Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has said the inbound Borderlands 4 Day 1 patch “does a lot,” amid concern about the performance of the looter shooter.

Pitchford responded to concern about Borderlands 4’s pre-release performance on PC from some users on X / Twitter, confirming not only that there’s a Day 1 patch on the way, but that it sounds pretty much essential to play the game.

Borderlands 4 has an official release date of September 12 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, with the Nintendo Switch 2 launch following shortly after. Fans will be keen to jump in as soon as possible, making the Day 1 patch an early hoop to jump through.

Despite the Day 1 patch, playing Borderlands 4 on older hardware won't miraculously unlock "buttery smooth performance," Pitchford added. It should be expected that Borderlands 4 is “unplayable” if you’re trying to use a PC below min-spec, he said, and, generally, playing new AAA games on older hardware won't achieve impressive results.

Here’s the comment in full:

The Day 1 patch does a lot! That said, the expectation for using a below min-spec machine should be that the game is unplayable. That the game runs at all on your system is a miracle. That you can get 55 - 60 fps out of heavy combat is actually incredible given how the engine and what's going on under the hood. Your specification doesn't indicate if you're on SDD or HDD, but that could also explain some of the hitching. It's a big, bold, new, seamless world and I'm sorry to say that older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance for the latest gen AAA games, as has always been the case since the dawn of PC gaming.

A significant portion of the PC gaming audience play on low-end hardware. Indeed, just last month the developers of Battlefield 6 told Eurogamer they saw a "substantial number" of open beta players on or around the minimum recommended specs, with a number of users even playing below the minimum spec.

While you wait for Borderlands 4 to launch, be sure to check out IGN’s recent interview with narrative director Sam Winkler, lead writer Taylor Clark, and managing director of narrative properties Lin Joyce to learn more about why the team decided to create a more grounded story this time around.

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.

Best Buy has dropped the 2TB WD Black C50 Xbox Series Expansion SSD Card to just $149.99 with free shipping. That’s $30 under its previous all-time low at $179.99 (according to CamelCamelCamel), half off the $300 list price, and a full $100 cheaper than Amazon right now.

At this price, it almost feels like a mistake. You’re getting double the storage for only $20 more than the 1TB card, making this a no-brainer if you’ve been waiting to expand your Xbox’s storage, with the best possible tech, and without overspending.

A Nintendo console modder who refused to shut down his business despite warnings from Nintendo — and who then defended the ensuing lawsuit without a lawyer — has been ordered to pay $2 million.

In July 2024, Michigan resident Ryan Daly was accused by Nintendo of running Modded Hardware, a company that sold modified Switch consoles, pirated games, and piracy-enabling devices such as the MIG Switch.

Despite a prior warning from Nintendo that asked Daly to cease his operations, the modder persisted — and it was this point that a lawsuit was filed against him. In October last year, it was revealed that Daly had decided to fight the case himself, without legal representation, while denying wrongdoing and listing off a string of defenses for his other actions.

Nearly a year on and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Nintendo has now won the case — and in a judgment dated September 5, Daly has been ordered to pay $2 million in damages and accept a permanent injunction from any future piracy-enabling activities.

The court found that Daly, who did indeed run Modded Hardware, sold piracy-enabling devices, hacked consoles and mod chips that caused Nintendo of America "significant and irreparable harm", and which allowed for pirate copies of Nintendo games to be created, distributed and played "on a massive scale." Documentation also shows that Daly did indeed continue to defend the case without further legal representation.

Nintendo's victory is only the latest in a long line of lawsuits from the company that continue to make examples out of those who pirate its games — such as Gary Bowser, an employee of a company that sold anti-piracy devices, who served time in jail and was ordered to pay $14.5m, a debt he's said he will now repay for the rest of his life.

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

MachineGames seemingly hasn't finished with its Wolfenstein series just yet.

While it's been over half a decade since we last punched a Nazi in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, studio head Jerk Gustafsson has hinted the team would very much like to go back to the Wolfenstein universe to tie up BJ Blazkowicz's story.

