Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has dropped yet another hint that the next-gen Xbox is basically a PC.
A new report this week claimed the next Xbox is a console / PC hybrid that will play PlayStation games released on PC via Steam. That means the likes of Sony Santa Monica’s God of War, Insomniac’s Spider-Man, and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima and pretty much all other PC games will all be playable on the next-gen Xbox in an industry first.
Windows Central reported that while users of the next-gen Xbox can remain inside the Xbox ecosystem if they want, they can exit to Windows, where the console acts like a traditional Windows PC. That means having access to PlayStation games on Steam, and mouse and keyboard games from Blizzard's launcher, Battle.net (World of Warcraft), and Riot's launcher (League of Legends).
Now, in an interview with TBPN, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella responded to questions about the evolution of the company’s gaming business, and in doing so dropped a clear hint at where the company is going.
(Nadella was not asked about the recent Trump Master Chief AI image or the Department of Homeland Security's ICE-promoting Halo image in the interview.)
“Remember, the biggest gaming business is the Windows business,” Nadella began. “To us, gaming on Windows… and of course, Steam has built a massive marketplace on top of it, and they’ve done a very successful job. Now, we’re the largest publisher after the Activision [deal]. Therefore we want to be a fantastic publisher. Similar approach to what we did with Office. We want to be everywhere, in every platform. So we want to make sure, whether it’s consoles, whether it’s the PC, whether it’s mobile, whether it’s cloud gaming, or the TV, we just want to make sure the games are being enjoyed by gamers everywhere.
“Second, we also wanted to do innovative work in the system side on the console and on the PC. It’s kind of funny that people think about the console-PC as two different things. We built the console because we wanted to build a better PC which could then perform for gaming. I kind of want to revisit some of that conventional wisdom.
“But at the end of the day, console has an experience that is unparalleled. It delivers performance that is unparalleled, that pushes I think the system forward. So I’m really looking forward to the next console, the next PC gaming.”
Tuesday's Diet TBPN: our interview with @satyanadella in under 15 minutes.
— TBPN (@tbpn) October 29, 2025
The Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, how Satya thinks about AGI, Microsoft's role in the AI ecosystem, adapting to the AI paradigm shift, Microsoft's gaming business, and more. pic.twitter.com/qXZIlT1pW0
Nadella’s comments here shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise, given they reinforce previous reports and comments from Xbox executives. For example, Xbox president Sarah Bond has called out the recently released — and pricy — ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X handhelds as pointing in the direction Microsoft is taking with its upcoming console. In an interview with Mashable, Bond talked in vague terms about what Microsoft is going for, but did strongly suggest it will be an expensive device.
"The next-gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience," Bond said. "You're starting to see some of the thinking we have in this handheld [ROG Xbox Ally], but I don't want to give it all away."
The company has confirmed — as recently as earlier this month — that it still plans to follow the Xbox Series X and S with a next-gen console, and has announced an agreement with AMD to make it happen.
Microsoft has promised “next-level performance, cutting-edge graphics, breakthrough gameplay, and unmatched compatibility,” and said everything it’s working on will be “fully compatible” with users’ existing Xbox game library.
Prior comments from Bond have backed the console / PC hybrid suggestion up, too. "This is all about building you a gaming platform that's always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device," Bond said.
"That's why we're working closely with the Windows team, to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming."
Nadella later went on to touch on Microsoft’s gaming business model, saying the best way to innovate is to have good margins, because that means the company can fund that innovation.
“But most importantly, the game business model has to be… where we have to invent maybe some new interactive media as well,” Nadella said. “After all, gaming’s competition is not other gaming. Gaming’s competition is short form video. And so if we as an industry don’t continue to innovate — both how we produce, what we produce, how we think about distribution — the economic model, the best way to innovate is to have good margins, because that’s the way you can fund.”
The mention of margins follows a recent report that alleged that Microsoft had pushed Xbox studios to deliver a 30% profit margin — much higher than the industry average.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that Microsoft’s 30% profit margin goal had led to the gaming division’s huge layoffs, canceled projects, controversial price rises, and multiplatform push.
