Here's a conundrum: Cooperative board games have wide appeal, but they tend to have a singular problem. Because everyone around the table wants to win, rather than genuine cooperation, there’s a tendency for groups to accept plans suggested by the most experienced or able player. Of the various ways to prevent this, the most successful has been to give players hidden information they’re not allowed to communicate.

The most extreme example is 2018 game The Mind where players aren’t allowed to talk at all, and simply have to rely on their innate sense of timing to lay cards in the correct numeric order. Take Time belongs in this group, but it’s trying to use a set of novel, simple mechanics to chart a worthwhile course between no communication at all, and heavyweight cooperative planning.

What’s in the Box

Take Time’s tiny box belies a wealth of goodness within, which you can sense by its weight. First up there’s a player deck of numeric cards, 24 in all, embossed in gold and set against fetching, complimentary shades of white and dark blue. Beneath there are a set of 12 envelopes, also embossed in gold and set with luminous art pieces depicting colorful, stylized scenes from nature. It’s a salutary lesson in how simple yet highly effective graphic design and artwork can elevate everyday game components into something glorious and eye-catching.

Most of the envelopes contain four clock discs, each with six points. While these are thinner cardboard and lack the gold that elevates the cards and envelopes, they’re still delightful things, carrying more of that rich, stylish nature art in slightly more muted colors. You’ll be playing cards at each of the points, and as soon as they’re on the table, the whole thing springs to life visually. The final component is a set of punch tokens which contain a clock hand and several cogs. They’re chunky and a little drab compared to everything else in the box, but that’s fine: they take a back seat during most of the play time.

Rules and How It Plays

The core game rules are very simple. Each player gets a hand of number cards which come in two colors that run from 1 to 12. In the center of the table is a clock face with six segments. One of these will be the starting segment and your goal, as a group, is to play cards so that the total in each segment runs from lowest in the starting segment and ascends to the highest in the final segment. The catch? Most of your cards must be played face down, and you’re not allowed to talk about your plays while making them.

So, you start to make logical deductions about what people are likely to have played. It’s up to the players – without discussion – to decide who’s going first so, intuitively, someone with a low card will likely play into the starting space and the group will understand that is probably a one, or a two. If the next player plays into the next space, it’s a good bet they’ve played a two (ties count as being part of the ascending order) or a three. Cards played straight into the final space are probably high, and so on. On this basis you can begin to figure your way around the puzzle, although deciding where to play your limited number of face-up cards is still an interesting choice. If no one reaches to open the play, for example, then it’s likely nobody has a low card so starting with a face-up mid-range option might be wise.

Each pack contains four clock faces and, from the very first challenge, there are additional requirements to frustrate you. That first face, for instance, requires the first segment to have a single white-color card in it, and the last segment can contain no more than three cards. So you can’t just dump high-values into that final space mindlessly and call it a day, as once you hit the three-card limit there’s a good chance the penultimate space might end up containing a higher total.

Take Time’s tiny box belies a wealth of goodness within.

Once the difficulty begins to scale, you’ll start making use of the game’s most ingenious aspect. Although you can’t communicate while you’re playing cards, you’re allowed to plan and strategize before anyone has looked at the cards they’ve been dealt. Initially this looks of limited value: how can you plan when you don’t know what values anyone has at their disposal? But there are still things you can do. The card colors are public knowledge, for example, as it’s reflected on the card backs, so in that first clock you can quickly see how many white cards have been dealt and whether you’re likely to have a low-value card to play into its first segment.

But that’s not all. The rules are purposefully vague about what you can discuss in this phase, only explicitly disallowing “codes or signals” during card play. This leaves cunning players with a wealth of ways to approach the game and increase the group’s chances. No spoilers, but once you understand the game flow you can be surprisingly creative in terms of forming a plan, and when imaginative proposals pay off on a difficult clock it is incredibly satisfying. But remember that you have to adhere to the dictum that you must not communicate in any way, even with devised codes, during the card-play phase.

If you’ve played a limited-communication cooperative game before, such as Hanabi, or Take Time’s spiritual predecessor The Mind, you’ll know this rule is hard to enforce. Sometimes a player forgets, and blurts something out by accident, or the preceding player will instinctively react to a play with a wince or a knowing smile, all of which gives out useful information. Some players find this vagueness troublesome: if that’s you, be aware that Take Time has nothing to ameliorate this issue. If not, it can actually be quite fun to watch how different groups interpret and enforce “no communication.” It’s a cooperative game, so it doesn’t really matter so long as you’re on the same page.

Curiously, the game has no final fail state. If you mess up on a clock face, you get to have an additional face-up play for each failure to a maximum of three, and then you keep going until you either succeed or give up. In the latter case, you place the clock into the delightfully named Sleeve of Regrets and move on. To win overall you must go back and ensure you pass all 40 tests although once you’ve at least attempted them, you can open a final sleeve for additional replayability. But how you actually approach this is up to you: Take Time is more interested in being surprising and fun than it is in whether a group wins or loses. It’s clearly supposed to be a cozy, cooperative time to be enjoyed together.

Although you can’t communicate while you’re playing cards, you’re allowed to strategize before anyone has looked at their cards.

From the initial clock face, you may be wondering how any of the subsequent puzzles get hard enough to make you want to skip them. Each new face introduces new rules and wrinkles, but these never become overwhelming. After the first three faces, for instance, you’re not allowed to have any segment total higher than 24. Later, some segments disallow certain cards, while others force you to draw new cards, and an increasing proportion will have one or more placement rules. The design has a fantastic knack of pulling the rug out from strategies you’ve become used to. If your new clock disallows laying your lowest cards on the first segment, and your highest on the last, working out how to get them in ascending order suddenly becomes a whole lot more challenging.

Amazingly, the lack of an absolute loss condition does little to undermine the excitement and thrill of play. Even with good communication and a full three bonus cards, there’s easily enough uncertainty about what’s around the clock to require thoughtful consideration before late cards, and ramp up the tension ahead of the final reveal. A group win is always gratifying, and it doesn’t take many losses before any given face begins to assume a daunting prospect, propelling you toward discussing new approaches, and offering ever-sweeter satisfaction when you finally take the win.

