Horror visionaries James Wan and Jason Blum are working with Paramount Pictures to summon a new Paranormal Activity movie into theaters.

Word on a revival for the found-footage franchise comes from THR, which reports the series’ first new film since 2021’s Next of Kin is already in the works. Wan, best known for his work as director for The Conjuring and the original Saw, is on board as a producer alongside Blum via Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Paramount is attached as co-financer, co-producer, and distributor, with original director Oren Peli also in the mix as a producer via Solana Films. Room 101 Inc.’s Steven Schneider is also on board to executive produce alongside Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear and Judson Scott. Alayna Glasthal will oversee for the company.

Details related to the creative team behind the new Paranormal Activity movie, as well as its plot and release date, remain a mystery for now. Though it’s unclear when exactly the project will fully materialize, it's said to be a “priority for both Paramount and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.”

Wan has touched everything from Insidious to Aquaman, but working with Paranormal Activity’s supernatural entities marks new ground for the filmmaker. The low-budget original installment launched to massive success upon its premiere in 2007, drawing a global box office haul just short of $200 million (via Box Office Mojo) with its small scale, simple premise, and commitment to found-footage horror.

“I’ve been a huge admirer of Paranormal Activity since the brilliant first movie, with its creeping slow burn and subtle ability to make the unseen terrifying,” Wan said. “I’m looking forward to expanding on its legacy and helping shape the next evolution of this scary found-footage franchise.”

Paranormal Activity’s strong start naturally spawned sequels before taking a break with its sixth film, The Ghost Dimension, in 2015. Next of Kin had been propped up as somewhat of a reboot for the ghost story film franchise before its Paramount+ release but failed to gain much traction amongst critics (we gave it a 4/10) and fans. It’s unclear if Wan, Blum, Peli, and Paramount’s eighth crack at Paranormal Activity will acknowledge the events of past films.

“Diving in with James for this exciting rebirth of the franchise that started it all for Blumhouse is exactly what we dreamed of when we merged with Atomic Monster,” Blum added. “I’ll be actively involved with him to introduce this new chapter. Thankfully, we’re able to spend a little more than the $15,000 we had on the first movie, but one thing will remain the same — do not see it alone.”

We gave Paranormal Activity an 8/10 review upon its release. We called it one of our favorite haunted house movies in 2018. For more, you can read up on the official Paranormal Activity video game set to launch in 2026.

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).

Micron is pulling Crucial, its consumer products business – not because people aren't buying it, but because shoveling the products directly into the insatiable maw of AI data centers is more profitable. The company announced today (via The Verge) that it will be winding down the sale of Crucial consumer products – think high-quality budget RAM and SSDs – at the end of February 2026.

"The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage," EVP and chief business officer of Micron Sumit Sadana said, "Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments."

To quote Ronny Cox's Dick Jones, the main corporate villain of the 1987 movie Robocop, "Good business is where you find it."

Micron's announcement is just further heartbreak for PC builders, especially those who have relied for years on Crucial parts' quality and affordability to upgrade or assemble their computers. (The Crucial MX500 has been our go-to budget SSD for years, while the T500 is our favorite value SSD for PS5.) But Crucial may only be the first big casualty of the massive and growing memory demand of the AI industry, which has already lead to unpredictable catch-of-the-day style price swings in RAM, as PCWorld reported last month. And the pressure on components prices could reverberate across high-end gaming for years to come. For instance, rumors last month suggested that Microsoft will yet again raise prices on its Xbox Series X/S consoles – or that they could become unavailable altogether – due to the cost of RAM.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Following months of rumors, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z TriFold. The company says it's releasing the phone in the first quarter of 2026, but it's apparently not yet ready to say how much this phone will cost. Based on the nearly $4,000 price of the Huawei Mate XT tri-fold, I'd guess not cheap.

Rumors have put the Z TriFold's price around the $3,000 price point, which could be reasonable to expect based on its specs. The phone is thin when it's unfolded – 3.9mm at its thinnest point, Samsung says – which is impressive but just a bit thicker than the 3.6mm thick Mate XT. All folded up, the phone is 12.9mm thick, which is only 0.1mm thicker than Huawei's phone. The Z TriFold's 10-inch display, when unfolded, will be a bit smaller than the Mate XT's 10.2 inch internal screen. The display also has a lower resolution and pixel density – 2160 x 1584 and 269ppi versus the Mate XT's 2232 x 3184 and 382ppi. All of this folds up to be 12.9mm thick, which is only .1mm thicker than the Mate XT.

The TriFold has a 6.5-inch OLED cover display with a 2520 x 1080 resolution and 442ppi, capable of up to 2600 nits peak brightness. Like the interior display, it's capable of 1 – 120Hz refresh rate. The phone features five cameras – a 10MP selfie camera on the cover display and one on the inside, a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, a 200MP wide-angle camera with 2x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto with optical image stabilization and 3x optical zoom, as well as 30x digital zoom.

