Log into Fortnite right now and you’ll find that the game’s most-played mode is, very unusually, not its main Battle Royale option. Instead the new Blitz Royale is currently ruling the roost — but what is it? And why is this fresh offering from Epic Games so popular?

Blitz Royale launched this week in Fortnite’s latest update, alongside Expeditions, a new story-infused PVE Lego experience, and a Bruno Mars-starring new season of Guitar Hero-like Fortnite Festival.

But, as has continually been the case, it is the mode closest to Fortnite’s classic Battle Royale that has broken out — and, for now, Blitz Royale feels like it has found a fresh niche for players keen to try something faster-paced and more quickfire.

As its name suggests, Blitz Royale matches are meant to take less time overall and power-up players much faster than in a classic Battle Royale offering. The mode’s map, currently based on Fortnite’s classic OG Island, is a fraction of its size, building is disabled, and there’s an in-match levelling system to grant weapons and power-ups, meaning there’s no need to spend time scrounging for loot.

That said, other Battle Royale staples remain: a fast moving storm circle, limited inventory and need to be the last player standing. Over the next four weeks (Epic Games is yet to specifically state that Blitz Royale will be a permanent addition), various loot pools will be offered — including items and power-granting medallions from various classic Fortnite eras.

Blitz Royale is playable within Fortnite on every platform, but is the first mode designed with a specific piece of hardware in mind: your phone.

Timed to hit shortly after Fortnite’s triumphant return to the iPhone App Store in the US, following years of legal wrangling with Apple, Blitz Royale is meant to appeal to those wanting a bite-size battle royale, perfect for a quick bus journey or coffee break. Even the Battle Bus flies in faster at the start of games.

A suitably quick trailer for Blitz Royale claims you can secure victory within five minutes — around a quarter of the time usually necessary to secure a Victory Royale in Fortnite’s regular Battle Royale and Zero Build modes.

Right now, Fortnite stats show around 240,000 players in Blitz Royale, making it the game’s biggest mode by some margin, aftr hitting 443,000 players during peak hours last night. Battle Royale currently has half this count — 119,000 players at the time of writing.

“Blitz Royale is the s**t,” wrote one fan on reddit. “Seriously, Epic – love the mode, y’all cooked. I am seriously blown away and having so much fun.”

“The mode is surprising myself,” wrote another. “I’m playing far more aggressively than I would in normal mode and honestly it’s pretty cool.”

Epic Games will likely be watching Blitz Royale and other new additions carefully to see how well they perform over the coming days, and whether any of them are actually drawing in new players to Fortnite, as well as offering existing users new ways to play.

Fortnite’s average player numbers have generally fallen this year, according to publicly-available numbers from Fortnite.gg. Following growth and significant player spikes last year, particularly around September 2024’s Doctor Doom global boss battle, and November live events including a concert held in Times Square and an in-game extravaganza featuring Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Ice Spice and Juice Wrld.

2025 has seen Fortnite run a limited-time Star Wars mini-season that removed all regular ammo from the game, replacing the usual guns in Battle Royale mode with sci-fi energy weapons. The game’s recent season, which features a return to the game’s semi-regular focus on superheroes has seen numbers begin to bounce back. Next step, beating current Roblox hit Grow a Garden? One thing at a time, perhaps.

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

Ever since developer Heart Machine burst onto the scene with its hyper-stylized 2D action game Hyper Light Drifter, every effort from the studio comes with the promise of visual splendor and tight gameplay, and Possessor(s) is no different.

If Hyper Light Drifter is Zelda-like, then Possessor(s) is the team’s take on the Metroidvania. Although their dev team will probably get mad at me for calling it that, as they prefer the original genre term of “search-action.” Regardless of which label you prefer, you’ll find the genre’s familiar hallmarks here. Possessor(s) drops you in a big open map full of powerful demon enemies and branching paths that aren’t all open to you just yet.

Unlike Heart Machine’s past games with stylized, but masked or hooded, heroes, Possessor(s) is led by a cast of beautifully hand-drawn characters whose stories I’m curious to learn more of. Set in a fictional, Japan-inspired, city, the player controls Luca, who survives a devastating, apocalyptic event. But only just barely. She awakens to find herself without her legs, which were damaged during the attack. Luckily (or not), she makes contact with a demon named Rehm, who offers her the classic devil’s bargain. She can get her legs back, but only if she helps him get revenge on some unnamed but powerful demonic forces.

Similarly, Possessor(s) feels heavily inspired by urban fantasy anime. Shows like Jujutsu Kaisen come quickly to mind as Luca and Rehm explore a ruined metropolitan city and fight off demon-possessed everyday objects like haunted searchlights and demon fridges. This extends to Luca as well. While she’s now powered by demon-magic legs, her weapons are also everyday objects. Things like kitchen knives or even a computer mouse she can wield like a whip.

All of this combines into a fast-paced action-adventure. Combat feels rapid-fast, which is great because there are a lot of enemies to cut through. And running through the devastated city, or jumping and grappling over obstacles, also feels fast and great, which is a plus because I get the sense this is a pretty big game. The portion of the map I played already felt quite large and I only played a 20-minute demo.

Mechanically, I wouldn’t say Possessor(s) upends the search-action genre, or at the very least not in the early portion of the game I saw. But both narratively and in the design there’s tons more that I’m interested in learning more of. Possessor(s) has moments where the camera pans out into the ruined city, highlighting a cinematic sense of scale that Heart Machine has explored before in games like Solar Ash. And even in my short hands-on time there was a lot of dialogue and exposition between Luca and Rehm.

