Netflix has announced Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85, an animated spinoff due out in 2026.

In the teaser video, which shows snippets of footage, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer reveal that the idea with Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 is to evoke the feeling of an '80s cartoon. The story takes place between Seasons 2 and 3 and features the main characters from Stranger Things itself.

Something survived in ’85.

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new adventure in animation, coming to Netflix in 2026 pic.twitter.com/bHKx9eCPhF

— Netflix (@netflix) November 6, 2025

“Welcome back to Hawkins in the stark winter of 1985, where the original characters must fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an epic new animated series,” reads the official blurb. First look images are below:

Matt and Ross Duffer are down as executive producers, with Eric Robles in place as showrunner. Flying Bark Productions is the animation studio. The announced voice cast is below:

Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 voice cast:

• Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven
• Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max
• Luca Diaz as Mike
• Ej (Elisha) Williams as Lucas
• Braxton Quinney as Dustin
• Ben Plessala as Will
• Brett Gipson as Hopper
• Additional voice cast includes Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo, and Lou Diamond Phillips

The announcement was made on ‘Stranger Things Day.’ For the uninitiated, November 6, 1983 is the date Will Byers went missing in Hawkins, Indiana, kicking off the Stranger Things story the fifth and final season will soon wrap up.

Here’s the official blurb on Stranger Things Season 5:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

Stranger Things Season 5 debuts on Netflix in three parts, with the first four episodes arriving for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26. The next three episodes premiere on Christmas, and the series finale will debut on the streamer and in over 350 theaters nationwide on New Year’s Eve.

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

Season 5 arrives over three years after the finale of Season 4. For more, check out the burning questions we still have from Stranger Things Season 4.

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.

PlayStation isn't making players wait for Black Friday to score some nice deals on games.

The PlayStation Store has kicked off its 'November Savings' sale event, which features some great discounts at the moment on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Premium Edition, Monster Hunter Wilds, The Outer Worlds: Board-Approved Bundle (perfect to pick up with The Outer Worlds 2 out now), and plenty more.

Alongside those games, we've included a few more of our favorite digital picks from this sale event below. If you're curious what other offers are available right now, have a look at PlayStation's November sale here. It comes to an end on November 21 (which is likely when the Black Friday sale will kick off) so there's plenty of time to stock up on the games you like at a discount.

PlayStation Store November Sale

As we wait for Black Friday to officially come around, a few retailers are offering early deals for shoppers to check out in the weeks leading up to it, including Walmart and Best Buy. If you're looking for even more game deals, there's already nice discounts to check out alongside these picks on the PlayStation Store.

Woot has quite a few Switch 2 games on sale right now. Among them is Donkey Kong Bananza, which we gave a glowing 10/10 to in our review. And while we're waiting to see what Xbox has in store, you can have a look at our breakdown of what to expect from Xbox’s Black Friday 2025 sale to see some of our predictions.

The official sale event starts up on November 28 this year. If you're looking for more information on what retailers will be participating, and some of the discounts we're hoping to see, check out our full breakdown of Black Friday 2025 to learn more.

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

It may be the start of November, but it's official: Black Friday sales have begun. Target has kicked off the festivities with a limited time early Black Friday sale that features tons of exciting deals. If you're tracking down some LEGO sets to buy this year, the retailer has quite a nice selection on sale at the moment. Note: some of the sets are showing out of stock, but they're available for shipping.

Below you can see just a few of our favorite LEGO sets from Target's early Black Friday sale - including the LEGO Wicket the Ewok set, the LEGO Minecraft The Crafting Table set, and plenty more. If you're curious what other LEGO sets are on sale right now, check out Target's early Black Friday sale page here.

Target Early Black Friday Deals on LEGO

All of the sets listed above are 40% off right now, which is excellent savings to take advantage of while they're still available. Keep in mind, though, that this early deal drop is a limited time sale that ends on November 8, so if you come across a set that catches your eye, you'll want to jump on it fast as the deal won't last long.

The month of November features quite a few early Black Friday deals from retailers alongside Target. Walmart is going to split up its deals into three different events, with its early deals dropping on November 14. Best Buy is also offering doorbuster deals each Friday through Black Friday, so there's plenty of opportunities this month to save on a wide variety of items ahead of the holidays.

If you're curious when the actual sale begins this year, Black Friday lands on November 28. For more information on what other retailers are expected to jump in on the seasonal sale event this year, and what discounts we're hoping to see, check out our full breakdown of Black Friday 2025.

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

The Simpsons has been a television staple since 1989, spanning over 790 episodes, a theatrically released feature film, another on the way, and a ton of video game adaptations, a few of which were genuinely great. After all, The Simpsons even invented its own in-universe video games, referenced actual video games constantly, and even went to a video game convention. But as a sitcom family featuring members that mostly spent their time at work, school, or hanging around the house, making a video game out of The Simpsons was no easy task, inspiring developers to create entire Simpsons games out of things that maybe appeared in an episode once, or just make up a game idea out of thin air, leading to some truly crazy results. Here is the weird, wild history of The Simpsons video games.

Don’t have a cow, man.

Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991)

The very first Simpsons video game is a truly bizarre one. Bart vs. The Space Mutants was incredibly ambitious and packed with great references to the show, even if it wasn’t exactly fun to play. The title screen played a chiptune version of the theme song over an 8-bit version of the iconic TV family and their beloved couch, fuzzy voice samples allowed Bart to say things like “Eat My Shorts,” and you could even prank call Moe the bartender from outside of his tavern. By the way, if you don’t like that chiptune cover of The Simpson’s theme song, tough luck, because it plays on loop for the entirety of some of its very long levels.

It being the first Simpsons video game that players could buy at a store and shove into their NES consoles made it a huge sales success, even though it was notoriously obtuse, punishingly difficult, featured unreliable and floaty platforming mechanics, and was frankly just plain odd for anyone who even had a passing familiarity with the show. Using “They Live” style glasses that Bart can wear to see invisible aliens, he’s able to traverse through the streets (while also dodging visible aliens) so he can spray paint purple objects around Springfield because the aliens... need purple objects... for intergalactic dominance... or something.

As a kid, Bart vs. the Space Mutants was probably the first time I realized a video game based on a TV show or movie I loved could be bad, a life lesson that the NES handed out constantly during that era. But hey, we all thought it was the coolest that Bart talked and skateboarded in the game, and we were used to pushing through brutally hard video games at the time, so we all made the best of it... even if I didn’t know a single kid who actually beat this game without using a cheat code device like the Game Genie.

Besides, in 1991 we all knew the real best Simpsons game wasn’t in our living rooms but at the arcade across town…

The Simpsons Arcade Game (1991)

Do you know how fun your video game has to be to convince a ten year old boy that he should play as a stay at home mother of three with a vacuum cleaner? Really fun, and luckily The Simpsons arcade game was an absolute blast, especially with three of your friends huddled around it after devouring two whole pizzas at a birthday party. The early '90s arcade scene was packed with co-op sidescrolling beat ‘em up games based on things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the X-Men, and The Simpsons fit right in, ready and eager to devour your arcade tokens.

Not only was The Simpsons arcade game absolutely gorgeous (thanks to the brilliant artists and game developers at Konami) but it was also incredibly funny, packed with obvious and esoteric references to the show. And while its plot (rescue Maggie from Smithers because she thinks a stolen diamond is a pacifier?) didn’t make much sense, who cares? It was a great excuse to send the entire Simpsons family into the streets together to beat the crap out of bad poorly dressed henchmen, zombies, bears, gigantic Krusty the Clown balloons, and whatever else the game decides to chuck at you.

Unfortunately you can’t purchase this game and play it on modern video game platforms, although it was ported to consoles in 2013 before being delisted for good. You can, however, spend hundreds of dollars on a recreated Arcade 1-UP version, a thing I’ve been tempted to do dozens of times in my adult life and somehow been able to resist. 34 years later, The Simpsons arcade game is still one of the best Simpsons video games ever made, and a completely kickass beat ‘em up in its own right. I really hope Konami decides to re-release it so more people can experience this absolute classic.

Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly (1991)

Meanwhile that same year, in my back pocket, the AA battery-devouring machine known as the Nintendo Game Boy got its own exclusive Simpsons game called Escape from Camp Deadly. It was once again way more difficult than it had any right to be. Compared to the NES game, though, Bart’s character sprite was at least more than seven pixels tall, even if the Game Boy’s limited palette made his eyes look like he was perpetually stoned.

Escape from Camp Deadly, as the name suggests, is about Bart fleeing a deranged and dangerous summer camp where people throw knives and forks during cafeteria food fights and guys that look like undercover cops try to beat you to death in a forest. And you thought summer school sucked. This game wasn’t great by any stretch, but it was satisfying enough and also had the benefit of being a portable game you could suffer through anywhere you went, from the school bus to your own terrible summer camp. And if you make it to the ending you even get to see Camp Deadly get shut down and a skunk joins your family celebration, because why not.

Bart vs. the World (1991)

Acclaim’s second Simpson’s NES game in the same year was Bart vs. the World, a game about Bart winning a contest that puts him on a global scavenger hunt, which is mostly just a thin excuse to drop him in international locations that have no bearing on reality, like a huge boat in China where people shoot fireworks at kids, and the North Pole’s frozen river - a dream vacation of every child wearing a t-shirt and shorts.

