The studio responsible for The Simpsons: Hit & Run and Prototype, Radical Entertainment, appears to be back under a new name: New Radical Games.

An amalgamation of "Radical Entertainment plus Hothead Games," the studio's new website says, "it all started with Radical Entertainment back in 1991. Fast forward to 2025 and we have amassed invaluable experience along the way. We know how to capture the essence of world-class intellectual properties, and deliver licensed games that delight fans everywhere."

Vancouver-based Radical was bought by Activision in 2008, and was shuttered little more than five years later after living out its final years as a Destiny support studio. Hothead — also based in Vancouver — went bankrupt in 2024. The new studio is led by CEO Ian Wilkinson, who co-founded Radical, and COO Tim Bennison, who served as chief operating officer at Capcom's Vancouver studio and had previously worked at Radical, too, as executive producer and VP technology.

News of the new studio from the people who brought us games like Prototype, Scarface: The World Is Yours, and The Simpsons: Hit & Run has clearly excited fans, with many now crossing their fingers that the new outfit could be set on bringing those dormant IPs back to life.

"I LITERALLY JUST TALKED ABOUT THIS IN A THREAD ABOUT WHAT DEV STUDIOS WE WOULD REVIVE IF WE WERE RICH A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO!! HOLY S***!! I WILLED THIS INTO EXISTENCE!! I'M A GOD!!" exclaimed one very excitable fan.

"A few months ago, rumors started going around about a Prototype remaster. Today, Radical games has seemingly relaunched and their website prominently displays their older titles including Prototype and Simpsons Hit & Run," teased another.

Late last year, IGN reported that fans thought they'd uncovered proof that 2009 action game Prototype could be getting a new lease of life. While the game has mostly remained dormant on Steam since its release 16 years ago, eagle-eyed fans spotted a flurry of updates behind the scenes via SteamDB, as well as a revealing datamine effort that has discovered a mysterious change to the game's credits that adds in remaster studio, Iron Galaxy, and a curious reference to Ubisoft Connect.

That's not all, though. "So one of the OG modders for the game data mined the recent update and has found a lot of interesting things," a fan explained on the game's subreddit. "For Prototype 1, they have added some test maps and quite a few new names in the credits. There might be some hope for a remaster after all."

This isn't, of course, evidence that a remaster is actually happening — right now, we're purely going on vibes and crossed fingers — but New Radical must have been established to work on something, so keep those fingers crossed!

Calls for an official Simpsons: Hit and Run remake have similarly cropped up from time to time in the 20+ years since the original’s release, but it seems an unlikely project. In 2021 we spoke to Simpsons writer Matt Selman who said that while he "would love to see a remastered version of [Simpsons Hit & Run]", it would be "a complicated corporate octopus to try to make that happen."

For more, find out exactly where we placed The Simpsons: Hit & Run in our rundown of the best, worst, and weirdest Simpsons games.

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.

Call of Duty publisher Activision has issued a rare, if brief, comment to seemingly deny a claim it planned to launch a standalone Zombies game.

Earlier this week, Call of Duty leaker TheGhostofHope stated on social media that Activision was prepping two separate Call of Duty games for the launch of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox console (currently expected to launch in 2027 at the earliest).

The claim described these two launches as "a traditional Call of Duty multiplayer and a standalone Zombies title presumably developed by Treyarch," and likened their release to when "Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered where [sic] both released together."

That leak was then picked up by gaming blog Dexerto, to which Activision has now responded using its official Call of Duty social media account: "The rumor factory working overtime," Activision wrote. "This ain't it."

Activision typically does not respond to rumors or speculation, making this intervention notable. That said, the vague nature of the denial makes it unclear exactly which parts of the original claim Activision is now saying are untrue, or whether some element of this claim was true until plans ultimately changed.

On social media, Call of Duty's response comes specifically in reply to a thread of tweets discussing the standalone Zombies title, and the claim it was being prepped as a launch title for Microsoft's next console.