Where to Buy

• See it at Amazon
• See it at Asmodee

I'm what you might call a chronic last-minute gifter. Gifts just aren't one of my core love languages and I almost always forget to get something for other people until it's almost too late. Because of this, I have ample experience with picking out last-minute gifts that don't necessarily feel like I didn't put enough thought into them. Finding the perfect gift for someone right before christmas is an art, and I can help you craft a masterpiece.

The first thing to remember is that gift cards have a time and a place. There are some people on my list who are absolutely going to get a gift card this year, but that's because they prefer being able to make their own purchasing choice rather than leaving it up to me. For everyone else, it's all about trying to find something that feels thoughtful and doesn't require shipping.

1. Books

It's the perfect time to grab your trunk and check out of Hogwarts to move on to something new. If you don't plan on re-reading all seven books any time soon, there's nothing to fear as there are plenty of other brilliant books that will sate your appetite for fantastical storytelling. From magical school murder mystery novels to spell-teaching academies in the clouds, to low stakes fantasy to a boarding school for kids rejected from the mythical portals that once welcomed them; you'll find something to love in our list. So pick up your magic wand, settle into a comfy spot, and get ready to find some new favorite titles like Harry Potter worth reading in 2025 and beyond.

1. The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton

If you're looking for that feeling of being a new student at a magical academy, this is the perfect book for you. The Marvellers will make you feel like a little kid again, as Dhonielle Clayton guides us into the enchanting world of the Arcanum, a global magic school sitting high in the clouds. Ella is the school's first conjurer and she couldn't be more excited, but Arcanum isn't all that it's promised and there are secrets and mistrust behind the gilded doors. Clayton crafts a world you want nothing more than to join, but never shies away from the grim realities that would impact even the most magical of spaces. Ella is a dynamic lead and you'll come away from the Marvellers desperate to read more and rejoin Ella in her new magical world.

2. Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan's epic fantasy series has always been a great counterpoint / companion to the Boy Who Lived and is overall a fantastic coming-of-age story. Introducing readers to a world where the children of gods live among us, the first book follows Percy Jackson the son of Poseidon who must go on a dangerous journey to find a thief who has stolen Zeus' lightning bolts and clear his own name. These inclusive, thoughtful stories do a great job balancing the fantastical with the everyday featuring a hero with ADHD and Dyslexia and dealing with the sometimes hard realities of growing up. Riordan began writing these stories for his son, but the immersive, sprawling world he's created has become a favorite for readers around the globe and once you pick them up it's easy to see why.

You can check out our full guide to the Percy Jackson books in order or even check out the Percy Jackson series on Disney+ for more of this. The second season of the show has started on Disney+ as of December 2025.

3. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

Impossible Creatures is a fairly new series from author Katherine Rundell that has some serious Harry Potter vibes as a british children's fantasy novel. The story follows a young boy named Christopher who discovers a hidden archipelego of mythical creatues while visiting his grandfather. If you liked how well Harry Potter slowly introduced you to a hidden magical world through the perspective of a seemingly ordinary human, then this series is absolutely worth a try. There are only two books so far, but it has already been picked up by Disney for a live-action adaptation.

Fans expect Nintendo to soon make cheaper Switch 2 cartridges available to game publishers as a fresh alternative to Game-Key Cards, though one developer has said it expects its game to still cost around $10 more as it shifts to a proper game card.

In a statement today, R-Type Dimensions 3 publisher Inin Games initially said it would take advantage of two new Switch 2 cartridge size options that Nintendo will offer to developers currently stuck choosing between an expensive 64GB cart or a cheap Game-Key Card release.

Inin Games has now reworded that same statement to clarify that Nintendo itself has not made any announcement concerning cartridge storage capacities, and in a further post on social media said that any references it previously made "should not be interpreted as official information from Nintendo."

That corporate snafu aside, Inin Games is still now launching R-Type Dimensions 3 as a physical release where previously it was not, due to what its hastily-edited announcement now blandly describes as it being able to "recalculate the production in a way that wasn't possible before." (Such as with a smaller cartridge size, hypothetically.)

Game-Key Cards — mostly-blank cartridges that simply prompt users to download the game's contents — have proven unpopular among Switch 2 fans, though some developers have defended their use, saying they are necessary for games that otherwise would not fit on a 64GB cartridge, and a cheaper option for both publishers and players alike.

As if to demonstrate that, Inin Games has said it will switch its physical production run for R-Type Dimensions 3 to cartridges rather than Game-Key Cards, though at a higher price point that's €10 (just over $11) more expensive. Still, that's cheaper than the "at least" €15 higher price Inin Games previously said it would have cost players had it used the standard 64GB Switch 2 cards. Not that other, smaller cartridge sizes are confirmed for now, of course.

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 holiday season is fast approaching and there are plenty of Christmas and winter-themed events taking place all across Roblox. Many of them have already launched their holiday-centered updates, including advent calendars and daily login rewards. But if you haven't dipped your toe in yet, and you're looking for games to keep you entertained over the festive period, here are all the updates you can expect over the next few weeks.

99 Nights in the Forest Christmas Update

99 Nights in the Forest has sat near the top of the Roblox charts for months, showing that survival horror isn't just for Halloween. For the unfamiliar, the game involves trying to keep your character fed, warm, and sheltered while you rescue missing children and avoid a dangerous deer-like entity at night.

If like me, you love a spooky experience at any time of the year, then the Christmas Week updates are for you. In Part 1 of the Christmas update introduces elves that need saving, and help with their festive tasks. There's also a North Pole Biome and Christmas Shop, along with Santa's Helper as a new class. With Christmas Week 2 launching on December 20, there's lots more Christmas in the forest to be celebrated.

Fish It! Christmas Update

If you're a fan of Fisch, you're likely to be a fan of Fish It! The fishing simulator boasts over 1,000,000+ variations of fish for you to catch. A Christmas Event has been running in Fish It! for a week, introducing a huge new update that brought along a new island, 43 new fish, and a reworking of quests. Christmas Week 2 begins on December 21, where you can expect an expansion of the current event, and special luck admin event.

