It’s been 84 years since Nintendo first announced that the next chapter in the Metroid Prime series was in development. Then, in 1957, an apology was issued as the platform holder took things back to the drawing board, restarting development and shifting production from partner dev Bandai Namco back to Prime series founders Retro Studios.
Okay, the exact dates are a little off there, but for fans of the series it feels like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has been in the works for an awfully long time. Back in 2017, the Switch’s launch year, there was little question as to which console MP4 would arrive on, but news of the developmental reboot in 2019 gave some of us pause. Even small projects can take several years to come to fruition, and with Retro apparently starting over from scratch, would a flagship game like MP4 see the light of day before the Switch’s successor landed?
Bleach Rebirth of Souls: All Three Playable Versions of Protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki Revealed
Summary
Ichigo Kurosaki’s most powerful form, Final Getsugatensho is revealed with unique combat mechanics, different from other characters in the game
There are a total of three different Ichigo Kurosaki forms that you can play in Multiplayer Mode or through the progression of Story Mode
Bleach Rebirth of Souls is available on March 21, 2025 for Xbox Series X|S.
Bleach Rebirth of Souls is an upcoming fighting action game based on the legendary anime franchise, delivering an immersive Bleach experience. Engage in thrilling one-on-one sword combat with your favorite characters and unlock powerful forms to overturn the tide of battle – the more desperate the situation, the more powerful you become! Of course, a Bleach game would be nothing without protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki – and we have some news on the classic character.
Ahead of the game’s release on March 21, we’re excited to reveal Ichigo Kurosaki’s most powerful form, Final Getsugatensho and its unique playstyle – as well as his two other forms, Bankai and base.
Through the Story Mode, re-live iconic battles and moments from the Bleach storyline and experience the growth of Ichigo Kurosaki as he discovers his new powers and unlocks powerful transformations. In the game, this will be represented by three different forms, each as a separate playable character, which will come with different combat styles to best suit his stage of growth in the Story Mode. Let us run you through each one.
Ichigo Kurosaki (Final Getsugatensho)
Ichigo Kurosaki (Final Getsugatensho) appears in the battle with Sosuke Aizen, the main antagonist in the Battle of Karakura Town Arc. The most unique feature of this form is that the combat mechanics are very different from other characters in the game. In this form, Ichigo cannot activate his Awakening state (an ability that significantly boosts stats and abilities) like other characters, but upon landing the Kikon Move (a powerful attack that depletes your opponent’s remaining life force) in succession three times, victory is yours! What also makes the Final Getsugatensho form unique is that Ichigo’s Signature Moves are unstoppable and cannot be guarded, making his combo chains incredibly dangerous when executed flawlessly.
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bankai)
Ichigo Kurosaki’s other alternate form is his Bankai state, offering an advanced sword technique that allows one to unleash the full power of their Zanpukuto (sword), which becomes available after the training arc in the Story Mode.
The Awakening state for Ichigo Kurosaki (Bankai) activates his “Hollowfication”, increasing overall performance where he gains a boost in Spiritual Power, allowing his powerful moves to deal additional damage.
While in Hollowfication, upon taking additional damage and filling out the Awakening Gauge, you have the ability to unleash Reawakening, where Ichigo will transform into the final stage of Hollowfication called “Full Hollowfication”, unlocking wild, high-powered attacks.
Ichigo Kurosaki (Base)
This is the base form of Ichigo Kurosaki and is a playable character during the iconic battle against Byakuya Kuchiki in the Soul Society Arc.
His combat mechanics are simple but have the potential to do massive damage against his opponents – especially with his movement abilities, which allow him to quickly close the distance to strike the enemy with a powerful attack.
During Ichigo’s Awakening state, he will be able to execute combo attacks in quick succession, enabling you to diversify your battle style against different opponents.
All three Ichigo Kurosaki forms will be available in both the Story and Multiplayer Modes. However, in the Story Mode, you can experience Ichigo’s journey right from the start, following his rise to become a Soul Reaper, and the challenges he faced to unlock new powers.
