt Duffer, added that things are very different for the group these days. “They’re not experiencing normal life. Nothing in Hawkins is normal anymore,” he explained. “Their movement is restricted, and there are Big Brother cameras everywhere. So not only are they active — their everyday, normal lives are anything but.”

The last season of Stranger Things is being released in three parts. The first four episodes arrived in time for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, with the next three episodes set to debut on Netflix on Christmas Day. The finale will be available to stream on the platform on New Year’s Eve, the same day it will also be released in theaters nationwide.

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

Wicked: For Good has had a wildly successful run at the box office so far. If you've seen it and can't wait to pick up a physical copy for your library, its 4K release is now available to preorder. That's not all, though. The climactic final part of the Wicked story is also getting a two-film collection, for those hoping to have the whole tale as one 4K bundle, alongside a fancy Amazon-exclusive giftset and a Walmart-exclusive steelbook.

At the moment, these don't have a set release date, which makes sense given how recently the film just opened in theaters. Bonus features haven't been revealed yet either, but we're keeping an eye out for more information and will update accordingly.

Wicked: For Good on 4K

Wicked Two-Film Collection on 4K

Wicked: For Good Walmart Exclusive Steelbook

If steelbooks are up your alley, Wicked: For Good has one coming exclusively from Walmart. This release, which you can see in more detail below, features Glinda in her bubble and Elphaba on her broom on the front cover, with the Emerald City visible between them. It also comes with a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film.

Wicked: For Good Amazon Exclusive Giftset

This is the fanciest release of the bunch. Amazon's exclusive giftset, which comes with a hefty price tag of $229.99, is the ultimate pick-up for Wicked fans. It comes with Wicked: For Good on 4K, Blu-ray, and digital with exclusive packaging, an Emerald City-inspired gold tone metal box, and a numbered certificate of authenticity, which all come packaged in a vibrant pink box.

While we still have to wait a little bit for Wicked: For Good's physical release, there's plenty more coming out this month (and at the start of 2026) that's worth adding to your library. Our breakdown of upcoming 4Ks and Blu-rays highlights the movies and shows releasing over the next few months, so you can stock up on your favorites.

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

The highly-acclaimed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 just added yet another accolade to its name — as it's now the biggest new third-party game launch on Xbox Game Pass in 2025.

Microsoft announced the news today after examining data from every day one Xbox Game Pass launch this year, and ranking every third-party game by the number of unique users during its first 30 days of availability.

It's a hugely impressive achievement for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut game from French studio Sandfall Interactive, for several different reasons. Firstly, because the game arrived just two days after Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (which itself also launched via Game Pass). And secondly, because we already know that Clair Obscur went on to sell very well too (5 million copies in five months) — something its launch via Game Pass does not appear to have dented.

"From being there to announce our game back in Summer 2024, to coming to the studio for the Developer_Direct video in January, Xbox helped us get the word out there and reach a lot of players," Sandfall creative director Guillaume Broche said in a statement.

Xbox Game Pass let "a lot of people try our game when maybe they might not have before," Broche continued. "The turn-based RPG genre has a lot of fans but sometimes it might put people who prefer more real-time action games off, but Game Pass lowered that barrier of entry. They could just try it and see how it feels. So a lot of curious players could start the game, explore Lumière and the early game, and realize there's a lot to enjoy here, even if they weren’t expecting it at first."

So, what was Clair Obscur's Xbox Game Pass competition? It's been a long year, so it's worth reminding ourselves of everything the turn-based RPG has beaten to become this year's biggest third-party Xbox Game Pass release. (And remember, this is separate to Microsoft's own first-party output, which will include Avowed and South by Midnight, as well as Bethesda games such as The Outer Worlds 2, and Activision fare like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.)

Other third-party games that arrived day one via Microsoft's subscription service notably included the highly-anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, as well as the post-apocalyptic survival game Atomfall. The highly-acclaimed indie puzzle favorite Blue Prince also arrived this year, as did Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Ball X Pit, and PowerWash Simulator 2.

Congratulations, then, to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — something we may well be hearing a few more times this month, considering its record-breaking number of nominations at The Game Awards. Tempted to give it a try? It's still on Xbox Game Pass, and we have an array of tips for the important things to know before going into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

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

The mega shopping holiday that is Black Friday may have come and gone, but deals still abound in the lead-up to Christmas. Amazon and Best Buy have both unleashed discounts on LEGO sets with prices rivaling anything we saw during the Black Friday period. So if you still have some holiday shopping to do, or you want to pick up a set for yourself (particularly in the video game category), you can save some cash.