Bart vs. the World plays like much more of a standard platforming game than vs. the Space Mutants did, and the end result is a slightly-better-but-still-not-great game. But hey, you at least can turn into Bartman and fly around, there are minigames to break things up between levels, Moe the Bartender tries to kill you with beers, and you can throw pies in the faces of Smithers and Mr. Burns for an uncomfortably long stretch of time.

Bart's House of Weirdness (1991)

Somehow the fifth Simpsons video game released in 1991, Bart’s House of Weirdness brings Konami back into the picture for an MS-DOS game (and if you know what that means, you should schedule a colonoscopy) that once again pits Bart against a bunch of stuff in Springfield that is trying to kill him. Or should I say “uncool” him, since the game’s health bar is actually a cool meter that goes down depending on how much you get hurt.

Despite being named Bart’s House of Weirdness, most of the game is actually spent outside of Bart’s house doing the usual Simpson’s video game stuff like fighting aliens or looking at long, awkward poses on loading screens. Overall it’s a pretty good looking game and use of the license in general (although the theme song cover here is completely unhinged) even if it's nowhere near the same level of quality as Konami’s other Simpson’s game that year.

Bart vs. The Juggernauts (1992)

The year 1992 brought us a trio of new Simpsons games, the most unhinged of them being Bart vs. The Juggernauts, a parody of the hit late '80s/early '90s competitive strongman show, American Gladiators, now set in Springfield. Oh, and it’s hosted by resident surly news anchor Kent Brockman and local therapist Marvin Monroe, both of which assume no legal responsibility for the public beating that Bart is about to endure. Bart Simpson - canonically a fourth grader - takes on numerous Juggernauts, hulking behemoths who want to pulverize him for cash and prizes. So yes, exactly the kind of lawsuit factory that infamous Simpsons lawyer Lionel Hutz would’ve loved.

While the premise is deranged, the writing is genuinely witty and sharp, with all of the adults fully aware that this televised tournament is a reckless and dangerous thing to throw kids into, especially the level where Bart has to punch and jump kick a grown woman at Moe’s Tavern, a dive bar full of cheering alcoholics. Oh, and that’s when he’s not jousting against a different grown up to see who can push their opponent into a pit of toxic sludge down at Mr. Burns’ power plant, which is exactly how The Joker once became a thing. Bart vs. The Juggernauts is essentially a minigame collection strung loosely together lby cutscenes, and while the game as a whole can feel kind of hit or miss, it’s a unique take on the source material. Plus, it ends with Bart winning his very own Truckasaurus for his family to drive home with, and really, how can anyone be mad at that?

Krusty's Fun House (1992)

After several Simpsons games starring Bart were released back to back (with many, many more to come) it was time to send in the clowns and give Krusty his own video game. Well, sort of. Krusty’s Fun House was technically a reskin of an Amiga game called Rat Trap that Acclaim decided to throw Krusty and some other Simpsons sprites into, sort of like how Super Mario characters took over the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic when it was released in the US. If you’ve ever played Lemmings or the Mario vs Donkey Kong games, you’ll quickly recognize that Krusty’s Fun House plays similarly but with a slightly darker outcome for the tiny herdlings: that’s because the player has to lure them into large machines where they’ll be smashed to bits. So probably not quite what you’d expect from a Krusty the Clown game but at the same time exactly the kind of thing you’d expect Krusty the Clown to do in his free time, so hey, why not.

Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (1992)

While Krusty was dealing with diseased vermin infestations, Bart was busy tackling other potentially deadly health code violations in 1992’s Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, which finally features Bart’s superhero alter-ego Bartman as a permanently playable character rather than a temporary power-up. Unfortunately, it’s marred by the same floaty platforming that plagued the previous Acclaim Simpsons games, and while the Bartman flying levels mix up the pacing a bit, it mostly lands in the middle of that all-too-common licensed NES game ditch of way too hard and not very fun.

The entirety of Bartman Meets Radioactive Man is set in locations that have nothing to do with any Simpsons episodes and feature little to no Simpsons references or characters at all, so it’s not even like it’s worth pushing through if you’re a Simpsons fan. In hindsight it’s pretty crazy how much Bartman stuff was out there by 1992 considering that character didn’t exactly have a huge presence on the show at the time, and I say that as someone who once successfully begged his parents to buy him a Bartman action figure. God I loved that thing. The Bartman video game, not so much.

Bart's Nightmare (1993)

On to the year 1993, where Bart Simpson is once again starring in an absolute fever dream of a Simpsons game, although this time that’s finally a deliberate choice. Bart’s Nightmare opens with Bart passing out face first into his homework and waking up in an imaginary hellscape where all of the pages have flown out of his bedroom window and on to a chaotic fantasy version of the streets of Springfield. While dodging obstacles with a jumping sound effect that sounds like a sick cat about to retch, Bart must collect his missing homework pages, triggering one of several random doors that lead to even crazier nightmares.

Behind one door there’s a Godzilla-inspired stage where Bart has to dodge a version of Mothra that looks like his mom (Margethra, I guess?) Behind another, a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up style level where Bartman takes down missiles and Krusty balloons with his trusty slingshot. There’s even a stage where Itchy and Scratchy try to kill Bart with hammers and bazookas while sentient vacuum cleaners tear across the carpet. Does any of this make any sense? No, and nightmares seldom do, so hey, just roll with it and try to get an A+ as your final score so the whole family can stare in awe at your hard work and dedication (although it’s not entirely clear if Bart didn’t just write that grade on the paper himself.)

Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness (1993)

Hey, it’s about time that Itchy & Scratchy - The Simpsons’ ultra-violent parody of Tom & Jerry - got their very own video game, although a side-scrolling mini golf game was probably not exactly what most fans expected at the time. Still, Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness manages to be ultra-violent, which is especially funny for a Game Boy game rated "E for everyone."

It’s Scratchy’s job to whack the ball over various obstacles and into the hole while managing challenging platforming sequences and collecting weapons he can use to blow up, maim, and straight up chop in half his resident nuisance animal, Itchy, who repeatedly makes it a point to annoy and harm him. Somehow this is all Krusty’s fault for reasons that are never clearly explained and ultimately don’t matter, because the end result was unique, especially when you consider your typical minigolf game at the time didn’t involve throwing knives or hitting a mouse so hard his eyeballs fly off of his face and into the 18th hole.

Bart & the Beanstalk (1994)

Okay, I promise this is the last Acclaim-developed Simpsons game for the original Nintendo Game Boy. I swear. 1994 was when The Simpsons was right in the middle of its peak of popularity, so obviously the best place to set the next video game starring ‘90s cool kid Bart Simpson was the 1700’s royalty-free British fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. Wait, what? Acclaim, a publisher clearly set on riding The Simpsons license until the wagon wheels fell off, once again gave Bart a short and floaty platforming game for the Nintendo Game Boy, this time a retelling of the classic story of a poor kid selling his family’s cow to make money and then spending said money on a magical bean that grows into a towering beanstalk leading to a giant’s castle.

There is no logical explanation for why any Simpson would be doing any of this unless some ‘90s video game executive heard Bart’s oft-repeated “don’t have a cow, man” line and decided a fable about a family selling their cow was a perfect fit. That’s the best I can do here. Let me know if you’ve got a better idea. Bart & the Beanstalk is once again a strange fit for the license and, outside of the giant looking like Homer and a cloud shaped boss looking like Mr. Burns, there’s not much here for Simpsons fans... although it does finally bring closure to Acclaim’s prolific and peculiar run of Game Boy exclusive Simpsons games. Rest in peace.

Virtual Bart (1994)

It doesn’t really get any more 1990s than Homer voice actor Dan Castellaneta yelling “Virtual Bart" over the intro of a 16-bit video game. See, in 1994 virtual reality seemed like the coolest concept in the world, even if nobody really knew what it meant and it was a label thrown around for anything from video games to just... being on the internet and doing virtual stuff like reading websites. The idea of putting on a futuristic helmet or special glasses and suddenly being whisked away to a simulated 3D world was every kid’s dream, and with very early VR experiences starting to trickle out in arcades, and movies like Demolition Man and the Lawnmower man showing their various uses, combining VR and Bart Simpson made a ton of sense if you were a marketing guy trying to get a kid to buy a video game. That said, Virtual Bart is mostly a randomized mini-game collection where Bart does various things every kid thought was cool, like watersliding, dirt bike riding, throwing eggs at teachers, and uhh, turning into a pig and escaping a canned ham factory. Yeah, that kind of stuff. Cool stuff kids love. Virtual stuff. Cool.

The Itchy & Scratchy Game (1995)

Back for another ultra violent action platforming game (this time without any pesky mini-golf to get in the way) 1995’s The Itchy & Scratchy Game lets you play as Itchy to exact revenge on that horrible cat who is always trying to kill you. The Itchy & Scratchy Game feels like someone said “What if we made a much slower and much worse Sonic the Hedgehog game with horrendous controls and level design and we gave it a soundtrack that sounded like people hitting loose floorboards with hammers the whole time. That would suck, right? Who cares, kids won’t know it sucks, just ship it.”

