Alienware is offering competitive prices on RTX 5080 equipped gaming PCs to kick off June. Right now you can pick up an Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 gaming PC from $2,449.99 shipped. This is a good price for a well-engineered gaming rig with powerful current generation components, 240mm AIO water cooling, and sensible airflow design that can handle 4K gaming at high frame rates. In the current market, buying a prebuilt gaming PC is the only way to score an RTX 5080 GPU without paying an exorbitant markup. If you were to try to find a 5080 GPU for your do-it-yourself PC build, you'll probably spend nearly as much for the GPU as you would for an entire system.

Alienware Aurora RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $2,450

The prices on the Alienware Aurora R16 model starts range from the bottom end of $2,349.99 to the top end of $3,149.99. Each tier up offers either a CPU upgrade or increased RAM and/or storage:

• $2,349.99 - Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
• $2,799.99 - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD
• $3,249.99 - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $3,599.99

If you've got a Switch 2 preorder coming in hot and you want to expand the storage capacity right off the bat, then Walmart has a deal that you don't want to miss. For a very limited time, the Onn 256GB Micro SDXC Express Card is back in stock at a rock bottom price of $35.99. This listing went up in May, but I haven't seen it in stock for shipping until today. As a comparison, the official Samsung 256GB MicroSDXC Express card is currently listed for $59.99 at Target.

Update: This deal might not be available for delivery for all zip codes. You can still choose in-store pickup.

Onn 256GB MicroSDXC Express Memory Card for $35.99

Nintendo Switch 2 Compatible

Black Myth: Wukong, the action RPG inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, will finally make its way to Xbox Series X/S on August 20, 2025, exactly one year after it was released on PS5 and PC.

Xbox shared the news on Twitter/X, saying, "You are the Destined One. Black Myth: Wukong is coming August 20. Pre-order begins June 18!"

You are the Destined One.

Black Myth: Wukong is coming August 20. Pre-order begins June 18! pic.twitter.com/5z89gUYxNV

— Xbox (@Xbox) June 6, 2025

Black Myth: Wukong has been a megahit, as it has sold over 25 million copies as of January 31, 2025. However, its absence from Xbox Series X/S has always been notable since it was never billed outright as an exclusive.

There were sources who claimed the delay was due to a Sony exclusivity deal and not tech issues, but the boss of Black Myth: Wukong developer Game Science, Fen Ji, reportedly placed the blame on the Xbox Series S.

“The only thing missing is the Xbox,” he said, per machine learning translation, “which somehow feels a bit wrong, but that 10GB of shared memory — without years of optimisation experience — is really hard to make work.”

Now, it appears those issues have been resolved and Xbox players will soon be able to add this game to their libraries.

In our Black Myth: Wukong review, we said, "Despite some frustrating technical issues, Black Myth: Wukong is a great action game with fantastic combat, exciting bosses, tantalizing secrets, and a beautiful world."

Black Myth: Wukong has had more than reports of technical issues, as we reported on the developer's history of sexism back in 2023.

For more, check out our look at how FromSoftware has changed action games like Black Myth: Wukong forever and the lore you need to know to make the game way more enjoyable.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

Predator: Killer of Killers premieres on Hulu Friday, June 6.

What took so long for Predator to try its scaly, clawed hand at an animated anthology? Predator: Killer of Killers proves that both the technique and format are a natural fit for this long-running action series, letting us see several different types of Predators in several different types of settings – a perfectly vivid arena for these characters to brutally do what they best. Killer of Killers’ story-jumping and time-jumping setups further expand upon and revitalize the concept of an alien species that loves hunting humans for sport – which should come as no surprise considering the film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who took the reins of the Predator franchise beginning with 2022’s terrific Prey.

If seeing Predators battling Vikings, ninja, samurai, and World War II fighter pilots sounds cool to you, rest assured: it’s cool on screen as well. As underlined by Killer of Killers’ title (and the entire history of the franchise) Predators generally like a worthy adversary, and the targets here – voiced by the likes of Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa, and Rick Gonzalez – are all pretty badass in their own right. Gonzalez’s flyboy is a little greener than the seasoned warriors played by LaVanchy and Ozawa, but all three characters engage in some awesome and appropriately intense action, showing the extensive, bloody range of damage both the Predators and their quarries are capable of inflicting.

To me, the second segment – the one that offers the tantalizing premise of feudal Japan’s deadliest soldiers squaring off against a Predator – is the highlight. Almost entirely dialogue free, it kicks into gear with a wonderfully crafted nighttime attack. It’s engrossing and fun on its own even before a Yautja (the official name for the Predator species, by the way) shows up. From that point on, the ninja and samurai have a very different and even more dangerous problem to deal with beyond their own rivalry, which Trachtenberg, co-director Josh Wassung, and screenwriter Micho Robert Rutare depict with a ton of atmosphere and evocative visuals.

The animation, from Wassung’s studio The Third Floor, takes some getting used to. The Predator is technically a Disney character now, but that doesn’t mean Killer of Killers had a Pixar-like budget and resources at its disposal, and there’s some low-frame-rate, herky jerkiness to the onscreen motion. Strong character designs and clever and impactful action choreography make those shortcomings easy to overlook, though. Once each hunt was underway, I was able to set aside any hesitation about the animation and instead marvel at how much mayhem was unfolding in front of me.

I have mixed feelings about the glimpses Killer of Killers gives us of Predators relating to one another, too. There’s more specific information about how the species operates here than in any previous canon installment of the franchise, and it feels a little goofy at times. There’s some enjoyment to be found in that goofiness, but still: Sometimes it’s just better to keep things more mysterious.

The segments’ stories are all relatively simple by design, giving us blunt but effective character arcs for each hero we meet. In a relatively short amount of time, we get a sense of the goals and obstacles in their pre-Predator lives. In terms of rooting interests and levels of investment, none of them can match Prey’s heroine, Naru. But this is an anthology, after all; we get just enough of a look at their capabilities and what makes them tick to forge a momentary connection. The one time Killer of Killers feels more clunky in its storytelling is near its conclusion, when we get some connective tissue between the stories, and a desire for a couple of emotional payoffs leads to some overly cutesy dialogue and turns of events.

With Predator: Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg proves that Prey was no fluke. He knows the crowd-pleasing formula for this franchise: Let a Predator show off how dangerous they are and then put them head-to-head with a human character who’s clever enough to potentially outwit the galaxy’s greatest hunters. There are some jaw-dropping moments of Predators mercilessly eviscerating their prey, which ramp up as the species’ technology and weapons evolve with each successive time jump. (The humans’ do, too, though their opponents are obviously starting out way ahead of them in that regard). From the massive, Hulk-sized Predator in the Viking story, to the more elegant and lean one who takes on the ninja, to the one who prefers stalking the combatants of World War II from the cockpit of his ship, this is a rather excellent central trio. They’re another sign of life from a franchise that looked to be dead and buried following the disappointments of 2010’s Predators and 2018’s The Predator.

It’s gratifying to see Predator under the control of someone so attuned to what makes these films work – and all the more reason to look forward to Trachtenberg’s next live-action Predator effort, this fall's Predator: Badlands.

Disney has revealed that Disneyland's Coco attraction will be located in areas that are "predominantly backstage today" near Disney California Adventure's Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier and that the new Avatar land will take over a "portion" of the current Hollywood Backlot area. And yes, that means Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! will close for good in early 2026 to make way for the Avatar destination.

The news was detailed by Disney Parks Blog alongside some new concept art, and it was confirmed that construction on the Coco attraction will begin backstage this fall. The Coco attraction was announced at D23 2024 and will be the first-ever attraction based on the beloved Pixar film.

For a very limited time, HP is offering its newest and most powerful gaming laptop at a pretty hefty discount. The Omen Max 16 GeForce RTX 5090 Gaming Laptop drops to just $2,559.99 with free shipping when you apply 20% off coupon code "LEVELUP20". That is easily best price for an RTX 5090 gaming laptop anywhere by over $1,000. The RTX 5090 is currently the most powerful mobile GPU available with tons of VRAM and DLSS 4 support.

Update: The price has dropped yet again to $2,559.99 shipped.

HP Omen Max 16" RTX 5090 Gaming Laptop for $2,559.99

Father's Day lands on June 15 this year, but Sonos is kicking off its Father's Day Sale early. You can save up to 25% off its most popular soundbars and speakers, including the first discount I've seen on its flagship Arc Ultra soundbar. These deals are all available from Sonos direct with free shipping, but you can also pick them up for the same price at retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart.

$100 Off Sonos Arc Ultra Soundbar

$130 Off Sonos Beam Gen 2 Soundbar

If your TV is too small for the Arc's 45" footprint, the consider the Sonos Beam instead. The Beam is a smaller 26" soundbar that still boasts excellent audio quality thanks to four elliptical midwoofers, one central tweeter and three passive bass radiators. It's Dolby Atmos ready and has a mic for voice control.

$120 Off Sonos Sub 4 Wireless Subwoofer

If you want to add ground-shaking bass to your Sonos setup, there's still nothing better than a separate standalone subwoofer. The Sub 4 boasts plenty of power in the form of two 5"x8" woofers and a ported design that allows for a louder and deeper low-end. It simply can't be emulated in a standard bookshelf speaker or soundbar.

$113 Off Sonos Move 2 Portable Speaker

The Move 2 is Sonos' biggest and best portable speaker. It's size allows it to house two tweeters, a mid-woofer, and three class-D digital amplifiers. This is a standalone speaker with a self-contained battery and can be carried around from room to room. The battery provides up to 24 hours of continuous playtime and a simple but effective docking station essentially turns it into a powered speaker. It is IP56 rated for weather resistance and has a built-in microphone so that it can accept voice commands and is compatible with smart assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

$45 Off Sonos Roam 2 Portable Speaker

The Sonos Roam 2 is much more compact than the Move 2. It weighs in at under one pound and is designed for both indoor and outdoor use thanks to an IP67-rated waterproof and dustproof housing. It houses one tweeter, one mid-woofer, and two class-H digital amplifers, so it's still able to pump out inpressively clean sound even at high volumes. The internal battery supplies the Roam 2 with nearly 10 hours of playtime, and it can be recharged over USB Type-C. It supports both Bluetooth and wireless connectivity and has a built-in microphone for voice control.

Up to $90 Off Sonos Era 100 and 300 Speakers

The Sonos Era 100 is a direct successor to the Sonos One. Sound quality is equivalent to a Sonos Move, which isn't surprising considering they have similar internal components: two tweeters, a mid-woofer, and three class-D digital amps. The Era 100 also supports Dolby Atmos when it is paired with an Arc or Beam soundbar. It has a built-in microphone and can be voice controlled; it can also be used as a smart speaker for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

$120 Off Sonos Ace Noise Cancelling Headphones

The Sonos Ace is Sonos' first headphone and it delivers on all fronts. It offers superb sound quality and excellent noise cancellation, it's comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and it looks pretty stylish as far as headphones go.

My old man is a stoic, rug-on-Valium kind of guy, and it takes a lot to make him shriek like a horror movie starlet. That said, I do recall seeing him on the verge of this as he clawed at the dash of my ‘86 Ford Laser during my very first L’s lesson. It would be the one and only father-son attempt we’d make. He gladly shelled out for professional lessons (and possibly therapy for himself) the next day.

Somehow, it’s now 30 years later, and that fond memory now terrifies me. Soon, I’ll have to repeat the exact same process, albeit riding shotgun as I watch my eldest son “drive.” To put that danger into sharper focus, he’s been raised on a diet of Burnout games and the drift-centric anime called Initial D.

Being an ideas man who values his continued existence, I thought to get ahead of the problem by taking the simulator route. More specifically, I kitted up my already tricked-out R12 Moza racing cockpit with a multi-function stalk to recreate an “in traffic” driver’s experience.

Also, I got them because they just looked cool as hell. I selfishly wanted one for my own Euro Truck Simulator 2 sessions.

When I combined said Truck-fest with an SUV mod, a VR headset to let him check blind spots, and an H-shifter (because I do this fathering business right), he and I put this nifty peripheral through its paces. We can get right to that process if you click here; otherwise, let me showcase the considerable, maybe just pay for lessons price of admission for this setup.

The Multi-stalk Test Setup

• Moza Truck Wheel Clamp - $75
• Moza Handbrake / Shifter Clamp - $89

A Premium Peripheral Stalked

These Multi-function Stalks deliver a compelling blend of car-grade craftsmanship and sim racing versatility, offering truck enthusiasts (and inventive helicopter parents like me) an authentic cockpit experience. Crafted from durable aluminium alloy and high-strength steel, these stalks boast an impressive 28 programmable switches, auto-cancelling turn signals, and integrated wiper, headlight, and cruise control levers to replicate real-world vehicle control.

With hidden screw designs and ergonomic mounting options compatible with all MOZA bases (and select third-party setups), the stalks not only look sleek but also feel robust under intense virtual hauls. Better yet, their constantly patched integration with MOZA’s Pit House software ensures decent plug-and-play functionality for Euro Truck Simulator 2.

From the onset, and though it probably sounds ridiculous to hear this, I was mighty surprised by just how much this peripheral revs up the ol’ immersion factor. I could not wipe the stupid grin off my face while doing menial driving tasks like signalling lane changes, adjusting headlights, and toggling wipers with the tactile satisfaction of operating a real vehicle's stalks.

This is especially true in VR. To be given instinctual “blind” access to so many functions (instead of stabbing at a keyboard in hope) is a game-changer.

Build Quality

When it comes to components, MOZA emphasises “authentic car-grade controls,” employing the same materials found in production vehicles for the stalks, dials, and switches. Specifically, the stalk bodies and levers are constructed from premium aluminium alloy, striking a balance between lightweight feel and structural rigidity. The mounting brackets, meanwhile, use high-strength steel to ensure your controls stay rock-solid during spirited cornering—virtual or otherwise.

True petrolheads will appreciate the hidden screw design, a neat trick that tucks all fasteners beneath a magnetic faceplate, preserving a clean aesthetic akin to a modern vehicle dashboard. Even the extension rods that add clearance between your wheel and the stalks are machined precisely, finishing with anodized touches that resist scratches and corrosion over countless virtual kilometres.

All in all, this is a slick-looking addition that is surely going to be the gateway drug to make me visit my local auto wreckers in search of a dashboard to sit around my Moza rig. Unless somebody talks me down from this idea. And please do. I really don’t have the space for it.

Weighing in at around 700 g total, these stalks strike a sweet spot: hefty enough to feel substantial, yet light enough that they don’t become a burden on my already chunky R12 wheelbase (7.5kg + 4kg truck wheel).

With dimensions roughly 411 × 127 × 152 mm, there’s ample room for the full sweep of real-world stalk arcs. Whether you’re threading tight turns in ETS2 or blasting down virtual motorways, the stalks’ surety and precision meant that my young petrolhead padawan wasn’t unintentionally turning on his windscreen wipers all the time. Never a good look for one’s eventual P-plater exam.

Functions Overview

Boasting 28 individual programmable switches, the Multi-function Stalks stand ready to cover everything from wipers and headlights to those exhaust brake toggles you didn’t know you needed. Each stalk houses its own bank of micro-switches that register crisp, definitive clicks, which is a far cry from mushy, off-brand button trays. The wiper lever not only changes wipe speeds but also features a momentary “wipe-back” click to clear condensation, replicating that quick-fix solution we all spam instead of…just picking a bloody speed.