The original rumor suggested that Microsoft's shifting release plans for its next Xbox hardware had meant that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, the franchise's most anticipated upcoming release, would no longer be a launch title for the next-gen Xbox, as apparently had been planned. While not yet officially confirmed, Modern Warfare 4 is expected by fans to be this year's Call of Duty entry — but there's absolutely no suggestion that Microsoft is planning to launch new consoles this year.

Still, some kind of shakeup to Call of Duty's forthcoming release schedule is expected, following Activision's recent pledge to make significant changes to the franchise following the underperformance of Black Ops 7. The publisher has said it will never release back to back games in the same sub-brand (Modern Warfare, Black Ops) again, meaning it will likely need to come up with other options if it continues with an annual release schedule.

As for Microsoft's plans for new consoles, the company has confirmed it has fresh hardware in the works on several occaisons. In 2024, former Xbox president Sarah Bond said Microsoft was "moving full speed ahead on our next generation hardware, focused on delivering the biggest technological leap ever in a generation." A year later, the company publicly confirmed its partnership with AMD on its next-generation Xbox project. But a recent report suggested that 2027 was now a conservative estimate for the company's new hardware — which instead could now arrive later.

Sony is also reportedly considering delaying the launch of PlayStation 6 to 2028, or potentially even later, due to the ongoing AI-fueled chip crisis.

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

Amazon Games has canned its failed battle royale King of Meat, following its dismal Steam performance that only ever saw a few hundred people playing.

Although the game only released in October — that's just four months ago — developer Glowmade has confirmed the game will be formally sunsetted on April 9, 2026, after which time it will no longer be playable. All players are invited to apply for a refund via the store of the platform they bought it on (Steam, PlayStation Store, etc.), including any premium currency — called Stamps in this case — purchased, too.

Amazon had reportedly aimed for a player count in the hundreds of thousands for King of Meat, which it spent big on promoting via The Game Awards and a collaboration with YouTube star MrBeast.

"Despite the creativity and innovation Glowmade brought to King of Meat, the game has unfortunately not found the audience we hoped for," the team wrote. "As a result, we have made the difficult decision to conclude our investment in the game, and King of Meat's servers will close on April 9, 2026. Players will be able to access and play all existing content until then, so we encourage you to enjoy your remaining time in the game with your fellow Contenders.

"We want to sincerely thank every player who supported King of Meat and the wonderful community that formed around it. Your enthusiasm, imagination, and feedback have meant the world to us and to the team at Glowmade. We're grateful for Glowmade’ s partnership and passion throughout this journey and wish them continued success in the future."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the team stressed that, from this point on, there are no further content updates, balance changes, or bug fixes planned for King of Meat during this sunset period, and the game — and the currency for it — can no longer be purchased.

It follows the similarly brutal action of Riot Games last week when, less than a month after the launch of its free-to-play 2v2 tag-team fighting game, 2XKO, Riot announced it was scaling back its development team. Admitting the news was "difficult to share," producer Tom Cannon said that despite securing a "passionate core audience," the new game "hasn't reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term."

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.

Pokémon celebrates its 30th birthday this week and, as part of the celebrations, the brand has just revealed an astonishing 1025 variations of its 30th anniversary logo. Each design features a different creature peeking out of a Pokéball — and every single Pokémon species gets its moment to shine.

The official Japanese Pokémon account on X/Twitter is currently running a social media campaign. If you click the image in the post below and retweet it, you will receive one of the logos. Pokémon hunting Twitter users have until March 9 to 'catch' their Pokémon logo.

大阪なんば駅 pic.twitter.com/2ghHZc4192

— adi (@redlaysdedo) February 23, 2026

The logos can also be hunted down in five major cities across Japan. Large digital signboards that cycle through all the logos can be found in prominent locations, including Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station and Osaka’s Namba Station. The signboards feature all of the different logos arranged in a color spectrum on a white background.

