Ubisoft has confirmed it no longer plans to launch a second major Assassin's Creed Shadows expansion, something that previously would have formed part of the game's now-abandoned season pass.

Shadows' first — and now, it seems, only — major expansion launched in September. The 10-hour Claws of Awaji had previously been described as the "first expansion" included in Shadows' season pass, an offer that was formally scrapped a year ago when Ubisoft delayed the game's launch from November 2024 to February 2025.

As an apology to fans for the game's delay, Ubisoft said it instead would gift Claws of Awaji for free to all pre-order customers. But fans still assumed a second expansion would follow at some point, as has become custom for every other major Assassin's Creed title over the past decade.

"As of now, at this moment for Year Two, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned," associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois said in an interview with JorRaptor.

Lemay-Comtois caveated his answer by noting some exceptional examples in the past where Ubisoft had changed its plans to make more add-on content than it had originally envisioned (such as with the recent Saudi-funded DLC that arrived two years post-launch for Assassin's Creed Mirage). But, currently, it seems clear that no second expansion is on the cards, and there's no suggestion that Shadows' post-launch plans will extend into a Year Three.

It's an extremely surprising decision by Ubisoft, which followed up the launch of 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins with two expansions (The Hidden Ones and The Curse of the Pharaohs), 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey with two expansions (Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis), and 2020's Assassin's Creed Odyssey with three expansions (Wrath of the Druids, The Siege of Paris, Dawn of Ragnarök) alongside numerous other smaller DLC drops. 2023's smaller-scale Assassin's Creed Mirage was itself originally planned as yet another Valhalla expansion, before it was ultimately released as a standalone game.

"We're still working on content for post-launch and supporting it, but it's not a full-on DLC the way a season pass would have had in the previous years," Lemay-Comtois said, confirming at least that Ubisoft still had plans for smaller additions to Shadows within 2026.

"We're trying to re-adjust for Year Two a little bit," he continued. "There's learning from Year One we can apply to Year Two. Any content we want to do in Year Two will probably be more sparse, not a drip-feed... but chunkier updates that shake things up a little more. I'm not announcing anything at this point but our strategy for Year One was to be quick and reactive, so it means smaller drops often, but for Year Two we don't need to put fires out or anything, so it's more what good, chunky little piece of meat... we can drop and have people come back and enjoy it."

Digging into Lemay-Comtois' comment, the suggestion here is that Ubisoft's decision to change course on Shadows following its pre-release reception impacted the company's plans for post-launch support, with priority placed on fighting immediate "fires." And indeed, Shadows has enjoyed a series of recent patches that have added numerous fan-requested features, in a clear bid to turn sentiment around. Going into further detail, Lemay-Comtois also suggested Shadows had been a tougher game to develop technologically, further complicating plans to get post-launch content ready.

"I think with Shadows, we had a big jump in generations," he continued. "The engine work that we had to do on Shadows took a lot of time and a lot of our resources. So the planning for the post launch was not really clear as soon as it would have been on another [game] where the technology was more stable and well known.

"We started fairly late on Shadows... because I remember during pre-launch we had the Season Pass," he admitted. "And the situation changed when we pushed back on the release date. That plan changed quite a bit and then we had to kind of adapt to the situation. So because of the new tech, because of the new generation, because of the pushes we had in production, we chose an approach that was way more, let's put our ear to the ground when the game launches... and react."

For 2026, Lemay-Comtois suggested Shadows would receive updates "not to the size of a DLC or expansion, but like yesterday's update plus," referencing the free update that arrived this week that added a new story quest, the game's Attack on Titan crossover, as well as a significant Isu Easter egg. "At minimum this size," he emphasized, without stating whether these updates would continue to be provided for free or not.

"And whether or not this is the right way to go, or a good learning, I think it's more of an experience we're trying with Shadows, to keep things small and reactive and see how the community feels about it and reacts to it," he concluded. "And the learnings that come out of that will be applied to whatever other projects we do next."

Of course, it's to be expected that Shadows' lead developer Ubisoft Quebec is already planning its next major Assassin's Creed project (and indeed, it was previously reported that the studio had begun early pre-production work last year on a now-scrapped entry set in the post-U.S. Civil War period). But the mention here of those projects is interesting, alongside confirmation of what sounds like smaller plans for Shadows in 2026 than fans have seen this year.

And then there's what else fans expect is coming: a remake of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag reportedly waiting in the wings, as well as numerous other Assassin's Creed projects that Ubisoft has already confirmed, including a multiplayer spin-off and the witchcraft-themed Assassin's Creed: Hexe. Amongst all that, and coupled with Shadows' delay drama, Ubisoft seems to have simply decided a second Shadows expansion isn't necessary.

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

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

Black Friday has been filled with tons of great PS5 video game deals so far, and if you've been scooping them all up while they're on sale, you'll want to make sure you have enough space on your PlayStation to download or install them all. Thankfully, Amazon's here to save the day with a sweet 30% Black Friday discount on the 4TB Samsung 9100 Pro SSD with a heatsink, bringing it below $400 and giving you plenty of extra storage to hold all of your new games.

Black Friday Deal: Save on Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB SSD With Heatsink at Amazon

There is increasing concern that skyrocketing RAM prices will impact high-end gaming not just in the short term, but the long term.

With the explosive growth of generative AI, AI data centers are hoovering up the world's memory and storage supply, sparking price hikes that some experts fear could last for decades. Cheap SSDs, DRAM, and HDDs are pretty much a thing of the past, with prices rising as AI demand outstrips supply.

This has already caused price rises, with PC retailer CyberPowerPC announcing a hike for memory modules across the U.S. and the UK “due to market conditions.”

“Recently, global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500% and SSD prices have risen by 100%,” CyberPowerPC said. “This has had a direct impact on the cost of building gaming PCs since 10/1/25.” Price rises thus kick in on December 7.

The impact on PC gaming could be significant and long-lasting, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney tweeted. “RAM price increases will be a real problem for high-end gaming for several years,” he said. “Factories are diverting leading edge DRAM capacity to meet AI needs where data centers are bidding far higher than consumer device makers.”

The situation has become so out of control that, as PCWorld reports, stores are beginning to sell RAM at 'catch-of-the-day' market prices. As CyberPowerPC pointed out, these price rises come with the holidays right around the corner, which is less than ideal.

