Amazon is currently offering unbelievably strong discounts on Apple AirTags in both the US and the UK as part of its New Year sales, making this one of the best times to buy a four-pack in either region.

In the US, Amazon has dropped the Apple AirTag four-pack to $64.99 shipped, working out at $16.25 per tracker. That is the best price since the Black Friday and Christmas sales, and one of the lowest prices seen so far this year. It is a solid saving if you are buying ahead of time or finally sorting out all the items you keep misplacing.

Marvel and Barbie star Simu Liu has insisted once again that a Shang-Chi sequel will happen — and given a first confirmation he'll return after Avengers: Doomsday for its sequel, Secret Wars.

It's now been five years since Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings launched to a warm reception back in 2021, and left fans keen to see more of the character. But despite enthusiasm from fans and Liu alike, no sequel has yet materialized, leaving the character's live-action return shelved until this December's Avengers: Doomsday.

Speaking to People, Liu has once again said that a Shang-Chi sequel will happen — despite no word from Marvel itself to make this official. On the upside, however, Liu's confirmation he's back for Avengers: Secret Wars seems to suggest he'll be one of the heroes to survive Doomsday's events.

"There's not a whole lot to tease right now, other than I think, I sound like a broken record at this point, but it is happening," Liu said of Shang-Chi 2. "But I think the more immediate tease is of course, is Doomsday... which I was lucky enough to be a part of and will be lucky enough to be a part of its successor in Secret Wars."

While Liu has returned to voice Shang-Chi in the animated Marvel series What If? and Marvel Zombies, fans have not even seen a cameo appearance of the character in live-action for nearly half a decade, through a phase of Marvel movies. It's something that has disappointed many following the ending to Shang-Chi, which saw him essentially called up to join the Avengers following a FaceTime call with Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers.

Back in 2021, Shang-Chi writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton told IGN he had already begun work on Shang-Chi 2, as well as a spin-off TV series that could potentially explore some of the plot threads left hanging by the first film. "There are some obvious doors that were opened by the end of Shang-Chi that may allow us to go into those worlds and explore them more," the director said. "And that would be a really cool one to explore because Ta Lo is way more vast than what we saw in Shang-Chi. So that's potentially one area that we may go, but I'm not sure."

But in 2023, Liu admitted the project had been delayed — with Marvel's priority now getting its new Avengers movies out the door first. After so long off-screen, Shang-Chi's appearance in Avengers may boost the success of his eventual sequel. But it's hard to shake the feeling that Shang-Chi 2 is still a long way away, if it ever happens.

Marvel is busy right now with Avengers: Doomsday, due this December, and then Avengers: Secret Wars, due December 2027. After that, the company has already confirmed it's working on an X-Men reboot and Black Panther 3, which are expected to launch in 2028 at the earliest.

Complicating matters further is the fact that Cretton was chosen to direct Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Principal filming on that project has now been completed, but some fans believe Marvel and Sony may be keen to keep the filmaker working on further Spider-Man sequels, after Tom Holland's first trilogy was helmed from start to finish by Jon Watts. When could we see Shang-Chi 2? It seems unlikely before the end of this decade, at the earliest.

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

Michael B. Jordan has revealed he went to therapy after playing Killmonger in Marvel movie Black Panther.

Jordan’s Erik Killmonger is considered one of the best MCU villains, with his performance opposite the late Chadwick Boseman’s T'Challa / Black Panther winning plaudits from critics and fans alike. Killmonger is a Wakandan prince raised in Oakland, California, after his father, N'Jobu, was killed by King T'Chaka. A brilliant black-ops operative and former U.S. Navy SEAL, Killmonger seeks revenge on Wakanda for abandoning his father and aims to use its vibranium to arm oppressed people worldwide, eventually challenging T'Challa for the throne.

But it was a role that clearly took its toll on Jordan, who told CBS Sunday Morning that he needed therapy to help shake off the character after the movie came out in 2018.

"Each character kind of lives with you. They don’t go anywhere. They’re there," Jordan said. "Some piece of that character… it’s a blurred line between yourself and the character, for me, anyway. With Killmonger, Erik, it was a complex, layered antagonist. I don’t look at him as a villain. I look at him as an antagonist, because you understood him a bit. He was the other side of a conversation. Him and T'Challa were a lot alike, they both cared about their people, deeply, and would do anything to protect them. They just had two different approaches and strategies and mentalities around it all, shaped by their childhood trauma.

"And Erik didn’t really know a lot of love. Erik didn’t experience that. He had a lot of betrayal. He had a lot of failed systems around him that shaped him, and his anger and his frustration, and looking at history and how it seemed to always repeat itself, and how was he going to break that cycle?

