Game Infliction, Author at Game Infliction

Naughty Dog Owner Sony Files Opposition to ‘Naughty Cat’ Trademark Application, Says ‘Dog’ and ‘Cat’ Are ‘Highly Similar’

Are the words “dog” and “cat” similar enough to cause confusion? Naughty Dog owner Sony thinks they are, and has used that as the basis of an official opposition to a trademark application for ‘Naughty Cat.’

Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a Notice of Opposition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) against the “Naughty Cat” trademark application filed by a company called Naughty Cat Co., Limited.

This Hong Kong-based company has two apps listed on the App Store, both gambling “games” that promise to reward users with real cash. That’s a world away from the likes of The Last of Us and Uncharted, but that hasn’t stopped Sony’s lawyers from baring their teeth and barking angrily at their feline competitor.

In documents reviewed by IGN, Sony’s lawyers argue that the Naughty Cat trademark is “confusingly similar” to the Naughty Dog trademark it owns “in overall commercial impression and connotation.”

“The first, dominant element of the two marks, NAUGHTY, is identical,” Sony said. “The second elements, DOG and CAT, are highly similar in that both refer to house pets and are likely to mislead consumers into believing, mistakenly, that Naughty Cat is affiliated with SIE and/or Naughty Dog or that its goods are licensed or approved by SIE and/or Naughty Dog.”

The opposition note goes on to insist that any registration of the Naughty Cat trademark is “likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake or to deceive the public as to the source of Applicant’s goods offered under Applicant’s Mark, to the harm and damage of SIE and the public.”

“Registration of Applicant’s Mark will lead the public to conclude, incorrectly, that Applicant is or has been affiliated or connected with SIE, and/or that Applicant’s goods provided under Applicant’s Mark are or have been authorized, sponsored, endorsed, or licensed by SIE. Issuance of any registration to Applicant for the proposed mark will result in damage to SIE and the public.”

On top of this, the Naughty Cat application claims a first use date of December 25, 2023. The Naughty Dog trademark was of course in use many years beforehand.

Whether you agree with Sony’s assertion here or not, the USPTO has outlined a schedule to resolve the dispute and set trial dates if it comes to that. Naughty Cat Co., Limited has until July 12 to answer Sony’s opposition. If it fails to do that, the USPTO may mark the application as abandoned and Sony will have their victory. If not, the dispute may go to trial in 2026.

It seems unlikely any of the developers at Naughty Dog will have much of anything to do with this trademark business. Neil Druckmann and co are busy working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and a second, secret, unannounced project.

We don’t know anything about it yet. Perhaps it’s about cats?

Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images.

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.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, Which Everyone Thinks Should Be Free, Requires $95 of Accessories and a 4K TV for 100% Completion

Nintendo’s $10 Switch 2 mini-game collection — the game that many fans believe should have been free — requires you own at least $95 of accessories in order to complete 100%.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is available today alongside the new console, and offers a selection of miniature games and experiences designed to show off the new hardware.

But this also includes mini-games designed to showcase the Switch 2’s camera, and the extra GL/GR buttons which are not found on the standard Switch 2 Joy-Con and instead require a Charging Grip or Pro Controller (thanks, NintendoSoup) — which of course are sold separately.

Oh, and you’ll also need a 4K TV, in case you don’t already have one of those, or were planning to only play your Switch 2 in handheld mode.

Three mini-games require specific equipment, fans now report, with a camera needed to play 1 minigame, a controller with GL/GR buttons for another minigame, and a 4K-supported screen needed for 1 minigame and a separate tech demo.

Nintendo fans who want to see absolutely everything in Switch 2 Welcome Tour will therefore not only need to pay up the $10 cost of the game, but also $54.99 for a Switch 2 Camera, and either $39.99 for a Charging Grip or $84.99 for a Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller to use those GL/GR buttons.

One useful PSA here is that the Switch 2 does support third-party cameras — so you could get hold of a USB-C webcam for cheaper.

But while the Switch 2 does also support the Switch 1 Pro Controller, this does not have the necessary GL/GR buttons — so you really will need to fork out separately for those. And, thanks to tariffs, these now cost slightly more at launch than Nintendo originally announced.

