NetEase Games has revealed the Marvel Rivals Spring Festival event, which adds a handful of new hero skins and a soccer game mode that might look familiar to Overwatch and Rocket League players.

The team behind the hero shooter hit announced its latest update with a trailer, below, promising to kick off the new year with the Clash of Dancing Lions game mode as well as the Fortune & Colors Gallery Card customization event starting January 23 at 9am UTC.

Let’s not beat around the bush: Clash of Dancing Lions looks an awful lot like Overwatch’s long-running summer event, Lúcioball. The standard version of both modes sees players compete in 3v3 soccer matches with a few unique twists that capitalize on their heroes’ abilities. Both obviously rip elements from Psyonix’s massively popular Rocket League, though, and it looks like the Marvel take on the blown-up soccer experience comes with a few differences, too.

For starters, the limited-time mode seems to focus on at least three characters – Star-Lord, Iron Fist, and Black Widow – instead of just one hero. The soccer ball also seems to be the size of your average, real-life ball, too, as players can be seen carrying it around the competition and to the goal. Marvel Rivals and Overwatch already share more than a few things in common, but it will be hard to say just how similar Clash of Dancing Lions and Lúcioball are until the Marvel event drops in a few days.

The Marvel Rivals Spring Festival event allows players to complete tasks for rewards, including the Star-Lord Lion’s Mane costume seen in the trailer. Additional details remain under wraps, but NetEase tells players that they’ll be able to earn other goodies, such as a nameplate, spray, and more, as part of the event. While the Iron Fist Lion’s Gaze and Black Widow Lion’s Heartbeat outfits were also shown off in the new video, the developers only tell fans to expect to see the three skins arrive in-game “in the coming weeks.”

In other Marvel Rivals news, players are still looking forward to the Marvel’s Spider-Man tie-in skin set to arrive later this month. Meanwhile, many community members are still discussing the project’s alleged bot problem and what it could mean for the future of the competitive Marvel video game. For more on NetEase’s popular hero shooter, you can check out all active Marvel Rivals codes here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP.

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An indie developer familiar with making games for the original Switch has explained why that brief look at Mario Kart 9 suggests the Switch 2 is “significantly more powerful.”

The Nintendo Switch 2’s grand hardware reveal last week swept many off of their feet. However, one thing that Nintendo has been suspiciously quiet about is the technical prowess of its new handheld. While we have clear upgrades like new Joy-Cons, a redesigned kickstand, and a larger form factor, we still have no official word on just how powerful the Switch 2 is.

But does the brief glimpse at Mario Kart 9 in the reveal video provide clues? In a new YouTube video (via GamesRadar), indie developer Jerrel Dulay of Sungrand Studios said that he expects the Switch 2 to be much more powerful than the original console. Dulay is credited as being one of the last developers to work on titles for the Wii U and 3DS, and is intimately familiar with Nintendo hardware.

Dulay explained that the new Mario Kart footage in the Switch 2 trailer could give us a glimpse at exactly what the Switch 2 may be capable of. He first noted the presence of “physically-based shaders” on cars and other textures. These shaders can be applied to objects and can be affected by reflections, lighting, or other effects.

In late 2023, Digital Foundry published an extensive report on the Switch 2’s new hardware, which allegedly includes the Nvidia T239 ARM mobile chip. The T239 chip reportedly inside the Switch 2 is projected to have 1536 CUDA Cores (these cores can process shaders), 40% fewer than the desktop variant of the RTX 3050 GPU, which is on the same 8nm Nvidia Ampere architecture. This was corroborated by the Switch 2’s motherboard leaks, which showed a potential 8nm chip.

The original Nintendo Switch’s Tegra X1 chip possessed just 256 CUDA cores, marking a 500% increase in pure availability of CUDA core count alone.

“Every single piece of geometry I see here is using physically-based rendering for the shaders,” Dulay explained. He noted that using complex shaders on the original Nintendo Switch was demanding for the hardware, and using many of them could cause framerates to plummet. Dulay added that the Mario Kart footage also shows off additional material reflections from the ground, his face, and more.