“So for a while in preparation for that role, I didn’t really speak to my family that much. I was kind of isolated a bit. I went to my hole and tried to live like he would have lived for a bit, whatever that process was. After the movie, it kind of stuck with me for a bit. Went to therapy, talked about it, found a way to kind of just decompress. I think at that point, I was still learning that I needed to decompress from a character.

“Again, there’s no blueprint to this. There wasn’t a lot of people that… acting is a solo journey a lot of times. There’s a lot of auditioning by yourself, practicing by yourself. There’s a lot of preparation and the experience, the journey. So learning as I went, I [realized] that, ‘Oh man, I still got a little something on me that I need to get off.’ You know, talking is really important.”

Jordan went on to say that seeking therapy is “necessary for people, especially men.” “I think it’s good for them to go and talk and get that off,” he added. “That’s something I’m not ashamed of at all and very proud of. It definitely helped me throughout the years and to this day, of trying to be a good communicator and well-rounded person inside and out.”

Jordan went on to reprise his role as Donnie Creed in Creed III, which he also directed, and play twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" Moore and Elias "Stack" Moore in 2025’s hit horror movie, Sinners.

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.

Marvel actress Evangeline Lilly has announced that she's suffered brain damage due to an accident last year, and is now "functioning at a decreased capacity."

The star, best known for her Marvel role as Hope van Dyne, AKA the Wasp, gave an update on her condition via a video posted to Instagram over the weekend, in which she told fans she had "bad news" to share following a recent brain scan.

"Almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity," Lilly said, as a result of an accident in May 2025 where she hit her head on a boulder after blacking out. The damage has now resulted in "cognitive decline", she continued.

"So I do have brain damage from the TBI [traumatic brain injury] and possibly other factors going on," Lilly explained. "But now my job is to get to the bottom of that with doctors and then embark on the hard work of fixing it, which I don't look forward to because I feel like hard work is all I do."

"But that's OK," she continued. "My cognitive decline since I smashed my face open has helped me to slow down and helped me to have a more restful finish to my 2025." Indeed, Lilly went on to describe her final months of last year as the "calmest and most restful" since she had children 14 years ago, something she said was "good thing."

Also known for her starring role in Lost, as well as a turn in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy, Lilly's last role was in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where she once again reprised her role as Hope van Dyne. Her appearance followed a series of comments from the actress on the deployment of Covid vaccines which raised eyebrows during the early stages of the global pandemic. Following the release of Quantumania, Lilly indicated that her acting career was now on hiatus while she focused on charity work.

Last year, the actress reported that she had lost consciousness while at the beach and fallen "face first into a boulder", and noted that she had suffered from "fainting spells" since her youth.

Responses to her new post included wishes of goodwill from Lilly's Marvel co-star Michel Pfeiffer and Lost actress Rebecca Mader. "You are a warrior," Pfeiffer wrote. "Nothing — not even this will defeat you my friend." Said Mader: "Sending you all my love and a massive hug."

Image credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney.

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

Mickey Rourke, star of Sin City and Iron Man 2, has launched a fundraiser to pay $60,000 in rent after a threat of eviction.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that 73-year-old Rourke is using GoFundMe to raise money to pay $59,100 in owed rent after receiving an eviction notice from his Los Angeles rental home.

Rourke enjoyed superstardom in the '80s before leaving acting to pursue professional boxing. He made a comeback to mainstream Hollywood with the lead role in 2005 neo-noir action thriller Sin City, then starred in 2008's critically acclaimed The Wrestler, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe, and 2010 MCU sequel Iron Man 2 as main villain Whiplash.

Resident Evil 4's helpless companion character Ashley was once planned to star in a newly-designed intro made for Capcom's acclaimed remake.

Everyone knows by now how Resident Evil 4 opens: with fan-favorite character Leon S. Kennedy thrown into the action as he investigates the abduction of Ashley Graham, the U.S. president's daughter. And in the final version of the brilliant Resident Evil 4 Remake, this is again how the game begins.

But Capcom planned — and at least partially built — a new introduction sequence dubbed Chapter 0 which would have seen players sneak around as Ashley, before she's finally dragged off by brainwashed ganados. And now, a fresh video showing some of the mission has been put together.

Ashley's Chapter 0 would have taken place in an expanded version of the forested area outside the game's main village, close to where Leon is ultimately seen creeping along at the beginning of the remake. A snippet of this survived in a trailer for the remake, where Ashley witnesses a grisly ritual sacrifice prior to getting captured.

The non-combat mission sees Ashley sneak along, hiding from a patrolling ganado, and spotting another who is carrying Luis — presumably to the basement where Leon finds him later. But, ultimately, we all know Ashley is going to get captured — something that, after a brief chase sequence, we then see play out.

If you're keen to see the remains of this mission in action, modder Michael "Thekempy" Kemp has a video of its surviving elements — though it seems like much of the mission was unfinished, or removed from the game's final version.

