With Hollow Knight: Silksong’s huge launch in full swing, community debate about its qualities and flaws has gone back and forth, with some players insisting their criticisms about things like the game's difficulty are valid and shouldn’t be instantly dismissed as "hate."

Silksong launched over six years after it was announced amid huge excitement, and early indications are that it’s a critical and commercial success. At the time of this article’s publication, the Steam concurrent player count was over half a million, with English language user reviews sat on a ‘Very Positive’ rating.

However, as more players work their way through the game, some are expressing criticism across social media, subreddits, Discords, and Steam reviews. Most of this criticism revolves around Silksong’s difficulty scaling, which is causing players problems, and brutal runbacks. There’s even one very early miniboss causing a lot of players a whole heap of trouble, too.

“Is it just me, or are some of the things that make Silksong ‘difficult’ just cruel?” wondered redditor Machi-Ato.

“The game has artificially inflated difficulty and playtime due to overtuned numbers and menial tasks/runback,” reads a post on Steam.

It’s the reaction to these sorts of criticisms that has sparked a debate within the gaming community. Take that Steam post, for example. “Maybe you just got older and your skills have declined,” is the first response.

I love reading the negative reviews of Silksong because its just people complaining the game is too hard and doesn't baby them pic.twitter.com/65Fv9lBtAx

— Johann (@LookAtMyMeat1) September 6, 2025

“It’s okay that Silksong is hard,” declared redditor jacked-deMamp in a thread upvoted 1,400 times. “It’s already getting old seeing that every other post online about this game is someone complaining about the difficulty, especially when there are so many incredible things to talk about like the quest system and the new mechanics.

“The amount of love Team Cherry put into this game is insane and you can feel it when you play, I wish people would get over the fact that it’s challenging because there’s nothing you can do about it other than get better. The game is finally out, and it’s hard - just like the original. I personally love that the mechanics are so different and require a lot of learning again, because after playing hundreds of hours of HK I didn’t want to just breeze through Silksong.

“I think we just need to realize the game is the way it is and cherish these early days with a very special piece of art. It’s okay to get frustrated but don’t make those feelings overshadow how great of an experience this game is.”

This sentiment has pushed the debate even further, with some players pushing back against the "git gud" and "skill issue" comments to insist it's perfectly fine to point out flaws in Silksong, however, beloved and important a release it may be.

“Criticism isn't hate,” countered redditor bboy2812 in a thread upvoted 5,200 times. “Most of the criticism I've seen on here and the Steam discussions is consistently dismissed as hate. Bad rosary economy, insane difficulty scaling, very few meaningful unlocks/upgrades, runbacks, locked into fighting bosses, contact damage stacking with normal hits, etc.

“The only ‘hate’ I've seen are from people who spam ‘git gud’ and ‘skill issue’ whenever they encounter valid complaints against their perfect little game that cannot possibly have anything wrong with it.”

If this sounds familiar, it’s perhaps because we’ve been through this sort of debate multiple times before with FromSoftware’s Souls games. The typical ‘Souls Cycle’ usually kicks off with adulation, followed by complaints the game is too hard, then more insight into why they’re too hard, then the ‘git gud’ accusations. Silksong, it seems, is following the same path.

Meanwhile, the debate about Silksong’s difficulty shows no sign of slowing down, which you’d expect for a game so popular. Thankfully, IGN is here to help. Here's how to unlock and use the map, how to get Rosary Beads, Achievements and Trophies list, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide. It's a hard one!

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.

On Sept. 27, 2005, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight was published. Of course, a novel that spurred a cultural movement like people wearing Team Jacob and Team Edward shirts in public deserves a celebration.

While we learned several weeks ago that the Twilight Saga will be returning to theaters in October, anyone tempted by the fall weather to start a rewatch sooner rather than later is in luck: The entire Twilight Saga is streaming for free on YouTube all week long.

The Twilight Saga Is Streaming for Free on YouTube This Week

Ryan Reynolds has finally admitted he personally leaked the Deadpool test footage back in 2014 that directly led to 20th Century Fox approving an R-rated movie based on what was then considered a “fringe” comic book character.

While this won’t come as much of a surprise to fans, Reynolds came clean at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, as reported by Entertainment Weekly, saying he was “grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment."

While Deadpool is now one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine earning over a billion dollars at the global box office, Reynolds struggled to convince executives at 20th Century Fox to give him the adult-oriented standalone Deadpool movie he so craved, after portraying Wade Wilson / Weapon XI in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Prime Video’s Fallout is returning for its much-anticipated second season on December 17, 2025, and fans around the world can’t wait to see how the show brings New Vegas to life. While we have to wait a little longer to see if they can live up to the heights we felt playing Fallout: New Vegas, we’ve decided to help with the wait by looking at who the big players will be in these new episodes.

From returning favorites like Ella Purnell’s Lucy, Walton Goggins’ Ghoul, and the goodest girl Dogmeat (!), to new faces like Justin Theroux’s Mr. House and a ‘crazy genius-type character’ played by Macaulay Culkin, here are all the biggest characters that we know or can see returning to the wasteland for Season 2.

For more Fallout, check out our explainer of the ending of Season 1, 14 things we want to see in Season 2, our big interview with Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan on the series, and 111 video game details we found in the show.

Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean

Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean is one of the main characters of Prime Video’s Fallout, and that won’t change in Season 2, as one of the final shots of the first season featured her, the Ghoul, and Dogmeat following the trail of Lucy’s father, Hank, toward New Vegas.

She is still reeling from the truth about her father and his responsibility for the thousands of lives lost in Shady Sands, and her mother turning into a ghoul. Oh yeah, and she had to mercy-kill her mother; tough stuff.

Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard / The Ghoul

Walton Goggins’ Ghoul will be back for Season 2 in a big way, as we last left him with Lucy and Dogmeat heading to New Vegas in pursuit of Lucy’s father, Hank MacLean.

The Ghoul, who was once known as a famous Hollywood actor named Cooper Howard, actually met Hank over 200 years ago when he was a Vault-Tec executive. He was also the one who helped convince Lucy to let Hank go so they could follow him and hopefully find out who was really behind the Great War.