While both Youngblood and the 2019 VR title Cyberpilot touched on the wider Blazkowicz family's fortunes, we haven't actually played as series stalwart Blazkowicz since 2017's The New Colossus. And it's BJ's story that seems to intrigue Gustafsson most — in fact, it seems Blazkowicz's story was always meant to be told in three parts.

In a new interview with Noclip, Gustafsson said the team had "always seen [BJ's story] as a trilogy," adding: "That journey for BJ, even during those first weeks at [id Software], when we mapped out New Order — we still had the plan for at least [BJ], what would happen in the second one and what would happen in the third one.

"I think that's important to say, because⁠ — at least, I hope ⁠— we're not done with Wolfenstein yet. We have a story to tell," he added (thanks, PC Gamer).

The last Wolfenstein game was 2019's Wolftenstein: Youngblood, Set in 1980, 19 years after BJ Blazkowicz ignited the second American Revolution, it introduced the next Blazkowicz generation to the fight against the Nazis. In IGN's review, we awarded it a middling 6.5, calling it "aggressively okay."

MachineGames' latest offering, however, was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which secured 9/10.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Cast your mind back to December 2024, and the release of the debut trailer for 28 Years Later. Fans thought they spotted Cillian Murphy, star of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, briefly appear as an emaciated zombie in the promo.

A brief shot in the trailer shows an incredibly skinny zombie rising up from the ground. The Oppenheimer star was listed as executive producer of 28 Years Later, with one Sony executive teasing his appearance “in a surprising way and in a way that grows.” Murphy had hit the headlines for his punishing diet while playing Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s billion dollar biopic, a role he lost significant weight for. So fans saw this zombie, whose face looked a bit like Murphy’s, and put two and two together. They weren’t the only ones — the press wondered if it was Murphy, too.

Orlando Bloom doesn't want anyone else playing The Lord of the Rings elf Legolas, should the character return in Andy Serkis' upcoming Middle-earth movie The Hunt for Gollum.

While Legolas' involvement in the film is still to be confirmed, Bloom has said that if the character does appear, he'd "hate to see" another actor take on the role instead.

"Listen, I'd hate to see anyone else play Legolas, you know what I mean?" Bloom told Today, via EW. "What are they going to do? Are they going to put somebody else in as Legolas? With AI they can do anything these days!"

Set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Hunt for Gollum will chronicle various characters' search for Serkis' loin cloth-wearing creature, who knows the location of the series' all-important ring.

During this period, both Gandalf and Aragorn seek the former hobbit in order to stop the ring from falling into Sauron's fiery hands. Indeed, a scene from this time period is even shown very briefly in Fellowship of the Ring, where the words "Baggins" and "Shire" are extracted from Gollum via torture.

Last month, Gandalf actor Ian McKellen surprised fans by confirming his character would somehow return for the film, presumably with McKellen himself once again in the role. Frodo will also appear, McKellen revealed, while standing on stage with Elijah Wood.

Despite a healthy 'Mostly Positive' review score on Steam and a concurrent user count high enough to make a AAA game blush with envy, Hollow Knight: Silksong's Chinese players are seemingly less impressed by the highly-anticipated sequel.

While the Steam user review rating from players experiencing the game in English, French, German, and Polish are 'Very Positive,' and Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian reviews are 'Overwhelmingly Positive,' players using simplified Chinese have brought the score down to 'Mostly Negative' for that language, chiefly because of issues with the translation.

After tens of thousands of Chinese players left negative reviews, dragging Silksong's overall Steam user review rating down to 76% positive, Team Cherry's Matthew Griffin acknowledged the problem on X/Twitter, writing: "To our Chinese speaking fans: We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong. We'll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks. Thanks for your feedback and support."

So, what's the issue? "The current Silksong [Chinese] translation reads like a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game’s tone," said one player. "This isn’t about effort, but about taste and direction, and speaking from experience likely can’t be fixed without replacing the translator." Another said: "can you imagine as a Chinese, I need to play the game by switching in English to understand [the] translation."

"Native Chinese speaker here. The translation uses awkwardly archaic wording that makes a lot of the content unintelligible," added someone else. "I’m talking about word salad type of situation. On top of the anachronistic pretentiousness, it’s downright gibberish at times."