The cuts to Xbox have been deep. Thousands of staff have lost their jobs over several rounds of layoffs. Games such as Rare’s Everwild and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot were canceled after years of development. ZeniMax Online Studios game Project Blackbird was canned, leading to mass layoffs. The Initiative was also shut down. Last year, Microsoft closed Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi rush developer Tango Gameworks.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has increased the price of the Xbox Series X and S consoles, and the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 a month — the latter of which was a hugely controversial move. Microsoft tried to make the jump to $80 video games, but ended up reverting to $70 after fans pushed back on the idea of paying $10 more for Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2. Most expect Microsoft to go to $80 at some point next year.
Bloomberg said the average profit margin in the video game industry is 17-22%. Over the past six years, Xbox has hit 10-20%. To put that 30% target into more context, Sony's PlayStation division achieved a 16% profit margin in Q1 FY25. Bloomberg said Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood enforced the new target in fall 2023 — amid Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.
The upshot now is, according to Bloomberg, that games that are cheap to make or considered more likely to make lots of money may take priority over riskier projects. Xbox’s “floundering” hardware division, meanwhile, may face “a significant rethinking.”
Xbox is set to go up against PlayStation once again, with both Microsoft and Sony reportedly set to release their next-gen consoles in 2027. The next-gen Xbox is taking a different route this time, but the expectation is the PS6 will be a more traditional console, offering genuinely exclusive games — as the PS5 does now.
Speaking of exclusives, Microsoft has well and truly walked away from the entire concept after announcing Halo: Campaign Evolved for PS5 in 2026. Bond had said the idea of a video game exclusive locked to a single storefront has become “antiquated for most people,” so Halo’s jump to what was once considered its bitter rival didn't come as much of a surprise, either.
Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images.
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.
Note: This is a spoiler-free review of Star Wars: Visions Volume 3, which is available to stream now on Disney+.
With this franchise being so beholden to its tropes and so fixated on the Skywalker clan, Star Wars: Visions has always been a much-needed breath of fresh air. What if you invite an international team of animators to play in this sandbox, exploring brand new characters and storylines, and bringing their own outside perspectives to the table? It’s a format that served Visions well in its first two seasons; sadly, the novelty has started to wear off, and Volume 3 proves to be the series’ most uneven outing.
After Volume 2 opened the gates to a truly multinational team of animation studios, Volume 3 returns to the anime-centric approach of the first season. That’s where the new season really stumbles right out of the gate. As fun as “anime Star Wars” sounds on paper, the various episodes in Volume 1 did tend to retread a lot of the same ground and eventually started to blur together. Volume 2 was much more diverse in terms of tone and style; that was where we got the brilliantly goofy “I Am Your Mother” from the inimitable claymation giant, Aardman, and the downright stunning “Sith” from El Guiri.
By comparison, Volume 3 suffers from much the same flaw as Volume 1. Even if each animation studio brings its own sensibility and animation style to the table, the overall variety simply can’t compare to that of Volume 2. Most tend to focus on dramatic clashes between good and evil, leaving little room for the purely comedic approach taken by the aforementioned “I Am Your Mother.” A lot of elements tend to repeat themselves from episode to episode: Expect plenty of emphasis on clashes between Jedi and Sith; expect a lot of orphaned heroes making their way in the galaxy with only a plucky droid and/or alien companion for company; expect mostly stories set during the Imperial era, albeit with zero focus on Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and the rest of the Original Trilogy icons we know so well. It would be nice if the series cast a wider net there, given how massive the Star Wars timeline truly is, but the same could be said for Star Wars in every medium. Lucasfilm still seems loath to venture too far outside the Skywalker saga.
One thing remains true for Visions: This is not a series that particularly rewards binge viewing. That might seem strange given that we’re once again talking about a batch of nine episodes of only 15-20 minutes each, but binging the show only highlights those more repetitive elements. It’s really best to consume each episode slowly and savor its own particular take on the franchise before moving on to the next. That approach doesn’t change the fact that the various studios hit many of the same beats, but it helps.