Inside, the phone sounds a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which we gave an 8/10 and called the best folding phone yet – and therefore one of the best smartphones overall – in our review. Like that phone, it's packing a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and 16GB of RAM. Samsung is offering it in 512GB and 1TB storage tiers. It's got a three-cell, 5,600mAh battery split up amongst each of its sections, and supports 45W wired fast charging and 15W wireless fast charging – so, Qi2, not Qi2.2. And great news for eSIM haters: it still supports dual physical SIM cards.

Of course, the big question around this phone, besides cost, is durability. Rather than the Mate XT's Z-fold – which, come on guys, it's in the name! – this phone folds inward to protect the interior display. The phone also only manages an IP48 dust and water resistance rating, like the Z Fold 7; I guess Samsung still hasn't cracked the code to the IP68 rating that Google gave its Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Needless to say, more than any other foldable, this is not a phone you want to leave in the unsupervised, candy-caked hands of a child.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Bose's best noise canceling headphones has a huge discount going into the holiday season. Right now Amazon is offering a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra noise canceling headphones for just $279.00 with free shipping. The average sale price during Black Friday and Cyber Monday was $300, so this is a better deal. This is Bose's best (aka flagship) noise canceling headphone and competes with other top-end competitors like the Sony WH-1000XM6. It would make a great upgrade if you're still rocking older generation QuietComfort headphones, and a fantastic gift idea for just about everyone else.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones for $279

There’s a new block on the block, or at least there will be soon. The Steam Machine, Valve’s new cuboid mini gaming PC disguised as a game console is coming early next year. And that’s exciting! I mean, when was the last time anybody had a shot at squeezing into this market lorded over by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for more than two decades? And how will it fare, specifically, against the PlayStation 5?

I wish I could say this is a straightforward choice, but it’s just not. The Steam Machine will come with all of the full richness of the Steam game library, and it will have certain capabilities beyond what Sony offers for the PS5 – it is a full-on Linux computer, after all. Yet it’s likely that the PS5 will be the cheaper, more performant machine, and will continue to be home to some huge exclusives, or games that run better simply because developers know exactly what hardware they’re making them for. Optimization matters!

But the choice isn’t just about specs and price. The gaming industry is in flux: every month brings more high-profile game industry layoffs; prices have shot up in response to President Trump’s tariffs; and 2025 has seen a lot of high-profile cancellations in series like Perfect Dark and Kingdom Hearts. Picking a game console, now more than ever, is a bet that it’ll give you reasons to keep coming back to it. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of us that can just buy every console we want and pay rent – so hopefully I can help you decide: should you buy a PS5 or a Steam Machine?

Specs and Performance

We won’t know how well the Steam Machine truly runs until we’ve gotten to put it through its paces, partly because of its custom chipset. But we can sure guess based on what Valve has revealed so far, as well as on our own time spent with the hardware when it was announced.

At roughly six inches cubed, things are cramped inside the Steam Machine. Under its black plastic facade is a collection of good, but largely laptop-friendly components. The company has been careful not to frame it as a hot rod, making clear, for instance, that it’ll be relying on upscaling to hit its 4K resolution targets. As IGN has written before, the Steam Machine’s custom RDNA 3 GPU is about on par with a mobile RX 7600. For the CPU, Valve went with a slightly older 6-core Zen 4 chip.

You know what’s even older? The PS5’s components. But age is just a number, and you’ll find more compute in the PS5’s 8-core Zen 2 CPU and its RDNA 2 GPU than what the 5-year-newer Steam Machine offers. We’ll see how the two stack up when the Steam Machine’s GPU actually hits our test bench, but it would be surprising if it was an even match.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Remember, the Steam Machine is console-shaped, but as far as your games are concerned, it’s still just another gaming PC. Very little, if anything, that runs on it will have been created with its specific hardware in mind. Meanwhile, PS5 game developers will have known exactly what hardware they’re programming for (PS5 Pro notwithstanding). That doesn’t mean every PS5 game is perfectly optimized – but it does mean it’s a little more likely to have great-looking AAA games, even as it continues to age.

It’s possible, if the Steam Machine sells well enough, that some developers will start to make games with Valve’s hardware in mind, but I wouldn’t count on that happening frequently, if at all. Heck, even on the PS5 it can feel like developers got about 80 percent of the way there before studio execs called it good, released the game, and laid off the team that made it.

Now, all of that said, will games look bad on the Steam Machine? Oh my, no; there’s plenty of debate over just how well it’ll perform. Just don’t expect its games to be the absolute cream of the crop.

Winner: PS5

Library and Features

Deciding will be tricky if you’re looking at what actually runs on these consoles. The PS5 can only play games one generation back, not counting older remasters and the like. Meanwhile, the Steam Machine will be packed with decades of digital games, via Steam, right at launch. You might already have a huge library at your disposal! That’s a huge advantage that can’t be overstated.