Play as Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach Rebirth of Souls when it launches later this week, March 21, for Xbox Series X|S!
Awaken the blade within you and reverse your fate in BLEACH Rebirth of Souls! Engage in thrilling battles with powerful sword abilities and characters from this legendary anime franchise.
• Unleash Your Sword
Choose your favorite character and unleash their unique sword abilities! Take advantage of each character’s unique abilities and command the flow of battle to find an opening that spells defeat for your enemies.
• Defeat Enemies with a Single Strike
In BLEACH Rebirth of Souls, a single strike can spell defeat for your opponent. Change the situation dramatically with the swing of your blade!
• Reverse Fate and Awaken Your Power
The more desperate the situation, the more powerful you become. Overturn the tide of battle and unlock new forms and new blades in the heat of battle to bring victory from the edge of defeat!
• Experience the BLEACH Story from the Beginning
Relive the main story of BLEACH from Ichigo’s rise as a Soul Reaper in the Substitute Soul Reaper Arc to the climactic battle against Sosuke Aizen in the Arrancar Arc. Unlock deeper insights into the characters of BLEACH with Secret Story mode, revealing the moments that shaped their personalities.
*There are also Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition products available. Please be careful not to purchase the same content twice.
Agent 47 is about to become much more dangerous. With Hitman World of Assassination lining up its PS VR2 shot on March 27, Senior Game Designer Eskil Mohl and Lead & Senior Technical Designer Toke Krainert understood the assignment – and delivered some essential intel on the game.
What are some of the cool things players can do now in the game via VR?
Eskil: We now have an incredible amount of new interactions. There’s a scene where you get a safe combination and you can visibly read it in your hand. The tactile sensation of actually looking at a note like this feels amazing. Every little set piece in the game before was a button press, and now you actually reach out and touch stuff. We were initially afraid they wouldn’t hold up visually and audibly, so we were nicely surprised. Another one is that you can look away or use your arm to hide your eyes from flashbang grenades.
Toke: There are so many ways of playing the game, and I think it just gets better in VR. It opens up that toolbox even more.
Eskil:The other day Toke had one thing in his left hand, and another in his right, and he threw them up and caught them. And he suggested he’d try juggling three things – he was like, technically it’s possible, right?
How has combat been changed by putting the game into VR?
Eskil: It’s significantly improved. Now you can use an items and weapons wheel instead of pausing the game. And with the weapons you feel way more badass. Before putting it in VR, entering combat was almost a fail state because of how often you’d die, but now it’s a lot of fun.
You can holster your gun on your back, and you also need to manually eject the magazine, use your other hand to grab a new one, insert it and then ready the weapon. It took a long time to implement, but it’s so rewarding.
Was there a temptation to keep all of the game in first-person?
Eskil: Absolutely. For instance, in a scene where you’re stirring soup, we created a first-person prototype, and it felt clunky and a little disorientating. And in other places you couldn’t really get that useful overview of the area you’re in, especially when it comes to knowing where the enemies are. So certain scenes should feel more like a safe spot where you can get a strategic advantage, and it actually felt better in third-person.
Did you feel like you had to make more things interactive, given players were now seeing the game world differently?
Eskil: Yeah. When you’re in first-person it changes your perception of the game and tactility of what you’re interacting with. But when balancing the game we couldn’t make everything interactive.
Toke: We inherited things from the original version of the game, and when I used to be a Level Designer we’d dress locations with items and try to find a good balance of things to pick up. But not all of them, because then you are just littered with props. And if we made everything interactive in VR you would also just have a whole room full of little toy blocks you can throw around. It would be a bit silly!
Did you have to tweak the difficulty balance given the players are now using more tactile and intuitive controls? Eskil: It was a huge worry for me. Now you can dual wield anything, and things like the quick throw feature make you way more lethal and agile.
Toke: But while you have more freedom, you also have more responsibility for the execution of actions that were previously automated. So aiming requires more deliberate motions, reloading takes time, and you have to keep track of where the items are, physically.