While Resident Evil 4 remake features plenty of extra sequences not found in the original Resi 4, it's easy to see why this one fell by the wayside. It's hard to imagine anyone being surprised by Ashley's capture, since that sets up the whole game, and the character already has her own short sections of gameplay later on.

And then there's the fact that Ashley is, well, not loved by some Resident Evil fans. The Resi 4 remake goes some way to making her less of a damsel in distress, but it's perhaps unsurprising that Capcom ultimately chose not to open the game with her, rather than simply letting players jump straight in to Leon's mission.

"The Resident Evil 4 remake is the series' most relentlessly exciting adventure rebuilt, refined, and realised to the full extent of its enormous potential," IGN wrote in our Resident Evil 4 Remake review, scoring it 10/10.

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 biggest talking point coming out of the Stranger Things finale relates to the fate of its central character, Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown. While Season 5, Episode 8, dubbed The Rightside Up, leaves her fate ambiguous, creators the Duffer Brothers know the truth — and the only cast member also in the know is Millie Bobby Brown herself. But don’t expect either the Duffer Brothers or Millie Bobby Brown to spill the beans — they’ve sworn her to secrecy.

Stranger Things ends with a definitive wave goodbye to all the central characters except Eleven, who appears to sacrifice herself to ensure she cannot be used to create super weapons, another Vecna / Henry, or another bridge between our world and The Abyss.

18 months after that traumatic event, we see the central characters meet up for graduation and say their goodbyes. It’s at this point that Mike Wheeler, played by Finn Wolfhard, has a thought: what if Kali Prasad, also known as Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), used her dying breath to create the illusion of Eleven’s death, leaving her free to escape unseen?

Mike teases this revelation to the Dungeons & Dragons group as their final campaign comes to an end, suggesting Eleven cooked up a plan with Kali to fake her own death, then traveled to a far away small village — bordered by three waterfalls — to live out her days in peace. But this ending is unconfirmed. Mike and the others choose to believe it, and it’s left up to the audience to decide what they choose to believe as Stranger Things finally comes to an end.

Matt and Ross Duffer have explained the Stranger Things ending already, but in an interview with Josh Horowitz, they confirmed they wrote the story knowing the truth of Eleven's fate, and they’ve told only one cast member: Millie Bobby Brown herself.

“You're writing from a point of view of understanding what the truth is, right? And the reality is?” explained Matt Duffer. “So yeah, Ross and I know. And we were just talking to Millie about it. But I think it takes away the power of the ending if you tell people what you were thinking as you were writing it.”

During the interview, Matt revealed the Duffers had just texted Millie Bobby Brown about this exact subject — and she promised not to spill the beans. “She's not going to tell you either!” Matt Duffer said. “Don’t waste your time! Millie swore herself to secrecy.”

It then occurred to the creators that Millie Bobby Brown is very close to Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in Stranger Things, so she might end up telling him. That prompted a text during the interview from Matt to Millie, warning her against doing so. “I’m not even joking,” Matt Duffer said, “I’m literally going to text her right now!”

In the same interview, the Duffers revealed that they did explore the possibility of Eleven having a “full happy ending” where she ends up married to Mike, living a happy life with the government off their backs and the lab experiments ended for good, “and we just couldn't figure out a way for that to work.”

In a Netflix Q&A published as the finale aired, Ross Duffer went into more detail on the thinking behind the Stranger Things ending: “there was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end. For us and our writers, we didn’t want to take her powers away. She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away. We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not. The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults.”

“And the reality is, if Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her,” Matt concluded. “Everything falls apart if that were the case. So if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened.”

We've got plenty more on Stranger Things, including the Duffer Brothers explaining why the demogorgons didn’t help Vecna out in the final battle, and first details on the live-action spinoff.

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.

I have spent more hours than I care to admit bouncing between wishlists, review builds, and half finished save files, so when a sale lineup actually stops me mid scroll, I pay attention. This batch does exactly that, mixing genuine classics with a few pleasant surprises that feel underpriced on purpose. I have played most of these on release or close to it, and several of them still live rent free in my head.

Contents

• Retro
• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC
• PC Gear
• LEGO

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news I'm using a Bob-omb to light a 26-candle cake baked for Super Smash Bros., the N64 brawler that stole all my heart containers at launch. I have vivid memories of introducing this multi-fest to my rotating crew of a dozen or so buddies who were already well addicted to the 4P chaos of Mario Kart, GoldenEye, and the WCW vs. nWo series. Needless to say, this hooked us quicker than a point blank chainshot grab from Link.

How could you not? It had the simple concept of making iconic Ninty characters beat the absolute snot out of one another via an easy-to-pick-up yet deceptively deep fighting system. This OG laid strong franchise foundations with percentage damage, directional attacks, shields, grabs, and table-turning support weapons. Hell, I still think thwacking idiots into orbit with a Homerun Bat remains one of the most satisfying sensations in all of video gaming.