Well, we did know. We knew then and we know now and this game was so bad that nobody made another Itchy & Scratchy game for nearly 15 years after this. More on that later, but until then, it’s time we say goodbye to Acclaim’s seemingly endless run of mostly-not-great Simpsons video games and kick the license over to a bunch of new publishers. Thank for your service Acclaim, you may go away now.

The Simpsons Cartoon Studio (1996)

Watching Simpsons cartoons is great, but have you ever wanted to make your own? Turns out it’s really hard but still very funny if you got silly, creative, or weird enough with it, which was pretty much a given in The Simpsons Cartoon Studio for PC and Mac. Hot off the heels of “build your own cartoon” programs like Spider-Man Cartoon Maker and Felix the Cat's Cartoon Toolbox, The Simpsons Cartoon Studio lets you layer tons of different characters, effects, and sounds over various Simpsons settings to create hilarious and surrealist short films. It’s not really a “game” in that it doesn’t have a defined ending or scoring system, since creative expression is the whole point, but it still manages to yield some very fun and stupid results. Also, I’m completely convinced that several movie directors working today cut their teeth by editing short films in these '90s PC animation programs based on children’s cartoons. Just my theory, though. I have no proof.

The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield (1997)

The year is 1997 and while The Simpsons grip on pop culture is starting to loosen, excitement over the nebulous concept of all things “virtual” continued to climb, giving us the best-looking Simpsons game that had been released up until that time. Virtual Springfield decided to make the Simpsons home town the main character, allowing players to explore it through a device the game calls a “Virtual Reality Viewthingy,” which allows a first-person view of various Simpsons characters, settings, and gags, simply by pointing and clicking around.

But by far the greatest thing that Virtual Springfield gave the world is the promotional contest tied to it, where one lucky winner would become the owner of a real-life recreation of The Simpsons house built in Henderson, Nevada. Not only did they actually build the iconic house inside and out, but the contest winner refused the prize, accepting cash instead, and the local HOA hated its vibrant colors and decorations for looking out of place in the neighborhood, so it got stripped of all its Simpsons charm and repainted to a much more muted beiges and browns, none of which has stopped diehard Simpsons fans from traveling from around the world to visit it to this day. That story completely blew my mind, so thank you to Virtual Springfield and the adjacent Simpsons contests happening that year for bringing it all to life.

The Simpsons Bowling (2000)

Welcome to the year 2000! You successfully survived the Y2K bug hysteria and your reward is a trackball arcade bowling game starring The Simpsons. It’s a bit odd that it took nine years of Simpsons video games to get one based on bowling, considering how much of a presence bowling has the show (in Homer’s life, specifically, much to Marge’s chagrin.) And while seeing low-poly 3D modeled Simpsons characters is slightly disturbing, the game itself is fun enough. Like the original Konami Simpsons Arcade Game, The Simpsons Bowling lives on in the recreated 1-Up Arcade Simpsons cabinet (which I’m once again trying to talk myself out of buying) so if you’re eager to track one down or get lucky enough to find one in the game room of a real bowling alley out there, you can experience it all over again.

The Simpsons Wrestling (2001)

Finally, PlayStation owners get their first Simpsons game ever and it’s a... wrestling simulator? Uh, ok. If you thought the 3D graphics in Simpsons Bowling were jarring, get a look at this thing. Yikes. At the time, 3D wrestling games like WWF Smackdown and No Mercy were huge hits, while Simpsons popularity and general episode quality definitely started to dip a bit, so The Simpsons Wrestling may have been some kind of hail mary hopeful situation for the franchise. Players and critics alike almost universally hated it, with IGN calling it "the most horrific demolition of a license ever." But hey, you get to punch Flanders in the face, so at least Homer probably loved it.

The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror (2001)

Oh, you thought we were done with Game Boy Simpsons games developed by a video game publisher that once filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, only to return years later when their company trademarks were purchased and repurposed by investment groups? Well, THQ says "Hold my Duff Beer." The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror is a Game Boy Color action platformer inspired by The Simpsons' tradition of annual spooky Halloween time episodes, and somehow it’s actually a pretty fun game and solid proof that The Simpsons worked better as pixel art in the early 2000s. And hey, you can even play as robot Homer as a nod to the Simpsons 1991 Frankenstein meets Wizard of Oz parody “If I Only Had a Brain.”

The Simpsons Road Rage (2001)

Finally, a Simpsons driving simulator, or “What if they made a whole video game of that part in The Simpsons show intro where Homer drives recklessly around Springfield?” The Simpsons Road Rage is basically The Simpsons meets Crazy Taxi, a comparison that Sega found so striking that it actually sued EA and FOX over it before settling out of court. Developer Radical Entertainment would go on to make a much better game where you wreak havoc and destruction around Springfield a few years later, but if you could push past the frequent loading screens and unreliable hit detection, The Simpsons Road Rage was decent enough fun at the time.

The Simpsons Skateboarding (2002)

Once again a bit behind the times on video game trend chasing, The Simpsons Skateboarding in 2002 attempted to take on the four Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games that had already been released at the time (the fourth just a month earlier) and sadly, it was no contest. Despite having nine playable characters and decent enough visuals, the gameplay was atrocious and The Simpsons sound bytes being played on repeat hundreds of times per stage were maddening enough to make you want to break a skateboard in half.

But don’t worry, things are about to get a whole lot better.

The Simpsons: Hit and Run (2003)

The year was 2003, and if you were playing video games at the time you might not have realized it but you were about to get what is arguably the greatest Simpsons game of all time. Around the same time, the Grand Theft Auto franchise was firing on all cylinders between GTA: Vice City and the soon to be released GTA: San Andreas, so the creators of The Simpsons Road Rage decided to expand many of the foundations they had previously built and created The Simpsons: Hit & Run. A GTA inspired open-world Simpsons game, Hit & Run let you steal cars, cause chaos, and explore Springfield to unlock collectibles and meet and/or beat all of your favorite Simpsons characters. This combination of GTA and the Simpsons went together like peanut butter and chocolate, and while it totally sucks that a sequel was pitched, planned, and then ultimately canceled, Hit and Run totally holds up today and has a passionate and dedicated speedrunning community collaborating to finish it as fast as humanly possible over and over again.

The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown (2007)

When The Simpsons Movie arrived in theaters in 2007, Electronic Arts published a pair of games to ride off of the hopeful success of the film, banking on nostalgia from longtime fans and newcomers alike. The first Simpsons Movie tie-in game was Minutes to Meltdown, a top-down mobile game played in 30 minute sessions, the same length of time it takes to watch an episode of The Simpsons with commercials. The art style is great, looking like a long-lost isometric Sega Genesis Simpsons game, once again proving that The Simpsons often works well in pixel art. But with only three levels and some very basic puzzles, most fans bounced off this one pretty quickly. Either way, Minutes to Meltdown is officially in the abandonware category, as you can no longer legally purchase it or play it. But hey, at least now you know it once existed.

The Simpsons Game (2007)

Meanwhile, The Simpsons Game was a much bigger and more ambitious swing, launching on nearly every console and handheld in 2007 and giving The Simpsons a big, fun action platformer to coincide with the release of the film. The game is broken up into 16 episodes, with each family member appearing as a playable character and a specific set of goals. The writing was fantastic and funny thanks to the direct contributions of The Simpsons writing staff, the cel shaded polygonal art style was a perfect fit, and each stage was packed with tons of nods to gaming, like references to Grand Theft Auto, The Sims creator Will Wright, Frogger, Space Invaders, and more. Unfortunately the camera was a bit hard to control and the overall game length left much to be desired. A sequel was originally planned but ultimately scrapped, so here’s hoping we see something new when the second Simpsons movie comes out in 2027, 20 years after the release of the first film.

The Simpsons: Itchy & Scratchy Land (2009)

A year later, EA Games published another isometric pixel art Simpsons game for mobile phones called Itchy & Scratchy Land, which despite its title, doesn’t actually let you play as Itchy or Scratchy. Instead, the Simpsons family does their best to survive their local theme park, which is now overrun with deadly Itchy & Scratchy robots along with a plethora of traps and hazards designed to kill them. While managing to be a bit deeper than EA’s previous Simpsons mobile game, it’s still a fairly simplistic offering that you also can’t download on your phone these days since support for it ended long ago.

