Apple TV has closed a deal for the rights to Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The first adaptations being considered are the Mistborn series for film and The Stormlight Archive for TV.
According to that report, Sanderson will "write, produce and consult; and will have approvals" over the adaptations. A recent example of where this lack of control can cause tension is with George R.R. Martin and the House of the Dragon showrunner. Martin said in a recent interview with THR that he "would give notes, and nothing would happen."
Brandon Sanderson himself has a massive audience, with over 50 million books sold since he first started writing. The Cosmere series makes up a large chunk of his published works, with 24 books attached to the shared universe. There are a total of seven books across different eras for Mistborn, and five total in The Stormlight Archive series.
According to THR, The Stormlight Archive already has a production company attached to the adaptation: Blue Marble. The media company is run by Theresa Kang, who has also produced the popular Apple TV series book-to-screen adaptation Pachinko.
What Is The Cosmere?
For those not already intimately familiar with The Cosmere, Brandon Sanderson has a brief explainer you can check out on his website. To quickly summarize, The Cosmere is the galaxy in which a large portion of his stories take place. The books that fit into this shared universe often take place on different worlds with completey different societies. The Mistborn series, for example, takes place on a world called Scadriel while the Stormlight Archive series takes place on Roshar.
Sanderson's Cosmere universe is known for having a wide variety of entry points that audiences can jump right into. So even though Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive take place in the same universe, they remain separate from each other with independent plot lines. Some characters do appear across multiple stories, but generally you can read them independently without missing any key details.
Although The Cosmere has never been adapted for the screen, it has seen various tabletop adaptations over the last few years. Just last year The Cosmere TTRPG was released with adventures pulled directly from The Stormlight Archive. Prior to that, Brandon Sanderson collaborated on a Mistborn board game that saw some success. Sanderson is still expanding his sprawling fantasy universe as of 2026 with plans for Mistborn Era 3 and additional Elantris novels.
Sanderson will be hoping The Cosmere adaptations fare better than Amazon's The Wheel of Time Prime Video series, which was canceled after three seasons. Last year Sanderson, who finished author Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time book series, had some choice words for the people making the decisions on the TV show.
Jacob Kienlen is a Senior Audience Development Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor's degree in communication and over 8 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different pop culture topics -- from TV series to indie games and books.
Full spoilers below for all four episodes of Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1. Episodes are streaming now on Netflix.
Dearest Gentle Reader,
A new season of Bridgerton is upon us. Romance is in the air. Mystery abounds. And enchantment is sure to appear around every corner. This season, one Benedict Bridgerton – the second son of his esteemed family – takes center stage. A notorious rake, Mr. Bridgerton is a man of contradictions. A bachelor in his prime, he is infamously averse to marriage and enraptured with nothing more than merriment and frivolity. Will the roguish gentleman ever settle down? Or is he destined to a vapid life of purely carnal pleasure? If a new mystery lady has anything to say about it, Mr. Bridgerton’s lifelong bachelorhood may not long for this world. And this author is intrigued as to what will happen next.
OK, enough of that. As you may have heard, Bridgerton, the mega Netflix romance series from Shonda Rhimes, returns for Season 4, and it’s as sumptuous and quivering as ever. The first four episodes, available now on Netflix (you’ll have to wait until February 26 for the rest), focus on Benedict (Luke Thompson), who’s constantly hounded by his mother (and nearly everyone else) to settle down and find a wife. That is, until he meets a mysterious masked woman (Yerin Ha) at a masquerade ball and falls head over heels for her.
The rest of what follows is a literal Cinderella story (seriously, many of the plot points are a beat for beat rehash of the classic story or Disney movie; take your pick). The masked woman is in fact a maid named Sophie, whose noble father died leaving her to fend for herself with a wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Benedict, her “prince,” searches for her using nothing more than a memory of the lower half of her face and a left-behind piece of clothing (in this case, a glove). Cases of mistaken identity, stolen glances, and copious dancing ensue. You’ve seen it all before. And that’s the main problem with this season of Bridgerton.
While the performances are as sharp as ever and the chemistry between the leads simmers to the point of boiling in scene after scene, there’s not much here that hasn’t been done already (and better) in previous seasons of the Netflix drama. Boy meets girl. Girl fancies boy. But they can’t be together (at least not yet) for insert your reason here.