Aussie birthdays for notable games.

- X-Men: Children of the Atom (ARC) 1995. Redux

- Super Smash Bros. (N64) 2000. eBay

Table of Contents

Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch

• Sonic Frontiers (-40%) A$59.90 Sonic finally figured out what to do with all that speed, wide open spaces, crunchy combat, and a soundtrack that goes weirdly hard at 2am.
• Persona 5 Royal (-70%) A$29.90 Turn based combat, high school drama, and jazz menus so stylish they should be illegal. Say goodbye to your free time and most of your sleep.
• The Talos Principle Del. (-87%) A$5.90 A puzzle game that traps you in a robot garden and starts asking uncomfortable questions about consciousness between laser puzzles.
• Doom Eternal (-75%) A$13.70 Doom as a cardio workout. You shoot, dash, juggle ammo, and panic constantly, all while heavy metal screams encouragement.
• Burnout Paradise Rem. (-83%) A$6.70 Still the best game about driving very fast and immediately ruining it with a spectacular crash.

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Exciting Bargains for Xbox

• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (-63%) A$40.30 Bigger, tougher, and more confident than Fallen Order, with lightsaber combat that finally makes you feel mildly unstoppable.
• Seagate 1TB Expansion (-28%) A$223.70 Not a game, but absolutely required unless you enjoy deleting things every second week like a digital minimalist.
• Middle Earth: Shadow Of War (-71%) A$15.80 Orcs remember you, hate you, and come back stronger just to ruin your day. Still one of the coolest systems in modern games.
• Darksiders III (-67%) A$18.10 Less hack and slash, more careful footwork, with boss fights that absolutely will not let you button mash your way through.
• Immortals Of Aveum (-71%) A$31.50 A magic shooter where spells replace guns and subtlety is politely shown the door.

Xbox One

• Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (-53%) A$27.00 Pixel perfect platforming with more charm, polish, and post launch support than most modern releases.
• Wild Hearts (-77%) A$25.20 Monster hunting that lets you build nonsense mid fight. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes messy, always interesting.
• Like A Dragon: Ishin! (-58%) A$41.90 Samurai drama one minute, deeply silly side quests the next. Somehow it all works, as usual.

Or just invest in an Xbox Card.

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Pure Scores for PlayStation

• The Last Of Us Part I (-36%) A$79 Still devastating, still brilliant, now prettier and smoother, just do not play it if you need cheering up.
• Elden Ring (-49%) A$43 A game that explains almost nothing, kills you constantly, and somehow becomes impossible to stop playing. Essential.
• SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Headset (-48%) A$205 Comfortable, clean sounding, and wireless enough that you will forget you are still wearing it hours later.
• NFS Unbound Ult. Col. (-85%) A$19.40 Loud colours, louder music, and arcade racing that finally remembers how fun this series can be.
• Final Fantasy XVI (-47%) A$45 Big swords, bigger emotions, and boss fights that feel like playable anime finales.
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (-57%) A$49 Medieval life sim energy where reading matters, armour is heavy, and every fight feels personal.

PS4

• Metro Saga Bndl (-90%) A$9 Grim, tense shooters that make every bullet feel precious and every tunnel deeply unpleasant.
• Mafia: Trilogy (-40%) A$59.90 Three crime stories, plenty of sharp suits, and a reminder that being a gangster rarely ends well.
• Untitled Goose Game (-50%) A$14.90 You are a goose. Your job is to ruin lives. Honk accordingly.

Or purchase a PS Store Card.

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Purchase Cheap for PC

• Indiana Jones And The Great Circle (-38%) A$74.30 Proper globe trotting adventure energy, complete with puzzles, on brand archaeological chaos, and punching fascists right in their stupid faces.
• Cleared Hot (-10%) A$19.70 Straightforward air combat that skips the homework and gets right to the Desert Strike vibes.
• Crysis Rem. Trilogy (-59%) A$29.90 Still a flex, still melts hardware a bit, and still lets you solve problems however you want.
• Pavlov (-40%) A$21.50 VR chaos powered by mods, memes, and people taking things far less seriously than they should.
• It Takes Two (-80%) A$9.90 Co-op perfection that constantly changes the rules and never lets a good idea overstay its welcome. Probably could save your relationship. Or doom it.

Or just get a Steam Wallet Card

Legit LEGO Deals

• Super Mario Yoshis Egg-cellent Forest (-63%) A$29.80 Bright, playful, and pure serotonin, this one looks great on a shelf without demanding your sanity.
• Mario Kart - Bowsers Castle (-47%) A$79 Lava, curves, and Bowser energy everywhere. Big build, big presence, big nostalgia hit.
• Star Wars AT-ST Walker (-34%) A$199 Awkward, menacing, and unmistakably Star Wars. Somehow still looks like it might fall over.
• Harry Potter Chomping Monster Book (-29%) A$77 Equal parts creepy and clever, this one absolutely looks like it might bite you if left unattended.

