Metacritic has been forced to remove a suspicious-sounding Resident Evil Requiem review published by a previously high-profile website, after claims that the outlet was now pumping out AI slop.

The popular review score aggregation source told Kotaku it had now delisted a 9/10 Resident Evil Requiem review from veteran UK website Videogamer.com after concerns were raised about its authorship following cuts to its human staff.

Videogamer's 543-word appraisal of Requiem, still live on its own website, is published under the byline of "experienced iGaming and sports betting analyst" Brian Merrygold. Alas, Merrygold does not appear to exist. His profile image includes a URL that suggests it was created by ChatGPT in October last year, the same month a social media profile for the author was created that's yet to be used.

Merrygold's persona, along with several others on the website, have been used to publish what appears to be AI-generated gambling slop on Videogamer over the past few months. Kotaku reports that Videogamer's new owners Clickout then began using these same personas for video game coverage this month, after human writers were made redundant.

"The RE Requiem review and a handful of other Videogamer reviews from 2026 have been removed," Metacritic co-founder Marc Doyle acknowledged.

"Metacritic has been a reputable review source for a quarter century and has maintained a rigorous vetting process when adding new publications to our slate of critics," he continued. "However, in certain instances such as a publication being sold or a writing staff having turned over, problems can arise such as plagiarism, theft, or other forms of fraud including AI-generated reviews.

"Metacritic's policy is to never include an AI-generated critic review on Metacritic and if we discover that one has been posted, we'll remove it immediately and sever ties with that publication indefinitely pending a thorough investigation."

Metacritic's warning comes at a time when all kinds of journalism face an existential crisis due to the rise of AI. From the ability to quickly conjur up regurgitated opinions scraped together from elsewhere, to the fact that search engine article discovery is quickly being replaced by AI summaries, the landscape is much changed. Metacritic's warning, meanwhile, suggests the company thinks it likely this won't be the only attempt to get AI slop past its filters.

"Like the result of an experiment conducted in an underground Umbrella Corporation lab, Resident Evil Requiem successfully splices two separate strains of survival horror together into the one highly infectious new mutation," IGN wrote in our human-authored Resident Evil Requiem review, awarding the game 9/10.

IGN's Resident Evil Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.

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

Sony is reportedly pulling away from PC when it comes to single-player PlayStation games to focus more on console exclusivity.

Various comments from credible sources, including Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier and Digital Foundry’s John Linneman, indicate PC has become less important for Sony, and that single-player PlayStation exclusives may remain just that.

Speaking on the Triple Click Podcast, Schreier indicated that Sony will continue to release its live service games on PC as well as PlayStation, but “the sense I'm getting is that they're backing away from putting their exclusive console stuff like traditional single-player stuff on PC.”

Schreier pointed to Insomniac’s Wolverine, due out on PS5 exclusively this September, which he suggested may never come to PC.

Schreier then suggested Sony hasn’t seen significant commercial success putting its single-player games on PC. “It doesn't seem like it's going to be that big of a blow,” he added. First-party single-player PlayStation games that have made the jump to PC include Marvel's Spider-Man, God of War, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, and Days Gone.

In a post on ResetEra, Schreier said his comments were “not speculation, but sometimes topics come up on the show before I'm quite ready to publish a story about them. More to come soon I'm sure.”

Digital Foundry’s John Linneman said something similar on Digital Foundry Direct. “I actually have an inkling that they’re pulling away from PC,” Linneman said. “Watch this space. I get the feeling that under the current leadership, PC has become less important.”

“One might argue that the Jim Ryan era, the one positive thing to come out of it is this shift to PC. But I’m not confident they have a huge vision for PC going forward. Not to say we won’t still see some PC games happening. But I think it’s not going to become more PC focused. I think if anything it’s going to become less. This is the reason I don’t think they would ever consider a PC launcher, like going bigger on PC at the expense of console. I think console is where they want to be.”

IGN has asked Sony for comment.

Sony has in recent years expanded PlayStation to PC, but refrained from going as far as console rival Microsoft, which releases all its games on PC at the same time as console. Sony, however, has employed a staggered approach, releasing its single-player PlayStation games on PC after a period of console exclusivity. When it comes to live service games like Helldivers 2 it’s a different story, with Sony publishing on PC day-one — and in the case of Arrowhead’s third-person action game, to record-breaking success. Indeed, Sony-owned Bungie is about to launch live service extraction shooter Marathon across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S at the same time. Guerrilla’s live-service multiplayer Horizon spinoff, Hunters Gathering, is set for PC and PS5, as is MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls.

The reports cast doubt on the likes of Wolverine ever coming out on PC. But there are more games to consider here. We had assumed Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yōtei would eventually hit PC having launched on PS5 last year, but will it? Will Housemarque's Saros?

It’s worth noting recent reports that Sony may have to delay the release of the PlayStation 6 to 2028 or even 2029 as a result of the AI-fueled chip crisis. In January, an analyst report suggested that Sony may push the launch of the PS6 beyond 2028 and lengthen the PS5 lifecycle. David Gibson, senior analyst at MST international who focuses on game and tech companies, predicted that “rising memory prices will not impact short-term performance thanks to Sony’s existing inventory.” However, he noted that increased memory costs could become an issue for Sony in the next fiscal year (ending in March 2027), saying “Sony might pass future cost increases onto consumers.”

With that in mind, doubling down on PS5 as the home of exclusive games may help reinforce the console’s value for PlayStation fans, and encourage sales.

This month Sony announced the shock closure of Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the remakes of both Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls. Sony still operates PC port specialist Nixxes Software, which it bought in 2021.

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.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. With over 1,000 pocket monsters to collect, battle, and trade, dozens of mainline and spinoff games, a lucrative trading card game, various animated shows and movies, as well as a plethora of merchandise, Pokémon is one of the most profitable franchises in the world. It also happens to be my favorite.

I’ve spoken ad nausea about how much I love Pokémon. I’ve collected all but one of the mainline games, my room is adorned with statues, posters, and plushies of my favorite monsters, and my social media profiles are labeled with custom Pokémon artwork. This franchise means more to me than any other. And for this Access Designed, in honor of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, I want to explore how its relatively consistent accessibility has shaped me, not only as a disabled player, but as a disabled reporter.