But what about those sweet PlayStation 5 ‘sclusies? Sony hasn’t quite followed Microsoft down its magnanimous path of making its exclusive games multiplatform, so the PS5 is the only way you’ll play titles like Ghost of Yotei or Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. With more than 80 million PS5s sold, there’s no guarantee that the company will veer meaningfully from that strategy. Then again, some games have jumped to other platforms, like the Spider-Man games; and the list of remaining exclusives isn’t long at all.

There’s also approachability to consider: the PS5 is a game console, through and through. When you want to play a game on it, you buy the game, load it, and, generally speaking, play it – so long as it doesn’t require you to log into an account before you can play. (He wrote, while looking askance at Star Wars Outlaws.) That’s mostly how it works with SteamOS, too, but you’ll still have to fiddle with settings in some games, particularly those Valve hasn’t already given a Steam Machine verified badge.

There’s also a very real difference to consider in terms of physical size and hardware features. The Steam Machine is tiny, like a Very Serious take on the GameCube (a GabeCube, you might say), while the PS5 is a behemoth that looks a bit like a black-and-white vampire when it’s sitting upright. Just finding somewhere to put the dang thing is a real challenge. But on the flipside, you can get a PS5 with a disc drive, meaning you can fill your shelves with physical game cases if that’s your thing. (No judgement, friend, I used to be you.) Sure, Valve could have stuck a disc drive on top of the Steam Machine, but in a world where physical PC games have all but vanished, what would have been the point? To play Blu-ray movies? Actually, that would be rad.

Outside of their games libraries, size, and plug-and-playability, the PS5 and Steam Machine are almost bizarro versions of each other. Both systems have touch pad features on their controllers, and both have a handheld story to tell, via the game streaming-only PS Portal and the standalone (but also streaming-capable) Steam Deck. The latter is a standalone system that starts at $400, the PS Portal only streams games and is half the price. That’s not to mention VR – a similar dynamic plays out between the Steam Frame and PSVR 2.

Winner: Tie

Price

Price is where the PS5’s biggest advantage may lie. Even after tariff-induced price hikes, it starts at $499 for the digital edition, which is much cheaper than the $700-$800 that the Steam Machine could cost. The same goes for the $200 PS Portal and $400 Steam Deck, or the $400 PSVR 2 and the Steam Frame, which could easily cost $500 or more.

But there’s more to consider, like the size of your Steam library and the depth of your restraint. If you’ve already got enough compatible games, you could easily get a Steam Machine, then avoid buying any new games for a while to let your wallet cool off. Meanwhile, the PS5 is limited to its own library, plus PS4 games and remakes of older titles. Even if you have a healthy PS4 library, the PS5’s identity is all wrapped up in what a power plant it is. You’ll want some new games that show that off. And it doesn’t take much – one Ghost of Yotei here and a Death Stranding 2 there – before the price differential starts to become a wash.

Assuming a $700 Steam Machine price point, the calculus swings a bit back toward Sony if you buy a disc edition. A lot of PS5 games have come out in the five years since the console landed, and you can get some great secondhand hard copy deals on some of the best PS5 games out there. If Valve just says “to hell with it” and charges $500, though? The Steam Machine is practically a no-brainer from a price perspective. But that’s probably not going to happen.

There’s a lot of “if this, then that” that goes into whether the PS5 is a better deal than the Steam Machine, so for right now, this one is a tie that could tip either way depending on how much Valve asks for its new gaming PC.

Winner: Tie

The Winner Is… the PS5 (For Now)

Sony gets the edge here, but just barely. It’s a more powerful system for one thing, and as this console generation wanes, it will probably age better than the Steam Machine, at least when it comes to AAA games, purely because of console optimization – when developers know the hardware they’re aiming for, their games tend to play and look better.

But the delta between the performance of the Steam Machine and the PS5 is still unknown at this point. And even if it’s about where we think it is, it may not be a meaningful difference for all but the most pixel-peeping among us. The rest won’t notice a difference unless you stick visuals from both systems right in front of them. And even then, most won’t care.

In every other area, the two consoles come up about even, although that depends on certain things. If you have a huge and growing Steam library already, then the Steam Machine could be the obvious choice, even if Valve charges $200 more for it than Sony does for the PS5. If your Steam library is lacking or nonexistant, the PS5 might be the better bang for your buck.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Max is officially back to being HBO Max. Even though the name has changed (returned?), the library is still full of great films and shows to watch. HBO Max is home to some incredibly high-quality watches, including House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Sinners. You can tune in to Season 2 of Peacemaker and even catch up on James Gunn's Superman beforehand.