Just checked the price of the RAM that is currently installed in my gaming PC; the AI bubble cannot implode fast enough. pic.twitter.com/G7N5lthE9O

— Rin | 凛 (@TheIshikawaRin) November 24, 2025

"Bro stop being such a loser, get a gaming PC"

CPU: $500
GPU: $1000
Motherboard: $300
RAM: Notify me when available
Primary SSD: $150
CPU Cooler: $150
PSU: $150
Case: $125
OS: $50

Just take my kidney and go pic.twitter.com/nr257QpAr1

— Bahamut (@Icewallowcumin) November 23, 2025

But the issue may stretch out for years to come. “The AI build-out is absolutely eating up a lot of the available chip supply, and 2026 looks to be far bigger than this year in terms of overall demand,” Dan Nystedt, vice president of research at TriOrient, told CNBC.

As CNBC points out, AI servers primarily run on processors from chip designers like Nvidia. These AI processors heavily rely on High-Bandwidth Memory or HBM. Nystedt said AI server companies are willing to pay top dollar for premium chips. “It could be very bad for PCs, laptops, consumer electronics and automotive, which depend on cheap memory chips,” he added.

And there is concern for the price of video game consoles, too. There are online rumors that Microsoft may soon be forced to up the price of Xbox consoles again in reaction to the RAM crunch. Valve has yet to announce a price for its next-gen Steam Machine, and fluctuating RAM prices may have something to do with it.

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

Photo by Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu via 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.

Spoilers follow for the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5, “Chapter One: The Crawl,” “Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler,” “Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap,” and “Chapter Four: Sorcerer.”

By the end of Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1, the Hawkins campaign against Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) is most certainly game on. Will Byer’s (Noah Schnapp) throwdown of Vecna’s Demogorgons seemingly positions him as the Dungeon Master extraordinaire. But there’s still so much that the Hawkins party doesn’t know about their adversary’s endgame, including everything at his disposal to ensure he achieves the horrific vision of Hawkins that he shared with Nancy (Natalia Dyer) in Season 4.

As always, every new batch of Stranger Things episodes opens the door for new questions, and that’s certainly the case again at the conclusion of the first four episodes of Season 5. As we’re still processing the insanity of that cliffhanger, here are a few burning questions we’ll be pondering until the next three episodes arrive on December 25, 2025.

What Is Dr. Kay’s Overall Mission?

The Duffers love their ’80s-era iconic actors. They’ve cast quite a few in some juicy parts across the seasons, including Matthew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner, Sean Astin as Bob Newby, Paul Reiser as Sam Owens, Cary Elwes as Larry Kline and Robert Englund as Victor Creel. In Season 5, Linda Hamilton joins their esteemed, nostalgic company as the enigmatic Dr. Kay.

In the first four episodes, all we know about Kay is that she has her own well-funded and well-protected lab in the Upside Down. She’s not exactly warm with her subordinates, and is more in keeping with the behavior of Bishop the android (Lance Henriksen) from Aliens when it comes to their shared intensity regarding alien creature vivisection. But her acquired knowledge seems to have given her control of some of the critters, like the one that chokes out Hopper.

By the end of Chapter 4, we do know that she’s somehow found and forcibly taken Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) fellow lab sister Eight, a.k.a. Kali (Linnea Berthelsen). We can assume that the same sound device Kay uses to immobilize Eleven also works, or worked, on Eight. Now she’s harnessing Eight’s powers in some kind of machine, but how? As a reminder, Eight can manipulate and project illusions into the minds of those around her, which begs the question: Is what Eleven and Hopper see in the lab real, or is Kali projecting whatever Kay tells her to? It’s too early to tell if Kay is a nefarious player in the military’s research or a sympathetic scientist when it comes to all things in the Upside Down.

How Did Kali/Eight Wind Up in the Upside Down?

As alluded to above, Kali Prasad/Eight was one of Dr. Brenner’s lab children that he conducted experiments on starting in 1979. Prior to One/Henry Creel/Vecna killing all of the children in the lab except Eleven, Eight had escaped the lab and collected her own family of misfit runaways in Chicago. In Season 2, Eleven seeks out the girl who escaped and they bond over their shared experiences and special powers. They part ways that same season and haven’t reconnected until Eleven finds Eight in Dr. Kay’s Upside Down lab machine. We have to imagine that she was never really as off the grid as she imagined, between Brenner’s files and perhaps even the tracking of Eight after her escape. And when Kay needed to bring Eleven into her Upside Down lab, the best bait would be Eight.

Will the Wheelers Survive?

Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) and Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) got shredded as they attempted to protect their youngest, Holly (Nell Fisher), from that rampaging Demogorgon in their house. They were both slashed up so brutally that we actually felt a teensy bit bad for Ted, who has been consistently inert as a father and partner across all five seasons. The pair were both alive when they arrived at the local hospital, and Karen even was conscious enough to identify Holly’s “imaginary friend” as Henry. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised if one, or both, were sacrificed to the stakes of this finale season. On the other hand, we also wouldn’t complain if Karen survives and gets to escape the purgatory that is Hawkins suburbia.

When Is Steve Going to Call Dustin on His Shit?

As Steven Harrington (Joe Keery) has evolved from lunkhead high school jock to emotionally perceptive adopted dad of the Hawkins misfits, the writers have recognized that he’s their secret weapon for great character moments. He gets to land some truth bombs on Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) in this block of episodes, but we’re really waiting for an overdue thrown down between him and bestie Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo). The typically enthusiastic science nerd hasn’t processed Eddie Munson’s (Joseph Quinn) death from last season at all, and it’s turned Steve’s little bro into an angry, bitter shadow of his former self. In turn, their bromance plays out more like a troubled marriage in these first episodes as they snipe and bicker at one another. We know it’s just a matter of time before Steve gets to the bottom of what’s going on with Dustin and when it happens, we don’t expect to survive it without some ugly sobbing.

Is the Organic Wall Connected to Vecna’s Evolved Look?

The organic matter that energizes Vecna in the attic of the Creel home has been an evolving organism ever since we first got a good look at it in the Upside Down in Season 1. We’ve seen those tendrils attach to Vecna and replenish him during his regeneration time. And then he seemed to use them to bind and contain his victims in the Upside Down version of the Creel house. But what they are and if they’re autonomous from Vecna remains a mystery.