Brookhaven Christmas Update

Brookhaven is a roleplaying game where all of the inhabitants live on an island and can use vehicles and visit stores. The simulator experience regularly releases new items, clothing, and more to customize your character. On December 19, the Winter Festival begins. Expect ice skating, sledding, carols, festive rewards, and more in this new update.

Steal a Brainrot Christmas Update

Steal a Brainrot is a particularly popular Roblox experience where you'll need to capture Brainrots from a conveyor belt and keep them locked away from other players. You can steal Brainrots and have your Brainrots stolen, so we advise you stick close to that lockdown button if you want to protect your Secret Brainrots.

The North Pole event has been running for the past week, with new Christmas Brainrots and Festive Blocks available. Christmas Part 3 is scheduled to launch on December 20, so expect even more Christmas Brainrots to add to your collection.

Adopt Me! Christmas Update

Adopt Me! is a notoriously adorable experience that lets you collect and trade pets. Well, it's about to get a lot cuter and fuzzier, as winter descends on Adoption Island. We're already into Week 2 of the Adopt Me Christmas Week, which has seen the emergence of Snowball Pugs and the use of Yarn Beanies to tame them.

Christmas Week 3 is about to begin on December 19, and introduces a new Legendary Frost Phoenix. You'll also be able to spend the Gingerbread you've built up on the Cozy Misletroll in case you missed in the 2025 Advent Calendar. There will also be a special party with admin abuse hosted on December 20, where I'm sure even more rewards will be available.

As if that wasn't enough, on December 23, for one hour only, Adopt Me 2D Tuesday kicks off. You'll need to complete 20 needs to get a 2D Kitty that will give you double XP and Bucks.

The Forge Christmas Update

The Forge has quickly stormed the Roblox charts in recent months. The RPG is focused on mining for rare ores, rolling for different character classes that will give you special perks, and fighting off hordes of zombies and skeletons in underground caves. After releasing in Beta, The Forge is ready to launch its first big expansion.

Just before that takes place, there's another Luck Boost weekend coming on December 20. These have become a regular occurrence each weekend since the launch, and have helped people mine for rare ores like Rubies, which are essential for quests. On December 25, the Winter Expansion will begin, and though little has been revealed so far, there are talks of a third island, new armor, a blueprint system, and more.

Scary Shawarma Kiosk: The ANOMALY Winter Update

Shawarma and horror is probably not the first combination you'd think of, but the creators behind the Scary Shawarma Kiosk have created a simple experience with plenty of jump scares. Throughout your shift, you'll need to create shawarma and hand it to customers. The problem is, some of them are a little bit strange, and its in your best interest to shut the service window as soon as possible.

They'll be taking the Christmas Night Shift and giving it an ho-ho-horrifying twist with new anomalies and screamers disrupting your service. As part of the seasonal updates on December 20, The Narrator will also be joinig the horror experience during the New Year and Christmas shift.

Murder Mystery 2 Christmas Update

In Murder Myster 2, you'll play as either a Innocent, Sheriff, or Murderer. The idea is for the Innocents to hide and survive against the Murderer, while working with the Sheriff to try and identify the culprit. The Sheriff is the only person who can take down the Murderer. Meanwhile, the Murderer works hard to eliminate everyone before being caught.

Last week, the experience launched an enormous Christmas 2025 update. This brought with it daily quests, a battle pass, and Christmas Mystery Boxes. There's even a new Ski Village map and game mode, which is a seasonal Snowball Fight. This will run until January, but you'll also get the addition of Santa's List from December 20 to December 29. If you can find seven items hidden around maps, then you'll get a special reward of a Knife Skin from Santa.

Dandy's World Christmas Update

Another horror experience on Roblox is making sure it gives as much attention to the festive period as it does Halloween. If you've never played Dandy's World, it's a multiplayer survival horror, where you'll work together to go deeper into the Gardenview Center by completing machines.

The Christmas Event has already launched, but there's more coming on December 19 with the update that brings the Bobette and Coal quests, along with new skins. Then, on December 26 to January 2, you can expect to see the introduction of the New Years Calendar and even more holiday skins.

Dress to Impress Update

Dress to Impress is all about serving looks by creating outfits that you can strut on the runway. For the Winter Update, we're currently saying "bonjour" to Paris. The event launched on December 13 and has introduced snow, snowflakes, shimmer, and more. Each day, you can login to unlock a reward from the Winter Advent Calendar. There are also some adorable Gingerbread Onesies available.

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.

Late night maestro Jimmy Kimmel got emotional while reflecting on the difficult year he and his show endured during the final Jimmy Kimmel Live show of 2025, shedding some tears as he gave his opening monologue.

"Thank you for joining us here at our home in beautiful Hollywood, California, for what is our final show of the year," the host began on Thursday, December 18. "And this one, this has been a strange year. It's been a hard year."

He got a little choked up, but continued, "We’ve had some lows. We've had some highs. For me, maybe more than any year in my life. But on behalf of all of us — I'm crying already. I'm sorry."

Winter PC game sales have officially begun, making now the perfect time to stock up your library with some excellent new games to play over the holidays. Steam, Fanatical, GOG, Humble Bundle, and the Epic Games Store have each launched their respective Winter sales, and there's a treasure trove of discounts to look through right now while they're still live.

Winter PC Game Sales

Each of these sales is stacked with excellent discounts at the moment. Some of our favorites include The Game Awards' Game of the Year winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 getting a 28% discount, down to $35.99 at Fanatical; Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 dropping 50% to $29.99 on Steam; and Silent Hill f coming down 53% to $32.89 at Fanatical, but they're just the beginning.

Below, you can see a few more of our favorite offers from the various Winter sales right now. If you're curious to see the sales in full, just click on their individual links above.

• Doom: The Dark Ages - $34.99 (50% off)
• Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - $41.99 (40% off)
• Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition - $16.99 (66% off)
• Blue Prince - $17.09 (43% off)
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - $20.99 (30% off)
• Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition - $15.99 (60% off)
• Alan Wake 2 - $14.99 (70% off)
• Silent Hill 2 - $34.99 (50% off)
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - $23.99 (60% off)
• Battlefield 6 - $48.99 (30% off)

Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 is a winner all around, with critic Michael Higham writing in his review, "Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story."