If you've been hoping to start up an account to dig into that library, we're here to help. While HBO Max recently increased the price of all of its monthly plans by around $1, we're keeping track of the best price for subscriptions, along with any deals as they appear. Let's get into what's available right now.

Our Top Pick: The Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max Streaming Bundle

Upcoming multiteam MOBA game Project ZETA announced today that signups are open for its next beta test, which will begin on Steam on December 12. This final closed beta will be the last chance to jump in early before the game goes public, and the developers have asked for opinionated players to help shape its future.

If you’re not already familiar with Project ZETA, we can catch you up to speed. Developed by Nirvanana, a team built of former Eternal Return devs, it mixes up the traditional MOBA formula in two key ways. First, instead of the standard of having two teams go head-to-head, it pits five teams against each other at the same time in a race to capture Prisms, the game’s most precious resource. There are multiple ways to get Prisms, giving each team the opportunity to follow different paths to victory. And second, it uses a third-person camera rather than an isometric one, making combat more dynamic and action-focused.

That combat is PvPvE, with monsters and bosses populating the map. Defeating monsters will score you XP and shards, which can upgrade your abilities and provide buffs to your stats, cooldowns, and more. Defeating bosses gets you all of that plus Prisms. However, just picking up a Prism isn’t enough, you need to return it to the center of the map in order for it to actually count toward your score.

And that’s where the PvP comes in. Competing teams can ambush you on your way to deposit your Prisms and steal them from you. And that looming threat constantly affects the strategy your team chooses. Do you blitz bosses and try to rush their Prisms to the center of the map to win quickly? Do you bide your time, taking down monsters to scale your team's power and enter the next fight better prepared? Or do you lie in wait near the center of the map to pounce on opposing teams and take their Prisms after they’ve already done the work for you?

These are all viable strategies, but the reality is within one match you’ll jump between all three. In Project ZETA, strategies shift dynamically from one moment to the next. With five teams roaming the Aran Plateau, improvisation matters most. Focus too much on one adversary and another might stab you in the back, or worse, run up the score to take a commanding lead.

Your strategy will also be driven by the heroes your team members choose. There are currently 13 heroes, with more to be revealed in the future, and they’re grouped into four categories: Fighter, Marksman, Assassin, and Mage. Each hero has unique abilities that can synergize with other heroes, some of which can trigger devastating multikills if you pull them off at the right time.

It’s been six months since Project ZETA’s second closed beta, and a lot has changed in that time. In fact, it’s been the period with the biggest advancements in the game to date. There are two new heroes, reworked visuals and abilities for most heroes, new game-changing equipables, revamped environments, simplified Prism scoring, team respawn fixes, and lots more, all based on player feedback.

The final beta test will offer another chance to provide more feedback and further enhance the game. Anyone in North America or Europe can sign up for it on Steam, and both regions will have devoted servers running on two weekends: the first will be December 12–14, and the second will be December 19–21. For those who can’t stop playing, there will also be a custom game server that will stay live for the entirety of the beta, from December 12–21.

Project ZETA is also available to wishlist on Steam, and if you want the latest info and updates, you can join the official Discord server, follow on Twitter or Facebook, or check out its official website.

Lenovo has dropped the price on one of its best equipped gaming laptops to its lowest price ever. The Legion Pro 5 Gen 10 gaming laptop, featuring an OLED display, Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, and RTX 5070 Ti GPU, is down to $1,469.99 after you stack two coupon codes "LENOVOHOLIDEAL" and "EXTRAFIVE". That's $1,000 off in combined savings and beats the lowest price I saw during BLack Friday and Cyber Monday. The RTX 5070 Ti is a powerful mobile GPU that will easily run game you throw at it, even on the display's 1600p resolution.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Gen 10 RTX 5070 Ti Laptop for $1,470

It’s December, and that means one of the most epic fan conventions in the world is set to showcase some of the biggest upcoming movies, streaming series, and much, much more.

IGN will be on the ground at CCXP25 in Brazil starting Thursday, December 4 bringing you all the biggest news, panels, and celebrity interviews. Over 4 jam-packed days, we’ll be featuring inside looks at some of the most hotly-anticipated properties in entertainment. Check out the full line-up below, and be sure to check back as more movies and shows are added.

Thursday, December 4

• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max)

Friday, December 5

• Fallout (Prime Video)
• Marty Supreme (A24)

Saturday, December 6

• Disney +
• Paramount +
• The Boys (Prime Video)

Sunday, December 7

• Primal (Adult Swim)
• IT: Welcome to Derry (HBO)

You can check out the full CCXP25 schedule here.

Last year, IGN was on the ground at CCXP with up-close looks at movies and series including Severance, The Gorge, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Invincible, and more including interviews interviews with Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Adam Scott, and Norman Reedus, and Ana de Armas.

Stay tuned starting Thursday for up-to-the minutes details about everything happening at CCXP25.