One benefit of returning the focus to Japanese animation studios is that it gives the series a chance to revisit some of the characters and stories from Volume 1. Three Volume 3 episodes serve as direct sequels; easily the best of these is Kamikaze Douga and ANIMA’s “The Duel: Payback,” which returns to the gritty, black-and-white world of the Ronin (Brian Tee). Once again, this episode ranks among the most visually stunning of the group thanks to its use of texture and limited color. And as one of many episodes to depict a duel between Jedi and Sith, at least this one shakes up the formula by blurring the lines between the two groups and showing us a Jedi poisoned by revenge.
The other two, Production I.G ‘s “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope” and Kinema Citrus Co.’s “Yuko's Treasure," are less satisfying sequels. The former is especially disappointing given that it’s set so far in the future and explores a new phase in the eternal Jedi/Sith rivalry. This sequel fails to build on the original in a meaningful way, but merely follows Kara (Kimiko Glenn) as she becomes stranded following an attack by Jedi Hunters. As for “Yuko’s Treasure,” it has the unenviable task of trying to live up to “The Village Bride” from Vol. 1. The sheer beauty and sense of wonder from the original episode don’t quite come across in this follow-up, suggesting that F (Karen Fukuhara) is better served as a background character rather than the central protagonist she becomes here.
The remaining six episodes are all-new. There’s nothing here I would consider an outright failure, though episodes like Project Studio Q’s “The Song of Four Wings,” WIT Studio’s “The Bounty Hunters,” and Trigger’s “The Smuggler” do suffer the most from that “been there, done that” quality. Again, there are an awful lot of orphans, Jedi, and down-on-their-luck bounty hunters to be found here, and nothing in these episodes leaves me particularly hungry for future sequels.
Ultimately, two episodes emerge to truly show the strength of the Visions premise and prove what's possible when a foreign studio is given free rein to play with the Star Wars toys. The first is Polygon Pictures’ “The Bird of Paradise." Here, Sonoya Mizuno plays a Jedi Padawan blinded in battle and forced to survive in the wilderness with only the Force as her guide. Visually, it’s a gorgeous, colorful feast for the eyes that rivals Volume 2’s “Sith” and makes excellent use of the concept of seeing through the Force. It’s also one of the best to date in terms of exploring the philosophy behind the Jedi and what it means for a student to find enlightenment.
The other is David Production’s “BLACK,” an experience quite unlike anything else in these three seasons. Rendered in director Shinya Ohira’s trademark frenetic, flowing lines, this episode depicts the chaotic final moments in the life of a Stormtrooper. It’s more tone poem than coherent narrative, aided greatly by both the psychedelic visuals and the relentlessly jazzy score by Sakura Fujiwara. This is the bold, experimental approach to Star Wars storytelling that Visions needs more of.
Legendary composer John Williams is teaming up with Steven Spielberg for the iconic director’s currently-untitled 2026 UFO film. The news was revealed by the president of esteemed performing arts institution Juilliard School, Damian Woetzel, who was speaking at an event exploring the work of Williams.
According to music journalist Doug Adams, Woetzel told the crowd Williams is currently in Los Angeles “doing what he does: he is working with Steven Spielberg on the next movie.”
Details are scarce on Spielberg’s mysterious UFO film, which was first discussed back in mid-2024. However, we do know it’s being written by regular Spielberg collaborator, David Koepp, the writer of Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it’s backed by Universal Pictures.
The 2026 film will be the 30th Spielberg film scored by Williams, a figure which does not include his consultancy credit on 2021’s West Side Story, or his score for 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (which was directed by James Mangold).
Williams had previously hinted back in 2022 that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would be his last film, but the composer walked back his comment in 2024, saying, “If a film came along that I was greatly interested in, with a schedule that I could cope with, then I wouldn’t want to rule anything out. Everything is possible.”
John Williams is one of the most celebrated composers in the history of Hollywood. The 93-year-old film music icon has been nominated for 54 Academy Awards, winning five, and is responsible for the music behind Jaws, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, Saving Private Ryan, Superman, E.T., Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and many more.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
For three days only or until supplies last, Woot (owned by Amazon) is offering an incredibly low price on Beats' flagship headphone. You can pick up a pair of Factory Reconditioned Beats Studio Pro wireless noise canceling headphones that includes a one year Amazon warranty for just $99.99 after you apply 20% off code "BEATS20". The coupon code field is on the last step of checkout before placing your order. Currently, the same headphone costs $200 new on Amazon.