Bridgerton, once a mile-a-minute feast of mystery and smut, seems somewhat blunted now that most of the breakout characters have either left, having been coupled off in their own seasons, or had their screen time severely diminished. It’s somewhat understandable as these departures are mainly a function of the plot – this is Benedict and Sophie’s season, after all. But you can’t help but feel the loss of Anthony and Kate’s (Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley) smoldering will-they-or-won’t-they love/hate relationship or Penelope Featherington’s (Nicola Coughlan) double life as Lady Whistledown. (The all-seeing scribe still factors into the new season, but her bite and influence has been severely diminished by her public unveiling in Season 3.)
Season 4 does its best to try and fill these gaps with new subplots. Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) has an almost falling out with Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) over the former’s desire to move on to a life away from the Royal Court, leading to a series of surprisingly intense scenes that show two actresses at the top of their game. Matriarch Lady Violet Bridgerton’s (Ruth Gemmell) secret relationship with Lady Danbury’s brother (Daniel Francis) is another. Seeing how the crushing weight of societal expectations affects multiple generations of Bridgertons is both saddening and (by the end of the fourth episode at least) titillating all at once. These storylines try to make up for the absence of the previously featured Bridgerton siblings and their now-spouses. But those are big shoes to fill. And these subplots, interesting as they are, are little more than slight decorations at a fairly drab party.
The main storyline is where Season 4 fails to meet the height of the preceding iterations of the show. Thompson and Ha are great, both individually and together. However, the increasingly ludicrous plot holds them back from reaching true “relationship goals.”
Look, I realize this show is not trying to be much more than frothy romance. But Benedict’s inability to realize the woman he’s falling in love with is the same woman he ALREADY fell in love with (albeit behind a mask) borders on the absurd. There’s only so much disbelief a viewer can suspend before getting distracted by the sheer ridiculousness of it all.
That’s not to say that Season 4, Part 1 of Bridgerton isn’t worth a watch. If you’ve followed the lives and tribulations of the Bridgerton siblings with a passion until now, you’ll still want to check in with what’s going on in Regency-era Mayfair. The performances are still fun. The sets, costumes, music (string covers of pop songs still abound), and scenery are as lavish and opulent as ever. But if you’re looking for the latest batch of Bridgerton episodes to kick the show into a new gear, you’ll be left out in the cold - like Cinderella's carriage stuck in the mud.
Time will tell, dear reader, if part 2 of Bridgerton’s fourth season provides the much-needed heat that fans of the show have come to expect (but the newest episodes decidedly lack). Until then, we’re left with a story this author considers not exactly cold but certainly not a piping hot cup of English tea either.
I am less interested in how big the discount looks and more interested in whether a game earns the hours it asks for. This list is about friction, not hype, and the quiet relief of buying something that does not immediately slide into the backlog. I have played enough of these to know where the fun sticks and where the regret usually starts.
In retro news, I'm placing 33 heart-hiding candles on a birthday cake baked for Super Castlevania IV. A bit of an oddity, SCIV technically recycles the original NES adventure's plight of Simon Belmont as he "Devos" problems that come along in Drac's castle. However, said whip was instead being (8-way) cracked into entirely new enemies haunting new levels as we tapped our toes to an original soundtrack. I adored this at launch and have vivid memories of being wowed by its use of Mode 7 to twist levels in quasi-3D fashion. Also, chortling at the Dancing Spectre enemies named "Paula Abghoul" and "Fred Askare." Konami, what were you smoking?
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii) 2010.eBay
- Castlevania [Circle of the Moon] (GBA) 2015.eBay
Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch
Dredge Del. (-60%) A$15.10 Quietly one of the best horror games on Switch. Relaxing fishing wrapped around creeping dread, with smart pacing and a tone that never overstays its welcome. Still eerie, still clever.
Dead by Daylight (-65%) A$15.70 Messy, uneven, but unmatched if you like multiplayer tension. Runs rougher than other platforms, but the mind games and licensed killers still do the heavy lifting.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Def. (-64%) A$29 Three classics with rough edges sanded inconsistently. Still unbeatable for sheer nostalgia and open world mischief if you accept the compromises.