Catching Them All

My first introduction to the series wasn’t a video game. It was actually a single trading card: a Machop, effortlessly holding a massive boulder above its head. My older brother had been forced to reluctantly share it with me. And from that moment on, all I wanted was to collect more. I watched my brother trade with his friends, slowly developing my favorites from afar.

It wasn’t until the age of five, when my mother picked me up from kindergarten with a copy of Pokémon: Blue Version, that I experienced my first foray into the digital world of Pokémon. Back in 1999, my disability had yet to progress to where it is now. Yes, I was weak and required a wheelchair, but my hands had yet to atrophy into their current shape, and so it was far easier to use handheld consoles like the Game Boy. And because early Pokémon games had simplistic movement and play-at-your-own-speed turn-based combat, I could spend hours catching and battling without physical fatigue or strain.

For years, well into Pokémon’s third generation with games like Ruby, Sapphire, Fire Red and Leaf Green, that classic, accessible gameplay design remained the same. While the different iterations of Game Boys changed their shapes and sizes, Pokémon’s overall play style was the only accessibility constant in my gaming life. Whether relaxing after school or stuck in an ICU room with IVs and tubes coming from my body, I was always able to play Pokémon.

When Change Creates Conflict

Pokémon’s inclusive gameplay design is inherent to its overall accessibility. The games are meant to be played by everyone, with difficulty being exclusive to the individual. Do you want to breeze through the game with just your starter and a legendary? Go for it. Do you want to build an intricately competitive team with proper stat distribution and type matchups? Nothing is stopping you. There is a level of freedom offered by Pokémon games that, for me, is unmatched in terms of accessible design.

Even as Nintendo evolved, with new handhelds that chased new ambitions, Pokémon’s core gameplay loop remained the same. While the DS and 3DS games used the touchscreen for minigames, I was still able to play the entirety of each Pokémon entry released on those consoles. That streak was brought to an end, though, with the release of the first Pokémon game for the Nintendo Switch.

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee were released in 2018. They are both remakes of the original generation’s Yellow Version, albeit with some notable differences. All Pokémon are visible on the overworld, making it easier to find your favorites and even hunt for elusive shinies. The overall difficulty is significantly easier, with an emphasis on attracting a new generation of Pokémon fans. Both of those changes were more than welcome. But the most controversial difference was the inclusion of forced motion controls.

Catching Pokémon meant flicking the Joycon, imitating throwing a Pokéball to activate the controller’s motion systems. There was no alternative to this mechanic, no ability to catch using traditional controls. For the first time ever in a mainline entry, Pokémon changed one of its core gameplay principles, and the result was a less accessible game. For the first time in my life, I was unable to play a Pokémon game due to its overall inaccessibility. And while I wasn’t disappointed to be missing another first-generation remake, I was fearful that this gimmick would set a precedent for future games.

In 2018, I wrote my first article exploring the negative accessibility impact of the Let’s Go games. In a uniquely beautiful, full circle moment, the series that was my accessibility constant helped launch my career as a disability and accessibility reporter. With gaming journalism in this field still within its infancy, it was refreshing to see a publication take a chance on a new writer to essentially call out one of the largest franchises in the world. My piece was deeply personal, but also spoke to the greater concerns of accessibility as a whole – can innovation be dangerous in the face of accessibility? Thankfully, Let’s Go were the only games to incorporate forced motion controls, but Pokémon continues to try to innovate.

An Uncertain Future

Pokémon’s recent Legends entries once again redefine what it means to capture and battle powerful monsters. While 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus kept the series’ classic turn-based battle system, it implemented real-time catching without providing any accessible tools. And so while I was able to play Arceus to completion, I needed to use a specialized controller in combination with Nintendo’s native system accessibility settings, activated through the Switch itself rather than in-game. Fast forward to 2025’s Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and for the first time in a Pokémon entry everything was real-time. It meant that I found it a struggle to play for consecutive hours. So while I did complete both Legends games, I did so while grappling with a level of physical fatigue and strain that I’ve never experienced with Pokémon before. And even though I love these new interpretations of this 30 year-old classic series, I’m slightly apprehensive when thinking about the future of Pokémon. Will there be another Let’s Go-esque game I can’t play? I don’t know, and that quite frankly terrifies me.

I will always love Pokémon. I will always view it as my emotional comfort series. And as I’ve grown, I’ve learned to appreciate the nuances behind each game. Competitive battling, shiny hunting, and even Pokédex completion have historically been aspects of each game that I can comfortably engage with despite my physical disability. While I’ve become hesitant to let my accessibility guard down with new games and announcements, Pokémon’s vast library means I can always return to my comfort place. And for that reason alone, I’m excited to see where the next 30 years take us.

Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.

Amazon is going through something of a massive restocking mission this week for Pokémon cards, and it comes at just the right time for Pokémon Day and the 30th anniversary celebrations.

There's a whole bunch of great deals already live (including discounts on cards, games, and toys), but I wanted to draw attention to one of the best deals out there right now as well.

That's on the Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet - Journey Together Booster Bundle, which is now back in stock at Amazon, and with a significant reduction to boot.

Magic: The Gathering has kicked off its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set prerelease weekend, but one product has been tougher to find than even Collector Boosters - the Pizza Bundle.

New for this set, it’s a bundle of packs and bonus goodies intended to look like, well, a pizza box, and it includes a Collector Booster - but is it worth picking up at Amazon right now?

The much-delayed Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse currently has a June 18, 2027 release date. If the animated movie does hit that date, it’ll arrive four years after 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse, and eight years after 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse came out. So, what’s taking so long?

In an interview with io9, Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller explained the hold-up. They said that a lot of the delay had to do with the pressure they put on themselves to outdo the previous two movies, which enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim, and the sheer amount of work required to come up with something that will do just that. Then there were issues that came with the decision to split the sequel in two, and subsequently having to piece it back together to create not just a coherent trilogy, but coherent individual movies.

“At one point it was one movie, but there was too much movie there, so it was separated into two,” Miller explained. “But then once you looked at that second half of a movie, you’re like, ‘Well, that’s like not just a story arc that has a beginning, middle, and end.”

“We know where it’s headed, but we need to understand better what’s happening in the middle,” Lord added. “And we came upon a really wonderful notion, which is when your family is broken apart by your calling, your talents, how do you put them back together? How do you have it all?”