Dogmeat

The beloved Dogmeat, also known as CX404 and Four, was seen with Lucy and the Ghoul at the end of Season 1, and will be back in Season 2. We couldn’t be happier, because she is just the best.

Aaron Moten as Maximus

Aaron Moten’s Maximus is part of the Brotherhood of Steel, and has been building a very strong relationship with Lucy, even though they aren’t together following the events of Season 1. Maximus was knocked out by Hank after he donned Power Armor, and awakens to see that almost everyone has left him.

However, Moldaver is still around and had only a few moments to live. In one of her final acts, she activated the cold fusion reactor and brought power back to Los Angeles in a pivotal moment. Before she died, Moldaver warned Maximus of the dangers of the Brotherhood. When Dane finds the pair, he assumes Maximus killed her, promoting Maximus to a Knight despite his internal fears of the future and his place in it.

Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean

Hank MacLean is Lucy’s father, and one of the main ‘missions’ of the first season involved Lucy trying to rescue him. However, Hank has a much darker past than Lucy could have ever believed, as he was integral both to the loss of thousands of lives during the bombing of Shady Sands, and Lucy’s mother, Rose, becoming a ghoul.

We last see Hank in Power Armor being held at gunpoint by Lucy, who doesn’t end up shooting him. The Ghoul does attempt to shoot him in the back, but Hank escaped after knocking Maximus out, heading to New Vegas with Lucy, the Ghoul, and Dogmeat hot on his trail.

Moisés Arias as Norm MacLean

Norm is Lucy’s brother and Hank’s son, and he is the one who discovers that Vault 31 has been secretly storing the cryogenically frozen Vault-Tec employees from before the Great War, including his father.

He was last seen with Bud (Michael Esper), who won’t let him leave this vault because he now knows too much. He is given the option to be put to sleep so he wouldn’t starve, but we have yet to learn his fate.

Justin Theroux as Mr. House

Despite Rafi Silver’s cameo as Dr. Robert House in Season 1, The Leftovers’ Justin Theroux will be playing House in Season 2 of Fallout. This is a very important character, and in a trailer for Season 2, we learn the Ghoul actually met him in Las Vegas before the war and that he claimed he was the main cause for the end of the world.

This is a big deal for fans of Fallout: New Vegas, as Mr. House also played a big role in the game.

Macaulay Culkin

It looks like Bethesda has begun teasing new content for Starfield, after fans spotted a hidden message in a social media video released to celebrate the game’s two-year anniversary.

The video, below, starts off innocently enough, but soon the tone of the music shifts and the image becomes garbled. Clearly, there’s a tease in there somewhere!

Celebrating two incredible years in the #Starfield. 🌌

Thank you to everyone who has explored the Settled Systems with us. We look forward to the adventures yet to come. pic.twitter.com/AeWN8DVlO2

— Starfield (@StarfieldGame) September 5, 2025

And indeed there is. It didn’t take long for Starfield fans to arrange the frames in such a way to form the words ‘Terran Armada,’ which has sent the game’s community down a rabbit hole of speculation.

Warning! Spoilers for Starfield follow:

The most obvious suggestion is Terran Armada is the name of Starfield’s long-awaited second expansion. If so, it suggests a DLC that revolves around Earth, people who left Earth, or people who still are on Earth. Some are speculating that Terran Armada, if this does in fact relate to DLC, will be about the return ships that left Earth at some point in the past, perhaps a fleet of generation ships. Another popular theory is that the Terrans are the name of a new enemy faction of survivors left on Earth after its destruction, which could evoke Mad Max vibes.

In Starfield, Earth became a barren, uninhabitable wasteland after its magnetosphere collapsed in 2203, leading to the dissipation of its atmosphere and the evacuation of humanity. The collapse was a direct consequence of the invention and widespread use of the Grav Drive, a technology enabling faster-than-light travel. The planet is now exposed to dangerous solar and cosmic radiation and is covered in toxic vents and impact craters, with no signs of life.

Or perhaps Terran Armada isn’t DLC 2 after all, and instead is a stop-gap update designed to tide fans over until the promised second expansion finally materializes.

Whatever this is, clearly Starfield fans who have stuck with the game since its launch in 2023 are chomping at the bit. Apart from vague words of reassurance, Bethesda has remained tight-lipped on the future of Starfield, only recently teasing improvements to space travel.

“We've waited 11 months for a three-second screen that changed colors and revealed a few letters of a broken up word (and we're probably gonna have to wait another 4-6 months for anything more),” said redditor Elkupalos. “We're beyond starved at this point haha. Next trailer or update of actual substance is gonna hit us fans like a nuke.”

Last month, Bethesda confirmed improvements to Starfield space gameplay “to make the travels there more rewarding” after datamined fragments of code suggested the developer had a more streamlined space travel experience in the works. Based on this datamine, while you may be able to travel between planets within the same system, you won’t be able to fly all the way between systems, nor fly directly from a planet's surface into orbit, like No Man's Sky.

In a new video discussing his career, veteran Bethesda developer Tim Lamb confirmed that the studio had been working on Starfield’s space gameplay, and that a new DLC story was still coming at some point.

“I think as it comes to Starfield, I'm really excited for players to see what the teams have been working on,” he said. “We have some cool stuff coming, including free updates and features the players have been asking for, as well as a new DLC story.

“I can't go into all the details just yet, but I will say part of the team has been focused on space gameplay to make the travels there more rewarding. We're also adding some new game systems, and a few other smaller delights. There's also some really interesting stuff coming down the pipe from our verified creators. There's some fun stuff.

“I just want to say thanks. We really appreciate the support and the enthusiasm. We can't wait to get it into the hands of our players.”

Last month it was reported that Starfield's second expansion and much-anticipated PlayStation 5 port would now arrive in 2026, following the poor reception to 2024 add-on Shattered Space. Bethesda boss Todd Howard had previously talked of expansions arriving annually.