In Season 5, the massive organic wall discovered by Hopper and Eleven in the Upside Down is reminiscent of the wall that Vecna attaches Will to in the season’s first episode, just writ large. Is the size of it now indicative of Vecna’s power? When he appears through the portal into Hawkins in "Chapter Four: Sorcerer,” Vecna looks different. His once humanoid-looking right arm is no more and matches his entire body in appearing more thorny, with active movement slithering across his form. He’s jacked too now, so maybe the size of that wall is directly connected to this more ‘roidy-looking Vecna. Is there a way to damage what the wall parallels in the Rightside Up in order to weaken the demon?

If Max Is Revived From Her Coma, Will She Be Changed Irrevocably?

For 584 days, Max (Sadie Sink) has been roaming inside Henry Creel's memories. Even though she’s found a safe space inside the rock cave — a place Henry won’t enter — the question remains: What will the cost be for Max to spend so much time trapped inside that monster’s head? Even if Holly is the key to Max’s escape from the cave and the coma, will she be irrevocably changed for the worse? The best case scenario is that her time in Henry’s head will help the gang figure out how to take the villain down. Maybe she can look to Will’s burst of power to figure how to harness what she’s learned from Henry’s memories to use them against him?

How Does Will Pull Off an Eleven Power Move — Bloody Nose and All — at the End of Episode 4?

The prologue of "Chapter One: The Crawl" makes it very clear that from the moment Will Byers was yoinked into the Upside Down, his connection with Vecna has been physical, intentional and part of a long game. It was wild to see tiny, vulnerable Will encased in organic matter and forcibly face-hugged by Vecna as he did who knows what to the kid. But it certainly confirms that every Will neck tingle, every phantom feeling, every barfed-up slug has been strengthening whatever Vecna initiated between them. What we don’t know is if Will’s Eleven-style power move at the end of "Chapter Four: Sorcerer" was always part of Vecna’s plan, or if Will’s increasing confidence paired with his love for his family and friends manifested in his siphoning of Vecna’s power, which facilitated that Demogorgon massacre? Either is interesting, but the latter is a twist that could finally tilt the power tables against Vecna.

What were your biggest questions about the first four episodes of Stranger Things Volume 1? Let’s discuss in the comments!

A gorgeous 4K TV set feels incomplete without a great sounding speaker system to back it up, so do you ears (and your wallet) a favor by upgrading to a Sonos speaker system for Black Friday. The Sonos Black Friday Sale has officially commenced, and with it the lowest prices of the year on Sonos' signature soundbars and speakers.

The audio savvy knows that a single speaker usually isn't enough to reproduce an entire soundstage. Fortunately, Sonos offers pre-selected speaker bundles that are matched together to round out a complete home theater or entertainment system. Some of these bundles have an additional discount that stacks on top of Black Friday prices.

Black Friday has been surprisingly good so far for gamers. Xbox is a little light on doorbuster offers, but there are still several standout deals that I absolutely think are worth checking out this weekend.

That includes top new games like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for just $30, alongside Borderlands 4 and Battlefield 6 at 50% off, both down to just $35.

TL;DR - The Best Xbox Deals for Black Friday

There's also 15% off Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Gift Cards at Target for today only, alongside Xbox controllers from just $39.99.

With that, march through the Black Friday sale weekend has very much commenced, and it's not just Xbox putting on a show, with PlayStation and Nintendo's sales also kicking into full gear today.

If live updates, be sure to bookmark this page for all the latest discounts from now through to Cyber Monday. But for now, let’s jump into the best Xbox Black Friday deals available right now.

Xbox Games

Like I mentioned, the big highlights in the Xbox Black Friday sale are absolutely on the games. A few big new deals have appear today, including Borderlands 4 for $35, alongside Battlefield 6 at the same price. Two big new games at 50% off, now that's what Black Friday is all about.

There's also one of the most popular Xbox deals of Black Friday 2025 so far, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater for just $30 at Walmart. Deals like this don't tend to stick around long, so snap them up ASAP to avoid that Black Friday deal FOMO when they inevitably run out of stock.

There's also up to 75% off digital games, which has a reasonably good selection, including The Outer Worlds 2 and Ninja Gaiden 4 for $55.99. There's also a handful a great games from the past few years that are around $10 in the sale, including Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Sonic Frontiers, Dead Space, and more.

Xbox Controllers

Microsoft has finally showed a bit of holiday goodwill this Black Friday, trimming roughly $20 off almost every Xbox controller in the lineup. That takes some of the sting out of the accessory price hike from earlier this year, and it means most options are now sitting comfortably in the $40 to $50 range.

I'd prefer if we could get a controller at consistently $30-$35, but for the time being, these are the best deals. A lot of the popular shades have already vanished from Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, so if you’ve been putting off replacing a battered pad, or you just want a second one for couch co op, now’s the window.

The lowest prices are on the standard Carbon Black and Robot White models at $39.99, while the more eye catching colors hover between $45 and $50, including the newer Breaker designs from September.

Xbox Game Pass

Where Are the Xbox Console Deals?

Let's just get this over with, there are no Xbox console discounts right now. None. The best Microsoft can muster is a trade-in offer where they'll hand you about $130 for a used machine, which isn't exactly the sort of thing that gets people rushing to checkout.

It's the same story across the usual suspects. Retailers that usually throw a bone around Black Friday, like Lenovo with its oddly generous promo codes, have gone quiet. No bundles, no quirky coupon stack, no surprise Amazon price drop hiding in the weeds. Just radio silence.

Why? Because Microsoft already raised prices this year on all Xbox hardware, and retailers, including Microsoft, clearly aren't in the mood to cut into their margin on a console that's already selling at a what can only be defined as a trickle. I love my Xbox Series X, and even I think this is a bit sad. No, there aren't any discounts on the Xbox Ally X, either. Fingers crossed for next year, I guess.

If you want a console under the tree this year, PS5 consoles are $100 off for Black Friday, and Switch 2 still has its money saving bundles with Mario Kart World ($30 saving), and they're not evaporating instantly either.

In other words, unless you're dead set on Xbox, your money goes further elsewhere right now, especially since the Xbox Series X costs 650 big ones in the US now, the same price as an on sale PS5 Pro.

You might have already seen my $20 or less roundup, which is still packed with heavy hitters from the last few years and perfect if you want maximum bang for your buck. I also recently covered the best games under $30 right now, sporting Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater as my top pick.

I've also got you covered if you're looking for a more comprehensive roundup of the best video game deals for Black Friday. In summary, snag these Xbox games as soon as you can, maybe we'll get some Xbox console offers next year, and have a great Thanksgiving.