Meanwhile, the headlight stalk toggles between low beam, high beam, and fogger duties with reassuring detents that clearly signal position changes. With the latter function, I taught my boy the quick headlight flick to oncoming traffic. You know—the ol’ “slow your roll, Speed Racer, the radar cops are just down the hill behind me” warning. Important tips that might not be on the exam.

Much like the dedicated wipers stalk, you’re getting authentic turn signals with auto-cancelling. After changing lanes in ETS2, the stalk springs back to its neutral position automatically, just as real-world drivers expect. This ensured he wouldn’t have a senior moment 50 years before his time—that “used my blinker to get out of the driveway and it’s still on 20 minutes later” special.

Euro Truck Sim 2 Integration

Setting things up to be just so is a mission, despite the pain-free look of the Pit House software GUI. There’s just a tonne of stuff to hook into input bindings, so there’s really no escaping it until a decent Settings Import file appears online (and by the time I publish this, there may well be one floating around).

That being said, everything works as smoothly as a fresh set of Michelin rubber once you put the effort in. I also have to say that including The Heir to My Throne of Games in this process was the perfect excuse to explain each and every function on a “real car’s” stalks. Though I did skip past the advanced (and potentially dangerous) stuff like Cruise Control functions.

If he’s anything like teenage me, he’ll misuse the hell out of that.

At the end of the day, he and I couldn’t be happier with what the Moza Multi-function Stalks deliver. As an avid sim racer/trucker, I definitely thought this novel peripheral shifted my experiences into a broader lane of automotive immersion. The robust build quality, combined with 28 programmable switches and auto-cancelling turn signals, should ensure I’ll never fumble a lane change or wash my windscreen at the wrong time while long-hauling across Scandinavia in ETS2 or rebelling on Route 66 in ATS.

As for my son’s instruction on the virtual streets of London, I believe the stalks’ robust, near-life build quality and tactile feel were just the thing to give him some much needed confidence. Possibly too much, however—he’s now asked if Moza does a handbrake attachment. I suspect the request is less about him perfecting his reverse parking technique and more about “fanging 180s faster.” In short, I believe I'm creating a monster.

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Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.

Gearbox Software is giving away Borderlands 2 for free on Steam, but some fans are warning others to stay away from the series due to a recent controversy surrounding its terms of service.

The studio behind the looter-shooter series surprised PC gamers with the free offer today, allowing all Steam users to add the sequel to their libraries for free. It’s a freebie that grants access to the 2012 title at no extra cost, but as many share their excitement online, Borderlands 2 Steam reviews are telling a different story.

While the All Reviews section boasts a “Very Positive” rating on Steam with more than 287,000 user reviews, the more than 3,300 Recent Reviews have the second Borderlands game’s reactions labeled “Mostly Negative.” The downward trend began around May 20, 2025, with a particularly large movement of negative responses filling its reviews section today.

Those game shop and digital shelves are looking mighty tempting this Friday, with price drops that’ll loosen even the tightest wallet strings. Whether you’re planning a wintry weekend indoors or chipping away at your gaming backlog, this fresh stack of discounts across consoles and PC has something worth clicking into. From long-awaited sequels to welcome cuts on prime Switch 2 launch titles.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 22nd birthday of WarioWare Inc., the Game Boy Advance grandaddy of a beloved microgames empire. Along with absurd tasks like picking one's nose skillfully or shooting a bidet sprayer at a starfish-shaped something, I recall being delighted with the snippets from NES classics and this weirdly addictive Paper Plane bonus game. Oh, it's also the 12th birthday of Remember Me today, a game I totally finished but have completely forgotten about. Nobody has ever made that joke before.

Aussie bdays for notable games

- WarioWare, Inc. (GBA) 2003. Get

- Red Faction II (GC,XB) 2003. Get

- Pac-Man Championship Edition (X360) 2007. Get

- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PS3,X360) 2008. eBay

- Remember Me (PS3, X360) 2013. Get

Contents

• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC
• PC Gear
• LEGO
• Headphones
• TVs

Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch users can rev their engines with Mario Kart World (A$94), which, trivia alert, marks the first time a mainline Mario Kart featured real-world locations inspired by cities like Tokyo and Paris. Meanwhile, Yakuza 0 Dir. (A$79) makes its portable debut on Switch, with devs confirming the disco mini-game’s ludicrous dance animations were motion-captured by actual SEGA staff.

Switch 2 Game Savings

• Mario Kart World (-22%) - A$94
• Bravely Default HD Rem. (-18%) - A$49
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild (-19%) - A$89
• Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (-19%) - A$89
• Street Fighter 6 (-20%) - A$89
• Yakuza 0 Dir. (-12%) - A$79

Expiring Recent Deals (OG Switch)

• Monster Hunter Rise (-75%) - A$14.90
• Disco Elysium – The Final Cut (-70%) - A$18
• Dragon Ball FighterZ (-44%) - A$50.20
• Into the Breach (-70%) - A$5.20
• Ni No Kuni: WotWW (-84%) - A$14.30
• Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 (-41%) - A$47

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Exciting Bargains for Xbox

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard Del. (-74%) - A$36.10
• NBA 2K25 (-73%) - A$32.30
• EA Sports FC 25 (-60%) - A$44
• Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (-16%) - A$109
• Sonic X Shadow Generations (-21%) - A$59

Xbox One

• Ace Combat 7 (-65%) - A$34.50
• Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (-37%) - A$44
• Lego 2K Drive (-35%) - A$25.80

Expiring Recent Deals

• Split Fiction (-16%) - A$59
• The Witcher 3 Comp. Ed. (-47%) - A$42.70
• Wild Hearts (-78%) - A$24.20
• Suicide Squad: KTJL (-83%) - A$19.90
• Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra (-18%) - A$271
• Elden Ring Nightreign Seeker’s Ed. (-7%) - A$84
• Armored Core V (-56%) - A$47
• Hogwarts Legacy (-50%) - A$45.90

Or just invest in an Xbox Card.

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Pure Scores for PlayStation

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (-42%) - A$64
• God of War Ragnarök (-29%) - A$88.20
• Until Dawn (-23%) - A$85.10
• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (-42%) - A$49
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Leg. Ed. (-43%) - A$102.60

PS4

• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (-56%) - A$17.40
• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (-69%) - A$30.90

Expiring Recent Deals

• Persona 5 Royal (-42%) - A$55.10
• Resident Evil Village (-32%) - A$37.50
• Suicide Squad: KTJL (-83%) - A$19.90
• Ghost of Yōtei (-21%) - A$99
• Doom: The Dark Ages (-17%) - A$99
• Final Fantasy XV Royal Ed. (-26%) - A$35.40
• Sleeping Dogs Def. Ed. (-41%) - A$23.60
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales (-50%) - A$49.90

PS+ Monthly Freebies
Yours to keep from May 1 with this subscription

• Ark: Survival Ascended (PS5)
• Balatro (PS5/PS4)
• Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (PS5/PS4)

Or purchase a PS Store Card.

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Purchase Cheap for PC

• Borderlands 2 (-100%) - FREE
• Deathloop (-100%) - FREE
• Borderlands Col. Pandora’s Box (-43%) - A$50.60
• CoD: Black Ops 6 (-45%) - A$60.40
• No Man’s Sky (-60%) - A$35.10

Expiring Recent Deals

• Elden Ring Nightreign (-12%) - A$55.40
• Humble Choice 8 Games for June (-93%) - A$16.90
• Skyrim Special Ed. (-83%) - A$9.30
• Disco Elysium FC (-75%) - A$14.20
• Inside (-90%) - A$2.90
• Fallout: New Vegas Ult. (-60%) - A$12

Or just get a Steam Wallet Card

Laptop Deals

• Apple 2024 MacBook Air 15-inch (-12%) – A$2,197
• HP Laptop 15.6" 15-fd0233TU (-20%) – A$799
• Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (-36%) – A$849
• Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 14", Gen 9 (-41%) – A$1,229

Desktop Deals

• Lenovo neo 50a G5 27" AIO (-47%) – A$1,379
• Lenovo neo 50q G4 Tiny (-35%) – A$639
• Lenovo neo 50t G5 Tower (-20%) – A$871.20
• Legion Tower 5i G8 (-29%) – A$1,899

Monitor Deals

• Samsung QE50T 50" (-31%) – A$596
• ARZOPA 16.1" 144Hz (-55%) – A$159.99
• Z-Edge 27" 240Hz (-15%) – A$237.99
• Gawfolk 34" WQHD (-28%) – A$359
• LG 27" Ultragear (-42%) – A$349

Component Deals

• MSI PRO B650M-A WiFi Motherboard (-41%) – A$229
• AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (-7%) – A$876
• Corsair Vengeance 32GB (-35%) – A$82
• Kingston FURY Beast 16GB (-30%) – A$48

Storage Deals

• Seagate One Touch Portable HDD (-24%) – A$228
• Kingston 1TB USB 3.2 SSD (-17%) – A$115
• SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO (-63%) – A$29
• SanDisk 32GB Ultra SDHC (-53%) – A$9.90

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Legit LEGO Deals

• 101 Dalmatians Puppy (-40%) - A$149
• Tow Truck and Sports Car (-40%) - A$17.90
• Technic Bush Plane (-37%) - A$25
• JP Raptor Off-Road Escape (-36%) - A$45

Expiring Recent Deals

• F1 Collectible Race Cars (-52%) - A$4
• City Central Train Station (-42%) - A$109
• 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline (-40%) - A$199
• Botanicals Tiny Plants Se (-34%) - A$66.20

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Hot Headphones Deals

Audiophilia for less

• Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless (-38%) – A$399.95
• Soundcore by Anker Q20i (-43%) – A$68.79
• Sony MDR7506 Professional (-30%) – A$169
• Technics Premium (-46%) – A$299
• Bose SoundLink Flex (-31%) – A$171
• JBL Charge 5 - Portable Speaker (-28%) – A$144
• JBL Flip Essential 2 Waterproof Speaker (-26%) – A$96
• Sony SRS-XB100 Travel Speaker (-41%) – A$84.15
• Ultimate Ears Boom 3 Portable Speaker (-41%) – A$134.95
• Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro (-26%) – A$259.29
• Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless (-46%) – A$275

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Terrific TV Deals

Do right by your console, upgrade your telly

• LG 43" UT80 4K (-24%) – A$635
• Kogan 65" QLED 4K (-50%) – A$699
• Kogan 55" QLED 4K (-45%) – A$549
• LG 55" UT80 4K (-28%) – A$866
• Prism+ Q75 Ultra 75" 4K QLED (-47%) – A$1,229
• Gaimoo Mini Projector 1080p w/ 4K (-33%) – A$119.99
• GooDee 4K Projector (-58%) – A$169.99
• VOPLLS Mini Projector 4K (-19%) – A$168.99
• XuanPad Mini Projector (-36%) – A$128.99
• LG S70TY Q Series Sound Barn*-22%) – A$546
• Sony HTG700 Atmos Soundbar (-15%) – A$594
• Yamaha NS-SW050 Subwoofer (-13%) – A$270

Smart Home Deals

• Arlo Video Doorbell 2K (-53%) – A$107.76
• Google Nest Doorbell (-44%) – A$183
• Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (-40%) – A$149
• TP-Link Tapo Smart Doorbell (-20%) – A$183
• XTU Doorbell Camera Doorbell (-40%) – A$59.99
• D-Link DCS-8302LH Wi-Fi Cam (-62%) – A$75
• Google Nest Cam (-25%) – A$247
• Ring Spotlight Cam Pro Battery (-43%) – A$187
• Swann 4 Channel DVR with 4 x 4K Cams (-34%) – A$399
• WUUK 2K Outdoor Cam (-32%) – A$249.99

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Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price. This page includes all of the best deals that are currently available.

Dell and Alienware Coupons

Dell and Alienware Gaming PC Deals

Dell and Alienware Gaming Laptop Deals

You can quickly browse through all of the listed products on sale above. See below for our favorite picks.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5070 Gaming PC

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090 Gaming PC

Alienware x16 R2 Gaming Laptops

Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptops

Alienware's new flagship gaming laptop - the Alienware Area-51 - brings to the table a host of upgrades including a sleeker redesign, current generation components, and better cooling potential. They can be equipped with the new Nvidia GeForce Blackwell cards in RTX 5070, 5080, and 5090 variants. Both the 16" model and 18" model, equipped with the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and powerful GeForce RTX 5080 graphics, are on sale right now. Orders are expected to ship out in mid June, so get your reservation in now to prevent any additional delays.

New Releases: Alienware Aurora 16 and 16X Gaming Laptops

When you have your Nintendo Switch or Switch OLED docked, grabbing a more ergonomic and capable controller than the Joy-Con can really amp up your playing experience. Not only will they be more comfortable for extended play sessions, but many offer larger, tactile controls, additional buttons, more customizations, and unique features to give you a leg up when playing Switch games. To help you find the right controller for your needs, We've spent hours playing with and reviewing the best Nintendo Switch accessories available on the market right now. Quite a few of these controllers will also be compatible with the Switch 2 – ideal, considering most of the official acccessories aren't exactly cheap, on top of an already expensive console.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Nintendo Switch Controllers:

A controller is the best Switch accessory to arm your console. However, not all controllers work for every person and game. So, we’ve done the research and testing, bringing you 10 top-notch controllers to fulfill various needs. Whether you’re after just a great all-around option, like the GuliKit KingKong 3 Max, a Joy-Con alternative, or something more specialized for fighting or racing games, we’ve found a controller that suits your play style. Most aren’t exclusive to the Nintendo Switch either, so you can use them as a PC controller or with a handheld gaming PC.

1. GuliKit KingKong 3 Max

Best Switch Controller

2. Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

Best Official Switch Controller

3. Nintendo Switch Joy-Con

Best Nintendo Switch Joy-Con

4. Hori Split Pad Pro

Best Nintendo Switch Joy-Con for Handheld Play

5. PowerA Fusion Pro

Best Customizable Switch Controller

6. 8BitDo Arcade Stick

Best Fight Stick for Switch

7. Nintendo GameCube Controller

Best Controller for Super Smash Bros.

8. 8BitDo Pro 2

Best Switch Controller for Retro Games

9. 8BitDo Ultimate

Best Third-Party Switch Controller

10. Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe

Best Racing Wheel for Switch

What to Look for in a Nintendo Switch Controller

When looking for a new Nintendo Switch controller, the list of criteria is thankfully short. It really just comes down to comfort and the game type. If it’s basic Nintendo Switch gameplay, then we recommend going with Nintendo’s own options. However, if you’re looking to play a specific type of game on Switch, then there’s more specific advice for you:

Fighting games: Consider a fight stick for traditional, arcade style fighting games such as Street Fighter, BlazBlue, and Mortal Kombat. We recommend the 8BitDo Arcade Stick for Switch players, but competitive players should consult our guide to the best fight sticks overall.

Racing games: There are very few racing wheels compatible with Switch, but the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe is a solid, affordable option. You can also find basic plastic wheels to slot your Joy-Con into, but they are nowhere near as solid as the traditional racing wheel experience.