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We've rounded up the best deals for Sunday, January 4, below. Don't miss your chance to save on these deals!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for $29.99

Avatar: Fire and Ash has become the third film in the franchise to surpass $1 billion at the global box office, but questions remain on whether it will end up matching Avatar 1 or 2 by the end of its theatrical run — or convince Disney to green light Avatar 4 and 5.

On weekend three, James Cameron’s Fire and Ash made another $40 million domestically, marking a 37% drop week on week. It’s now up to $306 million domestically. Fire and Ash is proving a bigger hit internationally — particularly in China — with $777.1 million so far from theaters. That makes for a grand total of $1.083 billion. Disney said Fire and Ash pushes the Avatar franchise total past $6.35 billion globally.

The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. Avatar 1 remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and has earned a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. Avatar: The Way of Water has earned $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing it as the third-highest grossing film of all time — just ahead of Cameron's own Titanic.

Will Fire and Ash end up matching the box office hauls of its predecessors? Fire and Ash is slower to $1 billion than both Avatar 1 and 2, but not by much. The Way of Water, released in 2022, hit $1 billion 14 days after launch, and Avatar, released in 2009, reached $1 billion after 17 days. Fire and Ash managed $1 billion 18 days after release.

The Avatar films typically show impressive staying power at the global box office, particularly internationally, so the coming weeks will be crucial. Adding a helping hand, Disney is drip-feeding Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailers ahead of Fire and Ash in theaters in a bid to encourage repeat viewings (the X-Men trailer is set to be replaced by a fourth next week).

Perhaps the pertinent question is, will Avatar 3 end up making enough money theatrically to convince Disney to greenlight Avatar 4 and 5? Disney has given both sequels release dates already: Avatar 4 currently has a December 21, 2029 release date, with Avatar 5 due out December 19, 2031. Cameron, now 71, would be close to 80 years old by the time it all wraps up.

But will he get the chance? In the run up to Fire and Ash’s release, Cameron admitted he was feeling nervous about the film’s box office performance and expressed concern about the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025.

Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron said there was potential for “sequelitis.” He added: "people tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.” And there’s the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, which means fewer people are going to the movies — 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested.

When pressed on how much Avatar: Fire and Ash cost to make, Cameron wouldn’t be drawn into divulging a figure, only suggesting it was a lot of money, and so the movie will have to make a lot of money to turn a profit.

“It is one metric f**k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f**k tons of money to make a profit,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”

2025 finally saw the long-awaited arrival of Nintendo’s next console: the Switch 2. But now, it’s time to turn the page to 2026 and talk about what’s in store for Switch 2’s sophomore year. Nintendo already has a pretty fleshed out release calendar for both Switches, a blockbuster movie set to hit theaters, with plenty of surprises surely in store as well. Here’s what to expect from Nintendo in 2026.

Nintendo in 2026: What’s Already On the Books

Before we get into wild speculation, here’s a recap of what we already know is coming to Switch and Switch 2 in 2026. There’s already a lot to look forward to, as Nintendo remains very consistent in pushing something out pretty much every single month.

That pattern begins this month, as we’ll all return to our weed-infested islands and face the wrath of our neglected villagers when Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a free update on the original Switch and a Nintendo Switch 2 edition on January 15. New Horizons 3.0 is available to players on both Switches, and it comes with a new hotel to customize, a bunch of Nintendo items, and tons of little quality of life updates like upgraded item storage. Meanwhile, if you buy the Switch 2 Edition or the $5 upgrade pack, you can access improved resolution, mouse controls, 12-player multiplayer, and more.

Just a few weeks later we’ll see the first brand new Switch 2 exclusive of the year with Mario Tennis Fever’s launch on February 12. The big hook this time is the Fever Rackets that grant special abilities like freezing the court or duplicating yourself. Fever will also feature 38 playable characters, including Donkey Kong’s refreshed design and – for the first time ever – Baby Waluigi.

If you love collecting ridiculous Nintendo products like I do, you might be looking forward to Virtual Boy joining the Nintendo Switch Online library on February 17. You need one of two headsets to access this forgotten library from Nintendo’s biggest failure – either a plastic replica or a cheaper cardboard option. That’ll be available on both Switches.

Pokémon meets Minecraft (or more accurately, Dragon Quest Builders, but that’s not as catchy) in Pokémon Pokopia on March 5. This Switch 2 exclusive will task you with using Pokémon moves and materials to design your very own town. I expect Pokopia to be an enormous hit this year: Pokémon and Minecraft are two of the biggest things on the planet, and after everyone’s done poking around the new Animal Crossing update, this looks like the perfect game for that audience to shift to next. Amiibo are trudging on in 2026 as well, and March 5 will also see the launch of the Meta Knight and Shadow Star figure from Kirby Air Riders.