Starfield launched in September 2023 as Bethesda’s first brand new IP in 25 years, but it was not as well received as the studio’s previous games in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises, and the Shattered Space expansion, released a year later in September 2024, has a ‘mostly negative’ user review rating on Steam.

Starfield went on to reach 15 million players, but the question of whether Bethesda might walk away from the game to focus on its other franchises has been a running theme since release. In June 2024, Bethesda insisted it remained committed to supporting Starfield, and confirmed at least one other story expansion would come out following Shattered Space. And in an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard said the developer was aiming to release an annual story expansion for “hopefully a very long time.”

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.

We've rounded up the best deals for Saturday, September 6, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.

Score an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 for $79.99

Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks has been through a lot in the last few decades, and former marketing boss Pete Hines was there to see it through almost all of its changes.

Hines touched on how Bethesda became a gaming giant during a recent interview with DBLTAP. In addition to providing his perspective on the company’s early days, he took the time to recount how some of its biggest victories and hardest falls helped shape it into what it is today.

Hines started with Bethesda in October 1999, seeing it through everything from the launch of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind in 2002, to Skyrim in 2011, to Fallout 76 in 2018. He also remained as a key figure at the gaming publisher throughout Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media, which was completed in 2021, before going on to announce his retirement in 2023.

Hines brought his time at Bethesda to an end after 24 years. However, it seems it was the quieter moments working with ZeniMax founder and CEO Robert Altman, who passed away in 2021, that he remembers most fondly.

“It was Robert Altman's company, and we were his employees, no question,” Hines said. “But he treated us more like family, and we found a culture that really fit us. When it was working, it was magical. We were a small, private company. It's way easier to stay out of scrutiny when you're not having to put your earnings reports out for the whole world.”

Bethesda, which now serves under the titan that is Microsoft, encompasses a variety of different game studios. This includes its development arm, Bethesda Game Studios, Doom developer id Software, Deathloop developer Arkane Studios, Wolfenstein studio MachineGames, and The Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online.

Gamers have turned to the company for everything from giant, trend-setting RPGs to laser-focused first-person shooters, but in 2024, the Bethesda umbrella shrunk. Just three years after Microsoft completed its acquisition, the Xbox company announced it would be shutting down Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks (Tango was later acquired by Krafton).

Bethesda has gone through major shifts both before and after the Microsoft acquisition. For better or worse, Hines says there’s no denying the company he started at in 1999 has changed.

“There's just no question that the company is not the same,” he added. “It has been radically changed and altered from the company that we built. It is what it is. Things change. Things move on, but at its height, it was really a special thing to be a part of.”

Elsewhere in the interview with Hines, the former Bethesda executive touched on how he fought to change the name of Arkane’s Prey, as well as his thoughts on gaming subscription services like Game Pass. He also remembered the controversy surrounding Fallout 76 and how it led to “probably the dumbest thing” he ever did at Bethesda.

For more, you can read about how Bethesda became the first Microsoft game studio to fully unionize. You can also check out why one Bethesda veteran believes games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls will always have load screens.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 publisher Paradox is now offering PlayStation Store pre-order refunds as it makes “big changes” after a backlash to its decision to lock clans behind DLC.

The furore began with the confirmation that Bloodlines 2 would feature four clans: Brujah; Tremere; Banu Haqim; and Ventrue. While this selection provides four different starting options for how you build your protagonist, it’s a more limited offering compared to the cult classic original Bloodlines, which featured seven clans.

Developer The Chinese Room added a further two clans to Bloodlines 2 (Lasombra and Toreador), but these were only available as part of the Shadows and Silk add-on pack, which costs $21.99 as DLC, or included as part of the $89.99 Premium Edition. The standard edition costs $59.99.

This DLC is available from day one, which has created the impression that the “full” roster has been carved up, with only those paying extra getting the complete launch experience. As you’d expect, fans were quick to express their dissatisfaction.

At gamescom 2025, a representative for publisher Paradox told IGN the decision was a “business” informed choice, prompting further outcry. Then, last month, a post on Discord from Paradox suggested a significant change would be coming ahead of launch, and now the publisher has gone one step further by issuing PlayStation Store pre-order refunds.

“Hi,” a post on social media on the official Bloodlines 2 account began. “We’re making adjustments and will share the details on Sept 17. Big changes take time, and we want to do this right.

“PS Store pre-orders will be refunded on Sept 8. You’ll be able to pre-order again before launch on Oct 21.

“Thanks for your patience; we’ll share more soon!”

Fans are now wondering whether Paradox will include Lasombra and Toreador by default and not as DLC at base game price. Certainly, the sentiment online is that’s the expectation.

“Honestly nothing short of fully including them at base game price will turn me around on this,” said one social media user in response to the announcement. “Otherwise I'm skipping.”

“The only way to salvage this and regain trust with the community is to sell the base game as-is with all clans available and rather sell DLC with new side stories and cosmetics on the side or just add the cosmetics/side stories as part of a higher tier eg deluxe edition/premium edition, as that won't mess with the main story/narrative etc,” said another.

Some expressed thanks for the reaction to the backlash. “I'm very excited and hopeful to see what you came up with for the two clans locked behind DLC issue,” said one fan. “I'd like to thank you for listening to community feedback and working to fix the issue. I'm sure refunding store pre-orders was not an easy decision.”

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has suffered a difficult development and a number of high-profile delays, but it is a crucial release for Paradox. The publisher will be keen to give it the best chance possible to succeed, and backtracking on its DLC plans may be the only viable option at this stage. While you wait to find out, check out IGN's Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 hands-on preview.

Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest from IGN by clicking here and setting IGN as a preferred source in Google.

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.

Exit 8, a live-action horror movie adaptation of the anomaly-spotting indie game of the same name, opened at movie theaters in Japan on August 29. Despite enjoying a profitable opening weekend, the Japanese film has attracted some controversy in its home country over a scene that depicts a tsunami, as well as the production company’s delay in issuing an official warning about this potentially upsetting content.