Retro games: Players of classic games are generally looking for controllers that feel as close to the originals as possible, if not just re-releases of those very controllers. Since those are extremely difficult to come by, we recommend the 8BitDo Pro 2 for most people playing retro games on Switch.

Nintendo Switch controller FAQ

Will Nintendo Switch controllers work with the Switch 2?

Yep! Well, mostly. One of the biggest changes to the Switch 2 are its upgraded Joy-Con that are larger, connect magnetictically, and can be used like a mouse. You will still be able to connect your existing Joy-Con controllers to the new console, but not connect them in handheld mode. Bluetooth-only controllers like the Switch Pro or the KingKong 3 Max are fair game on the Switch 2. Additionally, with an extra USB-C port, you can plug accessories directly into the new console.

Can you use Switch controllers on a PC?

Nintendo offers some solid gamepads you may occasionally want to use with your gaming PC. Luckily, official Nintendo controllers like the Switch Pro and Joy-Con are compatible.

The Switch Pro easily connects to PC via a wired connection. Going wireless requires jumping through a few hoops, but it’s a fairly painless Bluetooth-pairing process. Your device should recognize the controller, and then you can set it up in Steam. With Steam, all the button mapping will be done for you, as it’s recognized as an Xbox controller. However, if you're playing games outside of Steam, you'll need the 8BitDo Wireless USB Adapter or special programs to make the Switch Pro Controller act like an Xbox gamepad.

Joy-Con controllers are compatible with PC and other devices over Bluetooth, similar to the Switch Pro. Once synced, programs like JoytoKey or BetterJoy allow the Joy-Con to work with your computer.

Do Nintendo Switch controllers drift?

The Switch’s Joy-Con have always been plagued with drift, meaning your controller will register an input when there wasn’t any. It’s unclear what exactly has caused this problem, but it appears to be more than just wear and tear or dust. This issue isn’t just a few isolated cases: It affects a good chunk of Switch users. There are ways to fix Joy-Con drift yourself, or Nintendo will repair the Joy-Con for you. Luckily, drift is less of a problem in other Nintendo controllers.

What controllers does a new Nintendo Switch come with?

When purchasing a new Switch OLED or original Switch model, you get a set of Joy-Con controllers to use attached to the console for handheld play or disconnected to play games in tabletop and TV mode. The Switch Lite doesn’t come with any controller since its built-in controls only work with games that support handheld mode. You’ll have to purchase a compatible controller separately and connect wirelessly to play other types of games.

Are there any Joy-Con alternatives?

There are plenty of other controllers that can replace your Switch Joy-Con when playing in handheld mode, but there aren't actually any alternatives that work with the motion sensor. If you're hoping to have a better handheld experience, the Hori Split Pad Pro is an excellent choice, but it won't replace the need for Joy-Con entirely for certain games.

When do Switch controllers go on sale?

Although the Nintendo Switch itself rarely goes on sale, the controllers sometimes do. There are a couple of times throughout the year when you can find discounts on both the Nintendo Switch Pro controller and Joy-Con. The first sales event where this happens is Amazon Prime Day, which always takes place in July. After that the best time to buy anything Switch related is Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Danielle is a freelance writer for IGN based in Los Angeles who spends most of her time updating buying guides with the best gaming tech. When she’s not writing, you’ll probably find her obsessively reading, watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, or scouring the web for anything related to music history.

When the Nintendo Switch is docked, battery life isn’t a concern. But if you’re like most Switch users who use the console in handheld mode, its battery is a top concern. A battery case is a great way to level up the Switch's handheld charge without needing to find the nearest wall outlet. It also helps that they provide some protection. These devices essentially perform double duty, acting as a great Switch case and power bank.

TL;DR — These Are the Best Nintendo Switch Battery Cases:

Depending on the model and games you’re playing, the Switch will get between 3 to 9 hours of use on one charge. That’s not much for long travel days or commutes. A battery case is an easy way to never be without power.

Most Switch battery cases attach directly to the console for a layer of protection that adds minimal bulk while also slotting into the USB-C port, powering the device. With these cases installed, the Switch should function just like normal. Many of the battery cases we’ve selected even provide additional ports to charge other devices, like earbuds or smartphones.

A battery case is one of the best Switch accessories you can grab, and our experts have selected a range of options to suit just about anyone's needs or playing style. Who knows? You could even score a Switch deal on one. However, if you nabbed a Switch 2, its larger dimensions mean not all of our picks will fit the new console.

1. Newdery External Battery Station

Best Nintendo Switch Battery Case

2. Newdery Battery Charger Case for Nintendo Switch Lite

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Battery Case

3. Nyko Power Pak

Best Slim Nintendo Switch Battery Case

4. Bionik Power Commuter

Best Nintendo Switch Carrying Case With a Battery

5. Anker Zolo Power Bank

Best Nintendo Switch Power Bank

6. Emperor of Gadgets Portable Power Bank

Best Attachable Battery for Nintendo Switch

7. Nyko Boost Pak

Best Compact Nintendo Switch Battery Pack

Nintendo Switch Battery Case FAQ

How long does the Nintendo Switch battery last?

The battery life of a Nintendo Switch can vary based on the demands of specific applications and features being used. According to Nintendo, users of the most recent Nintendo Switch consoles (both standard and OLED) can expect 4.5-9 hours of battery life, while Switch Lite devices can last anywhere from 3-7 hours. As seen above, however, these projected times are pretty optimistic, so it’s not hard for any of the battery cases on this list to double your Switch’s lifespan.

The Switch’s lithium-ion battery will also inevitably degrade over time. One general way to keep your Switch battery as healthy as possible is to ensure your device stays charged. Try to avoid letting your device die, and, if possible, plug it in when it gets to or below 20%.

Do I need a battery case for the Nintendo Switch?

Nintendo recognized that the original Switch had a pretty grim battery life, which is why the Switch OLED nearly doubled it. Still, many players continue to find that low battery notification interrupting their gaming sessions.

Switch players who stick to using the TV display and keep their system docked most of the time will have little use for portable charging. However, Switch Lite users or gamers more often playing in handheld mode could certainly benefit from the extended playtime that comes with battery cases. If you have upcoming travel plans and want to make sure your Switch goes the distance, it could also be worth making the investment. Luckily, most of the products featured above cost less than $50.

Will a battery case harm my Switch?

No, a battery case shouldn’t harm your Switch. If it hits all the device’s power requirements and comes with a quality USB-C, there shouldn’t be any major concerns when leaving your console plugged into it. The only thing you’ll want to watch out for is overheating, as the case and battery could cause heat to build up, potentially degrading components. Generally, any battery case designed for the Switch should work perfectly fine. Luckily, the Switch itself even offers features for protection against issues charging, including overcharging.

Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer and unpaid music historian.

Gaming on the go has plenty of perks, but there are still a few drawbacks and risks involved, so your Nintendo Switch Lite may benefit from some quality accessories. Whether you’re looking for the extra protection a case can bring, the better ergonomics of a great controller, or a backup battery to ensure you’re never without juice, we’ve got you covered with great gear for your Switch Lite. Check out a detailed look at the best Nintendo Switch Lite accessories, or check the shopping list below:

TL;DR – These are the best Nintendo Switch Lite Accessories:

The Switch Lite is more compact with a smaller screen compared to the original Switch or OLED model, which means some of the best Nintendo Switch accessories aren’t compatible with this ultra-portable model. That’s why we’ve created a guide just for the Lite, so you can kit it out to be a real road warrior, and you might be able to score some awesome Nintendo Switch deals in the process.

1. Nintendo Switch Lite Carry Case + Screen Protector

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Case

2. ButterFox Switch Lite Carrying Case

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Rugged Case

3. Hori DuraFlexi Protector

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Cover

4. Orzly Grip Case

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Rugged Cover

5. amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Screen Protector

6. Satisfye Switch Lite Grip

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Grip

7. PNY XLR8 128GB Gaming

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Memory Card

8. Anker PowerCore Essential 20000

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Portable Battery Power Bank

9. SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Gaming Headset

10. Razer Barracuda X

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Bluetooth Headset

11. Nintendo Joy-Cons

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Controllers

12. Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

Going Pro

13. Adonit Mark

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Stylus

What to look for in a Nintendo Switch Lite Accessory

The most important thing you should keep in mind while shopping for Switch Lite accessories is that all accessories designed for the original Switch won’t necessarily work with Nintendo’s smaller handheld system. The Switch Lite is simply a different system that has smaller dimensions, integrated controllers, a lack of motion, and IR sensors.

Some cases and battery cases for instance are just going to be too large. While the Switch Lite will fit, it’ll probably jumble around with all the extra space inside. The same thing goes for screen protectors unless you’re ready to cut them down with a box cutter or some kind of knife, they’re going to be too big for the Switch Lite’s smaller display.

Unfortunately, most if not all of the Labo Nintendo has released isn’t going to work with the Nintendo Switch Lite. This is especially true of any pieces of Labo designed to hold the screen by itself like the Labo VR Kit or Labo Piano, due to the system’s slightly different proportions and its inability to detach the controllers. While you may be able to use other Labo kits like the Vehicle Kit, it wouldn’t quite be the same because you can’t connect the Switch Lite to a TV.

Nintendo Switch Lite Accessories FAQ

Does the Switch support Bluetooth?

The Switch consoles have always supported Bluetooth pairing with controllers, but until recently, there was no support for Bluetooth audio. Luckily, if your Switch’s system version is updated to 13.0.0 or higher, Bluetooth audio should work without the need for an adapter. That means you can use the best wireless earbuds, headphones, and speakers with your Switch. However, Bluetooth microphones still aren’t supported. Take a look here for more information about how to connect via Bluetooth to your Switch.

What comes with the Switch Lite?

The Switch Lite is also on the lighter side when it comes to included accessories. This Switch model doesn't connect to gaming TVs, so a dock and HDMI cord aren’t in the box. The Joy-Cons don’t detach either, meaning you won't find straps or a grip for them. Instead, you’ll only find a USB-C charger. That’s why you’ll want to grab some of the accessories we’ve listed to make the most of your console.

When do Nintendo Switch Lite accessories go on sale?

Generally, the overall best times to buy a Nintendo Switch Lite console are also the very best times to buy Switch Lite accessories. Some of the more popular events where you're guaranteed to find discounts on controllers, headphones, cases, and more, are Amazon Prime Day in July and Black Friday in November.

Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer and unpaid music historian.

Whether you own a Nintendo Switch, a Switch Lite, or a Switch OLED, you know how versatile and fun this console can be. To make the most of your gaming experience, investing in a few accessories – some of which are Switch 2 compatible, including the Pro Controller – can take things to the next level.

From Switch controllers allowing better control (and less cramping) during intense gameplay, to screen protectors keeping your Switch safe from any scratches, the right accessories enhance performance and protection. We've logged countless hours on the Nintendo Switch using a variety of different accessories to help direct you to the most essential add-ons.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Nintendo Switch Accessories:

Although the standared Switch console comes with Joy-Con controllers and a charging dock, we still think there are a few extras worth adding to your purchase. Below we've gathered all of the Switch accessories we've tested and deemed worthy of any Switch user in 2025 and beyond.

1. Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

Best Switch Controller That Isn't Joy-Con

2. AmFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector

Best Nintendo Switch Screen Protector

3. RDS Carry Case

Best Nintendo Switch Case

4. SanDisk 128GB Ultra

Best Nintendo Switch Memory Card

5. CRKD Nitro Deck

Best Switch Deck

6. Razer Barracuda X Wireless Headset

Best Nintendo Switch Headset

7. Satisfye ZenGrip Pro Gen 3

Best Nintendo Switch Grip

8. Hori Split Pad Pro

Better Joy-Con

9. Genki Covert Dock Mini

Best Nintendo Switch Portable Dock

10. Nintendo Joy-Con Wheel

Best Nintendo Switch Steering Wheel

11. 8BitDo Arcade Stick

Best Nintendo Switch Fight Stick

12. HyperX ChargePlay Quad 2

Best Joy-Con Charger

13. Marseille mClassic

Best Nintendo Switch Upscaler

14. Emperor of Gadgets Portable Power Bank

Best Nintendo Switch Power Bank

How to Choose Switch Accessories

As accessories are add-ons for your Switch, you probably don't want to spend too much money on them. Luckily, the basics we'd recommend are normally under $50 for all three products: a case, a screen protector, and an SD card. These items immediately ensure protection and allow you to store more games, making it a great place to start.

3 must-haves:

1. Switch case
2. Screen protector
3. SD card

From there, you’ll want to focus on quality-of-life products based on your lifestyle and needs:

• For comfort: If the Joy-Con are uncomfortable for you, we'd recommend investing in another controller for a more ergonomic hold. Tip: Take it to the next level with a mount for your Switch OLED and a Pro controller so you can game on the go when you're not connected to your TV. The Fixture S2 monitor and Pro controller mount is a must-have for playing in handheld mode.
• For on-the-go charging: Get a power bank to extend playtime in general or while on the go.
• For more immersive gaming: Consider getting one of the best Nintendo Switch headsets we've researched and/or tested. When it comes to performance with the Switch, nothing beats the Razer Barracuda X right now.

As for other accessories like upscalers, docks, or printers, you can grab these down the road depending on your needs. No matter which accessories you decide to purchase, do the research to ensure the accessory is compatible for your Switch model.

Nintendo Switch Accessories FAQ

Will Nintendo Switch accessories be compatible with the Switch 2?

It's a mixed bag. Because of the Switch 2's magnetic Joy-Con and bigger screen size, things like screen protectors, cases and other form-fitting attachments will not be compatible. Though the Switch's Joy-Con won't be able to snap into the Switch 2, they are compatible via Bluetooth; the Switch Pro Controller will also be compatible (but the Switch 2 Pro Controller is not compatible with the Switch). Your microSD card will also be incompatible; the Switch 2 will only work with a microSD Express card. However, hold onto any power banks and other accessories that use USB-C: The addition of an extra USB-C port on the Switch 2 means that you'll be able to use more accessories at once.

Which Nintendo Switch accessories should you buy first?

There are several Switch accessories you can buy, but if you've just purchased the console, there are a few things you should get first. The most essential accessories are a carrying case, a microSD card, and a screen protector. These items will allow you to protect your Switch and also download more games to the console. You may also want to look into getting a more comfortable Pro controller or a nicer set of Joy-Con since the base set is not ergonomic for long-term gameplay.

What accessories normally come with a Nintendo Switch?

The original 6.2-inch LCD touchscreen console comes with an AC adapter, a Nintendo Switch dock, and HDMI cable. Beyond that, there are left and right Joy-Con, along with straps for individual Joy-Con use and a Joy-Con grip for turning the two controllers into one for gaming on a TV.

With the 7-inch OLED model, you get all the same accessories as the original, but the Switch dock has a LAN port for a wired internet connection.

As for the Switch Lite, it’s also light on accessories. There’s no dock or HDMI, as you can’t connect it to your TV. The Joy-Con are also not detachable, so you’ll only find the console and USB-C charger in the box.

When do Nintendo Switch accessories go on sale?

