A Pokémon card store in Manhatten has become the latest target for thieves looking to steal merchandise featuring the lucrative pocket monsters — and this time, customers were held at gunpoint.
Speaking to ABC News, staff at the Poké Court outlet in the Meatpacking District have said that $100,000 worth of stock was stolen in just three minutes, as a team of three robbers burst into the newly-opened store during its first community evening event.
As one thief smashed glass cabinets to obtain expensive items, another held shoppers at gunpoint. A third, meanwhile, kept watch at the door. “It was a free event and then three armed men just came in and brandished guns in [customers’] faces,” store owner Courtney Chin said. The shop has since employed a security guard.
ABC News reports that similar thefts have occured in Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle, as the latest in a long line of card shop robberies targeting Pokémon items.
“If you look at any local card shop around the country, there’s a good chance they’ve gotten robbed,” Chin added. “I’ve seen videos where the robbers will tunnel in through the walls, or through the ceiling.
“We can’t let a few bad apples like this ruin the hobby for everyone else,” Chin concluded. “We want to create a safe space for the community and it really sucks that like 50 people had to basically get held up and held hostage.”
Image credit: ABC News.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Now that we’re in the new year, it seems this set might have actually leaked ahead of the official reveal. As the rumours suggested, it appears to be a diorama based on the “final battle” between Link, Zelda and Ganondorf in the N64 hit, Ocarina of Time.
Escape from Ever After: When Storybooks Meet Corporate Hell
Hey Xbox players! With Escape from Ever After launching fairly soon, we thought now’s the perfect time to dive into what makes this game tick. So, if you’ve ever wondered what happens when classic storybook heroes get stuck in a soul-crushing office job, you’re about to find out.
Escape from Ever After is a Paper Mario-inspired RPG that takes the hero’s journey and tosses it straight into corporate bureaucracy. It’s equal parts adventure game, turn-based combat, and workplace satire—and it’s weirder than it sounds.
Meet Flynt Buckler, your typical storybook hero out to settle the score with his nemesis, Tinder the dragon. But when he finally reaches her castle, things get weird. The fire-breathing villain he expected? Nowhere to be found. Instead, her once-majestic fortress has been gutted and rebuilt as a soulless office complex, complete with fluorescent lighting, mandatory coffee breaks, and employees trapped in the worst kind of grind.
Turns out Ever After Inc.—a megacorporation from the real world—has discovered storybooks make for excellent cheap labor. Dragons file TPS reports. Knights optimize synergies. Heroes attend team-building exercises. And there’s no dragon to slay that can fix this mess.
So Flynt does the only logical thing: he joins the company. To take down Ever After Inc., he’ll need to climb the corporate ladder from within, rallying other trapped storybook characters and figuring out how to rewrite the rules before it’s too late.
Combat That Keeps You In the Fight
Escape from Ever After builds on classic turn-based RPG combat but keeps you engaged every single turn through timing-based action commands. When Flynt throws his buckler or an enemy winds up for an attack, you need to nail your button presses. Perfect timing means extra damage on offense and flawless blocks on defense. Mess up your inputs and you’ll pay for it.
It’s the kind of system that makes every turn feel active rather than passive. No sitting back and watching animations play out—you’re always involved.
More Than Button-Mashing
Raw damage only gets you so far. Enemies have their own tricks: armor that shrugs off weak hits, metal shields that deflect certain attacks, poison that chips away at your health, and battlefield hazards that punish careless aggression.
The Research system lets you study enemies mid-battle, permanently revealing their health and weak points. That information gets saved to your Bestiary, giving you an edge in future encounters. The more you learn, the smarter you can fight.
Build Your Party Your Way
Between fights, you can customize your team through the Trinket system. Each character can equip trinkets that unlock new abilities, passive bonuses, or utility effects, limited only by their Trinket Points. Want a glass cannon? Stack damage. Prefer a support build? Load up on buffs and healing.
You can also upgrade individual attacks using resources scattered throughout the world. These systems reward experimentation over min-maxing, letting you find builds that match your playstyle.
Every Book Tells a Different Story
Combat is only half the game. Escape from Ever After is structured around distinct storybook worlds, each with its own genre and atmosphere. One chapter might be a cozy fairytale forest under threat of corporate development. The next could dive into noir mystery or Lovecraftian horror.