The colors of each logo match the colors and elements of their respective Pokémon. Of course, well-known Pokémon like Pikachu, Charizard and Bulbasaur have their own logos, but newer and more obscure Pokémon are also being shown love, such as Paradox Pokémon Iron Bundle and the matcha-themed Poltchageist. Pokemon fansite Serebii.net has been cataloging the logo variations with help from the community.

Various releases to mark three decades of the game, anime and TCG franchise are also on the way. The original FireRed and LeafGreen are getting rereleased on Nintendo Switch on February 27th (the date on which the games were first launched in Japan back in 1996) — though there has been some controversy over their launch method and pricing, plus Pokémon Home compatibility.

Stateside, this month’s TIME Magazine has a special feature on Pokémon, complete with different cover variations. The Pokémon Trading Card Game is getting the First Partner Illustration Collection - Series 1, out on March 20th. These nostalgic cards celebrate the bond between the Trainer and their starter Pokémon. TCG will also be getting Perfect Order on March 27, a new expansion focusing on Pokémon from the Legends: Z-A game.

Over in Japan, the first permanent Pokémon theme park opened on February 5th — PokéPark Kanto (more about that here). As for new games, Pokémon Pokopia, the franchise’s first ever cozy farming/life sim, is coming to Switch 2 on March 5 — check out our video report on playing the preview version.

Expect to hear much more about the future of Pokémon later this week with the company's annual announcement broadcast Pokémon Presents, which is set to air this Friday, February 27 at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK.

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.

Ahead of his big debut in Avengers: Doomsday as Doctor Doom, Academy Award-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. has officially been named the godparent of the Disney Adventure, Disney Cruise Line's newest and largest ship that is set to make its maiden voyage next month.

The Disney Adventure will first sail out of its home port in Singapore on March 10, and part of Downey Jr.'s responsibilities will be to "christen the ship, vowing to bring it a little luck and a lot of love." The godparent tradition is a huge one that goes back hundreds of years.

"It’s impossible to describe the majesty of the Adventure, and to be its godparent is an honor. As the largest ship in the Disney fleet, a gargantuan blessing must be bestowed … I’ll do my darndest,” Downey said.

“Our new ship continues Disney Cruise Line’s tradition of bringing great stories to life at sea, and we are honored that Robert Downey Jr., who has guided audiences through unforgettable Marvel stories, is the official godparent for the Disney Adventure,” added Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences and incoming Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.

Downey Jr. being the ship's godparent is quite fitting, as there will be tons of Marvel-themed activities for guests to enjoy, including Tony Starks' Ironcycle Test Run. Alongside being inspired by the character Downey Jr. played in the MCU, it will be the first roller coaster on a Disney Cruise Line ship and the longest of its kind at sea.

There will also be an 'Avengers Assemble!' live stage production in the open-air Disney Imagination Garden area, and a Marvel WEB Workshop inside Disney's Oceanner Club for young recruits to "try out new Super Hero suit prototypes and conduct training simulations using top-secret Avengers technology."

It's that time of year: filing your tax return. It's a good day for people who overpay their taxes throughout the year and receive a nice fat check in return. It's not so good of a day for people who have claimed too many exemptions. Whatever the case, most Americans will need to file a tax return no later than April 15 and that's just two months away.

File Your Federal and State Tax Returns for Free

Wolfbox just released a new model in its "Mega Flow" series of electric air dusters. The Wolfbox MF60 Cordless Electric Air Duster has a list price of $49.99, but Amazon is offering a 36% off coupon code "3WAQD8AD" that drops it to $31.94 with free shipping. The MF60 looks nearly identical to the $80 MF100 but with slightly less powerful airflow and fewer accessories. At less than half the price, it's definitely a better value. Wolfbox is well-rated for its great build quality and sustained, powerful cfm output at an affordable price.

Wolfbox MF60 Cordless Electric Air Duster for $32

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