Nintendo fans are rejecting a new description found within Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment that describes Link and Princess Zelda as just friends.

An in-game journal entry from Zelda's ally Lenalia claims that the princesses' sword training was inspired by "a knight — and friend — from her own time." But while this description seems clear-cut, fans have compared it to the text found in the game's original Japanese language version — which simply refers to Link as a "familiar knight," without the explicit "friend" label.

This latest snippet has reignited the debate over whether Link and Zelda are more than just pals — something that Nintendo itself has kept mysterious for decades.

Of course, Lenalia's journal entry is just that — one character's recording of what she has been told by Zelda, who may or may not have been speaking truthfully. In one social media post that has now gone viral, Zelda fan IvyfulWorld put it thus: "she is not fooling ANYBODY."

"I guess one explanation could be she tried to downplay it out of shyness," replied big_asutaro.

"Nintendo of America's localization team has this thing for wanting to portray Link and Zelda's relationship as purely platonic by adding things that aren't even present in the original text," claimed another fan, verieas.

“and friend” she is not fooling ANYBODY pic.twitter.com/IwULR3vRhd

— Ivy | Sacred Stones (@IvyfulWorld) November 6, 2025

Throughout its almost 40-year history, The Legend of Zelda series has frequently suggested that Link and the princess are romantically involved. The pair hold hands in the finale of Spirit Tracks, and are implied to be settling down as a couple to found Hyrule at the end of Skyward Sword. Zelda even kisses Link (on the cheek) during Oracle of Ages, sending hearts fluttering from the swordsman's eyes.

Most recently, both Zelda and Link appear to be sharing a house in Tears of the Kingdom — which features the incarnations of Link and Zelda referenced in Age of Imprisonment.

Zelda voice actress Patricia Summersett, who has voiced the same incarnation of Zelda seen from Breath of the Wild onwards, raised eyebrows in 2023 when she stated that she believed the pair were definitively "in a relationship." However, Summersett swiftly walked back the comments just days later saying her words had been "misconstrued." (Nintendo did not comment on this kerfuffle at the time, though fans noted it had been unusual for anyone outside the company itself to discuss its characters in such a manner.)

So what has Nintendo itself said? Perhaps the clearest indicator of Link and Zelda's relationship status came from the series' legendary producer Eiji Aonuma, who told IGN the following in December 2023 when asked for an official ruling on the subject:

"I will leave it to everyone's imagination [whether Link and Zelda are in a relationship]. I don't think that Zelda is a type of game where the development team says, 'This is what Zelda is, this is what the story is, this is what the game is.' Everything that the development team wants to convey has already been placed into the game. And the rest is up to the player's imagination, and their reflection on how they feel… what they've experienced in the game."

Considering the most recent Zelda game features a house lived in by Link and Zelda (with Nintendo placing just a single bed into the bedroom), some fans took Aonuma's comment to be the clearest sign yet that Nintendo does indeed see the two as a couple — even if it doesn't want to explicitly apply that label in-game.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Nintendo handles the two characters in its upcoming The Legend of Zelda live-action movie, which recently began shooting in New Zealand following the casting of its two key roles earlier this year.

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

Sony has announced a special State of Play Japan, which will be broadcast online this week.

The show will air at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK time tomorrow, November 11 — or 7am Japan time on November 12 if you're watching from there.

PlayStation promises a show that will last for "more than 40 minutes" filled with updates on games created in Japan and across Asia "alongside a few other exciting updates."

In a break from Sony's usual State of Play format, the show will have a host — voice actor Yuki Kaji — and focus on games in development in a specific part of the world. The show will also only air in Japanese, though English subtitles will be available.

So, what do we expect? It'd be great to see more of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, the fighting game set to be published by PlayStation that's due to launch in 2026. Announced back in June, the project is a collaboration between the Japan-based Arc System Works, Sony and Marvel Games, and is currently in the works for PlayStation 5 and PC.

Could this week be when we learn of a release date for Phantom Blade Zero, the wuxia action RPG coming to PC and PS5 that we're expecting to hear launch plans of very soon? And what about that Horizon MMO in the works at NCSoft?