Note that stock is not holding steady. Many of the on-sale sets have already sold out, so grab whatever you want sooner rather than later. OK, let’s have a look.

LEGO Sets on Sale

Most of the sets are 40% off, which is a very good discount for LEGO sets. That’s a percentage off you don’t generally see outside of Black Friday. So anytime you see a LEGO set on sale for 40% off, you can rest assured that you’re getting a killer deal. If you’re worried anyway, you can price check the set on Camelcamelcamel, which shows historical pricing on Amazon and is one of my most-used tools in the deal coverage game.

So what sets are on sale? There are a few Star Wars LEGO sets available for cheap. Some Wednesday sets, based on the Netflix show, are discounted. A good number of Animal Crossing sets are on sale as well. Basically, if you see a set that you want, it’s as good of a deal as you’re ever likely to get. So buy with confidence.

LEGO Recent Releases

The LEGO releases have slowed down in a major way after the tsunami of sets that hit in October. November only had three new sets (granted, they were all impressive), while December had literally zero new sets hit the market. But things will pick up again in the new year. LEGO announced a Stranger Things set coming January 1. Also releasing that day is a new Back to the Future Time Machine set and a bunch of new Star Wars sets, among many others. For a look back, you can check out all the major LEGO releases in 2025.

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

Briana White, the actress who portrays Aerith in Final Fantasy 7, has called on fans to stop tagging voice artists in spicy material featuring their characters.

The discussion began after White saw KPop: Demon Hunters actor Rei Ami discovering adult fanfiction featuring her character Zoey. In response, White suggested fans in general had "forgotten the meaning of the word inappropriate."

"Maybe let's normalize not tagging voice actors in smut of their characters," White wrote in a series of posts on X. But many fans responded by saying Ami had gone on to look for the content purposefully — to which White then suggested it was all a matter of "consent."

"It's really a shame when VAs want to interact with the people who love the characters on social media but just a few creeps ruin it for everyone," White wrote, acknowledging that she had seen all sorts of fan-made Final Fantasy 7 content even though she tried to "actively avoid it."

White portrayed Aerith in the 2020 Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a role she has then continued in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, 2024's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.

"I'm so associated with FF7 that it gets shown to me every single day anyway," White explained. "As someone said earlier, it is a matter of consent. And it can be almost impossible to know what exactly is acceptable or not to an individual just from knowing their social media persona."

Ultimately, White conceded that while Ami had chosen to seek out the fan-made content that had prompted her initial post, fans should still be mindful of what they share. "Alright alright y'all have spoken and I hear you," White concluded. "Point stands, just not for [Rei Ami]. Carry on."

White is set to return in Square Enix's upcoming third and final entry in its Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy — a game that won't cut content in order to feel "more concise" than the sometimes meandering Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

"It’s about making sure the pacing feels right," series director Naoki Hamaguchi said. "It’s not about cutting out content, it’s making sure that it feels right, the speed that the story progresses at feels right, and it is fairly quick and feels like you can get through it at a reasonable pace. But it has to feel right, so that’s what I mainly intended to say there."

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

Fans seem to be getting very excited to watch the series finale of Stranger Things in theaters soon — but scalpers are clearly just as excited, because they are already selling tickets to the Season 5 ender with a whopping 275% markup.

Tickets went on sale on December 2, and already fans have noticed that passes have shown up on eBay, with one set of two tickets for the Cinemark Woodlands location in Texas going for $150. Cinemark venues sold $20 concessions vouchers to reserve tickets for entry, which means this is a 275% increase in ticket price on this listing.

Other fans, though, are reselling their tickets at a much more reasonable price, depending on where you’re located and how many tickets you’ll need. To that point, there’s another listing offering four tickets for $80, which is face value for the passes, at the 34th street AMC location in New York City. So don’t totally write off resale for this event if you missed out on tickets at your local theater.

It seems as though there will be more listings popping up in the next week as more theaters sell out, and we hope everyone who wants tickets is able to get them safely and affordably (ie, not for 275% more than the listed price).

As far as getting their hands on tickets goes, fans seem to be a bit angry with theater chains Cinemark and Regal, who claimed tickets would be available for purchase at 8am PT/11am ET. However, hours before, concession vouchers were made available — and it was those that were needed in order to reserve, not purchase, seats for this special event.