The Simpsons Arcade (2009)

Remember the 1991 Simpsons Arcade game I praised near the start of this list? Well, in 2009 EA made a mobile exclusive tribute to it, or really, a spiritual successor that was missing lots of spirit. EA’s take on The Simpsons Arcade was still a side-scrolling beat ‘em up where players pulverized various goons and Simpsons characters across Springfield, but with no local multiplayer and only Homer featured as a playable character, it missed out on much of what made the original so fun. Still, since Konami had never (and still hasn’t) ported the original arcade game to mobile, it was fun having a new take on it on the go, even if it wasn’t nearly as great.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out (2012)

As you’ve seen by now, numerous Simpsons games let you explore Springfield, but The Simpsons: Tapped Out let you design and build it yourself to your own liking, and the results were shockingly fun for a mobile game, even if it was occasionally plagued by the usual microtransaction nonsense. Checking in daily to unlock new building, reorganize your town layout, and go through your large pile of Simpsons villager requests was an obsession of mine while waiting for a bus or train to arrive on my morning commute, so much so that I once figured out how to build gigantic 8-bit Nintendo sprites of Super Mario and the Legend of Zelda’s Link made entirely out of Simpsons washing machines, bushes, and mailboxes. Sadly after 12 years of steady updates and content drops, the game’s support officially ended recently and it’s since been delisted from mobile stores, meaning it's a bit tricky if you want to try and play it for the first time this year. But man, when it was at its best it was really cool to carry around my own personal version of Springfield in my pocket.

LEGO Dimensions (2015)

Between amiibo, Skylanders, and more, the “toys-to-life” genre of real life physical collectibles you could scan into digital games were all the craze in 2015, and LEGO decided to get in on it big time. LEGO Dimensions played like your typical LEGO game at the time, combining co-op action platforming and light puzzles, but instead of focusing on one franchise they decided to combine tons of them, including the Ghostbusters, DC Comics, The Goonies, Beetlejuice, and of course, The Simpsons.

Real life LEGO sets corresponding to each franchise could be purchased, built, and scanned into the game to unlock in-game characters and rewards, giving us a trio of Simpsons “fun packs” featuring Homer, Bart, and Krusty. You probably already guessed, but this meant absolute hell for both collectors and anyone trying to 100% the game since it required the purchase of tons of different LEGO sets to complete it all. By 2017 the toys to life genre was completely oversaturated, sales fell short for LEGO Dimensions, and future additions were cancelled. Still, it’s pretty cool that this is the only Simpsons game on this list to give us new toys to go with it, and you can still regularly find them for pretty cheap these days, in case you’ve always wanted a tiny LEGO Homer car to put on your shelf.

And there you have it, a complete history of every Simpsons video game so far, spanning several decades, consoles, handhelds, PC, and more. But with The Simpsons getting added to the immensely popular multiplayer game Fortnite, the show still ongoing with no plans to stop, and a Simpsons movie sequel coming in 2027, I have a feeling we’ll be getting new Simpsons games for years to come. So what’s your favorite Simpsons game of all time? Got a personal memory of getting a Simpsons game and bringing it home to play for the first time? Let us know in the comments below, and rank your favorite Simpsons game in the tier list below.

Snowy set photos have revealed the setting of Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie — and yes, we're headed back to the series' iconic Raccoon City.

Images posted on social media by ROEnetwork, below, show filming underway in Prague, with areas of the city covered in artificial snow and littered with Raccoon City props.

Burnt out cars sit outside a street corner diner, while a snow-covered vehicle labelled as belonging to the "Martin County" sheriff lays parked under a bridge. Most intriguingly, a city map can be seen pasted up at a bus shelter, depicting Raccoon City as a sprawling metropolis.

There's a lot to talk about here, but it's worth stating the obvious first of all: Zach Cregger's Resident Evil project is clearly set prior to October 1998 and the events depicted in Resident Evil 3, which ends in the city being destroyed by missile strike.

Raccoon City is now a smoking ruin (as seen in the trailer for the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem), but this movie will take place before. How long before, though, is the question. For context, the original Resident Evil game (and Resident Evil 0) is set in July 1998, with spin-off Resident Evil Outbreak set in September of that year. Resident Evil 2 is set on September 29th and 30th, 1998, while the ending of Resident Evil 3 is set just a day later, on October 1.

The wintry setting seen in set photos (and the fact that Raccoon City is not a smoking pile of rubble) suggests a story set in the spring of 1998 at the latest — months prior to the franchise's heroes Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine turning up on the scene, and well before Leon S. Kennedy's fated first day as a cop.

FIRST LOOK: Zach Cregger’s RESIDENT EVIL has transformed Prague into a snowy Raccoon City, filming large-scale action sequences with gunfire, explosions, and stunt driving. 🧟‍♂️🎥

📺 RE Movie Details: https://t.co/RSwZ1e2Pzk
📅 Release Date: Sept 18, 2026
🔍 Source: The Prague… pic.twitter.com/FGBTRPq9hj

— RESIDENCE of EVIL (@ROEnetwork) November 4, 2025

However, this all fits with what we know of Zach Cregger's plans for the upcoming Resident Evil movie reboot: that it will be set in the same world as Capcom's video games, while not retelling any of their stories. Chris, Jill, Leon and their friends are not expected to appear, unlike in other past Resident Evil film attempts, although the events of the video games will not be contradicted.

Fans have pointed to the photos' wintry setting and linked it to a prior plot leak that mentioned an organ courier travelling to Raccoon City hospital who stumbles into a "full-blown outbreak" after an encounter on a "snowy mountain road." Cregger is expected to be reteaming with Weapons actor Austin Abrams for the film's lead role — expected by fans to be that organ courier.

Cregger's movie is slated for release on September 18, 2026. Before that, we'll be back in the ruins of Raccoon City in Resident Evil Requiem, due to launch on February 27.

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

Fired Rockstar Games staff have protested outside the UK offices of parent company Take-Two and developer Rockstar North, denying accusations of leaking company secrets and calling for their reinstatement.

Gatherings organized by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) were held outside Take-Two House in London and Rockstar’s office at Barclay House in Edinburgh, Scotland today, November 6, after up to 40 staff were fired for allegedly "distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum."

Clips of the protests published to social media show heavy criticism of Take-Two and Rockstar’s actions, with fired staff holding signs and reading prepared statements calling for their reinstatement and back pay compensation.

Calls for reinstatement and back pay compensation pic.twitter.com/g8zlUFiCno

— GTABase.com (@GTABase) November 6, 2025

Last week, the Grand Theft Auto 6 studio reportedly fired between 30 and 40 employees in a move that the IWGB claimed was "blatant" and "ruthless" union busting. At the time, Rockstar parent company Take-Two issued a statement insisting the firings were for "gross misconduct, and for no other reason."

According to Bloomberg, the fired workers were all UK and Canadian employees who were also part of a private trade union chat group on Discord, and were either union members themselves or trying to organize a union within Rockstar. The IWGB claimed the staff were fired explicitly due to union activities.

A new Bloomberg report carried a fresh statement from Take-Two, in which the company insisted the fired staff had leaked company secrets in a “public forum.”

“Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies,” the Take-Two statement read. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”

According to the IWGB, the only non-Rockstar people inside the private union Discord were union organizers. IWGB boss Alex Marshall issued IGN the following statement:

"Rockstar continue to deflect from the real reason for these dismissals: they are afraid of hard working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice. Management are showing they don’t care about delays to GTA 6, and that they’re prioritising union busting by targeting the very people who make the game.

"In recent years, Rockstar executives have benefited from £443 million in tax relief, while showing total disregard for the law or the livelihoods of their staff. At every turn, they’ve chosen profits over both workers and fans of their games.

"The only non Rockstar employees in the union Discord channel were union organisers."

A dismissed employee at Rockstar reads a statement: pic.twitter.com/wkIDU28NRJ

— ben (@videotechuk_) November 6, 2025

One fired member of staff protesting today said what had happened to them was “deeply unfair,” claiming they were dismissed “without warning, without evidence, and without a chance to speak for myself.”

The fired staff member continued: “All because I talked with colleagues in a private union chat. We weren’t leaking anything or trying to harm the company. We were supporting each other, trying to understand our workplace and make it better. To lose my job for that is deeply unfair. No-one should be punished for being part of a union or for speaking honestly about their work.”

Ross Greer, co-leader of the Scottish Greens political party and MSP for the West of Scotland, took to social media to back the protests, saying: “Reinstate them now, then get around the table and give your staff the pay and conditions they deserve for making you billions.”

The @scottishgreens stand with the dozens of workers sacked by @RockstarGames for exercising their right to organise a union.

Reinstate them now, then get around the table and give your staff the pay and conditions they deserve for making you billions. pic.twitter.com/jENH89QNYg

— Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) November 6, 2025

The protests come ahead of the expected release of GTA 6 in May next year. While limiting its pre-release marketing to just two trailers and a series of screenshots so far, Rockstar has put a focus on security after suffering a massive leak of the in-development GTA 6 in 2022, and the day-early release of GTA 6 Trailer 1 the following year. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick called the 2022 leak "terribly unfortunate... and we take those sorts of incidents very seriously indeed."

He added: "There’s no evidence that any material assets were taken, which is a good thing, and certainly the leak won’t have any influence on development or anything of the sort, but it is terribly disappointing and causes us to be ever more vigilant on matters relating to cybersecurity.”

Last year, the studio asked employees to come to the office five days a week, citing a desire for both increased productivity and security. The decision was criticized by workers affiliated with the IWGB, who said Rockstar broke promises with the forced return to office, and accused the studio of refusing to engage with workers on the issue.

Image credit: Ross Greer / 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.

Each year, LEGO releases a major new set right around Black Friday. This year’s late November release has just been announced: the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The ship is nearly two feet long and, just like in the show, it has a detachable command saucer. It's not available for preorder, but will be available to buy November 28 on the LEGO Store, for $399.99.