Exploration pays off. Hidden items, optional quests, environmental puzzles, and side stories are tucked into every corner. And it all connects back to the Castle—formerly a fairytale landmark, now the headquarters of Ever After Inc.. It’s your hub between chapters, where you’ll meet recurring characters, take on side missions, manage upgrades, and watch the megacorp’s influence spread.
A Story About Fighting the System
Beneath the humor and absurdity, Escape from Ever After tells a story about what happens when someone realizes their entire world has been quietly rewritten by forces beyond their control. Flynt starts out confident in his role as a hero, only to discover that “hero” and “villain” don’t mean much when everyone’s just another cog in the machine.
To fight back, he’ll need to make uncomfortable alliances—including with Tinder herself. The game balances sharp satire with character-driven moments that land harder than you’d expect from a game about storybook characters stuck in corporate hell.
Worth Turning the Page
Escape from Ever Afterthrives on contrast. It’s storybook whimsy meets office dystopia, classic RPG mechanics meets modern design sensibilities, and lighthearted satire meets genuinely thoughtful storytelling.
We’ve spent years building this world, and every character, combat system, and storybook chapter was designed with one goal: giving players something worth discovering. Whether you’re here for the timing-based battles, the exploration, or just the absurd premise of fairytales stuck in corporate hell, we believe there’s definitely something in here for you.
Thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to see you jump into the chaos!
Escape from Ever After is an adventure RPG inspired by the classic Paper Mario games, where fairytale and storybook characters must fight back against capitalism!
When Flynt Buckler, a classic fairytale adventurer, storms the castle of his evil dragon arch-nemesis Tinder, he finds the once intimidating fortress has been converted into… corporate offices? The villainous dragon is nowhere to be found and her castle is full of mindless coffee-sipping, report-filing drones. What happened?
It turns out that storybooks are an untapped market ripe with valuable resources, cheap labor, and profit to be had—so naturally, real-world conglomerate Ever After Inc. found a way to intervene! With Tinder’s Castle as their new corporate headquarters, Ever After Inc. is hellbent on taking over every storybook they can. With no choice but to get a job, Flynt Buckler must team up with his former nemesis Tinder in order to climb the corporate ladder and take down Ever After Inc. from the inside!
Dive into storybook worlds packed to the brim with colorful characters, captivating locales, and electrifying secrets! One moment you’ll be fleeing Lovecraftian terrors while solving a noir murder mystery, and the next you’ll be up against villainous versions of The Three Little Pigs as they try to bulldoze a fairytale forest for their real estate developments. The rules are always changing!
Face off against hordes of wacky enemies in snappy turn-based gameplay! Perfectly-timed action commands allow Flynt to finish off his foes with style, and an assortment of items, badges, and partners ensure there’s always a trick up his sleeve.
Fight in a fun, fast-paced battle system that rewards experimentation and strategy
Build and customize your party—every character has unique skills that can be equipped and upgraded throughout your journey
Engage in office banter, help your storybook coworkers, and decorate your office as you climb the corporate ladder
Explore vast storybook worlds brimming with sidequests, treasures, and secrets
Stories within stories: experience a charming and lively narrative where the rules are constantly changing
A jazzy, big-band soundtrack that keeps the energy pumping throughout
Last week, we asked you to enter the frame of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and share epic moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
toko_luke95shares Maelle stance following a flurried attack
sorathlunashares Lune wielding a red elemental stain, ready to attack
rorottinoshares Verso and Maelle playing on the piano, with the Paintress in the distance
PhotoModeColinshares Sciel prepping a moon-charged card in combat
gh_holy_mashshares Esquie floating through the map – whoo and also whee!
CapturesKhshares Renoir framed by the Paintress’ glow
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Portraits SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on January 21, 2026
Next week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stays in frame. Share portraits of your favorite characters using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
This 2008 Nintendo DS Disney tie-in has been the focal point of numerous viral campaigns over the years, which have seen the users of notorious internet imageboard 4chan propel the game to notoriety despite (or because of) the fact it is… not very good.
Now, seemingly, the game has achieved cult status to the point where copies are changing hands for hugely-inflated sums of money on eBay. A look at recently-sold listings on the auction site shows copies have been bought for as much as $399.97.
Auctions currently in progress have copies set to sell for as high as $700 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, half a dozen completed listings from earlier this week show copies that have sold for over $100. Last year, similar listings show the game selling for around $15.