Because of the confusion in wording and general instructions, fans went on to vent their frustrations on reddit. “Cinemark and Regal completely lied about when finale tickets go on sale,” one user vented in a post on the Stranger Things subreddit.

“I had an alarm set and everything for 7:50am to get tickets for the finale but I just had a hunch not to go to sleep until I got the tickets,” they added. “But, basically Cinemark and Regal started selling finale tickets early last night and now nearly every showing is sold out and people are pissed.”

The decade-long sci-fi series finally comes to an end at the end of the year, with the Season 5 finale set to rubber stamp the much-loved characters’ fates. Netflix has taken the unusual step of releasing the final episode in theaters at 5pm PT on December 31, the exact same time it hits the streamer. The screenings will take place in over 500 theaters in the U.S. and Canada (check the list here) starting on December 31, 2025 at 5pm PT, timed to the finale’s global premiere on Netflix, and run through January 1, 2026. Netflix has also confirmed the run time of the Stranger Things Season 5 finale: 2 hours 5 minutes.

In October, Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer told fans they should only come and see the Stranger Things Season 5 finale in front of a cinema screen if they’re cool with crying in a crowded room.

"The finale. Theaters. New Year’s Eve," Duffer wrote in an Instagram post alongside a photo of the drawing Lucas and Max used to ask each other on a date in Season 4. "This is something my brother and I have dreamed about for years. If you don’t mind crying in front of strangers, GO. And if you’re in LA… maybe we’ll see you there."

Stranger Things Season 5 release dates:

• VOL 1 - November 26, 5pm PT
• VOL 2 - Christmas, 5pm PT
• THE FINALE - New Year’s Eve, 5pm PT

We’ve got plenty more on Stranger Things, including Ross Duffer’s call to arms for fans to turn off “garbage” TV settings before watching Season 5. And be sure to check out our Stranger Things: Season 5, Vol. 1 spoiler review to find out what we think of how the show is going.

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

Geoff Keighley’s mysterious The Game Awards teaser statue has sparked rampant speculation about which video game announcement it relates to, but so far the internet is stumped.

Keighley kicked off The Game Awards hype train last week by tweeting a picture of a demonic monolith located in the Mojave Desert alongside the confusing caption "regal.inspiring.thickness."

regal.inspiring.thickness pic.twitter.com/lY1duUcE1B

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) November 29, 2025

Windows Central reporter Jez Corden took to social media to say the tease related to an expansion for Blizzard’s action role-playing game, Diablo 4. Blizzard had said Diablo 4 was set to get an expansion in 2026 (alongside a new ranking system and leaderboards), so an appearance at The Game Awards later this month would make sense.

But Corden’s claim was debunked by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who took to ResetEra to insist the statue had nothing to do with a Diablo 4 expansion, although that is not to say Diablo won’t show up at The Game Awards in some form.

“No idea where Jez is getting that, but this statue is not teasing the Diablo 4 expansion,” Schreier said. “I don't currently plan on reporting what it is, sorry, but it's a good one.”

That clarification sparked a new round of speculation, with some fans pointing to the long-awaited reveal of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls 6. Alas, according to Schreier, it’s not that, either.

“I'll do this one more time because people are getting out of control: no the statue isn't teasing Elder Scrolls 6,” Schreier said, again in a post on ResetEra. “Now I'm gonna stop responding about this. Unless someone finds me at the JW bar next week and asks really nicely, then maybe I'll answer, depending on how many drinks I've had.”

Some suggested it might have something to do with Sony’s God of War series, but gaming YouTuber Luke Stephens claimed God of War development chief Cory Barlog popped up during one of his streams to rule that out.

So, what is it then? Given the demonic aspect of the statue, some are suggesting a Doom-related announcement of some kind, perhaps DLC. Some fans are going off the deep end, suggesting everything from Bloodborne 2 to Half-Life 3, the latter of which has seen rumblings of late. In truth, Geoff Keighley’s statue could relate to pretty much any video game with a demonic or hellish theme. That’s a lot of video games. But based on Schreier’s comments (“it’s a good one”) and all the effort that’s gone into making this tease happen, I have high hopes.

The Game Awards kicks off Thursday, December 11, so we don't have long to find out what the statue is about. Let us know your best guess in the comments.

Image credit: Geoff Keighley / Twitter.