LEGO Icons Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D

Star Trek Minifigures Included

LEGO Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise comes with nine minifigures. Each minifigure comes with its own accessory, be it Spot the cat or a trombone with stand. Here's the full list:

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• Commander William Rier
• Lieutenant Worf
• Lieutenant Commander Data
• Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
• Counsellor Deanna Troi
• Bartender Guinan
• Wesley Crusher

Since this is a LEGO set for adults, it comes with a buildable display stand and an informational placard, plus a minifigure display tile that says “Star Trek: The Next Generation” on it.

Previous LEGO Black Friday Sets

In case you're wondering about previous LEGO Black Friday sets, here's a rundown of what's been released over the past few years:

• 2024 - The Endurance
• 2023 - Avengers Tower
• 2022 - Eiffel Tower
• 2021 - Star Wars UCS AT-AT
• 2020 - The Colosseum

In other recent news, LEGO has announced its Black Friday 2025 plans. Also, you can preorder four upcoming sets based on the game LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. And be sure to check out all the rest of the LEGO sets for November 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.

Nintendo has revealed fresh details of Pokémon Legends: Z-A's upcoming Mega Dimension DLC, which stars two new variants of Pikachu evolution Raichu.

Today's trailer notably confirms a release date for Mega Dimension: December 10. We also got to see our first look at more new Mega Evolutions coming to Pokémon Legends: Z-A as part of the DLC: Mega Chimecho and Mega Baxcalibur.

Mega Dimension sees players enter Hyperspace Lumiose with the help of dimension portal Pokémon Hoopa. "At a glance, Hyperspace Lumiose may resemble the real Lumiose, but it’s a very different place," the trailer's description reveals. And indeed, this version of the city holds a big difference — here, Pokémon can temporarily be boosted beyond their normal Level 100 limit.

With the help of new character Ansha, a donut chef, players can feed their Pokémon mystical sweet treats that over-level their critters within Hyperspace Lumiose's mysterious limits. Pokémon X and Y gym leader Korrina will also appear as an ally.

The trailer states that the Mega Stone to unlock Mega Baxcalibur will be distributed in Season 4 of the game's online ranked battles, following the similar release of Mega Stones for Mega Greninja, Mega Delphox and Mega Chesnaught.

An extra side mission within Pokémon Legends Z-A is also now available, which will provide the Mega Stone for Mythical creature Diancie. "Shine Bright like a Gemstone" will become playable today for all owners of the game, regardless of whether you have bought its DLC, or whether you get its Rihanna reference.

Nintendo previously announced Mega Dimension back in September, when fans raised their eyebrows at its early confirmation and $30 pricetag. As many pointed out, purchasing the DLC and the base game on Switch 2 means paying $100 total.

Earlier today, Pokémon Legends: Z-A received its first post-launch patch, which makes adjustments to its ranked battles and fixes a number of bugs.

If you're jumping into Pokémon Legends Z-A, choose your Starter Pokémon, then check out our in-progress Pokémon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough, plus our Side Missions List to make sure you don't miss anything. We've also got a Pokémon Legends: Z-A Pokedex, and most importantly, a guide to All Clothing Stores and Clothing in Pokémon Legends: Z-A so you can catch 'em all in style.

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

In recent years, we've seen Hasbro unleash several pop culture crossovers between the Transformers franchise and other popular movies and shows. But now the company is revealing its strangest pop culture mash-up yet. Literally. IGN can exclusively reveal the first photos and details for the Transformers x Stranger Things Freakwency and 8-Trax set.

This new collaboration is inspired by Stranger Things' upcoming fifth and final season. Freakwency is a new character modeled on the WSQK van driven by Millie Bobby Brown's Elle and the gang in the show, while 8-Trax transforms from an 8-track tape to a hawk. Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at this intriguing new set:

Freakwency is a 6-inch robot who transforms into van mode in 16 steps, while 8-Trax transforms between tape and hawk in 8 steps (and can also fit inside Freakwency's chest while in tape mode). This set also includes a blaster accessory for Freakwency that can transform into a rubber chicken.

The Transformers x Stranger Things Freakwency and 8-Trax set is priced at $57.99 and will be available exclusively through Target. Preorders are open on the Target website now.

Will you be adding Freakwency and 8-Trax to your Transformers collection? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to check out the LEGO Optimus Prime available on the IGN Store.

In other Stranger Things news, the creators are teasing that Season 5 will answer a long-standing mystery that dates back to Season 1. Season 5 arrives over three years after the finale of Season 4. For more, check out the burning questions we still have from Stranger Things Season 4.

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

League of Legends technically already has a card game in the underrated Legends of Runeterra, but now we have a physical game, too, with its own rules, booster packs, preconstructed decks and more.

Riftbound lets you play as your favorite Champions in a new way, and some cards are already sought after. With the caveat that these prices are taken close to the launch of the game’s first set, Origins, here are the most valuable cards.

The Most Expensive Riftbound: Origins Cards Right Now

15: Kai’Sa, Survivor (Alternate Art) - $80

Warner Bros. Discovery has announced a new Gremlins movie, due out in 2027.

During a financial call, David Zaslav, CEO and President of Warner Bros. Discovery, said the new Gremlins movie will launch on November 19, 2027, with Steven Spielberg involved as an executive producer.

Original Gremlins writer Chris Columbus returns to both direct and executive prodiuce this new entry in the series. Plot details and cast information remain under wraps.

Gremlins is a much-loved 1984 comedy horror movie written by Columbus and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, and Hoyt Axton. It tells the story of Billy Peltzer, who receives Gizmo the Mogwai as a pet as a Christmas present from his father. After getting wet, Gizmo spawns more Gremlins who go on to terrorize the fictional, snowy American town of Kingston Falls, Pennsylvania.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch followed in 1990, with Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates reprising their roles, this time with the Gremlins causing havoc in New York.

And that's where the Gremlins movie series ends, with a prequel animated series coming out in 2023. Season 1, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, is set in 1920s Shanghai, China, and tells the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing met Gizmo. Season 2, Gremlins: The Wild Batch, came out last year.

Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP.

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.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if BLANK met BLANK?” is a question fans have asked each other for a long time, and occasionally we get an actual, official answer. Whether it be two different rival comic book companies joining forces for a big crossover, a hodgepodge of outside IP inclusions in a fighting game, or two slasher icons finally facing off thanks to the rights to one of them swapping studios, we’ve seen some notable events of this sort through the years. Then the MCU caused an explosion in the idea of a shared movie universe akin to what comic books have long offered, with the likes of the Conjuring Universe, the DCEU (and now the DCU), and more exploring a larger world that allows for characters and concepts to freely interact with each other across multiple projects. Still, Alien and Predator deserve credit for being early to this idea, even as their own exploration of the concept has ebbed and flowed a lot through the decades.

Now, the new film Predator: Badlands is getting attention for its prominent use of Weyland-Yutani, the organization that has been a major part of the Alien franchise since the start. Yet this is hardly the first time Alien and Predator have bled over…and sometimes bled on…each other, with a history that includes everything from fun easter eggs to outright direct crossovers across multiple media. So let’s look back at the history of these two franchises intersecting, and the long road to the idea becoming officially integrated into the core canon films.

It’s All Thanks to Comic Books

The first Predator movie came out in 1987, eight years after the original Alien. A big hit in its own right, Predator’s timing was also notable, coming out just a year removed from the major success of 1986’s Aliens, the first Alien sequel. There were some innate, albeit basic, similarities in the films, beginning on the corporate side. Both movies were owned and released by 20th Century Fox, something that would prove to be key to allowing crossovers without the legal hurdles that can often curtail such a thing. But more than that, both films were about a visually distinctive and notably dangerous alien creature fighting humans, and while the Alien movies were set in the future and Predator in the present, there was no reason to think either species hadn’t been around and would continue to be around for a long time.

In 1988, Dark Horse Comics began publishing Aliens-branded comic books, and it was a quick success, proving the appeal to that title beyond the films. Both 20th Century Fox and Dark Horse were clearly pleased with the results; in 1989, Dark Horse put out their first licensed Predator comic book limited series as well. Then, well, it’s actually quite impressive how quickly the two were pitted against each other, especially when you consider how new Predator was as a title at all.

Dark Horse’s Chris Warner is credited with being the one to first suggest bringing the two extraterrestrial threats up against each other in comic book form, telling Syfy Wire in 2018, “It’s a pretty obvious idea. When you say, ‘Ali vs. Frazier, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Aliens vs. Predator,’ the ideas just exploded. You hear the adage, ‘It almost wrote itself.' Well, it almost wrote itself.”

As 1989 came to a close, a three-part storyline was launched in the black-and-white anthology series, Dark Horse Presents, except its true interconnected nature was saved for the end. In Dark Horse Presents #34, readers got an Aliens story, and then in issue #35, a Predator story. But then came Dark Horse Presents #36, with a cover that read “Aliens vs. Predator” among the list of that issue's stories and accompanying art showing one of each species in battle. And just like that, a major sub-franchise/spin-off connected to two other established franchises was born.