Currently, Disney Cory in the House is still the joint-second best game listed on Metacritic by user ranking, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 not yet dethroned. Earlier this week, IGN contacted Metacritic to ask if it planned to intervene at some point to put an end to the mischief. As of yet, the company is yet to comment.
If you have a copy of Disney Cory in the House yourself — or you can source one from a local second-hand store — now might be a good time to try and turn a profit. Or, of course, you could hang on to the title — which IGN rated as an “awful” 3/10 when it released almost two decades ago.
“The game has some of the clunkiest controls we’ve seen, the presentation is insultingly stupid, the minigames are hardly games at all, and on top of everything it’s really short,” IGN wrote in our Disney Cory in the House review. $400 well spent, then.
Image credit: Disney.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Julian Gerighty, a long-time key cog at Massive Entertainment, has announced that he’s departing the Ubisoft-owned studio after 12 years to go and work on Battlefield at EA. His departure swiftly follows Ubisoft revealing earlier this week that they’re planning to lay off staff at Massive, with a voluntary redundancy process late last year reportedly having not resulted in enough departures to stave off this bloodletting.
Meanwhile, the publishers have opted to take the opportunity of Gerighty’s departure to reassure folks that The Division series is just fine.
DLSS 4.5 is out now, and while previous new versions of Nvidia’s performance-massaging upscaler would have required waiting around for game implementation – beyond the inevitable Cyberpunk 2077 debut, anyway – it follows more recent additions in letting you impose it upon existing games from the off. That’s done via the Nvidia App and its DLSS Override tools, which following an update on January 14th, is tooled up with what version 4.5 promises to be tangible visual improvements.
I’ve been testing it, both on this public Nvidia App release and on a pre-release beta build, and DLSS 4.5 can indeed deliver on the right settings. But it’s also more of a specialised tool than DLSS 4, and although backwards compatibility is welcome, it’s presented with an opaque naming system that has as much in common with algebra as it does with upscaling.
Speaking during the New Game+ Showcase 2026 earlier this month, Gerighty said: “So, The Division 3 is in production, right? This is not a secret. It’s been announced. It’s shaping up to be a monster. I can’t really say anything more than that. But this is, within these walls in Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will be as big an impact as Division 1 was.”
He then went on to enthuse about other The Division projects in the works at Massive Entertainment, which he has now left for fellow Swedish studio DICE.
“It’s time for me to hang up my go bag (keeping the watch) as I go on another grand adventure,” Gerighty said. “The Division future burns bright, and I can’t wait for you to discover what the teams have been working on. Long live The Division and Godspeed!”
Two months ago, Massive Entertainment introduced what it called a “voluntary career transition program,” (the studio asked its staff to volunteer to be laid off) as part of a move to focus on The Division franchise and its Snowdrop game engine. It came as part of significant restructuring at Ubisoft that has seen multiple studio closures and rounds of layoffs. Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws, released in 2024, was a big sales disappointment for Ubisoft, despite significant development and marketing costs. Julian Gerighty was Outlaws’ co-director.
In a social media post, Massive Entertainment told The Division fans not to worry about Gerighty’s departure, saying the teams who built The Division with him remain.
Once an Agent, always an Agent. We’re thankful for everything you gave this universe. You’ll always be part of it. Good luck at @EA_DICE, @jgerighty 🧡 pic.twitter.com/QlzuV4XtVV
— Massive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio 🎮 (@UbiMassive) January 16, 2026
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.
Hi-Fi Rush, the most GameCube-esque title to launch in the last five years, has once again been rated for the Switch by PEGI.
Sound familiar? It should, because this has happened before. Back in April 2024 when developer Tango Gameworks was still sitting under Microsoft, a PEGI rating for the game on Switch appeared, but sadly nothing happened and Microsoft unceremoniously ditched Tango Gameworks entirely later that year.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox on PC, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Welcome to 2XKO, the free-to-play fighting game from the makers of League of Legends and Valorant. League of Legends’ iconic champions take the stage with fresh movesets inspired by the MOBA and reimagined for fighting games. Immerse yourself in the world of Runeterra with beautifully crafted stages, cutting-edge 2D graphics, and original music tracks that bring your battles to life. Fight solo to control both champions on your team, or grab a friend to duo with.