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.

Pink Lemonade creator Nick Cagnetti is back with a new horror comic called Spirit of the Shadows, and it's easily one of the most visually stunning horror comics we've seen in a long time. This is definitely a series to watch for in 2026.

IGN can exclusively debut a new extended preview of Spirit of the Shadows #1. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

Spirit of the Shadows is written by Cagnetti and Daniel Ziegler (Elodie), with art by Cagnetti. The first issue features covers by Cagnetti, David Lafuente, Karl Kerschl, and Matt Lesniewski. This limited series is published by Oni Press. Here's the official logline for Spirit of the Shadows:

Once, Erik Leroux was a mortal musician, selflessly devoted to his music and his true love, Katrina . . . until his sudden death plunged his soul into the carnival-like torments of the Spirit World beyond our own. Now, reborn as a phantom with fleeting memories of his life among the living, and forever cursed to bear the arcane costume his corpse wore to the grave, Erik will claw his way back from the infernal planes to uncover the mysteries of his own life . . . and avenge the dark sins that transformed him into the SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS!

“I guarantee you're not going to find another comic on the stands right now quite like this one—from the story to the art, my friend Daniel and I really tried to create something cohesive and evocative in the way that only this medium can provide,” said Cagnetti in a statement. “To achieve that, I put a lot of care into differentiating styles and techniques for each of the settings the story goes to make them each feel distinct. You're swept up in this dreamlike haze alongside the main character, and you go through all the emotions and revelations alongside him. The end result should really make for a rewarding experience you can reread and look at completely differently the next time, but I'm envious for readers to experience that ride for the first time here soon!”

“Introducing an entirely new world can be one of the most daunting tasks as a writer, so what better way to immerse the reader than to immediately place them in the shoes of the protagonist?” added Ziegler. “As Erik pieces together the forgotten fragments of his life, readers will also embark on that same journey of discovery and revelation, and may find themselves facing more than one moral quandary in the process. This extended preview gives you a taste of the various worlds and varying styles that Nick and I use throughout the series to tell this wholly unique parallel narrative of love, loss, and revenge that we couldn’t be more proud of.”

Spirit of the Shadows #1 will be released on January 28, 2026, with a final order cutoff of January 5. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.

In other comic book news, see how new Iron Man writer Joshua Williamson is reinventing Tony Stark, and check out an exclusive preview of Star Trek: The Last Starship #3.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Walmart has kept its Cyber Monday sale running, and the headline offer hasn’t vanished yet. The retailer is still knocking $50 off the Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart bundle, which is the first meaningful discount the console has had since launch. Amazon is matching the price (at least while it remains in stock).

The bundle is $449, the normal price of the hardware on its own, so both retailers are effectively throwing in Mario Kart World for free. You need to be signed in to a Walmart account to access the deal, and the discount applies automatically once the bundle is in the cart.

Update: It's also back in stock at Amazon.

Are you finally going to be the proud owner of a Switch 2 after picking up the doorbuster-like deal? Well, fair play to you! While you're at it, it could be worth putting those extra savings into accessories, games, or anything else that might come in handy with your new hybrid console.

A carrying case should be the first accessory on the list for new owners. The PowerA Slim Case for Nintendo Switch 2 is still discounted at Amazon for $15, and it's a genuinely solid pick.

I'd also suggest picking up a new memory card. Switch 2 ships with 256GB internal, which is fine until you start downloading modern games. The Samsung P9 512GB microSD Express card is sitting at $75 (see here), which is the best price yet and a straightforward upgrade.

A power bank is also worth grabbing if you plan on taking the console anywhere. The Baseus Blade 20,000mAh 100W Slim Power Bank is down to $39.99 for Prime members, usually $99.99, and it's one of the few high output models that won't choke when charging a handheld.

If you're shopping beyond deals, the Switch 2 Pro Controller should be on the list, followed by actual games. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond and Donkey Kong Bananza are obvious picks, along with whatever else catches your eye.

Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

The CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has responded to fan concern about the choice of Justin Lin as the director of the Helldivers movie, after it emerged he leaned into not being a gamer for his pitch.

Helldivers 2 is an explosive co-op focused action shooter that’s a lot like a video game version of cult sci-fi classic Starship Troopers. You play as a disposable soldier in an ongoing galactic war, defending a fascist Super Earth regime against alien robots called Automatons and bugs called Terminids, all the while preaching "Managed Democracy." (Incidentally, Sony is also working on a new Starship Troopers movie, which should make for a somewhat bizarre one-two punch of sci-fi satire.)

