It might not have the audience of football, baseball, or soccer, but to its proud fans there’s something truly special about hockey. It’s the cold air of the arena, the weight of the puck against your stick, and the feel as your skate glides across the surface of the ice. To their credit, the developers at EA Vancouver seem to get all of that, and it’s led them to create an enjoyable NHL simulation that has earned a dedicated audience. That dedication, however, has increasingly been tested in recent years as the series has failed to truly move forward in any meaningful way. EA Sports NHL 26 continues this dynamic with a game that nails most of the elements that make hockey special, but it never feels like the kind of significant jump over what’s come before that might make buying yet another version exciting rather than obligatory.
If you’ve played a hockey game from EA at any point over the last few years, you have a good idea of what to expect from NHL 26. The lynchpin of the series is Franchise mode, which allows you to take the team of your choosing on a season-long quest to hoist the Stanley Cup. It’s basically the default mode, showcasing what the series is best known for and it still does that all pretty well. Individual games are fast, the controls are intuitive, and EA Vancouver has spent years refining a formula that mostly works. Granted, there are very few other hockey games available right now, and those that do exist don’t have the official NHL players or teams; that lack of competition might be what leads the developers to play things so safe and leave so much unchanged year to year. To be fair, it’s hard to fault them too much for not fixing what isn’t broken.
However, this situation has created an unfortunate trend for the series that’s made each year’s version feel like baby steps, and NHL 26 continues to focus more on smaller tweaks than on substantial changes. As a result, it’s easy to miss adjustments made beyond mirroring the big roster changes we’ve seen over the offseason, such as Mitch Marner being on the Golden Knights after leaving the Leafs, and Matt Dumba appearing on the Penguins following his Dallas departure. As of this writing, EA Vancouver seems to have done a pretty good job making sure everything is up to date, including representing the Utah Mammoth with their new name, uniforms, and arena (following a season under the temporary “Utah Hockey Club” label). Lastly, PWHL has been updated to add the women’s league’s two new teams from the 2025-2026 season, though that mode feels completely unchanged beyond that.
It’s easy to miss adjustments made beyond mirroring the big roster changes.
Though Franchise mode seems to be the most popular single-player mode in EA’s yearly NHL games, I really enjoy the customization options and the general approach to the sport found in the narrowed focus of Be a Pro. As someone that grew up playing hockey, there’s something that feels really authentic about focusing on controlling an individual player. There’s a greater need to consider line changes, playing in position, and setting up CPU-controlled characters.
So I was pleased to find that some of the bigger changes this year can be found here, but I’ve found that they aren’t all positive. Some of the biggest improvements come from cutting out what hasn’t worked: NHL 26 has finally dropped the often-mocked and frequently repeated “pricey pond hockey” opening scene that appeared across multiple games. You’ll no longer see the same repeated cinematic sequence with an agent talking about how you’re so passionate about hockey that you’re playing pond pick-up with a bunch of kids. Instead, you’re dropped right into the player maker. And mercifully, EA has also scaled back on the frequent coach meetings from past Be a Pro modes, but the catch is that the replacement might be even more monotonous: press conferences.
NHL 26 has finally dropped the often-mocked and frequently repeated “pricey pond hockey” opening.
The idea of taking part in press conferences is actually kind of neat, and the initial questions help to shape your on-ice personality. The hockey press will ask questions like your approach to free agency, and choosing one option will improve your likeability with teammates, while the other helps your brand. However, the execution gets dull fast once you’ve taken part in several in a row. That might be a little too real: I’ve attended real-life NHL press conferences, and the questions from sports journalists really can be as groan-inducing as they are here sometimes. How do I feel about not winning the division? How do you think?
On top of that, the impact from press conference responses on player stats often feels unfair. At one press conference, I was asked about modeling my career around a specific player, with multiple options to choose from. I apparently picked the wrong one, and it immediately led to a decrease in my brand stat. Even worse, NHL 26 doesn’t always make it clear what answers will have a negative impact on your brand or the feelings of management, so a seemingly innocuous response can have an unforeseeable consequence.
A smart change, though, has made NHL’s most intimidating mode more approachable for me. Putting together a team built out of NHL greats in Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) takes a lot of time and effort. It can also take some real currency, though you are awarded with daily freebies that can help shape a decent team without paying extra. I still don’t necessarily want to take my team up against the passionate players who dominate online with a combination of skill and large wallets, though; sometimes you want to play without the pressure of competing with real people. So it’s a welcome change that for NHL 26, EA has replaced last year’s HUT Squad Battles with a new offline Cup Chase mode that offers a chance to build up a team and try them out in a full single-player campaign with multiple difficulty levels. I was grateful to have the chance to jump into games using my custom team without having to worry about getting schooled by people fiercely protecting their online rankings. And anybody that wants to do so can take that team online just as they normally would in HUT.
I was grateful to have the chance to jump into games using my custom team without having to worry about getting schooled by people fiercely protecting their online rankings.
Online or off, though, NHL is feeling increasingly behind the annual sports game pack graphically. That’s despite the fact that last year, NHL 25 marked the first game in the series to abandon PS4 and Xbox One and shift focus to current platforms. But NHL 26 still doesn’t feel like it’s really pushing PS5 and Xbox Series X|S to the fullest. The ice itself pops on the screen nicely, and there are lots of impressive details, including wear to the surface as a game progresses, but just about everywhere else is a letdown. The character models are rough, with players, coaches, and fans often looking pretty ugly relative to what we’ve seen in other recent sports games. There are also some weird choices and oversights that are holdovers from past games, like team logos getting cut off on specific screens. Crowd reactions also feel stuck in the past, with awkward celebrations that would be right at home on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.
Thankfully, I found the audio much more enjoyable. The menus have some great new songs this year, including tracks from groups like Wet Leg and The Hives. I never would have thought of “Catch These Fists” as a hockey song, but it fits undeniably well. In the games themselves, EA Vancouver continues to replicate the authentic sounds of each rink, with team-specific cheers and organ sounds. The commentary is also pretty faithful to the current NHL viewing experience; it feels like watching a nationally televised game, offering the same chatty play-by-play that you’d expect to hear on TNT. That said, I was grateful for the option to toggle it off when it got repetitive.