The next evolution of the award-winning skate. franchise is here. Your new favorite hangout awaits. Drop into the dynamic, ever-evolving city of San Vansterdam — a city with a new lease on life, building its growing skate scene alongside its new residents. In San Van, no two days are alike, and fun waits around every corner in this online multiplayer world fueled by skateboarding, self-expression and community.
【Limited early purchase edition】 FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE Digital Deluxe Edition
The award-winning Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade retells the original story up to the escape from Midgar, with breathtaking visuals, fast-paced gameplay, and additional story elements. This RPG delivers unforgettable characters, a powerful narrative, and a hybrid battle system that blends real-time action with strategic, command-based combat. It also includes FF7R Episode Intermission, a side story starring Yuffie Kisaragi that offers a fresh perspective running in parallel to Cloud’s journey.
Bachelor Daniil Dankovsky is a young doctor from the capital. His search for the secret of immortality brings him to a remote town, gripped by a mysterious plague that will destroy it in 12 days. Now it’s up to him to explore the town itself, its past, present, and future — to find answers to his numerous questions and try to stop the relentless epidemic. (At least… that’s what he thinks this story is about. What it’s supposed to be about. What it’s always been about.)
A mesmerizing, intertwined, decaying world awaits. Awaken Mio, a nimble robot with extraordinary abilities, and unravel the mysteries of the Vessel, an enormous technological ark overgrown with lush vegetation and machines gone rogue. Nobody knows why the Pearls, The Vessel’s AI caretakers, have ceased functioning. Forgotten by all, the Vessel faces imminent shutdown. Dive into its depths to revive its lost memories, as you unravel your true past and destiny, in this mesmerizing metroidvania. Will you rise to the challenge and save the Vessel from destruction? Will you dare to seek and wake its memories?
Explore dangerous corridors and face unique enemies across 10 challenging platforming stages. Discover hidden areas, avoid deadly traps, and search for the legendary wolf stones. Unlock powerful upgrades like Rock Attack, Fire Rock Attack, and the devastating Wolf Special. Master precision jumps, sharpen your throwing skills, and survive the rising difficulty of this mysterious dungeon.
Hextreme Void – January 21 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere / Handheld Optimized
Are you ready for a brick breaker with a twist? In Hextreme Void, you can’t lose! Instead of lives or game overs, the challenge comes from progression and optimization in order to complete all levels within a certain time limit. Each playthrough takes you through one of five distinct Voids, with 50 levels per Void. Stages are presented in high-def 2D style with hexagonal bricks arranged in increasingly complex patterns. Your ball moves automatically, but it’s up to you to decide how released powerups are used.
Too long in this prison, time to get out of here. Pull the carpet and start digging with a teaspoon. Watch out for the guard, sell him the junk you find. Trade toilet paper with the prisoners. Get better items and improve your stats. Expand the tunnel, use glow sticks and dynamite. Will you escape?
Desvelado is the first Bed-Time-Vania game in history! Help our hero Vampy fight insomnia one last time by turning off every light in the castle before going to sleep in his cozy coffin.
Grow your trading empire in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Dustland Delivery is a post-apocalyptic survival business simulator, featuring over 40 hours of gameplay content. Scour the wastes for profit, complete missions to grow your trading empire, and assemble a rag-tag band of adventurers to turn your city into the capital of the Dustlands. Danger lurks around every corner — but no risk, no reward!
In this horror game, you’ll have to immerse yourself in a thrilling and exciting adventure together with the main characters! Children have been missing for a long time in Lakewitch, and you are destined to solve this creepy mystery. Who is the kidnapper, and why is he doing it? Where are the children disappearing to, and how to save them? You can solve all the puzzles and find out the answers… if you don’t get scared!
Last stop of the line. All passengers must exit In The Last Train, a first-person psychological horror game, routine turns into nightmare when you fall asleep on the subway. Upon waking, you discover you’ve reached the end of the line, an abandoned station shrouded in darkness. But you’re not alone; something else waits in the shadows, watching you and following your every move.
Brace yourself for a wild ride where music meets mayhem! Look Mum No Computer takes you to the quirky, pixel-art universe of Soldersworth, as you join Sam and his Synthesizer sidekick, Kosmo, in this twin-stick shooter action-RPG to battle rogue household items and fix them from the inside — one electrifying beat at a time!
The ultimate multiplayer open world designed by riders. Discover mountains and trails with limitless control and build your own career. Pull huge tricks or race through the global rankings! Nail challenges to secure sponsorship deals with real world brands. Are you ready?