That first Dark Horse Presents story was in fact a lead-in to a full Aliens vs. Predator five-issue limited series, which launched in the summer of 1990. Some of the core elements of this comic, including the Predators hunting xenomorphs as a rite of passage, and a partnership forming between the intelligent Predators and a human (in this case, Machiko Noguchi, a colonist on the planet Ryushi) against the insect-like, monstrous Aliens, would be explored further and echoed in many other stories that followed.

That first limited series was a hit, and from then on, AVP (as it quickly became commonly referred to) was a go-to concept for Dark Horse, even as they continued to publish independent Aliens and Predator comics. For nearly 30 years, until the rights to both properties would change hands after Disney bought 20th Century Fox, and subsequent Alien and Predator comics would move to Marvel, Dark Horse would revisit Aliens vs. Predator in various limited series, one-shots, and short stories.

The First Movie Connection

When the initial Aliens vs. Predator limited series launched in 1990, it was a big year for Predator in general. Just as that comic series was wrapping up, Predator 2 hit theaters, and with it came the arrival of arguably one of the biggest and most tantalizing easter eggs in franchise movie history up to that point.

In Predator 2’s conclusion, LA cop Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) follows the Predator he’s been battling onto its ship, and comes across a trophy wall which is covered in skulls from previous successful Predator hunts. Some of these skulls are human, but many are from various alien species which were created just for Predator 2…except, most notably, a large freaking ALIEN skull that is very clearly in the shape of a xenomorph.

The Battlefield 6 community has asked for bigger Conquest maps for months, so someone made their own – and they're actually pretty popular.

Fans have spent the time since launch asking EA and Battlefield Studios for everything from aim assist tweaks to realistic skins, but few conversations have stolen the spotlight quite like the discussion around map sizes. While some players went to great lengths to determine if Battlefield 6 maps are as small as they look and others took to review-bombing, the more creative individuals are using Battlefield Portal and REDSEC to make larger maps of their own.

Thanks to work from Reddit users kurtinthegrind and andy_6170 (a.k.a. ViperAndyStudios), the Battlefield 6 community now has Club House, a large-scale Conquest play area that pulls elements from REDSEC’s Southern California-set Fort Lyndon map for an (unofficial) version of the kind of wide-open spaces they’ve been asking for. There are also Tech Center and Operation Tech Center map options, with the former set up as a large-scale, infantry-focused Conquest map, while the latter offers linear gameplay centered around one main building.

“The credit to the original version of Tech Center and the Conquest Script belongs to Andy,” kurtinthegrind says, “though I've made a few modifications to them.

“Club House and the smaller version of Tech Center are my creations, and honestly, I'm not too proud of them. But until Ripple Effect/Battlefield Studios provides improved Portal support and releases ALL parts of Battle Royale map, these will have to suffice.”

Both bot and bot-less versions of the Club House and Tech Center maps are currently available for players to create servers, but it’s Club House that’s attracting the most attention online. In the middle of a Wednesday, the map, also known as Golf Course, boasts a few hundred active players across different server browsers in Battlefield 6, with some 64-player servers populated almost entirely with real people.

Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has discussed last year's intense backlash to Assassin's Creed Shadows, and said the unexpected conversation shift "from gameplay to ideology" led directly to its high-profile delay.

Speaking during a recent event at Paris Games Week, as reported by GameFile, Guillemot screened a short internal video Ubisoft had created to narrate its response to the backlash surrounding Shadows' Black samurai co-protagonist Yasuke — which even saw Tesla and X boss Elon Musk getting involved.

Guillemot has now stated that the level of vitriol required Ubisoft to rethink its plans for Shadows — back then, set for launch in November 2024. Ultimately, the company elected to delay the game until March 2025, a decision explained last year as necessary to "polish" the game further. But, behind the scenes, Guillemot says the firm understood it needed to bolster fan sentiment to ensure the game launched to a more positive response.

With more time to improve the game, Ubisoft gave itself the opportunity to share more with fans pre-launch, Guillemot said, something the company hoped would both impress long-term Assassin's Creed aficionados, and move the conversation around Shadows on.

"What we saw is that, by allowing our fans to see in the game — everything they were going to be able to rediscover — of what they love about Assassin's Creed, [that] ultimately helped to combat this aggression, which is linked to the fact that video games have a very strong impact on the people who play them," Guillemot said. "They’re kind of caught between 'I want to play, and what interests me is self-expression within a game' and 'there is a cultural message that comes with the video game.'

"So our goal is really to be able to ensure that our fans discover and defend what they expect from our games," Guillemot continued. "It very quickly eliminated the fights, which were just fake fights."

In an internal video, also shown last week, Ubisoft described its response as a successful turnaround of public opinion on a game featuring a pre-launch crisis.

"What happens when a legendary franchise reveals one of its most anticipated experiences," the video begins, "only to become the game everyone loves to hate? When conversation shifts from gameplay to ideology? When everything you say only adds fuel to the fire?

"In September 2024, we had our backs against the wall, and that's when it clicked," the video continues. "To get out of the corner, we had to stop focusing on those who hated us. We had to start firing up our allies. So we stopped trying to win the argument, and leaned on what had carried us for 18 years: The Assassin's Creed brand.

"We started by doing the last thing anyone would have advised. We delayed the game. The extra time allowed the devs to polish, optimize, and reach the high standards fans expect from an Assassin's Creed game.

"It also gave us time to rebuild the Assassin’s Creed brand pact, putting the markers of the franchise back at the center. More hood, more stealth, more leap of faith, more lore. So we could show that the spirit of Assassin’s Creed lives on in Shadows.

"Instead of fearing leaks, we showed the game," Ubisoft concluded. "Fans came back, conversations started shifting, and everyone who built, played, and loved this game could be proud again."

The framing of the delay as a positive response to the game's backlash is an interesting one, though one which feels limited considering what we already know from other reports detailing events at the time.

In October last year, Insider Gaming reported that the game's delay had been widely expected within the company "and desperately needed" to address feedback from playtests and mock reviews (a standard industry practice where external consultants size-up projects before copies are given to press).

Speaking in December last year, former Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté suggested similar, saying that the game's delay was necessary to change the "narrative" of Ubisoft's "inconsistency in quality" (just months after the company's fellow blockbuster Star Wars Outlaws underperformed).

And, perhaps most notably, there's no mention here by Guillemot of the fact that Ubisoft's plans to delay Shadows came alongside a decision to reportedly cancel a separate Assassin's Creed game set in post-Civil War America — a project that would have featured a former slave as its main character. While still in pre-production, the game's fate was apparently sealed after Ubisoft judged the idea too risky to continue amid the current U.S. political landscape — and, to a lesser extent, after having seen the Yasuke backlash.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has gone on to sell "in line with expectations," Ubisoft said in July, with 5 million copies sold so far.

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

Want to be charged less for, well, charging? I've found a cracking deal on this INIU 45W 10,000 mAh USB-C Power Bank that will power up your smartphone a couple of times over for less than a succulent Chinese meal.

It also supports safe fast charging, so no worries about overloading your smartphone or tablet battery here, although most modern devices have some form of battery protection built in these days.

INIU states it can charge an iPhone 16 to 63% and a Samsung S24 Ultra to 73% in just 25 minutes, which is very impressive for $13.26. It's also a pretty smashing pick for those after a Switch 2 portable charger as well!

Shroud has called on his fans to vote for Arc Raiders as Game of the Year 2025 over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, calling multiplayer gamers “the minority.”

Canadian Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek, who specializes in competitive multiplayer first-person shooters, is a former professional Counter-Strike player who has built an enormous online audience. With 6.8 million subscribers on YouTube and 11.3 million followers on Twitch, his call to action has significant weight behind it.

Shroud has thrown himself into Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders ever since its explosive launch, and in a recent Twitch stream mobilized his community to vote for the game when it comes to The Game Awards 2025.

PlayStation Portal has come a long way since its launch, and I genuinely believe it is now set up to be one of the hot ticket items during the Black Friday sales. That's if it can stay in stock.

My optimism for this handy handheld has only been bolstered by the news that Sony has recently ramped up the capabilities of the device, enabling Cloud Streaming for everyone, allowing all owners to stream thousands of games without even being connected to a PS5 console.

Let's dig into why this is important, how the PS Portal could be one of the best-selling gaming devices for the holidays, and whether we'll actually be able to bag any discounts on it.

The only down side is that, since these deals are so excellent, they can sell out unbelievably fast. If you spot one on sale (or get reminded by us), then you'd better buy it ASAP to avoid Black Friday deal FOMO.

For those who miss out, there will still likely be an official deal to check out. It just won't be as good. So, keep an eye out for both, and we'll be sure to notify you as well via our Black Friday coverage, or on IGNDeals Twitter/X.

How Does PS Portal's New Cloud Streaming Work?

To start with, you'll need to be a PlayStation Plus Premium members to access the PS Portal's Cloud Streaming function. It costs $17.99 per month, and thanks to the new update, subscribers can now stream a long, long list of games that they may already own, including big hitters such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Borderlands 4, and the newly-launched Ghost of Yotei.