Possibly the worst audio in NHL 26 belongs to Macklin Celebrini, though. The San Jose Sharks forward can be heard offering career advice in Be a Pro mode, and it’s clear not all hockey players are cut out for acting.
With just two games, the Nioh series has already cemented its place among the best of the soulslike genre, thanks to its uniquely fast-paced action, deeply customizable builds and playstyles, thrilling boss battles, and a certain fluidity to its combat that feels like Team Ninja’s own signature touch. Based on my five hours of hands-on time with a new preview build, the upcoming third installment is shaping up to continue that trend of excellence, staying true to the core of what has always made the series so successful, but shaking up just enough to challenge veteran players to rethink how they approach its many difficult combat encounters.
Much like Nioh 2, Nioh 3 is shaping up to be an iterative sequel that doesn’t change much about the core systems that were established in Nioh 1; instead adding brand new layers on top of that core to reinvigorate the combat system and force players to engage with it differently. Nioh 2 did this by adding in burst counters and yokai shifts, and Nioh 3 does this primarily by giving the player two styles that they can shift between on the fly: Samurai and Ninja style.
When I first played Nioh 3, back when it was offered up as a limited time demo, I was a little unsure of how I felt about this split. Samurai style, after all, is basically just the way you’d normally play Nioh, minus the ability to use Onmyo Magic; while Ninja Style just felt like a much faster and DPS oriented stance that comes with the substantial drawbacks of no longer being able to use Ki Pulses to regain your stamina, and no longer having the three sword stances to switch between, which are both two staples of Nioh’s gameplay. Not to mention that having two different styles means nearly twice as much inventory management, since they both have their own completely separate sets of gear, and if there’s one game series that already has more than enough inventory and loot management, it’s Nioh.
During my playtime, something clicked with me with regards to Samurai and Ninja style.
While loot remains an issue, during my playtime, something clicked with me with regards to Samurai and Ninja style. Not only did I gain an understanding of what each style was good for and when I should swap to one versus continuing with the other, but more importantly, I got a grasp of the sheer amount of options that having two hot swappable styles each with their own equipment loadouts and skill trees brings to the table.
While in Samurai style, you of course have access to the three stances – high, medium, and low – and all of the skills that come from each of those stances. You also are able to to use Ki Pulses to restore spent stamina without having to wait for it to recharge, making it great for sustained offense where you’re able to kind of just plant your feet down and stand and fight against a tough enemy. There’s also a new Arts Proficiency Gauge that fills up as you deal damage and successfully guard, but decreases whenever you get hit. Once it’s full, you’re able to use a powered-up version of your heavy attack, which adds a nice little reward for playing well with a careful balance of offense and defense.
Ninja style on the other hand lets you go absolutely wild. Your dashes go crazy far and are super fast compared to the dodges in Samurai style; instead of stances, you’re able to equip up to three ninja tools; you’re able to very quickly dash to an enemy’s backside to deal extra damage; and most of the weapons take advantage of the fact that Nioh 3 adds a jump button, allowing you to even punctuate your ground combos with a jump cancel, letting you tag on even more damage with air combos. On top of all of this, for both styles, you also have your guardian spirit transformations, guardian spirit skills, Soul Core skills, it’s just a lot of tools to take with you into every battle.
Of course, all of these added options in Ninja Style come at the aforementioned cost of not being able to use Ki Pulses to restore stamina, so I did find myself having to rein in my lust for aggression – it is still a stamina-driven soulslike after all – but I felt a level of creative freedom in combat expression that I typically feel in a good character action game, and I eagerly anticipate getting my hands on the full game and seeing what a high-level character can do once the skill trees start getting maxed out.
Soul Cores also return in Nioh 3, but they’re a bit different this time around. They still appear as random drops from enemies and will let you use that enemy’s signature attack, just to give you yet another option when it comes to how you choose to dispatch your foes. However you have two choices of how to equip them. When you rest at a shrine, you can put them in your Onmyo Box in either the Yin or the Yang position. The Yin position is what I just talked about, you’ll gain some stat increases and the ability of the monster to use in combat. But if you place a core in the Yang position, you’ll instead be able to get spells and items added to your inventory that will refresh every time you rest at a shrine. One of the Soul Cores had a fairly underwhelming skill, but when I equipped it in a Yang slot, it gave me invisibility scrolls that I could use to sneak past tough enemies. It’s a wonderful change to an already excellent system, and I can’t wait to mess around more with it in the full version.
The other big new tentpole feature for Nioh 3 is the addition of non-linear open field-type levels, complete with sidequests, a variety of points of interest with unique challenges and rewards, and wide open environments rife with opportunities for exploration. This is in contrast to Nioh’s typical linear levels with the occasional optional branches off the beaten path that ultimately loop back around. I got to experience one of these in my hands-on time – the frozen region of Kamigamo – and while Nioh 3 doesn’t seem to do anything surprising with its more open level design that hasn’t been done before, the shift was a refreshing change of pace. Right away, the first thing I did was a combat challenge called a Crucible Spike. This was a sealed-off combat arena with multiple waves of enemies that I had to defeat in order to proceed. Clearing the Crucible Spike improved my Spirit Force, which is a new resource that governs your usage of Spirit Skills, and also gained a new spirit skill for one of my guardian spirits.
Every time you complete one of these points of interest, your exploration level will increase, and each time it increases, you’ll get an extra bonus.
And that’s really what makes me excited about these open field levels, because these Crucible Spikes, along with other types of points of interests, are strewn all over the map, the challenges are fun, and the rewards are great – which is all the incentive I need to seek them out. Every time you complete one of these points of interest, your exploration level will increase, and each time it increases, you’ll get an extra bonus, from more icons being revealed on your map to give you some direction on where to explore, you may get an added stat bonus while you’re in that specific area, or you may get skill points to spend on your Samurai or Ninja skill trees.
