The Game Awards gave us a new trailer for The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin with a look at exploration and co-op gameplay, as well as a possible hint at the return of a fan-favorite character.

For those who aren’t already aware, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is an open-world action RPG that takes place in Britannia from the world of The Seven Deadly Sins manga and anime. It stars Tristan, prince of Liones, in a multiverse narrative that tells its own original story. Tristan finds a pendant called the Book of Stars that has the power to connect timelines but also awakens a new darkness that must be defeated.

It being a new story involving alternate timelines means it can feature just about any character or enemy from the manga and anime series. And we got a taste of that in this trailer, which included a brief tease of Escanor, the beloved member of the titular Seven Deadly Sins. Fans of the series know all about him and what happens to him, but the latest trailer includes a brief glimpse of his distinctive Lion Sin of Pride tattoo, possibly hinting that he’s back to show off his daylight-powered strength.

While Escanor is the most notable character in the trailer, he’s far from the only familiar face. We see several well-known characters — including Meliodas, Elizabeth, and Diane (more on her in a minute) — fighting alongside a player-controlled party against three massive bosses, giving us our most detailed look yet at the size and scope of multiplayer battles.

We’ve known for a while that you can have up to four characters on your team at a time and can switch between them on the fly with one button press. But in the trailer’s battle against the Ancient Dragon, you can tell from the UI that that’s still the case even while the player is joined by friends in co-op.

So even when fighting multiplayer battles, you’ll still be able to swap between your full team. And speaking of the UI, you can also see that each character has an elemental-aspected ultimate ability that lights up when it’s available to use, even if that character isn’t currently on the field, helping you plan your strategy and when to switch characters.

We also get a look at a multiplayer battle against a boss named Warden Orgot. And in the cases of both the warden and dragon, you can get a sense of the power and range of some of their abilities. Red zones show where an AoE attack will land, and some of those zones take up a massive amount of space, so you’re clearly going to have to stay on your toes during these chaotic battles.

The final boss battle featured in the trailer was only shown briefly, but it’s still notable because of who it is: a giant version of Diane. And that fight is accompanied by quest text that says “Episode 8: Diane on a Rampage.” So … what exactly is going on there? I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out. The Ancient Dragon, Warden Orgot, and Giant Diane are all new bosses that weren’t featured in the game’s recent closed beta test, so even people who got to play the game already have something to get excited about.

The rest of the trailer showed that fighting giant bosses isn’t the only thing you can do with your friends. We got a glimpse of co-op exploration, both in a dungeon and in the open world, which included seeing everyone in the party riding flying mounts through the air together. So the implication is you’ll have the freedom to travel with your friends throughout the world.

The new trailer is just the latest to be featured at some of gaming’s biggest events this year. There have been trailers or playable builds at Summer Game Fest in June, gamescom in August, Tokyo Game Show in September, G-STAR 2025 in November, and now The Game Awards.

It’s all been building up momentum toward the worldwide January 28, 2026 release date on PC, PlayStation 5, iOS, and Android. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is free-to-play with cross-play across all platforms, and you can pre-register right now on mobile or by using your email.

The heroes in your party will be recruited using gacha mechanics, but if you pre-register through Google Play or the App Store you’ll be guaranteed recruitment of Tioreh, who is new to the series. You’ll also get draw tickets, hero upgrade materials, and healing dishes, which will help give you a head start at the beginning of the game. If you use your e-mail to pre-register on the official website, you’ll get the Skyborne Gale Duel Swords weapon, weapon upgrade materials, and gold.

Console and PC players can also wishlist the game on PS5 or Steam now. To keep up with the latest news and updates, you can follow the game on its official Discord, Twitter, and YouTube channels.

Season two of the Fallout TV show is getting ready to drop next week, and if its return has you itching to jump back into the games, Microsoft can set you up with the proper gear for a replay. The company is releasing a brand new Pip-Boy Edition Xbox wireless controller, which is now available to preorder at both Amazon and at the Microsoft Store for $82.97.

Thankfully, you won't have to wait too long to have it in your hands. Microsoft is set to release the controller on December 16, the day before the return of the Fallout TV show on December 17, while Amazon is releasing it a little bit later on January 7, 2026. Head to the links below to preorder this fun new controller for your next journey to the Wasteland.

Preorder Xbox Fallout Pip-Boy Edition Controller

Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro has discussed his now-cancelled plans for the DC universe, which included two years of work on a Justice League Dark screenplay, and the suggestion he could have helmed Superman movie Man of Steel.

Speaking on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, del Toro was open with his ideas for Justice League Dark, which he worked on between 2013 and 2015. The director has spoken in the past about his plans to feature John Constantine, Swamp Thing, The Spectre and Deadman in the team-up movie, which at one point would have been part of the now-defunct DC Extended Universe.

Now, del Toro has revealed more about the project — which would have featured Constantine as its star, and seen his crew call on a certain Bruce Wayne for backup.

It’s hard to believe at this point but it’s true: Euphoria is coming back for Season 3, and HBO Max has released the first footage from the upcoming return.