Factory Reconditioned with 1 Year Amazon Warranty
Beats is owned by Apple, and the Studio Pro is marketed towards people like myself who want a quality over-ear wireless noise canceling headphone but also don't want to spend $400 plus on the AirPods Max. The Studio Pro offers better audio quality than any other Beats headphone, and excellent active noise cancelation. It carries over a lot of Apple's trademark features like spatial audio with head tracking, one touch pairing, and "Find My" functionality. It also has a Transparency mode so you can listen to the environment around you without removing your headphones.
The Beats Studio Pro has a USB Type-C port for charging. If you want to use the Beats Studio Pro in wired mode, then can connect via 3.5mm audio jack or USB Type-C, which is a rare option nowadays. Most of the time you'll probably listen to your music wirelessly over Bluetooth, and the Studio Pro excels here with up to 40 hours of listening time on a charge. The Studio Pro also folds in for compact transport.
With Black Friday approaching, you might be wondering if there will be a better deal on the Studio Pro next month. These headphones typically drop to $180 new during pretty much every sale event and I expect this to be the standard price during Black Friday. Occasionally, the price has dipped to as low as $160. However, if you're looking for the absolute bottom level price and you don't mind getting a certified refurbished model with a reasonable warranty, I can say with relative certainty that $99.99 will not be beaten for the remainder of the year.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Looking for a desktop charging station that has enough ports and delivers enough power to satisfy your needs? Amazon has discounted the Anker Prime 6-Port 200W USB Desktop Charging Station to under $50 for the first time this year. This charger features both USB Type-A and Type-C ports and can deliver as much as 100W of power per port. I bought this charger myself last year during Black Friday (at a higher price) and highly recommend it.
The Anker Prime charging station features six total ports: two USB Type-A ports and four USB Type-C ports. Each Type-C port can deliver up to 100W and each Type-A port can deliver up to 22.5W. All six ports can be used simultaneously, however charging caps at 200W. The 100W port is powerful enough to charge laptops, tablets, and power hungry gaming handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally X, Steam Deck, or Lenovo Legion Go. The 22.5W ports can handle gaming or PC peripherals like mice, headsets, controllers, and so forth. The USB-A ports can even charge the Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 at their fastest rate (neither consume more than 20W in handheld mode) if your Type-C ports are all used up.
Other practical features include GaN technology (smaller footprint and increased energy efficiency), a heavyset base so that it won't slide around on your desk, and multiple protection protocols. Unlike most charging stations from overseas brands, this model is both UL and CB certified. It comes with a 24-month Anker warranty.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Welcome back to another day and a gaggle of game bargains you'd better not let get away. Between Amazon, Fanatical, and the first-party platform stores, the below deals are a smorgasbord of new releases and cult classics that deserve a place in your life. I’ll try to keep you from going broke, but no promises.
Contents
In retro news, I'm using the backfire from a freshly nicked lowrider to light a 21-candle cake for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a game that needs very little introduction. If you somehow aren’t familiar, though, it was the PS2’s crown jewel that went way bigger than Vice City to offer us a level of freedom and chaos opportunities hitherto undreamt of.
I was there, at launch, with my jaw on the floor. Every gamer mate I knew fell head over heels with its ‘90s, West Coast-inspired narrative, baller soundtrack and new systems that let us hit the gym, get burger chunky, gamble and make CJ proficient with RPG-lite skills. Sure, some of those layers seem clunkily executed in retrospect, but, overall, Rockstar’s staggering ambition delivered one of gaming’s boldest and most beloved sequels.
Aussie birthdays for notable games.
- Final Fantasy VIII (PS) 1999.
- Age of Empires II (PC) 1999.
- Gradius V (PS2) 2004.
- GTA: San Andreas (PS2) 2004.
- Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS2) 2004.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2,XB) 2004.
- Siren: Blood Curse (PS3) 2008.
- AC IV: Black Flag (PS3,X360) 2013.
On Switch, Super Mario Party Jamboree is perfect if you’ve got friends who can still talk to each other after a few rounds of Mario Party chaos. It’s the best entry in years, thanks to mini-games that actually reward skill over blind luck. Meanwhile, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy lets you object your way through courtroom melodrama crafted by Shu Takumi himself. It’s absurd, heartfelt, and occasionally smarter than the average true crime docuseries.