All in all, Nioh 3 is shaping up to be exactly the same kind of iterative step above its predecessor that Nioh 2 ended up being. The style switching between Samurai and Ninja is an excellent addition that adds new layers of depth to an already stacked combat system, and the new open fields offer up even more incentive to explore than ever before, with fun challenges, mini bosses, and secret treasures to discover in every corner. It all ran incredibly smoothly as well, making me forget for a moment that this game is still a ways off, with a planned release in early 2026.
Square Enix has announced a Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade release date of January 22, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X | S.
An announcement for the long-awaited port arrived as part of today’s September 2025 Nintendo Direct. It came with a trailer, promising to bring the first chapter in Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Barret’s story to the new Switch console, as well as Xbox platforms like Xbox on PC and Xbox Cloud, just after the new year kicks off.
Square Enix’s port will bring Final Fantasy 7 Remake to more platforms nearly six years after its original launch on PlayStation 4 in 2020 and a little less than five years since its Intergrade upgrade launched for PlayStation 5. However, players on Switch 2 and Xbox take advantage of more than just the Yuffie-centered add-on story, Episode INTERmission, when Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade arrives in January.
A digital limited early purchase bonus will also be available until January 31, 2026, and grants access to the original Final Fantasy 7 at no extra charge. Those who pre-order on Xbox will be able to play the 1997 JRPG classic the instant their purchase is locked in, while Switch 2 players will have to wait until the January 22 release date.
Switch 2 players, specifically, can also take advantage of a unique offer that lets them in on the recent craze surrounding the Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy crossover. Those who pre-order a physical version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade for Switch 2 will net a Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy Play Booster.
Limit Break
Players revisiting Cloud and Sephiroth’s story or playing it for the first time will also notice Square Enix has included what it is calling a new “Streamlined Progression” setting. This will appear in-game in the form of five new options to make the experience easier for players if they choose to utilize them. Available options include HP that is always full, MP that is always full, a Limit gauge that is always full, an ATB gauge that is always full, and 9999 damage for every attack.
Director Naoki Hamaguchi shared a statement regarding the decision to offer streamlined gameplay options for new platforms, explaining that the team wanted to “allow the game to cater for individual players’ different lifestyles and play styles.”
“I feel that the way people enjoy content has become more flexible these days,” Hamaguci adds, “as we see with video streaming platforms, and that people also want the same thing from games, with options to tailor the experience based on the time they have and their levels of interest. I have also had personal experiences where I wanted to play something with the limited time I have but gave up because of the time it takes to level up characters or traverse the game.
“That’s exactly why I think that the Streamlined Progression feature is very effective – to give players smooth access to the story.”
Square Enix also confirms that the entire Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy will eventually make its way to Switch 2 and Xbox platforms, as well as PS5 and PC. While we wait for the rest of the story to unfold, you can read up on everything announced at the September 2025 Nintendo Direct here.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is set to release February 3, 2026 if you buy the more expensive editions, or February 5 for the standard Edition. It’s coming to PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A from-the-ground-up remake of the original PS1 game, the remake brings the epic RPG adventure to modern platforms with modern visuals and storytelling. It’s available in several editions, all of which are detailed below. Let’s dive in.
The standard edition just comes with the game itself, plus the preorder bonus (detailed below). It’s also worth noting that physical editions for Switch 2 are Game-Key Cards, and don’t contain the game on the cartridge.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined – Digital Deluxe Edition
The Square Enix Store-exclusive collector’s edition comes with the following physical and digital extras:
Physical Items
Steelbook Case
Ship in a Bottle Figure
Smile Slime Plush
Digital Items
Luminary’s Livery costume set
Road of Regal Wretches battle arena content
Jam-Packed Swag Bag – assortment of helpful items
White Wolf Costume
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Preorder Bonus
Preorder Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and you’ll receive a couple of in-game items to help you on your way. Here’s what you get:
Trodain Togs
Seed of Proficiency x3
What Is Dragon Quest VII Reimagined?
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a full remake of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, a JRPG that first launched in 2000 for the original PlayStation console. It’s previously been ported to Nintendo 3DS and mobile platforms, but this is, as the title suggests, a full reimagining of the game.
DQ7 is a famously long game, with an average of 75 hours to complete the main story in the 3DS edition, according to Howlongtobeat, with a completionist time of 130 hours. The PlayStation version has even longer completion times.
The game is a traditional single-player JRPG that has your unnamed character and a team of adventurers sailing around, traversing islands, and completing quests to help people out on each one.
As for the art, Square Enix wrote in its announcement, “The character designs, originally crafted by world-renowned manga artist Akira Toriyama, have been reimagined into a charming 3D art style using dolls actually created in the real world.” That’s wild. The graphics look great, though, almost toy-like in that Link’s Awakening remake sort of way.
Here’s some good news for anyone with a soft spot for the Wii and its library: Nintendo is releasing a bundle of Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Nintendo Switch on October 2. As with nearly every original Switch game, it will be fully playable on Switch 2 as well. The reason for the souped-up ports is because these games are the basis of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which hits theaters April 3, 2026. The game collection is available to preorder now (see it at Walmart) either in physical or digital form. Read on for details.
Preorder Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2
There are no special editions to be found here. The games are all you get. Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 is available in physical form, or in digital form on the Nintendo eShop. If you choose to go the digital route, you can buy them together for $69.99, or individually for $39.99 each.
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 Preorder Bonus
As yet, Nintendo has announced nothing in terms of preorder bonuses for the game. If it does at some point in the future, or if any retailer decides to offer a bonus of its own, I’ll add it here.
What Is Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2?
These are ports of Nintendo Wii games. Super Mario Galaxy hit the waggly platform in 2007. The sequel arrived on the same console in 2010. Both games were incredibly well received: IGN gave Super Mario Galaxy a 9.7/10 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 a 10/10.
Both games have gotten some upgrades and improvements in their transition to the new platform. They have improved resolution (up to 4K on Switch 2), a better UI, and a new in-game music player. You also have the option to play using standard controls, or using the Joy-Cons in a more Wii-like manner with motion controls.