Although the Switch itself doesn't go on sale very often, Nintendo Switch accessories will often see discounts throughout the year. The general rule of thumb is that the best times to buy a Nintendo Switch are also the best times to buy Switch accessories. Some of the more popular events where you're guaranteed to find discounts on gaming accessories are Amazon Prime Day in July and Black Friday in November.

Danielle Abraham is a tech freelance writer and unpaid music historian.

Georgie Peru is a freelance writer and also contributed to this article.

The Nintendo Switch was a game-changer in handheld gaming space, acting as both a portable device and a console, when it came out seven years ago. Even though the Switch 2 is officially out, there's still plenty of life left in the Switch, Switch OLED, and Switch Lites. One of their biggest virtues is also a drawback: Its versatility means it’s susceptible to damage, especially to the screen and Joy-Con when you're on the go. To prevent any major or minor scratches and blemishes, a case is the absolute best Nintendo Switch accessory you can grab. If you're upgrading, we have a separate guide for our recommended Switch 2 accessories.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Nintendo Switch Cases:

There are a range of Nintendo Switch cases to choose from. Some offer a hard shell and space to hold extras like game cartridges or chargers, while others go all out, offering plenty of room to house extra Switch controllers, power banks, and more. For those with butter fingers, some options wrap the console in 360° protection and have grips to prevent and keep the Switch safe during drops. No matter what type of case you’re after, our team of experts has selected the top options to suit your needs.

If you’re looking to grab a future-proof case that will fit the Nintendo Switch 2, you’ll want to grab one of the larger cases in this guide, like one from GeekShare or Controller Gear. Nintendo’s newest console has larger dimensions than its predecessor, so not all of our picks will fit the Switch 2.

Additional contributions by Georgie Peru

1. Orzly Carry Case

Best Switch Case

2. Game Traveler Zelda Nintendo Switch Lite Case

Best Nintendo Switch Lite Case

3. Game Traveler Nintendo Switch Deluxe Case

Best Budget Case

4. Tomtoc Carrying Case

Best Compact Case

5. Zadii Hard Carrying Case

Best Rugged Case

6. GeekShare Large Capacity Multifunctional Switch Messenger Bag

Best Nintendo Switch Sling Bag

7. Tomtoc Sling Shoulder Travel Bag

Best Shoulder Bag

8. Mumba Dockable Case

Best Always-On Protective Case

9. Newdery External Battery Station

Best Charger Case

10. Bionik Power Commuter Travel Bag

Best Commuter Case

11. Controller Gear Animal Crossing Backpack

Best Nintendo Switch Backpack

12. Waterfield Designs Slip Case

Best Nintendo Switch Sleeve Case

How to Choose a Nintendo Switch Case

If you need something to carry your console around, look for a carrying or travel case; basically, something with straps and is big enough to hold a charger. If you're throwing it in bag, something with a hard shell is a smarter bet. It should have a way to protect the screen from scratches (usually with a flip-down tongue or sleeve). Consider what you need to carry. Perhaps all you need is the console itself, maybe a few game cartridges. But if you're traveling away from home for a while, you might need a case large enough to hold the dock and an HDMI cable.

Some cases come with an integrated battery. It’s probably not worth considering a charging case with less than about 10,000mAh of power, as that’ll power your Switch through just short of two complete charges. Bonus points if the battery charges quickly, and can also charge other devices in your inventory.

Remember that these are cases you’ll need to cart around in the real world. What, exactly, do you want to be seen wearing or carrying? Some cases look a little goofy or childish, which is fine if you’re a child, and less so if you’re a grownup who takes a Switch to work to game on a lunch break.

Nintendo Switch Case FAQ

Will my Switch case fit the Switch 2?

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Switch and Switch OLED cases will not fit the Switch 2, especially if they were made to be slim and discreet. Measuring 10.5 inches, the Switch 2 is a full inch wider than the Switch OLED, which is just a hair bigger than the original. Unless your case or bag is already fairly roomy, you'll have to size up with a new one. We'll be testing Switch 2 accessories to find the best of them as they're available.

Does a Nintendo Switch need a case?

Unless you’re playing your Switch exclusively at home, you will absolutely want a case to ensure the longevity of the device. Although the portable console is relatively durable, if you toss it in a bag or accidentally drop it without protection, you always run the risk of cracking the screen, damaging the Joy-Con, or breaking other key components, essentially bricking the device or needing to fix it for far more than the cost of a case.

Cases also add convenience, as many come with extra storage for game cartridges and accessories and straps for easy carrying. You’ll even find options that serve as grips to make gameplay more enjoyable or cases offering integrated batteries, ensuring you’re never without juice during crucial moments in the action.

Do new Nintendo Switches come with a case?

None of the Nintendo Switch models come with a case. In some instances, there may be a bundle deal that includes a case, but for the most part, you’ll have to seek out a case on your own.

What size does a Switch case need to be?

A Nintendo Switch is 4 x 9.4 x 0.55 inches with the Joy-Con attached; a Switch OLED is 4 x 9.5 x 0.55 inches; and the Switch Lite is . You’ll need to account for the material required in the case’s design, about 0.1-0.2 inches or so, but by no means does the case need to be massive. Sleeve-type cases, like Waterfield Designs Magnetic Case, are especially good for keeping a low handling footprint.

If you’re looking for a hard-shelle case to boost protection or want additional storage for accessories, the case size will increase more drastically. You can expect to add an inch or more to the Switch’s size to accommodate these additions. When putting accessories into a case, it’s also important they don’t press up against your device, causing accidental misspresses or damage to the screen. Pockets and separate storage areas can help prevent this.

Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.

After eight whole years of Nintendo’s console-handheld hybrid, its successor, the Nintendo Switch 2, is finally in our hands. While it’s an all-new system, there are some old accessories that still work with the new platform. But because of its bigger screen and the new magnetic Joy-Con, that old Switch case isn’t going to fit the new system. You’ll need a handful of new accessories to get the most out of your next-gen Switch. From finding the best grips for your Joy-Con 2 to the easiest bubble-free screen protectors to guard that shiny new display, we have you covered in this Switch 2 accessories guide.

I’ve researched the best Switch 2 accessories you can buy during this launch window based on both hands-on experience and research from some of our favorite Switch 1 accessory manufacturers. Of course, we’re still in the early days, and plenty of companies are still shipping their products to retailers as I’m writing this. Some haven’t even made them available for preorder yet, so I’ll continue to update this list over time with my favorite new accessories as I go hands-on with them over the next few months.

So before you rush to see what Pro Controller you should pick up on day one, let’s get up to speed on what you need to know about buying accessories for your Nintendo Switch 2. There are a few accessories that warrant their own articles because both categories come with some caveats that you need to know before buying anything for your Switch 2.

Best MicroSD Express Cards for Switch 2

Bigger games with great graphical detail meant the Switch 2 needed a faster storage solution for your downloaded games. That means your old SD cards from the Switch 1 will not work here. You need to get a MicroSD Express card for the Switch 2, which is faster (and more expensive) than the basic model. We'll be updating our guide to the best MicroSD Express cards for Nintendo Switch 2 as we do more testing now that the console is out.

Best Switch 2 Cases So Far

The Switch 2 may be portable, but it’s not invincible. If you’re gearing up to take Mario Kart World or Cyberpunk 2077 on the road, you’ll need to protect your console with a sturdy, reliable case. Again, your original Switch case is not going to fit your Switch 2, so you will need to purchase a new one. In addition to materials, construction, and form, I specifically made sure to look for extra features like comfort grips, game cartridge storage, bundles, and tested brands when making my suggestions. Of course, whether you want to go with a slim soft case like the one from Tomtoc or a bulkier hard case like CoBak's, you have options for your preferences.

Best Switch 2 Screen Protectors So Far

Even though the Switch 2 has a built-in layer that acts as screen protector – don't peel that off – a good screen protector is non-negotiable for handheld devices. Since the launch of the original Switch, tons of companies have stepped up their game, offering new applicators, matte finishes, and kits to make sure your protector doesn’t trap dust or air bubbles when you apply it. Some are also built to take hits like a tank (though we’d never suggest testing this out yourself).

I use some of these brands to protect other devices I own, like my Steam Deck and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphone, and many of the same design principles are applied across different designs, including the Switch 2. Most of these also come with extra units in case your first protector gets damaged.

Best Gaming Headsets for Switch 2

The Switch 2 still has a standard audio jack, yet it’s the small but major secondary USB-C port that makes wireless gaming headsets even more useful. A majority of the best gaming headsets are compatible, and since Bluetooth isn’t the best idea for gaming (as was evident on the original Switch) I recommend checking out our picks for headsets that go particularly well with the Switch 2 rather than just using the earbuds you’re probably wearing right now.

Best Switch 2 Controllers

Unless you want to stick with the packaged Joy-Con 2, you’re going to want the new Pro Controller, or one of the gamepads made in its image. Especially if you’re playing more sophisticated games that demand precise controls or need something more comfortable for long sessions, a proper controller will probably be the most beneficial accessory for your Switch 2.

While you could certainly use an original Pro Controller or whatever your previous gamepad of choice was, the Switch 2 brings new features to the table – notably, a 3.5mm audio jack that allows you to use a wired headset for audio and chatting in-game without being tethered to your console. You may be interested in Switch 2’s GameChat feature, and you can seamlessly go into a video and/or voice chat room with friends with the new C button. Not every new controller has it, but licensed manufacturers like PowerA do include it. Lastly, the built-in programmable back buttons on the official Pro Controller can be a game-changer, letting you map normal inputs to them, and that can improve performance or comfort across many different types of games.

If you’re just looking for a solid Pro-style controller, our favorite original Switch controllers will serve you well. Something like the Gulikit KK3 Max has programmable back buttons, Hall Effect sticks, high polling rate for smoother inputs, and is versatile enough to use on PC without trouble. Either way, you have plenty of great options.

Best Switch 2 Handheld Grips

Although it promises some ergonomic enhancements from the original Switch, the Switch 2 still won’t have fully formed grips on the new Joy-Con – the likes of the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X still have an ergonomic advantage that can help make long handheld play sessions more comfortable. But you already have ways of improving the ergonomics of the Switch 2 with a handful of attachments available now. The grips above are the best we could find for playing in handheld mode from reliable manufacturers, including ones I’ve already gone hands-on with like DBrand’s Killswitch 2 grip and case combo and the Genki Attack Vector.

Best Switch 2 Joy-Con Grip / Handles

Even though the Switch 2 ships with a central grip to attach both Joy-Con to use like a singular controller, they’re not perfect. Especially for intense games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, there are more comfortable ways to play using the Joy-Con. Some companies are even starting to offer stands to help prop up your Joy-Con in the new Mouse Mode as well, which comes in handy for navigating menus and playing games like Civilization VII. Getting a proper connecting grip can be a more cost-effective solution compared to buying an entirely new gamepad, so long as you’re happy with the inputs of the Joy-Con. And many of these options will also charge your Joy-Con while they’re in use, which is a neat little cherry on top.

Best Switch 2 Joy-Con Charge Stations

Nintendo has stated that the Switch 2 Joy-Con could last as long as 20 hours on a full charge, which is the same amount of time as the original Joy-Con. When looking at wireless controllers nowadays, 20 hours is fairly decent, although they still go by pretty quickly compared to other wireless controller options. It’s intuitive to just reattach your Joy-Con when they’re not in use to keep them charged, but if you plan on having multiple sets ready to go at all times, it’ll be a good idea to have a charging station on-hand. For those who often host multiplayer get-togethers with the likes of Super Mario Party Jamboree’s new Jamboree TV content or Mario Kart World, a Joy-Con charging station will make your life easier. I made sure to include models that feature as many ports as possible so you never run out of charged controllers.

Best Switch 2 Portable Chargers

The original Switch’s battery life remains one of its weak spots depending on the game you’re playing (some drain more power than others), even after a mid-gen refresh that brought some welcome improvements. It’ll remain something you have to manage by nature of using a portable gaming device especially if you’re taking the Switch 2 on long flights, trips, or car rides. That maximum battery life of 6.5 hours won’t always hold up and looking for an outlet is less than ideal when charge times can be quite longer than something like a smartphone.

Being able to charge in-between sessions untethered comes in clutch more often than you may expect, so having an extra battery pack to get some extra juice can be a total game-changer. I personally love Anker’s line with built-in USB-C cables, but Magsafe options like Genki’s Energy Pack are also really enticing. Either way, make sure you check the capacity and wattage of a portable charger before purchasing one you plan to use with your Switch 2 – some might simply be overkill for what you need.

Other Switch 2 Accessories Worth Considering

It feels like every new Nintendo console comes with a mountain of weird accessories. From Wii Sports-style tennis rackets to fishing rods, there’s a lot of extra and niche add-ons mixed in with the core accessories that are typically more practical. That’s not to say there aren’t some cool ideas that stretch the imagination of gaming on the Switch. Hori’s Piranha Plant camera is a fun example – while it costs $5 more than the first-party camera, it’s a fun alternative that’s can double-up as some themed decor. (Though don't expect it to work miracles: The camera has a pretty dismal 480p resolution.) While it’s not an ideal way to play, the steering wheel attachment can be a fun and more accessible way for younger kids to play Mario Kart World. These accessories don’t fall into the conventional categories like controllers and cases, but they’re worth considering regardless. I’ve also thrown in a couple of "starter kits" that make for decent one-and-done purchases that include most of what you’ll want on day one.

Charlie's a freelance contributor for IGN. You can reach them via Twitter or Instagram at the handle @chas_mke.

For a limited time, Amazon has brought back one of its most popular power bank deals. The Anker Zolo 10,000mAh 30W USB Power Bank is back down to only $12.93 after a 50% off instant discount. This is a great price for an Anker-branded 10,000mAh power bank that can fast charge a Nintendo Switch console at its maximum rate. The Zolo is compact and boasts some uncommon but practical features, like a built-in USB Type-C cable and a digital display. You can also choose from four different colors to customize your look, including pastel blue and pink.

Anker Zolo 10,000mAh USB Power Bank for $12.94

Marvel Studios will not hold its annual Saturday Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con this year, although Marvel Entertainment will still have panels and events devoted to comics and games as well as a booth on the showroom floor.

“With Avengers: Doomsday moving its release date from May 2026 to December 2026, the studio is holding its powder for Comic-Con 2026, rather than suspend production in London to fly its cast of more than two dozen stars to appear on stage in San Diego this year,” according to Variety.

This year’s San Diego Comic-Con coincides with the release of Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Marvel Studios went big for last year’s show, with a special Thursday panel for Deadpool & Wolverine and the big reveal of Robert Downey Jr.’s casting as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. The studio also put on a huge Galactus drone show over the skies of San Diego.

The last time Marvel skipped SDCC was in 2023 due to the Hollywood labor strikes.

One could speculate that just because Marvel Studios won’t be at SDCC that doesn’t mean parent company Disney won’t be there as the studio has sci-fi titles TRON: Ares and Avatar: Fire and Ash opening later this year.

For more MCU coverage, find out why Marvel had to reveal Red Hulk before Captain America: Brave New World opened and what the state of the MCU is heading into Fantastic Four and Doomsday.