Robert Anderson is Senior Commerce Editor and IGN's resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

Among the bevy of OEM PC builders flooding the market, Lenovo is one of the more respected brands out there (and we like them ourselves). Lenovo Legion gaming PCs and laptops offer no-nonsense build quality and premium materials, powerful components with adequate cooling, and a stalwart warranty. They're generally priced at the higher end of the spectrum... except on Black Friday when everything is backwards.

Nay, on Black Friday Lenovo offers such deep discounts that they can out-price any other comparable system on the market. The caveat is that (1) only a few select configurations are on sale and (2) the coupons aren't advertised on its site so unless you're deal-savvy enough to check out an article like this one, you'll probably miss the deals. Fortunately, that's what we're here for. Here are the ten best Black Friday deals I've found so far.

Lenovo Legion Tower 7 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,090

Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer has called on fans of the Netflix series to turn off what he described as “garbage” TV settings before watching Season 5, as they “destroy the color” and present an image that is “not the filmmakers’ intent.”

In a post on Instagram, Duffer walked through the process of turning off the likes of dynamic contrast, super resolution, and edge enhancer, saying: “there’s a bunch of crap in here you’re gonna want to make sure is off.”

The “worst offender of all,” Duffer continued, is ‘TruMotion,’ aka smooth motion, “or the dreaded soap opera effect.”

Then, Duffer added: “whatever you do, do not switch on anything called ‘vivid’ — because it’s going to turn on all the worst offenders, it’s going to destroy the color, and is not the filmmaker’s intent.”

The TV settings Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer recommends fans turn off before watching Season 5:

• Dynamic contrast
• Super resolution
• Edge enhancer
• Color filter
• Noise reduction
• TruMotion
• Vivid

Given the huge popularity of Stranger Things, Duffer’s PSA could end up resulting in changed settings for quite a lot of television sets. Last night’s release of the first volume of episodes for Stranger Things Season 5 sparked such interest that it briefly crashed Netflix.

And, after sorting your TV out you need a brief catch-up, here’s the official blurb on Stranger Things Season 5:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

Stranger Things Season 5 debuts on Netflix in three parts, with the first four episodes arriving for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26. The next three episodes premiere on Christmas, and the series finale will debut on the streamer and in over 350 theaters nationwide on New Year’s Eve.

Stranger Things Season 5 release dates:

• VOL 1 - November 26, 5pm PT
• VOL 2 - Christmas, 5pm PT
• THE FINALE - New Year’s Eve, 5pm PT

Check out IGN’s Stranger Things: Season 5, Vol. 1 spoiler review to find out what we think of the first batch of episodes.

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

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.

Tech savvy deal hunters, the wait is over; the Best Buy Black Friday Sale has officially commenced. There are hundreds of deals that are worth checking out, but only a select number are available exclusively at Best Buy. These are the deals you don't want to overlook, because they're very often the best deals you'll find for all of Black Friday. Best Buy offers free shipping on orders over $35 with the option to order online and pick up in-store. If for some reason you have to return your item, you can do so at your nearest retail location instead of dealing with return shipping. Check out the deals below.

Lenovo Legion Go S Gaming Handhelds

Sonos Arc Soundbar

Meta Quest 3S VR Headset

Nvidia Shield Android TV Pro for $169.99

Black Friday TV Deals

Year after year, you can always rely on Best Buy to deliver some of the best Black Friday TV deals. That's because Best Buy often carries exclusive models and brands that aren't available elsewhere and thus cannot be price matched. There are several reasons why you should upgrade your TV in 2025, especially since prices have fallen dramatically this year. Whatever your budget constraints and size requirements may be, there's a TV deal for you; pick up a 55" TV for as low as $170 or a wall-hugging 98" TV for under $1,000.

Acer Predator Helios Neo RTX 5070 Ti Laptop

Black Friday Gaming PC Deals

Black Friday is the best time of year to upgrade your gaming PC and get the most powerful system for the least amount of money. Best Buy has several exclusive Black Friday deals on gaming PCs from CyberPowerPC, iBuypower, Skytech, and more. They're equipped with the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series or AMD Radeon 9000 series GPUs so that you can play the latest and most demanding games without breaking a sweat.

Bambu Lab 3D Printers

There's no better time to find an excuse to start 3D printing your own products than Black Friday, because that's when 3D printers drop to their lowest prices of the year. Bambu is widely considered one of the better 3D printer brands on the market, and its most popular models are all on sale today. New for 2025, Best Buy has become an official reseller of Bambu Lab. Although Bambu Lab now ships its products from US-based warehouses if you order from them directly, I'd still recommend getting the printer from Best Buy because the return policy is much easier (simply return to your local Best Buy store) and you accrue Best Buy rewards.

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.

As the debate around the use of generative AI to build video games rages on, Tim Sweeney, boss of Fortnite developer Epic Games, has waded in to call on Valve to ditch its AI Generated Content Disclosure for Steam games.

Valve’s rules mean developers must disclose their use of AI-generated content on a game’s Steam store page. For example, the Steam page for Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders includes a note from the developer on how the game uses AI-generated content: “during the development process, we may use procedural- and AI-based tools to assist with content creation. In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team.”

Activision’s Call of Duty also includes an AI disclosure: “our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets.”

Quentin Tarantino's brand new animated Kill Bill sequence, The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge, has now been glimpsed for the first time — and yes, it really does include Fortnite's famous banana.

A new trailer for the short, which is set to be included in Kill Bill's upcoming Whole Bloody Affair re-release, shows Uma Thurman return once again as heroine The Bride, via a performance captured through Epic Games' Unreal Engine.

Fortnite fans will be the first to watch the new sequence in its entirety when it debuts in-game this Sunday, November 30 at 2pm ET, as part of a wider partnership between Tarantino and Epic Games. That collaboration also sees Fortnite characters appear in the animated short, including Peely and Skull Trooper.

For those wondering what is going on, this Lost Chapter adapts a sequence that Tarantino originally intended to include within Kill Bill: Part 1, where Gogo Yubari's sister Yuki pursues The Bride back to the US in order to exact a bloody revenge. The plotline was dropped, though has been revived here two decades later.

Regular theatergoers will get to watch The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge within Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair when the newly-combined movie experience gets a limited run beginning on December 5. Tickets at some participating theaters will include a GoGo Yubari Fortnite skin.