Expiring recent deals
Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.
Over on Xbox Series X, Borderlands 4 is more colourful mayhem from Gearbox’s vault-hunting veterans. It’s the kind of game that dares you to try every build just to see which one makes the biggest explosion. And Warhammer 40K: Darktide is a grimy, gorgeous co-op shooter that finally nails the industrial horror vibe of the franchise. I swear you can smell the promethium through the screen.
On Xbox One, Desperados III remains one of the slickest stealth-tactics games ever made. Mimimi Games gave us a dusty Wild West take on Commandos, and it’s just as brutal and satisfying. Meanwhile, No Man’s Sky continues to pull a full redemption arc. Sean Murray and Hello Games somehow turned a meme into a masterpiece, and the constant updates prove it’s still worth the ride.
Expiring recent deals
Or just invest in an Xbox Card.
On PS5, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 offers Cold War intrigue and nostalgic callbacks to be one of the better entries of recent years. Dragon’s Dogma 2 also earns its spot on any must-play list. Hideaki Itsuno built this world with a depth few RPGs match, and the pawn system is still genius a decade later.
PS4 still holds its own with Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster, the game that introduced half the modern JRPG world to apocalyptic existentialism. Dante from Devil May Cry even pops in for a cameo, because why not. And Inside remains one of the most haunting indie platformers ever made. It says more in silence than most games do in 40 hours.
Expiring recent deals
Or purchase a PS Store Card.
On PC, Hades remains one of the most tightly designed roguelikes in existence. Every run teaches you something new about Greek gods, game balance, or just your own stubbornness. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI also scratches that one-more-turn itch harder than ever. It’s history as a sandbox, and Gandhi’s still as nukey as ever.
Expiring Recent Deals
Or just get a Steam Wallet Card
Lastly, LEGO fans can snag some solid builds this week. The Minecraft Warden Encounter and Fortnite Supply Llama sets are the perfect excuse to justify more shelf clutter. I’ll tell myself it’s for “display purposes,” but we both know I’ll end up playing with them.
Expiring Recent Deals
Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube.
For the first time in several months, there's an OLED gaming monitor priced under $400. Best Buy is currently offering the 27" AOC QD-OLED gaming monitor for just $399.99 with free delivery. Despite the fact this is the least expensive OLED monitor currently available stateside, it seems to have all the features you'd expect in a premium gaming monitor. The last time I posted an OLED monitor this cheap was back in January and this monitor has better specs.
The AOC Q27G41ZDF is a 27" display with a QHD (2560x1440) resolution, which measures out to a respectable pixel density of 108ppi. This is the ideal resolution for this screen size because (1) it's sharp enough and (2) you don't need a super powerful and expensive high end video card to drive it.
The AOC is equipped with Samsung's quantum dot OLED panel with AOC's AGLR anti-glare glass coating. QD OLED panels are considered better than traditional W-OLED panels because they are brighter and offer a wider color gamut. Like all OLED displays, the AOC monitor boasts a near instantaneous 0.03ms response time, near infinite contrast ratio, and true black levels. In terms of pure image quality, it simply can't be beat by any other panel technology.
This monitor also features a fast 240Hz refresh rate. If you pair it with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card or higher, you should be able to hit the 240fps ceiling on older games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Valorant. For newer games like Battlefield 6 or Black Ops 7, you might need to step up to an RTX 5070 Ti or Radeon 9070 XT.
Connectivity wise, the AW2725QF has one DisplayPort and two HDMI ports. As with most OLED monitors, there are no built-in speakers. AOC includes a 3 year warranty that includes 3-year dead pixel coverage, 3-year advance placement coverage, and 1-year one-time accidental damage replacement.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Ahead of the holiday season, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop equipped with the GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card for as low as $2,045 with free delivery. Most RTX 5080 prebuilts you'll find elsewhere, including the more affordable brands you find on Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, are priced closer to $2,400 and up. That's impressive considering Alienware usually commands a higher price premium. Such a system would have cost as much as $3,000 at the beginning of the year, but Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 prices have been trending downwards lately.