Pokopia is the last firm release date we have, but Nintendo has a few games slated for Spring. Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park is an enhanced port of the 2023 platformer, and one part of Nintendo’s ongoing celebration of Super Mario’s 40th anniversary. It adds cooperative and competitive multiplayer minigames, and we’ve seen a small glimpse of what appears to be a new side story in more traditional levels. I predict this will arrive on April 2, the same day as the new pair of Super Mario Galaxy amiibo and just a day before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits theaters, putting a new Mario game on store shelves at the exact moment Mario Mania kicks in.

The other pair of Spring releases is Yoshi and the Mysterious Book on Switch 2 and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on Switch 1. Yoshi’s illustrated art style looks really nice, and Tomodachi Life is an exciting return for a 3DS cult classic with a hilarious out-of-left-field personality that you really have to see for yourself.

There’s even more coming later in 2026: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave will mark the strategy RPG’s first outing on Switch 2, Nintendo and FromSoftware are teaming up for The Duskbloods as a Switch 2 action-RPG exclusive, while Switch 1 players can look forward to Rhythm Heaven: Groove, the return of Nintendo’s quirky rhythm minigame series for the first time in a decade. Finally, Pokémon Champions is a competitive battle-focused game coming to Switch and Mobile this year. We know it will be used at the Pokémon World Championships in 2026, meaning it should be out before that event kicks off in late August.

On the third-party front, Switch 2 is getting a lot of major games on day one, including huge support from Capcom with Resident Evil Requiem on February 27 (along with Resident Evil 7 and 8 on the same day), Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on March 13, and Pragmata on April 24. Plus, all three of those games are getting their own amiibo figures. There’s a lot beyond Capcom, too, like Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, 007 First Light, and more. Hopefully we’ll see cleaned up versions of games delayed out of 2025 as well, like Elden Ring Tarnished Edition and Borderlands 4.

Pokémon’s 30th Birthday Bash

A huge element of Nintendo’s 2026 will no doubt be Pokémon, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. You can safely expect a Pokémon Presents around February 27, and – as we move firmly into the speculation part of this yearly preview – I think it’s going to be a big one. I predict Pokémon’s 10th Generation will be 2026’s November release for Switch 2, and that we’ll get our first look at them here. I don’t think there’s any chance Pokémon misses out on its 30th anniversary without a new pair of mainline games.

But that’s not all: I think 2026 is finally the year that Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow come to Switch. I don’t think they’ll join the Nintendo Switch Online subscription library – it’ll make you buy them separately – but similar to how the Gen One games were dropped on 3DS to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary in 2016, I think Nintendo will run the same play here and shadowdrop them the day of the presentation. The Pokémon Company is also planning to open PokéPark Kanto in Tokyo, Japan, on February 5, the first-ever Pokémon theme park.

What Else Could Nintendo Have In Store?

We’re in an interesting spot where Nintendo has already shown a lot of its cards for 2026, but I still think there are a few things we don’t know about. There is Splatoon Raiders, the single-player Switch 2 spinoff announced last year, but Nintendo hasn’t committed to that launching in 2026 at all, and it feels more fitting as an early 2027 release to me at this point.

With November likely taken up by Pokémon, that leaves October open for a Nintendo franchise fitting for spooky season: Luigi’s Mansion. Next Level Games has been quiet since 2022’s Mario Strikers: Battle League (except for a small assisting role on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond), and given its usual three-year turnaround time on Nintendo games, I think it’s time for Luigi’s Mansion 4. The last in the series was a huge sales success, so a sequel is a no-brainer. Just for fun, I’ll guess that the setting will be a haunted cruise ship Luigi has inherited for some strange reason.

2026 also marks the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. With a movie on the way in 2027, and Nintendo’s general pattern of launching at least one Zelda game every year, it’s a safe bet to say something Zelda-related will come out this year. I don’t think a new 2D or 3D Zelda game is close to being ready, so it’s probably time for another remake or remaster. I’ll guess fans will finally get the Ocarina of Time HD remake they want, but it won’t be perfect: it’ll be a touched up HD remaster of the 3DS remake that comes to both the original Switch and Switch 2, rather than the gorgeous 4K reimagining we all dream about.

On the smaller side, I have to imagine Nintendo is prepping DLC for Mario Kart World, and all signs point to it centering around Donkey Kong. DK and Pauline strangely only have one costume apiece in World, there are no Jungle-themed DK tracks, and Nintendo’s wider push for DK would lend itself to a DLC pack themed around him. And, I’d like 2026 to be the year we finally get answers surrounding Nintendo’s mysterious Switch Online Playtest program that's been running since 2024.