Children of Morta (-85%) A$4.90 A generous action RPG with real heart. Co-op friendly, story focused, and surprisingly tough when it wants to be. Ridiculous value at this price.
Yoku's Island Express (-80%) A$5.40 Pinball platforming that somehow works. Charming, relaxed, and smartly paced. Not for score chasers, but perfect if you want something genuinely different.
Forza Horizon 6 (-10%) A$99 Could be good. Fingers crossed. Horizon games (in my humble opinion) usually deliver. My kingdom for a new-gen update of the Aussie one (FH3).
Fallout 76 (-80%) A$10.90 Quiet redemption arc. It finally plays like a Fallout game should, just shared with others. Rough launch baggage remains, but the world is worth revisiting.
Ori and the Blind Forest Def. (-75%) A$7.40 Still one of the tightest platformers ever made. Gorgeous, emotional, and occasionally cruel. Demands precision, but always feels fair.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (-25%) A$28.10 Old school difficulty with modern smoothing. Combat sings, but patience is required. Not welcoming, yet deeply satisfying if you commit.
Fable Ann. (-67%) A$16.40 Nostalgia doing most of the work here. Still charming, still odd, but age shows in combat. Worth it for the humour alone.
Xbox One
The Callisto Protocol (-62%) A$32.30 Gorgeous presentation carrying uneven design. Combat can frustrate, but atmosphere and sound design do heavy lifting if you like slow burn horror.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 (-55%) A$31.20 A near perfect remake. Feels exactly right, respects muscle memory, and wastes no time. Even better if you grew up with these parks.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (-67%) A$29.50 Loud, busy, and packed with fan service. The usual LEGO chaos applies, but the roster is massive and co-op friendly.
Ghost of Yotei (-21%) A$99 Striking world design and deliberate pacing. Combat rewards patience, not flash. Expensive still, but memorable if you like thoughtful exploration.
Dead Space (-59%) A$44.90 A textbook remake. Familiar beats, sharper systems, and oppressive atmosphere intact. Still stressful, still brilliant, still not a relaxing evening.
Stranger of Paradise: FF Origin (-62%) A$38 Combat carries known nonsense storytelling. Surprisingly deep systems if you push past the memes. Uneven tone, strong action.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (-63%) A$33.50 Huge, funny, and occasionally bloated. Best enjoyed in short bursts. The scope impresses even when the jokes dont land.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (-55%) A$44.90 Fast, aggressive mech combat with real mechanical depth. Missions are tight, bosses hit hard, and build tinkering is half the joy.
PS4
Persona 5 Strikers (-58%) A$45 Musou combat with Persona style and heart. Better written than expected, though repetition creeps in late.
Dead Island 2 (-63%) A$25.90 Goofy, gory, and surprisingly polished. Story is disposable, but the combat feedback is excellent if you like splattery melee.
Moonlighter (-90%) A$2.40 Shopkeeping by day, dungeon crawling by night. Simple loop, gentle challenge, and absurd value for the hours you will sink in.
Half-Life: Alyx (-70%) A$26.30 Still the VR benchmark. Thoughtful design, tactile combat, and pacing that never wastes your time. Requires headset hardware commitment, rewards it fully.
Wild Hearts (-93%) A$6.90 Ambitious monster hunting with rough performance. Systems are clever, but optimisation issues linger. Worth it cheap if youre curious.
Red Dead Redemption 2 (-75%) A$22.40 Slow, deliberate, and stunning. Still unmatched world detail, but demands patience. Best enjoyed when you let it breathe.
Mass Effect Leg. Ed. (-85%) A$13.40 Three classic RPGs, cleaned up and cohesive. Combat improves over time, writing carries throughout (but peaks in 2). Absurd value for the scope.
A Way Out (-90%) A$3.90 Built purely for co-op storytelling. Uneven gameplay, but memorable moments land if you commit with a friend.
One Piece Buggy's Tent (-34%) A$52.90 Colourful, character heavy build. More about display flair than complexity. Built this recently myself. Very happy I did.