Eskil: Yeah, so that is probably part of why it levelled itself out, in a way.
Were there specific points during development where you felt an ‘Eureka’ moment in the transition to VR?
Toke: In the beginning, when we were still figuring out the degree of fidelity in the game, we were prying a crowbar in a door for the first time and it cracked open. Suddenly it felt physical. Like, ‘oh, now it’s a VR game’. That became an indicator for how we did all those other world interactions.
Eskil: Yeah, that was a really nice moment. And when we were originally using keys in the game, we initially just had the player hold the key to the door and it would spring open. Then Toke took it to the next level and said we could actually have it so you could put the key in the lock and turn it to open the door. It felt amazing.
Have any of your favorite missions changed because of how you experienced it in VR?
Toke: For me, it’s probably the train level. It’s very linear. Players had mixed feelings about it and so did I, even though I worked on it, but now that you can play with all of these amazing weapons in VR, it’s just turned into a playground. You’re given one cool weapon after the next, and things to throw around, with a lot of armoured enemies coming at you, so you really have to practice those mechanics. It’s really fun now.
Eskil: It’s the sort of level which isn’t a typical Hitman level. It’s a bit too action gamey – but now in VR, it rocks. I had the same feeling in the Colorado section of the game. Players often rate it close to the bottom in popularity. But going gun blazing is so much fun.
Hitman World of Assassination launches on PS VR2 March 27.
Speculation that Starfield will soon be confirmed for release on PlayStation 5 ramped up over the weekend after fans spotted a PlayStation logo on Bethesda’s official Creations website.
The logo was attached to a work-in-progress ship decals Creation for Starfield, and although the Creation was removed, fans are speculating that Bethesda’s so-far PC and Xbox-only sci-fi game is soon set for PS5.
Thoughts inevitably turn to whether Bethesda plans a significant content update, possibly even a new expansion, to coincide with Starfield’s seemingly inevitable release on PS5. There’s been little to shout about when it comes to Starfield in recent months, following the launch of the poorly received Shattered Space expansion. Bethesda parent company Microsoft is expected to hold another summer showcase this year, as it has done in recent years, and that event may be the right time and place to learn more about all things Starfield.
Bethesda itself has said it has “exciting things” planned for Starfield this year, amid growing discontent from players about a lack of communication and updates. In June 2024, Bethesda insisted it remained committed to supporting Starfield, and confirmed at least one other story expansion would release following Shattered Space. In an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard said the developer was aiming to release an annual story expansion for “hopefully a very long time.”
Starfield launched in September 2023 as Bethesda’s first brand new intellectual property in years, and its first mainline single-player game since Microsoft bought parent company ZeniMax Media in March 2021. IGN’s Starfield review returned a 7/10. We said: “Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist.”
A number of Xbox games are currently available on PS5, including Rare’s Sea of Thieves, Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush, and Obsidian’s Grounded and Pentiment. Microsoft already publishes Minecraft games on PlayStation consoles, among many other platforms, and is set to publish Doom: The Dark Ages and Ninja Gaiden 4 on PS5 later this year. Playground’s Forza Horizon 5 is also confirmed as coming to PS5 soon. There are even reports that Microsoft is finally ready to release Halo on PlayStation after decades of Xbox exclusivity.
Spencer has said Xbox’s multiplatform push is in part about bringing in more money to Microsoft’s gaming business — with the pressure on to deliver following its eye-watering $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.
“We run a business,” Spencer said in August last year. “It’s definitely true inside of Microsoft the bar is high for us in terms of the delivery we have to give back to the company. Because we get a level of support from the company that’s just amazing and what we’re able to go do.
“So I look at this, how can we make our games as strong as possible? Our platform continues to grow, on console, on PC, and on cloud. It’s just going to be a strategy that works for us.”
It’s a busy time for the 450-person Bethesda Game Studios, which currently operates five teams: Starfield; Elder Scrolls 6; Fallout 76; mobile; and external development partnerships.
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.