Hundreds of games from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics Catalog are also now streamable, including existing titles such as Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, and God of War Ragnarök. Sony has a long list of every title supported, which stretches to more than 2,800 games.

When Is Black Friday 2025?

We’re in the endgame now: Black Friday falls on November 28 this year.

All month long, retailers will be rolling out the sales, ramping up to massive discounts on Black Friday and through the weekend into Cyber Monday.

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.

Filming has reportedly begun on Nintendo's live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, with shooting set to take place in New Zealand until April next year.

A production listing filed by industry resource the Film & Television Industry Alliance (FTIA) has updated this week to reflect the project's current "in production" status.

Filming is listed as being based in Wellington, New Zealand, and fans are already hoping the location will give Nintendo's fantasy adventure the same kind of backdrops seen in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Details of the project remain largely under-wraps, other than Nintendo's announcement back in July that young actors Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will play Zelda and Link. A basic plot outline has also been shared, which describes the film thus:

"The Legend of Zelda follows Link, a young warrior destined to protect the magical kingdom of Hyrule from the forces of darkness. The land is under threat from Ganon, a ruthless warlord who seeks the Triforce — an ancient relic said to grant limitless power. To stop him, Link must embark on a perilous journey, battling monstrous creatures, exploring treacherous dungeons, and solving intricate puzzles to uncover sacred artifacts that can aid him in his quest."

Officially announced in November 2023, Nintendo's live-action The Legend of Zelda project is being produced by the company's legendary creative boss Shigeru Miyamoto, alongside Avi Arad, former CEO of Marvel Studios.

MonsterVerze is a Roblox experience that revolves around fashion, where the afterlife gives you a second chance to serve looks. After suffering an unfortunate accident, you'll be able to travel around the MonsterVerze from the Graveyard to the Train Station and Eerie High.

Along the way, you'll dress up and customize your character, meaning you'll want Ghoulars to spend in the shop. You can pick up Ghoulars while you're running around, but we've also got MonsterVerze codes that you can use to boost your stacks of Ghoulars.

Working MonsterVerze Codes

The following codes have been tested and can be redeemed:

• WEAREBACK - Free Item (NEW)
• MVHOMECOMING - Homecoming Balloons, Opal Plushie, 6,000 Ghoulars
• MV1MILLION - Shattered Love Crown
• BUGFIXES02 - 10,000 Ghoulars

How to Use MonsterVerze Codes

Launch MonsterVerze and then follow these steps to redeem codes:

1. Press Play and get into the MonsterVerze
2. Click on the Coffin icon on the right side of the screen
3. Then click on Settings at the bottom of the coffin
4. Copy the code from this article into the Enter Code... box and
5. Press Redeem

Expired MonsterVerze Codes

MonsterVerze has just entered its beta, so there are no expired codes at the moment! Be sure to use the codes in the working section before they disappear.

Why Isn't My MonsterVerze Code Working?

Codes for Roblox experiences are usually case-sensitive, so the best way to ensure you've got a working code is to directly copy it from this article. We check all codes before we upload them, so you can guarantee they're working. Just double-check that you haven't copied over an extra space!

When Is the Next MonsterVerze Update?

MonsterVerze updates every week, on a Sunday. For now, there are no special planned events but we'll be sure to update this article if that changes. The Sunday updates are currently designed to address any bugs and improve quality of life features.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

Rockstar Games co-founder and former lead writer Dan Houser has said he’d feel more sad to learn Red Dead Redemption 3 was in development without him than he feels about GTA 6, but admits the game “will probably happen.”

2018 epic western Red Dead Redemption 2 is considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest video games of all time. Houser was lead writer on it, as he was for almost all Rockstar’s games. But having left the company over five years ago, Houser recently confirmed to IGN that GTA 6 won’t have a story or a character set he developed, but expects the game to be great nonetheless.

Now, in an interview with the Lex Fridman podcast, Houser has indicated that he’d have stronger feelings when Rockstar inevitably returns to Red Dead Redemption with a follow-up.

“Of course, letting go of something I worked on in one way or another for like 20 odd years, and wrote on them for the last 10 or 11 that came out, wrote all of them, or you know, lead writer on all of them, whatever it was… letting go of that is a big change. And sad in a way,” Houser said.

“Because each of the [Grand Theft Auto] games was a kind of standalone story it’s not quite the same as… I think probably it would be in some ways sadder if someone continued on Red Dead, because it was a cohesive two-game arc. That might be more sad to hear someone working on that. But again, that will probably happen too. I don't own the IP. That was part of the deal. It's a privilege to work on stuff, but you don't necessarily own it.”

Is Red Dead Redemption 3 an inevitability? Houser seems to think the Red Dead Redemption series will continue, but it’s worth noting that the series began with Red Dead Revolver in 2004, so perhaps Rockstar will create a new sub-series if and when it decides the time is right for more Red Dead.

Speaking of which, in 2023, Roger Clark, who played Arthur Morgan, the main playable protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 2, said he was “certain” fans will see Red Dead Redemption 3 “one day,” but qualified that statement by saying he had no idea when that would be. Clark also ruled out the return of Arthur Morgan in the game, should it come to be. If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption 2, this might seem like stating the obvious, but there’s always the chance Rockstar may consider another prequel of some kind.

“I’m certain we will see Red Redemption 3 one day,” Clark said. “When that will be — I have absolutely no idea. Don’t count on Arthur’s involvement either. His story has been told, I feel.”

In a subsequent interview with IGN, Clark expanded on his thoughts: “Yeah, that got really picked up! I would have thought that was obvious though. Wouldn’t you? And it’s not like I have any insider information whatsoever, but of course there’s going to be another Red Dead. It sold over 60 million copies!”

He continued: “Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two said it himself. He said GTA and Red Dead are prominent franchises for Rockstar Games and that they will be returning to them in the future. So there’s no doubt there will be another Red Dead. But if Arthur Morgan will be involved? I highly doubt it, to be honest. And I think it’s going to be quite some time before we even see a snifter of anything new Red Dead related. I have no idea how it would pan out, but I wouldn’t bet on Arthur being a part of it.”

For now, the focus very much is on GTA 6, due out May 2026.

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

There's a new patch today for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which makes adjustments to its ranked battles and fixes a number of bugs.

Version 1.0.2 of the newly-released Pokémon adventure is available to download now on both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, following the game's arrival last month.

While there are no new major features included within the update, a couple of adjustments here may prove useful as players continue to participate in ranked battles over the coming weeks and months in order to obtain the mode's exclusive Mega Stone rewards.

Last week, The Pokemon Company revealed that these Mega Stone rewards — which unlock access to Mega Greninja, Mega Delphox and Mega Chesnaught — would be easier to obtain, beginning with the start of ranked battle mode's Season 2.

Today's update adjusts the number of points earned based on ranking so "that points are not reduced depending on the outcome of the match." Rather vaguely, there's also mention that "some battle rewards that can be received for each battle have been added and increased."

A selection of bug fixes are also included, tied to Mega Evolutions, side missions and "some other issues" — the full details of which can be found in the official patch notes below.

Pokémon Legends Z-A - Version 1.0.2 (November 6, 2025) patch notes:

The following bugs have been fixed:

• If you have not opened the box screen since the box was full before the first Mega Evolution battle, you will definitely fail to capture a Pokemon. Also, if you proceed with a side mission that allows you to obtain a Pokemon in that state, you will not be able to complete it.
• In some side missions, if the day/night change occurs at the same time that a skill is hit on a target, it will no longer be possible to hit the target with a skill, and the side mission will no longer be able to progress.
• During a trainer battle, if the opposing trainer switches Pokemon and the player simultaneously Mega Evolves, the opposing trainer will not be able to send out a Pokemon and will be unable to proceed.
• Fixed some other issues.

Rank Battle Balance Adjustments:

• Adjustment of points earned based on ranking so that points are not reduced depending on the outcome of the match.
• Some battle rewards that can be received for each battle have been added and increased.

*The latest update data is required to play online features.
*Local communication is not compatible with previous versions. Please make sure that you and the people you play with have the same update data version.

It's worth noting that today, November 6, Nintendo is due to reveal more information on Pokémon Legends: Z-A's Mega Dimension DLC, via a trailer that's set to go live at 9am Eastern / 6am Pacific / 2pm UK time. Perhaps there's more hidden in today's update that's tied to that?

Since launch, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has gone on to sell almost 6 million copies in its first week, and has been getting a generally warm reception from fans. The adventure "finally feels like Game Freak hitting its stride in Pokemon’s 3D era, with a fun setting to explore, a well-written story, and a total battle system overhaul that works surprisingly well," IGN wrote in our Pokémon Legends: Z-A review.

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 boss of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance games has reviewed The Outer Worlds 2, and in doing so has issued a number of stinging criticisms of Obsidian’s sci-fi RPG.

Daniel Vavra, co-founder of Warhorse Studios and lead writer of the much-loved RPGs Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, took to social media to say he’d finished The Outer Worlds 2 and settled on a 7/10 review score (check out IGN’s The Outer Worlds 2 review to find out what we thought).

That’s a decent score for any video game, but expanding his thoughts, Vavra criticized The Outer Worlds 2 and Microsoft-owned developer, Obsidian Entertainment, for fasiling to innovate in the RPG space.