Neither Griffin nor Team Cherry has yet confirmed when a patch is coming, but at least we know the developer is aware of the issue and is looking to fix it "over the coming weeks."

We're having a great time with what we've played so far, however. In IGN's Hollow Knight: Silksong review-in-progress, we wrote: "I could keep digging into more early observations, but honestly I just can’t wait to stop typing this so I can dive back in [...] But so far Silksong is exactly what I want from a sequel like this: it’s not completely reinventing the wheel or messing with all the things that made the first game so incredible, but it’s also not resting on its laurels. No part of it feels untouched, and as far as I can tell right now, it somehow feels even better for it."

But amid the excitement over Team Cherry’s long awaited sequel is a debate within the community about whether the game is too hard — perhaps even unfairly so. Now, Silksong players are trying to help out those who have quit the game because they're finding it too difficult by pointing to mods that make it much easier.

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!

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.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Nintendo doesn't really need to create new franchises, a former developer has said, explaining that the company can simply wrap its fresh gameplay ideas into one of the many beloved video game series it owns already.

Speaking to Bloomberg, programmer Ken Watanabe said Nintendo doesn't "really fuss over" which of its big franchises a fun new gameplay mechanic might end up in. And, with so many existing series to chose from, there's little need to come up with more.

"New franchises haven't come out simply because there's no real need to make them," Watanabe said. "When Nintendo wants to do something new, it's basically about the gameplay mechanics first — about creating a new way to play."

At Nintendo, Watanabe worked on Super Mario Bros. Wii, Pikmin 3 and Splatoon — one of the company's biggest new franchises of its modern era. But even the first Splatoon is now a decade old.

"As for the skin or the wrapper, they don't really fuss over it," Watanabe continued. "They just pick whatever fits that new gameplay best."

Nintendo's long list of existing IP certainly seems expansive and beloved enough to support this. Why make a new spaceship combat series when it's been years since the last Star Fox? Why create a fresh arcade racer when you could make a new F-Zero? (Though, let's be real, Nintendo is never making a new, fully fledged F-Zero.)

Nintendo already has most genres covered, and existing fans waiting with baited breath for the next entries in series such as Animal Crossing, Pikmin and Fire Emblem. It makes sense that, if Nintendo did have new gameplay ideas for existing genres, it could just co-opt one of its existing series too.

Take the upcoming Splatoon Raiders, for example, which Nintendo has described as "the first Splatoon series spin-off." It looks set to focus on a specific hero character and potentially feature more adventure-led gameplay than its quick-fire shooting predecessors. Could this have been a new IP instead? Maybe, but spinning it off from the hugely popular Splatoon means it instantly appeals to an existing fanbase and has better brand recognition.

Nintendo hasn't completely ditched the idea of new franchises, of course — though it's fair to say that the company tests fewer new IPs now than it once did. Nintendo's most recent new idea was the just-released Drag x Drive, its wheelchair basketball game that utilised the Switch 2's motion controls. It's hard to see how that could have fitted into an existing franchise — though maybe plonking Mario and friends into its arenas might have helped.

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

Hollow Knight: Silksong is one of the biggest launches of the year, hitting huge player concurrent numbers on Steam alongside a positive reception from critics. But amid the excitement over Team Cherry’s long awaited sequel is a debate within the community about whether the game is too hard — perhaps even unfairly so. So it comes as no surprise to see Silksong’s early days mods dominated by those which make the game easier.

Over the weekend, we reported on how some Silksong players were expressing criticism across social media, subreddits, Discords, and Steam reviews about the game’s difficulty scaling 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.

Now, some players are saying their criticism of the difficulty and Silksong generally shouldn’t instantly be dismissed as “hate,” and those “git gud” comments should stop. Others are countering that suggestion by saying it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest players soldier on. This one is showing no sign of slowing down, that’s for sure.

Best Hollow Knight: Silksong mods a week after launch

A cursory glance at Silksong’s NexusMods page shows a number of mods that make the game easier to play at the top of the download chart. For example, Xiaohai’s ShowDamage HealthBar, which displays enemy health bars and damage numbers when attacking enemies in the game, has been downloaded 16,200 times already. Baiker’s No Double Damage, which prevents enemies and normal bosses hits from dealing more than one mask of damage, has been downloaded 15,100 times.