This $2,045 configuration system is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F CPU, GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5600MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265F has a max turbo frequency of 5.3GHz with 20 cores and a 36MB L2 cache. It's cooled by a 240mm AIO liquid cooling system. The system is run off a 1,000W power supply.
This system is customizable and the CPU, RAM, and storage can all be upgraded. For example, you can choose the more powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, which boasts a higher clock speed and core count, for an extra $300. Another upgrade is a 2TB SSD (from the stock 1TB) for an extra $50.
Performance-wise, the RTX 5080 is no slouch. It's one of the fastest cards on the market, bested only by the $2,000 RTX 5090 and the discontinued $1,600 RTX 4090. This is a phenomenal card for playing the latest, most demanding games in 4K resolution at high settings and ray tracing enabled. The RTX 5080 supports DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation, which means you can push even more frames out of games that support the technology with minimal visual compromise. Recent games that support it include Doom: The Dark Ages, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Borderlands 4, Stellar Blade, and Battlefield 6. Check out our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 FE review for our hands-on impressions.
Check out more of the best Alienware deals.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy has shed some additional light on his upcoming HBO series about DC Comics’ Green Lantern Corps characters Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), calling it “as much of a buddy cop show as a superhero show.”
According to the series’ official logline. Lanterns “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.”
“Our show is in a lot of ways about replacement—when should someone step aside and when is it time for the next person to take the reins?,” Mundy revealed in a new Men’s Health profile of rising star Aaron Pierre.
Mundy continued: “That push and pull between those two characters is really important. So much of the power that John has is by not taking the bait, understanding that you lose your power if you’re yelling and screaming. That’s what we’re trying to convey: He knows he belongs, so he doesn’t have to overcompensate. There’s a real balance there that’s just innately inside of Aaron. He’s big. He’s an intimidating presence just physically. But there’s a softness to him too. There’s a thoughtfulness. You can’t teach that.”
The Lanterns showrunner added that “Aaron felt a responsibility, especially as a Black man playing this particular role, to make sure he really understood him and brought him to life. … I think fans will see the reverence he has for it, and that goes a long way.”
Pierre told the magazine that, for him, John Stewart “just radiates strength and fortitude. … That hunger to be the best version of yourself, which also holds you accountable when you’re not.”
Lanterns won’t be Pierre’s first brush with comic book adaptations. He was among the cast of the SyFy television series Krypton and, according to James Gunn, Pierre was up for the role of Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Then at one point in the movie’s tortured production history, Pierre was cast in Marvel’s Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali. That project and his participation in it eventually fell apart, something that still disappoints the English actor.
“I remember being cast in Blade and feeling elated. But something I learned during that time was that until you step foot on the set, you haven’t commenced work,” Pierre told Men’s Health. “It just took a different creative direction, and I was no longer a part of it. You have to accept that.”
Lanterns will premiere on HBO sometime next year.
Baseus recently released a new "ultra mini" variant of its Picogo MagSafe power banks, and it certainly lives up to its name. Right now you can save 46% off the 5,000mAh Qi2-certified model when you apply coupon code "LZEYJ4MP" in cart, dropping the price to just $26.99 with free shipping. This is compatible with the Apple iPhone 17, Samsung Galaxy S25, and more. Baseus makes solid power banks and I recommend them as a less expensive alternative to Anker.
The Baseus Picogo Ultra Mini 5,000mAh power bank measures 3.4" by 2.3", about the size of a standard credit card. It's about 0.5" thick making it one of the thinnest MagSafe chargers out there, however it will still add noticeably to the overall dimensions of your phone. It's also very lightweight, coming in at just under 5 ounches. There's also a handy little kickstand so you can properly angle your phone while setting it down to watch videos.
This model has been updated with the newer Qi2/MagSafe standard, which means it can deliver up to 15W of wireless charging, double the rate of the first generation's 7.5W of inductive charging. When you need even faster charging, a USB Type-C port offers up to 20W of Power Delivery.
