I have a dangerous habit of replaying favourites instead of starting something new, so a deals list like this is usually what finally pushes me over the line. I have played the overwhelming majority of these, argued about the rest, and regretted paying full price for at least two of them in the past.

Contents

• Retro
• Nintendo
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• PC
• PC Gear
• LEGO

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I am lighting a 38-candle cake for Punch-Out!!, an absolute knockout of a NES classic. I was there in 1987, controller clenched, staring up at those towering sprites through Little Mac's gloves, trying to read tells and rhythms like it was a real fight tape. Punch-Out did not feel like a sports sim at all. It was a puzzlefest that happened to go upside your thinkin’ machine if you got it wrong.

What made this magic was how readable and human it felt. Every opponent was a personality, not just a stat sheet, from Glass Joe's tragic fragility to Bald Bull's screen-shaking charge. The star punch system rewarded patience and pattern recognition, and it’s still the most satisfying uppercut in gaming this side of Mortal Kombat’s D+HP. Lastly, beating Iron Mike Tyson in the endgame made you a schoolyard legend. Can confirm.

Disney’s animated blockbuster Zootopia 2 has overtaken the live-action Lilo & Stitch movie to become the highest-grossing Hollywood release of 2025 and just the third film to make over $1 billion at the global box office.

After three weekends, Zootopia 2 has now made $1.13 billion worldwide, with the majority of that money made internationally (specifically, in China). The domestic haul is now up to $259 million, and the international total is at an incredible $877.7 million. Lilo & Stitch ended its theatrical run earlier this year with $1.03 billion worldwide. But Zootopia 2 still has some way to go before it catches up with the biggest movie of 2025, Ne Zha 2, which made an eye-watering $1.9 billion theatrically. Disney has now had five billion-dollar releases since 2013: Frozen; Frozen 2; Moana 2; Zootopia; and Zootopia 2.

IGN's Zootopia 2 review returned an 8/10. We said: "Zootopia 2 sends ZPD’s first ever bunny-fox detective duo back onto the case of some of the weightiest issues we face as a society, and they brought all the animal puns with them."

Meanwhile, undeterred by a mauling from critics, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has made $174 million after two weekends in theaters. While the sequel seems unlikely to match its predecessor’s $292 million global box office haul back in 2023, it’s a clear hit for Blumhouse, which, according to Variety, spent just $36 million on the horror film. IGN’s Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review returned a 3/10. We said: “Five Nights at Freddy's 2 gives sequels, video game adaptations, and gateway horror movies a bad name.”

Wicked: For Good is now on $468 million globally (it looks like ending its theatrical run a decent way behind 2024’s Wicked, which hit an impressive $758 million globally), Now You See Me, Now You Don't is on $214 million, and The Running Man is up to $68 million (more here on The Running Man’s box office stumble). And finally, James L. Brooks’ Ella McKay made just $2.1 million domestically during its opening weekend.

As the year nears its end, one final blockbuster is set to hit theaters: James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. It’s another crucial release for Disney, which is reportedly releasing four different Avengers: Doomsday trailers to push fans into seeing it multiple times at theaters.

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.

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Disney reportedly has a plan to encourage repeat viewings of Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters — and it involves four different Avengers: Doomsday trailers.

Amid intense speculation that Avengers: Doomsday will finally get its debut trailer this month a full year before its December 18, 2026 release date, The Hollywood Reporter said Disney plans to roll out four different Avengers: Doomsday trailers over the course of four weeks, with each enjoying a run in theaters for seven days before being replaced by the next. And it’s all — allegedly — designed to get bums on seats for Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Avatar: Fire and Ash has a December 19 release date, so if THR is right about this, we’ll have our first Avengers: Doomsday trailer in just a few days. Marvel declined to comment.

Rumors had swirled around online about the Avengers: Doomsday trailer being tied to Avatar: Fire and Ash in some way, but this would certainly be a unique rollout. Now, fans are speculating about how this might work. Some are suggesting each trailer will revolve around a different superhero team (The Avengers, The New Avengers / Thunderbolts, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men). But it could be a lot less interesting than that and the trailer may simply be ever so slightly changed week-on-week, with a few extra shots here and there.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is of course a crucial release for Disney. The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. Avatar: Fire and Ash is expected to follow suit — and the pressure is on it to deliver for Disney so director James Cameron can realize his vision and release Avatar 4 and 5 over the next six years.

