It’s officially release day for action RPG Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE, which puts you in control of the limitless potential of series star Sung Jinwoo. It’s available now on Steam and Xbox PC.

The game takes place in the world of the globally popular Solo Leveling franchise, where supernaturally powerful Hunters fight to protect humanity from invading monsters. Most Hunters have fixed power levels, but Sung Jinwoo is unique: he can level up. And he’s on a mission to become the world’s strongest Hunter and the Ultimate Monarch of Shadows.

You can guide him through that mission in Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE’s Story Mode, which includes an adaptation of the original story as well as new adventures that are unique to the game. You can customize his appearance, abilities, and play style through the course of the story.

His biggest strength is his versatility. He can learn just about anything and is constantly growing and evolving. Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE puts you in charge of determining that growth, including four initial job choices and a skill tree that allows for flexibility in creating your own playstyle.

He can wield several different types of weapons, and you’re able to swap between them on the fly to chain attacks together and build combos. There are also timing-based parries and dodges you can use to cancel or avoid damage and then unleash counterattacks to keep the pace of combat flowing.

Your play style will change depending on the combination of weapons and skills you choose, giving you the opportunity to test a lot of different styles and seeing what suits you. And by charging the Monarch’s Awakening gauge, Sung Jinwoo can transform into his Shadow Monarch form, which has a completely different set of skills to use against enemies.

Sung Jinwoo might be the protagonist, but he’s not the only character you can play as. You’ll recruit other Hunters that fans of the Solo Leveling series will recognize, each with their own personalities and powers, and you can play as them in certain Hunter dungeons. You can also join up to three friends in co-op raids that will see you face off with some of the toughest commanders from the series. In those raids, you can play as either Jinwoo or one of the other available Hunters, and they all have their own skill set and attack patterns to master.

The Story Mode and multiplayer content of Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE are both included in the base purchase price of $39.99, which is available now in full on Steam and Xbox PC. The game is also scheduled for release on consoles in 2026. For the latest news and updates, you can check out the game’s official website or follow it on Twitter, Facebook, Discord, and YouTube.

Comedy legend Eddie Murphy has been a fan favorite actor for decades now — but even he has some regrets about films he wishes he'd starred in, ones that could’ve made him even more beloved than he was at the height of his career.

“Yeah, there’s a couple of movies,” he told the Associated Press in a recent interview where he addressed movies he wished he’d done. “Ghostbusters, I was supposed to do Ghostbusters. Didn’t do that. And Rush Hour. Didn’t do that. Oh, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Those are my big three ‘wish I would have done’ movies. They were huge giant hits.”

HBO Max has officially unveiled its Black Friday deal for 2025, and despite a new round of price hikes, it’s actually better than last year’s. In fact, it’s pretty much the best Black Friday streaming deal I’ve seen so far.

From now until December 1, you can get 12 months of HBO Max with ads at the price of $2.99/month. The downside is definitely those ads, which are pretty much par for the course for Black Friday discounts. The upside is the deal is available to both new and returning subscribers, so you won’t have to do any “new e-mail address” trickery if you’ve had an account before.

Get HBO Max for 2.99/mo for 12 Months

Ubisoft has confirmed Attack on Titan as the next big brand crossover coming to Assassin's Creed Shadows, with a free story quest and paid cosmetics arriving this week.

From tomorrow, November 24, players will be able to take on a new free mission and purchase a series of in-game items. But you'll need to act quickly, as the Attack on Titan mission content will only be live until December 22.

Hit anime media franchise Attack on Titan is the second crossover for Assassin's Creed Shadows following the game's earlier Dead by Daylight collaboration. Similarly, that offered up a simple mission (which lasted around 15 minutes) and then let you pay to adorn Shadows' main characters in themed cosmetics, if you so chose.

A series of other, non-crossover story missions have also been added to Shadows for free since launch, one of which starred Critical Role's Robbie Daymond as a new character you can recruit as an ally. Another update, which arrived in late September, immortalized a fan's beloved pet cat. Fans expect Ubisoft to continue supporting Shadows with further content through 2026, as it also prepares its long-awaited (but still unannounced) Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake.

Last week, Ubisoft celebrated its latest set of financial results which it said had been driven by a "strong performance" for the Assassin's Creed franchise. But while there was an update on how many people had played 2023's Assassin's Creed Mirage, Ubisoft gave no further update on how Shadows has sold. Back in July, Ubisoft said Shadows had surpassed 5 million players, and that its performance had been in line with expectations.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is currently half price in Amazon's Black Friday sale.

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

Bethany Weaver, the British actress briefly glimpsed as Dorothy in Wicked: For Good, has shared behind-the-scenes photos that fully reveal her in costume for the first time.

Wicked: For Good goes to great lengths to keep Weaver's face obscured and her character off-screen for all but a few seconds of its more than two-hour runtime. As in the original musical, Dorothy's biggest moment — where she douses Elphaba with water, seemingly killing her — is shown just in silhouette form.

But, of course, Wicked: For Good needed to cast someone to portray the character, and she was recently revealed as 30-year-old unknown actress and pilates teacher Bethany Weaver, who has also been kept squarely out of the limelight — until now.

In a fresh post on Instagram, Weaver finally acknowledged her role as Dorothy and thanked some of her fellow co-stars, including Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Omari Bernard and Oscar, the dog who plays Toto.

"What an honour it has been to walk on the yellow brick road with my fellow Witch Hunters," Weaver wrote. "A huge thank you to the best film maker of all time Jon M Chu for choosing me to be your Dorothy in this wonderfully wicked universe called Oz.

"This has been a life changing experience, it's changed me in so many ways and most importantly, for good. It's been an honor to carry the legacy of the brilliant women before me who have stepped into these shoes, and embarked on the yellow brick road. I hope I have made them proud."

Accompanying the post are a series of photos that finally show Weaver's face while portraying Dorothy. Curiously, there's also a short video clip that appears to show a scene from the film on a video monitor, where Weaver's face was fully included. Was this cut? Or was it filmed without the intention of never being included?

Speaking about the deliberate decision to keep Dorothy as anonymous as possible, Wicked director Jon M Chu previously said that it had been a conscious effort to not distract audiences from the movie's main plot with the introduction of the Wizard of Oz's star, who only acts as a background character to Wicked's central story of Elphaba and Glinda. Additionally, Chu had not wanted the movie to replace other instances of the character's portrayal — such as the legendary 1939 performance of Judy Garland.

So drastic was the decision to keep Dorothy anonmous, The Sun reported that Weaver was stopped from attending major premieres, while other cast and crew were banned from following or interacting with her on social media.