With Christmas coming up next week, this is an excellent time to treat yourself to some new games to play over the holiday period. However, if you have to get last-minute shopping done right now for other people in your life with a love of games, we can help there as well. We've also gathered up the 10 best gifts for gamers to help you find the best gifts to give this year, from Xbox Game Pass gift cards to the sleek Meta Quest 3.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

There’s never really a bad time to be reading comics, but 2025 proved to be an especially strong year for the industry. From DC’s Absolute Universe and Marvel’s Ultimate Universe to Skybound’s Energon Universe and IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles relaunch, it’s never been easier or more rewarding to dive into the big franchises. And this was an equally great year for indie titles at publishers like Image Comics and Dark Horse.

Each December, the IGN team looks back at all the comics we’ve read over the past year and votes on which one we think is the greatest of them all. Now, the time has come to narrow down 2025’s lineup to the absolute best of the best and pick a winner. Keep reading to find out which book came out on top.

Honorable Mentions

As mentioned above, there’s rarely been a better time to dive into the big superhero properties, as publishers are making things more accessible than ever with reboots and relaunches like the Absolute Universe and Ultimate Universe. In fact, last year’s winner was Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri’s The Ultimates, and that remains one of the best books on the stands. The same goes for Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s Ultimate Spider-Man, Jason Aaron and Juan Ferreyra’s TMNT, and Daniel Warren Johnson’s Transformers.

Elsewhere in the industry, we were enamored by several Image Comics projects in 2025, including Johnson and Riley Rossmo’s fantasy adventure The Moon Is Following Us and Matt Rosenberg and Stefano Landini’s spy/revenge thriller We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us. It was also a great year for original graphic novels, including Mike Mignola’s Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown, Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux’s This Place Kills Me, and Craig Thompson’s Ginseng Roots.

Runner-Up: Assorted Crisis Events

One of the challenges this year was figuring out which of Deniz Camp’s various projects to single out. The Ultimates is still great, and his collaboration with Javier Rodriguez, Absolute Martian Manhunter, is equally strong. But in the end, we had to give the nod to Camp and Eric Zawadzki’s Image Comics series Assorted Crisis Events.

Assorted Crisis Events is a sci-fi anthology series set in a world where a cosmic calamity is causing the very laws of time and space to break down. It’s like Crisis on Infinite Earths, only it focuses on the ordinary men and women who have to soldier on as the world collapses around them. It’s a high-concept, deeply character-focused series that never fails to tug at the heartstrings.

Runner-Up: Batman - Dark Patterns

DC publishes so many Batman comics that, statistically, one of them was bound to end up on this list. But as much as we’re enjoying the flagship Batman title from Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez and the bombastic thrill ride that is Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman, there’s a slightly more under-the-radar Bat-book that has truly consumed our attention this year. That would be Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman’s Batman: Dark Patterns.

In many ways, Dark Patterns is the spiritual successor to the classic Legends of the Dark Knight series. It’s set earlier in Batman’s career and takes more of a detective, noir-laden approach to his nightly adventures. It’s also an expertly plotted, gorgeously rendered series that trades blows with any superhero book on the stands. It’s just a shame we only got 12 issues.

Runner-Up: Drome

Of the many great graphic novels released in 2025, none left quite as strong an impression as Jesse Lonergan’s Drome. Lonergan has been one of the most exciting new cartoonists to hit the scene in recent years, and he truly levels up with this massive fantasy epic. Drome is essentially a sci-fi creation myth following a demigoddess sent to lead mankind away from its darker impulses. It’s a stark, beautifully rendered story, with all the inventive panel work and use of color we’ve come to expect from Lonergan.

Runner-Up: Ice Cream Man

Ice Cream Man has easily ranked among Image Comics’ best ongoing series for the past several years. Writer W. Maxwell Prince and artist Martín Morazzo have crafted one of the most unique horror comics on the stands. It’s an anthology series loosely tied together by the sinister title character, and one crammed full of disturbing, unsettling sights.

Part of the fun with Ice Cream Man is that the creators are never content to rest on their laurels and follow the same formula month-to-month. They’re always finding ways to experiment. Case in point: Issue #43 features a number of guest creators (including Grant Morrison and Patton Oswalt) crafting one-page tales of terror. It’s risks like that that make Ice Cream Man one of the most rewarding comics you’ll find today.

Winner: Absolute Wonder Woman

In many ways, 2025 really felt like the year of the Absolute Universe. This new line is easily the most exciting thing DC has launched in years, offering fresh, contemporary takes on DC’s classic heroes free of the burden of 80+ years of continuity. One need only look at the monthly sales charts to see that the Absolute line has struck a serious chord with readers.

We could have crowned any one of several Absolute titles as the winner this year and felt satisfied with our pick. Absolute Batman is an inspired revamp of DC’s most popular hero, and Absolute Martian Manhunter is quite possibly the most inventive superhero comic on the stands right now.

But, in the end, we had to give the crown to Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman’s Absolute Wonder Woman. More than any other Absolute comic, this series realizes the full promise of this blank canvas of a universe and truly reinvigorates Diana. Thompson’s characterization of a woman raised in Hades but whose heroic heart burns as brightly as ever fuels this series. And as for Sherman, his art is simply stunning, characterized by both massive scale and a true sense of warmth. Along with colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Becca Carey, they make a truly killer team.

Absolute Wonder Woman is IGN’s best comic of 2025.

Congratulations to DC Comics, and to the other publishers whose projects were recognized in the Best of 2025 awards. Did your favorites make the cut, or would you have picked different winners? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out our full list of awards to see who else we honored in our round-up of the very best of games, movies, TV shows, and more from across the year. We hope you had a great year, and we’ll see you soon in 2026.

Variety is, as they say, the spice of life, and 2025 provided a fantastic array of different video games. We’ve survived and extracted from the robot-ruled battlefields of Arc Raiders, adventured across the medieval lands of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and established mind-expanding exhibitions in Two Point Museum. We helped Keeper’s sentient lighthouse solve puzzles, and unearthed the secrets buried in Atomfall’s eerie England. But which of the year’s many different video games is worthy of being crowned the very best of 2025?