Nintendo has previously faced criticism for not including Switch 2 Welcome Tour with the console itself. An experience designed as an introduction to Nintendo’s new hardware and essentially act as an interactive instruction manual, Welcome Tour would have been a perfect fit to be packed-in with the console — just as Wii Sports was with the Wii.

Even former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has got stuck into the debate, highlighting the Wii Sports situation from his tenure in charge. At the time, Fils-Aimé disagreed with Nintendo’s Japanese bosses who said Wii Sports should have been sold separately (as it still was in Japan). But Fils-Aimé got his way for the U.S. and European markets, and Wii Sports went on to become one of the most successful games of all time.

“Everyone has to decide if it’s worth their $10 to learn about the Switch 2 cartridge slot and watch an HDR fireworks display, and the whole conversation surrounding Welcome Tour has suffered because of Nintendo’s irritating decision to charge for it,” IGN wrote earlier this week. It’ll be interesting to see whether the added costs further impact customer purchases.

Earlier today, IGN reported on the issue of damaged Switch 2 consoles due to retailers puncturing the console’s thin boxes with staples. If you’re buying a console (with or without Welcome Tour), it’s something to be aware of.

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

Oblivion Remastered has two updates coming, and one will save us from sudden glitchy vampire baldness

Oblivion’s a notoriously buggy game, so it probably shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that Oblivion Remastered was also pretty damn buggy. While a lot of those bugs are the kind of charming nonsense TES 4 is beloved for, Bethesda and Virtuos have now confirmed that the remaster’s got two updates incoming to fix its more serious problems.

Having scrolled through the patch notes for the first of these updates, which releases in Steam beta today, there’s one fix that’s stood out, because the thing it outlines has been haunting my dreams.

XDefiant‘s servers went dark on Tuesday, June 3, a little over a year after Ubisoft’s free-to-play arena shooter was released. Ubisoft gave its Call of duty rival just four months before confirming it would discontinue support. Almost half the team lost their jobs as Ubisoft made a swath of cuts across its San Francisco and Osaka studios.

Producer Mark Rubin, who led development fo the game having previously worked on the Call of Duty series at Activision, called it a “sad day” in a lengthy statement posted to X/Twitter earlier today. After thanking his co-workers for making a “really fun and terrific game,” he announced he’s decided to “leave the industry” for good.

“In case everyone doesn’t know, the team behind XDefiant was all let go at the end of last year and I know many people have moved on to other studios, which is great, and I hope that for all of those still looking, that they find something quickly,” Rubin wrote.

“As for me, I’ve decided to leave the industry and spend more time with my family so unfortunately you won’t be hearing about me making another game. I do care passionately about the shooter space and hope that someone else can pick up the flag that I was trying to carry and make games again that care about the players, treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say.”

Rubin said the team made “remarkable” progress despite “very little marketing,” claiming that despite a lack of advertising, XDefiant “still had the fastest acquisition of players in the first few weeks for a Ubisoft title” just from word-of-mouth promotion.

“But unfortunately, with little to no marketing, especially after launch, we weren’t acquiring new players after the initial launch,” he added, before claiming Ubisoft’s in-house game engine “wasn’t designed for what [XDefiant] was doing.”

“We had other issues, though, as well that we tried to be transparent about. For one we had crippling tech debt using an engine that wasn’t designed for what we were doing, and we didn’t have the engineering resources to ever correct that. I do personally think that in-house engines are not the valuable investment that they used to be, and they are often doomed to fall behind big engines like Unreal.

“This tech debt included the dreaded netcode issues that we could just not solve given the architecture we were dealing with,” he added. “And so, for many players with solid network connections (in both speed and consistent reliability) the game played well but if your connection had even the smallest amount of inconsistency the engine just couldn’t handle it and you would have a bad experience. Normally, you should be able to weather those bad moments on your network. But this was a major issue with XDefiant.”

Rubin also lamented the lack of resources to make content.