Not that Dorothy's lack of presence appears to have hurt Wicked: For Good's success. Far from it, the concluding half of Wicked's two-part story has landed as firmly as a Kansas house in Munchkinland, and already brought in $226 million globally, making it the fourth biggest opening weekend for a movie this year. That's bigger than Superman and The Fantastic Four, and behind only Lilo & Stitch, Jurassic World Rebirth, and A Minecraft Movie.

"Wicked: For Good has all of the great parts of the first movie — opulent sets, heart-wrenching songs, the perfect lead cast — and all of its problems, too," we wrote in IGN's Wicked: For Good review, awarding the film a 6/10 score.

Image credit: bethweavesx.

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 Mazinger franchise is easily one of the most popular Japanese mecha franchises ever created, and it's still going strong after several decades. Titan Comics is giving fans a new way to experience that story with a prequel graphic novel called Grendizer U: The Inception.

IGN can exclusively debut a preview of Grendizer U: The Inception, which is due in stores in March 2026. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

Grendizer U: The Inception is written by Go Nagai and illustrated by 8KEY. The book is adapted from the 2024 anime series Grendizer U and features a new prequel story by Tatsuto Higuchi. Here's Titan's official logline for the book:

When a UFO from the Vega Alliance arrives on Earth, humanity faces its biggest threat in an oncoming Alien invasion. But their hope arrives in another Alien, Duke Fleed, a refugee of the planet Fleed who finds his home in Japan. Duke pilots the mighty Grendizer, a weaponized Mech to fight off the Vega forces. Along with his best friend and partner Koji Kabuto, they fight to free Earth from the terror of the Vega forces.

Written by the legendary Go Nagai and illustrated by 8KEY, Grendizer: U The Inception modernizes the iconic story of the lost prince who shoulders the responsibility to protect his new home from the same Empire that destroyed his last.

Featuring a prequel story by Tatsuto Higuchi not told before, this manga is an adaptation of the anime Grendizer U.

Grendizer U: The Inception will be released on March 17, 2026. You can preorder the book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and Forbidden Planet in the UK.

In other comic book news, find out who dies in Marvel's One World Under Doom finale, and learn about Dark Horse's new ongoing He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

One of 2025's most popular movies, Sinners, is available for only $12.99 during Gruv's Black Friday sale. While Gruv may not be a household name, it's the digital storefront of Universal Pictures, and offers incredible prices on movies from Universal, WB, and MGM.

There are already plenty of deals on physical media this year, including the return of Amazon's buy 2, get 1 free sale on 4K movies, but Gruv quietly has some of the best deals around if you're looking to expand your movie collection.

Sinners 4K UHD for $12.99 at Gruv

In celebration of Toy Story's 30th anniversary, IGN had the chance to speak to Pete Docter, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, and, alongside sharing his thoughts on the true heart of the film, he shared with us why now is the perfect time for Toy Story 5 with the ever-present threat of AI and technology invading our playtime.

I spoke to Docter and others as part of a larger retrospective on Toy Story for this big milestone, and I asked him why Toy Story is still relevant today and why they chose to focus on "Toy Meets Tech" for the upcoming fifth film that is set to be released in theaters on June 19, 2026.

“I think it's especially relevant today because of the tech and how that's changed the world,” Docter told me. “I mean, we're late to the party as it's been a number of years since technology's kind of already beat toys. Look around you at a restaurant, kids are looking at their iPhones and not playing with plastic figures anymore. I'll refrain from commenting on how I feel about that, but it's definitely out there in the world, and I think it's disturbing to a lot of people. And even in the last year, AI has brought up those same kind of fears in a maybe even a larger way because it seems to threaten what makes us human.

"And I think that's ultimately what the Toy Story movies are about. They look like toys, but they’re really stories about us as human beings, what it is to be alive, and the joys, threats, and difficulties of that.”

Docter expanded on that thought elsewhere in our conversation, and he recalled a very pivotal moment when he was working on the original film to help reinforce his point.

“One of the first shots that I animated was when Woody gets shoved off the bed and Buzz Lightyear lands there, and then all the kids run out and Woody crawls out from under the bed, and he's like, ‘uh.. uh… nothing… it was a mistake. Too much cake and ice cream.’ As I was analyzing it, I was like, ‘What is Woody thinking? What's he feeling right now?’ And it was jealousy. It was that sense of, I used to take it for granted that I was the top dog, and now there's some other guy, but I'm not going to show anybody that. And I realized there have been so many times in my life where I've felt the same thing.

“And so first of all, I put that into the shot, but I also realized that this is what this movie is about; it’s this emergence of jealousy that this toy feels like he's the most important thing in the world. But in the long run, the sort of selflessness of that is recognizing that his jealousy is born of love, that his jealousy is born of really caring for this kid, and if that's really the ultimate goal, then self-sacrifice, whatever it takes…I just feel like that's a really beautiful arc, and it was very relatable.”

That was the real theme of my conversation with Docter and the others I spoke to for this retrospective, that these films are all about toys and fantastical adventures, but they are ultimately about us. We live in a day and age where AI software can create a film in seconds, but maybe that's not the reason we as humans are drawn to stories. Perhaps it is something deeper.

“I just want the world to remember it was made by people,” Docter said when I asked him how he wanted people to look back on Toy Story. “Every detail in the film has some meaning for someone, either because that's what the character's feeling, or even just personal stuff. Hannah was named after a family friend of ours, or when Buzz is drunk after losing his arm, he's talking about being Mrs. Nesbit. That was my sister's second-grade teacher! So, everything is just connected to the people who made it. I think a lot of times people figure these things are,” and he pretends he is a robot typing into a prompt when he says, “Make…film… enter!” It doesn't work that way. It's made using a computer, but not by computers.”

For more, check out where Toy Story ranks on our list of the best Pixar films, Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton's comments on the decision to make another sequel, and our breakdown of the opening scene of the upcoming film from Destination D23.

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.

Pete Docter Blogroll Image Credit: (C) Pixar Animation Studios

Black Friday deals get messy fast, especially in the games world. Retailers love to hurl half-baked offers around in the run-up to what I like to call "Black Friday proper," the day after Thanksgiving.

While there are some genuinely good deals already available, it can still get a little tricky to work out what is actually worth your time, especially if you're on a limited budget.

That's where I'm here to help. Sure, there are plenty of strong 2025 releases on offer, with big PS5 and Nintendo Switch titles in the mix, but the real gold right now is the slew of games sitting at 20 dollars or less at retailers like Amazon.