Every December, the IGN team considers all the games they’ve collectively played and reviewed across the year, and votes on which one they think is the greatest of them all. Which one is the “Game of the Year”? Sometimes that choice is incredibly difficult. Other years, it’s easy. 2025 was the latter, with our winner securing almost three-quarters of the vote. But what is that near-universally admired game? That’s what we’re here to reveal.

Honorable Mentions

Before we run down the games that made it onto our final shortlist, we’d like to recognise several other brilliant experiences that we’ve had this year. Hazelight Studios once again proved that it's the king of co-op with the wonderful Split Fiction, a creative action platformer that builds atop the successes of 2021’s It Takes Two with some of the most surprising and innovative level design that we’ve seen not just this year, but this decade. There was some interesting innovation happening over at Konami, too. With Silent Hill f, developer NeoBards Entertainment took the series’ trademark oppressive horror and blended it with a novel approach to new game plus to create a remarkable story that deepens with each replay.

Talking of replays, that’s the name of the game for Ball x Pit, the brick-breaking roguelike from Kenny Sun and Devolver Digital, whose furious action had us coming back for one more run time and time again. So long as our time wasn’t being stolen by Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, of course – Level-5’s smart blend of Animal Crossing’s cosy slice-of-life and The Legend of Zelda’s dungeon diving turned out to be a real comfort game for us this year. The same could be said for Ghost of Yotei, too, which rekindled happy memories of 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, but boosted all of that game’s good ideas with even deeper mechanics and more striking landscapes. It’s safe to say that 2025 was pretty good for games, and we’ve not even discussed the very best of them, yet.

Runner-Up - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Exactly half of our shortlist for the Best Game of 2025 is made up of sequels that faced tough challenges. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach arguably faced the most difficult one: how to turn a divisive “walking sim” into something more universally beloved, without betraying its core, admittedly niche values? The answer, perhaps unsurprisingly for a Kojima Productions project, was to look back to Metal Gear Solid and incorporate the freedom of The Phantom Pain into this open-world delivery simulator. A constantly rolling conveyor belt of gear, from ladders and boots to coffin hoverboards and weaponised electric guitars, ensures you always have the tools to tackle Death Stranding 2’s missions on your own terms. While this is still a game fundamentally about transporting items from location A to location B, no two deliveries feel the same. An ever-evolving and adapting world sees journeys that once unfolded on foot upgraded to make use of roads, ziplines, and eventually monorails, with destinations pursued either via your own pathways or by making use of creative solutions designed by other players. Such a journey isn’t purely physical, either; as you travel, your growing team supports you through an emotional ordeal that ponders the value of human connection. All this ensures that On the Beach finally fulfills the unique promise of the original Death Stranding.

Runner-Up - Hades 2

The creative juggernaut that is Supergiant Games likely could have simply recreated its 2020 roguelike hit, Hades, with just a few mechanical upgrades and still received critical acclaim. And, on the surface, that’s what Hades 2 appears to be. It takes just a single scratch to reveal the truth about this incredibly ambitious sequel, though, which smartly rethinks and remixes many of its predecessor’s fundamentals. Yes, this is still a game in which you battle as far as you can through the branching routes of a dungeon until death forces you to start all over again, but new protagonist Melinoë’s quest to kill Chronos, the Titan of Time, takes place along two opposing routes. Every run starts with a choice: ascend Mount Olympus, or descend into Tartarus. Each location provides entirely different bosses, biomes, storylines, and challenges, which solves the age-old roguelike issue of grinding repetition. Stuck on a formidable boss? There’s an entire other world to conquer instead. And conquer you will, armed with the most refined set of skills and upgrades the genre has seen. This is a buildcrafter's dream, even in spite of the random nature of your God-given boons, and each run is an opportunity to mold Mel into a brand new kind of magic weapon. With unrivaled art and music, and one of the tightest combat systems around, Hades 2 is a spectacular triumph.

Runner-Up - Hollow Knight: Silksong

The eight-year wait for Hollow Knight’s sequel did the expectations around Silksong no favours. This wasn’t just one of the most anticipated indie projects of all time – many major series with decades of history would envy this kind of attention. Some would say it’s nothing short of a miracle that Silksong met (and arguably exceeded) those expectations, but the reality is anchored in creative talent, clear vision, and exceptional art. This is one of the most beautifully drawn video games of the generation, packed with haunting caverns, overgrown dungeons, and myriad more unmissable vistas. Such regions are not just pretty, but precision-engineered to provide some of the best platforming challenges this side of Celeste and Super Meat Boy. And at the heart of each level are the exhilarating boss fights that are partially responsible for Silksong’s fiendish reputation. Yes, this is an unapologetically challenging adventure that stings as fiercely as any of its insectoid characters. But it never strikes unfairly, and its elegant Metroidvania map always offers an alternative route, should a foe prove too imposing. In a world where difficult games have perhaps become something of an oversubscribed format, the idea of a challenge being truly worth the pain has perhaps worn a little thin. But in Hollow Knight: Silksong, developer Team Cherry really has crafted a treasure worth fighting for.

Runner-Up - Blue Prince

The roguelite is nothing if not an incredibly malleable genre. You can make an action RPG roguelite, a shooter roguelite, a card game roguelite, even a puzzle roguelite – although that latter one is certainly rarer than the others. Joining that small roster of looping head-scratchers is Dogubomb’s Blue Prince, an elegantly crafted labyrinth in which the corridors are all of your choosing. Every new run is, fundamentally, an attempt to find a mysterious hidden room within a sprawling mansion where every new chamber you enter is chosen from a random selection of blueprints. But that overall goal is ultimately less important than the many secrets that await in every fresh attempt – room combinations that unlock clues to further mysteries, and breathtaking discoveries that deepen the house’s story. Its random nature is the initial obstacle, as building rooms in the correct order is all but impossible when you don’t know which blueprints you’ll be dealt. But soon you realise that the real challenge is in logic, pattern, and connections. And when you finally see the fine lines that link its many ideas together, it instantly becomes clear how immaculately constructed Blue Prince is.