“We put the most pressure on ourselves,” Miller went on to say. “There’s no one that puts more pressure on us than ourselves, wanting to outdo ourselves each time and see things that you haven’t seen before and make it feel like something you’ve never experienced before. And so, trying to get something that is as worthy as the previous two has been the driver.”

“Having to take it apart to put it back together again was really, really [the] real thing that made it take longer,” Miller said.

Then there was, as Lord put it, the “small detour” that was Project Hail Mary. That’s the upcoming Ryan Gosling adaptation of the 2021 hard sci-fi novel of the same name that Lord and Miller directed. That’s a pretty big detour, I’d say.

As it stands, Beyond the Spider-Verse is a little over a year away. So what can we expect? Daniel Kaluuya, who played Hobart "Hobie" Brown / Spider-Punk in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is set to play the same character in Beyond the Spider-Verse (he’s also set to reprise the role in a Spider-Punk animated spinoff).

Marvin Jones III, who voices supervillain Tombstone in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is also set to reprise his role for Beyond the Spider-Verse. (He’ll play a live-action version of the character in this year’s MCU movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day, too.)

Last year, Sony released the first photos of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse during its CinemaCon presentation. Check them out in the gallery below.

Footage screened for attendees began with a voiceover from Miles: “You can’t ask me… not to save my father.” The footage then pulled back through trippy sky colors and images from the last movie with dialogue excerpts. Miles was seen fighting his evil self and walking into a dark tunnel with others behind him. Then his line from the last movie — “Imma do my own thing” — was heard before confirmation of what was then a June 4, 2027 release date.

Story wise, Lord said Beyond the Spider-Verse picks up right after the events of Across the Spider-Verse, and that Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales’ friends may or may not be enough to save everyone.

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.

Resident Evil Requiem has landed on Steam, and is now the series' biggest launch to date on Valve's PC platform.

At the time of writing, 230,210 people are playing Capcom's latest chapter of survival horror on Steam — though shortly after launch, a peak of 267,509 users were in-game concurrently.

That figure marks Resident Evil's best ever numbers on Steam, up from the 168,191 peak for Resident Evil 4 Remake in March 2023, and the 106,631 who turned up for Resident Evil 7 back in 2021. It also paints a pretty positive picture for the game's sales performance overall.

Of course, these numbers reflect just a fraction of the overall number of players now getting started in and around Raccoon City. Requiem is also available on PC via Epic Games Store, and of course has launched on consoles for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, where many more will be playing.

IGN has much, much more to help get you started with Resident Evil Requiem as smoothly as possible. After checking its global release times, we also have a guide to how long Resident Evil Requiem is, and there's been word today of a day 1 patch for Switch 2. Once you have got started, we also have a pointer to the game's most perplexing challenge that you can get started with early on.

"Like the result of an experiment conducted in an underground Umbrella Corporation lab, Resident Evil Requiem successfully splices two separate strains of survival horror together into the one highly infectious new mutation," IGN wrote in our Resident Evil Requiem review, awarding the game 9/10.

IGN's Resident Evil Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.

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

There's a whole bunch of great Pokémon deals available right now online as part of Pokémon Day and the 30th Anniversary celebrations. That includes Pokémon TCG as well, with Amazon going through something of a massive restocking mission this week, and at just the right time.

The biggest highlights from Amazon's selection include the Journey Together Booster Bundle, now back in stock, and scoring a sizable reduction. It's now just $34.97 at Amazon, but I can see these selling out fast today, so snap one up ASAP.

Ascended Heroes - Elite Trainer Box, now available and in stock for trainers, matching market price at $119,99 as well, alongside the Pokémon Day 2026 Collection, which, considering the ongoing 30th anniversary celebration, should absolutely be at the top of your buy list right now.

This features a specially stamped foil Pikachu promo card, a metallic coin featuring the 30th anniversary logo, and a random variety of three booster packs from Phantasmal Flames and Mega Evolution.

While the stamped foil promo card of Pikachu isn’t a unique illustration, its status as the first official 30th-anniversary product might be worth something to completionists in a few years. I’d recommend picking up two if you’ve got the space - one to hold onto as an investment, one to rip.

You can also secure both of these at TCGplayer right now at slightly reduced prices (without considering delivery), but I'll leave it up to you to decide where you want to buy today.

Beyond the headliners, it’s also worth flagging last year’s Prismatic Evolution-themed Pokémon Day 2025 collection, which Amazon has quietly restocked at $40.64.

The set comes with two Prismatic boosters, a metallic Eevee coin, and a foil Eevee promo stamped with the Pokémon Day 2025 logo. It pairs nicely with the new 2026 collection if you’re looking to bulk out a themed pickup.

Stock has also resurfaced on a few other notable bits, including the Phantasmal Flames Three-Pack Blister at $32, the Mega Lucario ex Figure Collection, and several Scarlet & Violet Unova-era items like the Poster Box, assorted tins, and the Illustration Collection.

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

Nintendo has advised fans to ensure they have Resident Evil Requiem's day one patch installed before beginning the game on Switch 2.

The Resident Evil Requiem "Day 1 Patch" will bring the game up to Version 1.1.0, Nintendo said, in an update issued in the early hours of the game's launch day today, February 27.

In a note on its official website, Nintendo said Version 1.1.0 included "several fixes," though did not go into further detail. "Please be sure to apply the 'Day 1 Patch' before playing the game," it continued. It's likely the update will begin updating automatically — though be sure to connect online to receive it.

Resident Evil Requiem is the first new Resident Evil game to simultaneously debut on a Nintendo platform in many years — since Resident Evil: Revelations on 3DS back in 2012. In the meantime, Nintendo platforms have received cloud versions and various belated ports — and indeed, Resident Evil 7 and Village also both launch for Switch 2 today.

In a recent video interview published to Nintendo's YouTube channel, Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi admitted that the game's development team had been "skeptical" about Switch 2's ability to run the game — but quickly decided it would be able to run the full game "as-is" after seeing the hybrid console's horsepower in action.

"Like the result of an experiment conducted in an underground Umbrella Corporation lab, Resident Evil Requiem successfully splices two separate strains of survival horror together into the one highly infectious new mutation," IGN wrote in our Resident Evil Requiem review, awarding the game 9/10.