That slice of the sale is stacked with some genuine heavy hitters from across the current generation's almost five-year life cycle. If you want actual bargains, this is the bin worth digging through.

Elden Ring

Daredevil actor Charlie Cox has said that any awards he might win for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 should really be given to his character's French motion capture artist instead.

Speaking this weekend at an event in Mexico, Cox said he was "thrilled" to be recognised but believed that any credit should go to someone else: his character Gustave's motion capture artist, who had physically brought the role to life.

"Yes, I'm thrilled for this nomination," Cox acknowledged. "I've said this before and I think it's important to say: there's an amazing French actor, by the name of Maxence Cazorla, who did almost all of the motion capture for that role in that game.

@posta.entretenimiento ⭐️ #CharlieCox se fue de paseo a #LaHuasteca 😮 El protagonista de #DaredevilBornAgain compartió cómo ha sido su experiencia hasta ahora en #Monterrey y reveló cómo se siente con su reciente nominación a #TheGameAwards2025 ♬ original sound - POSTA Entretenimiento

"So any nomination or credit I get, I really have to give to him — I believe that the performance of that character is really down to him, and my voice was just part of that process."

Cox has been nominated for Best Performance at The Game Awards, as part of Clair Obscur's record-breaking 12 nods. Indeed, Cox will need to fight off competition from two of his fellow Clair Obscur co-stars, Final Fantasy 16 voice Ben Starr and Baldur's Gate 3 actress Jennifer English, who are also nominated for their work in the same game.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is also up for Best Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Audio, Best Independent Game, Best Debut Independent Game and Best RPG, as well as the ceremony's coveted Game of the Year gong.

This isn't the first time that Cox has made clear he actually had very little to do with the making of Clair Obscur, despite performing the voice for one of its most prominent characters. Back in June, the actor said he felt like a "total fraud" anytime someone gushed to him about the role-playing game, and admitted he had recorded all of his lines in around four hours.

The following month, Cox was asked about Clair Obscur again and admitted he was still to play it, and needed to buy a new games console first. "I remember being in the studio and thinking, 'This is beautiful, the visuals are extraordinary,'" Cox said. "They've come a long way since Mario 64, which is probably the last computer game I played."

In IGN's 9/10 review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, we described it as a "modern RPG classic," adding: "In so many ways, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 reminded me of numerous classic and contemporary RPGs I love, but developer Sandfall truly understood why those games are special and made the pieces it borrowed its own."

Image credit: Medios y Media/Getty Images

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

While the whole month of November has basically been filled with deals this year, it's now officially Black Friday week. Already we've found numerous discounts worth checking out, especially on Apple devices. The brand new AirPods Pro 3 have been among them, dropping down to their lowest price yet of $219.99 across a variety of retailers.

This is a $29.01 discount from their usual price of $249, which is a nice little deal to jump on for these Apple earbuds. If you've had them in mind as a gift for the holidays this year for someone you know, or have just had your eye on them for yourself, now's the time to make a move on them.

AirPods Pro 3 for $219.99

Danel Craig reunites with writer-director Rian Johnson for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third installment in their murder mystery-comedy franchise following Knives Out and Glass Onion.

In Wake Up Dead Man, the renowned (and always nattily attired) detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) investigates a seemingly impossible murder that has rocked a small upstate New York town. The prime suspect is a young Catholic priest, Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), the assistant to charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude.

Working with local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis), Blanc doubts that Father Jud, a former boxer who turned to the cloth after a tragedy in the ring, is the true killer, casting a wider net that includes parishioners Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), best-selling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), and concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny).

Here’s what Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig recently told me about making Wake Up Dead Man and telling a sincere story about religious faith. (This interview has been edited for clarity.)

IGN: Rian, can you talk about the decision to write a story about faith and to write a character like Father Jud from that point of view? It's not ironic, you're not mocking faith.

Rian Johnson: I didn't grow up Catholic, but I grew up Protestant and I grew up very, very Christian. It was something that was really personal to me. It was a big part. My relationship with Christ was a big part of my identity when I was growing up and up through my early twenties and I'm no longer a believer, but it's something that I have a lot of very deep, complicated feelings about and it's something that was a little bit scary, the notion of, and that's what attracted us to it, I think.

The notion of actually having a real conversation about faith that wasn't reductive or didactic, but was actually kind of talking about it in the context of a big, entertaining, fun, murder mystery, that's really meant as a big tent thing for audiences to come and enjoy. That seemed like a great challenge.

I think for me, the reason I felt like I could even take that leap is because of my own personal grounding in it. That meant I really had skin in the game, in terms of wanting it to feel like it was, like I said, talking about that topic as opposed to talking at that topic, I guess.

IGN: Daniel, I think people might be surprised that, outside of the first shot of the movie, we don't see Benoit Blanc for about an hour into the movie. What was your reaction when you read the script?

Daniel Craig: Feels like two hours.

Rian Johnson: That's not about an hour. It's the first act.

Daniel Craig: Listen, I make up for it. You get enough of me in the next two-thirds of the movie, so it's all, it's not a problem. I approach these things like I always do. I don't want to read the script. I try and separate myself from the script when I read it because I want to read it with sort of outside eyes. Obviously, I read it looking at my part. Obviously I read it with Benoit in mind. But the film, the spine of the movie is the relationship between Father Jud and Benoit and we need to get to know him before Benoit can come in and start overacting.

IGN: I really did love that relationship between those two characters because one is a person driven by faith and then your character is obviously “just the facts”. Did you and Josh discuss the relationship much before you were filming?

Daniel Craig: I think the conversation was, I mean, in a way, Rian talks about (Benoit’s) background in a way, sort of put it there, that there was probably a very religious upbringing and that it was a response to that and then the move towards science and fact. And so as Rian said, it was really just important to make that an adult conversation and the joy of it being that there's a revelation for Blanc in the story.

I mean we're always trying to discuss it, figure it out, but there's no one conversation I can think of. It's one of many that you just sort of like, how about this? How about this? How about this? You're just trying to throw as many ideas into it as possible.

Rian Johnson: I think this was maybe my favorite part of this entire process. That first conversation between Blanc and Jud and the church, where they kind of really go head-to-head with their points-of-view. And this is an example of the type of collaboration that we have during it.

That was a scene that we actually dove into together, when it was still in the script phase, and Daniel had the incredibly perceptive instinct that I wrote it as a much softer scene between the two of them. And it was Daniel who was like, "I really think the harder you define these two, especially Blanc, the harder he comes in against faith, the more their kind of straight head-to-head in that first scene, the stronger their relationship will end up being."