In addition to the improvements, Rosalina’s in-game storybook is also getting new pages. We’ll have to wait until the game comes out to see exactly what they’ll include.
The crux of the original games is that Mario is sent into space, where he runs and jumps around on planetoid-like environments. Each one has its own gravitational pull, so you can run all around the spheres, making for some interesting platforming challenges. They really are superb games.
Silver Tempest remains one of the most collector-driven Sword and Shield era sets, and prices reflect the tug-of-war between nostalgia, competitive play, and scarcity. Alternate arts and Trainer Gallery cards dominate collector demand, while competitive staples like Lugia VSTAR continue to influence the market.
On the climbing side, Lugia V (Alternate Full Art) 186/195 has skyrocketed 68% since July, now sitting at $427, cementing itself as the premier chase card of the set. Trainer Gallery heavy-hitters such as Rayquaza VMAX TG20/TG30 and Blaziken VMAX TG15/TG30 have also surged thanks to their combination of nostalgia, strong artwork, and lingering competitive relevance.
These climbs position them as cards worth watching for investors who see Trainer Gallery subsets as undervalued compared to alternate arts.
TL;DR: This Weeks Crashers and Climbers
Not all cards are faring well, however. Regidrago V (Alternate Full Art) 184/195 slipped 12% since July, now down to $14.99, as its short-lived meta role fades. Alolan Vulpix VSTAR (Secret) 197/195 has also cooled, losing about 7% over the past month. Even Lugia V 138/195 in its standard form has seen a correction, dropping to the $11 range as attention shifts toward its higher-rarity variants.
Meanwhile, Silver Tempest sealed products are heating up. Silver Tempest Booster Box that were $350 in June now fetch nearly $465, and even three-pack blisters and Silver Tempest Build & Battle Box are doubling or tripling compared to last year. With sealed product prices steadily rising, investors are finding Silver Tempest a set worth holding onto long-term.
Pokémon Card Climbers
Lugia V (Alternate Full Art) 186/195 has surged 68% since July, climbing from $254.51 to $427. This alternate art is widely considered the premier chase card of Silver Tempest, both for its place in the competitive Lugia VSTAR archetype and for its stunning artwork showing Lugia emerging from stormy seas. For investors, this card represents one of the safest long-term holds from the Sword and Shield block, balancing competitive relevance with iconic artwork.
Rayquaza VMAX Trainer Gallery TG20/TG30 has more than doubled in value since July, now at $122.72 compared to $71.40. Its Azure Pulse ability, which lets you discard your hand and draw three cards, still provides flexibility in niche decks, and Max Burst remains a strong scaling attack with Energy discards. Much of its price movement comes from the Trainer Gallery art, where Rayquaza dominates the scene in bold colors. With strong nostalgia and limited supply, Rayquaza VMAX looks like a smart mid-range option for investors who prefer artwork-driven cards.
Lugia VSTAR 202/195 has risen 44% since July, moving from $23.22 to $33.55. Lugia VSTAR continues to be one of the most powerful cards in the format, with its Summoning Star ability enabling explosive bench setups by recovering Colorless Pokémon from the discard pile. Tempest Dive also provides reliable 220 damage with the bonus of Stadium removal. This Secret Rare version benefits from both its ongoing playability and the prestige of being a high-rarity Lugia card in a set defined by the legendary bird, making it attractive to both competitive players and investors looking for sustained growth.
Blaziken VMAX Trainer Gallery TG15/TG30 has jumped from $11.90 in December 2024 to $28.99 today. Its Max Blaze attack can accelerate Energy to Rapid Strike Pokémon on the bench, and while this synergy is only occasional in competitive play now, the Trainer Gallery artwork featuring May alongside Blaziken has given it collector-driven momentum. As a lower-entry price point compared to Lugia or Rayquaza, it could appeal to investors targeting the Trainer Gallery subset as a whole.
Blaziken V Trainer Gallery TG14/TG30 has seen an even more dramatic increase, climbing from $10.29 in December 2024 to $28.99. While its attacks are straightforward, the Trainer Gallery artwork again takes center stage. Featuring May with Blaziken in an anime-style presentation, this card has quickly gained momentum as collectors seek to pair it with the VMAX. Investors watching Silver Tempest may see this as a strong example of character-driven cards performing well long-term.
Pokémon Card Crashers
Regidrago V (Alternate Full Art) 184/195 has dropped 12% since July, now sitting at $14.99 compared to its previous $17.13. The card once carried strong hype as the core of Regidrago VSTAR decks, where Celestial Roar could accelerate Energy and Dragon Laser offered splash damage across the board. As the competitive meta moved toward Lugia VSTAR, Charizard ex, and other faster attackers, Regidrago lost ground and demand has followed. From a collector standpoint, the alternate art design remains appealing, featuring Regidrago amidst ancient ruins, but it does not command the same prestige as the Lugia alternate arts, and with high supply on the market the correction feels like a natural leveling of its long-term value.
Alolan Vulpix VSTAR (Secret) 197/195 has slipped around 7% since August, falling to $13.86 from $14.98. Its Silvery Snow Star attack once had situational strength against Pokémon V-heavy decks, dealing up to 350 damage under the right conditions. However, as the format has leaned further into Pokémon ex and efficient single-prize strategies, Vulpix’s impact has weakened. Snow Mirage offered some stall potential, but it has not been enough to hold its place in the current meta. Collectors may still be drawn to the rainbow Secret Rare finish, but with Silver Tempest containing multiple more desirable chase cards, Alolan Vulpix VSTAR has been overshadowed.
Lugia V (Full Art) 185/195 has dropped 15% since September, down to $10.50 from $12.34. While Lugia VSTAR remains one of the defining cards of the Sword and Shield era, the V card itself sees play mainly as a stepping stone. Players only need a few copies to evolve, and with the card printed in multiple versions, supply is abundant. Collectors often focus on the alternate art or higher-rarity versions of Lugia, leaving this Full Art with less staying power. Its decline reflects a broader trend where supporting cards lose value once the meta cements which versions are most desirable both in play and in collections.