IGN's Resident Evil Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.

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

The Marathon Server Slam is off to a quick start, with impressive player numbers on Steam.

As part of the Server Slam event, Bungie’s extraction shooter was made available to download for free across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S yesterday, February 26, allowing players to give it a shot over the weekend.

Marathon hit a peak of 143,621 concurrent players on Steam, although the true figure across all platforms will be higher (neither Microsoft nor Sony make player numbers public). And while the Server Slam is free and Marathon will cost $39.99 when it launches proper next week, the numbers do suggest significant interest.

Perhaps a useful comparison is to rival extraction shooter Arc Raiders, which went on to enjoy enormous success and huge sales after a similar server slam event ahead of launch and the same price point. Arc Raiders’ stress test hit a peak of 189,668 concurrent players on Valve’s platform. Marathon is behind that for now, but its peak number will surely grow as we head into the weekend and more people are available to play.

Already, Bungie has signalled it is gathering feedback from players, and said it will make updates during the Slam itself and “tie up any loose ends” ahead of launch on March 5. In a post on social media, Bungie outlined a number of bugs it’s working to fix, but perhaps of most interest is an acknowledgement of feedback on Marathon’s user interface.

If there’s one aspect of Marathon that has been roundly criticized, it’s the UI. Some players are saying they’re finding the icons of items unintuitive, and there’s too much visual clutter, which makes navigating the menus trickier than it should be.

“We've heard your thoughts and want to hear more!” Bungie said on the UI feedback, before pointing players to its Discord. It seems unlikely the developer will be able to make any meaningful change here before launch, but hopefully tweaks can be made sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, Bungie said it had received reports that PvP isn’t frequent enough overall. It offered some tips for players hoping to engage in PvP more often.

“Perimeter (Beginner) intentionally infils fewer Runners,” Bungie said. “Head to Perimeter and then Dire Marsh for a greater challenge. Additionally, the UESC are deadlier than you might think and will wipe you off the map (thus limiting the lobby's PvP opportunities) if you let them swarm.”

The Marathon Server Slam ends at 10am PT on March 2, with rewards available for testing the servers.

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.

Where Winds Meet is taking us back to "one of China's most glorious eras," the Tang Dynasty, with its next major update, the Hexi expansion, which kicks off, for free, on March 5.

Between March and May, the team will release Hexi's three chapters in sequence, taking wanderers "from desert to ice fields to grasslands," starting with Jade Gate Pass next week.

"In ancient China, friends would write poems for each other. Think of these three chapters as our poem to all of you," the team explained, stressing that this marks "a much more cinematic approach to storytelling" that feels "quite different from our previous storytelling."

Set in a vast desert landscape, developer Everstone Games said the Hexi expansion represents the "biggest expansion since the game’s launch, and will offer up brand-new narratives, new bosses, fresh gameplay features, and martial art styles." We can expect three major maps, which, combined, boast nearly 20 sub-regions, 11 unique bosses, seven Jianghu Legacies, "dozens" of side quests, and "so much more." There's also a new path called Bamboocut-Dust, with two new martial arts for Umbrella and Roped Dart. Umbrella's Spring Dreamscape is "all about agility," while Rope Dart's Fleeting Clouds is "all about big, sweeping AOE attacks."

The stream showed off some of those aforementioned boss fights in detail;, including Jade Gate Pass' campaign boss, Guo Xin, the aging general and last grand protector who "remains at his post defending the land to the very end." He'll come at you with "sweeping combos and summon veterans to fight alongside him," so you'll need to use your deflects wisely to protect against his attacks. His second phase, on the other hand, boasts "sands swirl and time reverses" as the call of his army "jostles him back to his prime," enabling him to unleash his full power.

We also get a sneak peek at Wandering Ark, which, I'm delighted to say, is exactly what it sounds like — a huge ship. Once a messenger, it's now obsessed with finding its way home through the desert. If you hang on after the main presentation finishes, there's also a good chunk of the battle against Hexi's Moongazing Maiden boss fight, too, where all the skills and weapons are related to the moon.

While the stream focused primarily on the desert, we also paid fleeting visits to the upcoming Liangzhou and Qingchuan maps, too. The former is a city known for its fine wine and precious jade in our first snow mountain region, and the latter, your final destination, where you'll cycle through all four seasons on one map and find warring factions everywhere you turn.

Best of all, though, Everstone stressed that all your progress carries over from season to season, including character levels, talents, and arsenals, so there's "no need to start from scratch."

As for goodies? Here's just some of what you can expect:

• 30+ Lingering Melody
• 90+ Resonating Melody (includes pulls obtained via free Echo Jade earned through exploration)
• 100+ Appearances and items
• Win exclusive Whirl of Radiance outfit (obtained through exploration)
• 100+ Exquisite Rewards, including Appearances like Burlap Sack, Bride's Bloom, War Drum and more, the White-Headed General Avatar, the Radiant Horizons Nameplate, and the Who Else? And Pluck Stars Emotes

That's not all! Everstone also revealed a slew of new quality-of-life updates, too, which we've summarized below:

Cross-platform optimization and improved stability

• Performance and stability optimizations:
  • Performance and memory usage have been optimized across all platforms. This effectively reduces crashes, ensuring a more stable and reliable overall experience.
• Dynamic scene enhancements:
  • Optimized object motion in dynamic scenes to make screen transitions and movement processes smoother and more natural.
• Unified cross-platform experience:
  • Through comprehensive adjustments across all platforms, we have improved the consistency of the gameplay experience on different devices.
  • Optimized notifications for Compendium, Achievements, Events, Martial Arts, and Guilds. We hope to ensure timely and clear information delivery for all players while minimizing distractions and repetitive alerts.

Console control upgrades and smoother interactions

• PS5 controller optimization:
  • Adjusted controller inputs for the Taiping Mausoleum and select events to enhance intutitiveness and handling.
• Focus and cursor display optimization:
  • Optimized the logic for controller focus display and fixed cursor issues, making UI navigation clearer and more stable.
• Polished console experience:
  • Further improved interaction details on consoles to minimize control interference and improve overall gameplay experience.