This year Father's Day lands on June 15. There's still plenty of time to shop around for a great gift for dad, and what better gift than a brand new iPad. Amazon has dropped the prices on a couple of the newest models ahead of this momentous of occasions. The Apple iPad, a March 2025 release, is down to $299 after a $50 off instant discount. Both 11" and 13" Apple iPad Air, also March 2025 releases, are down to $499 and $699, respectively, after a $100 off instant discount. Sizeable discounts on currently model iPads are relatively uncommon, so get in on this deal while it lasts.

$50 Off New 2025 Apple iPad 10.9" (A16) Tablet

For most people, the iPad (not the Air, Mini, or Pro) is the best model to get because it offers all the benefits of iOS as well as snappy performance at an affordable price. The current generation model was released on March 12, 2025, over two years after the previous generation (October 2022). The upgrades include a more powerful processor (A16 vs A14), more RAM (6GB vs 4GB), and more storage (128GB vs 64GB), all. Best of all, the launch price of $349 is actually lower than when the previous generation model was released, which was $399.

The specs that have carried over are the 10.9" Liquid Retina 2360x1640 (264ppi) display, USB Type-C charging, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and the same camera. It's also compatible with the Magic Folio keyboard so you can convert it into a mini laptop for better workflow, making it one of the best iPads for students, and the newer Apple Pencil with USB-C.

$100 Off the 2025 iPad Air M3 Tablet

Amazon is offering the 7th generation Apple iPad Air M3 tablets at the lowest prices I've seen so far. The 11" model is down to $499 and the 13" model is down to $699, both after a $100 off instant discount. That's the best price we've seen for this 2025 model with the M3 chip. The 7th gen iPad Pro Air was released in March and is the current generation model. It's only one year newer than the 6th gen model and the only major upgrade is the jump from the M2 to the M3 chip.

With summer just around the corner, the deals are hot this Memorial Day weekend. Just about every online retailer has dropped deep discounts on a range of products for the holiday. While the sales may not be as great as Black Friday and Prime Day, it’s still a great time to save on everything to prepare for the warm months ahead. Summer essentials aren’t the only discounted items either, with everything from TVs and mattresses to PCs and gaming essentials getting in on the action.

TL;DR: Deals for Today

This might not be a deal, but if you missed out on the first Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy pre-orders, you’re in luck, as you can still grab the bundle and starter kit. Individual cards are also up for pre-order, ensuring you can lock down your favorites before the drop in June.

2025 Apple iPad (A16)

Sonos Move 2

Grill Deals

Blink Outdoor 4

Alienware Aurora R16 Intel Core Ultra 7 265F RTX 5080

LG 65-Inch OLED evo C4

Persona 5 Royal Standard Edition for Switch

Mattress Sales

Whether you need a cheap mattress to plop in a guest room or want a top-end bed for a restful night, there are great Memorial Day mattress sales you don’t want to sleep on. Top brands are offering some of the biggest savings of the year this weekend. Lowe’s marked a bunch of Serta mattresses 25% off, while Casper has its most popular mattresses up to 35% off. Looking to amp up the luxury even further? PlushBeds has knocked $1,500 off the price tag on most beds, and for extra comfort customizations, Sleep Number mattresses are up to half off.

Amazon is also taking part, offering a queen-size bed for just $179 along with a whole bunch of other mattress deals. Amplify your comfort even further since accessories like Tempur-Pedic pillows and mattress toppers are also on sale.

Nintendo Switch 2 Accessory Deals

The Nintendo Switch 2 release date is under 2 weeks away, and if you’re planning on snagging the new handheld, keeping the pricey device protected should be top priority. Luckily, there are plenty of Switch 2 accessory deals happening this weekend.

A few major sales are worth noting, like a JSAUX Protective Case for just $13.99 when you clip a coupon. It wraps the Switch 2 in a shock-absorbing, ergonomic shell for 24/7 protection. When taking the gaming handheld on the go, the over 50% off TZGZT case is a great way to keep it safe and bring along some extra accessories too. Of course, a screen protector is also an absolute must, since a cracked screen is the quickest way to brick the Switch, and a few are on sale today.

MTG: Final Fantasy Pre-Orders

I wanted Journey Together to hit big. After Surging Sparks and Prismatic Evolutions delivered some real heat, it felt like we were on a roll.

But instead of a clean three-hit combo, this set tripped over itself on the way out the gate. Prices were inflated from the start, and now that the market has had time to breathe, this correction is aggressive.

It’s still a solid set. Great art, fun pulls, some nostalgic hits. But a lot of the single prices were built on hype that couldn’t hold.

Collectors thought we’d get another round of rapid value climbs. That didn’t happen. If you're buying now, you're catching cards on the way down instead of riding them on the way up.

Just go in knowing what’s worth grabbing and what’s still floating on leftover launch-day fumes.

Illustration Rares

Articuno had a strong start. Prices hit $55 back in late March, which made sense at the time—it's a fan-favorite Legendary with great artwork.

Since then, it’s taken a 36% dip and now floats around $35. Honestly, that’s still a bit high. I’ve seen near-mint listings at $18.69, and that feels more in line with where this card belongs.

I think it’s a solid pickup if you just want a great-looking bird without the early adopter tax.

Wailord was one of those early hype Illustration Rares that got pumped fast, mostly because it’s Wailord and people have a soft spot for absurdly large water types.

It hit $60 at the end of March, which didn’t last long. It’s now dropped 63.66% to a market value of around $22.49, and I’ve seen copies listed for as low as $14.55. Personally, I think this one’s due for a soft bounce back to $30, but only once the panic listings clear out and the Wailord fans circle back.

My favorite Illustration Rare is N’s Reshiram. The artwork is top-tier, and the character pairing actually adds something meaningful to the card. It started at $39.43, which honestly didn’t feel too far off given the demand at launch.

Now it’s sitting around $17.44. Even the Journey Together stamped variant, which you'd think would carry some extra value, is undercutting the regular one at about $14. That’s a 79.51% drop, and in my opinion, a steal. If you want a chase card without paying chase prices, this is the one.

Special Illustration Rare And Hyper Rares

I have big plans over Memorial Day weekend to get some shopping in. I don't usually buy anything from Memorial Day sales, but with all of the uncertainty about tariffs and prices in the U.S. I've been feeling like I should make my purchases now rather than wait to see if prices go up or not. More specifically, I've been meaning to upgrade my gaming setup for years and it's starting to feel like a now or never situation.

Most of the Memorial Day sales have been live since last week, and I've primarily been browsing the Wayfair sale for various furniture items. I'm specifically looking for a new office chair and desk as well as a nice bookcase to store my games, and the Wayfair sale has overall been the easiest website to navigate so far. I've also been looking at IGN's picks for best gaming chair and gaming desks to help broaden my search to other popular brands.

If you're looking to upgrade your own gaming setup or office during these sales, here are my suggestions for how to go about it.

Start With the Wayfair Sale

You ever wonder who the first person to put peanut butter and chocolate together was? Part of me feels like whoever it was must be loaded; I mean, you’ve combined two already great flavors into something that Reese’s would more or less build a whole brand on. And then part of me thinks it plays out like the hypothetical guy who invented the Chicken McNugget in The Wire. A pat on the back from a big shot, and then it’s back to the basement to figure out a way to make the fries taste better. I don’t know the answer; I hope it's the former. But every now and then, you come across an idea, a combination of things, that’s so good that you wonder how nobody’s ever done it before. And every time my squad and I sprinted back to our time-traveling dropship, stopping only to deal with the Time Reapers that stood in our way, I wondered how the hell nobody had ever said “Hey, what if we combined Overcooked and Gears of War?” pre-Pizza Bandit.

Pizza Bandit’s setup is pretty simple. You’re Malik, a former bounty hunter with dreams of being a chef who is pulled back into the bounty game when he’s scammed out of his pizza shop and his former crew needs his help to get out of a jam. Pizza Bandit’s writing is pretty silly, but that’s part of the charm. I can’t get mad when Albert, the android that upgrades your weapons, tells me he doesn’t know how to apologize for what happened to my pizza shop because he’s just an android, or when my pilot waxes nostalgic about how he misses the fog, or when someone utters the odd nonsensical line. It’s too silly, and the whole setup is just there to, well… set up Pizza Bandit’s wackiness.

See, you’re not just any bounty-hunting crew. You’re a time-traveling bounty hunting crew, and that means you’ll be going all over space and time to get the job done. Don’t ask me how any of this works. All I know is that pizza heals and bullets kill, and that the Time Reapers — nasty little buggers that seem to be invading every timeline — don’t want this pizza shop owner to make any dough. And that’s not gonna fly.

What makes Pizza Bandit unique is that you’re not just shooting stuff. You’re also, well, kinda playing Overcooked. After squading up, my first mission saw my crew (you can play with up to three friends) heading to the Restaurant from N owhere, a hidden outpost run by another bandit crew. Our job: fulfill the pizza orders for other bounty hunting teams, and send them off in time-traveling rocket pods. That meant putting together the right type of pizza, getting it to the oven, making sure we were getting their drink orders right, and adding some extra bullets for when things got spicy, cramming it all into a pod, and doing it on time while fighting off the Time Reapers, who really, really don’t like supporting small businesses.

And that’s where the other part of the Overcooked/Gears of War marriage comes into play. See, the Time Reapers mean business, and you’re not going to talk them out of some time reaping. That’s their whole bag. The only solution, fellow bandit, is incredible violence. I’ve played several builds of Pizza Bandit at this point, and let me tell you, your arsenal is up to the task. You start with your choice of assau lt rifle, minigun, and sniper rifle, but the fun really begins when you start unlocking your secondary weapons by completing jobs. They start simple: landmines, grenades, that sort of thing, but once you unlock the disco ball that attracts enemies and gets them dancing before it explodes? Whew, buddy. And the sentry turret? Perfection. You could slice and dice them Time Reapers with a katana, but have you ever considered using a pizza slicer as big as a man? It’ll change your life.

And the Time Reapers will force you to use everything in your arsenal. You got your standard guys who will just run at you, but there are also Time Reapers that’ll crawl around on all fours, Terminator-looking ones that will leap at you, giant ones with hammers, guys who throw fireballs (these can really ruin your day), the works. You gotta prioritize.

Pizza Bandit is at its best when you’re with a good team, calling out orders. A good match should be shouts of “We need a pepperoni pie!” and “I’m on the Coke!” and “I’m down!” interspersed with lots and lots of gunfire. Simple choices, like when to call down your own, once-a-mission rocket pod full of pizza and supplies, and more complex ones, like where to put it (you can block off a stairway, for instance), spice things up, too.

And here’s the thing: so far, I’ve just talked about Restaurant from Nowhere, which is only the first level. Pizza Bandit isn’t a one-trick pony. One of my favorite levels has you taking over a sushi joint and making sure you have the right stuff on the delivery turntable for your customers. Sometimes that means running downstairs and grabbing a big ol’ tuna, taking that bad boy upstairs, and chopping him up before the Time Reapers whack you and you drop him. Other times that means frying an egg, or making a cucumber roll. You gotta stay ahead of the curve, because new customers are prioritized over old ones, and the Time Reapers aren’t gonna sit there and wait for you to plate your masterpiece.

Sometimes, you’re not even cooking food at all. Another favorite level, Wizard’s Tomb, has you exploring a magically booby-trapped tomb in search of a sarcophagus. You’ll have to navigate the tomb’s traps, solve basic puzzles to reveal the way forward, and take out the arcane heart powering the whole enterprise before getting to the sarcophagus itself, which you’ll naturally transport with jetpacks before booking it back to your ship. It isn’t enough to get any given job done; you gotta get home, too. Just another day in the life of a pizza bandit.

There are more, of course: in one, you’ll defend a cabin with Dr. Emmert Browne (Great Scott, Jofsoft, I see what you’re doing here, and I like it!) while he invents the time travel device that makes your whole business profitable. Winning it all means keeping him warm, satiating his hunger with rabbit or venison, and stopping all those nasty Time Reapers (and Wendigos?) who are trying to stop time travel from happening. You’d think that the Time Reapers would understand time paradoxes, but I guess not. Can’t reap time if there’s no time to reap, y’all.

Or maybe you’ll break into an enormous safe with a laser drill, like you’re roleplaying the opening scene of Michael Mann’s Thief with a drill that’s constantly exploding. That seems safe, right? But hey, apparently there’s a magical cookbook in that vault whose recipes can alter reality, and we’re being paid to get it, exploding drill or not. A Pizza Bandit always gets the job done.

And there’s always time to do your best Breaking Bad impersonation and help a couple of guys cook some “magic powder” and hide it inside some chicken. Oh, and you have to kill and cook the chickens. Only fresh, never frozen, baby. Pizza Bandit is always ludicrous, and its inspirations are obvious, but it’s never less than fun.

Between missions, it’s back to Pizza Bandit (your restaurant), where you can acquire and upgrade your weapons, decorate Pizza Bandit itself, use the ingredients you find during missions to bake and share a pie for some stat boosts on your next run, or get some spiffy new duds for your bounty hunter. The milk carton backpack is a classic choice, if I do say so myself, but I’m still saving up for one of the cat ones. The things we do for fashion, am I right? Then it’s right back to it. A bandit’s work is never done.

Sometimes, you don’t know you want something until you get it. I didn’t know I wanted Pizza Bandit until the first time I played it at PAX two years ago. It was one of those games that generated a lot of word of mouth, but it’s one of those concepts that doesn’t seem like it’ll work until you get a controller in your hands and everything makes sense. I don’t know why we’ve never gotten something like Pizza Bandit before, but once I played it, I knew I wanted more. Pizza heals, bullets kill, and Pizza Bandit rocks. If Jofsoft can stick the landing, we’re in for a tasty slice of New York pie.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for the most recent MCU projects, including Captain America: Brave New World, Daredevil: Born Again, and Thunderbolts/The New Avengers.

With the release of Thunderbolts - or should we say, The New Avengers - the Marvel Cinematic Universe is at a critical point. The upcoming Ironheart series officially caps off Phase 5 of the MCU, while The Fantastic Four: First Steps kicks off Phase 6. We’re now entering the climax of the Multiverse Saga, with all eyes looking ahead to 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and the debut of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom.

With that in mind, and with the release dates of both Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars recently being pushed by about a half year each, it’s a good time to take a step back and examine just where the MCU is at right now. Who are the key players and teams in the Multiverse Saga? Why are there apparently two Avengers teams, and who’s on each one? Why has Tom Hiddleston’s Loki become the most important character in the Marvel multiverse? Why has the MCU pivoted from Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror to Downey’s Doom? Here’s everything you need to know heading into Phase 6.

The Avengers vs. The New Avengers

Avengers: Endgame ended with Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers passing the torch (or the shield, rather) to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. Steve made it clear that he views Sam as the rightful heir to the Captain America mantle and the man best suited to lead the Avengers.

In practice, though, it’s been an uphill battle for Sam in getting to a place where he’s willing to shoulder that massive responsibility. 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showed Sam’s struggle to embrace his new identity as Captain America. 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World did the same for Sam’s role as Avengers team leader. Only now, in the aftermath of Brave New World, is Sam actively working to reassemble Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Exactly which heroes made the cut is still to be revealed, with only Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres (the new Falcon) confirmed to be joining. But based on the cast member chairs featured in Marvel’s bizarre teaser video, we can make some assumptions. We’re expecting Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and Letitia Wright’s Black Panther to assemble, as they’ve all been featured prominently in the Multiverse Saga so far.