And he was so right and so it was going back and forth and figuring out how far can we push it in terms of how far Blanc goes? That for me is part of the pleasure of making movies with this guy. It really is. I don't know. It is a joyful process of seeing how far we can push it and how we can make it the best it can be.

IGN: Daniel, Josh O'Connor is rumored to be up for the role of James Bond. What would you think of Josh as Bond?

Daniel Craig: I have to iron something out here. I started that rumor.

IGN: You started that rumor?

Rian Johnson: Maliciously. Maliciously.

Daniel Craig: Completely malicious. Let's hope he is.

IGN: Oh my God. Awesome. Thank you so much guys and I loved the movie.

Daniel Craig: Thank you.

Rian Johnson: Thanks a lot.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will be in select theaters November 26 and premieres on Netflix December 12.

In his Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review, IGN’s Carlos Morales deemed the film “a solid third entry for Benoit Blanc, finally delivering the classic-style mystery the series has sorely needed.”

The first part of Stranger Things Season 5 is on its way in just a couple days — so naturally, it was the perfect time for Netflix to drop the trailer for the first three episodes, which will be released on the platform on November 26.

To be fair, we’ve seen most of the footage in the trailer, below, before — however, there’s all-new shots of Joe Keery’s Steve driving himself, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan into a portal, which seems to lead to the Upside Down itself, presumably to find and kill Vecna, the story’s central villain. Pretty interesting stuff there. We definitely want to know more about that.

STRANGER THINGS 5 VOL. 1

THIS WEDNESDAY

8PM ET / 5PM PT

DO YOU COPY pic.twitter.com/nG4Y0JwycL

— Netflix (@netflix) November 23, 2025

Netflix also recently released the first five minutes of the season, and got Ross and Matt Duffer, co-creators and showrunners of the series, to open up about where the characters are at as we head into the final season of the decade-long show.

“I think what's unique about this season is that it starts a little bit in chaos because our heroes ultimately lost at the end of Season 4,” Ross explained about the season’s pacing. “We usually set up their normal life and how they’re going about school, and then we introduce the supernatural element. But in this case, this season is sprinting from the start.”

Matt explained that it’s all going breakneck speed for a reason. He added: “They’re not experiencing normal life. Nothing in Hawkins is normal anymore... their movement is restricted, and there are Big Brother cameras everywhere. So not only are they active — their everyday, normal lives are anything but.”

The final season of Stranger Things has been broken up into three parts. The first section of three episodes drops the day before Thanksgiving, the second set of three episodes arrives for Christmas, and the finale episode of the series will premiere (both on the streamer and in theaters) on New Year’s Eve.

It’ll be interesting to see where the story of this series ends after all this time — but one thing’s for sure: they’re going to go out with a bang.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

If you want a gaming PC that can follow wherever you may roam, a gaming laptop is likely your best bet. While desktop parts will usually still beat out a gaming laptop, the best of them offer excellent performance in the latest games. Best of all, some models are able to offer peak performance while still remaining thin and light, like the Razer Blade 16, which is my pick for the all-around best gaming laptop of 2025 so far. As of April 15, these are back in stock after Razer had briefly taken down the direct link to buy the Razer Blade 16 and other laptops, replaced with "Notify Me" buttons, ahead of when tariffs were supposed to kick in.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Gaming Laptops:

The first thing I always recommend to people hunting for a new gaming laptop is to consider is what PC games they actually hope to play. The second is what settings they hope to play them at. These two questions can guide your purchase to higher- or lower-end hardware and what trade-offs you're willing to make. Now more than ever, gaming laptops come in every shape and size, from thin and light devices like Asus' ROG Zephyrus G14 to moderately heavy powerhouses like the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16. Larger performance-driven laptops (like the ones that come with a 4K display) achieve their enhanced performance with more powerful, and power-hungry, components, which means sacrificing on portability, battery life, and fan noise.

There are countless to choose from a ton of different gaming laptop brands, and finding the best for you can be more than a little daunting. I've tested dozens over the years, and I have a deep understanding of what it takes for a laptop to ascend to greatness for different types of gamers and can confidently say: These are the best gaming laptops of 2025 so far.

1. Razer Blade 16 (2025)

Best Overall Gaming Laptop

Let's get this out of the way: The Razer Blade 16 isn't the most powerful RTX 50-series laptop. Instead, this notebook earns my top pick because of sum of its parts. The team at Razer understood that a huge cross section of laptop gamers carry their machines with them every day, and flat-out making it nicer to use while also being powerful can dramatically enhance the use experience. As an extra, if you're willing to invest in Razer's laptop cooling pad, you can unlock the full wattage for performance that goes toe-to-toe with other RTX 5090 laptops.

Make no mistake: The Razer Blade 16 is still a gaming beast. In my review, I threw everything and the kitchen sink at it and there was nothing it couldn't run well on its crisp 1600p OLED screen. While running those games and benchmarks, the system stayed surprisingly quiet. This is a gaming laptop you could use in a school library without attracting attention.

It's true that a high-powered RTX 5080 like the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 also recommended in this guide will get you similar, if not better, performance. What most other laptops can't offer, though, is the Blade 16's level of portability and noise.

Measuring just 0.59 inches at its thinnest point, it's a marked improvement from its predecessor and, well, most gaming laptops with such powerful hardware. It also weighs only 4.7lbs; you won't forget it's there, but it won't leave your back and shoulders sore from lugging it around. That portabilty makes it more appealing as a daily carry, so I didn't second guess taking it with me every day even when I might not actually need it.

The Blade 16 does a great job of feeling like the premium product it is. The chassis is milled from a single block of aluminum and feels solid and robust. It also helps with heat dissipation, but solid engineering ensures that the keyboard never gets more than warm while gaming. Its screen is also excellent with impressive factory calibration and multiple professional color modes that allow it to be used for creative applications straight out of the box. It's per-key RGB keyboard is completely programmable, complete with SOCD (Snap Tap) and macro support to better emulate a dedicated gaming keyboard.

On top of that, it also offers great battery life while gaming. Thanks to the new advancements in how the RTX 50-series handles power management, you can play games for around two hours instead of one or less like last generation.

The Razer Blade 16 is an excellent laptop that, while pricey, is something special in this space. If you want a great gaming laptop that will impress you with its portability, look no further.

2. MSI Thin A15 AI

Best Budget Gaming Laptop

3. Gigabyte Aorus Master 16

Best High-End Gaming Laptop

4. Asus TUF Gaming A14

Best Gaming Laptop for Students

The Razer Blade 18 embodies decadence in the world of gaming laptops. This is a machine that pushes the envelope and offers a true desktop replacement experience. And that's fitting, because if you're after high-performance 4K gaming on a laptop, you're going to need a next-level rig. Just prepare your wallet, because this type of experience doesn't come cheap.

