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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images.

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

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

Preorder the Secretlab Titan Evo Gaming Chair for Pokemon Day

It's that time of year: filing your tax return. It's a good day for people who overpay their taxes throughout the year and receive a nice fat check in return. It's not so good of a day for people who have claimed too many exemptions. Whatever the case, most Americans will need to file a tax return no later than April 15 and that's just two months away.

File Your Federal and State Tax Returns for Free

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Than Graphics Cards

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Sport Headphones for $107.99

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

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

With this set, the LEGO designers have outdone themselves.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images.

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

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

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