Macworld lists these power consumption specs (in Whr) for the iPhone 16:
A 5,000mAh power bank carries an 18.5Whr capacity. An 80% power efficiency rating (which is about standard for power banks) gives you about 15Whr of available charge. That means this power bank will extend your iPhone 16 Plus or Pro Max battery life by up to 80% and the iPhone 16/Pro by over 100%.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
It's hard to imagine what first-person shooters would be like today, if they were to exist at all, without the original DOOM, released back on December 10, 1993, for MS-DOS. A lone super soldier, the legendary Doom Guy, fending off the hordes of demons from hell is one of the defining images of PC gaming, and the series continues to shock and amaze fans to this day with every new gory entry. Now, Modiphius Entertainment is bringing DOOM to the tabletop with the upcoming Doom Arena Board Game, now on Kickstarter, and I had a chance to get some time with a prototype to see just how well I could rip and tear in my dining room.
While Doom Arena isn't the first cardboard adaptation of the series, this latest rendition is a bloodbath contest between one player controlling Doom Guy and the other controlling the demons. Taking place in – you guessed it, an arena – the two players maneuver their plastic forces around the hexagon grid-based warzone, competing to see who can dish out the most pain.
Each point of damage done to an opponent earns you blood, which serves as a victory point. The winner is whoever comes out ahead in two out of the three rounds by earning the most blood, with each round consisting of six turns each for both sides. Between rounds, both Doom Guy and the Demons can upgrade their arsenals. Doom Guy gets new weapons and armor, while the Demons swap out weaker enemies for hartier ones like Pinky, Cacodemons, or the mighty Cyberdemon.
Doom Arena is one of those games that fits great as a filler between some heavier ones during a game day, or when you just want to have some fun while sipping a cold one and munching on some snacks. The gameplay is a slick dice-chucker where the strategy takes a back seat to running in guns blazing and seeing how much pain you unleash, which is very reminiscent of its source material. The only real "strategy" I found myself thinking about is what upgrades I was going to spend my resources on between rounds.
I appreciate the simpler ruleset behind Doom Arena, because you can explain the rules to friends pretty quickly and be rolling dice shortly after. That being said, I wouldn't complain if there were a smidgen more depth to be found. To be fair, the prototype I had access to and a work-in-progress ruleset included only two-player game modes, whereas the final game will be playable with 2-4 players, so it's possible the additional depth I am hoping for will be found in the final rules and other game modes. On the topic of game modes, I will say that having official rules for starting with more upgrades is smart, and makes for a ton of chaotic fun, and I could see some great matches happen by adopting a pick/counter-pick approach.
The version of Doom Arena that I played featured miniatures showcasing the classic looks of Doom Guy and demons that players of the original game from the '90s will recognize. But those who jumped on the chainsaw wagon in more recent decades will have a version for them, too. Modiphius is producing a mechanically identical version that instead has arenas, models, and weapons pulled from the most recent Doom: The Dark Ages, with Doom Guy replaced by the menacing Doom Slayer and demons including the Mancubus, Imps, Imp Stalkers, Hell and Battle Knights, Pinky Rider, Arachnotron, and Soldiers. And for folks who may be lacking in storage space, Modiphius will also offer a version that replaces the plastic miniatures with acrylic standees, shrinking the box size and lowering the cost.
When I first heard the announcement that Modiphius was designing a new Doom board game, my mind immediately went to images of playing as Doom Guy, exploring corridors, finding keys to unlock doors, that eventually would lead to a fight with a big scary demon. Something more akin to say a Betrayal at House on the Hill, Cthulu: Death May Die, or Zombicide. I still would love a Doom game like that, but I can't deny that Doom Arena captures the spirit of these games splendidly.
This is a series about killing as many things as fast as possible, and Arena delivers on that premise in an exciting and digestible package. Even playing dice with this WIP build led to tense moments where I had to hold my breath as I rolled my dice, or giant sighs of relief as my demons avoided being brutally dismembered by a chainsaw. I eagerly look forward to seeing what sort of additional elements or add-ons will be available to play around with and what sort of other game modes will ship in the final release that use three and four players. With the Doom Arena Board Game, Modphius looks to deliver a box that fans of both the video games and board games in general can enjoy, and I am counting down the days until I can rev up my chainsaw again and take it to some demons again.
Doom the Arena Board Game’s campaign runs until November 21, 2025 with an expected delivery date of October 2026.
Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.