Runner-Up - Donkey Kong Bananza

When Nintendo launched the original Switch, it did so with the open world-redefining Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And so with Switch 2, the pressure was on to craft yet another ground-breaking launch window game. Nintendo took on that mission quite literally with Donkey Kong Bananza, in which your core interaction with the world is to shatter it into tiny chunks. We’ve had games with destructible environments before, but there’s nothing quite like Bananza’s complete demolition of its levels, which somehow still manage to maintain their Mario-grade craftsmanship even after having been pummeled to pieces. That terrain is filled with buried collectables, and excavating them often requires the completion of clever challenges that feel satisfying to solve every single time. The banana on top of this platforming delight, though, is the duo of DK and Pauline, whose pairing is not only charming, but also mechanically powerful: the titular Bananzas, activated via catchy songs, turn you into unstoppable brawling machines that can easily defeat monkey, monster, and mountain. It’s perhaps Nintendo’s best-ever power trip.

Winner - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

There’s something undeniably nostalgic about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Its turn-based battles, party-driven story, and linear exploration are distinctly old-school in nature, and undeniably indebted to the RPG greats of yesteryear. There’s perhaps no other game out there that wears its love for Final Fantasy as proudly as Expedition 33 does. But with its debut game, Sandfall Interactive has done more than pay homage to the past – it has demonstrated a scholarly understanding of why those games succeeded, and how their ideas can be revitalised.

Within the framework of a traditional, Japanese-style role-playing game, the young studio has created a distinctly modern take on the genre. Breathtaking combat encounters demand both split-second, real-time reactions and careful turn-by-turn tactical planning. Daunting bosses are overcome by smart (and sometimes enjoyably exploitative) use of a deep perks system that empowers you to transform your band of adventurers into a battalion of unstoppable heroes. And the archetypes used for each party member, from elegant fencers to destructive mages, are defined not just by weapons, but by bespoke battle mechanics that ensure each character feels like a distinct, unique personality.

Sandfall’s artistry is not limited to its impressive combat systems, though. Clair Obscur transports you to a breathtaking world where every sight and sound feels genuinely fresh. Its distinctly French, Belle Époque-influenced art style is unlike anything in the genre, as is its incredible music, composed by Lorien Testard, which is destined to play alongside Nobuo Uematsu’s best work in the video game concerts of the future. But it’s Expedition 33’s deeply affecting, emotionally resonating story – and the powerfully drawn characters who live and suffer through it – that leaves the greatest mark. In a world where a deity extinguishes swathes of ever-younger people on an annual basis, what does it mean to survive, grieve, and, ultimately, continue on? The answers to those questions changed not just Clair Obscur’s characters, but its players, too. This is without a doubt the year’s most talked-about game, and it comes as no surprise that it didn’t just win IGN’s end-of-year vote, but stole it by a landslide.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is IGN’s Best Game of 2025.

Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive, and also to all of the studios whose games were nominated and recognised as part of our end-of-year awards. Did we choose your favourites, or do you think we missed a worthy winner? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out our full list of awards to see who else we honored in our round-up of the very best of games, movies, TV shows, and more from across the year. But for now, we hope you had a brilliant time with the fantastic games of 2025, and we’ll catch you for even more in 2026.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

With another tremendous year for movies now in the books – ominously on the cusp of Warner Bros. possibly being sold to a giant streaming entity that thinks movie theaters are outdated – we've hemmed, hawed, and now voted on the cinematic best of the best for 2025.

Superheroes – either wholesome and hopeful or riddled with trauma and anxiety – were still a big part of the landscape, while big risky horror releases found success with both critics and the increasingly fickle box office. Zombies and Predators proved they could still draw audiences, while a trio of singing demon slayers flipped Netflix on its head... and made it cave to the all-important theatrical release.

So what was IGN's Best Movie of 2025? Well...

Honorable Mentions

Naturally, there were some fabulously fun flicks that sadly didn't quite make the nomination cut. James Gunn's Superman soared to rapturous heights as the hero we sorely needed in 2025, while Dan Trachtenberg went three for three with his amazing Predator entries, with Badlands proving to be a rollicking twist on the classic Yautja formula. Of course, we also can't overlook Danny Boyle's return to the 28 Days Later saga with 28 Years Later, a thoughtful dystopian adventure full of large emotions and even larger... well, you know.

Runner-Up: Weapons

Comedian/gamer/newly-minted horror maestro Zach Cregger nailed it with his follow-up to 2022's Barbarian, unleashing another terrifying modern fable with plenty of nasty zigs and zags. Weapons is a mystery piece that keeps you bobbing and weaving through its non-linear narrative until it levels you with a diabolical, spellbinding, cosplay-worthy twist. Anchored by Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Benedict Wong, Alden Ehrenreich (hey, they're all in the MCU!), and a scene-stealing Amy Madigan, Weapons had moviegoers running back to the theaters, arms outstretched in a downward V, to see it again and again.

Read our review of Weapons.

Runner-Up: One Battle After Another

For writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson to make what is arguably his best work (among many other strong PTA contenders) in 2025 is a stunning achievement, and he did it by adapting a Thomas Pynchon novel too, which did not go so well for him with 2014's Inherent Vice. One Battle After Another had a tricky time with its marketing, unspooling several tonally different trailers ahead of its release: Some focused on the drama and action, and some on the quirky offbeat humor. But once you see it, it's clear why this film was hard to tease; there's nothing else quite like it. It's a generational saga that touches on a handful of relevant revolutionary social issues while also maintaining its own spirit and identity, and it's full of powerful performances (including a standout Chase Infiniti) and unforgettable sequences. See this VistaVision gem again... maybe after a few small beers.

Read our review of One Battle After Another.