In the sneak peek — which is part of HBO Max's overall 2026 teaser — Zendaya’s character, Rue Bennett, can be seen dancing with a group of women before kneeling down in a church pew and looking up at the altar. “There’s no turning back,” she says in the clip. Next, we see her running for dear life, turning her head to look behind her for someone or something on her tail (knowing Rue, this is probably drug money related).

Hard launching 2026.

See what's coming to HBO Max next year. pic.twitter.com/XzfKDFLzfK

— HBO Max (@hbomax) December 12, 2025

From there, we see a car driving recklessly in the desert before it cuts to Lexi (Maude Apatow) shmoozing with a table full of men at a fancy party, Maddy (Alexa Demie) putting on makeup, Nate (Jacob Elordi) dancing in front of a living room TV with his button-down shirt open, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) beaming in an animal costume, and Jules (Hunter Schaefer) sighing and leaning her head back on a chair. “A few years after high school, I don’t know if life was exactly what I wished,” Rue explains over the visuals.

Then, we see Rue and a new character driving recklessly once again in that aforementioned car. In a separate shot, the new character — a man in a cowboy hat who is sitting between two beautiful women — tells Rue, “You walk up into my house and you don’t even introduce yourself.” It seems like he's probably a bad dude, but who's to say just yet.

There’s definitely going to be a bit of a time jump here — and frankly, how could there not be with how much time it’s taken to produce Season 3, over four years since Season 2 premiered — so it’ll be interesting to see how the show tackles that inevitability, especially considering how many new storylines and characters it’s going to give us. It’s a lot, so we’re curious to see if the show falters or continues to fly.

Season 3 of the once beloved series doesn’t yet have an exact release date but, as of now, it will be arriving in April of next year.

Image credit: HBO Max.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

Gainax, the animation studio behind influential anime including Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, and Gurren Lagann, officially shut down on December 10, 2025. This was revealed by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno in a statement published on the website of his company Studio Khara, in which the anime director shared his personal thoughts on what he described as a “truly disappointing end” to Gainax’s “nearly 42 years’ of history.”

Anno was one of a group of university students who founded Gainax back in the early 1980s. The company would experience huge success with 1995’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, which became popular worldwide. Evangelion suddenly brought in massive profits for Gainax, however money management issues followed, with then-Gainax president Takeshi Sawamura arrested for tax fraud in 1999. A series of other scandals followed, including Gainax selling off rights to anime series without permission, non-repayment of loans, unpaid royalties, and Gainax representative director Tomohiro Maki’s arrest for sexual harassment of a teenage voice actress in 2019 (Kyodo News). In July 2024, Gainax filed for bankruptcy, which led to the company being dissolved this December.

Although Anno himself left Gainax in 2007 to found his own company Studio Khara, Khara would become Gainax’s largest creditor. Speaking about Gainax’s dissolution in his recent statement, Anno said: “as one of the people who remained there for over 20 years after the company’s founding and remained a shareholder until today, it’s a truly disappointing end, but I accept it quietly.”

In his statement, Anno thanked all of the companies and staff who, since Maki’s 2019 arrest, had worked hard for nearly six years on Gainax’s liquidation. “Thanks to their cooperation, we were able to safely return the rights to each work, as well as various production materials and documents to their rightful owners via proper procedures,” Anno said.

However, Anno added that the investigation into Gainax revealed “a lack of respect” for production materials, creations, and staff. “After we (Studio Khara) had provided an emergency loan during Gainax’s financial distress, we witnessed firsthand Gainax's lack of integrity regarding repayment," he said. He also alleged that during the investigation, he learned of various misrepresentations made by former Fukushima Gainax representative director Yoshinori Asao, as well as Hiroyuki Yamaga and Yasuhiro Takeda, whom “I had thought were my friends since our university days.” Anno said he learned that Yamaga, who was president of Gainax at the time, allegedly made hostile statements against Studio Khara, tried to come up with ways to avoid repayment of Khara’s loan, and told Gainax employees to say he was in hospital whenever anyone from Studio Khara called.

Anno is referring to a loan of 100 million yen (approx. $641,000) that Gainax’s Yasuhiro Takeda asked Anno’s Studio Khara for in 2014 to prevent Gainax from going under. However, not only did Gainax not pay back the loan as agreed, it apparently also sold off the rights to Gunbuster, Diebuster, and FLCL without permission from the creators and began to sell off production materials (storyboards etc.) of past works to raise money. As reported by Anime News Network, Anno said at the time: “I could have shrugged off the loan that never got repaid, but we were anxious to preserve the production materials we had poured blood, sweat, and tears into.” Anno’s Studio Khara sued Gainax for 100 million yen in 2016, winning the case. In the recent statement, Anno also mentioned that Studio Khara filed a separate lawsuit in 2023 regarding issues with rights transfers and a lack of transparency on Gainax’s part.

“I have come to realize that we can never return to the relationship we once had, and I feel deep disappointment from the bottom of my heart,” Anno said of the former university friends with whom he founded Gainax.

However, Anno finished by thanking one university friend. Yasuhiro Kamimura was Gainax’s latest representative director, and Anno expressed gratitude to him for dealing with the fallout left by the former management. The Evangelion director praised Kamimura for sincerely dealing with creditors and working hard to prevent any losses of rights or materials.