Sony's previous State of Play for September 2025 offered both a gameplay trailer and release window for Marvel's Wolverine, as well as an extended look and release date for Housemarque's Saros. Join us tomorrow for this week's show — we'll report on all the reveals as they happen.

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

Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has discussed how his role has changed after stepping back from leading development on Nintendo's most famous video game series.

In a new interview, Miyamoto revealed he had now entrusted most of the work on new Mario games to others, though said he still played through the first half hour of new projects himself to ensure it felt "like Mario" to him.

Speaking in celebration of Super Mario Bros' 40th anniverary, the veteran designer, now 72, also said he hoped "to stay healthy until Mario's 50th anniversary" in a decade's time.

Kadokawa, the parent company of Elden Ring: Nightreign developer FromSoftware, has confirmed we'll get new DLC for the multiplayer game by the end of March 2026, as unhappy players leave negative reviews on Steam.

"We are aiming for further sales growth for Elden Ring Nightreign, original Elden Ring, and its DLC," the company said in its recent financial report to investors (thanks, GamesRadar+). "We have multiple game titles in the development pipeline. FromSoftware is currently developing Elden Ring Nightreign DLC (planned for release in FY2025) Elden Ring Tarnished Edition (planned for release in 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2), and The Duskbloods (planned for release in 2026)."

FY2025 in this instance means by the end of Kadokawa's current financial year, so by March 31, 2026. But while the financial report revealed that Nightreign had "performed well beyond initial expectations" and confirmed the DLC — described on the Steam storefront as being available "by Q4 2025" — is still on the way, recent user reviews for the Deluxe Upgrade Pack have dropped to a 'Mostly Negative' rating as players express their frustration at the lack of tangible news.

"We're mid-Q4 2025. No news, no teasers, total silence," wrote one negative reviewer on November 1. "If you're thinking about buying Deluxe Upgrade, wait until we get actual news about the content. I can't recommend you a promise." Another said: "It's been half a year now, still no dlc or any new characters in sight even though they got leaked a bit ago. Right now this is a complete scam, as even the soundtrack isnt even full."

Someone else said they would change their negative review to positive "once FromSoft announces something."

Nightreign's ultra-hard difficulty mode, Deep of Night, released back in September, having been discovered by dataminers back in August. Beyond that, though, there's been very little firm news on what additional content could be on the way. It's worth noting that even though the Kadokawa financial report guarantees the release of the Nightreign DLC by the end of March 2026, that doesn't necessarily mean it won't release before the end of calendar year 2025.

"When Elden Ring Nightreign is played exactly as it was designed to be played, it’s one of the finest examples of a three-player co-op game around," we wrote in IGN's 7/10 Elden Ring: Nightreign review. "But a lack of crossplay, duo matchmaking, and built-in communication tools makes it hard to create the conditions needed to have this kind of experience unless you’re bringing two real-life friends on every run."

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.

Marvel actor Jeremy Renner has denied allegations of harassment made by filmmaker Yi Zhou, after the pair worked together on a Disney documentary project.

In a Daily Mail interview published last week, Zhou claimed Renner became "violent" during a meeting at Renner's house in August where it's alleged the actor drank a bottle of wine. Zhou said she then locked herself in a room overnight for her safety. In a later text conversation, in which Zhou accused Renner of being a "pig" and sending her explicit photos, the Chinese director claimed Renner replied to her: "immigration will be notified of your..." — though the rest of the message is cut off.

"The allegations being made are totally inaccurate and untrue," a spokesperson for Renner stated to Variety.

Arc Raiders has had another bumper weekend, once again breaking its own concurrent record on Steam.

Within a day of its release, Embark Studio's new extraction shooter hit a Steam concurrent peak player count of 264,673, making it one of the biggest extraction shooters ever on Valve's platform. And now it's topped even that record over the weekend, hitting a concurrent peak of 462,488 players according to Valve's official figures.

Yesterday, November 9, Arc Raiders had a higher concurrent peak than Battlefield 6 (441,035), and placed behind only the eternally popular Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. Of course, Arc Raiders' true concurrent player peak will be higher, given the game is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, but neither Sony nor Microsoft make their player numbers public.