I think that’s about all the room we have for 2026’s calendar, but Nintendo will announce a few games this year we won’t see until 2027. Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft hasn’t released a brand new game since 2022, and I have a feeling we might get a quick tease at what they’re working on in the September Nintendo Direct.

And, my boldest call of them all is that we’ll get a tease this year for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition to launch sometime in 2027. I believe Ultimate could get the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe treatment this generation, with an enhanced port that carries us through the next several years rather than an entirely new entry. Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai wrapped up Kirby Air Riders a few months ago, and it’s entirely possible he’s already hard at work bringing Ultimate over to Switch 2 with a few new characters. Ultimate noticeably hasn’t received a Switch 2 performance patch like Super Mario Odyssey, the open-world Zeldas, and plenty of other best-selling Switch 1 games, and combined with the fact that a new Smash game almost always hits within the first two years of a new Nintendo console, it feels like a prime candidate for a Switch 2 Edition.

Nintendo Will Continue Expanding Beyond Games

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will hit theaters on April 3, three years after the original made over a billion dollars at the global box office. I think Nintendo will waste no time in announcing its next animated partnership with Illumination, given they’re likely very confident this movie will perform extremely well like the first one did. I’m expecting a formal announcement of an animated Donkey Kong movie sometime before the end of 2026. You should also expect to see the first trailer for The Legend of Zelda movie before the year is over.

Finally, in a bit of a bummer prediction to end on, I’m expecting a Switch 2 price increase sometime after March. Nintendo has essentially committed to keeping the price where it is through the end of its fiscal year – which concludes March 31 – but there are no guarantees after that. We’ve already seen increases on the original Switch, as well as Switch 2 accessories, so it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Switch 2 follows suit.

And that’s everything we expect from Nintendo in 2026. What game are you most excited for? Have you picked up a Switch 2, or are you still happy with the original? Let us know in the comments.

Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find him online @LoganJPlant.

One of the lingering questions Stranger Things fans having coming out of the Season 5 finale relates to the series’ famous monsters, the demogorgons. Or, perhaps put more accurately, the lack of them.

In the final battle (Season 5 Episode 8, The Rightside Up), which Stranger Things has built up to for nine years and five seasons, our heroes battle against Vecna and the Mind Flayer, but not the demogorgons, the demodogs, or the bats we’ve seen previously. Where were they? Surely Vecna and the Mind Flayer would have had a better time of things if they’d had their pals help them out against Eleven, Steve, and the others. Were they sleeping on the job? A revolt, perhaps?

In an interview with TheWrap, Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer offered a detailed explanation, which involves a few factors. One, Vecna was caught unawares. He did not expect a sneak attack in The Abyss, so was not prepared for what was coming. Related, he had the Mind Flayer helping him out, so why would he need any more help? (This was, obviously, a bad decision.)

Meanwhile, all those demo monsters aren’t just hanging around Vecna at any given moment, the Duffer brothers said. There are not a lot of them in The Abyss.

And then we get to what I think is probably the most important reason, which has to do with what Stranger Things had done earlier in the season. The Duffers were mindful of what they called “demo fatigue,” having had a dramatic fight against the demogorgons at the end of Season 5, Volume 1, when Will’s powers awaken and he kills a handful of the things with his mind.

“Mainly it’s just that Vecna was not expecting this sneak attack on his home turf,” Matt Duffer explained. “Never in a million years could he even imagine that. They’re there somewhere. We obviously discussed having a demo battle on top of the Mind Flayer battle, but it felt more right to us that why does he need the demos when the Mind Flayer is this giant thing and can attack them? He doesn’t need his little ant army to attack, he’s going to take care of this himself.

“It’s a giant, desolate planet. If you recall, you see Henry wandering the planet back in Season 4 and at some point in his journey, he does see a demo far in the distance, but it’s not like they’re hanging out in little huts. There’s not like a giant civilization of demos up there.”

Matt Duffer continued: “one of the other things we talked about was just demo fatigue. I felt like we did everything we wanted to do with them in Sorcerer, and wanting to keep the focus on Vecna and the Mind Flayer, who’s been absent this season.”

So there you have it. Vecna’s confidence was his undoing, it seems — and a touch of “demo fatigue.”

According to Matt Duffer, there was an idea to have the heroes encounter a giant field of demo eggs in The Abyss in a scene reminiscent of Aliens, “but you can’t get all your ideas in there.” Apparently the demos were going to come out of the eggs and everything.

Some fans have suggested the fight against the Mind Flayer would have been made all the more epic by the addition of demogorgons. Having Will control them and turn them against the Mind Flayer and Vecna is a popular fan suggestion, too. But there’s no going back now. With the Upside Down destroyed, the demogorgons are stranded in The Abyss — hopefully forever.