Inventory management upgrades

• Recycling and sorting improvements:
  • Optimized the interaction of the recycling interface to support the quick recycling of multiple item types, improving sorting efficiency.
• Fast recycle now available:
  • Added a Fast Recycle function to quickly process expired, discarded, and recyclable items in bulk.
• Item categorization and stacking optimization:
  • Introduced new item categorization methods and increased the stack limit for certain Life Materials, keeping your inventory clean and organized.

Gameplay and social updates

• Guild gameplay updates:
  • Added various Guild-related gameplay modes and challenges to enrich combat styles and play choices.
• Guild War optimization:
  • Adjusted league and command mechanisms to reduce interference, ensuring smoother combat flow.
• Social feature upgrades:
  • Added multiple chat channels and group chat functions to facilitate interaction among players and allow sharing of Jianghu stories.

Where Winds Meet's Hexi expansion can be pre-downloaded from today (February 27). "To wrap up, Hexi is a cinematic open world experience. Three chapters, tons of creative storytelling. We really hope this passion project brings something fresh to all of you," the team said.

The Wuxia open-world action-adventure RPG set in ancient China debuted on PC and PlayStation 5 on November 14, topping 9 million players in just two weeks. The mobile version released on December 12.

It didn't take long for players to find creative — and highly amusing — ways to make use of the game's chatbot NPCs, including taking a novel approach to solving riddles by… simply telling the game's AI-powered chatbot NPCs that they have solved the game's riddles.

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 Day 2026 is a particularly special celebration for fans, as it's officially the 30th anniversary of the famous Red and Blue release in Japan in 1996. There's plenty of excitement going into the day, which also makes it one of the best times to check out the best deals on everything Pokémon.

TL;DR: The Best Pokémon Day Deals

Whether that's restocks or price reductions on the latest and greatest Pokémon TCG releases, or some sizable discounts for almost every Pokémon game on Nintendo Switch - I've done the hard work for you, and found the best offerings available today.

Pokémon TCG: Restocks and Best Prices

Quite surprisingly, there's actually a whole lot of great Pokémon TCG restocks and deals available right now online, with Amazon having some of the best around. The online retailer has gone through something of a massive restocking mission this week, and at just the right time.

Pokémon Day Finds at Amazon

The biggest highlights from Amazon's selection include the Ascended Heroes - Elite Trainer Box, now available and in stock for trainers to freely buy. It's matching market price, at $119,99 as well.

There's also the Pokémon Day 2026 Collection, which, considering the ongoing 30th anniversary celebration, should absolutely be at the top of your buy list right now.

Besides those standouts, I also wanted to highlight the Prismatic Evolution themed Pokémon Day 2025 collection that released last year. Listed for $40.64, Amazon has recently restocked the special edition set.

It includes two Prismatic boosters, a special metallic Eevee coin, and a foil Eevee card that features a unique Pokémon Day 2025 logo. That's absolutely worth picking up alongside the new 2026 collection, if I say so myself.

I also want to call out availability on the Phantasmal Flames - Three Pack Blister, for $32, alongside the Mega Lucario ex Figure Collection, and several of the Scarlet & Violet Unova series, like the Poster Box, Tins, and Illustration Collection.

Pokémon Day Finds at TCGplayer

TCGplayer has also pulled out all the stops for Pokémon Day, and has several of the most popular Pokémon TCG sets in stock and at market price.

In terms of sealed sets, I want to highlight the Perfect Order booster boxes, which are currently available for $201.18 market price at TCGplayer. That's a remarkably good price for the upcoming set releasing on March 27, and probably one of the best deals I've seen all year.

Featuring 36 booster packs, you're looking at about $5.50 per pack, which is as close to MSRP as I think we're ever going to get. Compare this to Phantasmal Flames booster boxes, which are currently going for $320 or more, this is a huge saving. I'd snap this up ASAP before prices spike again as we get closer to release day.

My next best suggestion is to consider The Pokémon Center Exclusive Ascended Heroes ETB, which is currently available for just $246.84 market price at TCGplayer. Considering this was selling for $400 just a few weeks back, I'd consider this one of the best deals available right now for the biggest Pokémon TCG fans out there.

Nintendo Switch Games on Sale Today

Amazon’s Woot store has been known to offer a bunch of deals in the past, but it might just have outdone itself this time around with its brand new "Video Games For All!" sale that includes a whole slew of Pokémon games on Nintendo Switch. Just use promo code LEVEL20 to access the new bargains.

The biggest standout is on Legends Z-A, which is down just $35.92 on Nintendo Switch. IGN's Rebekah Valentine gave the game an 8 out of 10 in her review last year, saying “Pokémon Legends: Z-A finally feels like Game Freak hitting its stride in Pokémon’s 3D era, with a fun setting to explore, a well-written story, and a total battle system overhaul that works surprisingly well.”

You can upgrade to the Switch 2 version digitally as well for just $10 after making your purchase, making this a certified bargain. But, and this is a big but, these are certified Pokémon Day deals that will expire by the end of today (February 27, 11:59 PM CT, to be exact). So, act fast to avoid disapointment.

Pokémon Funkos, Toys and Plushies

I couldn't wrap things up without at least mentioning several amazing Pokémon plushies that are on sale at Amazon right now. That includes an adorable and massive 20-Inch Torchic Squishmallow that's down to just $30.99, which is lowest price in the past 30 days.

There's also a great deal on Lugia and Snorlax 12-Inch plushies, which are just perfect, and also at 30 day price lows right now at $22.99 each (down from $34.99).

It's also worth mentioning the brand new lineup of Pokémon Funkos. A select few are now available, while several others are still up for preorder.

There are some bangers in here as well: an angry, electricity-summoning Pikachu, an angry, vine-summoning Venusaur, and more. Take a look and see if you want to order any from Amazon for Pokémon Day.

Pokémon LEGO Back in Stock and Now Available

There's also a trio of new Pokémon LEGO sets that are now available from today! There’s an adorable Eevee, a dynamic Pikachu, and a pricy (yet incredible) set depicting Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise. All sets are now back in stock and available to purchase, exclusively at the LEGO Store.

My favorite from this is definitely on the Eevee LEGO set. This LEGO version is definitely going to be popular, so I'd snap it up ASAP before it sells out again fast.

We recently built this set as well, so you can check out our full impressions over there. Long story short, it's a gorgeously designed set that manages to turn a pile of blocks into a smooth and fluffy-looking critter. In addition to the loveliness of this set, the price is right as well.