Final Fantasy I-VI Collection Anniversary Edition has hit its lowest price yet, now available for $49.99 at Amazon—its best deal to date, even beating Black Friday, according to our records, and even price-tracking site CamelCamelCamel.
Originally released on October 8 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 (fully compatible with PS5), this collection brings together the first six mainline Final Fantasy games in their carefully remastered form. Square Enix has opted for refinement rather than reinvention, keeping the original pixelated aesthetic intact but sharpening it for modern displays.
The result is a collection that looks fantastic, whether on a massive TV or in handheld mode. The soundtrack has also received an orchestral upgrade, with legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu overseeing the new arrangements. On top of that, the package introduces a handful of thoughtful quality-of-life improvements, including the ability to disable random encounters and boost experience and gil gains—useful for those who want to focus on the story without the grind.
As a small but nostalgic extra, this edition includes a sticker sheet featuring 12 classic character sprites, including the Black Mage, a Moogle, Terra, Kain, and a mid-cackle Kefka. It’s not the most extravagant of bonuses, but it’s a fun little touch for fans of the series.
At its original $74.99 price, the collection was a tougher sell, but at $49.99, it’s a much easier recommendation for anyone interested in the series’ origins. Whether you’re revisiting these classics or playing them for the first time, this is a well-executed remaster of six of the most influential RPGs ever made. And with physical copies being the only collectible edition available, it might be worth picking up before they become harder to find, especially at this time.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
R.E.P.O is a six player co-op extraction spooper that currently sits atop Steam’s best seller charts, having amassed around 70k players the week following early access launch on Feb 26, and another 160k since then. That’s around 230 thousand players avoiding knifey chef frogs and persistent ducklings while extracting valuables to fill a cash quota. It’s a bit Lethal Company but even heavier on the absurdity.
As far as I can tell, this popularity comes down to two things. Firstly, the game is a verdant flub factory, stuffed with the sort of chaotic physics mishaps that translate very well to short video clips. Even the loot extraction point can kill you if lingered in too long. Secondly, the ‘Jim Henson does Nier Automata’ robots you play as flap their mouths in time to your mic chatter, making even the most bowel-curdling fear shrieks from your teammates look like a hammy comedy routine.
If you can believe it, we are a little over two weeks out from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. While we’re all ready and waiting for more news from Nintendo’s next console, some folks believe they already have an inkling of one of the showcase’s key players (thanks for the heads up, Notebook Check).
Reece Reilly, the host of the Kiwi Talkz podcast, recently took to BlueSky with the heavy hint that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be making quite the splash at the Switch 2 Direct. “Nintendo & Retro were keeping their cards close to their chest with Metroid Prime 4 for this exact moment,” Reilly teased, “The true unveiling will blow everything else in the direct out of the water”.
EA’s Star Wars turn-based tactics game will be revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2025.
The untitled Star Wars strategy game was announced in early 2022 as in development at Bit Reactor, a studio composed of Firaxis Games veterans best-known for their work on the XCOM franchise. Bit Reactor has worked closely with Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn Entertainment on the new project, and is finally ready to show the game off.
The first look is set for April 19 via a live panel with the lead development team from Bit Reactor, along with Respawn Entertainment, and Lucasfilm Games, as revealed on the official Star Wars Celebration 2025 schedule.
We know next to nothing about this game, neither in which Star Wars era it’s set, nor the exact nature of its gameplay. But given it’s being made by former developers of XCOM, it seems reasonable to assume something along similar lines drenched in all things Star Wars.
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.
Back in Total FebWar, the Total War: Warhammer III team penned a desperate missive in entrail fluids, full of scrawled warnings about the changes coming to the strategy game‘s AI. With their last ounce of strength, they rolled out a beta test for the planned tweaks. Now, the results are in, circling in the eerily fallow wake of over 50,000 campaigns, like carrion crows with tangible datasets grasped tight in their beaks. Thanks, death crows!