Creator 3 in 1 Turtle (-33%) A$10 Simple, charming, and flexible. A quick build with decent variety for the price.
Minecraft The Pale Garden (-27%) A$22 Familiar blocks and biomes. Not adventurous, but safe and recognisable for fans.
Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet (-25%) A$75 Display first, play second. Looks great on a shelf, less exciting to build. Worth it if aesthetics are the goal.
Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube.
The MEGA brand carries several officially licensed Pokemon building block sets at a more attractive price than LEGO. Today, one of its most popular sets has dropped to an even lower price. Amazon currently has the MEGA Pokémon Motion Pikachu Set for just $58.20 after a 44% discount (it's normally $105). This is a great looking build with a neat interactive gimmick to keep kids (and adults) entertained well after the build has been completed.
44% Off MEGA Pokémon Motion Pikachu Set
The MEGA Motion Pikachu set is a reasonably sized set measuring about 9"x9"x5" and consisting of 1,092 pieces. That averages out to 5.3 cents per brick. Compare that to a themed LEGO set, which I consider to be a good deal once they hit the 10 cents per brick threshold. The finished piece is presented as a three dimensional diorama, with the iconic Pikachu running over a small section of meadow.
The fun doesn't end, however, once you've finished the build. Pikachu's legs and tail are articulated and you can turn a hand crank to watch the electric-type mouse frantically run in place like a hamster on a wheel. The meadow elements move in the reverse direction on a mini-treadmill to simulate the motion. These are deceptively simple yet nonetheless enjoyable interactive elements that add to the overall value of the set.
LEGO has its own alternatives, if you've got the budget for them
If you're intent on getting a LEGO version, you're in luck because the brand recently opened up preorders for its own official Pikachu set. It doesn't have any moving elements, but it is a bigger, more challenging build with a higher 2,050 piece brick count. It also comes in at hefty price tag of $200. If you're feeling even more ambitious, check out LEGO's upcoming Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise combo figure, which boasts nearly 7,000 brick pieces and comes with an eye watering price tag of $649.99 (although it's currently sold out).
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
The nostalgia-packed The Disney Afternoon Collection finally has a Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 release date, and it’s bringing two more games for patient fans.
A Switch version of the bundle of ‘90s Disney video games was announced today after first launching for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One back in 2017. Retro remaster developer Digital Eclipse has the original collection – which includes DuckTales, DuckTales 2, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin – set with a digital Switch release date of February 26, 2026, with Goof Troop and Bonkers packed in, too.
Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 announcement trailer for The Disney Afternoon Collection. Eight games total: DuckTales, DuckTales 2, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin and they're adding Goof Troop and Bonkers. pic.twitter.com/BHXAClWaiD
Both are Capcom games that made their way to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the ‘90s, and both will only be available on the Switch and Switch 2 versions of The Disney Afternoon Collection. Goof Troop sees Goofy and his son, Max, go on a swashbuckling co-op adventure to save Pete and PJ, while Bonkers follows Bonkers D. Bobcat as he solves crimes in Toontown.
It’s a bundle fit for the biggest fans of classic gaming from the House of Mouse, with the total game count now reaching eight. The February re-release will finally bring the bundle to Nintendo’s hybrid consoles, with access to soundtracks, a behind-the-scenes gallery, and rewind features, available, too. There are also Time Attack and Boss Rush modes for those looking to shake up that classic gameplay.
A Disney Afternoon Collection physical edition is also confirmed to be in development for those willing to wait until after the February digital release. Disney says the physical Switch release – which comes with the game cartridge, two sticker sheets, eight retro milk caps, and three collectible cards – is now available for pre-order and will ship “at a later date.”
The Disney Afternoon Collection launches digitally next month. For more, you can check out our 7/10 review from 2017.
“With three hits and three duds from Capcom/Disney years that you might remember with varying levels of fondness,” we said at the time, “the Disney Afternoon Collection is clearly aimed at children of the 90s. I have trouble seeing its appeal to anyone else. But if vintage duck-based platformers are your thing, grab a Capri Sun and a handful of Gushers and invite your friends over to play.”
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).
The set, which is getting its own prequel novel and includes a whopping five preconstructed Commander Decks and two Theme Decks, can be found on Amazon right now.