For more on Pokémon's 30th Anniversary celebrations, be sure to check out our roundup on best Pokémon games of all time.

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

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 8!

One of the big questions surrounding The Pitt Season 2 from the start has been what unexpected disaster will throw this already chaotic emergency room into complete turmoil. Last season, it was the mass shooting at Pitt Fest. This season, if these past few episodes are any indication, it’s the steadily worsening fallout caused by a ransomware cyberattack. As Season 2 moves past the halfway mark, it’s only becoming more intense and stressful a viewing experience, which is exactly where the show shines best.

Episode 8 is definitely at its strongest early on, when we see the doctors and nurses scrambling to come to terms with the fact that they’ve just been cut off from every digital lifeline they’ve come to take for granted. It’s an especially ironic twist given how much Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) has been pushing generative AI on her underlings. The sense of fear and unease is palpable in these scenes. That’s what happens when you ask a hospital staffed primarily with students and interns to suddenly backpedal 20 or 30 years into the past.

Adding to the tension here is the fact that Dana (Katherine LaNasa) is otherwise indisposed, forcing Princess (Kristin Villanueva) to step up as temporary charge nurse. It’s both entertaining and anxiety-inducing watching her struggle to stay afloat, particularly as it becomes clear her support staff aren’t The Pitt’s best and brightest. Even in the most frantic of times, The Pitt finds room for a little humor.

As with last week’s episode, LaNasa is really dominating the screen at the moment. We see two very different sides of Dana over the course of “2:00 PM.” First, she’s the calm, compassionate source of strength as she guides the sexual assault victim through a very difficult process of gathering evidence. That only changes when Dana finally explodes in righteous fury upon discovering that the previous evidence kit was never picked up. Then she transitions into a more familiar mode, taking command of the E.R. and instilling order through sheer force of will. It’s a very strong and layered performance from LaNasa, who may well turn out to be the MVP of Season 2.

Elsewhere in the ER, the series manages to continue building on Dr. Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) subplot in a compelling way. Following Langdon’s brief but emotionally crushing conversation with Robby (Noah Wyle) last week, he’s now silently feuding with Dr. Santos (Isa Briones). It’s a reunion the series needed to get around to eventually, given that Santos is the one responsible for exposing Langdon last season. I enjoyed how their conflict played out here, with Langdon trying to reassert himself as a resident and Santos responding with cold hostility. With each exchange, you can see Langdon contemplating whether to speak up or silently take his lumps and keep moving forward.

Conversely, there’s a great scene between Langdon and Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif), who is much more understanding of and empathetic towards Langdon’s plight. Given McKay’s own personal demons, it makes sense to position her as one of Langdon’s few allies in an otherwise hostile workplace. Season 2 hasn’t been great about using Dourif to her fullest, but moments like this go a long way toward rectifying that problem.

Overall, “2:00 PM” serves as a very solid addition to Season 2. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of certain recent installments, but the combination of strong character drama, fascinating medical cases, and occasional bursts of humor is a very effective one. There’s just one fly in the ointment, and his name is James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson).

I wish the series weren’t quite so determined to make us hate Ogilvie. It’s an odd choice, considering how well-rounded most of the characters are. Even Ogilvie’s fellow student doctor Joy (Irene Choi) has been coming into her own of late. But with Ogilvie, we have this oddly two-dimensional caricature of a doctor who’s defined by two traits: He’s an insufferable know-it-all, and he has a startling lack of compassion for his patients. In the wake of his behavior in this episode, it’s getting to the point where I want the show to borrow a page from its cousin series, E.R., and drop a flaming helicopter on top of Ogilvie. I’d just as soon the series not make me feel that way about any of its ensemble characters.

Netflix has announced that it has declined to raise its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, meaning Paramount Skydance now has a clear path to win the bidding war for the company in charge of Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, the DC Universe, and much more.

Netflix shared a memo today that included its response to WB's board of directors, who said Paramount's latest proposal was "superior" to the existing merger agreement it had with Netflix.

"The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval," Netflix's co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters wrote. "However, we've always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.

"Warner Bros. is a world-class organization, and we want to thank David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process. We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.' iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S. But this transaction was always a 'nice to have' at the right price, not a 'must have' at any price.

"Netflix's business is healthy, strong and growing organically, powered by our slate and best-in-class streaming service. This year, we'll invest approximately $20 billion in quality films and series and will expand our entertaining offering. Consistent with our capital allocation policy, we'll also resume our share repurchase program.

"We will continue to do what we've done for more than 20 years as a public company: delight our members, profitably grow our business, and drive long-term shareholder value."

Paramount's latest $31 per share also offer gives shareholders extra cash for each quarter the deal would fail to close after this year (about $650 million), and it would cover the $2.8 billion it would owe Netflix for walking away from the existing agreement.

So, as it ends, Netflix's nearly $83 billion deal couldn't quite match the roughly $111 billion deal from Paramount.

This is a change of tune, as Warner Bros. had mentioned to its shareholders two months ago that it should reject Paramount's takeover bid for the company.

Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

Secretlab recently opened up preorders for its highly anticipated lineup of Titan Evo Pokémon gaming chairs, and what better time to pick up one of these coveted chairs than on Pokemon Day. None of these chairs are discounted (and I don't expect any sale to happen in 2026), but you don't have very many options anyway. In fact, this is the only officially licensed Pokemon themed gaming chair that's sold in the United States.

Preorder the Secretlab Titan Evo Gaming Chair for Pokemon Day

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

Spoilers follow for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 8, “The Life of the Stars,” which is available on Paramount Plus now.

It’s a funny thing with Starfleet Academy. While the show has often had me raising an eyebrow Vulcan-style when trying to compute some of the story or in-universe developments, by the time the closing credits roll that stuff typically winds up not mattering that much to me. I think this is because the bigger story and emotional stakes involving our core group of cadets just work so well that any nerdy inconsistencies like, say, “why is a dead starship the spot for a training exercise,” or “would they really bring back a lieutenant all the way from Beta Quadrant just to help heal a traumatized group of students” just become non-issues.