The Razer Blade 18 features a massive, 18-inch IPS display with a peak resolution of 3840x2400. That's actually higher than 4K but – hold onto your hats – it's able to push that resolution with a rapid 240Hz refresh rate that's perfect for ulta-smooth gameplay. It's not OLED or mini-LED, but this screen gets plenty bright and offers vibrant, well-calibrated SDR colors.

There's another reason to consider this laptop if you're into competitive esports: It's one of very few gaming laptops that comes with dual resolution modes. With Razer Synapse you can choose between the native resolution above or drop to 1920x1200 and boost the refresh rate all the way to 440Hz for the ultimate in responsiveness and motion clarity. While the picture isn't as crisp, at 18 inches, the impact of dropping to this resolution is much less impactful than on a full-size gaming monitor.

To power all of this, the system can be equipped with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, 64GB of DDR5 memory, and up to 4TB of storage to hold all of your games. It also comes outfitted with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, which cinches the on great gaming performance. On top of all that, the system comes with Razer's thermal hood design for improved thermals and a great set of speakers with impressive volume.

Just don't plan on gaming for very long without its monster charging brick. But at 7.1lbs for just the laptop and another pound or two for its charger, it isn't likely that you'll be taking this on the go very often. Believe me – I tried, and you feel it right away. I reviewed the Blade 16 for IGN and our official Blade 18 review is upcoming, but I can say with confidence: If you want a 4K gaming laptop with the ability to replace a desktop and can be taken on the move, this is the one to choose.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus lineup is considered by many to be the MacBook of Windows laptops. It has the clean, streamlined looks that many people associate with Apple's line-up, a fantastic display, and impressive performance. Best of all, it comes in at only 3.5 pounds, so you can carry it all day, every day without ever feeling weighed down.

I'm currently using the 16-inch version of this laptop, the G16, as my daily driver and it's similar in all but screen size and a few extra ounces. If I could go back, I would choose the G14, and here's why: Even though the G16 is amazing in its own right, it hints at the kind of portability that the G14 offers in spades. There's an elegance to its design – the aluminum chassis with a glossy slash along the lid – that's minimalist and alluring.

The understated design highlights the gorgeous display. Asus outfits the G14 and G16 with its ROG Nebula OLED displays, which are incredibly vibrant and tuned to look amazing straight out of the box. While this might be the "MacBook of Windows," don't sell this laptop short: It can be outfitted with up to and RTX 5080 and drive that beautiful display up to 120Hz. It can definitely handle heavy workloads, but make no mistake, this is lightweight ultrabook is still centered on gaming.

Its svelte design comes with some natural trade-offs you should know before pulling the trigger. Its thin chassis leaves less room for cooling so, like other thin and light laptops of this type, it can't quite hit the high wattages bigger laptops can. I'd recommend sticking to the RTX 5070 or RTX 5070 Ti to get the best bang for your buck.

If you’re shopping for a laptop that leans more toward performance than portability – meaning one that can be taken on the go but will usually stay in one spot – the Dell Alienware 16 Area 51 may be the desktop replacement for you. Between its top-tier performance, gorgeous design, and best-in-class keyboard and webcam, it’s an impressive daily driver capable of running the latest games with ease.

It’s not common for 16-inch laptops to fall into the desktop replacement category – usually this space is reserved for 17- and 18-inch gaming laptops – but weighing in at almost 10lbs with its power adapter, it’s clear that Dell didn’t place portability at the top of its priority list. Instead, the Area 51 is all about consistently solid performance, so your games play smoothly and look great on its bright and vibrant 1600p screen.

Able to be outfitted with up to an RTX 5090 laptop graphics card, an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, your choice of 16GB to 64GB of system memory, and 1TB to 12TB of fast NVMe storage, it certainly has the chops for the task. Its larger footprint and increased height make way for improved cooling, so even under heavy load, thermal throttling isn’t an issue. Most of its heat is also exhausted straight out the back, away from the intake fans, so it always has a fresh supply of cool air to keep itself running well (and earns bonus points for keeping the hot air away from your lap and mouse hand).

With a price that ranges from under $2,000 to over $5,000 and specs to match its high price, great gaming performance comes with the territory, but what really struck me during my review was just how consistently satisfying it was to use, even for simple tasks like taking meetings or typing out reports. At check out, you can opt for a 4K webcam that offers big clarity improvements and comes at no additional charge. You can also outfit it with a mechanical keyboard – wholly uncommon in laptops – which offers big tactility upgrades to the typing experience for another $50. Pricing is current as of this writing, but both are worth investing in depending on your needs.

The Dell Alienware 16 Area 51 has the performance and design bonafides to make the perfect addition to your desk. No one will mistake it for an ultrabook any time soon, but if you’re in the market for a performance and features-first system that can be taken on the go when needed, look no further.

It used to be the case that "Apple" and "gaming" didn't belong in the same sentence, but that's just not the case anymore... as long as you have the right MacBook to get the job done. The MacBook Pro 16 is officially the best way to enjoy gaming on the go for diehard Apple users.

The MacBook Pro 16 is ostensibly for power users and you could be forgiven for thinking that it's exclusively a tool for creative professionals. But don't underestimate this powerful, lightweight machine: The very same qualities that make it great for creatives also make it the best choice for gaming.

With the introduction of the M4 and M4 Max, Apple's Pro 16 is finally able to play games at a level that won't leave you pining for Windows. Apple's silicon is all-around fast, and that applies to its built-in graphics as well. While a lot will depend on the games you're playing, you won't be forced to turn settings to a minimum as a given anymore. Games can look good and play at enjoyable frame rates, all while giving you access to the Apple ecosystem you depend on.

Now, all of that comes at a comparatively steep price. I wouldn't recommend picking up the Apple MacBook Pro 16 exclusively for gaming, but if you're also eyeing it for your own creative or professional endeavors, you can pull that trigger with confidence knowing that your inner gaming doesn't need to be left out in the cold any longer. We'll eventually be testing the MacBook Pro with the new M5 chip that was recently revealed, which alleges to improve the graphic performance 1.6x, but for now, this is the portable Apple machine to beat.

Hugh Jackman has issued a coy response when asked flat out if he’ll have to reprise his role as Wolverine in the MCU, after last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine was such a big hit.