“Another issue we had was having the right resources to make content for the game. What we saw at Season 3 wasn’t even enough content in my mind for launch. There were some really cool features coming later in Season 4 or even 5 that would have completed the game in a way that I felt it should have been for launch. I can say everyone’s (devs, HQ leadership, etc.) heart was in the right place, but we just didn’t have the gas to go the distance for a free-to-play game.”

In October 2024, Ubisoft insisted it wasn’t shutting XDefiant down, then announced it would be shutting XDefiant down just a few weeks later. We thought the fundamentals of XDefiant were good, but “conflicting ideas and mechanics stop it from standing above a crowded shooter field.” We ultimately awarded it a “Good” rating of 7.

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.

Silent Hill f gets a release date, plus a creepy new trailer with more limb cracking noises than a chiropractor convention

Silent Hill f got a concrete release date at last night’s State of Play. You’ll be able to play it on PC on September 25 this year, which is also when it arrives on consoles.

As for what you’re in for, a fresh trailer made pretty clear that protagonist Hinako Shimizu is going to have a bad time of things, with freaky flower monsters and creepy scarecrow-inspired doll things with the mangled posture of your average veteran office worker all seeking to hurt her as she runs around cracking skulls with a pipe.

“The Will To Resist Is In Your Hands” – Final Fantasy Tactics Creator Shares Heartfelt Message

“I offer this story once again”.

With the excellent news that Final Fantasy Tactics is to receive a revamped and re-energised outing on both Switch 1 and Switch 2 on 25th September, the game’s creator and director, Yasumi Matsuno, has taken to the internet to share some personal thoughts.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles sees both the original 1997 version of this absolute belter released in a pack alongside a revamped edition, which you can check out in the reveal trailer at the bottom of this very article.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Helldivers 2 Force of Law Warbond launches June 12

When it comes to Super Earth, you are the law–the final word on freedom and Managed Democracy in our streets. You are the keeper of the peace and the deliverer of justice, but you need to step up your gear before you go out on patrol. That’s why the Ministry of Defense has approved the release of the Force of Law Premium Warbond¹ on June 12!

First, let’s talk gear. The AR-32 Pacifier, a large capacity assault rifle, is the last word in defense against enemies roaming the colonies. Combine it with the new G-109 Urchin stun grenade, which attaches to the perp and dispenses electrical pulses until they’re incapacitated, and you can handle any size squid assembly.

But hold on–you’re still going to need some backup, diver. We can’t think of a better companion than the AX/ARC-3 “Guard Dog” K-9. Loyal to its core, the arc-powered K-9 will get between you and any threat to your authority. Just be wary of the occasional (accidental) friendly bite.

We’re also including access to the GL-52 De-Escalator support weapon, a grenade launcher that fires high-powered arc grenades. The negotiations will be short and shocking when you call this one in.

This isn’t an undercover job, either, so you need to get some gear that lets citizens, SEAF, and squids alike know you’re on the beat. Nothing inspires a sense of safety and obedience quite like the sight of a Helldiver wearing the BP-20 Correct Officer medium armor, with its protective padding and roomy pouches.

But maybe you want to be first on the scene, which means you need something lightweight. In that case, try the BP-32 Jackboot, a light armor packing fewer pouches, but more panache with an official-looking tailored jacket and sturdy pauldrons.

Both armors come with the Ballistic Padding passive that grants the wearer higher resistance to chest damage, explosive damage, and all damage from bleeding. These armors also pair well with either the Miranda’s Legacy or the Mother Eagle’s Wings capes, and their matching player cards, in coordinating blue and gold color schemes.

Force of Law also includes new patterns! Watch them scatter when your paddy wagon, the FRV, rolls down the street with the True Blue pattern, also available for your Exosuits and Hellpods. Speaking of Hellpods, be sure to equip the new booster–Stun Pods–which hotwires your drops to shock nearby suspects into a stupor.

We haven’t forgotten the emotes, either. This Warbond comes with three hand signal emotes for Hold, Silence, and Group Up. Even if the mic is off, you can still organize your unit.

And lastly, you’ve got the gun, but now you need the badge. You’ll be able to equip the Extra Judicial title, reserved only for those who protect and serve the citizens of Super Earth.