Image credit: Netflix.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Our first glimpse at footage from DC Studios series Lanterns has arrived, featuring Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler and Krypton's Aaron Pierre as members of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps.

The clip, seemingly part of a longer showreel of upcoming series headed to HBO Max, offers our initial look at Chandler and Pierre's characters following an earlier photo tease back in February of this year.

Lanterns has been pitched as a buddy cop detective drama with similarities to Slow Horses and True Detective, all set within James Gunn's broader DC universe that was kickstarted this summer by blockbuster movie Superman and will continue next year with Supergirl.

First teaser for ‘LANTERNS’.

Releasing in 2026 on HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/DXJuYNtrXH

— DC Film News (@DCFilmNews) December 12, 2025

This series sees Green Lantern Corps veteran Hal Jordan (Chandler) paired with younger hero John Stewart (Pierre) in a "dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland." Today's trailer sees the two space cops squabbling in a car, before it gets driven off of a cliff. It's a dramatic moment, though it also seems like both of them will be fine.

According to DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran, speaking this week during an interview with CBR, Lanterns is now set to launch in the "late summer" of 2026, having previously been expected early next year.

"It was about when it made sense for it to be released, so [HBO Max] could get the right lead in, the right promotion," Safran said. "Because it's an important show for everybody, and the show is going to be great. It was about the right timing, so it's going to be... it's late summer. But there's a reason for it."

Intriguingly, this pushes Lanterns' expected arrival window after the launch of Supergirl, which is set to arrive in theaters on June 26, 2026. Yesterday brought a first trailer for that DCU project, too, showing Milly Alcock's hungover Kara Zor-El getting into trouble alongside her super canine sidekick Crypto.

As for how Lanterns will fit into the wider DCU, it has already been confirmed that the series will see the return of fellow Green Lantern Corps member Guy Gardner — once again played by Nathan Fillion, and introduce the villainous Sinestro, played by Ulrich Thomsen.

Image credit: HBO

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

165 workers at id Software, the studio behind the Doom and Quake franchises, have elected to unionize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in yet another wall-to-wall developer union within Microsoft.

The new union encompasses developers, artists, programmers, and other disciplines, and has been formally recognized by Microsoft in accordance with its pledge to remain "neutral" with regard to unions within its ranks and voluntarily recognize any that emerge. Union members suggest issues of concern for the group include the instability of the games industry writ large, as well as the necessity of remote work.

“I’m very proud to be a part of this effort to organize our studio, to have a voice in decisions that directly affect myself and my coworkers,” said senior VFX artist and organizing committee member Caroline Pierrot. “In an industry that has proven to be very unstable over the last few years, more unions means more power to the workers and a real shot at shaping the future of the industry for the better."

Microsoft has seen a cascade of new unions formed at its game studios in recent years, a large number of which have been under its most recent acquisition, Activision Blizzard. Diablo developers unionized this past August, as did Blizzard's story and franchise development team, the entire World of Warcraft team unionized last year, and the Overwatch developers followed in May of this year. Meanwhile, Raven Software workers won their first contract earlier this year, Zenimax QA workers won a contract in May, and Bethesda's union is still in active negotiations.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Amazon has pulled its AI-powered Fallout Season 1 recap after fans noticed it made significant errors ahead of the launch of Season 2.

Prime Video began testing generative AI recaps last month for some of its shows, including Fallout. The idea is the AI will look at a show’s plot points then sum it all up in a short video alongside AI voiceover and music. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Amazon is betting AI can identify key plot points for a series to be synchronized with a voiceover narration and dialogue snippets.”

“Video Recaps marks a groundbreaking application of generative AI for streaming,” VP of technology at Prime Video, Gérard Medioni, explained in a statement. “This first-of-its-kind feature demonstrates Prime Video’s ongoing commitment to innovation and making the viewing experience more accessible and enjoyable for customers.”

But as reported by GamesRadar, fans soon discovered it did a poor job on Fallout. For example, Amazon’s AI appeared to have been fooled by Season 1’s flashback scenes, which it said were set in 1950s America via a monotone text-to-speech-sounding voice. Of course, as all Fallout fans know, those flashback scenes take place in a retro futuristic 2077 — the year the bombs fell.

There are further mistakes, including the narrator saying Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul gives Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean a choice to “die or leave with him” while on her quest to find her villainous father, Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank, in New Vegas (the setting of Season 2) This makes it sound like The Ghoul planned to kill Lucy if she didn’t go along with him, but in the actual show it’s more a choice of staying or leaving.

The Verge reports the Fallout recap alongside those for other shows no longer appear on a series’ detail page when you navigate to the next season. Prime Video has yet to comment.

It’s an embarrassing error for Amazon, which will be keen to avoid any negative headlines in the run up to the hotly anticipated launch of Fallout Season 2. But it’s not the first time the megacorp has raised eyebrows for its corner-cutting use of AI. Earlier this month, Amazon removed an English dub track that featured AI voices from the anime series Banana Fish after a fan backlash.

We've got plenty more on Fallout, including a Season 1 recap of our own, below.

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.