As fans await what seems at this stage to be the inevitable confirmation that Jackman will play Wolverine once again in either next year’s Avengers: Doomsday or 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, the actor insisted on The Graham Norton Show that he’s done saying “never.”

Jackman famously vowed that he was done playing Wolverine after Logan came out in 2017, but changed his mind for what was then Deadpool 3. It proved to be a smart decision, with Deadpool & Wolverine going on to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time after making over $1 billion at the global box office.

Now, the idea of two of the MCU’s most popular and bankable stars and characters not being in either Doomsday or Secret Wars seems ridiculous, but for now both Marvel and Jackman are keeping their cards close to their chest.

“Maybe,” Jackman said with a smirk when Norton asked him if he was going to play Wolverine again. “I am never saying ‘never’ ever again. Because I did mean it when I said ‘never’ until the day when I changed my mind. But I really did, for quite a few years, I meant it.”

Norton then asked if Jackman had got to the point now where Marvel could use AI to generate Wolverine’s body and just plonk the 57-year-old actor's head on top. “A hundred percent,” he joked, in response. “I think I’ve done 10 films, so I think they’ve got enough in there!”

Jackman’s co-conspirator in all this, Ryan Reynolds, is heavily rumored to be set to play Deadpool again, with multiple reports indicating he’ll finally cross paths with the Avengers. Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal was heavy on veteran X-Men actors. Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden are all set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, confirming the X-Men are in the film in a big way. Grammer famously played Beast in the Fox X-Men franchise before making his MCU debut via The Marvels' post-credits scene. Stewart played Charles Xavier/Professor X in the X-Men films before appearing briefly in the MCU via Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as a member of the Illuminati. McKellen, who played Magneto, has not yet appeared in the MCU. Neither has Cumming, who played Nightcrawler, Romijn, who played Mystique, nor Marsden, who played Cyclops. It begs the question: is Avengers: Doomsday secretly an Avengers vs. X-Men movie?

Neither Jackman nor Reynolds’ names were on the long list of stars confirmed to appear in the superhero extravaganza (Channing Tatum, who played Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, did make the cut). But Marvel has said more is to come, and Reynolds himself has teased an involvement of some kind.

Perhaps all we’re looking at here is a fun cameo for the duo, as opposed to a more involved role that proves crucial to the plot. Maybe this is more about setting up Secret Wars, or the upcoming X-Men films. Either way, it seems Deadpool and Wolverine are heading back to the MCU.

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.

The PlayStation 2's meteoric journey to become the best-selling console of all time transformed not just gaming, but culture at large. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, God of War, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty started a new era of interactive stories – one where games competed with films for prestige and attention, and were discussed not just in specialist magazines and forums but in mainstream newspapers and national TV shows.

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the PS2's launch in Europe, IGN has spoken to two people who witnessed the console's launch, and rapid rise, from different angles – one insider and one outsider. Shawn Layden was a vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and would later hold some of the most senior roles at Playstation, and Daniel Griffiths was the deputy editor for Official Playstation Magazine in the UK.

They told IGN about their personal memories from that period: Griffiths recalls the panic at the console's surprise reveal, how Xbox were "in awe of" the press, and how one Sony party turned ended with a river of melted chocolate coins; Layden describes his astonishment at first seeing a PS2 demo, the fear of failure in the console's first year, and how it made gaming became a hobby you could discuss "in polite company".

The Insider - Shawn Layden

It’s been 18 years since Rush Hour 3 came out, and most think the action comedy franchise is dead and buried. But if Donald Trump reportedly gets his way, a new Rush Hour film will be made.

Rush Hour was a blockbuster Hollywood hit for martial arts star Jackie Chan and American stand-up comedian and actor Chris Tucker. Rush Hour made $245.3 million at the global box office back in 1998 (not adjusted for inflation), with Rush Hour 2 going bigger with $347.4 million in 2001. Rush Hour 3 was considered something of a box office disappointment, with $256.5 million in 2007.

According to Semafor, the U.S. president has allegedly pressed the Ellisons to make a new Rush Hour movie at Paramount. Larry Ellison, the largest shareholder of Paramount and a prominent financial support of Trump, would be in a position to call the shots on this, assuming the company's pursuit of Rush Hour rights holder Warner Bros. is successful. (Paramount is run by Larry Ellison's son, David Elison.)

The Guardian reported that senior White House officials have discussed internally their preference for Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in recent weeks. If that deal goes through (we know Warner Bros. Discovery is considering bids as we speak), then Trump wants Ellison to push through a new Rush Hour film. It’s worth noting that Rush Hour director Brett Ratner made Amazon’s upcoming documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump, a project that comes after Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017 and was forced to exit the Wonder Woman franchise.

According to Semafor, Trump wants a revival of the “raucous comedies and action movies” of the late ‘80s to late ‘90s, and is said to be a fan of Jean Claude Van Damme’s 1988 film Bloodsport. Then, we get the Rush Hour bombshell:

A person directly familiar with the conversations told Semafor that the president of the United States has personally pressed the Paramount owner to revive another franchise from Ratner: Rush Hour, a buddy-cop comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker that blended physical comedy, martial arts, and gags about racial stereotypes.

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment, Semafor said, and a representative for Paramount declined to comment.

While the Magic: The Gathering community remains split over Wizards of the Coast’s big push for Universes Beyond, there’s no arguing that Final Fantasy’s set from June this year was a set done right - and it set big records for the three-decade-old franchise as a result.

Now that cards are being reprinted, we’ve seen a few deals pop up on Commander Decks and Play Boosters, and now Amazon’s Black Friday deals have brought a box of Final Fantasy Play Boosters to a new, lowest-ever price - and it's not alone, either.

The performance of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is starting to come into focus, with sales data suggesting it’s struggling not just against rival shooter Battlefield 6, but also last year’s Black Ops 6.

The Game Business reported that Black Ops 7’s European launch saw opening week sales down 63% versus the blockbuster Battlefield 6 during the equivalent launch periods for each shooter. Black Ops 7 is also down by more than 50% versus Black Ops 6, The Game Business said.

There is an important context that must be considered when discussing Black Ops 7 sales. For example, there are Black Ops 7 sales made across various online stores that make it hard to take data from one store only, such as Steam, and use it to make a call on a game's success either way (Call of Duty releases on Battle.net, for example).

And of course Black Ops 7, like all Microsoft games, launched day one on Game Pass. Downloads made via subscription services are not tracked here, and Microsoft has yet to announce any significant boost to Game Pass as a result of Black Ops 7’s launch. For all we know, Black Ops 7 hit its targets in terms of Game Pass subscriptions. And what even is success for Call of Duty these days in the context of Game Pass?