Runner-Up: Frankenstein

At long last, Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro got to make the monster movie he's always wanted to tackle – his favorite piece of literature, complete with his favorite misunderstood creature: Frankenstein. The result is a glamorously gothic yarn about obsession, creation, the failings of fathers, and the nurturing of kindness. Mary Shelley's pioneering sci-fi novel has never been so preciously cared for and breathlessly adapted. Oscar Isaac embodies the fiercely flawed doctor, devilishly driven to achieve at all costs, while Jacob Elordi slinks his way into our hearts as a patchwork beast who ultimately overcomes being beset by violence and scorn since his first breaths, blossoming into a merciful being.

Read our review of Frankenstein.

Runner-Up: Marty Supreme

Equal parts fun and stressful – much like 2019's Uncut Gems before it – Marty Supreme combines the chaotic directing style of Josh Safdie with the charisma of Timothée Chalamet to make a one-of-a-kind ping pong movie that is, without a doubt, one of the year’s best films. It's an amazing first solo directing credit for Safdie that continues to build on the chaotic vibe he and his brother have been honing since Heaven Knows What. If you’re a fan of previous Safdie brothers efforts, you won’t be disappointed. But thanks to a career-defining performance from Chalamet as the charismatic Marty Mauser, Marty Supreme will appeal to more than just the film (and ping pong?) bros.

Read our review of Marty Supreme.

Runner-Up: KPop Demon Hunters

Netflix, notoriously coy about marketing and advertising most of their projects ahead of time (ideally wanting viewers to just turn on Netflix every night to see what's new), has relied heavily on organic viewer-generated buzz for over a decade. As we bid farewell to Stranger Things – a show that originally found a massive audience via word-of-mouth after having hardly any early advertising – it's fitting to spotlight the catchy, joyful phenomenon of KPop Demon Hunters, an animated film that shocked the streaming world, doing so well for Netflix (by the company's mostly secretive metrics) that the decision was made to release it in theaters over the summer after it already cleaned up at home! It's an awesome animated adventure with terrific fight sequences, captivating musical numbers, and an ample amount of harmony and heart.

Read our review of KPop Demon Hunters.

Winner: Sinners

Ryan Coogler's Sinners drops vampires into the 1930s South for a deeply personal, heartfelt, sexy, bloody story that sticks with you. Michael B. Jordan wows in a dual performance as twins Smoke and Stack, and other frequent Coogler collaborators – like cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw and costume designer Ruth E. Carter – do remarkable work bringing the brothers’ world to life. Sinners also puts music to beautiful use, as we’re reminded that vampirism is but one way to achieve immortality.

Coogler’s first horror movie expertly blends tears, fears, the Blues, and a macabre Southern Gothic setting for a look at love, loss, racism, and the blood that connects us all. And while we ultimately gave Weapons our Best Horror statue this year because, well, it was more horrific, Sinners is much more than just a horror movie. It's an ambitious swing that paid off, filled with clever uses of sound, color, and clothing. It was a clearly defined "vision" phenomenally brought to life in a way that AI could never – a grand accomplishment, made by humans with wisdom and soul, meant to be experienced in the movie theater. Sinners is IGN's pick for Best Movie of 2025!

Read our review of Sinners.

So how'd we do? Did Sinners deserve to get best movie of 2025? Or what do you think should have won? Let’s talk in the comments, and don’t forget to vote in the poll above. And make sure to check out all our IGN Awards for 2025 across film, TV, gaming, anime, and comics!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fans have now had a week to play around with the game's new Photo Mode, introduced in its free DLC. And what a photo mode it is, resulting in some really incredible shots, funny meme recreations, and even discoveries of previously-hidden little details that are making us love this game even more.

The update, which launched on December 11 following Clair Obscur's incredible Game Awards sweep, includes a brand new location: Verso's Drafts, with new enemies and bosses and story. It also adds new language localizations, costumes, new ultra-hard bosses in the Tower, and the aforementioned Photo Mode. While all that other stuff is fun, the Photo Mode is really helping Clair Obscur shine. It's already a beautiful game, but some of these shots players are taking are next-level.

(Warning: While I endeavored not to include any overt story spoilers below, some of these images are from Act 3 of the game)

Sorry for posting so many...Lune and Sciel are just so pretty!

Apart from some really lovely images, we're also getting some cheeky folks recreating memes with the game's characters, such as:

But my favorite part of this update has been a handful of new revelations about some of Clair Obscur's more precise details, such as the intricacy of the game's snowflakes, a hidden world map image, and a lot more.

What I will not be reposting here are the large quantity of feet shots, and bathing suit shots. You degenerates will have to look those up yourselves.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is really, really good, as demonstrated by its pile of awards and our own 9/10 where we wrote: "Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story." If you're just now jumping in, you're in good company with an awful lot of other people, and we have a helpful Beginner Guide that you may find useful to read through as you start. You can also check in on our list of things Clair Obscur doesn't tell you, or our full Walkthrough in case you get stuck.

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

Continued leaks of Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday marketing plans have left fans convinced they know everything in next week's Thor-focused trailer, prompting a stream of lookalike AI versions to hit the internet.

The past week has seen a flood of leaks and industry whispers detail Disney's Doomsday marketing, which officially kicked off yesterday with the reveal that Chris Evans will return as Steve Rogers, confirmed via a theatrical trailer attached to Avatar: Fire and Ash.

The Hollywood Reporter has stated that this Doomsday trailer will be swapped out for three others over course of the next three weeks, while FeatureFirst reported that these four would feature Steve Rogers, Thor and Doctor Doom in turn.

Another supposed leak has spilled the audio for Thor's trailer, which has since been widely-shared on reddit, and seemingly corroborated via Marvel tipster Daniel Richtman. The trailer apparently features a solemn prayer from Thor to his father during a quiet moment in a forest, as if reflecting on the eve of some fiercesome battle.

"Of all the crowns, the kingdoms, the pride, I ask for none.

"Father, hear your son. I am not worthy of life, but still I beg you to let the thread lengthen.

"Not for thunder, not for war... let me remain long enough to see my love once more."

Fans have noted — with no small amount of relief — that this version of Thor is clearly being pitched as more sober and less wacky than the character's last appearance in Taika Waititi's goat-screaming chucklefest Thor: Love and Thunder. There's not a sniff of the Russo Brothers' mopey takeaway-chomping, Fortnite-playing Infinity War version here either. Instead, the dialogue is spoken with a more mature and world-weary tone.