Be on the lookout, Helldivers: Force of Law is coming June 12! This Managed Democracy isn’t gonna enforce itself.

¹ Requires base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock.

Sony’s All-New First-Party PlayStation Fight Stick ‘Project Defiant’ Goes On Sale in 2026

It’s 2025, and Sony PlayStation has finally designed its own wireless fight stick for PS5 and PC.

Edwin Foo, VP of product development at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said the stick — codenamed internally as Project Defiant — will give players “more flexibility to play their favorite fighting games.”

Sony promises ultra-low latency through a wireless connection on PS5 or PC, as well as the option to play with a wired connection. This is essential for fighting game fans who need their combo inputs to be as precise and as instant as possible.

It also boasts an ergonomic design, a “high-quality digital stick” that’s been custom-designed by Sony, and toolless interchangeable restrictor gates, so players can choose between square, circle, or octagon, all of which can be stored in the controller’s handy compartment when not in use. It even comes with a sling carry case.

What we don’t yet know is the cost, or when it will go on sale: right now, Sony will only commit to a 2026 window.

Sony’s fight stick is well-timed, given it’s working on Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a new 4v4 Marvel fighting game from Arc System Works, the developer of the Guilty Gear series. That’s also out 2026, so perhaps we’ll see the game and stick come out around the same time.

Sony kicked off the summer reveal season with a bang, presenting a smorgasbord of new games to whet our appetites going into Summer Games Fest Week. Here’s everything announced at PlayStation State of Play 2025 last night, including 007 First Light, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Romeo is a Dead Man, and Silent Hill f’s release date.

If you’re new to fighting games or it’s been awhile since you indulged, here’s our picks of the 10 best fighting games of all time. Did your favorite reach the top spot?

Baby Steps walks gingerly toward an autumn release date

Everyone, stretch your hamstrings. Leg-having simulator Baby Steps got a release date during last night’s PlayStation State of Play. As shown in the trailer below, the game is not so much a “walking sim” as a “walking badly sim”. But hey, that’s what you get from the makers of Getting Over It and Ape Out. It was also revealed that the “hero” of the game is in dire need of the bathroom.

Fans of secret agent James Bond haven’t taken long to decide who they think is the (not so) mysterious actor playing the role in 007 First Light.

The game’s new trailer, revealed at Sony’s State of Play broadcast, shows off a notably younger-looking Bond, fresh out of the Royal Navy and keen to earn his 00 agent status. But who is playing the title role?

Minutes after the trailer aired, fans on reddit began guessing that Dexter: New Blood star Patrick Gibson was the behind the new Bond — and he certainly shares a strong similarity with the character in the trailer.

“I clocked it THE SECOND I saw the dirty smirk of his,” wrote one 007 aficionado. “Yeah I peeped that as soon as I seen it,” said another.

“Watching the trailer and knew the face looked familiar,” said a third. “After about a minute or so I screamed ‘DEXTER.’ I’m pretty sure it’s him.”

Aged 30, the Irish actor is just a few years older than the 26-year-old version of Bond he looks set to portray in the upcoming game — and, if IO Interactive gets its way, several sequels.

And if Gibson looks familiar to you too, well, the actor already has a swathe of TV and film roles under his belt, including appearances in Shadow and Bone, The Tudors, and The OA. But it’s his role as a younger version of Dexter Morgan in prequel series Dexter: Original Sin for which he’s most famous.

Curiously, 007 First Light developer IO Interactive is yet to confirm Gibson itself — though IGN has asked the studio if it can comment on the internet’s speculation. Gibson also, for now, appears to keeping schtum.

A press release issued alongside Gibson’s apparent debut in 007 First Light’s trailer describes the game as as globe-trotting story-driven action-adventure game where you can choose how to navigate various challenges — either with brute force or 007’s trademark charm.

The trailer showed Bond cracking a couple of deadpan jokes as he got himself out of (and into) trouble. Gibson’s acting chops as the antihero Dexter look set to be put to good use.

007 First Light is due to launch at some point in 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. In case you missed it, here’s everything announced at Sony’s State of Play June 2025 showcase.

Photo by Francois G. Durand/WireImage.