Meanwhile, much is made of Steam concurrents, where Black Ops 7’s launch appears to have fallen flat compared to Black Ops 6’s. Last year, Black Ops 6’s launch propelled the Call of Duty app on Steam to a peak player count of 315,000 on Steam. Black Ops 7 boosted the Call of Duty app to just above 100,000 concurrents. But Steam, too, does not paint the full picture of a game's playerbase, given neither Microsoft nor Sony make player numbers public.

Of course, Black Ops 7 has had a big challenger this year from Battlefield 6, and it does indeed look like the tide has turned, at least at launch. Battlefield 6 secured the biggest opening ever in the Battlefield franchise, selling over 7 million copies in just three days. Microsoft — or Activision Blizzard — has yet to announce a sales number for Black Ops 7, nor has it announced a player number or even vague engagement stats, which is more surprising. Last week, Activision released a statement thanking players for their “great response” to the game, which was presumably more about Multiplayer and Zombies than it was the Campaign.

Thank you to our community and developers. This is just the start #BlackOps7 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dWDt6Jvpx0

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) November 17, 2025

Adding to the brutal competition is the breakout hit that is Arc Raiders, which is doing fantastically well, too. Embark Studios’ extraction shooter has sold over 4 million copies worldwide and had a peak of over 700,000 concurrent players across all platforms since its launch in late October 2025. Arc Raiders Steam concurrents are actually growing, suggesting sales are continuing at a steady pace.

All in all, Black Ops 7 had a “terrible” launch, The Game Business’ chief Chris Dring said in a post on social media. Oh, and that down more than 50% figure on Black Ops 6 is in fact down more than 60%. Anecdotally, there’s certainly a feeling among some Call of Duty players that Battlefield 6 and then Arc Raiders stole Black Ops 7’s thunder. Getting in ahead of Black Ops 7 was crucial for Battlefield 6, and there are many Call of Duty fans who jumped ship and then skipped Black Ops 7 as a result. But it must be remembered that Call of Duty remains a gaming behemoth, regularly tops player number charts, and it’s come through sales disappointments (Vanguard and Infinite Warfare say hi) before. All eyes are on U.S. sales data for November, where we'll hopefully get more evidence of Black Ops 7's sales performance domestically.

Thoughts now turn to 2026’s Call of Duty. It seems unlikely that Microsoft and Activision will give the annualized franchise a year off, so will we see another Modern Warfare game? A return to World War 2? Or something completely different? With the threat of GTA 6’s November 2026 release date casting a shadow over Call of Duty and everything else that dares to go up against it next year, things aren’t going to get any easier for Activision.

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.

Despite being revealed at last year's The Game Awards, Naughty Dog's upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is reportedly still years away from launch.

Fans of the Uncharted and The Last of Us studio should also not expect another glimpse of the project at next month's annual video games award ceremony, it was claimed.

Discussion around when to expect Intergalactic was recently sparked by journalist Colin Moriarty, who suggested he thought it possible the game would launch in 2026. (After various sites picked up the comment as confirmation, Moriarty then issued a clarification to say he'd just been "speculating," though by then, the topic had snowballed.)

In March this year, in a conversation with 28 Years Later director Alex Garland, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann said the developer still had "a ways to go" on the project. During the same month, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier stated that the game would not launch in 2026 (and neither would The Witcher 4, either).

This month, Schreier has now repeated this statement — once again placing Intergalactic's arrival as 2027 at the earliest, and potentially skipping the PS5 generation altogether. Meanwhile, Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb has claimed that the game won't be making a second appearance in trailer form at The Game Awards this year.

Is this a surprise? Not really. PlayStation (and Nintendo, and Xbox) have a habit of teasing blockbuster titles a long time before they're ready for most people to play them. And in an interview in May, Druckmann confirmed Naughty Dog was also working on a second game which he said he was acting as "more of a producer" and "mentor" on. Perhaps this game will be announced and launched first?

Still, the reminder that Naughty Dog's big new IP is still years away has come as a disappointment to some. Should Intergalactic launch in 2027, it will have been seven years since the launch of The Last of Us Part 2. During the PlayStation 3 and 4 era, Naughty Dog launched a trilogy of Uncharted games and the first The Last of Us within the same timeframe.

Of course, Naughty Dog has still launched new products over the past few years, including the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered — but these have been re-releases and remasters. At the same time, it has also abandoned its long-awaited multiplayer The Last of Us spin-off, which will now no longer see the light of day.

"I am all for letting devs cook but this is the absolute worst generation for Naughty Dog," one fan wrote on social media. "TLOU P2 dropped in 2020 and all we've gotten are barebones remasters, an unnecessary remake, cancelled multiplayer and waiting almost a decade for a new game."

Still, Druckmann has spoken confidently that Intergalactic will be worth the wait. Featuring a dark sci-fi story centered around the topics of faith and religion, the project will be led by a star-studded cast that includes Tati Gabrielle from the Uncharted movie as protagonist Jordan A. Mun, and Kumail Nanjiani of Marvel's Eternals as a man called Colin Graves.

In September this year, in an interview in which Druckmann described development as "firing on all cyclinders," the director branded his next project as "the most ambitious game we’ve ever made."

"It's the most expansive game we've ever made," he then teased, "[and] maybe the most expensive, by the time we finish it."

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

Chloé Zhao, co-writer and director of Marvel flop Eternals, has said she'd be keen to return for a sequel, and discussed the story elements she'd want to see explored.

While any future for Eternals' characters and its various dangling story threads currently seems unlikely, Zhao has said she'd "love to bring them back" to further expand on their portrayal as a "pantheon of gods" looking down on humanity.

"It's there for a reason, this kind of myth, and these [MCU] films are a modern version of that to me," Zhao told Screenrant. "So, I would love to bring them back and have more discussion about the world we live in. I'm really proud of it."

So far, Marvel has not indicated any desire to make a second Eternals film, after the original launched to a poor critical response and disappointing box office returns back in late 2021.

At the time of its release, Eternals was the first and only Marvel film to be rated as "Rotten" via Rotten Tomatoes (an unfortunate accolade it now shares with 2023's widely-panned Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and this year's Captain America: Brave New World).

Worse, perhaps, was the fact Eternals had been a particularly high-profile failure, with a lavish production and star-studded cast failing to launch an ambitious new branch of storytelling within the MCU. (Last year, Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed "there are no immediate plans for Eternals 2.")

Valve has provided the strongest indication yet that the Steam Machine price will be set with similar performance PCs in mind, and confirmed it has no plans to subsidize the hardware like console manufacturers do by eating a big loss on each unit sold.