Serperior V (Trainer Gallery) TG13/TG30 has slid from $13.35 in September to $12 today. The card’s Noble Light ability to heal all Pokémon adds an interesting niche, but it also benefits the opponent, making it less practical for most decks. Solar Beam at 120 damage for two Grass Energy looks underwhelming compared to the speed and power of current competitive attackers. What has kept Serperior relevant is the Trainer Gallery artwork featuring Rosa, which gives it crossover appeal among collectors. Still, as prices of Silver Tempest Trainer Gallery cards fluctuate, Serperior has not been able to keep pace with the likes of Rayquaza or Blaziken.
Lugia V 138/195 in its standard Ultra Rare print has seen a decline from $13.51 to $11.44 since September. Similar to the Full Art version, this card’s primary role is as the base for Lugia VSTAR, and demand has cooled as players already hold their playsets. With alternate arts and Secret Rares capturing the majority of collector interest, the standard Ultra Rare finds itself priced closer to utility than prestige. The card is still essential in Lugia-focused decks, with Read the Wind providing early draw power and Aero Dive clearing Stadiums, yet despite this playability, its sheer availability prevents it from holding long-term value above its rarer counterparts.
Silver Tempest Sealed Products
The Silver Tempest Booster Box has seen a sharp rise since June, climbing from $350.44 to $464.98 today. As the set continues to age and supply dwindles, sealed boxes remain one of the strongest investment plays for collectors and investors alike, especially with the chase Lugia alternate art driving sustained demand.
The Silver Tempest Pokemon Center Elite Trainer Box has also risen significantly, now $305 compared to $183.74 in June. These Pokémon Center exclusives are printed in smaller runs, and as more collectors chase complete Sword and Shield ETB lines, this version of Silver Tempest is proving especially desirable. For investors, the smaller supply pool makes this one of the most reliable sealed options to hold.
The Silver Tempest Elite Trainer Box has climbed from $77.95 in June to just under $100 today, a steady rise driven by accessibility and the general demand for sealed ETBs. While not as scarce as the Pokémon Center version, it benefits from overall market momentum and remains an approachable option for investors seeking affordable sealed products.
The Silver Tempest Booster Bundle has risen from $60.63 in June to $70.98, showing that even smaller sealed options are gaining traction as booster boxes become more expensive. Similarly, the Silver Tempest Build & Battle Box has nearly doubled since October 2024, now reaching $31 compared to $16.08. These are lower-cost sealed items that investors may look to stockpile, as they are easier to move in the long run compared to higher-priced boxes.
Three-pack blisters have shown some of the most dramatic jumps. The Silver Tempest 3 Pack Blister Manaphy has risen from $13.06 last November to $32.95, while the Silver Tempest 3 Pack Blister Togetic went from $7.54 in March to $35 today. These spikes reflect both character collector demand and the scarcity of sealed promos from the set. Investors who favor lower-entry sealed products may see these as smart pickups, given their strong growth in a short period.
Finally, Silver Tempest single boosters have crept up as well, with the Silver Tempest Sleeved Booster Pack now at $10.49 compared to $9.97 in June and the Silver Tempest Booster Pack at $8.09 compared to $6.35. While these increases are smaller in percentage terms, they show the across-the-board upward pressure on all sealed Silver Tempest product, confirming the set’s strength as a long-term hold for investors.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
The developers behind Battlefield 6 are encouraging players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S to keep crossplay on, even if they “can’t promise that there will be zero cheaters” on PC.
Ripple Effect technical director Christian Buhl and senior console combat designer Matthew Nickerson talked about the ever-present threat of cheaters in Battlefield during a recent interview with IGN. During our chat, we learned about how the team is supporting console players with everything from crossplay to performance and fidelity modes.
We also learned about how the studio has implemented anti-cheat measures for next month’s Battlefield sequel. The conversation saw Buhl acknowledge that, while it will be hard to guarantee a cheat-free environment for those playing with the Battlefield 6 PC pool, Ripple Effect and the rest of the BF Studios team have gone to great lengths to fight off cheaters.
“So, we’re doing a lot on the PC side to clamp down on cheating as much as possible,” Buhl said. “We have a whole team within Battlefield dedicated to anti-cheat, which includes engineers, analysts who are reviewing things and banning players, and figuring out what the latest cheats are. We have another whole dedicated team at EA to anti-cheat that we work closely with.”
Buhl also highlights the new Battlefield 6 anti-cheat system, Javelin, as well as the divisive secure boot, as other important components in their strategy. Still, as cheaters continue to run amok across the most popular multiplayer games on the market, Ripple Effect knows some will slip through the cracks, especially on PC.
“Now, we can never win against cheaters, right?” Buhl added. “Cheaters will always be there. It’s a never-ending cat-and-mouse game. I can’t promise that there will be zero cheaters if you’re playing against PC players. That’s just simply not possible, but I can say that we are being extremely aggressive. We see this as critical to the success of — to the health of — the game.”
Battlefield 6 has a release date of October 10, 2025, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S, but cheaters were able to infiltrate servers months early. EA held open beta periods throughout August, allowing players to get a pre-release taste of the Battlefield experience BF Studios has been cooking up for the last few years. It also saw players come face-to-face with cheaters despite the development team’s efforts, with EA reporting it prevented 330,000 cheat attempts by August 8, just one day after open beta early access began.
Nickerson said crossplay will be on by default when a player loads into Battlefield 6 for the first time, something players should know if they’re especially worried about encountering cheaters on PC. Console users who turn off crossplay will limit their pools to the PlayStation and Xbox communities, but Ripple Effect is hoping it won’t come to that.
“You don’t want to play a game and feel like a bunch of people on the other side are cheating,” Buhl added. “I hope console players feel confident enough in what we’re doing for cheating on the PC side that they don’t feel like they want to turn crossplay off just for that reason. If they do want to, that is an available option for them, but we think it’s super important for PC and console players to be confident that most of the people that they’re playing with or against are not cheating, and we’re putting a huge amount of effort into that.”