Taking Satisfactory, Forager and the gratifying gameplay loop of clicker/idle games as references, Outpath would be just that. Exploit your environment, craft, build and automate your base in this 3D first-person platformer! Gather. Craft. Build. Explore. Relax. No time limits, no pressure, play at your own pace and style.
A classic horror inspired by the original survival games of the 90s, Ebola Village is a modern take on a first-person adventure where the main character, Maria, investigates a series of mysterious events. While sitting in her apartment and watching her favorite TV series, the broadcast is suddenly interrupted by a live report about a biological threat. Concerned for her family, Maria travels to a remote village to visit her mother and her ex-husband, Ruslan… and soon, terrible things begin to happen.
Escape from Ever After is an adventure RPG inspired by the classic Paper Mario games, where fairytale and storybook characters must fight back against capitalism! When Flynt Buckler, a classic fairytale adventurer, storms the castle of his evil dragon arch-nemesis Tinder, he finds the once intimidating fortress has been converted into… corporate offices? It turns out that storybooks are an untapped market ripe with valuable resources, cheap labor, and profit to be had — so naturally, real-world conglomerate Ever After Inc. found a way to intervene! Flynt Buckler must team up with his former nemesis Tinder in order to climb the corporate ladder and take down Ever After Inc. from the inside!
GrassGames’ Hearts brings the beloved strategy card game to life with smooth gameplay, smart opponents, and plenty of ways to compete. Whether you play for fun or to climb the leaderboards, every match is designed for depth, replayability, and pure enjoyment. Face clever AI opponents, challenge your friends locally, or compete online with players around the world. Play quick casual games or intense ranked matches — it’s easy to jump in and find your perfect game style.
AUG 12, 2045. The Technate has ruled for 15 years. Its robotic army, Slaughterhouse AI, roams the Earth in search of all processable flesh. Pigs everywhere remain in hiding. One small boar takes matters into his own hands. He is unusually fast and armed with a blaster. His name is Gunnar Harsvin. His message: the pigs will fight for their lives. Gunnar must destroy the machines of the evil technocracy and rescue his fellow pigs. Play a missing classic from the genesis of the 16-bit era. Roll like a hedgehog! Shoot like a soldier!
Set out on a path of a ghost-hunting renovator. Your task – restore haunted houses to a usable state! This is not an easy job, applying new wallpaper won’t be enough to render a house safe. You also need to deal with whatever is haunting it. Accept requests to renovate haunted houses from various eccentric owners. Scout abandoned mansions and look for signs of any paranormal activity. Make sure you’re ready for the job by preparing a set of tools to aid your work.
Plan Santa’s route and solve 40 festive logic puzzles in this cozy holiday adventure. Before each level begins, place directional tiles to map out how Santa will move. Once the route is set, watch him follow your plan — collecting every gift on the way and delivering them to the waiting child. With limited tiles available, every decision matters, turning each stage into a fun little brain teaser.
Hello, I’m Noah. I’m 28 years old and still haven’t got a single date in my life, I’m looking for a life coach who can help me figure out the hard choices in my day-to-day life, you know? I’m sad and single, I have some friends online, but that’s it. I thankfully got a date with a girl named Michelle. She’s a bit too young for my liking, I prefer people that are over 70 years old. Just a preference, but I’m willing to give her a try.
Experience the story of Monty Mole, British subterranean mammal turned international criminal, in this fantastic collection of six games. All Monty wanted was a quiet life, but when faced with an unbearably cold winter found himself stealing coal to survive, and that led to a life on the run from the authorities, a journey that would take him all across Europe! The Monty Mole series of adventure platformer games for home microcomputers were the brainchild of Peter Harrap, the teenage son of a mining inspector, and inspired by the 1984 mining strikes in the UK.
You will play as Kaique, a brave Guarani warrior whose girlfriend, Kerana, is kidnapped by an evil god named Tau. Collect materials to craft new items, grind through fast-paced battles, and test your strategy against challenging bosses. Hunt, fish, swim, dive, jump, and explore the jungle! In this fantasy game you won’t find Dragons and Elves. But you will face Curupiras and Boitatas.
—a megacorporation from the real world—has discovered storybooks make for excellent cheap labor. Dragons file TPS reports. Knights optimize synergies. Heroes attend team-building exercises. And there’s no dragon to slay that can fix this mess.