The new query system worked well, with foes no longer cowering from lone enemy agents as if they were doomstacks. The tweaks to faction aggression and potential were shakier, causing some unintended consequence. As such, the upcoming 6.1 patch won’t include changes to how fighty or flourishing your foes are. “Faction Potential changes made minor factions significantly easier to defeat for major factions,” reads the blog. “This in turn caused Elector factions to perish too early and to be ineffective even when brought back”. Makes sense. Can’t summon the dead, unless you’re one of the several Warhammer factions that can actually do that quite easily.
Horizon actor Ashly Burch has addressed the AI Aloy video that leaked online last week, using it to call attention to the demands of striking voice actors.
In the now deleted video, Sony Interactive Entertainment director of software engineering, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, has a conversation with an AI-powered Aloy via voice prompts and AI-generated speech and facial animations. Raghoebardajal asks Aloy how she’s doing, to which she responds: “Hello, I’m managing alright. Just dealing with a sore throat. How have you been?”
The voice heard coming from Aloy’s mouth is clearly not that of Burch, rather a robotic voice similar to those heard from text-to-speech voice generators. AI Aloy’s facial movements are stiff and her eyes appear lifeless as she converses with Raghoebardajal.
Burch, who has voiced Aloy in all four Horizon video games released so far (Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, Call of the Mountain, and Lego Horizon Adventures) took to social media platform TikTok to confirm that she had seen the video, and that Horizon developer Guerrilla had got in touch to let her know that the tech demo did not reflect anything that was in active development, nor did it use any of Burch’s performance (facial or voice data). That presumably rules out AI Aloy for the upcoming Horizon multiplayer game, assuming the character is in the game, and the inevitable Horizon 3. However, as Burch pointed out, Guerrilla (and parent company Sony Interactive Entertainment) owns Aloy as a character.
With all this in mind, Burch said the AI Aloy video left her feeling “worried about game performance as an art form,” and used it as a jumping off point to discuss the ongoing video game voice actors strike that has claimed a number of high-profile casualties in recent weeks.
Last week, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) issued an update to its members on the status of negotiations over video game actor AI protections, saying that while progress had been made, it was still “frustratingly far apart” with the industry bargaining group on key issues.
“Currently what we’re fighting for is, you have to get our consent before you make an AI version of us in any form, you have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you’re using this AI double,” Burch said.
“I feel worried not because the technology exists. Not even because game companies want to use it. Of course they do. They always want to use technological advancements. I just imagine a video like this coming out that does have someone’s performance attached to it, that does have someone’s voice or face or movement. And the possibility that if we lose this fight, that person would have no recourse. They wouldn’t have any protections, any way to fight back. And that possibility, it makes me so sad it hurts my heart. It scares me. I love this industry and this art form so much and I want there to be a new generation of actors. I want there to be so many more incredible game performances. I want to be able to continue to do this job. If we don’t win, that future is really compromised.
“I’m genuinely not trying to put any game company specifically on blast,” Burch continued. “Certainly not Guerrilla. The technology isn’t the problem. Game companies wanting to use the technology isn’t the problem. The problem is we’re currently on strike and the bargaining group will not agree to give us common sense protections.
“I support the strike. I’ve always supported the strike. I believe fighting is what we have to do to protect the future and the longevity of this career that we all love so much.”
Burch then pointed to the temporary union contracts that currently give all the protections the striking voice actors are asking for, that any video game company can sign right now. “There’s the interim, the tiered, and low budget agreement contracts available right now for any game company to sign,” Burch said. “I believe we deserve to be protected.”
Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. It has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AI’s struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was “unable to replace talent.”
And the voice actor strike has begun to impact a number of video games. Players have reported that games such as Destiny 2 and World of Warcraft appear to have certain NPCs left unvoiced in otherwise voiced scenes, likely due to the strike. Late last year, SAG-AFTRA struck League of Legends after Riot allegedly tried to subvert the strike by canceling a game in response. And Activision confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 characters were recast after players expressed concern about new voices.
“For instance, non-player characters in games could interact with players based on their actions, making it feel more personal,” Qizilbash said. “This is important for the younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, who are the first generations that grew up digitally and are looking for personalization across everything, as well as looking for experiences to have more meaning.”
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.