Originally released on Steam in November 2023, The Exit 8 is a first-person puzzle game set in looping passageways of a Japanese subway station. Starting by the sign for Exit 0, players must reach the titular Exit 8 by looking out for anomalies - if they see something strange they must turn back. If everything seems normal, they must keep walking straight ahead. Make the correct choice, and the number on the exit sign goes up by one. Make the wrong choice, and you go all the way back to zero. With its creepy atmosphere and occasional jump-scares, the game quickly shot up in sales and gained widespread popularity with streamers. It has since been ported to multiple platforms and even has a VR version.

The movie Exit 8 uses the iconic elements of the game to present a psychological horror. Kazunari Ninomiya plays the main character, an asthmatic unnamed man stuck in the daily grind of commuting to work on the subway who is struggling to come to terms with becoming a father. Like in the game, Ninomiya’s character gets trapped in the looping subway passages and must successfully spot anomalies to reach Exit 8. The movie also touches on themes like bystander apathy, dissociation from reality, and how smartphones can make us lose track of our surroundings.

The film has an uneasy atmosphere and is almost exclusively set within the claustrophobic bounds of the subway station. The subway passages evoke the game, right down to the wandering salaryman NPC, posters, and the overly shiny white, tiled walls. Some of the anomalies are similar to those in the game, while others are unique to the movie (one of which will likely be appreciated by Parasite Eve fans).

On September 1, the movie’s official X account posted a content warning to potential viewers about “certain scenes that may evoke traumatic memories of natural disasters, like tsunamis." This post led to an outpouring of varied responses. Although some users thanked the production company for the heads-up, others criticized the timing of the warning, which came three days after the film hit theaters. “Shouldn't this have been issued on opening day?” and “I wouldn’t have gone to see it had I known,” are among the critical user comments reported on by Japanese news outlets like Yahoo! Japan/J-CAST.

Meanwhile, some commenters who hadn’t seen the film yet mused about whether the depiction could really be traumatic enough to warrant such a warning, considering the “mild” rising water that appears in the game, plus the film’s G rating (suitable for all) from Japanese film classification board Eirin.

League of Legends strategy game Teamfight Tactics is getting a temporary single-player PvE mode called Ao Shin’s Ascent later in September, Riot Games has announced.

Teamfight Tactics is the 2019 spinoff of Riot’s enormously popular MOBA League of Legends based on Dota Auto Chess. Eight players build teams and fight to be the last person standing, with their units automatically battling after being placed strategically on the game board between rounds. Riot describes TFT as “the world’s largest PC strategy game.”

TFT is traditionally a PvP game, but Ao Shin’s Ascent, due out September 24, is its first-ever progression-focused PvE mode. Players take on escalating PvE battles and bosses, with roguelite progression that grants permanent power in the mode’s Journey Track.

⛰️Get ready to climb! ⛰️
Ao Shin’s Ascent is a timerless PvE mode with permanent power progression & the all-new Guide mechanic.

Climb the mountain, save corrupted Little Legends, and push to the summit!

Launches Sept 24 for a limited time. pic.twitter.com/489UvyRvO3

— Teamfight Tactics (@TFT) September 6, 2025

Here’s the official info, from developer Riot Games:

SUMMIT THE MOUNTAIN: Climb the mountain while strengthening your board, arming yourself with powerful Augments, and preparing for an ultra-powerful Boss.

CRAFT YOUR PATH AND CHALLENGE: Select your difficulty, your Guide, the Boss you’ll fight, and more to make every run feel and play differently!

KEY MECHANIC; GUIDES: The odds aren’t stacked in your favor at the start — recruiting a selection of unlockable Guides can help turn the tides by giving you access to novel strategies and power! Take Zoe for random loot, or grab a bundle-exclusive Guide like Battle Queen Gwen to access powerful Items from various TFT sets!

PROGRESS TO THE SUMMIT WIN OR LOSE: Make progress on your climb win or lose, via the Journey Track. The more runs you take on, the stronger you get!

UNLOCK GUIDES AND POWER WITH THE FREE JOURNEY TRACK: Unlock Guides, and power through the Journey Track. Clear the summit with at least 12 Guides to claim a free Ao Shin’s Ascent Portal reward.

PURCHASE BUNDLES: The Ao Shin’s Ascent Guide Pack (575 RP) comes with an emote and both Bundle-exclusive Guides: Truth Dragon Yasuo and Battle Queen Gwen. And the Ao Shin’s Ascent Mega Bundle (2780 RP) comes with that Emote, both Guides, Legendary Little Legend: Awakened Ao Shin, the Little Legend Sol Harbinger Ao Shin, and the second K.O. Coliseum Pass Plus!

Christina Jiang, Events Product Lead for Teamfight Tactics, said: “Ao Shin’s Ascent represents everything we love about TFT — experimentation, strategy, and a dash of chaos — while introducing a roguelite twist that challenges players to adapt and persevere. This progression-based mode is our most ambitious PvE experiment yet, building on the strong global player engagement we’ve seen with Set 15, K.O. Coliseum. It marks a major step toward giving TFT players more ways to play, more ways to test themselves, and more reasons to return for the next climb.”

And here’s a comment from Michael “Skip” Scipione, Senior Game Designer for Teamfight Tactics: “With Ao Shin’s Ascent, we wanted to push TFT forward with bold new mechanics that expand on its core gameplay. Bosses evolve with shifting modifiers, and the new progression system means each run builds toward the next, letting players experiment with different approaches against an ever-changing challenge. It’s a way to expand TFT’s core mechanics while giving players new stories to create with every climb.”

Teamfight Tactics: Ao Shin’s Ascent launches on September 24 at 10am Pacific Time, shortly after the release of patch 15.5. The mode will be available until the end of patch 15.6 on October 8.

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.

Director Tetsuya Nomura has heard the cries for updates on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 and Kingdom Hearts 4, and he’s happy to report that development is “progressing really smoothly.”

It’s a largely inconsequential but still welcome update for two of Square Enix’s most anticipated games that arrived during the recent Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis second anniversary broadcast. As reported on and translated by Gematsu, Nomura took the opportunity to address waves of comments from fans hoping to see the team make an announcement.