Before all of that, Thurman's The Bride will first pop up within Fortnite this Saturday, November 29 as one of the many, many characters enlisted to help save the day during the game's end of Chapter live event (alongside everyone from the KPop Demon Hunters, Superman and Scooby Doo). Attend that and you'll get the Yuki Yubari skin free, meanwhile.

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

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

Handheld gaming PCs have made PC gaming more relevant than ever before. One of the greatest advantages of gaming on a PC as opposed to a console is the nearly inexhaustible library of games. Unlike consoles, which eventually lose backwards compatibility at some point in their life, even the oldest of PC games can be revisited. At this point, there are literally tens of thousands of PC games for you to choose from. The tradeoff, in the past, was mobility; either you had to settle for an immovable desktop computer, or lug around a gaming-worthy laptop. Not so anymore.

With the advent of gaming PC handhelds, your entire library of PC games is at your fingertips. Now you can play Clair Obscur, Hades, Silksong, or Baldur's Gate on a device that's not much bigger than a Switch console. Some of these handhelds are pretty expensive, and the highest end models can cost upwards of $1,000. Fortunately, a couple of SteamOS models happen to have major discounts for Black Friday, including one of our favorites. SteamOS is more intuitive to use on a handheld than Windows and anyone who wants an easy, bug-free plug and play experience that "just works" should stick with this over a Windows-based handheld.

Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme SteamOS Edition

If you're in the market for a new gaming PC or laptop, Alienware should top your wishlist. The brand has been around for ages and has always been considered a premium option that features bold aesthetics, powerful performance, reliable warranty and, unfortunately, a price tag to match. On the plus side, the prices are not so "premium" during Black Friday.

Dell officially kicks off its greater Black Friday Sale today and it covers the latest and greatest Alienware gaming laptops and desktops. This is the best opportunity to stretch your dollar and get the most powerful gaming PC your budget allows. Play the latest games like Battlefield 6 or Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in glorious 4K with buttery smooth framerates, but also future-proof your PC for the next generation of games. If you're looking for even deeper discounts, check out some incredible price drops on refurbished "Like New" computers at Dell Outlet.

Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming PC Deals

The Aurora R16 is Alienware's bread-and-butter gaming PC. It can be equipped with an Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card all the way up to an RTX 5080 and the prices for Black Friday are extremely competitive with other brands. For example, currently Alienware has the least expensive prebuilt RTX 5080 gaming PC that I've found anywhere. Most of these systems are customizable, however it's not difficult to upgrade your own RAM and storage yourself.

Alienware Area-51 Gaming PC Deals

If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The chassis is a super-sized upgrade to the Aurora R16 system with aesthetic and cooling redesigns. The internal components have been refreshed with a new motherboard, faster RAM, and bigger power supply to accommodate the new generation of CPUs and GPUs. With a high-end system like this, it's only fitting that it be equipped with an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 graphics card, so these are the configurations I've listed here. Note that Dell Outlet refurbished PCs come with the same warranty as buying new.

Alienware Aurora Gaming Laptop Deals

Alienware's new mainstream gaming laptop for 2025 is dubbed the "Alienware Aurora" and it replaces the previous generation's x16 and m16 series of laptops. It comes in two models: the 16 and 16X. The 16 is the more economical model, but gamers should definitely opt for the higher-end 16X model. If you're looking for build quality and performance on par with the previous generation m16, then the 16X is its spiritual successor. It features an anodized aluminum lid and base, a higher quality display, a more powerful CPU, and a GPU that isn't throttled for maximum gaming performance.

Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptop Deals

Alienware 18 Area-51 (18")

Alienware 16 Area-51 (16")

The Area-51 is Alienware's new flagship gaming laptop for 2025. It features an anodized aluminum shell for both the lid and bottom chassis with a gorgeous iridescent finish. The frame is made of a durable and lightweight magnesium alloy. Cooling has been upgraded with generous amounts of copper and a new thermal interface material to better transfer heat away from your hottest components as well as more fans and bigger cutouts for greater airflow. Dell claims that the laptop can handle a higher power ceiling of up to 240W TDP without raising acoustics.

Design-wise, the Area 51 has a sleeker, more contoured shape compared to previous models, with rounded edges and soft corners replacing the traditional squared off design. The hinges are internally positioned so that they're near invisible. There's a transparent window on the undercarriage to show off the internal components. As befits an Alienware laptop, there's plenty of RGB illunimation, although most of it can be turned off if you want your laptop to be a bit more subtle.

Gaming Monitor Deals

Dell makes some of the highest quality gaming monitors around. They're easily on par with the best that other brands like Samsung, LG, and Asus have to offer. For Black Friday, they're also incredibly well-priced. For example, the venerable 34" Alienware AW3423DWF for $499.99 is the lower price I've ever seen for a 34" OLED monitor. By the way, if you do opt for a Dell or Alienware OLED monitor, you also get a 3-year warranty that includes OLED burn-in protection.

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.

Lies of P director Choi Ji-won says the team is "working really hard" on Neowiz's next game, promising: "I will not disappoint you all."

Talking to GamesRadar+ after winning a Golden Joystick award for best expansion — "I'm so happy that I'm lost for words right now" — the director explained how the team approached Lies of P's DLC Overture, saying, "we didn't just view it as just pure expansion, but almost as a sequel and a brand new project."

And now, looking ahead to the studio's next project, Ji-won says "you can expect the most fun that we can achieve within the game."

"Please stay tuned for it; we are working really hard, and I will not disappoint you at all," the director added.

Lies of P developer Neowiz shadow-dropped DLC Overture during Summer Game Fest, introducing new locations, new enemies and bosses, new characters, weapons, and the controversial decision to add in two easier difficulty options. At that time, we also learned that Lies of P had topped 3 million copies sold.

We had a good time with Lies of P, awarding it 8/10, and Overture itself also secured a 8/10. "Even if it’s clearly dancing on the same old strings, Lies of P: Overture is an excellent expansion that adds a whole lot more to a game that was already great," we wrote, although since then, the DLC has been patched to reduce monster difficulty in repeat playthroughs and "adjusted stats" for some of the field monsters you encounter in your first playthrough of Overture.

While Choi Ji-won failed to specify which game he's talking about here, it seems likely that it is the Lies of P sequel he already confirmed was in the works in November 2023. At the time, Choi said: “Our highest priority is developing the DLC and working on our sequel. The dev team is putting in significant effort, brainstorming and exploring different aspects of the projects.”