The other main point of discussion here is Thor's use of the word "love," which many fans have taken to mean his adoptive daughter Love seen in Love and Thunder. Without an official transcription, it's impossible to say for sure if Thor is using a capital L here or not, though it's likely intended to be ambiguous. Alternatively, it could also be a reference to Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, who now resides in Valhalla, or some character we haven't yet met.

Still, the reference to Thor's daughter would also be an obvious spark for a separate point of speculation: what is going on with the Avengers' kids, and why does Doctor Doom want them? Our first glimpse at Doom came at the very end of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, where he turned up seemingly to kidnap Reed and Sue's son Franklin. This week's reveal that Steve Rogers is now a dad has prompted fans to immediately expect Doom to turn up at his door too. Could Thor now be mourning the similar disappearance of his daughter?

Anyway, put all that discussion aside and fans have been left feeling pretty confident they know what next week's Thor trailer will look like, and if you head to YouTube right now it will serve you up a string of videos showing just that: Thor in a forest saying his prayer to his father, referencing love (or Love) at the end. One such trailer on the MCU Talk channel has 259,000 views. Another on the Snap Saga channel has 285,000 views. A third on the Everything Always channel has 154,000 views. A quick scroll downwards shows at least a dozen more.

Of course, none of these are real — and if they were, they'd likely be removed, as happened with the many, many uploads of the leaked Steve Rogers trailer. Instead, all of these videos are made with varying levels of poor quality by AI. Most are designed to look bad, shakily recorded on a potato phone at the back of some non-existant theater, in order to add to their 'authenticity.'

While fake trailers are certainly nothing new, it's still remarkable to see a situation where so many fakes have been made, all of which are near-identical to what fans believe the real thing will look like, when it arrives in theaters in less a week's time.

This week, it emerged that YouTube had killed two of its biggest channels dedicated to creating fake movie trailers. Both Screen Culture and KH Studio, whose fake movie trailer videos had collectively generated billions of views, are now unavailable, ending their ability to mislead fans into believing what they were watching was the real thing. As for Doomsday's next trailer, the real thing featuring Thor is now believed to be six days away. It'll be interesting to see how close those AI versions were when it does arrive.

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

Eiji Aonuma, the producer of The Legend of Zelda series, recently dropped some hints about what players can expect from the next game in the series in an interview with Japanese news site 4Gamer. He noted that the collaboration with Koei Tecmo on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment may influence the next mainline Legend of Zelda title.

While the Wii got Twilight Princess and the Switch got Breath of the Wild as launch titles, there has yet to be any announcement about an upcoming mainline Zelda game for the Switch 2. However, owners of Nintendo’s latest console do have Hyrule Warriors: The Age of Imprisonment to play. Age of Imprisonment is the latest entry in a spin-off series that combines Dynasty Warriors-style 1 vs. 1000 musou gameplay with the characters, lore, and locales of The Legend of Zelda. It allows players to experience the Imprisoning War that sealed away the Demon King Ganondorf. Like previous Hyrule Warriors games, Age of Imprisonment was a collaboration between Koei Tecmo and Nintendo, with Koei Tecmo and its new AAA Games Studio handling the development.

Zelda series producer Aonuma said that his team wanted to be the first to release a new Zelda title on the Switch 2, however Koei Tecmo beat them to it. “The Legend of Zelda: Age of Imprisonment is the first Zelda title released for the Nintendo Switch 2. To be honest, we wanted to bring out the ‘first’ (Zelda game on the new console),” he laughed.

Commenting on the collaboration with Koei Tecmo on Age of Imprisonment, Hidemaro Fujibayashi (director of Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild) said: “it was incredibly fun. They always had ideas we never would have come up with on our own, it was truly stimulating.”

In turn, Age of Imprisonment’s director Koki Aoyanagi talked about how motivating it was to receive such positive reactions from the Nintendo team, saying: "since they (the Nintendo team) were playtesting the game, we wanted to give them big surprises and moments of awe to experience." Age of Imprisonment producer Ryota Matsushita described the Zelda team and Koei Tecmo’s team as being “on the same wavelength” when it came to collaborating on the game, noting that Fujibayashi’s knowledge of real-life castles enabled them to instantly understand each other regarding how Hyrule Castle should be depicted in Age of Imprisonment.

“We aimed to combine these two approaches; the Zelda-like, strategic back-and-forth of using Zonai gear and varied techniques against powerful foes with the exhilaration of musou (i.e. feeling mighty powerful as you cut down waves of weaker foes),” noted AAA Games Studio head Yusuke Hayashi. Even when Nintendo’s Zelda team gave feedback on points of concern, Fujibayashi said that Koei Tecmo would come back with “proposals that elevated it into something even better.”

Aonuma even suggests that this fruitful collaboration might influence the next mainline Zelda title. “The inspiration we received from this collaboration with Koei Tecmo may be reflected in the (next) Zelda we create. Please picture this while playing Age of Imprisonment, and look forward to our Zelda.”

Aonuma’s comment is mysterious, but this means that we might get elements from Age of Imprisonment’s gameplay in the next mainline Zelda adventure.

In September 2023, Nintendo said it had no plans to release DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and was instead moving on to a brand new game in the series. However, Aonuma failed to rule out a return to the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, potentially setting up a third game.

“In the first place, the reason I decided to make this a sequel to the previous work was because I thought there was value in experiencing a new game in that Hyrule place,” Aonuma said. “If that's the case, if a new reason arises, we might return to the same world again. Whether it's a sequel or a new work, I think it's going to be a completely new game, so I hope you're looking forward to it.”

Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi also chimed in with his own comment: “We are very grateful that so many customers have been playing Tears of the Kingdom for so long and deeply, so we will do our best to make the next game even more enjoyable.”

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

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched last month to become the best-selling game of November in the U.S. by dollar sales. That's a pretty good showing, right?

If you're still looking to pick up the new game, it's down to $35 at Best Buy for one day only, and around $40 at most other retailers right now. That's up to 50% off the game, only a month after release, on PS5, PS4, and Xbox consoles.