“Apparently, [co-director Motomu] Toriyama mentioned in an interview that something might be released around the second anniversary [of Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis],” Nomura said when addressing comments specifically related to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. “So that’s probably where those expectations are coming from. Right, so things are progressing really smoothly. I can’t really say more — if I suddenly went, ‘Well, actually...,’ everyone would be really surprised! [Laughs.]”

Nomura goes as far as to say that the “release timing has already been decided” but stops short of clarifying when exactly Square Enix will share more. For now, he asks fans to be patient, adding that work on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 is “moving forward according to that schedule.”

RPG fans have been on the hunt for news about the next entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series since its last installment, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, launched in early 2024. We know development started as early as June 2022, with Square Enix saying last year that its goal is to see it launch by 2027. Excitement for the third and final chapter in the trilogy grew even more when the team revealed that it had completed its story earlier this year.

Development for Kingdom Hearts 4, meanwhile, is progressing in a similarly positive direction, though Nomura says even less about when any further updates may arrive on this front.

“And this has also come up in the comments here and there,” Nomura added, “but Kingdom Hearts IV is likewise steadily moving forward according to schedule, so please look forward to it.”

Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced in 2022, and updates have been distressingly few and far between since. It wasn’t until May 2025, not even four months ago, that Square Enix was willing to share a substantial update, and even then, all fans had to hold onto was a handful of new screenshots and a short message from the team.

“We’ve seen how excited you are, and we are truly grateful from the bottom of our hearts," Square Enix said at the time. “We are equally excited and can’t wait to share more about Kingdom Hearts IV when the time is right. Until then, we appreciate your patience.”

There’s no telling when exactly we can expect to hear any additional updates on Kingdom Hearts 4 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3. In the meantime, you can read up on everything we know about the former here. You can also learn about why the team behind the latter says it “will not cheat” when it comes to Final Fantasy 7’s iconic airship.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

LEGO has been hard at work producing sets targeted specifically at adults all year long. Some of the biggest new sets released this September were 18+ builds and there are already even more on the way for later in 2025. But of the new sets that just came out, perhaps the most interesting to me are the latest builds in the LEGO Wicked line. Similar to last year, LEGO released a bunch of new themed sets ahead of the upcoming film, Wicked: For Good. Though there was one major difference this year—two of the sets were targeted specifically at adults.

The two sets, a pair of Glinda & Elphaba Bookends and an Emerald City Wall Art Set, are currently the only new builds from the franchise that are on backorder at the LEGO store. While you can still find these sets at other retailers with faster shipping, the fact that LEGO is having trouble keeping up with demand is a testament to the popularity of these builds with an adult audience.

New LEGO Wicked Sets for Adults

Former Bethesda Softworks marketing boss Pete Hines has opened up about the Fallout 76 bag controversy of 2018, saying it led to "probably the dumbest thing" he ever did at the company.

Hines, who served as senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda before announcing plans to retire in 2023, touched on the infamous Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition during an interview with DBLTAP. The first true multiplayer Fallout experience came with too many issues to count at launch, but it’s the goodies promised with its collector’s edition that live with the former Bethesda executive to this day.

The company unveiled the pricey Power Armor Edition with the promise it would include a T-51B Power Armor Helmet, an exclusive steel case, collectible figures, and, of course, a canvas West Tek Duffel Bag. Players who picked up their copies upon the launch of Fallout 76 in late 2018, however, were surprised when the package included a cheap, nylon bag instead.

It led to quite the uproar from the Fallout community, which wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea that Bethesda may have pulled a fast one on the group of dedicated fans who paid $200 for the special release with only a small amount of in-game currency to show for it. It was a flub the company was quick to correct, offering fans an opportunity to request a replacement canvas bag by filling out a form by May of the following year.

Hines doesn’t remember this element of the launch of Fallout 76 fondly, recalling how his involvement in the contents of the Power Armor Edition led to one of his biggest mistakes at Bethesda.

“My first reaction was, ‘When the f**k did we add a canvas bag to this collector's edition?’ Because the version I approved did not have one,” he said. “They were trying to add more value to the Collectors Edition. We were always fighting with the finance people about margins, right? I would throw shit fits around. ‘We cannot charge $300 for this, it's f***ing insulting.’ But in this case, their hearts were in the right place.”

Hines continued, explaining that the decision to include a nylon bag came as a result of a canvas shortage.

“There was literally a canvas shortage, and some folks decided we're going to do this instead. My biggest failing there was not pushing immediately for making and sending one to everybody that wants one. Because I was still annoyed that the damn thing was in there in the first place, and nobody had told me and that this canvas shortage happened. It's probably the dumbest thing I ever did at Bethesda.”

Fallout 76 had a notoriously rough start but is generally regarded to be in much better shape these days. Bethesda has delivered an ocean of updates and post-launch content in the years since, with the CAMP Revamp update arriving just a few days ago. We gave the multiplayer Fallout game a 7/10 in our updated review last year.

For more on Bethesda’s history, you can read up on how Hines feels about gaming subscription services like Game Pass. You can also see what the former Bethesda executive had to say regarding the naming of Arkane Austin’s 2017 immersive sim, Prey.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Fede Alvarez will not direct the sequel to his hit 2024 film Alien: Romulus. The search is on for a new filmmaker to helm the sequel.

According to TooFab, Alvarez will remain onboard the project as a producer, He also co-wrote the screenplay with Rodo Sayagues. TooFab chatted with Alvarez on Thursday at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights.

"We just finished the script, actually, for a sequel for Romulus. But I'm gonna pass the torch on this one as director," Alvarez said. "I'm going to produce it, with Ridley Scott, we're gonna produce it together and we're right now trying to find a new filmmaker to come in."

"I think that's usually what has happened, except for Ridley, filmmakers come, you make one and you pass the baton to the next one," the filmmaker added.

"But we wrote the story because we really love what we started with Romulus and we want to continue the story. We love the story and now we just want to find a director that really wants to go for the jugular."

Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson are expected to reprise their respective roles from Alien: Romulus for the sequel, which will be released by 20th Century Studios.

IGN’s Tom Jorgensen was a big fan of Alien: Romulus, scoring it an 8 out of 10 in his review:

“Helped along by a talented ensemble of young actors and reference-quality production design, Alien: Romulus’s back-to-basics approach to blockbuster horror boils everything fans love about the tonally-fluid franchise into one film, and it’s one that you’re going to need to start making time for the next time you plan on marathoning Alien and Aliens.”

Although fans will have to wait awhile to see a Romulus sequel, there’s still plenty of the Alien franchise to enjoy these days.

Be sure to read our Alien: Earth, Episode 5 review, learn how Alien: Earth’s Morrow shares some similarities with Ripley and why The Eye is the true hero of Alien: Earth.

Full spoilers follow for Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 3 - “Another Rick Up My Sleeve.”

In this week’s Peacemaker, James Gunn pulls the rug out from under some of us at least by resurrecting a long-thought-dead character: Rick Flag Jr., Joel Kinnaman’s Special Forces badass who was killed all the way back in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad movie in 2021. Killed, of course, by John Cena’s Chris/Peacemaker himself… But you know, alternate dimensions do have a way of resurrecting folks! Or never killing folks in the first place, or… whatever.

Mark Ruffalo says he still hasn’t seen a script for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in which he’s rumored – emphasis on rumored, it seems – to reprise his role as Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk.

Ruffalo told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the premiere of his new HBO show Task that he’s most excited to possibly share scenes with Jon Bernthal, who will reprise his role as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, in Spider-Man: Brand New Day,

“If I’m doing that — which the rumors are that I am, once I get a script, I’ll know it’s real — but I love him and we have a common friend in Lena Dunham, believe it or not, (laughs) who just adores him,” Ruffalo said.

“I can’t wait to work with (Bernthal), he’s so funny and he’s such a great actor. He plays that character like nobody else. I’m really excited to meet him, I’ve never met him!”

Ruffalo last played Banner/Hulk in 2022 Disney+ show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

The next Spidey movie is rumored to pit Tom Holland’s web-slinger against street-level villains, including the return of Michael Mando’s Scorpion.

Sadie Sink, Tramell Tillman, and Liza Colón-Zayas are also in the cast in undisclosed roles, joining returning franchise vets Zendaya (MJ) and Jacob Batalan (Ned).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently filming in the UK under the direction of Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).

For more coverage, find out what Tom Holland has done to make the producers of Spider-Man: Brand New Day “absolutely sick” of him and discover Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s connection to one of the most notorious Marvel Comics.

Sony will release Spider-Man: Brave New Day on July 31, 2026.

Dan Brown's new book is coming out next week, and it's great news for fans of his Robert Langdon series. It's been eight years since the last installment in the series (Origin), which is the longest break between books Brown has had since he first published Angels and Demons back in the early 2000s. The new novel, titled Secret of Secrets, is set to release on September 9. You can currently preorder the upcoming book for a discount at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

When Arkane Austin delivered its cult-classic immersive sim, Prey, for PC and consoles in 2017, not everyone at Bethesda Softworks was happy shipping the sci-fi immersive sim with that name.

After Prey 2 met an untimely demise in 2014, fans were elated to see the series return with a completely new look and feel with what was believed to be a reboot in 2016. The problem was Arkane’s Prey doesn’t actually have much to do with the series it pulled its name from.

Instead, what fans received when Prey launched in 2017 was something that was more of a System Shock spiritual successor, leading many to question why it was ever named Prey in the first place. Even director Raphael Colantonio has commented on its title in the past, saying that he wanted to use a different name but was eventually forced to stick with it.

Former Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, who announced his retirement from the company in 2023, spoke about the name of Arkane’s now-beloved 2017 game during a recent interview with DBLTAP, saying that he was one individual at Bethesda who feared the baggage that the Prey name carried.

“Don't even get me started on that,” Hines said when asked about Prey’s name. “I definitely pissed some people off internally over that because I fought so hard against using that name. I'm the head of the spear, but I had a lot of people across my team – brand, PR and community – and we feel like we're burdening it with a name where we spend more time explaining why it's called Prey than we do talking about the game.”

Hines adds that he regrets losing the battle to give the 2017 Prey a fresh start. He adds, “But nobody on this planet could have put more of a good faith effort into changing minds on that.”

“My whole point was, look how much time we spend talking about what the game is versus why it's called this and like, that is wasted energy,” Hines continued. “That is wasted excitement. We could be turning that into something positive.”

Prey is now seen as one of the better immersive sims for more reasons than one, but it took some time for it to achieve cult-classic status. In addition to the confusion surrounding its title, game-breaking issues for PC players at launch helped tarnish its reputation out of the gate.

Bethesda eventually issued numerous fixes for those on that platform, but the damage had already been done. Tech issues almost certainly hurt Prey’s commercial performance, with Colantonio believing that its strange name also contributed to lost sales.

We gave the 2017 Prey game an 8/10 in our review. At the time, we said, “Prey's space station is fantastically explorable and its shape-shifting enemies maintain tension when combat doesn't.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

If you're merrily strolling your way through Hollow Knight: Silksong right now, not a care in the world, you may want to brace yourself. Because aside from Silksong's usual slate of super-tough bosses that'll have you corpse running over and over again, there's one very early miniboss enemy that's causing a lot of players a whole heap of trouble.

Warning: Very minor spoilers for an early-game miniboss in The Marrow appear below. Don't read on if you don't want to know anything about any of the game's enemies.

The miniboss in question is considered so minor by the game that it doesn't appear with a name on-screen, making it tough to Google a guide when you get stuck on him. But his name is Skarrgard, and he's a bulky red bug enemy wielding a big piece of bone as a weapon. You can find him waiting in a cave on the east side of The Marrow, just above the prison.