The Secretlab Magnus Evo is now available to purchase, and this kitted-out premium desk is one of the best options around for gaming enthusiasts. That is, of course, if you're prepared to dish out its equally premium asking price of $749..
The Magnus Evo makes a killer case for its high cost by getting all of the basics right — it's sturdy and well-made — while also offering beautifully integrated controls for adjusting height, a power supply column and magnetic cable management tray that hide away ugly cords, and a clean visual style that helps it effortlessly blend into any work or gaming setup.
These features make the Magnus Evo among the best gaming desks available right now. In our IGN review, we said, "The Secretlab Magnus Evo is a stylish, smartly-built gaming desk that sets itself apart with genuinely useful PC-focused features, good build quality, and an intuitive assembly process."
If this high-end desk sounds up your alley, you can buy the Magnus Evo from the official Secretlab website. The standard size (52.9 x 25.2) is $749, while the XL version (70 x 25.2) bumps things up a notch to $849.
It's worth noting that, if you have the room to accommodate a 70-inch desk, the XL provides a substantial boost to space, which can be particularly useful for setups sporting PC towers and larger monitors. For only $100 more, it can potentially save you from having to upgrade your desk again down the line if you ever need more surface space.
Additionally, the above prices for the Magnus Evo on the Secretlab website don't include any accessories you may want to add to your purchase. While it comes with the magnetic drop-down cable management tray, other options like Secretlabs' monitor arm, protective floor mat, or magnetic headphone hanger can add a bit of extra utility to your setup while maintaining the same sleek, black aesthetic as the Magnus Evo.
If the Magnus Evo doesn't tickle your fancy, you can always check out IGN's best gaming desks of 2025 to see what other options are available. There's a desk out there for everyone, after all.
Duke Nukem fans, here is something special for you today. An unofficial PC port of the Nintendo 64 exclusive Duke Nukem game, Duke Nukem Zero Hour, has just been released. For the first time, PC gamers can enjoy this third-person Duke Nukem game on their PC. Duke Nukem Zero Hour: Recompiled is a project that … Continue reading Duke Nukem Zero Hour Unofficial PC Port Released →
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Raw Fury and Lunar Software have announced that their first-person sci-fi survival horror game, ROUTINE, will be released on December 4th. To celebrate this announcement, the teams shared a new trailer that you can find below. ROUTINE is set on an abandoned lunar base designed around an 80s vision of the future. In this game, … Continue reading ROUTINE, first-person sci-fi survival horror game, will be released on December 4th →
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EA and DICE have just released a free-to-play battle royale mode for Battlefield 6, called Battlefield REDSEC. Battlefield REDSEC allows 100 players to duke it out in one big map. Powered by Frostbite Engine, I’ve decided to test this new mode on my main gaming PC. So, let’s dive in. For our benchmarks, I used … Continue reading Battlefield REDSEC Benchmarks & PC Performance Analysis →
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The new American Psycho movie won’t gender-swap its serial killer protagonist as a recent report claimed.
In both American Psycho the book and the 2000 movie, the killer is Patrick Bateman, played in the earlier film adaptation by Christian Bale in one of his best films.
Citing “sources close to the project”, Deadline shot down The Sun’s report that Margot Robbie would star in director Luca Guadagnino‘s as the film’s titular murderer.
The Sun had claimed the “novel and the film were so controversial and the people working on the remake wanted to twist the narrative by having a female actress take on the lead of Bateman. … and by having a female killer, it puts a different spin on the crimes.”
If you’re interested in a female-led American Psycho then there’s always American Psycho II: All American Girl, a direct-to-video sequel starring Mila Kunis as a killer inspired by Patrick Bateman. The film made our list of the Top 10 movie sequels that should never have existed.
This isn’t the first proposed gender-swapped movie that Margot Robbie has been linked with. The Barbie and Suicide Squad star was previously up for a reboot of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
No official word yet on who will play Patrick Bateman in the new movie although past reports have claimed that Austin Butler is in the mix.
Guadagnino‘s American Psycho won’t be a remake of director Mary Harron’s movie but rather a more faithful adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel.
Scott Z. Burns is scripting the new film, which will be released by Lionsgate. It will be produced by Frenesy Films and executive produced by Sam Pressman.
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