But Cameron has sounded words of caution recently. Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron admitted he was feeling nervous about Avatar: Fire and Ash’s box office performance, and was mindful of the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025.

There’s the potential for “sequelitis,” Cameron noted. "People tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.” And there’s the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, which means fewer people are going to the movies — 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested.

When pressed on how much Avatar: Fire and Ash cost to make, Cameron wouldn’t be drawn into divulging a figure, only suggesting it was a lot of money, and so the movie will have to make a lot of money to turn a profit. “It is one metric f**k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f**k tons of money to make a profit,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”

Well, one way to help with that is to show four different Avengers: Doomsday trailers ahead of screenings of Avatar: Fire and Ash for a month!

On the issue of Avatar's box office, Cameron admitted he was “absolutely” ready to walk away from Avatar if Fire and Ash flops. “I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”

As for Avatar: Doomsday, last week a listing for a trailer popped up on the Korean Ratings Board with a runtime of 1 minute and 25 seconds. It sounds like it won't be long until we finally get a sense of what to expect from the film.

Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney.

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.

Actor Peter Greene has died aged 60.

His manager, Gregg Edwards, confirmed to NBC News that Greene was found dead inside his Lower East Side apartment in New York City on Friday, December 12. The cause of death is unknown at this time.

The Daily News reported that Greene was found in his apartment after neighbors reported hearing Christmas music playing inside for several days. According to the Daily News, police indicated his death did not appear to be suspicious, with an autopsy scheduled.

Greene was best known for playing villains, perhaps most famously sadistic security guard Zed in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, and antagonist Dorian Tyrell in Jim Carrey’s 1994 comedy, The Mask.

But he played villains in many other movies, such as Bryan Singer’s 1995 crime thriller The Usual Suspects, Judgment Night, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Training Day, and The Bounty Hunter. More recently, Greene played Uncle Charlie in John Wick prequel spinoff TV show The Continental.

Edwards told NBC News: “Nobody played a bad guy better than Peter. But he also had, you know, a gentle side that most people never saw, and a heart as big as gold.”

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In the wake of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic’s big announcement at The Game Awards, you might have seen social media posts saying the game won't be out until 2030. Director Casey Hudson has now stepped in to address those posts, insisting the game will be out before then.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is in development at Edmonton, Alberta-based developer Arcanaut Studios, which Hudson and his partners only founded in July. It stole the show at The Game Awards with a flashy, tantalising CG trailer that contained no gameplay. But fans are particularly excited because Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is billed as the spiritual successor to the much-loved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which Hudson directed while at BioWare.

So where did all the “not till 2030” posts come from? It seems a social media comment from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, in which he called a 2030 release window an “optimistic guess” based on the fact the studio was founded this year, ended up being framed elsewhere online as “Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic may not release until at least 2030.”

Now, Hudson himself has stepped in. “Don’t worry about the ‘not till 2030’ rumors,” Hudson tweeted. “Game will be out before then. I’m not getting any younger!”

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is in “early development,” so it still feels a fair while away. But based on Hudson’s comment, it will launch at some point in 2029 at the latest, which is four years away. In that time, Hudson will need to build out his new studio (almost certainly a factor in announcing the game so early), which will be a huge effort all on its own, as well as build what is expected to be a high quality AAA game with huge fan expectations.

Details are thin on the ground, but we do have some top-line information as well as enthusiasm from LucasFilm Games, which is collaborating with Arcanaut Studios on the project. Obviously Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is set in the Old Republic era, given its name. It’s a “narrative-driven single-player action RPG” where you “step into the role of a Force user on a journey through a galaxy on the edge of rebirth.” We’re told players can expect an experience “where every decision deepens their journey toward light or darkness.” It sounds a lot like KOTOR, and while it may end up feeling a lot like KOTOR, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is a completely new and different story that will introduce new characters.

“We’re still early in development, with many challenges ahead,” Hudson said in a blog post on StarWars.com. “I’m grateful to have enjoyed the support of KOTOR fans for many years, and I look forward to embarking upon this journey together, sharing more of what we’re doing as soon as we can!”

Despite Hudson’s comment reassuring fans, there is some debate about whether Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic will end up missing the current generation of consoles and end up launching on the PlayStation 6 and the next Xbox, as well as PC. Time will tell.

Be sure to check out everything announced at The Game Awards 2025 for more, as well as the winners list in full.

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.