We've got plenty more on Stranger Things, including the Duffer brothers explaining what they were going for with the Season 5 finale and Eleven's ending, and first details on the live-action spinoff.

Image credit: Netflix.

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.

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has confirmed one of the community’s biggest questions since the game came out: it does indeed feature ‘aggression-based matchmaking.’

This means that if you’re big into PvP, you’ll be matched up with players who are like-minded. Similarly, if you prefer PvE, you’ll be matchmade with players who tend to avoid conflict with other players.

Arc Raiders’ player versus environment versus player gameplay has resulted in a number of viral clips showing how friendly encounters can quickly devolve into a fight to the last. Yes, you can play solo or in parties up to three, working as a team to progress through the game. However, other players are a constant threat. This has sparked a vociferous debate within the community about the etiquette that has formed in-game, with a retired pro gamer going viral for relentlessly killing casual Arc Raiders players.

It turns out that Arc Raiders will lean on your playstyle when it comes to matchmaking. This ‘aggression-based matchmaking,’ however, is not an exact science, Patrick Söderlund, CEO of Embark Studios told Games Beat in a recent interview / video playthrough of the game.

“Obviously first it's skill-based of course,” Söderlund said of Arc Raiders matchmaking. “Then you have solos, duos, and trios. And then we also, since a week ago or so, we introduced a system where we also matchmake based on how prone you are to PvP or PvE. So if your preference is to do PvE and you have less conflict with players… you'll get more matched up [with similar players]. Obviously it's not a full science.”

Söderlund said the term ‘aggression-based matchmaking’ is “exactly” the system Arc Raiders currently uses. That puts to bed high-level questions about how Arc Raiders matchmaking works for the community, which had wondered about it in recent months. “I can finally stop arguing on Reddit, thank you for the vindication,” said one player.

However, it’s worth noting that Söderlund confirmed Arc Raiders prioritizes "skill" when it comes to matchmaking, then groupings. Aggression-based matchmaking is a factor, but we don’t know how much influence it has on your lobbies compared to other factors. And even Söderlund admitted it doesn’t always works as you’d think.

And how, exactly, does Arc Raiders determine if you’re “prone” to PvE or PvP? If you’re a kill on sight player, sure, you’re probably prone to PvP. But what if you only shoot back at those who shoot at you first? Does that make your lobbies more aggressive? If so, is that fair?

So, one big question answered, but many more remain. As for Embark Studios, it always hoped Arc Raiders would have a tension between both playstyles. Arc Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure in which players scavenge the remnants of a devastated world, but the main threats are Arc’s machines and, as Embark Studios puts it, “the unpredictable choices of fellow survivors.”

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 future of cinemagoing is top of mind as 2026 kicks off, with Netflix, which is buying Warner Bros. for $72 billion, reportedly interested in a 17-day window for theatrical releases before they hit the streaming platform. Meanwhile, box office revenue is struggling, with even Marvel movies — previously guaranteed hits — having trouble getting fans into theaters. The big question right now is, are we witnessing the beginning of the end of going to the cinema?

Hollywood legend Leonardo DiCaprio has expressed concern about the future of cinemagoing, wondering whether it will become a niche pursuit. In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Titanic, Inception, and The Wolf of Wall Street star wondered whether “people still have the appetite” for theaters, and, if not, whether they might “become silos — like jazz bars.”

“It’s changing at a lightning speed,” DiCaprio said. “We’re looking at a huge transition. First, documentaries disappeared from cinemas. Now, dramas only get finite time and people wait to see it on streamers. I don’t know.”

Then: "Do people still have the appetite? Or will cinemas become silos — like jazz bars?" While expressing this concern, DiCaprio said he hoped “real visionaries” continue to make unique movies that are seen in theaters, "But that remains to be seen.”

DiCaprio, who starred in 2025’s critically acclaimed One Battle After Another, isn’t alone in worrying for the future of cinemagoing. But some have gone even further. Last year, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the theatrical experience is “an outmoded idea for most people,” and claimed Netflix is “saving Hollywood.”

One Battle After Another ended its theatrical run making $205 million globally. According to Variety, Warner Bros. needed it to make roughly $300 million to break even on the film, which means it’s looking at a $100 million loss, give or take.

And while James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash has crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, it’s not going to get anywhere near the money the previous two Avatar movies made in theaters. In the run up to Fire and Ash’s release, Cameron admitted he was feeling nervous about the film’s box office performance and expressed concern about the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025.

Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron said there was potential for “sequelitis.” He added: "people tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.” And there’s the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, which means fewer people are going to the movies — 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested. In the same interview, Cameron said Netflix buying Warner Bros. would be a “disaster.”

One report has claimed Netflix is particularly keen to obtain Warner Bros.' vast content library as the streamer ramps up its potential to offer AI-generation tools and content in the future.

Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

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.