Such is the case in “The Life of the Stars,” where we find Caleb (Sandro Rosta) and the gang still dealing with the tragic events which took place onboard the USS Miyazaki a few episodes back, with Zoë Steiner’s Tarima and Kerrice Brooks’ Sam confronting particularly rough circumstances. That this is framed around an amateur reading of the 1938 Thornton Wilder play Our Town is ultimately beside the point because of how resonant the episode winds up being.

Anyone who's been paying attention to PC hardware over the last few months probably isn't surprised that graphics card prices are going through the roof right now, mostly due to the ongoing RAM crisis. However, in its latest investors call, Nvidia has warned that the GPU shortage – at least for consumers – isn't going to end any time soon.

In the company's earnings call (via PCMag), Nvidia CFO Colette Kress explained that while gaming revenue for fiscal Q4 2026 was up 47% over Q4 2025, revenue for the segment dropped by 13% when compared to Q3 2026 likely due to the shrinking memory stock over the last few months. Kress further explained that "We expect supply constraints to be a headwind to gaming in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 and beyond".

Nvidia's fiscal year 2027 ranges from February 2026 to January 2027, which means we're in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 right now. You can open up Newegg and just look at GPU prices right now to see the immediate effect of these "supply constraints", but it's the "and beyond" that is concerning.

I've spoken to a couple of analysts over the last couple of months, and I've heard the same thing from them. Back when I spoke to Principal Analyst at Moor Insight and Strategy, Anshel Sag, he told me that he expects the memory shortage to extend into 2027 or 2028. From what Nvidia's CFO is saying here, it's starting to feel more likely that this is the reality we have to live with for the next year or so.

I've reached out to Nvidia for comment on this story, and I'll update this article if and when I hear back.

More Than Graphics Cards

It's important to note that this ongoing shortage affects more than just graphics cards. Because basically every piece of modern technology needs RAM to function, the shortage is likely to affect the entire gaming hardware landscape – likely leading to higher prices across the board.

Just a couple weeks ago Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana posted on Bluesky that the average selling prices for gaming hardware has skyrocketed in the last year. While this is likely due to more premium gaming devices entering the scene – like the Xbox Ally X and the PS5 Pro – increased hardware prices are already here.

I reached out to Piscatella for comment, and he reassured me that "given how quickly things are changing and evolving when it comes to component pricing and availability, setting firm expectations would be, in all honesty, a bit of a silly thing to do". But he followed that up by saying "a reasonable expectation would be the potential for sporadic out of stocks, the likelihood of further price increases and delays or pricing and availability adjustments for any new devices currently planned to be released."

We've already seen some of the latter happening. After all, just a couple weeks ago, Valve delayed the Steam Machine due to supply and pricing constraints. We're still a ways out from the next generation of consoles, but even if Sony and Microsoft were planning on putting those out any time soon, it's likely that they're at least considering pushing them back a bit.

It's still too early to know anything for sure, and I agree with Piscatella that setting firm expectations would be silly. But either way, gaming seems like its going to get at least a little bit more expensive this year.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

If you enjoy listening to music while you run, then this headphone deal is right up your alley. Best Buy has just discounted its inventory of open box "excellent condition" Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Open-Ear Wireless Sport Headphones to just $107.99. "Good" and "fair" condition units are also available for an even lower price. This headphone normally retails for $180 new. The OpenRun Pro 2 is the best non-earbuds headphones for running. While the AirPods Pro might be an excellent all-around earbud, the OpenRun Pro is a superior sport headphone when you need to be aware of your surroundings.

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Sport Headphones for $107.99

The LEGO Pokémon Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, which is available exclusively at the LEGO Store, is not the only LEGO Pokémon set hitting shelves; there is also a LEGO Pikachu and an adorable LEGO Eevee. But this Kanto Starter set is the biggest one (both in price and piece count) as well as the most ambitious.

The set comes in three separate boxes. Each contains one of the three Kanto Starters, plus its native environment. Venusaur poses in a jungle. Blastoise poses on a beach. And Charizard poses on an active volcano.

With this set, the LEGO designers have outdone themselves.

It might be hard to tell from the photos, but the Venusaur model is significantly larger than the other two, even before you add the plant elements onto its back. The designers hid the size contrast by how they positioned the Pokémon relative to one another. Venusaur's body hugs close to the low ground, Blastoise rides a mid-sized wave, and Charizard flies overhead. In Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, the Imagineers designed Cinderella's Castle with an optical illusion; the bottom floors of the castle are taller than the top floors of the castle, which had the cumulative effect of making the castle appear bigger, rather than making the floors seem disproportionate. The same basic principle of forced perspective applies here.

This build is varied and engaging. The environments use basic building principles we've seen many times before, but because you're building them in alternation with the Pokémon, the process never feels redundant or tedious. The decorative elements, like the flowers in the jungle and the eddies in the beach water, are a nice, varied touch.

The three Pokémon are a joy to build. There's a mounting excitement to building the torso and the limbs of these creatures, seeing familiar silhouettes begin to take shape. And finally, when you build the head of each Pokémon, you feel the unmistakable twinge of childish glee and recognition. This is exactly what you imagined a three-dimensional, physical Pokémon would look like, and it's amazing.

This set contains zero stickers; every graphic is printed directly onto the bricks themselves (or in Charizard's case, onto the cloth elements attached to his wings). It's a small concession, but for the amount we pay for sets of this magnitude and scope, it's a reasonable one.

There's a cool Easter egg buried inside each Pokémon's chest cavity; a symbol of their respective type. Charizard, for instance, has a little flame in his chest, and Squirtle has a water droplet. It reminds me of Build-a-Bear, which also imbues each of its animals with a sentimental heart.

While building this set, I appreciated how the designers' prior gems have paved the way for this one. The plating on Blastoise's shell is the same as the plating on The Mighty Bowser's shell, and the chunky limbs of all three Pokémon also recall LEGO Bowser's design. The cresting water elements are similar to the waterfalls in LEGO Rivendell. Even the rock formations have precedence; the fur on LEGO Chewbacca used a multi-color layering technique to create the illusion of depth, just as Charizard's environment differentiates between hot lava, cooling lava, and newly formed rock.

Once it's complete, you can pose the individual Pokémon separately – each mounted in its respective biome – or you can merge the biomes together to create an eye-popping centerpiece.

Six-hundred-fifty dollars is a lot to pay. But the time-honored "10 cents per brick" rule means a set like this would typically go for $700, and possibly as high as $750. LEGO kept the price proportionally low, even with a third-party partnership. It's surprising, but hopefully a harbinger of things to come.