The problem for Sam is that he has some competition now: There’s another Avengers team out there. 2025’s Thunderbolts brings together a team that includes Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent, and Lewis Pullman’s Sentry. The film ends with this ragtag team confronting their self-serving handler, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (who’s really become the shadowy Nick Fury figure of the post-Endgame MCU), only to stumble into a press conference introducing them as “The New Avengers.” That’s why Marvel changed (or at least updated) the movie’s name from Thunderbolts* to The New Avengers only days after its release.

The post-credits scene in The New Avengers reveals that there’s some major tension between the two teams. Set 14 months after the New Avengers made their public debut, this scene reveals that Sam is suing the team for trademark infringement. We can probably expect Sam’s Avengers to butt heads with the New Avengers in Avengers: Doomsday. Which, while sure to be entertaining, can only mean bad things for the world at large. 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War already established how badly things can go wrong when the Avengers aren’t united. And there’s definitely a huge threat looming over their heads once more.

The State of the Marvel Multiverse

As the name suggests, the Multiverse Saga has been dedicated to introducing MCU viewers to the larger Marvel multiverse. Films like 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine have all dealt with the idea that there are other universes, each with their own heroes and villains.

No MCU project has been more integral to establishing the nature and scope of the multiverse than the Loki series. Loki follows the version of Tom Hiddleston’s character introduced in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame - the Loki from 2012 who escapes with the Tesseract. As the series reveals, Loki is summarily arrested by the Time Variance Authority, a police force who guard against abuses to what they dub “The Scared Timeline.” Despite himself, Loki winds up joining the TVA and contributing to their mission.

However, what Loki and his variant, Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie, eventually discover is that the TVA is controlled by a being called He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conqueror. Following a devastating war between Kang’s many variants, He Who Remains created the TVA to suppress alternate timelines and prevent his other selves from coming into existence. Only after Sylvie kills He Who Remains does the Marvel multiverse flood back into existence.

Loki Season 2 deals with the continued fallout of that act, as it becomes clear He Who Remains sabotaged the multiverse so that Loki would have no choice but to undo his death. But instead, Loki himself becomes the savior of the multiverse. He now sits on a throne at the center of all reality, literally holding the strands of the multiverse in his hands and observing everything. A buit ironic, considering how he always coveted his father’s throne. It’s a crowning act of heroism that cements Loki’s status as the best character in the MCU.

What Are Incursions and Anchor Beings?

Unfortunately, though Loki saved existence, the multiverse is still in dire shape. A phenomenon known as Incursions is currently rippling across universes. Incursions occur when breaches form between worlds and two universes begin to collide. If the Incursions aren’t stopped, both universes risk being annihilated. Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau narrowly prevented one such Incursion from destroying the MCU (Earth-616) and what appears to be Fox’s X-Men universe (Earth-10005), leaving her stranded in the latter universe. But Incursions are happening more and more frequently, meaning it’s only a matter of time before Earth-616 is threatened once again.

The Multiverse Saga has also introduced the concept of Anchor Beings. As revealed in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, an Anchor Being is a person whose very existence determines the health of a universe. When an Anchor Being dies, their universe eventually withers and collapses. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is the Anchor Being of Earth-10005, which creates a problem when he dies in 2017’s Logan. Of course, this doesn’t really make sense given that Logan never really felt like it was taking place in the Fox X-Men universe, but then again, this universe’s continuity has never made sense. In any case, thanks to Deadpool, Earth-10005 now has a new Wolverine variant calling it home, thereby restoring the natural order of things.

The question is who serves as the Anchor Being of the MCU. Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark would be the obvious choice, but does his death mean the MCU is also doomed? Could that have something to do with the Incursion problem and the worsening state of the multiverse? We’ll find out.

Marvel’s New Young Heroes

If there’s been any one mission in Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU apart from fleshing out the multiverse, it’s introducing a new generation of heroes to replace the Avengers of old. It’s worth taking a look at the key players and what they’re up to leading into Avengers: Doomsday.

2022’s Ms. Marvel series introduced Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, a Captain Marvel fangirl whose mystical bangle unlocks incredible super-powers. Kamala is also revealed to be a mutant in the final episode, making her one of the MCU’s first mutant characters alongside Tenoch Huerta Mejía’s Namor and the version of Wolverine teased in the She-Hulk series (a news ticker makes mention of a clawed man instigating a bar brawl). These days, Kamala seems to be on a recruiting drive, reaching out to other like-minded teen heroes to form a team, meaning the MCU could very well introduce the Young Avengers soon.

Kamala’s first recruit is Hailee Steinfeld’s Hawkeye, who has inherited the mantle from Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton. We see Kamala recruit Kate in the post-credits scene to 2023’s The Marvels.

Marvel has introduced other key members of the Young Avengers from the comics over the course of the Multiverse Saga so far. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier not only introduced the aged super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) but also his grandson Eli (Elijah Richardson). Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) officially became the superhero Stature in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. We’ve seen various versions of Kang the Conqueror already, meaning it wouldn’t be difficult for the MCU to introduce Iron Lad, a young version of Kang who rebels against his older self. (Because of his younger age, this would also mean the character could be recast, leaving any Jonathan Majors baggage behind.)

And then there are the sons of Vision and Scarlet Witch. We first met these characters as children in 2021’s WandaVision series, as Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff conjured them into being to complete her idyllic nuclear family. Even though the twins were wiped from existence along with the rest of Wanda’s sitcom-inspired fake reality, their souls have since been reincarnated in new bodies. Billy (Joe Locke) played a major role in 2024’s Agatha All Along, where we saw just how powerful this budding magician is growing, and speedster Tommy was also teased in that series.

At this point, we may very well see the Young Avengers come together for the first time in Avengers: Doomsday. And even if not, it seems only a matter of time before Marvel greenlights an actual Young Avengers movie or series.

It’s also worth pointing out that we’re seeing another, entirely separate batch of young heroes start to emerge in the Multiverse Saga. We like to refer to this group as the Next Avengers, as, like in the 2008 animated film, these characters are mainly descendants of iconic MCU heroes. So far, we’ve met Tony Stark’s daughter Morgan, T’Challa’s son Toussaint, Thor’s daughter Love, Bruce Banner’s son Skaar, and the orphaned Phyla-Vell, who’s effectively been adopted by Dave Bautista’s Drax. These characters are mostly a little young to be forming their own super-team just yet, but we suspect Marvel is arranging the pieces for a big payoff further down the line.

Where Are the Classic Avengers?

Marvel has been busy establishing a new generation of heroes in the MCU, but what about the old one? Where are all the classic Avengers? Will any of these characters return for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars? Let’s break down all the big names and recap what they’ve been up to lately.

Iron Man

Of course, Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark sacrificed his life to restore the countless souls snapped by Thanos. We don’t picture Marvel ever undoing that sacrifice. Plus, the MCU has a new Iron Man in the form of Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart. That said, Downey is returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom, and that leaves the door open for him to play other versions of Tony Stark from across the multiverse.

Steve Rogers

Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers is happily retired these days, having traveled back in time to settle down with Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. In the present, Steve is an elderly man and has passed the Captain America mantle onto Sam Wilson. But in the comics, Steve went through a period where he lost his powers and served the Avengers in more of an advisory role. Could something similar happen in Avengers: Doomsday?

Thor

Chris Hemsworth’s Thor has been keeping pretty busy since Endgame, shedding all that extra weight and somehow becoming even more buff than ever. Thor briefly served as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but his attention soon turned to dealing with the rise of Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. These days, Thor is happily playing single father, raising Gorr’s daughter Love as his own, and continuing to protect the MCU from evil.

Hulk

Of all the original Avengers, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner has played the most direct role in protecting Earth since the events of Avengers: Endgame. Banner has popped up in several places, studying the mysterious Ten Rings in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and mentoring his newly Hulk-ified cousin Jen (Tatiana Maslany) in 2022’s She-Hulk series. At the end of that series we saw that Banner has his own issues to deal with, as he’s been reunited with his son Skaar, an unexpected development from his days exiled on the world of Sakaar.

Hawkeye

Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton would be all too happy to retire if the universe would just leave him alone. We last saw Clint dragged back into the fray in 2021’s Hawkeye series, where he dealt with his Thanos-induced PTSD and mentored his young replacement, Kate Bishop. Somehow, we doubt Clint will be able to sit out the events of Avengers: Doomsday. But don’t hold your breath for a Hawkeye Season 2. Renner confirmed he’s turned down Marvel’s lowball offer.

Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff was another tragic casualty of Avengers: Endgame, and like Tony Stark, we don’t envision Marvel resurrecting the dead. Johansson recently reiterated her belief that Natasha should be allowed to stay dead. Still, never say never when the multiverse is in play.

What About Spider-Man?

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has really been through the wringer since the events of Avengers: Endgame. He had to deal with reintegrating into high school life after being snapped for five years. Then he faced having his secret identity outed to the world and mourned the death of Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May at the hands of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. These days, Peter is enjoying being a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man again, even if regaining his secret identity has required him to sacrifice his friendships with Jacob Batalon’s Ned and Zendaya’s MJ.

It’s still an open question as to whether Holland will return for Avengers: Doomsday. Given the nature of Doctor Strange’s identity-restoring spell, the Avengers may have trouble tracking him down. But Holland is set to star in a fourth solo movie called Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is rumored to take place alongside the events of Doomsday. We’ll see if Doomsday’s delay means Brand New Day will move into 2027.

The Fallout of Secret Invasion and Daredevil: Born Again

While some Disney+ series like Moon Knight and She-Hulk have been mainly dedicated to introducing their respective heroes, others have proven to have a more far-reaching impact on the MCU. We’ve already covered why Loki is one of the most important projects in the Multiverse Saga, but what about 2023’s Secret Invasion and 2025’s Daredevil: Born Again? Both series speak to the steadily worsening state of affairs in the MCU.

Secret Invasion follows Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos as they unravel a deep conspiracy involving a rogue band of Skrulls kidnapping and impersonating key political figures. Don Cheadle’s Jim Rhodes turned out to be one of those replaced, with the series hinting Rhodey has actually been a Skrull since shortly after the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.

Though Fury ultimately prevents the rogue Skrulls from poisoning Earth and making it their new home planet, the damage has been done. There’s a new wave of anti-alien xenophobia sweeping the globe. The public, still reeling from the traumatic effects of the Snap, is no longer willing to tolerate aliens in its midst.

As for Born Again, the series is effectively Season 4 of Netflix’s Daredevil show, firmly planting characters like Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle, and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk in the wider MCU. The series explores what happens after Fisk is elected mayor of New York, as Matt is reluctantly drawn back into his vigilante role.

Born Again Season 1 could have interesting ramifications for the MCU. In the finale, Fisk imposes martial law on the city and outlaws all costumed vigilantes. The situation is reminiscent of what happened with the Sokovia Accords in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, albeit limited to those heroes operating in New York. It should be interesting to see if this development will be referenced in other MCU projects like Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

The Debut of the Fantastic Four and X-Men

The MCU has built up a massive cast of heroes and villains over the years, but two groups have always been conspicuous by their absence. The MCU has no Fantastic Four and no X-Men, a holdover from the days when both franchises were locked up by 20th Century Fox. But thanks to the Multiverse Saga, that’s been slowly changing.

While we’ve still only met a handful of mutants living on Earth-616, several movies have featured characters that we recognize from Fox’s X-Men universe. 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness included Patrick Stewart’s Professor X among the members of Earth-838’s Illuminati. 2023’s The Marvels ends with Monica Rambeau being rescued by Kelsey Grammer’s Beast. 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine is a direct sequel to the previous two Deadpool movies, as Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson runs afoul of the TVA and teams up with a variant of Hugh Jackman’s Logan.

It’s clear from the currently announced cast for Avengers: Doomsday that the Fox X-Men are going to play a big role in the film. Everyone from James Marsden’s Cyclops to Ian McKellen’s Magneto to Channing Tatum’s Gambit is returning (though, strangely, Jackman himself has yet to be confirmed). We’ve speculated before that Doomsday is essentially an Avengers vs. X-Men movie, with both teams battling it out when an Incursion threatens their respective universes. And we’ll be very surprised if Jackman’s Wolverine isn’t among those heroes fighting to restore the multiverse in Avengers: Secret Wars.

Ultimately, we’re expecting Doomsday and Secret Wars to serve as the swan song for Fox’s X-Men characters, whether or not these characters actually survive the inevitable death and rebirth of the Marvel multiverse. But as we head into Phase 7, Marvel will start introducing the MCU’s version of the X-Men. Some fans are even speculating that Phase 7 will kick off “The Mutant Saga.” At the very least, Deadline is reporting that Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier is being eyed to helm the rebooted X-Men movie.

As for the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness featured a cameo of John Krasinski’s Mister Fantastic (a nod to a popular fan casting choice), but we’ll soon be meeting an entirely new version of the team in 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. First Steps stars Pedro Pascal as Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing. These characters aren’t residents of Earth-616, however, but rather dwell in an alternate universe that exists as a retro-futuristic 1960s version of our world. First Steps will chronicle the birth of Reed and Sue’s child, Franklin Richards, and pit the team against Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson’s Galactus.

If the post-credits scene to Thunderbolts is any indication, that fight may not go well for the FF. Thunderbolts shows the team fleeing to the MCU ahead of some unknown disaster in their universe. Presumably, either their world was just consumed by Galactus, or their universe is being threatened by an Incursion. Perhaps Galactus’ arrival is somehow connected to the Incursion phenomenon? Whatever the case, the FF will be in the MCU in time to join the cast of Avengers: Doomsday and battle Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Speaking of which…

From Kang the Conqueror to Doctor Doom

When Marvel kicked off the Multiverse Saga, this overarching storyline originally hinged on Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, a time-traveling tyrant with the power to kill even mighty heroes like Thor with ease. Again, as established in Loki, one version of Kang was responsible for suppressing the existence of the multiverse in order to halt a destructive war with his alternate selves. Now that the multiverse is back, that war now threatens all of existence. Or it did, until Marvel’s Kang plans hit a roadblock.

Majors played another version of Kang in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This Kang was marooned in the Quantum Realm by his other selves, and he nearly succeeds in escaping before Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man seemingly kills him. Scott is vexed by the idea that Kang may not be gone for good, and that their showdown is the start of a bigger war. The post-credits scene bears that out, as it becomes clear the many variants of Kang are now united in their desire for revenge.

But in the wake of Majors’ legal troubles and subsequent firing, not to mention the tepid response to Quantumania in general, Marvel is pivoting in a very different direction for the Multiverse Saga. The climax of this ongoing storyline will now hinge not on Kang, but Doctor Doom. And for some reason, Doom is being played by Downey. Does that make him a Tony Stark variant rather than Victor von Doom? Is he from The Fantastic Four: First Steps universe? We’re not sure, but you can learn more about the shared history between Doom and Iron Man here.

It remains to be seen exactly how this pivot will be handled in Doomsday (which was originally titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty), and whether Marvel will acknowledge the loose end that is the Council of Kangs or charge straight ahead with Doom. But it is clear that Marvel is looking to draw heavily from the 2015 Secret Wars comic by making Doom the linchpin of the Multiverse Saga.