You can see Buhl and Nickerson explain some of the other ways BF Studios is prepping for the launch of Battlefield 6 in our full interview. You can also read up on what the rest of the Battlefield team learned from the beta and what kind of fixes players can expect to see at launch.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
The four-studio team that makes up the Battlefield-focused group (Ripple Effect, DICE, Criterion Games, and Motive Studio) has spent the duration of the project’s development working to ensure next month’s launch goes off without a hitch. It’s a years-long effort to dodge the notoriously troubled releases the franchise is known for without repeating past mistakes — or creating new ones.
We sat down with technical director Christian Buhl and senior console combat designer Matthew Nickerson earlier this week to learn more about how BF Studios worked to shock life back into the classic EA shooter series with Battlefield 6. Our conversation touched on how Ripple Effect helped lay the groundwork for what it feels is “the best Battlefield ever,” with a focus on consoles, fighting off cheaters, learning from Battlefield 2042, dealing with leaks, and more player feedback than ever before.
IGN: What can you tell me about the differences between Performance Mode and Fidelity Mode on PS5?
Christian Buhl: I think the short answer is, for performance mode, we wanted to make sure that we set high framerate targets for all of our platforms. We wanted to make sure we were at least 80 frames or above most of the time, and then we just dialed down different performance settings until we were confident that we could give you that experience.
Quality mode is basically just turning up all the quality features. Highest resolution textures, highest fidelity of visual features, and, yeah, that’s the primary difference there. We just kind of turned everything on but still made sure that we were hitting 60 frames per second. We didn’t want just, ‘Let’s turn on every visual feature and then you’ll get a great-looking single frame at a shitty framerate,’ right? We also tuned that so that we made sure we gave the best possible visual fidelity that still hit 60 frames per second.
Then, for performance, we said, ‘OK, let’s raise that even higher, lower quality to the point where we get even better frame rates.’ I don’t know if I could tell you exactly… we did tune it based on platform and based on what we would turn on and off to get there, so I don’t know that I necessarily remember all the exact settings that are enabled for each of those, but we wanted to give you one big dial where you could say, ‘I want the highest fidelity possible but still get super smooth framerates,’ or ‘I want the best performance possible.’
Matthew Nickerson: That’s a great summary. Yeah.
IGN: So, what are we looking at with the PS5 Pro? What is that comparison?
Christian Buhl: So, for PS5 Pro, the main thing is that we run everything at a higher resolution. I’ve got my own chart up, here. On Fidelity Mode, we run at [2160p] instead of 1440p, and on Performance Mode, we run at [1620p] instead of, I think, 1280p. Basically, you can run it at higher resolution and still hit the same quality, is the short answer. I believe PS5 Pro will also run at a higher framerate. It runs at higher resolution and at a higher frame rate when you put it into performance mode than the regular PS5 does.
IGN: I’m assuming the Xbox Series X is comparable to the PS5 performance and quality options, but looking at Xbox Series S, I know there are some fears that Battlefield 6 will have muddy visuals. How does the Series S compare? Is it a stable like 60FPS, and how does it look, in general, with the performance and quality modes in mind?
Christian Buhl: So, just to be clear, we only have one mode on Xbox Series S because it is a less powerful console. We don’t offer performance and quality as separate options, but it does run very solidly at 60 frames per second at 1080p. That was our goal with Xbox Series S: to make sure that it ran super solid at 60 frames per second at 1080p.
IGN: Were there any challenges or hurdles that you had to overcome when developing Battlefield 6 for the Series S, specifically? Were there any compromises made to ensure the game worked on this platform as well as others?
Christian Buhl: There were. It’s a less powerful system, obviously, than the Xbox Series X or the PS5. The biggest challenge for us, honestly, was memory. It has… what is it? Eight GB of memory? I think it’s eight or 10 GB of memory – much less than the other consoles, also less than our mid-spec PC. So, that was our biggest challenge: making sure that all of our levels could fit into the memory on the Series S.
We did have to tune some levels and make changes to make sure that happens, and obviously, also, we turned down some fidelity settings in Series S, both to hit our performance targets and to lower the amount of memory. Yeah, it was a challenge, but we also develop for multiple platform targets on PC. So, it’s not like it’s something we didn’t know how to do. It’s just… we have different targets, and we need to make sure that we work properly on all of them.
IGN: Crossplay has become a pretty standard feature across the industry, and Battlefield 6’s version of that is what I’ve seen described as ‘preferred crossplay.’ Can you just walk me through that feature on consoles? Is crossplay customizable at all, or is it pretty much just a toggle on/off?
Matthew Nickerson: Crossplay, generally, what we have on consoles is a simple toggle that’s actually in-game. Not every product that launches has that available to the player. Some players have to dig through option menus to actually turn off crossplay, like on the Xbox or something. We have it in-game, and it’s just a simple toggle on/off.
When it comes to preference input, we have just what it sounds like: If you’re a console player, we are looking for other console players in a set time frame, and then if we need to fill up the lobby more, we will look towards PC players. We’re very confident but also very keen to what crossplay means for Battlefield 6. We’ve gone the extra mile and put in a lot of effort in terms of balancing the inputs, understanding where the inputs lie [not just] in terms of relationship to general play styles but general performance of what they’re good at and maybe what they lack.
We’ve completely redone aim assist from our Battlefield 2042 version. We’ve added aim assist for what we call our ‘combat triangle’ now – and that’s infantry versus inventory, infantry versus vehicles, and vehicles versus vehicles – to give that cohesive experience if you are on controller, compared to, maybe, something that’s a little bit easier on keyboard and mouse. So [we’re] very dedicated to crossplay, and we’re trying to nail it across multiple vectors when it comes to crossplay. It’s just such an important aspect for us and for Battlefield 6.
IGN: Is crossplay default on or default off when the player loads in?
Matthew Nickerson: Default. Yes, it is indeed on.