Skarrgard seems inocuous when you first approach him, just like a slightly tougher regular enemy. But this guy really has some folks on tilt. He's got three attacks: one where he disappears underground and pops up for an attack, a jump attack, and one where he swings his bone around. He's got some real range on that bone weapon, and because the tunnel is so tiny, most of his moves are very hard, if not impossible, to jump over. What's more, his attacks hit for two whole masks of damage rather than just one.

There are two ways to beat Skarrgard, the easy way and the hard way. The hard way is to keep practicing and eventually defeat him (see our red axe ant mini boss thing strategy guide for exactly how to do beat him early). You can lure him down the narrow tunnel a bit so he can't do his jump attack more, and if you run past him whenever he goes underground, you can sort of bounce him back and forth in the center of the room, taking careful swings, and eventually bring him down.

But I recommend the easy way, which is to come back later. You'll eventually get a dash ability that makes it much easier to avoid his hits, and it seems like you're meant to have that ability before challenging Skarrgard for real. Even if you're tempted by a juicy reward for killing him early, maybe don't bother? The reward for fighting him is that it unlocks access to a new area, and if you're fighting him early you probably have plenty else to explore that isn't hidden behind a giant, bone-swinging bug man.

Either way, good luck with this guy. For many, he's significantly tougher than any of Silksong's early actual bosses, so don't feel discouraged if you die to him a lot before you finally score a win.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is out now, and we're hard at work on our Wiki guides of everything you might possibly want to know as you start your adventures in Pharloom. We've also got a review-in-progress covering our thoughts so far that we'll update with a score as soon as we've finished the game.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Bethesda Softworks’ former senior vice president of global marketing and communications, Pete Hines, says gaming subscription services like Xbox Game Pass are “worth jack s***” if the game developers who create content for them are not properly supported.

The ex-Bethesda figurehead, who announced his retirement in 2023 after 24 years with the company, opened up about the state of the gaming industry during a new interview with DBLTAP. In addition to touching on the early days of the company behind Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, Hines spoke about what he feels the future of services like Game Pass looks like.

He admits his retirement from the Microsoft-owned Bethesda means his view on the matter may not be up to date. However, Hines says he witnessed what he “considered to be some short sighted decision making several years ago” that now appears to be “bearing out the way I said.”

“Subscriptions have become the new four letter word, right? You can't buy a product anymore,” Hines said. “When you talk about a subscription that relies on content, if you don't figure out how to balance the needs of the service and the people running the service with the people who are providing the content – without which your subscription is worth jack s*** – then you have a real problem.”

Gamers have discussed the viability of platforms like Game Pass since its launch in 2017. While a service flooded with hundreds of games for subscribers to play sounds like a dream come true for players, how the developers behind these games receive support has been hazy.

As Game Pass pushed forward into the early 2020s and PlayStation eventually established its own PlayStation Plus-centered competitor, more question marks popped up. Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden is one of many who recently critiqued the gaming subscription service model, calling the “’Netflix of gaming’ idea” a “danger” that has him questioning, “…is it healthy for the developer?”

Microsoft touted that Game Pass achieved $5 billion in revenue over the last year this past July after laying off hundreds of workers across its gaming branch earlier that same month. Today, Hines adds that the pressure of an ongoing gaming subscription service is affecting the very developers it needs to exist in the first place. It’s a reliance on this model that he feels is “hurting a lot of people.”

“You need to properly acknowledge, compensate and recognize what it takes to create that content and not just make a game, but make a product,” he elaborated. “That tension is hurting a lot of people, including the content creators themselves, because they're fitting into an ecosystem that is not properly valuing and rewarding what they're making.”

Two Bethesda studios – Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks – were shut down in May 2024, though the latter was eventually saved after PUBG publisher Krafton acquired it from Xbox. In the wake of mass layoffs and studio closures, original Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio called Game Pass the “elephant in the room” and an “unsustainable model.” He added, “I don’t think GP can co-exist with other models, they’ll either kill everyone else, or give up.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

With Hollow Knight: Silksong out now, many players are celebrating its unexpectedly low $20 price tag. But some independent developers are pointing out that great as this may be, it could lead to unreasonable expectations for other indie games that can't afford to sell for that low.

This comes from a number of threads on social media from developers of games such as Unbeatable, Dorfromantik, and others. In one Bluesky thread, Unbeatable director RJ Lake says that Silksong should cost $40, "and I'm not even joking."

But Lake isn't upset at Team Cherry for charging $20 - that's their perogative. But it will have an impact on gaming audiences. As Lake explains:

"millions of people will probably buy silksong on day one, and it was a game that had a very 'low' budget, because the budget is 'these devs worked on it without direct pay for however long they wanted to do that,'" Lake writes. "it had a 'these devs are independently wealthy' budget of 'effectively zero dollars.'

"they can price however low they want, as a result. their return on investment is infinite no matter what they do. but by charging such a low amount, they are causing lizard brain signals to fire off saying 'this kind of game is worth twenty dollars. you should expect this game for twenty dollars.'

"if enough of those lizard brain signals fire, some kinds of games with actual budgets to pay people who need to live are going to get priced out of existence unless they can get the kind of organic groundswell you can't plan for"

A lot of other indie devs think Lake might have a point here, including folks from Deck 13 and Red Squirrel Games. Over on Twitter/X, Basti Games, the developer of Lone Fungus: Melody of Spores, asked the audience how much Lone Fungus should cost given Silksong's $20 price. Basti had originally been planning on making Lone Fungus $20, too. But because it's shorter in length than Silksong, should it be cheaper?

As a dev making a smaller Metroidvania than Silksong, which I originally though would be fairly priced at 20 USD... what should I price it now?

It'll be a 10-15+ hours game, but it was made by one person with limited dev time and funds, I can't afford to give it away for free. https://t.co/FFcgz6TI1z

— Lone Fungus (@BastiArtGames) September 1, 2025

Fortunately for Basti, the replies overwhelmingly encourage them to price it at $20 if that's what's required. "Dude charge 20$," wrote one fan. "Price is not about the game is about context. They are able to price 20$ for a bigger game because they steem to receive a million times the cost. You are a small company, dude charge 20$ you deserve thst"

Another wrote, "10-20 is totally fair imo. Team cherry could have made silksong 40 and still sold hotcakes, the fact they didn't just means they are cool as fuck. Don't hold yourself to standards of giants, or else you'll have to climb a staircase."