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

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 has announced plans to fully acquire Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, a developer it has previously used to bolster its work on key franchises such as Splatoon and Pokémon.

In a statement to investors, released this morning, Nintendo said it had entered into a share transfer agreement with Bandai Namco for the studio — which it will now rename as Nintendo Studios Singapore.

Initially, Nintendo will purchase 80% of Bandai Namco Sinapore Studio shares on April 1, 2026. It then plans to gobble up the remaining 20% of shares "after a certain period," Nintendo said, "once the subsidiary's operations have stabilized."

Nintendo does not typically trumpet the external development studios it partners with to work on its own franchises, but video game credits have shown that the Singapore-based outfit has contributed to 2022's Splatoon 3, and was the lead developer behind 2021's New Pokémon Snap.

Reportedly, the studio was also briefly tasked with working on Metroid Prime 4, before Nintendo restarted development at Retro Studios. And more generally, Bandai Namco overall has enjoyed a close relationship with Nintendo in recent years, with other teams within the company working on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Pokkén Tournament.

It's relatively unusual for Nintendo to acquire other developers, though recent years have seen the company acquire a steady stream of external teams it has built a history of collaboration with.

The Japan Commercial Broadcasters’ Association issued a statement against OpenAI’s Sora 2 and other similar AI video generation models, warning of the dangers that their unregulated use poses, both to Japan’s content industry and society as a whole. It demanded that OpenAI and other AI start-ups take action to prevent unauthorized training of AI models on Japanese anime and other copyrighted content, calling on AI companies to take proactive steps to remove copyright-infringing AI-generated content from the internet.

OpenAI publicly released Sora 2 on September 30, and people were soon sharing 20-second clips generated using the new model across social media. Many of these clips contain the likenesses of Japanese anime and video game characters (including popular characters like Mario and Pikachu), prompting concerns about copyright infringement. A couple of weeks later, the Japanese government made a formal request to OpenAI, calling on the American tech company to cease infringing upon Japanese IPs. This was followed by a statement on October 28 from Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (a group representing companies including Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and Studio Ghibli), which demanded that OpenAI stop unauthorized training of Sora 2 on the copyrighted IPs of its members.

Prospective VR gamers, there's no better time to immerse yourself in real next-gen gaming. The best Black Friday deals on Meta Quest VR headsets are now live. Both the Meta Quest 3 and 3S are on sale for the next few days, although different retailers currently have the best deals for each of the two models.

Refurb Meta Quest 3 with 2 Year Warranty for $359.99

Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino has said The Hunger Games “ripped off” Battle Royale, and expressed surprise that the Japanese writer of the cult classic original didn’t sue The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins.

Speaking on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, the Oscar-winning director of the likes of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Django Unchained, said that book critics failed to call out The Hunger Games, whereas film critics did.

Battle Royale, released in 2000, was directed by Kinji Fukasaku from a screenplay by Kenta Fukasaku. It was based on the 1999 book of the same name, by Koushun Takami, and stars Beat Takeshi as a school teacher who ends up putting his unruly students through a fight to the death.

The Hunger Games is a series of novels written by American author Suzanne Collins that kicked off in 2008. It follows teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen, who similarly battles with other children in a fight to the death. The Hunger Games movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence, came out in 2012 and was a global hit.

Speaking on the podcast, Tarantino hit out at The Hunger Games novels. “I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every f***ing thing she owns,” Tarantino said. “They just ripped off the f***ing book! Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale, so the stupid book critics never called her out on it. They talked about how it was the most original thing they’d ever fucking read. As soon as the film critics saw the film they said, ‘What the f**k! This is just Battle Royale except PG!'”

Tarantino’s criticism of The Hunger Games is a long-standing one, and his comments here have sparked a debate among fans about where inspiration for creative works like novels truly comes from. Collins has talked about the creation of The Hunger Games in interviews before. In a 2008 interview with School Library Journal, Collins said The Hunger Games was based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, which she read when she was eight years old.

“I was a huge fan of Greek and Roman mythology,” she said, when asked how she came up with the idea. “As punishment for displeasing Crete, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur, which is a monster that’s half man and half bull. Even when I was a little kid, the story took my breath away, because it was so cruel, and Crete was so ruthless.

“The message is, mess with us and we’ll do something worse than kill you—we’ll kill your children. And the parents sat by apparently powerless to stop it. The cycle doesn’t end until Theseus volunteers to go, and he kills the Minotaur. In her own way, Katniss [the heroine of The Hunger Games] is a futuristic Theseus. But I didn’t want to do a labyrinth story. So I decided to write basically an updated version of the Roman gladiator games.”

Collins went on to say she was inspired to write The Hunger Games while channel surfing between reality TV programs and actual war coverage.

“On one channel, there’s a group of young people competing for I don’t even know; and on the next, there’s a group of young people fighting in an actual war,” she said. “I was really tired, and the lines between these stories started to blur in a very unsettling way. That’s the moment when Katniss’s story came to me.”

Of course, Battle Royale also inspired a new genre of video game, which ended up spawning the likes of PUBG, Fortnite, and Warzone. Tarantino's comments are especially ironic as he is now partnering with Fortnite itself.

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via 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.

Are you the owner of a spankin' new Nintendo Switch 2 console? Have you been holding off on a memory card upgrade until prices have dropped to a more reasonable level? If you answered "yes" to both questions, then you, my fellow Nintendo gamer, are in luck. Nintendo Switch 2-compatible MicroSD Express cards have dropped to the lowest prices of the year for Black Friday, from the modest 256GB to the mega 1TB capacities.

The Best 1TB Memory Card Deal Right Now

Even after all these years, the Nvidia Shield Android TV Pro sits atop the throne as the best Android-based streaming box on the market. For Black Friday, you can get it on sale for just $169.99 after a 15% off discount. This is the best deal I expect to come out of Black Friday, especially since I haven't seen it discounted even once this year. According to Amazon, it's selling out quickly, so get in on this deal quick or you might have to wait until the end of 2026 to get it on sale again.

Nvidia Shield Android TV Pro for $169.99

Plants Vs Brainrots is a Roblox experience similar to Plants vs Zombies. It combines elements of tower defence with mechanics from Roblox's two most visited and played games – Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot. You'll buy seeds (when they're in stock), place them in your garden, and then wait for your plants to attack brainrots as they make their way down the catwalk.