The Steam Machine is a mid-level gaming-focused PC designed to be more accessible than a standard desktop PC, with a sleek, cube-like design and SteamOS on-board. We here at IGN have offered our thoughts on how much the Steam Machine will cost, suggesting it’ll probably be higher than people think. Chatter about pricing recently ramped up after Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips suggested it wouldn’t follow a “console pricing model” of $500, after mentioning the figure in a meeting with Valve staff.

Then last week, a former Xbox executive called on Valve to allow third-parties to use SteamOS to make their own Steam Machines, amid concern over the potential price of the next-gen living room PC (as IGN pointed out at the time, third-parties already can use SteamOS — just look at the Lenovo Legion Go S).

Now, in a new interview with Skill Up, Valve's Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais discussed the price of Steam Machine without actually confirming what it is. The conversation began with software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirming that Steam Machine is more powerful than 70% of gaming PCs that Valve registers on its hardware survey, in terms of general GPU level, saying: “We have looked at that number as part of speccing the machine, so it’s possible it’s evolved a little bit over time, but I think ballpark, it’s about there.”

He then said that fans should expect the Steam Machine price to be around the same as if you were to build a PC from parts to get “basically the same level of performance.”

“I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that's the general price window that we aim to be at,” he said. “Ideally we'd be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we're working on refining that as we speak. Right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there's a lot of different things… a lot of external things.”

In that context, Valve’s Steam Machine will likely cost above $750. We’ve suggested Steam Machine will cost $700-$800. To put that into perspective, the base PS5 with a disc drive currently costs $549.99, while the PS5 Digital Edition costs $499.99. The PS5 Pro, meanwhile, costs $749.99.

Skill Up then asked Valve to rule out the Steam Machine being subsidized hardware, saying, “like Valve is not going into this thinking we're going to eat a big loss on this so that we can grow market share or category or anything like that, correct?"

Pierre-Loup Griffais’ answer here was unequivocal:

“No. It's more in-line with what you might expect from the current PC market. Obviously, our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance.”

He then went on to make the case for Steam Machine at that sort of price, pointing to the value you get from the various features it includes that simply wouldn’t be easy to replicate if you were to build your own PC from similar parts.

“And then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you're making your own gaming PC from parts, right?” he continued. “Like things like, obviously the small form factor and I think the noise level that we achieved — or lack thereof — is really impressive, and we're excited that the people are going to find out how quiet this thing is. But also some integration features like HDMI CEC, right? Like being able to turn on your TV, turn off your TV, control it with your TV remote, change the volume, all that kind of stuff.

“Like the Bluetooth and wireless work that we've done, the four antennas, the very deliberate design to make sure that you can have a great experience with four Bluetooth controllers from any manufacturer, plus our Steam Controller receiver integrated as well — that’s all hard to do. But more importantly, you can turn on the machine from your controller, which is not something that is actually straightforward depending on the type of PC you have or the main chipset and all that.

“So being able to sit down on your couch, press one button on your controller, and the whole thing lights up like you'd expect for a thing that's in your living room, I think that's really valuable. And there's not really a price point to that because it's not really something that exists in the PC market right now.

“There's people that are going to be perfectly happy building their PC at whatever level of spec, and that's going to be a great experience for them. We're building Steam OS so that if they want to use it for that they can and they can have essentially the same experience. And if they're happy with that, that's perfectly good with us. But we expect the machine is a nice baseline offering that lets you have some features that are really hard to get to otherwise.”

Valve designer Lawrence Yang then chimed in with his own thought: "for me one of the benefits of Steam Machine is, I'm someone who used to build my PC in college and I am too old and tired to do that now!”

These latest comments chime with Linus Tech Tips’ recent episode of the WAN Show, where he recalled that he had expressed his disappointment to Valve that Steam Machine wouldn’t follow a console pricing model where it is subsidized by the manufacturer because it takes a 30% cut of sales made on the platform, as the likes of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo do with their consoles.

Linus said he was then asked by Valve what he meant by a “console price,” to which he responded $500. “Nobody said anything, but the energy of the room wasn't great,” Linus continued.

Here are the comments in full:

“So basically, it's a 7600 CPU and a 7600 GPU. This is not a super powerful machine. Valve is upfront saying that they are going to be relying on FSR in order to achieve 4K. And even then man, like 8 gigs of VRAM, anyone else would be taking a ton of flak for shipping a game console today with 8 gigs of VRAM.

“I can’t tell you what the price will be because I literally don't know but, when I said, ‘I'm disappointed that it isn't going to follow a console pricing model where it's subsidized by the fact that the manufacturer is going to be taking 30% of every game sold on it over the lifespan of this thing, because I feel that would be a more meaningful product,’ they kind of asked what I meant by, well, ‘what do you mean by console price?’ And I said, ‘Well, $500.’

“Nobody said anything, but the energy of the room wasn't great.”

Now, some are questioning Valve’s refusal to subsidize the Steam Machine and thus theoretically at least miss out on having a greater number of people buying games through Steam. Larian publishing director Michael Douse, who is in charge of business development regarding the likes of Steam megahit Baldur’s Gate 3, took to social media to suggest Valve will lose “far more” than the approx. $200 difference by not having more users on the Steam storefront, “which is essentially a money printing machine.”

“That said it isn't stupid to not sell things at a loss, just peculiar in this case,” Douse continued.

We’ve got plenty more on all Valve’s recent hardware announcements, and have a handy roundup so you don’t miss a thing. We went hands-on with Steam Machine and Steam Controller, and if you’re wondering about Steam Deck 2, we asked Valve about that as well.

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.

Harry Potter movie star Rupert Grint has said he'll likely never leave the "shadow" of Ron Weasley behind.

Speaking to BBC News, Grint said he was "fine" to always be associated with his on-screen character and felt a "lot of pride" for his work on the eight Harry Potter movies.

"It has a quite deep meaning to a lot of people of my generation, and even more to generations who are finding it now," Grint said. "It's great. It gives me a lot of pride. It was such a huge thing. I don't think I'll ever quite step out of his shadow, but I'm fine with that."

Actor and musician Donald Glover has revealed the reason he abruptly cancelled his tour last year: after being told by a doctor he'd suffered a stroke.

In a widely-shared speech to the audience at a festival in Los Angeles this past weekend, Glover recalled visiting a hospital after experiencing "really bad pain" ahead of a show in Louisiana last year. Glover continued to perform, though sought medical advice after.

Doctors then discovered a hole in his heart, Glover said. "The doctor was like, 'You had a stroke.'"