Dulay pointed to the high-resolution ground textures used throughout the footage, saying: “ground textures, because they take up so much space, they are something that will have to be high-resolution.” He went on to explain how high-resolution textures also demand available RAM.

The original Nintendo Switch has just 4GB of RAM to run games and its OS, whereas the Nintendo Switch 2 is rumored to have 12GB of RAM. The Switch 2 motherboard leak showed off two SK Hynix LPDDR5 modules, which could offer up to 12GB of RAM, with each chip offering 6GB each.

We currently don’t know the specific speed of the RAM modules, which could offer significant increases in efficiency compared to the original Switch’s 1600MHz while docked. A similar part from RAM manufacturer SK Hynix can run at speeds up to 7500MHz, increasing the amount of available bandwidth for the RAM pool significantly.

This means that things such as texture loading could be much faster, allowing for the new Mario Kart to use high-resolution textures. “It’s not that they’re just high-resolution, but there’s a high number of unique textures being used,” Dulay added. The potential higher memory transfer rate paired with the pure RAM storage increase could lead to significantly prettier Switch 2 titles.

Dulay further stated that the Mario Kart teaser also includes “true volumetric lighting,” which is taxing for any GPU to run. “It takes into account the distance, the height, you can have certain areas be more dense, you can have light rays.”

According to Dulay, the Switch 2’s display of volumetric lighting in the new Mario Kart title is indicative of just how powerful the Switch 2 could be: “it tells me that the Switch 2 is significantly more powerful, because they want these games running at 60 frames a second.”

“This is a massive deal, this is the most important part of the reveal trailer to me,” Dulay further commented, explaining that implementing volumetric lighting was a significant challenge for developers on the original Nintendo Switch. He also noted the presence of shadows at far distances in the trailer. “Shadows are quite expensive to calculate and draw,” he said, as developers on the original Switch needed to cull the level of detail distances at which shadows were drawn.

However, with the compounding of the Switch 2’s power through the use of its CUDA cores, RAM capacity, and speed, it seems like those difficulties have been significantly reduced thanks to the new console’s raw power.

Dulay pointed out how the number of textures onscreen, high poly-count characters, in addition to the real-time cloth physics on the flagpoles demonstrate just how much of a leap in power the Switch 2 will be for developers used to making games on Nintendo’s 2017 console.

As we wait for more details and footage from the Nintendo Switch 2, Dulay’s video offers a unique insight into what you should expect in terms of graphical power from the new Nintendo console. Nintendo is scheduled to show off more about Switch 2 in a dedicated Direct in April. Until then, be sure to catch all of IGN’s Switch 2 coverage right here.

Image credit: YouTube: Sungrand Studios

Sayem is a freelancer based in the UK, covering tech & hardware. You can get in touch with him at @sayem.zone on Bluesky.

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass January 2025 Wave 2 lineup of titles.

The announcement on Xbox Wire comes ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct on January 23, where fans will get to see a number of day one Game Pass games, including Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and a mystery fourth reveal.

January 2025 Wave 2 kicks off today, January 21, with Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), a day one release on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. “Crash over and over until you master the mountain in the snowy follow up to Lonely Mountains: Downhill,” reads the official blurb. “Now supporting up to eight players via cross platform multiplayer – work your way down the slopes as a group sharing a small number of checkpoints, or risk it all in a breakneck race to the base!”

Tomorrow, January 22, sees the addition of Flock (Console) to Game Pass Standard. “Flock is a multiplayer co-op game about the joy of flight and collecting adorable flying creatures with your friends. Soar through beautiful landscapes, seeking out rare and elusive creatures to add to your flock.”

Also on January 22, Gigantic: Rampage Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. “Gigantic: Rampage Edition is a premium and definitive release of the original 5v5 MOBA hero shooter that provides a dynamic and exciting team-based multiplayer experience for fans of both genres. Choose from a diverse roster of unique heroes, each with a set of upgradeable abilities, and team up with four other players to control objectives and take down the opposing team’s mighty Guardian, all while protecting your own.”

January 22 is a busy day for Game Pass, as Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (Console) launches into Game Pass Standard. “A unique Japanese-inspired, single player Kagura action strategy game. It takes place on a mountain covered by defilement. During the day, purify the villages and prepare yourself for sundown. During the night, protect the Maiden against the hordes of the Seethe. Repeat the day and night cycle until you cleanse the mountain of defilement and return peace to the land.”