As well as combining gameplay elements from both experiences, Plants Vs Brainrots also has codes. So, if you're getting ready to plant crops, earn brainrots, and fuse them, here are some codes to give you a little boost.

Working Plants Vs Brainrots Codes (November 2025)

These are the currently working codes for Plants Vs Brainrots:

• STACKS - 1x Lucky Potion
• frozen - 1x Frost Grenade
• based - $5,000

Expired Plants Vs Brainrots Codes (November 2025)

There are currently no expired Plants Vs Brainrots codes.

How to Redeem Plants Vs Brainrots Codes

When you launch into the Plants Vs Brainrots experience, these are the steps you need to follow to redeem codes:

1. Complete the tutorial of buying a seed and placing a brainrot
2. This will unlock the Shop icon on the left of the screen. It's red and looks like a shopping basket.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the shop and click "Codes" under rewards
4. Enter the code and press Claim!

Why Isn't My Plants Vs Brainrots Code Working?

Codes for Roblox experiences are usually case-sensitive, so the best way to ensure you've got a working code is to directly copy it from this article. We check all codes before we upload them, so you can guarantee they're working. Just double check that you haven't copied over an extra space!

When is the Next Plants Vs Brainrots Update?

The next update scheduled for Plants Vs Brainrots is on Saturday November 29.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

The official Black Friday sales have been going on for a full week already, but today is finally Black Friday time for real now. Thanksgiving is traditionally when all of the sales go live, and arguably the best time to get some deals shopping in.

The IGN Deals team has been hard at work finding the best deals happening today so we can deliver them to you at your leisure. We've gathered discounts from across major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more to help you get the best prices possible.

Our Top Black Friday Deals Picks Today

Our picks for the top deals today include a mix of tech, games, movies, and toys that all have one thing in common: They're really good deals! The one exception to that is the Nintendo Switch 2 bundle, which is really only there because stock is going fast. We've also included couple of notable promotions here that are worth checking out. The fist is Amazon's usual "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" sale that includes tons of 4K movies, books, and vinyl. You can also get Audible for only 99 cents right now for three months (on top of a $20 credit).

Shop by Retailer

Best Video Game Deals

If you're looking for deals on games, our Senior Commerce Editor Robert Anderson has been all over these deals so far. Both the PlayStation and Nintendo Black Friday sales have been going on all week and some games have gone in and out of stock at various retailers. Here's the best Black Friday video game deals that are still live and where to find them:

Nintendo Switch Deals

The most notable discounts are on Mario Switch games, but there a few other really good deals in here. There aren't and new Switch 2 console deals, unfortunately, but you can still pick up the Switch 2 bundles from a few different retailers and save a little bit.

PlayStation 5 Deals

PlayStation has really done the most for Black Friday this year and pretty much everything is on sale, including a ton of popular PS5 games. Almost every DualSense controller is on sale right now, and you can even get a rare discount on the PlayStation Portal everyone seems to love. There are also console deals available on both the PS5 Pro and special edition bundles. PlayStation fans are feasting on discounts this year.

Xbox Deals

The Xbox Black Friday sale hasn't been quite as good as PlayStation, but there are still a lot of discounts to be had. There are quite a few Xbox games on sale right now as well as price cuts on Xbox controllers. Unfortunately, there have yet to be any sort of console deals available.

PC Game Deals

If you're looking for PC games specifically, there are are number of places to go. Most notably, Steam launched its first Black Friday sale this year, so that's definitely worth a look.

Apple Deals

Almost all of the Apple devices are on sale right now, with the exception of the iPhone 17. All of the AirPods have been dropping to new low prices all week and MacBooks and iPads are getting price reductions as well. The best prices are at major retailer like Amazon and Walmart, but Apple did announce its own Black Friday sale plans for 2025 as well. Starting tomorrow, you'll be able to get up to $250 in Apple gift cards when you make select purchases fromt eh Apple Store.

LEGO Deals

There are already a ton of great LEGO deals going on all over the internet right now, and our official LEGO Editor Chris Reed has hand picked the best of the best. One of our favorite discounts so far is on the LEGO Ideas Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory set that is only available at Target. We built this set back in September when it first came out and it's absolutely awesome. There are also a ton of LEGO sets set to retire soon that are seeing final disocunts before they're gone.

4K Blu-rays Deals

Black Friday is one of the best times of the year to buy 4K and Blu-ray discs and that's on full display this year. There's recent releases, like the new Superman movie, that have dropped all the way down to only $12.49. You can also get full trilogies like The Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter movies for surprisingly cheap.

PC Gaming Deals

If you're looking for PC gaming hardware deals, our Commerce Manager Eric Song has been actively looking for the best discounts all week long. There are some great prices available for PCs and gaming laptops equipped with the latest GPUs as well as massive discounts on gaming monitors. Here are the best deals we've found for each category in 2025 so far:

Gaming PCs

Some of the best discounts are on hardware direct from Lenovo and Dell, both of which are currently having their own sales. You can also find some surprisingly low prices at Walmart and Best Buy for iBuypower and CyberPowerPC gaming rigs.

Gaming Laptops

Similar to gaming PCs, almost all of the best discount here are direct from the manufacturer's own Black Friday sale. The Dell sale has the Alienware 16 Aurora for under $1,000 and Razer has the 2025 Razer Blade 14 down to its lowest price ever as well. There's also some good discounts from HP, Walmart, Lenovo, and Best Buy worth checking out.

Gaming Monitors

There are quite a few gaming monitors available, with some prominent Alienware options available directly from Dell. LG Ultragear monitors are seeing some solid price reductions across various retailers, and there are som good budget monitor options available on Amazon. Some of our favorite gaming monitors are included in this sale.

Gaming Chairs

We've found some pretty solid Black Friday gaming chair deals so far this year on some of IGN's top-reviewed gaming chairs. Our top pick, in terms of overall value, is the Razer Iskur V2 X. It's the best budget chair and is discounted an extra $50 on top of that. Both Secretlab and Andaseat also have their sales live and you can save a decent chunk of change there as well.

TV Deals

While we expect thee to be more Black Friday deals tomorrow and through to Cyber Monday, there are a lot of great options available right now, especially if you're looking for a good gaming TV. You can get a 77-inch LG TV for under $2,000 and receive a free soundbar right now when you buy directly through LG. There are also a handful of discounts at Best Buy and Walmart on some truly massive televisions.