Still, other developers are worried too. In an Eurogamer article on the subject, Dorfromantik developer Toukana's co-founder, Zwi Zausch, said that the studio's next game, Star Birds, would have its pricing impacted by Silksong.

"We're trying not to compete too directly with Silksong, both in terms of release date and pricing. Of course, these are two very different games with potentially different player bases, but there's definitely some overlap. That makes things tricky, especially since Star Birds is a joint project between two studios, together employing more people than Team Cherry."

Indie game prices has historically been a challenging subject, as teams balance needing to ensure all their members are adequately paid, uncertainty around sales numbers, and the volatility of audiences in deciding not to buy smaller games at prices they perceive as too high. As AAA game prices climb fro $60 to $70 to $80, there has been renewed discussion on where indies should fall - many can't afford to go lower than $20, but many will also lose sales if they don't.

"People have less money now and are buying fewer games," says Mike Rose, founder of No More Robots, "so you have to set yourself up to hopefully be that one game they buy when they do have money. And if you are a higher price, it's now actually a bit offputting."

The Nintendo Switch is going out in a blaze of glory, with some exciting games launching to make way for the console's successor: the now officially released Switch 2. Whether they’re exclusively developed for the Switch or ported over from other platforms, these upcoming Switch games will likely wrap up the Switch era while also being compatible with the Switch 2.

In the second half of 2025, we'll hopefully be getting our hands on well-known in-development titles as well as a host of new games announced at the most recent Nintendo Direct. Here are all of the new Switch games we can look forward to this year.

All Upcoming Switch Games With Release Dates

Bratz: Rhythm & Style (September 12, 2025)

I’m willing to admit I was a Bratz kid, and it definitely looks like the fashion games based on the series have gotten an upgrade from what I played back on the DS. Still, the “Bratz experience” is largely the same: Style the quartet, beef with the Tweevil Twins, and rock out to songs from the Bratz movies.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (September 19, 2025)

The highly-anticipated Trails in the Sky remake officially has a release date. Well, at least the first chapter. The RPG from Nihon Falcon kicked off the Trails sub-series back in 2004, and the remake introduces quality of life improvements using the same engine as Trails of Daybreak.

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree (September 19, 2025)

The evil Magatsu has thrown the kingdom into turmoil. You play as Towa, who must seek Guardian companions and push back Magatsu’s influence in this roguelite we called "twin-stick Hades" in our hands-on preview.

DreamWorks Gabby's Dollhouse: Ready to Party (September 19, 2025)

Gabby’s Dollhouse has been a hit with the kids, having just wrapped up its 11th season from DreamWorks Animation. The game adaptation has you working with Gabby and friends from across magical worlds to prep the best party ever.

Folly Of The Wizards (September 19, 2025)

There’s never enough roguelikes, in my opinion. Join a wacky wizard cult and explore procedurally generated dungeons in this sidescroller with a comedic edge.

Sonic Racing: Crossworlds (September 25, 2025)

Sonic's back, and he's bringing some friends along for the ride. Sonic Racing: Crossworlds seems to be an ultimate crossover game, blending chaotic kart racing mechanics with a pretty insane slate of characters. Look forward to vehicle customization and a variety of environments across each track (and universe).

After conquering Roblox, the developers of Snatch Squad are looking to do the same on Steam. Snatch Squad is a new open-world co-op heist game with a voxel look and a clear inspiration from both Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Starbreeze's PayDay. It's in development for PC.

In Snatch Squad, you'll build your empire by pulling off successful heists, taking over districts of the city, and laundering money. It promises "dynamic police chases and ambushes that keep you on edge" along with gangs to contend with and turf wars to fight. Watch the first trailer above and check out the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Seemingly keying in on this, the developers say, "From car chases to turf wars, the city is alive — a voxel-styled Miami where ambition can make you king…or get you killed."

Wishlist Snatch Squad on Steam if you're interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

The use of Switch 2's widely-disliked Game-Key Cards was defended by a Ubisoft developer who worked on the Nintendo port of Star Wars Outlaws.

Writing on social media, Ubisoft audio architect Rob Bantin shared the real reason why the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Star Wars Outlaws uses a Game-Key Card — a physical cartridge that requires owners still download the game, rather than including the full thing on the cart.

The answer? It's all due to the Switch 2's data speeds, and how quickly the hardware can read information from its bespoke cartridges, versus games downloaded to the console's internal memory.

"[Star Wars Outlaws game engine] Snowdrop relies heavily on disk streaming for its open world environments, and we found the Switch 2 cards simply didn't give the performance we needed at the quality target we were going for," Bantin wrote.

The information has come as a surprise to some Nintendo fans who have previously grumbled over the use of Game-Key Cards, which are cheaper and therefore increasingly popular among developers of larger games which would otherwise require more costly cartridges with increased memory capacity.

"I don't recall the cost of the cards ever entering the discussion – probably because it was moot," Bantin continued.

While not a comprehensive reason for all developers to use Game-Key Cards, Bantin went on to explain that it was important for Ubisoft and its Snowdrop development team, especially as Outlaws was originally developed for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S — console platforms that had faster SSD memory on board.

"I think if we'd designed a game for Switch 2 from the ground up it might have been different," Bantin said. "As it was, we'd build a game around the SSDs of the initial target platforms, and then the Switch 2 came along a while later. In this case I think our leadership made the right call."

Last month, Nintendo launched a fresh fan survey that quizzed Switch 2 owners for their opinions on buying digital games instead of boxed copies, and specifically asked for feedback on Game-Key Cards, following their less-than-stellar initial reception among fans who prefer their physical games to include... well, the full game.

First released last year to a mixed response and lackluster sales, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot recently blamed Star Wars Outlaws disappointing sales performance on the "choppy waters" of the sci-fi saga's own fandom.

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