There’s also likely more to the RPG element that I haven’t discovered yet. Luca’s character menu seemed to show empty slots for a variety of weapons and upgrades – way more than the couple I found during my demo. And having only been given a glimpse of the map, which was primarily a lot of abandoned and destroyed office buildings, there’s clearly a lot more under the hood in Possessor(s) than what I saw. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Lies of P‘s DLC has been patched to reduce monster difficulty in repeat playthroughs and “adjusted stats” for some of the field monsters you encounter in your first playthrough of Overture.

Director Jiwon Choi previously said the team didn’t think Soulslike games like Lies of P should have difficulty options, and it shipped without any, but has since had a change of heart, saying: “We wanted to make sure a wider audience of players could play the game.”

Similarly, players have complained about the DLC’s “intended” difficulty, Legendary Stalker. There have been so many comments — both for and against the DLC’s difficulty spike — that the Lies of P subreddit has had to merge them all into a “megathread” to stop the community from being overwhelmed by complaints. It prompted developer Neowiz to acknowledge that some areas “did not turn out quite as intended.”

Now, as well as addressing some bugs such as the progression issue after you give a bottle of beer to the Old Fisherman, or another that causes visual bugs when wearing certain items, Neowiz has applied “combat balance adjustments” with patch 1.9.0.0, which went live earlier today, June 20. You can also now unlock the DLC from Chapter 5 instead of Chapter 9 from your second playthrough onwards.

Here’s the full patch notes, as taken from the Steam page.

Lies of P Update Notes Version 1.9.0.0

Important Notice

• Using software or data not officially distributed by the developer may cause the game to crash.
• Failing to do so may result in crashes, save data errors, or even irreversible data loss.If you are starting the game after installing from a disc, be sure to update to the latest version before playing.
• Please be sure to check your Storage for the item.

Major Changes

• Please read any on-screen prompts carefully.
• Combat Balance Adjustments
  • Reduced monster difficulty in repeat playthroughs.
  • Adjusted stats for certain field monsters in the first playthrough of Lies of P: Overture.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where benefit items were not delivered properly.
  • If you experienced issues with benefit items such as the “Azure Dragon Crescent Glaive” or “Winter Festival Peaked Hat” not being received, please update the game to the latest version and check if the issue has been resolved.
  • If your Bag was full, these items may have been sent to the Storage. Please check your Storage as well.
• If you encountered this bug, update the game to the latest version and try speaking with Salao again.
• Fixed a bug that allowed movement to unintended areas outside the normal route.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the character to be launched into the air when using the Blade Fable Arts of “Monad’s Rose Sword.”
• Fixed a bug where using the Blade Fable Arts of “Monad’s Rose Sword” in Hotel Krat while listening to a record would skip the current record.
• Fixed a bug where the triggered effect of the “Solutionist’s Amulet” would persist even after the item was unequipped.
• Fixed a visual bug affecting the Legion Arm “Flamberge” when wearing the “Blazing Death’s Hunting Apparel.”
• Fixed various minor issues, including icon display errors, localization and text errors, monster-related bugs, and other miscellaneous bugs.

Developer Neowiz also confirmed today that Lies of P has topped 3 million copies sold.

Lies of P developer Neowiz shadow-dropped DLC Overture during Summer Game Fest, introducing new locations, new enemies and bosses, new characters, weapons, and the very controversial decision to add in two easier difficulty options.

We had a good time with Lies of P, awarding it 8/10, and Overture itself also secured a 8/10. “Even if it’s clearly dancing on the same old strings, Lies of P: Overture is an excellent expansion that adds a whole lot more to a game that was already great,” we wrote.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Critical Role’s Robbie Daymond will join the cast of Assassin’s Creed Shadows next week, as a new character you can recruit as an ally for Yasuke and Naoe.

Daymond will play Rufino, a character he originally created for an Assassin’s Creed Shadows promotional one-shot. A quick glimpse at the character shows Rufino wearing a Portuguese-style doublet and sporting a lavish moustache.

Rufino will arrive as a recruitable ally in Shadows’ next game update, due next Wednesday, June 25. This will be the latest free drop of additional story content made available post-launch, following an earlier mission that served as a crossover with Dead by Daylight.

So far, Shadows’ extra story add-ons have been brief, with little more than 20 minutes gameplay each time. But as a recruitable ally — one of only half a dozen in the game — there’s scope here for Rufino to make more of an impact.

Still, it’s unclear exactly how large Rufino’s role will be. Will you be able to call upon him in battle, as your other allies can be? Will you be able to romance Rufino, even — something other allies are open to exploring. Or will Rufino simply just be another face that hangs around your hideout? Next week, we’ll find out.

Okay so imagine: feudal Japan, hidden blades… and Critical Role? Robbie’s in. Luc’s in. You should probably be in too.#ACShadows #CriticalRole #ACxCR pic.twitter.com/guT6cagwE7

— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) June 19, 2025

Ubisoft previously stated that its June content update for Assassin’s Creed Shadows would also include new difficulty settings, gameplay immersion options, and an open-world alarm system to keep players on their toes. A much requested option to keep headgear on or off during cutscenes will also be added.

Further down the line, Ubisoft is working on a New Game Plus option and additionally story drops, including more crossovers. And before 2025 is out, Shadows will receive its first major expansion — Claws of Awaji — that is set to pick up from the game’s ending and add a new region of Japan to explore.

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