IGN: You explained it as an on/off situation. I have seen calls for console-only crossplay. Is that something you guys see and consider? Is there any potential for console-only crossplay?
Matthew Nickerson: Console-only crossplay happens if you turn it off. When you flip that switch, then you get, basically, console-only crossplay, and that is, we don’t fill with PC players.
IGN: So, PlayStation players can play with Xbox players if crossplay is off, still?
Matthew Nickerson: Yeah.
IGN: Battlefield, Call of Duty, and a lot of the military simulator shooters out there have notoriously been affected by cheaters. Obviously, it’s a big talking point right now. What can you say to console players to reassure them that they won’t have to deal with cheaters on PC if they have crossplay turned on?
Christian Buhl: I guess what I can say is we are taking cheating extremely seriously. Obviously, cheating is much more prevalent on PC than on console, but we are taking a lot of effort, putting a lot of work into prioritizing fighting against cheaters. We’ve turned on secure boot. We’ve got Javelin, our new anti-cheat system, which is required in order to play.
So, we’re doing a lot on the PC side to clamp down on cheating as much as possible. We have a whole team within Battlefield dedicated to anti-cheat, which includes engineers, analysts who are reviewing things and banning players, and figuring out what the latest cheats are. We have another whole dedicated team at EA to anti-cheat that we work closely with. That’s what I can say. Now, we can never win against cheaters, right? Cheaters will always be there. It’s a never-ending cat-and-mouse game. I can’t promise that there will be zero cheaters if you’re playing against PC players. That’s just simply not possible, but I can say that we are being extremely aggressive. We see this as critical to the success of – to the health of – the game.
You don’t want to play a game and feel like a bunch of people on the other side are cheating. I hope console players feel confident enough in what we’re doing for cheating on the PC side that they don’t feel like they want to turn crossplay off just for that reason. If they do want to, that is an available option for them, but we think it’s super important for PC and console players to be confident that most of the people that they’re playing with or against are not cheating, and we’re putting a huge amount of effort into that.
IGN: The beta tests went over really well as far as I can see. I think it was a really reassuring moment for a lot of fans. What were some of the takeaways for the team from these tests, and how will they result in a better Battlefield experience at launch?
From a feedback standpoint for open beta, like you said, I think the general sentiment was very positive. It was very nice, number one, to have players – live players – outside of our Battlefield Labs and outside of our external and internal play test to play the game and to give feedback and to give different points of view on aspects that, maybe, we grew accustomed to as developers of this Battlefield 6.
What we handled was, and what I’ve been actively busy in, is a lot of input discussions. Where are we going to go with aim assist from a live standard product? Where are we going with weapon balancing? Where are we going with anything in terms of crossplay? Again, input discrepancies we… we ultimately want whatever platform, whatever input that you choose, to have the best Battlefield experience possible, and that rings true with our team, and that rings true with the product as a whole.
So, [there were] a lot of discussions about active tuning, a lot of discussions around changing up loadouts. You saw the discussion about bringing Recon’s respawn beacon and moving that to Assault, and that’s a byproduct of open beta. That’s an understanding of what players wanted, and that’s based on the active feedback that we got data-wise from the open beta. A lot of those discussions are still active and will continue to happen post-launch and as we move towards a live product.
Christian Buhl: I’ll say, Matthew touched on this a bit, but open beta was not the first time we started collecting data from players, right? We’ve been running BF Labs since the beginning of the year. Obviously, it was a much smaller player set, but it was just real players, right? We sent out massive amounts of information, of invites, and got a ton of real players to join. And so we’ve just been, ever since the first BF Labs event, ‘Put it out there. See what players like. See what they don’t like. See what they react to.’ That’s kind of been how we’ve been treating BF Labs, and then open beta was just the same thing at several orders of magnitude larger.
In a similar vein, we’ve, all along in BF Labs and open beta, been collecting performance data, stability and crash data, and we identify performance fixes or crashes that we need to fix. So, we’re using it to improve our launch, and our plan is for… obviously, all the qualitative feedback we got from open beta, we’re going to react to a bunch of that. Obviously, [we’re] not going to do everything every player asks for, but we’re hearing what people are asking for and trying to make the best decisions. But then we’re also improving our performance and stability, so there should be… you know. I’m thrilled that the open beta performed as well as it did from a framerate perspective. It should be even better for launch.
IGN: I think there were a few specific talking points that came out of the beta that I do want to touch on. There was a lot of talk about maps being too small. Obviously, there are more maps in the launch build of the game, but I am wondering if some of those maps that we saw, the team looked at that feedback and said, ‘Well, we’re going to rearrange some of these maps. We’re going to make these maps feel less cluttered, or maybe there’s more cover.’ Is that the kind of thing you guys looked at?
Christian Buhl: I don’t know if you know the specific answer to that question, Matthew, but I do know that, first of all, there was feedback. The maps were too small, and yeah, in hindsight, maybe we should have put one of the bigger maps into the beta so that we didn’t get that feedback. But we’ve always been planning on doing bigger maps, right? We recently tested some of the bigger maps in BF Labs, and there were a bunch of reasons we picked the maps we did for open beta, including, partly, the maps that were furthest along and most ready to show in open beta.
So, I don’t think we need to react to the maps-aren’t-big-enough feedback by making changes to the small maps. They’re just small maps. They’re different experiences, right? We do have those big maps, those big experiences. We did run them on BF Labs over the last, I believe, two weekends. So, we’ve gotten feedback on those and want to make sure that those are good for the large map experience. I do know that, on all the maps, we did collect feedback on… I mean, I can’t answer specific questions about specifically what we changed, but we did collect a bunch of feedback and make changes. I don’t know, Matthew, if you have any more specific examples.
Matthew Nickerson: We looked at maps via game mode. If an M-COM on a certain map was maybe a little bit too close or in an incorrect position that we deemed. There have been changes in that regard to more smooth out the overall gameplay experience when it came to maps supporting multiple modes. We want to really make sure that each map shines, and there are going to be choke points, there are going to be rough spots, there are going to be really sick holds that are going to happen, maybe, on the last push of Rush or something. But there have been active discussions and active changes when it comes to massaging things a little bit, M-COMs or moving points around when it came to certain feedback points that were very apparent. You know, ‘Hey, this little adjustment had to happen.’