The comic chronicles the destruction of the Marvel multiverse and the creation of Battleworld, a hodgepodge planet composed of fragments of dozens of dead universes. As its creator, Doom rules over Battleworld as God Emperor, with each territory being governed by a baron who answers only to Doom. It’s a very Game of Thrones/Dune-esque scenario. Only a handful of refugees from Earth-616 and Earth-1610 (aka the Ultimate Universe, where Miles Morales hails from) remember the multiverse as it was, and they set out to make things right again.

Presumably, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will follow some basic version of that plot, with Doomsday showing the final collapse of the multiverse and Secret Wars taking place on Battleworld. That opens the door for Secret Wars to bring back pretty much anyone who’s ever appeared in a Marvel movie or show, from obvious candidates like Jackman’s Wolverine and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man to more oddball choices like Nic Cage’s Ghost Rider and David Hasselhoff’s Nick Fury. Secret Wars could make Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s cameos seem small by comparison.

That’s everything you need to know about the state of the MCU heading into The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday. Look for First Steps to hit theaters on July 25, 2025, while Doomsday was recently delayed until December 2026.

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

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

Red alert, Tom Cruise fans, because Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is now in theaters. The eighth and (maybe?) final installment in the long-running action franchise seemingly intends to wrap up the Ethan Hunt saga, culminating in the final battle behind the Impossible Mission Force’s top agent and the villainous artificial intelligence known as The Entity. But despite all the hype, The Final Reckoning is something of a letdown, with IGN’s Clint Gage saying in his review that the movie “tries to deal with no less than the end of every living thing on the planet – and suffers because of it.” Given that Mission: Impossible has delivered some of the best action films of the past couple of decades, why does this latest entry feel so limp in comparison?

It’s a more complicated answer than you might expect. A lot of what goes wrong with The Final Reckoning is not contained solely to the film itself, but can also be traced back to cracks in the foundation from previous entries that finally caught up with the filmmakers here. The Final Reckoning tries to present itself as a finale for the entire series, as if this has been one giant story going all the way back to the first film, but that’s not how Mission: Impossible used to work. Let’s take a look at how The Final Reckoning exposes the franchise’s greatest flaw.

One Mission Too Many

Originally titled Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part Two, The Final Reckoning is not just trying to tie up the plot threads from the last film, but also serves as a grand finale for the whole series. Yet even though The Final Reckoning comes in at nearly three hours, the finished product is incredibly unwieldy, simultaneously feeling like it has both too much and too little going on at the same time. There’s an ungodly amount of exposition regarding how we got here, elaborating on all of the things Ethan and his team need to do to save the day, and this takes up so much screen time before they actually start doing any of it. What we end up with is a movie that is constantly insisting that stuff is happening where little of consequence actually happens.

The movie frequently jumps between the massive cast of characters, which not just includes most of the still living recurring cast but also a handful of new members. It’s telling that the opening titles can barely squeeze in all the names before the iconic theme finishes up. The deluge of plot (go here, get this, go there, do that, etc., etc.) makes for a numbing viewing experience that resembles Ethan’s interfacing with The Entity early in the film. A tsunami of words and images assault Ethan, somehow imparting what he needs to accomplish, but with little in the way of emotional context that would make the journey worth investing in. There’s not a lot of weight in saving the world if we don’t care about the world in the first place.

Add in Esai Morales’ Gabriel being a flat villain with no clear motivations, Ethan being separated from his team for a huge chunk of the runtime, and multiple subplots that go nowhere (what’s the deal with The Entity’s cult?), and it becomes clear The Final Reckoning needed some serious reworking both on the page and in the editing suite. The movie doesn’t even fully deliver on the one thing audiences expect from Mission movies: the stunt setpieces. There are really only two (!) of them across the three hours, those being Ethan’s underwater trek into the crashed Sevastopol submarine, and the aerial showdown between Ethan and Gabriel in a pair of biplanes. They’re well-executed for what they are, but given how long the movie is and how much money they spent on it (potentially up to $400 million), surely the filmmakers could’ve sprung for some more, well, impossible missions in their Mission: Impossible movie.

The Serialization Snafu

Beyond the weirdly low number of big set piece moments, the next most jarring aspect of The Final Reckoning is how it treats the franchise’s history. There is a liberal use of stock footage from previous installments, playing clips (sometimes more than once) when characters mention an event or plot element from the older films. In small doses this is perfectly fine, but The Final Reckoning overuses this device to the point of absurdity. Making matters worse is the rather disingenuous way The Final Reckoning bends the previous movies and its own plot into pretzels in an attempt to manufacture a greater sense of finality to this installment that the series hasn’t truly built towards.

It might be hard to remember now since director Christopher McQuarrie has been the custodian of this franchise for a good decade, but the Mission movies only started feeling properly serialized under his stewardship. But going back to the first film, the Mission: Impossible series was made of mostly stand-alone films to start, with each one having little continuity-wise to do with the others. There were some recurring characters and Ghost Protocol made it clear at the end that Ethan is separated from but still looking out for his wife Julia from M:I 3, but otherwise the Mission films weren’t telling one ongoing story. The franchise started off as one of the holdouts from the wave of serialization that took over the film industry at the turn of the millennium.

That all changed with McQuarrie’s era, where he made the sixth entry, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, into a direct sequel to his first film in the series, Rogue Nation. Since 2015, McQuarrie’s Mission films have built on characters and story threads with each subsequent entry, making the franchise feel like a proper saga. All well and good, but trying to reach back further and retroactively tie in the first four movies the same way is cumbersome. Reveals like Shea Whigham’s character being the son of Jim Phelps (Jon Voight from the first film) or that the Rabbit’s Foot, the unspecified MacGuffin from M:I 3, was actually a proto-version of The Entity AI (despite M:I 3 claiming the Rabbit’s Foot was biohazardous in nature) come off as confusing and unnecessary. It’s an unforced error, but there are also some forced ones because of questionable choices made in previous films.

The Sum of Our Choices

To be clear, there is a lot of talent and craft put into The Final Reckoning. McQuarrie proved himself as an action director with Rogue Nation and Fallout, which many agree are the two best entries in the franchise. Cruise is as much of a charismatic screen presence as ever, and he acquits himself admirably in the stunt setpieces we do get. The supporting cast is full of enjoyable personalities like Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, and Pom Klementieff. But surface virtues can only carry a shaky foundation so far, and The Final Reckoning finds itself unraveling at the seams not just by its misguided attempts to tie previous franchise canon together, but because the narrative world established by previous films is not capable of supporting such an ambitious level of scale.

Specifically, The Entity is a threat to all life on the planet. Ethan Hunt and his IMF friends are being asked to safeguard humanity from nuclear extinction. But the audience can’t invest in those kinds of stakes because the world of Mission: Impossible is so thinly sketched. Virtually no element intrinsic to the Mission: Impossible universe has been given any dimension in previous films; not even the IMF itself, since the organization remains nebulous at best and Ethan goes rogue from it in nearly every entry. Plot devices and factions are all simply some version of “The Noun”: the Syndicate, The Entity, the Rabbit’s Foot, the Acolytes, and on and on, with no further elaboration.

This wasn’t an issue before Dead Reckoning because the series wasn’t interested in world-building beyond portraying Ethan Hunt as an unshakable axis upon which the world pivots, using Cruise’s “the last movie star” energy as the IP’s biggest draw. But now The Final Reckoning wants to be seen as the culmination of a world that has no definition.

The ways The Final Reckoning can’t live up to its ambitions can best be summed up with the last scene, where Ethan meets with his team one last time. We have Hayley Atwell’s Grace, Simon Pegg’s Benji, Pom Klementieff’s Paris, and Greg Tarzan Davis’ Theo. This is supposed to be the big goodbye to the franchise, but only Benji is a longtime player. Ethan only met Grace and Paris in the last film, with the latter being a villain for most of that one, and Theo feels like a random tagalong in this one. Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell dies in the first act of The Final Reckoning, and Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust suffered an incredibly ill-conceived death scene in Dead Reckoning. Now to be fair to Ferguson, she wanted out of the franchise, but her chemistry with Cruise and the integral role she played in the team dynamic is sorely missed here. We can’t help but imagine a far more emotionally impactful final scene where Ethan says goodbye to Benji, Luther and Ilsa (and sure, throw in Grace and Paris for good measure) over the one we actually got.

How would that film actually work? It’s hard to say. It likely would have necessitated not doing Dead Reckoning as a two-part film, or perhaps it was unavoidable between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. All we can do is evaluate the film in front of us, but sadly, despite all the talent of everyone involved, The Final Reckoning is far from Mission: Impossible’s finest hour.

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.

Dragon Age star Alix Wilton Regan has given her personal response to the backlash faced by last year's Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and blamed the "mixed reactions" on people who "wanted to see the game fail, or wanted to see [BioWare] fail."

The actor, who plays the Female Inquisitor in both Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, told IGN that she was "absolutely devastated" to see BioWare's latest game fail to find a larger audience, despite mostly positive review scores from critics.

Speaking during a new interview discussing her many iconic video game characters to date — as well as her role in Microsoft's upcoming Perfect Dark reboot — Wilton Regan said she had loved her time as BioWare's Inquisitor, though did not believe the character would now return.

"I feel absolutely devastated for BioWare as a studio that they got such mixed reactions to the game," Wilton Regan said of the response to The Veilguard. "I personally thought it was a really strong game. I thought it was just BioWare being more BioWare.

"I also think a lot of people kind of wanted to see it fail, or wanted to see [BioWare] fail, either because they're just really bad people on the internet — of which there are unfortunately many, as we have discovered."

At launch, The Veilguard was review-bombed online. Criticism of the game being "woke" centred on its inclusion of a non-binary companion character, and the ability for the player to choose to be transgender. On Steam, Dragon Age: The Veilguard now sits with a 'Mixed' player respose, with user-defined tags for the game describing it under "LGBTQ+" and "politics" labels.

"People were attacking the game before it was released," Wilton Regan continued. "It's ridiculous. How can you judge a game, a book, a film, a TV show before it's actually released? You can't. It's an idiotic stance to take."

In January, publisher EA said Dragon Age: The Veilguard had "underperformed" versus its expectations by around 50%, just days after the game's director Corrine Busche confirmed she was leaving the company. Meanwhile, other BioWare staff who worked on the game were laid off.

In the same month, BioWare signalled it had released its final update for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with no further content announced or expected.

"I only ever want to see the folks from BioWare thrive, because I adore them," Wilton Regan concluded. "And whatever they go on to do next I have no doubt their talents will be richly rewarded. We're really lucky we'll get more gold from them in the future."

A slimmed-down BioWare is now working on Mass Effect 5, which currently does not have a release date.

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

This review contains spoilers for season 2, episode 7 of Doctor Who, “Wish World.”

For long-time Doctor Who fans, the return of a villain like The Rani might sound like an event. It certainly felt like one last week, when she turned up with theatrical flair in the mid-credits sting of “The Interstellar Song Contest” – a neat surprise, powered by Archie Panjabi’s steely presence and a dash of proper mystery. But in this week’s “Wish World”? That spark dies on arrival. Her comeback is just another awkward throwback in an episode that doesn’t know how to handle its past, let alone make the present feel like it matters.

“Wish World” represents the worst instincts of Doctor Who’s Disney era dialled up: glossy, confused, and screaming for attention. It’s a limp cocktail of shameless lore dumping, shallow storytelling, and a truly baffling sense of self-satisfaction. It spends a tiresome 45 minutes of build-up to just point at old names like a magician revealing a bent spoon, hoping the gesture alone is enough to amaze.

The Rani’s return should feel seismic. It’s been 38 years since the evil Time Lord made her last onscreen appearance – 32 if you count her face-off against all the then-living Doctors and the cast of EastEnders in a charity special. That’s a long time, and in theory, this ought to carry the same weight as The Master crashing back into things in 2007’s “Utopia”. That twist didn’t just rely on nostalgia; it weaponised it, using it to amplify character and raise the stakes. Instead, now, we get a Rani written like a stock villain with a backstory cribbed from a half-read wiki page. There’s no sense of danger, no theatrical flair, no mystique. Just a few arch lines, a plot that barely scans, and a breadcrumb trail to yet another dusty Time Lord pulled from the show’s attic: Omega. It’s a name that’ll light up a handful of Reddit threads, sure, but it lands with a shrug for the vast majority who haven’t been revisiting “The Three Doctors” on BritBox. Which is, to be clear, mostly everyone.

What’s baffling isn’t just the lack of payoff, it’s how proudly this outing squanders every opportunity to deliver one. “Wish World” relies entirely on prior recognition, but never lifts a finger to earn that investment in the here and now. It’s obsessed with nods, references, and several meandering mystery boxes, but utterly uninterested in what any of it means. This is fan service at its most vacant, a frustrating mess that treats characters like mere collectibles that get pulled from a shelf when you’re having a fancy dinner party. It’s not quite the sludgy CG necromancy of The Flash, but it’s cut from the same cloth: a hollow echo chamber of reveals with no buildup, and a premise that promises tension but fizzles into a joyless trudge through stiff dialogue and characters who feel barely sketched in. Conrad pops up again with all the charisma of a queue at the post office, Ruby is inexplicably present but does almost nothing, and even Belinda, usually a bright spot, is reduced to exposition and reaction shots. The whole plot moves like it's dragging a piano through quicksand, slowly collapsing under the weight of its pointless name-dropping bore fest of script.

With only one episode left, the finale now has to perform miracles: justify this mess, tie the threads together, and inject meaning where there's currently none. Doctor Who used to remix its past into something alive, urgent, and new; here, it just gawks at its own reflection, hoping a few barely recognisable names will do all the heavy lifting. Once upon a time, Russell T Davies brought heart and clarity to a show left for dead, reviving it with enough energy and emotional force to make it essential playground currency across Britain. Now, it feels like he’s coasting. This isn’t Doctor Who with something to say, it’s a desperate exposition dump, stitched together from scraps of nostalgia and noise. Worst of all, it expects that to be enough.

Alienware has very competitive prices on RTX 5080 equipped gaming PCs during the Dell Memorial Day Sale. Right now you can pick up an Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 gaming PC from $2,349.99 shipped. This is a good price for a well-engineered (and warrantied) rig that can handle 4K gaming at high frame rates. In the current market, buying a prebuilt gaming PC is the only way to score an RTX 5080 GPU without paying an exorbitant markup. If you were to try to find a 5080 GPU for your diy PC build, you'll probably spend nearly as much for the GPU as you would for an entire system.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $2,350

The prices on the Alienware Aurora R16 model starts range from the bottom end of $2,349.99 to the top end of $3,149.99. Each tier up offers either a CPU upgrade or increased RAM and/or storage:

• $2,349.99 - Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
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• $3,149.99 - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD

Alienware Area-51 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $3,449.99

Alienware's new flagship gaming laptop - the Alienware Area-51 - was released earlier this year. It replaces the m-series laptop and bring to the table a host of upgrades including a sleeker redesign, current generation components, and better cooling potential. As part of the Dell Memorial Day Sale, several variants of both the Alienware 16 Area-51 and Alienware 18 Area-51 gaming laptops are on sale for the first time. They're all equipped with the latest Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, including the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. Orders are expected to ship out in mid June.