This week, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Justin Lin is set to direct the upcoming Helldivers live-action film adaptation. Lin is best known for his work on the Fast & Furious films, and was the director of the series from 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. He also directed 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the final film in the modern Star Trek trilogy, and 2021’s F9.

But it was one paragraph in THR’s story that raised eyebrows within the Helldivers community:

Lin is not a gamer and leaned into that as a strength when pitching his take on the material, said insiders. He aims to find the humanity in the characters and weave timely themes into the story, while building out a world and mythology. There are plenty of details waiting to be drawn in, something that is compelling to the filmmaker.

Some fans are now worried that Lin simply won’t get what Helldivers is about because he’s not a gamer and, presumably, hasn’t played Arrowhead’s shooter. And because of that, some players believe, the Helldivers movie is at risk of missing the video game’s vibe.

Over on the official Helldivers Discord, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani briefly addressed this concern. He first responded to one fan who asked if they could direct the Helldivers movie instead of Lin, saying: “let Justin Lin work his magic.”

Jorjani then responded to the following question from a fan:

“If you guys have any sway with Sony over the movie can you make sure the director plays the game at least once or at least sees some gameplay?”

Jorjani replied: “I trust Justin. He did a great job on the Star Trek movie.”

Arrowhead will likely face this sort of concern until fans see the Helldivers movie in trailer form, or hear from Lin himself on his vision for the film. And Helldivers is not alone in this approach. Amazon’s adaptation of God of War is helmed by Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore, who isn’t a gamer either.

But it is in contrast to the situation with the Elden Ring movie, which is being directed by Ex Machina and Civil War director and self-confessed Elden Ring superfan Alex Garland. In June, Garland told IGN he was on his seventh playthrough of FromSoftware's epic fantasy RPG, and revealed the boss he found the toughest to take down.

As for Helldivers, in January, Arrowhead CCO Johan Pilestedt insisted the studio shouldn't have the final say on the Helldivers movie because it doesn't know anything about making films.

"We are not Hollywood people, and we don't know what it takes to make a movie," Pilestedt said. "And therefore we don't, and shouldn't, have final say.”

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.

Bethesda and Xbox have teamed up with Amazon and Samsung to mark the long-anticipated arrival of Season 2 of the Fallout show by streaming Season 1 for free on Samsung TV Plus.

That means the critically acclaimed first season will be available subscription-free on Samsung TV Plus from December 3 through December 25, "giving both new audiences and longtime fans a chance to revisit — or discover — the world of Fallout before season two arrives on Prime Video." Samsung TV Plus is a free, ad-supported streaming service available on Samsung TV, Galaxy, Smart Monitor, and Family Hubs devices.

The Fallout TV show is "based on one of the greatest video game series of all time," set two hundred years after the apocalypse when the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind. The new season picks up in the aftermath of season one’s epic finale and takes audiences "along for a journey through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas."

"When Jonah and I first talked about bringing Fallout to the screen, it was always about doing the world of the games right, but also bringing to life new stories in that world," said Todd Howard, game director at Bethesda.

"Now with The Ghoul coming to Fallout 76, it shows how connected all these stories are. To have Walton bring his unique blend of swagger to the game is awesome. He’s a brilliant actor."

Howard is, of course, talking about Walton Goggins reprising his fan-favorite role as The Ghoul from the Fallout TV show in Fallout 76.

The Ghoul appears in Fallout 76, complete with Goggins' likeness and voice, as part of the free Burning Springs expansion. Burning Springs expands the Fallout 76 map into Ohio, west of the Appalachian region (a fictionalized version of West Virginia and the surrounding areas) already in the game.

We had a great time with Fallout Season 1, writing in IGN's Fallout The Series review that the show is "a bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence [and is] among the best video game adaptations ever made," slapping it with a well-earned 9/10.

To help tide you over until Season 2 premieres on December 17, here's our interview with Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan covering all our burning questions after the end of Season 1.

Amazon’s Fallout TV show is canon, so the question of which Fallout: New Vegas ending it will rubber-stamp as official has been a burning question within the community ever since it was confirmed that Season 2 would take place in what remains of the city. But recent comments from one of the actors on the show suggest Season 2 will dodge the question entirely.

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.