As Arc Raiders tears up Steam's most-played games list, streamer Shroud has continued to call on his fans to vote for it as Game of the Year 2025 over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, calling multiplayer gamers "the minority" (even though research shows that it's mostly multiplayer games that retain high player counts).

"I thought I was only going to play five or six hours of Arc Raiders on launch day before sitting down to write this initial review in progress, but after just a handful of matches, I suddenly couldn’t pull myself away – and before I realized it, I’d been playing for 10 hours," we wrote in IGN's Arc Raiders review-in-progress.

"This is without question the most hooked I’ve found myself on an extraction shooter (and I’ve played a lot of them), with clean and tense gunplay, a progression system that’s been incredibly satisfying so far, and a loot game that has me sweating over what to put in my backpack and what to leave behind."

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.

A special box of Super Mario Galaxy Movie cookie dough has provided our best look yet at Mario's dinosaur steed Yoshi, and strongly hinted at two other fan-favorite characters expected to turn up in the sequel.

The latest leak, which comes from box artwork now visible via retailers online, features Yoshi prominently — as the cookie kit is designed to let you create Yoshi egg cookies. Yum! As fans will remember, the first Mario movie's post-credits scene teased Yoshi's egg starting to crack open — though we never saw the dinosaur fully hatch.

Other clues exist on the Pillsbury's cookie box which point to a couple of other Mario characters, meanwhile — both of which are also yet to make their big screen introduction.

The front and back of the cookie box feature the Comet Observatory, the central hub within the original Mario Galaxy game that's also where Rosalina lives. It's hard to imagine a Mario Galaxy movie without its all-important space princess, but this is our strongest confirmation yet that Nintendo will introduce the character on the big screen in the upcoming sequel.

Finally, the rear of the cookie box shows a star map that features graffiti of Bowser Jr., a key antagonist in various Mario games — including both Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. Nintendo's first Mario movie made no mention of Bowser's offspring, though that all looks set to change for its follow-up.

The leak follows an earlier spill of information from a similar promotional tie-in with Old Spice — which saw The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's name first revealed via promotional cans of deoderant. As if further confirmation was needed of that leak's legitimacy, the Yoshi artwork shown in better detail on the Pillsbury cookie box now matches up with the one seen in that leak exactly.

Fans have long been hoping for Nintendo to feature more of both Rosalina and Bowser Jr. — and in both cases, for more to be revealed about their origins. Indeed, after a notable tease in the first Mario movie, Nintendo looks set to reveal more about Rosalina's link with Peach following years of fan debate over how they might be related.

Bowser Jr., meanwhile, also has questions surrounding his parentage. First introduced in Super Mario Sunshine, the mischievous offspring is initially presented as the result of a union between Bowser and Peach, though this is later revealed as a joke. Exactly who Bowser Jr.'s mother is, though, has never been made clear. (Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto once claimed in an interview he was the mother, though this was a joke too.)

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently slated for release in theaters on April 3, 2026. Hopefully then, all will be revealed.

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

Sydney Sweeney’s new movie, Christy, has suffered a brutal opening round at the box office with just $1.3 million from North American theaters.

The biopic sees the Madame Web star assume the role of boxer Christy Martin in what many consider to be an Oscar-bait performance. But the critical reception is mixed, with IGN’s Christy review returning a 7/10. We said: “Sydney Sweeney blazes trails and pulls no punches in a choppy biopic that falters at the finish.”

The R-rated Christy, though, is on the ropes right out of the gate, with $1.305 million from 2,011 theaters domestically. That’s a per-theater average (PTA) of just $649, and is one of the worst openings ever for a film in over 2,000 theaters.

It’s an even worse domestic launch than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s biopic The Smashing Machine, which made $5.84 million from North American theaters during its opening weekend and was considered a disaster. The Smashing Machine ended up with a domestic box office total of just $11.38 million, which Christy looks set to struggle to match.