Featured in this article

The Alienware 18 Area-51 is a large laptop that serves more as a mobile desktop replacement than commuter's laptop that you tote around to work or class on a daily basis. It weighs nearly 10 pounds and measures 0.95 inches at its thinnest point. It also consumes a lot of power (a 360W power brick is included), which means you should keep it plugged into an outlet when you're using it. The larger form factor carries several advantages, like an expansive 18" display, a full-sized keyboard with discrete numpad and a bigger, more aggressive cooling system and can keep noise levels to a minimum, and space to accomodate an RJ45 ethernet port.

Two models are currently on sale for Memorial Day. The $3,150 model is equipped with RTX 5080 mobile graphics and 32GB of memory. The $3,750 model is upgraded with RTX 5090 mobile graphics and 64GB of memory.

As part of its Memorial Day Sale, Adorama is offering an outstanding deal on a very highly rated pair of noise cancelling headphones. Right now you can get a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 noise cancelling wireless headphones for just $175 with free shipping after you apply $55 off coupon code "MEMO0523" during checkout. Note that only the Silver/White model is eligible for this code, NOT the Black model. This is the best noise cancelling headphones you'll find for under $200.

50% Off Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Headphones

eBay Marketplace is kicking off it's own eBay Memorial Day Sale with a limited time 20% off coupon code "MEMORIALDEALS" that works on hundreds of products across tech, home, apparel, and more. eBay is one of the best places to score great deals on both new and used products and even outpaces the Amazon Memorial Day sale on tons of items. Just because you're leery of buying from a private seller doesn't mean you should shy away from this marketplace. Most of the major retailers that you've heard of - including Dyson, Bose, Lenovo, Roborock, and Ecoflow - as well as authorized resellers have their own seller accounts and offer discounts that you can't find elsewhere else. Check out all of the best limited time deals we've found below.

Dyson Memorial Day Deals on eBay

Dyson is one of the most well known household brands around, and its name is synonymous with quality... and premium pricing. But did you know that Dyson has its very own Dyson eBay store with huge markdowns on their certified refurbished products? Dyson offers a 6 month warranty on refub vacuum cleaners and fans and a 12 month warranty on their refurb beauty products and eBay also includes a 2 year AllState warranty that runs concurrently.

Ecoflow Memorial Day Deals on eBay

Ecoflow is one of the largest and most well-known manufacturers of portable power stations. Their products are solidly built with a lot of practical features at an affordable price point. Product support after the purchase is generally pretty good, and firmware and software updates are consistently rolled out. Ecoflow sells certified refurbished power stations through its official Ecoflow eBay store. It offers the same warranty on refurbs as brand new products, which is anywhere from 24 months to 60 months depending on the model you choose.

Bose Memorial Day Deals on eBay

The best Bose headphones and soundbars offer exceptional sound quality through a range of in-ear and over-ear headphones as well as best-in-class active noise cancellation. Paying extra attention to aesthetics, comfort, build, and audio, Bose is the go-to headphone brand if you want immersive sound that will block out external distractions. The official Bose eBay Store carries certified refurbished products with the same 1 year warranty as buying new as well as an additional 2 year AllState warranty that runs concurrently.

Memorial Day TV Deals on eBay

Memorial Day is one of the best times of the year to score a great deal on a new TV. If you don't get in on a TV deal now, your next two chances are Amazon Prime Day in July and Black Friday in November. Electronic Express on eBay currently has the best prices I've seen on several TVs, ranging from a budget Vizio TV model for under $200 to top-of-the-line OLED TVs for over 50% off. Electronic Express is also an authorized reseller for most TV brands, including Samsung, Sony, and Vizio, which means you can the full manufacturer's warranty.

Roborock Memorial Day Deals on eBay

Roborock is one of the largest robot vacuum brands in the world. Its products offer more features than Roomba at a more attractive price point. That doesn't mean they are lower quality. I've owned both Roborock and Roomba models and my current Roborock has lasted longer, performed better, and costs less to maintain than any of the Roombas I've owned in the past. The Roborock eBay Store carries certified refurbished units of their entire lineup of robot vacuums and mops, They carry a 6 month warranty, which is less than the 12-month warranty for new units. Fortunately, eBay is also offering its 2 year Allstate warranty that runs concurrently.

More Memorial Day sales are already live

Several retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Dell, and Wayfair have launched their sale early. We've rounded up all of the biggest retailers that have pushed their Memorial Day sales live with deals worth checking out.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

As part of its Memorial Day Sale, Adorama is offering the best deal on the highly rated Sonos Move 2 portable speaker. It currently retails for $449 and most retailers have it marked down to $336 for Memorial Day, but Adorama has it even cheaper at $309 with free shipping, or 31% off. This is the lowest price I've seen for Sonos' best portable speaker. Adorama is an authorized Sonos reseller and a legitimate, established vendor with a superstore located in New York.

Memorial Day Deal: Sonos Move 2 for $309

Amazon is currently offering the lowest price I've ever seen for a SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless gaming headset. As part of the Amazon Memorial Day Sale, you can pick up the PlayStation version for $228.93 shipped after a massive 35% discont off the $350 list price. The PlayStation version is compatible with the PS5, PS4, and PC, however it is not compatible with the Xbox (you need a separate Xbox dongle). The Nova Pro is our top rated gaming headset of 2025; I've personally use headset on a daily basis for the past few years and love it.

SteelSeries Nova Pro Wireless Gaming Headset for $229

It's officially Memorial Day weekend and that means that there are ton of Memorial Day sales to shop right now. With the threat of tariffs driving up prices in the near future, these price reductions have become way more tempting than they have any right to be. I generally try to avoid spending money on anything (well, except puzzles lately), but I've found myself making some bigger purchases on things like furniture and appliances all week long just in case prices never drop this low again. Uncertainty around the cost of goods has me worried that upcoming sales like Prime Day and Black Friday won't necessarily be the best time to buy everything this year.

That being said, I've been covering Memorial Day sales for years now and while there are definitely a lot of deals worth taking advantage of now, you should still be shopping smart. Certain product categories will have some of their lowest prices of the year this weekend while others only appear to be marked down temporarily. To help you sort through what's worth buying this weekend and where you should buy it, I've rounded up some key items to shop for while the sales are hot.

1. Major Appliances

In my experience, Memorial Day weekend is the absolute best time to buy major appliances. All of the big retailers like Best Buy, Home Depot, Costco, and Lowe's are having discounts on things like refrigerators, ranges, washers and dryers, dishwashers, etc. You can even find sales direct from the manufacturer that are often better than the standard price drops you'll find at the major retailers. LG for example is offering a special promotion that will net you a free fridge when you buy select models. If you need to upgrade the appliances in your home, I'd suggest doing it right now before prices are affected. Depending on what you're looking for, I'd suggest comparing prices on various brands from the sales listed below.

Best appliance sales

2. Furniture

Another big category to consider this weekend is furniture. Memorial Day weekend, or any three-day weekend really, is the best time to buy new furniture at a discount. There are currently furniture deals at every major retailer right now across a ton of different brands. Amazon, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Costco, and more all have some sort of furniture on sale right now. With the summer season nearly upon us there is a general focus on outdoor and patio furniture, but you can also find price cuts on sofas, chairs, tables, and everything else for the home. Overall, I would suggest checking out the Wayfair Memorial Day sale for the widest range of discounts on everything, but there's also more niche sales like Secretlab gaming chair deals that are worth a look. I've gathered all of the biggest sales that include furniture below.

Best furniture sales

3. Mattresses

Although mattresses are also furniture, it exists as a totally separate category when it comes to Memorial Day sales. Every major mattress retailer is having a Memorial Day sale right now and you will even find discounts at places you wouldn't expect, like Walmart and Amazon. Right now is the best time to buy a mattress in 2025, and we likely won't see lower prices even during Labor Day sales later this year. And though you can certainly purchase a mattress from Amazon, I'd suggest sticking to the bed-in-a-box brands like Casper or DreamCloud to save the most money. Purchasing directly from the brand itself will also usually come with a better warranty and return policy as well. Here are a few of the best mattress sales I recommend browsing this weekend, but you should also check your local store if you'd prefer to test them out before you buy.

Best mattress sales

4. TVs

There are a lot of different times throughout the year when you can find the best TV deals and Memorial Day weekend is one of them. While we don't usually see the same massive price cuts as we do during Black Friday, there are already some new low prices on higher-end TVs that are worth a look. The LG C4 has recently dropped to its lowest-ever price, and that's one of the overall best TVs you can buy right now. Outside of that, Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Costco, and all of the usual suspects are offering some sort of TV sale that is worth a look. If you've been looking to upgrade your TV right now and are worried about prices going up before Black Friday, these sales are worth a look. I've gathered a quick list of the best TV deals going on right now to get you started.

Best TV deals

5. Laptops and PCs

If you're looking to buy a new laptop or PC this year, I'd recommend making a purchase sooner rather than later and the Memorial Day sales going on right now are just a good excuse. This is especially true if you're trying to find the best time to buy a gaming PC this year, because GPU prices are already on the rise. The best Memorial Day sales on these higher-end machines tend to be directly from the manufacturers, so that's usually where you'll want to look. Dell, HP, and Lenovo all have their Memorial Day sales live right now. You can also check out Best Buy and Amazon if you're looking for brands like Acer and LG at a discount, however.

What Shouldn't You Buy During Memorial Day Sales?

While it's true that prices are going to go up on a lot of different things this year, there are definitely some product categories you should wait on. The Amazon Memorial Day sale, for example, has discounts across a bunch of different categories despite those discounts not actually being that good. Since there is no catch-all advice I can give that will save you from spending more than you should in every instance, I would recommend doing your research and comparing prices on just about anything before you buy.

That being said, there are a few major categories you should definitely avoid if you can. Although there are some phone deals currently available, right now is definitely not the best time to buy a phone. New iPhone models will be arriving closer to October and that's generally a better time to save money. You also probably don't want to purchase a console or gaming accessories right now as this is generally the worst time to buy those things, even with tariffs potentially raising prices there.

When is the next time to save money?

Memorial Day sales are generally a good time to get some shopping in, but they aren't the only chance you'll have to save money this summer. The next big sales event you can mark on your calendar will be Fourth of July sales. These will be very similar to Memorial Day discounts, but with more of a focus on summer gear and grills. After that, Amazon Prime Day will take place sometime in the middle of July and you can expect Walmart, Best Buy, and Target to all have competing sales.

Jacob Kienlen is a Senior SEO Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor's degree in communication and over 8 years of professional writing experience, his expertise ranges from books and games to technology and food. He has spent a good chunk of his career writing about deals and sales to help consumers find the best discounts on whatever they may be looking to buy.

Ever since digital streaming was introduced as an alternative to cable, companies like Disney, Warner Bros, Netflix, and Amazon have been finding new ways to "revolutionize" monthly subscriptions, which has more or less come right back around to the concept of cable. (Only now every "channel" requires its own login and password, and costs at least $7 a month.) As the streaming service war wages on with constant changes, mergers and acquisitions, "bundles" are becoming more common as more streaming services are created, and some of these have gotten creative with including both digital and physical services.

The ability to combine multiple networks and major streaming platforms into a single subscription is becoming simpler than ever (thankfully) and gives better savings over subscribing individually to every service you'd want. Depending on your needs as a subscriber and your interests as a streamer and/or online shopper, the options available should tick many of your boxes.

Check out our picks below for the best streaming bundles to consider subscribing to in 2025 to help you save on your streaming bill.

Disney+, Hulu, and Max Bundle – $16.99/month (with ads)

Hello IGN Community, IGN is always looking for new ways to hear your voices in order to improve. So today we are launching a Community Survey to get your thoughts on different parts of IGN like our Reviews, Podcasts, Videos, Social Channels and of course the Community as a whole.

We value your feedback so please take the time to fill out this survey for us so as we consider what parts of IGN to enhance, improve, and invest in, we can do it in a direction that will be of most interest to you. Most of the questions are multiple choice or check all that apply, but there is one at the end to write in suggestions. And in case there is something we’ve missed on this first survey, we are planning to offer more of these surveys in the future. That way we can keep track of our commitment to improving IGN for you, our fans, readers, and friends.

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The Wheel of Time has stopped turning on Prime Video after Amazon canceled the series following the end of Season 3.

Deadline reported that Prime Video had decided against renewing The Wheel of Time for Season 4 after what it described as “lengthy deliberations.” Apparently executives like the show, but couldn’t make it work financially.

The Wheel of Time is an adaptation of the much-loved fantasy book series of the same name by Robert Jordan, with a cast led by Rosamund Pike. After a shaky first two seasons that had fans of the books in uproar over controversial changes from the source material, Season 3 appeared to win over the fanbase and, it was felt, set up the show for even better things to come.

Fans of the show will be particularly disappointed with the cancelation with so much left of The Wheel of Time’s story to tell. However, it seems The Wheel of Time cost too much for co-producers Sony Pictures TV and Amazon MGM Studios, the latter of which also makes the super expensive The Lord Of the Rings: The Rings Of Power.

As Deadline put it:

... the Season 3 overall performance was not strong enough compared to the show’s cost for Prime Video to commit to another season and the streamer could not make it work after examining different scenarios and following discussions with lead studio Sony TV, sources said.

IGN's The Wheel of Time Season 3 review returned an 8/10. We said: "The Wheel of Time finally achieves its full potential in season 3, which is filled with rich characters finding their place in Robert Jordan’s complex fantasy world."

While The Wheel of Time's TV adaptation is dead, a 'AAA Open-World RPG' is in the works. IGN recently interviewed iwot Studios, which holds the rights to The Wheel of Time, to find out more.

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.

2025 marks 17 years since Suzanne Collins debuted the brutal world of The Hunger Games and its heroic rebel leader, Katniss Everdeen. With the release of a new prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, now is the perfect time to revisit the original books that started it all.

Set in a dystopian world where kids kill each other annually as a way to quell a rebellious and fractured nation, The Hunger Games sparked a YA frenzy and inspired women all over the world to take up archery. If you're feeling like you want to revisit the franchise but don't know where to start, we're here to guide you through the Hunger Games books in order. You can also check out our guide to The Hunger Games movies as well as our list of the best books like The Hunger Games.

How to Read the Hunger Games Books in Order

While the newest additions to the series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping, are set before the original trilogy, the context provided by the three Hunger Games books is key to truly enjoying the prequels. With that in mind, we recommend reading the originals before the new entries. But if you want a chronological journey through Panem, then feel free to check out the books in timeline order below.

1. The Hunger Games

Anime just keeps getting bigger. It was reported to be a $19+ billion industry in 2023, so we can only imagine where it's at now. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to watch anime without paying a dime. While you might have to skip out on the occasional Netflix original, there's something for everyone in the hundreds of anime series and movies out there for free.

If you watch anime, you probably know that there are plenty of what we'll call "risky" anime sites, most of which ride a legal gray line or head straight into piracy territory. This list is limited to free anime sites we know for sure legally acquired their streaming licenses.

Whether you want to see what the hype's about with Solo Leveling, are planning a Naruto marathon, or want to dive into classics like Sailor Moon, here are the best sites to watch anime for free.

Crunchyroll