Meanwhile, LordGregory’s Always Have Compass Effect, which always shows the player's position on the map, has been downloaded 13,500 times. The same modder's Always Have Magnet Effect (Pulls Shards Too), which always makes rosaries/shards magnet to the player, has seen 11,100 downloads so far. All this in just a few days after Silksong’s launch on September 4.

I've installed 2 #Silksong mods to not go crazy

- No double damage, cause that's just crazy
- Unlimited Rosaries... cause I just got to a point where they're used like "Ink Ribbons"!!! pic.twitter.com/XHbAQIQVPa

— Marauderz (@marauderz) September 7, 2025

You get the idea. Silksong mods are tapping into the game’s difficulty, making it easier to work through at least on PC. And it’s there, in online communities for the game, that fans are suggesting players who are struggling with the game give mods a shot.

For example, redditor mckant posted an interesting thread, upvoted 3,600 times, about how their wife had quit Silksong “for good” due to the difficulty.

“My wife is a massive hk fan and has been waiting for silksong to come out for years,” mckant explained. “She is not the most skilled of players but she was able to complete hk and enjoy her time. Silksong, instead, is breaking her apart. She has spent three days fighting Moorwing without beating it and she’s dropping the game for good. I hope she’ll pick it back up sometime but it’s sad to see all the anticipation die out like this.

“I am loving the game and I am having a blast with it but I have come to the realization that this game is extremely punishing to lower skilled players who still make up a sizable share of the fanbase.

“I think that this disconnect is very concerning and explains why so many people are complaining about the game’s difficulty. It feels like Team Cherry doesn’t understand that much of the appeal of hk wasn’t the challenge it offered but also the lore, the exploration, and buildcrafting (and so on).

“These are all aspects of Silksong that are, effectively, gatekept by an arbitrary difficulty barrier. I have seen many people here on reddit saying to git gud but don’t think that discourse about the game’s difficulty should be handwaved so easily. If nothing about it is done, I think that a lot of ‘casual’ fans will be inevitably estranged from the game.”

In response, in among posts debating not just Silksong’s difficulty, but how it’s difficult, fans are suggesting mods will save the day, particularly that No Double Damage mod.

“If she is playing on PC, check out some of the Nexus Mods for the game that make it easier,” suggested Lermatroid. “For example there is No Double Damage which makes all attacks only do one mask of damage!”

“I'm a masochist but saving this link to share with people,” replied Please_Not__Again. “Every basic enemy has no business doing double damage.” Of course, console players are out of luck, leaving them to battle Silksong without the aid of mods.

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.

While Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has helped push developer Saber Interactive to another level, it already had a monster hit under its belt: World War Z.

World War Z is a co-op third-person shooter developed and published by Saber in 2019 as a loosely based adaptation of the 2006 novel World War Z, and set in the same universe as the 2013 Brad Pitt blockbuster.

Saber used its Swarm Engine to render large hordes of zombies in World War Z, and again but with Tyranids in last year’s Space Marine 2. The technology is being used once again for Saber’s 2026 release, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando.

In an interview with IGN at gamescom 2025, Saber development chief Tim Willits said 30 million people had played World War Z since launch, which is a remarkable milestone for any game. But, he thinks its popularity might have influenced some decisions made in Hollywood, too.

Last month, The Hollywood Reporter said Paramount had three franchises it planned to prioritize when it came to movies: Top Gun 3, Star Trek, and World War Z. World War Z was the biggest surprise here, given it’s been over a decade since the movie came out. So why is Paramount interested in making a follow-up?

Enter Saber’s World War Z. Willits said it was his feeling (he hasn’t been told this is the case in an official capacity) that the enduring success of the World War Z video game over the last six years has directly contributed to Paramount’s desire to revive the franchise in movie terms.

“30 million people have played that game. Isn't that crazy? 30 million unique people,” Willits began. “They have not told me this — I'll probably get in trouble! — they have not told me this, but maybe IGN put this on Instagram, that there's talk at Paramount about making another World War Z. Again, they have not told me this, but I'm pretty sure it’s because of that game.