Headphone Deals

The Black Friday deals on headphones are as good as it gets this year. You can currently get the latest pair of Apple AirPods for only $69, and even the recently released AirPods Pro 3 are getting discounted. For over-ear headphones, there's the Beats Studio Pro headphones that have dropped to only $150. And for top of the line, there's the new Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones now at the lowest price we've ever seen (outside of used models).

Streaming Deals

All of the best streaming deals are now live for Black Friday, and our streaming expert Blythe Dujardin has been tracking them all. The most popular deal is the Disney and Hulu bundle, which drops the price down to $4.99 per month for an entire year. There are also discounts on standalone subscriptions like Crunchyroll, Apple TV, and HBO Max that are definitely worth checking out. For anyone looking for a sports streaming option, Disney also still has the discount available on the ESPN Unlimited bundle as well.

Board Game Deals

There are some really good board games on sale right now, with a spread of deals on family board games and modern classics. The latest edition of Catan is only $24.99 and a must-have for anyone starting a board game collection. There's also classics like Sorry! and Connect 4 selling for only $5 each.

Book Deals

There are a lot of individual books on sale, but the best overall book deal right now is Amazon's buy 2, get 1 free sale. Most notably, this sale includes popular box sets like The Lord of the Rings books and Harry Potter. It's worth diving into the sale yourself and just searching for the books you'd want.

When Do Black Friday Sales End?

Black Friday start dates were pretty scattered this year, but the actual end of the sale is the same for pretty much every retailer. Black Friday sales end when Cyber Monday sales begin. That means you have until November 30 to shop the deals before the inevitable switchover to Cyber Monday happens on December 1. There are a lot of similarities between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but you can expect exclusive new deals for each sale.

Cyber Monday Deals Begin on December 1

It's true that a lot of the discounts will be the same on Cyber Monday as they were during Black Friday, but you can expect one major difference: Cyber Monday deals will mostly be online. Brick-and-morter locations like Target and Costco will only be offering these deals online. The exception to that rule is Best Buy, which will have discounts both in stores and online that day.

Tips for Black Friday Shopping Online

It may seem silly to start planning your Black Friday shopping right now, but doing so can help you save a lot of money when it comes time to actually start making purchases. Here are a few Black Friday tips that you should consider ahead of the event:

1. Set a Budget – Keeping track of how much money you can actually spend is important to avoid overspending. When everything is on sale, it can be easy to buy more than you really should just because things are at their lowest price of the year.
2. Create a Shopping List – Knowing exactly what you're trying to find discounts on is a great way to avoid making unnecessary purchases. It can also make it easier for you to compare prices between retailers or set price drop alerts ahead of time.
3. Compare Prices – Retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart make it really easy to do all of your shopping there. That being said, those retailers don't always have the best price on the items you're looking for. Make sure to compare prices across the web before you buy something for more than you have to.
4. Research Before You Buy – If you're making an expensive purchase, make sure you do at least some research before you buy it. This means looking for independent reviews or testimony from trusted sources about those products. You shouldn't necessarily trust Amazon reviews, for example.
5. Be Wary of Search Results and AI Summaries - Search platforms, such as Google, have a tendency to be flooded with sponsored links in the results as well as AI summaries that are potentially biased. Be careful to avoid clicking on a sponsored ad if you're looking for reviews or searching for specific products by price.

The creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, believes Final Fantasy X was "ultimate perfection" when it released back in 2001.

In an interview with Game Informer, Horii talked about his experience developing Dragon Quest, which at the time was up against the Final Fantasy series as Square and Enix had yet to merge. While he didn't really think of Final Fantasy as "competition" per se — while they're both RPGs, their approaches to storytelling are quite different — he did acknowledge that he was "definitely paying attention to it."

"Way back then, when Final Fantasy originally came out, I was definitely paying attention to it because it was something we needed to look out for," Horii said, reflecting on how the games differ. "But there's one key difference that I really saw back then: the protagonists in the Final Fantasy titles, they speak a lot. Whereas for Dragon Quest, the key objective for [the games], or the experience it offers for the player, is that the player becomes the protagonist themselves.

"In Final Fantasy, you kind of observe the protagonist, but you're not necessarily becoming the protagonist in the games. So I thought that was a really interesting and stark difference between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but I didn't necessarily see them as a rival back then."

That may have changed when Final Fantasy X came along, however.

"Final Fantasy, again, [the protagonists] just talk a lot," Horii added. "I do like Final Fantasy, though. When I first saw Final Fantasy X, I recall feeling this was the ultimate perfection of Final Fantasy."

Don't forget that Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake released at the end of October. We thought it was Amazing, awarding it 9/10, writing: "Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake beautifully concludes this trilogy, recapturing the retro magic of the originals while giving them a modern facelift."

And as for the latest on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3? Director Naoki Hamaguchi recently confirmed the upcoming game would "strike a balance" when it came to pacing and be "more concise," but insisted didn't mean he would cut any content from the game.

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

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.

World of Warcraft: Midnight will release globally on March 2, 2026.

The second part of the Worldsoul Saga and the 11th overall expansion for Blizzard's MMORPG, Midnight will take you to new and reimagined zones, let you try out new abilities, and face "all-new Delves, dungeons, and raids."

Applications for the beta test are now open, and over the course of the test, Blizzard will be "inviting community veterans, press, fansies, friends, and family" to check out the upcoming expansion.

Players who have bought the Epic Edition will also get the chance to participate in the beta, as well as get three days' early access, which means they can get stuck in from February 27.

You also don't have to wait until March to set up home if you've purchased any edition of the Midnight expansion — don't forget that Housing Early Access will kick off next week on December 2, so you'll be able to select a neighborhood, choose a house, and start making it cosy weeks before the expansion drops.

Blizzard provided a roadmap to its expansions plans back in BlizzCon 2023. The second of three expansions announced at the time, Midnight follows last year's The War Within, and will take place in Azeroth's "Old World" in Quel'thalas, where Void forces have invaded and are trying to destroy the Sunwell and plunge the world into darkness.

We played the first 10 hours last month, writing in IGN's World of Warcraft: Midnight preview: "There's still a lot of the Midnight alpha to see. Try as I might, they wouldn't even let me into the mysterious realm of Zul'Aman! But having played it basically every waking hour since I got access, which was about 10 hours ago as I write this, I am certainly impressed with the new zones and the customization housing allows, and I'm excited to see where the story of the Worldsoul Saga goes next."

If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

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.