Here’s the review in full:

Finished. 7/10. But what I find sad is that the company and the people who gave us one of my favorite games ever (Fallout & New Vegas) have been unable, even after 15 years and with all of Microsoft's money and latest technological advances, to come up with a single new game mechanic that could take this proven but ancient formula somewhere new. Can any of you think of a single new game mechanic in The Outer Worlds that wasn't already in Deus Ex or the original Fallout games more than 25 years ago? Unfortunately, I can't. Give me a living, simulated world! True non-linearity! Give me something more than loot boxes, maintenance shafts, loading screens and level grinding in a static scripted world.

It’s worth unpacking Vavra’s comment. His first point is an accusation that Obsidian, creator of the beloved Fallout: New Vegas, has failed to significantly evolve its "ancient formula," despite the backing of moneybags Microsoft. He claims The Outer Worlds (I assume he means The Outer Worlds 2 here) doesn’t have a single new game mechanic that wasn’t already in Deus Ex or the original Fallout games more than 25 years ago.

Is that true? Some people are pointing to The Outer Worlds 2’s Flaw system, which sees the game dish out game-changing perks that can benefit your character but always hinder them in some way, as an eye-catching new feature for this type of RPG. In a later social media post, Vavra said Fallout had Traits with negative aspects, calling this Flaw system “nothing new.”

But is that fair? The Outer Worlds 2’s Flaw system is getting a lot of love from players not just for their impact on playstyle, but the way they’re unlocked. As you play the game, you’ll occasionally trigger a Flaw opportunity, with the game itself reacting to the way you’re playing by delivering some really fun perks that are a delight to encounter. For example, if you crouch walk a lot you’ll be offered the Bad Knees Flaw, which makes you crouch walk faster but every time you stand up your knees crack, making a noise guards might hear. I won’t spoil all the Flaws here because part of the fun is in their discovery, but I will say it feels like there is a DM behind the scenes, observing your playstyle and occasionally dipping into the action to add some spice to your experience.

Others are pointing to the way Obsidian lets players unlock unique dialogue options not just by having a high speech skill, but by seeking out information which can then be brought into conversations to gain an advantage. Your character will remember "discovered info” you’ve found from, say, terminals or chats with other NPCs or examining things, and you’ll get the chance to use it in conversation when it counts. It’s a cool system that adds depth to the standard, straight-forward speech-driven dialogue experience you see in a lot of RPGs, and it makes you want to go out into the world and learn more before having the big quest convos, like the space detective I like role-playing as.

Vavra continues: “Give me a living, simulated world! True non-linearity! Give me something more than loot boxes, maintenance shafts, loading screens and level grinding in a static scripted world.”

Here, Vavra’s assessment of The Outer Worlds 2 perhaps rings true. The game’s mini-open worlds can feel static and scripted in the sense that they do not revolve around a simulation. The Outer Worlds 2 is not a game similar in scope or style to one of Bethesda’s big RPGs. It is not Fallout: New Vegas, even, more a game that rekindles memories of it.

And scope is something Obsidian openly talks about. It is one of the most prolific studios Microsoft has, having released three new games this year alone: Avowed, Grounded 2, and The Outer Worlds 2. It is a developer that has learnt to focus when it comes to scope, to drill down, and to ship games that are manageable to play and, I suspect, manageable to develop. Obsidian isn’t doing a The Elder Scrolls 6 here. It’s carved out a style all its own.

So The Outer Worlds 2 was never going to be a game with a living, simulated world. Whether that disappoints you or not probably comes down to your expectations for modern Obsidian games. But I’d say it was pretty obvious what The Outer Worlds 2 was going to be, not just based on previews, but on the studio’s previous games.

And what about Vavra’s “all of Microsoft’s money” comment? Sure, Microsoft has significant resources, but the business reality is — reportedly — that Xbox studios are under more pressure to deliver profits. Part of doing that will be bringing more money in while keeping development as low as possible. It does not feel like Xbox studios have a magic money tap to make their dream games come true.

Vavra’s comments have certainly hit a nerve online, and have sparked a debate about what Obsidian is trying to do when it comes to video game development. It recently acknowledged that fans desperately want it to make Fallout: New Vegas 2, a game that would probably come with the kind of expectations Vavra has for the studio, but it’s enjoying creating new IP and building those franchises out with sequels, which is what The Outer Worlds 2 is all about.

It should be clear by now that Obsidian’s focus is on actually releasing games that are consistently good and don’t necessarily need to be huge hits to be successful. In the current climate, perhaps that’s an approach that makes a lot of sense.

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

There are still a few weeks to go before Black Friday officially starts, but if you’re looking for some early savings on games right now, look no further than Woot.

The Amazon-owned online retailer is offering discounts at the moment on a select few Switch 2 games, including Donkey Kong Bananza (down to $61.99), Mario Kart World (down to $69.99), Tears of the Kingdom (also down to $69.99), and more.

Switch 2 Game Sale at Woot

It’s worth noting that while these say they’re the International Version, all Nintendo Switch games are region-free so they'll work fine with your Switch 2.

This sale event (see here in full at Woot) is also set to come to an end on November 8, so if one of these deals catches your eye you’ll want to move fast to secure it. Deals like these tend to sell out quickly, too, which is worth keeping in mind.

If you’re looking to pick up Donkey Kong Bananza, in particular, it’s worth noting that we’re very big fans of it. In our glowing 10/10 review, IGN’s Logan Plant said it’s, “a truly groundbreaking 3D platformer, with satisfying movement, powerful abilities, impressive destructible environments, and clever challenges that all come together in complete harmony to create Nintendo’s first Switch 2 masterpiece.”

As we enter into the month of November, Black Friday sales are already starting to kick off, which means there are bound to be plenty more gaming deals popping up soon and over the next few weeks.

While Black Friday doesn’t officially start until November 28, several retailers drop deals all throughout the month leading up to it. If you’re on the hunt for new games, accessories, or even console deals, we’ll be tracking the best discounts as they appear over the busy holiday season.

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

Battlefield lead producer David Sirland has taken to social media to clear the air about how Battlefield Studios uses bots in Battlefield 6 multiplayer to keep players engaged.

EA’s latest entry in the Battlefield series notoriously uses bots to populate standard matches that struggle to fill teams with real-world players. It’s led to some confusion in the community, as fans attempt to grasp when, how, and why BF Studios has been implementing them in online matches.

Sirland took to X/Twitter to shed light on bots, explicitly calling attention to “confusion” in the player base that he hopes to clear up. The thread of posts comes with an explanation for why some may see more bots than others, as well as the promise that EA and BF Studios will continue listening to feedback from Battlefield 6 multiplayer fans.

Players have noticed bots in standard multiplayer playlist options, especially for game modes with large lobbies like Conquest, since Battlefield 6 launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S October 10. EA proudly touted that it had managed to sell 7 million copies in just three days, leaving many to wonder why they are being tossed into bot-filled matches less than one month after launch.

Sirland explains that players should only find themselves fighting against Battlefield 6 bots in unique situations. Specifically, if the pre-round waiting period takes longer than about three minutes, than bots will be introduced as a last resort, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be forced to work with dozens of AI teammates for the duration of a 30-minute Conquest match.

“At that point, the game starts, and you can play with the bots instead of waiting,” Sirland explains. “Other players in the same region matchmaking on that same playlist - will join this server (as it has you on it). Each time a player joins, a bot leaves.”

It’s a sacrifice that gets players into a match with as little waiting as possible at the cost of filling a lobby with real people. Even if bots only temporarily fill a match, it sounds like BF Studios prefers the trade, with the alternative being wait times that could last forever for servers with low population.

2: you see no other players
Well, the reason for that is you are first. You need to stick it out (or atleast give it a minute or two, or how may you are willing to try and wait for)
We can and will test longer wait limits for the seed bots to kick in, but please spread the word!

— David Sirland (@tiggr_) November 5, 2025

One exception to the rule that sees bots eventually traded out for real players involves beginner playlists, such as Initiation Breakthrough. As made clear via an in-game mode description, bots will stick around in these matches to help players warm up for the typically more tense matches filled with real people.

Bots have remained a hot topic for the Battlefield 6 community for months, with BF Studios having addressed concerns regarding XP farms and open beta bots mutliple times in the past. Battlefield Portal fans and multiplayer playlist regulars have almost certainly encountered bots at some point, and many will no doubt continue to have their complaints as post-launch development continues.

“Like I stated in this thread earlier today - bots are only there to seed servers so they start,” Sirland said in response to a fan who expressed concern about the bot system. “The alternative would be no server under those circumstances. We will of course check for issues here too, and when and if servers spawn in the wrong way or when they shouldn’t.”

The Battlefield 6 team at EA and BF Studios has continued listening to fan feedback as post-launch development continues. Recent changes include an overhaul for challenge requirements, tweaks to Conquest ticket sizes, and a plan to revert aim assist back to the settings seen during the August open beta tests. Season 1 for Battlefield 6 and its standalone offshoot, REDSEC, is well underway, with more maps and weapons set to arrive in the coming weeks.

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).