In short, LEGO Pokémon Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise is a phenomenal set – one of the finest the company has designed. This is a hard-earned result; LEGO has always excelled in its design of buildings, spaceships, and living spaces, but less so with non-architectural builds, dominated by rounded surfaces and gentle curves. But no longer. With this set, the LEGO designers have outdone themselves, bringing all their recent innovations to bear on a single, incredible outcome.

LEGO Pokémon Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, Set #72153, retails for $649.99, and it is composed of 6838 pieces. It is available exclusively at the LEGO Store.

Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.

AMC Theatres is once again testing the waters to see if moviegoers are willing to pay higher prices for better seats at its theaters.

News of the chain’s plans to revise its seating strategy arrived in a message shared by CEO Adam Aron during a recent earnings call (via The Hollywood Reporter). After facing backlash for its now-cancelled Sightline initiative, which would have seen better seats made more expensive, the movie theater company says its preferred premier seating will reserve spots for A-List and Stubs Premiere members when it rolls out later this year.

“AMC will introduce preferred premier seating, where we will block and reserve the best seats in the house in our theaters to be accessed first by our A-List and our Stubs Premiere members — that’s the two VIP tiers within our Stubs program — at no added charge,” Aron said. “At AMC, we will assure that the best seats in our auditoriums are [held] — at first, anyway — for our best customers. We think it will be a considerable consumer benefit that our most frequent guests will notice and greatly appreciate, further cementing their brand loyalty to AMC.”

AMC’s “best customers” are those who pay a premium price to access benefits made available at supported theaters, including size upgrades for concessions, waived fees, rewards points, and, on the high end, access to four movie showings a week. Of its four available member tiers, Aron says only its most expensive offerings – the $18/month Premiere Stubs and the $20 to $28/month A-List – will be able to take advantage of preferred seating.

His comment suggests the “best seats” will eventually be made available for all movie fans regardless of their status. However, it’s unclear how long viewers would need to wait to land their preferred spots without paying extra.

Meanwhile, notable blockbuster movie experiences often sell out theaters weeks before they premiere, with many others likely to at least see spots located in the middle of the auditorium filled first. Like Avengers: Endgame before it, the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday will surely see moviegoers hopping into queues to try and nab the best seats. The new strategy will make securing spots opening weekend even more complicated, especially for those who can’t afford to spend the extra cash for better seats.

AMC has continued to experiment with its version of the theater experience in recent years. The company announced in 2025 it would be cutting Wednesday ticket prices in half in an effort to fill more auditoriums during the week. It followed that announcement by revealing that viewers would sit through more commercials ahead of their chosen movies before eventually announcing it would also be trimming its preshows.

Last February, AMC raised prices for its A-List members while altering benefits by allowing subscribers to see four movies per week instead of three. As the company introduces its preferred premier seating, it’s unclear if it also intends to increase prices yet again.

Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

2026 has already seen surges in the cost of RAM and GPUs. Unfortunately, this also affects the price of gaming PCs. Obviously this isn't an ideal time to be buying a new PC, but fortunately, there are still good deals to be found. If you're looking for a future-proof system, an RTX 5080 PC is powerful enough to set you up for 4K gaming for years to come.

The Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 gaming PC has dropped to as low as $2,229.99 with free delivery after a $600 instant discount. This is currently one of the least expensive RTX 5080 prebuilts you'll be able to get right now. Most other RTX 5080 prebuilts are currently priced at $2,500 and up.

For a limited time, get 2X rewards (6% back) when you sign in with a free Dell Rewards account. That's up to $150 back on your next purchase at Dell. This offer should be automatically applied when you checkout.

Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,230

The We Were Here series is the stuff of co-op magic, and at IGN Fan Fest 2026 we got to see its latest evolution. One look at the We Were Here Tomorrow trailer and it's clear the cult co-op series is taking a giant leap into new territory. Previously set in the labyrinthine rooms of an abandoned castle, We Were Here Tomorrow sets its perplexing puzzles in the raygun retrofuturistic looking Norcek facility. The core of the game – shouting at your friend through a walkie talkie as they prove to be dumber than you ever thought possible – remains the same, but there are other changes to go with the new look.

"It's a story that has some familiar characters and some totally new ones, and we've also done a lot with giving you new tools for puzzle solving and moving through the environment," said Martín Mittner, creative director at Total Mayhem games. "And we've done a ton of work on the walkie-talkies to keep you in the game instead of on Discord."

In case you've yet to experience the sometimes chaotic communication of the We Were Here series, there are two key roles: the Explorer and the Librarian. Usually the Explorer is the one faced with physically interacting with the puzzles, while the Librarian translates information only they can see through the walkie talkie that's key to the solution.

"What I'm really excited about is accentuating the differences between the two players even more, introducing a bit more asymmetry and giving each player a really unique perspective [and] role in the whole playthrough," added Thijs Schippers, the game's design director. "Yeah, that's in the DNA of this new title, through and through."

Both talked about how, as well as giving the designers a chance to work on something other than snowy castles, the change in setting allows for new environments and new setups for puzzles.

"If you've played We Were Here Forever, we did this what we called 'mind-bendy puzzle,' where you're inside a D12 die and you're doing these weird warps between dimensions and getting different information and stuff," said Mittner. "We're doing some more of that, right? There are sort of capstone puzzles that we're presenting that are very mind-bendy. It'll be really interesting to see players play through that. And also there's like a unique aspect to the storytelling we're doing that I can't really talk too in depth about. But it's going to be very different in some ways from previous titles. And it will be interesting to see how the players interact with each other surrounding the story."

We Were Here Tomorrow is coming to PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Head over to Steam and add the game to your Wishlist.

This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.

Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.

Apple iPhone users, check out this new deal on an ultra-slim MagSafe power bank that just popped up on Amazon. For a limited time, you can get a Lisen 5,000mAh QI2-certified wireless magnetic power bank for just $16.99 when you apply coupon code: "6ZKK2C3T" in cart. This is one of the slimmest power banks I've seen, especially one that's been updated with a newer, more powerful wireless charging standard, at an outstanding price.

Lisen Ultra Slim 5,000mAh Qi2 MagSafe Power Bank for $16.99