Here’s everything you can preorder right now, including Collector Boosters.
As we mentioned, there is not one, not two, but five Commander decks for this set - the most since Tarkir Dragonstorm last year.
Silverquill Influence (White/Black)
Prismari Artistry (Blue/Red)
Winterbloom Pestilence (Black/Green)
Lorehold Spirit (Red/White)
Quandrix Unlimited (Green/Blue)
Whichever one you grab will include a 100-card deck to play right out of the box, and they cost £43.99 each. They might end up being put in a bundle, too, but there’s nothing live for that just yet.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Magic: The Gathering is collaborating with Marvel again for a cardboard showdown between classic heroes and villains, and now the set is up for preorder at Amazon.
Now, to clarify, these listings have just gone live as yours truly was scouring to see what news there was on them, so they’re about as fresh from the oven as you can get - but there’s still some placeholder text there.
In any case, here’s what you can preorder right now.
There are two new Scene Boxes for £34.99 each, which include three Play Boosters, an art card display setup, and playable versions of the art cards. This time around, we’re getting a heroes one and a villains one.
Finally, Commander players are well catered to. There are four preconstructed decks in this set:
Avengers Assemble (Captain America and Nick Fury - Red/White/Blue)
Wakanda Forever (Black Panther - Green/White)
The Fantastic Four (The titular team - Red/Green/White/Blue)
Doom Prevails (Doctor Doom and Loki - Blue/Black/Red)
Each includes a 100-card deck to play right out of the box for £64.45, but you can also get yourself a Collector's edition with all cards in foil for a whopping £141.45 each.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a tabletop RPG adaptation from Group SNE, the same team behind the tabletop RPG versions of Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and Armored Core 6.
There aren't any further details as to what this campaign will entail, but as a Nightreign lover, I don't find it too hard to imagine. Nightreign already has a wonderfully clear-cut class system, and the potential for different DMs to shuffle abilities, monsters, bosses, hazards, events, points of interest is extremely strong. Like the game itself, such a campaign could be extremely replayable as well.
Group SNE is responsible for a number of tabletop campaigns, board and card games, and light novels, including the aforementioned tabletop games based on FromSoftware properties, as well as the entire Record of Lodoss War campaign setting and Sword World RPG, a tabletop game first published in '89 that has since gone on to become a phenomenon in Japan.
I hope we see the Nightreign campaign make it to the USA, because Nightreign rips, dude. It's probably one of the most addictive 7/10 games I've played in years, and the recent DLC has only managed to get its hooks in me even deeper. Sure, the new map is confounding, but once you've fallen off it 10 or 20 or 30 times, you really do get the hang of it.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
With prices of imported goods on the rise, you don't see many 20,000mAh power banks priced under $20 anymore. Fortunately, there's one deal today. Amazon has the Iniu 20,000mAh 22.5W Power Bank for just $15.29 after an automatic 49% coupon is applied. Better yet, you don't need to be an Amazon Prime member to get in on this deal.
The 22.5W power output makes it an ideal power bank for your Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 console, and the bigger 20,000mAh capacity is perfect for longer airplane flights or when you're away from an outlet for an extended time.
Iniu 20,000mAh 22.5W USB Power Bank for $15.29
This Iniu power bank boasts a generous 20,000mAh, or 74Whr battery capacity. If you factor in 80% power efficiency, here are the approximate number of times you can fully recharge each gaming handheld:
Nintendo Switch (16Whr) about 3.7 times
Steam Deck (40Whr) about 1.9 times
Apple iPhone 16 (14Whr) about 4.2 times
Apple iPhone 16 Plus (18Whr) about 3.3 times
The Iniu power bank has three total ports: two USB Type-C and one USB Type-A. The 22.5W of Power Delivery is enough to charge the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 even while you're playing games (both use less than 20W on average in handheld mode). It's also one of the smaller 20,000mAh power banks I've seen, measuring 4.8" long and 2.8" wide (it's pretty chunky though at 1.2" thick) and weighing in at about 11 ounces. The built-in cable is a popular feature on newer power banks because you no longer have to bring along your own USB Type-C cable.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Connexion