Sticking with January 22, Magical Delicacy (Console) comes to Game Pass Standard, as does Tchia (Xbox Series X|S), and The Case of the Golden Idol (Console). January 22 is rounded out by Starbound (Cloud and Console), which arrives on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Standard having already launched on PC Game Pass.

Eternal Strands (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on January 28 as a day one launch. “Eternal Strands is the debut fantasy title from Yellow Brick Games, a new independent studio founded by industry veterans from franchises including Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Watch Dogs, and Assassin’s Creed. Fight epic, towering creatures while blending magical abilities with an arsenal of powerful weapons to keep the world from crumbling in this third-person, action-adventure game.”

Also on January 28 as a day one launch, Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. “Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is an action-packed, third-person shooter and trap defense game. Evolve as an orc-slaying War Mage through rogue-lite choices and obliterate, eviscerate, and incinerate massive hordes with up to four players.”

Moving on to January 29, Shady Part of Me (Cloud, Console, and PC) releases in Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. “Shady Part of Me sends you on an emotional and dream-like journey, with breathtaking artistic direction and the enthralling voice of Hannah Murray from Game of Thrones and Skins. As a little girl and her shadow, overcome emotional struggles through surreal dreamscapes across a touching narrative filled with twists and surprises. Both must learn, cooperate, and evolve to progress in a poetic journey.

Here’s a big one: Sniper Elite: Resistance (Cloud, Console, and PC) launches into Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one release on January 30. “Offering unparalleled sniping mechanics, stealth and tactical third-person combat, Sniper Elite: Resistance turns the attention of the award-winning series towards a hidden war, far from the front lines, deep within the heart of occupied France. Bring a friend – the full campaign can be experienced in co-op.”

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) is another day one Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass release, this time on January 31. “The highly anticipated sequel to one of 2022’s most acclaimed RPGs, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a dice-driven RPG in a human and heartfelt sci-fi world. You are an escaped android, with a malfunctioning body, a price on your head and no memory of your past. Get a ship, find a crew, and take on contracts while you navigate across the Starward Belt.”

And finally, creeping into early February, Far Cry New Dawn (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard on February 4. “Dive into a transformed, vibrant, post-apocalyptic Hope County, Montana, 17 years after a global nuclear catastrophe. Lead the fight against the Highwaymen as they seek to take over the last remaining resources.”

Xbox Game Pass January 2025 Wave 2 lineup:

• Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 21 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Flock (Console) – January 22 Now with Game Pass Standard
• Gigantic: Rampage Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 22 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (Console) – January 22 Now with Game Pass Standard
• Magical Delicacy (Console) – January 22 Now with Game Pass Standard
• Tchia (Xbox Series X|S) – January 22 Now with Game Pass Standard
• The Case of the Golden Idol (Console) – January 22 Now with Game Pass Standard
• Starbound (Cloud and Console) – January 22 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Standard
• Eternal Strands (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 28 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 28 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Shady Part of Me (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 29 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Sniper Elite: Resistance (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 30 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 31 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Far Cry New Dawn (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 4 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

Xbox Game Pass games leaving on January 31, 2025:

As usual, a number of games are set to leave Game Pass as new titles flood the subscription service.

• Anuchard (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Broforce Forever (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Darkest Dungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Death’s Door (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Maquette (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

2025 is only a few weeks old, and yet we’ve already seen so much. The announcement of a new Nintendo console. The death and resurrection of TikTok. And now, a new Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2 release date theory.

This one (believe it or not there are more than a few GTA 6 theories doing the rounds) was sparked into life by another seemingly innocuous GTA Online promo tweet by Rockstar Games. “Claim a free Vapid Dominator GT muscle car and more with GTA+,” the tweet reads. “Members also earn bonuses on Priority FIB Files and Terrorbyte Client Missions, save with Arcade Property discounts, and much more.”

What information-starved GTA fans were most interested in, however, was the accompanying image, which includes a shot of a metal shipping container with a series of numbers printed on its side. One number is singled out with a slightly enlarged font and a rectangle around it: 2.