Last week, Sweeney broke her silence on the American Eagles jeans campaign kerfuffle from earlier this year, telling GQ that she refused to issue a statement in response because “I’ve always believed that I’m not here to tell people what to think.” The advert revolved around a pun on “great genes,” with the tagline: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”

Sweeney has a number of upcoming projects, including Euphoria Season 3, psychological thriller The Housemaid, and The Devil Wears Prada 2. She's also reportedly set to star in a live-action Gundam movie, the Split Fiction movie adaptation, and a movie version of a horror story posted on a Reddit thread.

Topping the domestic box office this weekend was Predator: Badlands. Sarah’s Oil starring Zachary Levi, Naya Desir-Johnson, and Sonequa Martin-Green grossed $4.459 million at the domestic box office this weekend. Nuremberg earned $4.1 million. Die My Love opened domestically to $2.8 million. Christy failed to crack the top 10.

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.

Spoilers follow for IT: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-3.

Well, it didn’t take long for IT: Welcome to Derry to hit what feels like its first filler episode. The first two installments of this IT prequel packed a lot of plot and characters into two hours, so there’s an air of inevitability to this week’s episode feeling like it has to grind the proceedings to a halt in order to sort it all out. Disappointingly though, Episode 3 (Now You See It) resets the status quo with elements that aren’t all that different from the status quo it already had, leaving Welcome to Derry feeling like its spinning its wheels a little earlier into its run than anyone would want to see.

This episode feels like the first real stumble for the kids’ side of the story, which was undoubtedly the stronger element of the first two installments, immediately doubling back on one of last week’s more disturbing developments: Lilly (Clara Stack) being reinstitutionalized at Juniper Hill after her grocery store encounter with Pennywise. For as much time as that episode spends reinforcing how terrified she is of getting sent back to that place, Episode 3 starts with her being discharged, and from there there’s almost no time spent on exploring what effect going back had on her.

Lilly’s so far the most well-drawn of the young characters, so it was really disappointing to see a big development like that have to take a back seat to the plot, which has Lilly, Ronnie, Will, and Rich coming together to clear Hank Grogan’s name for the killings that ended the premiere. Since that brutal rug-pull took three Losers’ Club stand-ins off the board, Welcome to Derry has been working towards reassembling a gang of brave kids to fight Pennywise. But by the time Lilly’s bringing this new gang up to the hideout atop the Derry stand to discuss the source of their torment, it starts to feel like déjà vu all over again, and three episodes in, that’s not a promising sign.

Predator: Badlands looks like a hit after it secured the biggest global opening ever for a Predator movie — including the Alien vs. Predator films — at the box office.

Dan Trachtenberg, who revitalized Predator with 2022’s back to basics Prey and this year’s animated anthology Killer of Killer, has continued his hot streak with the PG-13 Predator: Badlands, which has enjoyed strong reviews from critics. (IGN’s Predator: Badlands review returned an 8/10.)

Disney said Predator: Badlands opened to $40 million domestically and $40 million internationally for a global opening weekend total of $80 million. That’s the biggest debut for a Predator movie ever at current rates. For context, 2018’s The Predator opened to $73.5 million.

Predator began with 1987’s much-loved Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Predator: Badlands is a very different film; less sci-fi horror, more mainstream sci-fi action. For the first time ever the Predator is the protagonist, with a Yautja called Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) out to prove himself to his father by killing a monster on a death planet. Along the way, he meets a Weyland-Yutani synth called Thia, played by Elle Fanning, in an Alien / Predator crossover.

It's a big swing for Predator and for Dan Trachtenberg, but he was uninterested in essentially remaking prior Predator movies for this new sequel. In a recent interview with IGN, Trachtenberg said he was inspired by Terminator 2 when it came to making Badlands. "Terminator 2: Judgment Day was like a movie my mom could watch," he said. "So that was a part of it for me, like how to make something that was bold and visceral but also emotional."

It’s a strong start, then, and hopefully a sign that Trachtenberg will be able to continue making more Predator movies, fleshing out his fledgling Predator cinematic universe and perhaps making good on that Dutch tease at the end of Killer of Killers. Could we perhaps see an all-star team up at some point?

Certainly, Predator: Badlands sets things up for a direct sequel. Check out IGN’s Predator: Badlands Ending Explained to find out what’s next for the series.

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.