“They have not told me this. I'm guessing!” Willits continued. “30 million people. That's f***ing ridiculous! I saw that [the Paramount news] and I was like, ‘Oh that’s gotta be us.’”

Of course, this isn't the first time an effort to make World War Z 2 was started. World War Z was a commercial success upon its release in 2013, grossing over $540 million worldwide at the box office (it was Pitt's highest-grossing film before the recently released F1 movie overtook it).

Paramount confirmed its plans to make a sequel shortly after, but planning turned patchy after Marc Foster, director of the first film, announced that he would not be returning to helm the second feature.

There was a further shake-up that resulted in David Fincher signing on as J.A. Bayona's replacement in the director's chair. However, the sequel never pulled together as Paramount decided to halt pre-production in 2019, reportedly due to budget issues and a lack of momentum, even though production was supposed to begin that year.

In 2023, Fincher likened his scrapped World War Z sequel to HBO's The Last of Us TV adaptation, saying he was glad his movie didn't make it beyond pre-production. Fincher told GQ that there were some notable similarities between his Brad Pitt-fronted follow-up film to World War Z and the HBO adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, so much so that he was left feeling happy his project never came together because he felt the other had "more real estate" to tackle the same topics.

"It was a little like The Last of Us," Fincher said, teasing what he had planned for the World War Z sequel. "I'm glad that we didn't do what we were doing because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff. In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite... they used it in their title sequence and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show."

Welcome back to yet another week of being unable to resist clicking Add To Cart. Discounts this steep are basically permission slips from the gaming gods, and I’ve spotted some gems worth locking in. It's time to reshuffle the backlog once again and make space for a few favourites that deserve the spotlight. So let's get to it!

Contents

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

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm using this lascannon to light a 13-candle cake for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Relic's third-person orc slashin' shooter. At the time, it felt like a bold attempt to bridge the tabletop universe of Warhammer into a visceral action experience, and I reckon it largely succeeded. Playing as Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, we waded into those green hordes with a brutal mix of ranged gunplay and meaty melee finishers. It may not have been the game to launch an empire, but for fans of the IP, it was the first time the fantasy of being an Ultramarine truly clicked on console.

We've rounded up the best deals for Sunday, September 7, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.

College Football 26 for $49.99

The Conjuring: Last Rites got off to a huge start at the box office, pulling in $187 million globally during opening weekend. It’s not only the best start for a Conjuring movie theatrically, it’s the second-biggest global box office debut for a horror movie ever, with only 2017’s It ahead with $190 million.

Domestically, The Conjuring: Last Rites enjoyed a huge $83 million haul, but it went one better internationally, pulling in a whopping $104 million. That’s the largest international opening weekend ever for a horror movie.

The Conjuring: Last Rites, directed by franchise veteran Michael Chaves and produced by franchise architects James Wan and Peter Safran, was also huge at IMAX, securing $14.3 million in what was the biggest IMAX global opening ever for a September release.

The Conjuring Universe, as it’s called, presents a dramatization of the supposed real-life adventures of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The films revolve around their work to help people harassed by spirits. The franchise kicked off with 2013’s The Conjuring, which was quickly followed by spinoff Annabelle a year later. The Conjuring 2 came out in 2016, with Annabelle: Creation keeping the pattern going by launching in 2017.

2018 saw another spinoff, The Nun, before Annabelle Comes Home came out in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It hit theaters. The Nun 2 followed in 2023, and now, two years after that, The Conjuring: Last Rites has been released.

The Conjuring franchise has enjoyed enormous box office success despite mixed reviews from critics. Indeed it’s the highest-grossing horror franchise in history with more than $2.3 billion. IGN’s The Conjuring: Last Rites review returned a 6/10. We said: “After a strong first act, The Conjuring’s intended finale disappoints, keeping its central duo of Ed and Lorraine away from the action for too long.”

Given the success of Last Rites, it seems inevitable that more The Conjuring movies will eventually make their way to theaters. If you want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in The Conjuring: Last Rites, check out IGN’s The Conjuring: Last Rites Ending Explained.

Meanwhile, Zach Cregger’s horror film Weapons is now up to $251.5 million globally after weekend five. Freakier Friday is up to $142.9 million, also after five weekends.

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.

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).