IGN: One of the updates you guys had recently was that the server browser and things like that were going to be looked at in Portal. How has that gone? Is the server browser in Portal going to be ready at launch?
Matthew Nickerson: Just generally, the tests have gone well. We put out that Portal will have a server browser, and then there will be verified experiences also within the server browser.
Christian Buhl: I think to answer your question, generally, people are saying they want server browser. We know they want it. We want to give it to them. One of the challenges is, when people say, ‘I want server browser,’ it means different things to different people, right? So, we’re trying to figure out, ‘OK, what are the best ways we can give people, most people, what they want, and it is healthy for the game?’
I’m not a designer myself, so I can’t tell you exactly where we’re leading and heading with this, but we will have a server browser experience. We think it’s going to be something that most players are going to be happy with. So, if you want, you could just click a button and jump into a game. If you want, you can go look for a specific game in a specific server. We’re going to give people a lot of options.
Matthew Nickerson: There’s also customized search, as we saw between the two open betas. That coming online – that really helped improve match times massively and just overall quality of matches. There are going to be multiple options to see how players want to experience their Battlefield.
IGN: Can you talk about any of the highlights coming up for Labs testing? Can you talk about or tease any notable features or mechanics you guys are looking into?
Christian Buhl: I think we actually only have one Labs test scheduled, and I can’t say what that’s going to be. You’ll probably figure it out in a couple of days, but I guess all I could do is tease that I can’t say what it is that we’re testing.
IGN: The game has been in development for years. What are some of the challenges the team has had to overcome in the long road to Battlefield 6? This one, more than others in recent history, really feels like an important game in this series.
Christian Buhl: As you pointed out, we knew, have known, for a long time that we really had to nail this Battlefield. We learned a lot of lessons from 2042. The launch didn’t go well. The game wasn’t performance-stable. There were things we weren’t listening to players on that they wanted. I think the challenge has been to, well, first, to build a stable and performing game, to figure out a plan and a path for how we get information from players. That’s where BF Labs came from, right? We got to make sure that we’re putting the game in front of players, getting feedback from them. We put a ton of effort into stability and performance testing. We built huge farms of PCs and consoles so that we could test the game over and over. But I think overall, the biggest challenge has been just the scale and scope of the game work that we’re building.
In the past, Battlefield was built primarily by DICE, with assistance from Ripple Effect and Criterion and some other studios along the way, but this time, we’re building it as four studios all working together. We’re building it all across the world. It’s had some rough edges. It’s had some challenges, where we’ve messed up on things, but we’ve also been able to combine the expertise of, obviously, DICE with all their deep expertise in Battlefield. Studios, like Criterion and Motive, with their deep history of single-player games and the racing games and the wide-open worlds that they have there. Ripple Effect, with our Portal background.
We’ve been able to combine all these studios with different ideas and different expertise together. It’s been a huge challenge, but it’s also been just awesome to see that we’ve been able to bring four studios together to make a game that is way, way bigger and way better than any of us could have built on our own.
Matthew Nickerson: From the design side, a lot of it’s been testing your theories and improving them, and it’s been a lot of player-driven feedback. It was also a post-mortem look at 2042. What did we hit from crossplay, from aim assist, from weapon balance, from gunplay, and where do we move on from that? We obviously, again, learned a lot from 2042, as Christian said. What can we elevate? What did we do right, and what did we do wrong, and take a step back. But also, really player-driven feedback focus, to prove our theories that this is the direction that we want to go for Battlefield 6. Again, just really heavy play testing, at least from the design side.
Obviously, we play test multiple times a day. We have a very heavy emphasis on controller play testing now because that is a huge part of this crossplay puzzle and this piece that we really want to deliver on. So, no matter how familiar or unfamiliar you are with controller, because you’re a keyboard player or anything, at the end of the day, we really need that controller feedback, and that was integrating controller into everything that we do from the design side was definitely a huge change compared to 2042.
Christian Buhl: I mean, these controllers [motions to nearby controllers on a shelf] are here because I use them for play tests on my PC. I do mostly play testing on PC, but I use controller so that we make sure that we were experiencing input.
IGN: A lot of that info is reassuring for someone like me who was there for Battlefield 4 at launch. I do wonder if maybe you can get a bit more specific for those people who have seen Battlefield’s history and have seen troubled launches here and there. What can you say to reassure console players, specifically, who are worried about jumping in day one?
Christian Buhl: I could say we’ve been thinking about console and the console experience from the start of Battlefield 6. It has been a top-of-the-line thing. We have to build this game as if it was made primarily for console players. Obviously, we’re still also thinking about PC players, but in the past, frankly, Battlefield was built as a PC game and then ported to console, and it probably felt like that. That is not how this game was built. We built this from the beginning with the idea in mind that this is going to be on both console and PC. It has to feel and play like it is a console game that was built to be a console game.
Matthew Nickerson: We have a saying here in the office, in Ripple Effect when I joined the team, that I created, called ‘Secretly Console First.’ It’s a little moniker that kind of pokes fun. We don’t want to, obviously, tear down or destroy any of the legacy that Battlefield has, which is, first, a PC game, but we really have to care about console at the end of the day. We’ve been putting in the reps, putting in the work, just like Christian said. Console has been at the forefront of Battlefield 6 development since day one, and really, we’re honed and we are well-crafted in providing this product at the highest quality possible.
Christian Buhl: Actually, I think it was about two years ago, we checked to see how many people were playing with controllers on a daily basis for their play tests, and then we sent people controllers. We said, ‘Here, use the controller.’ We wanted people to use controllers as the default for their for their play tests. So, obviously, you might still be playing on PC, but you’re playing with a controller. That was a big part of our play testing push, is to get people using controllers.
IGN: I think Battlefield 6 has had a particularly interesting rollout for a Battlefield game. Specifically, I feel like there have been a lot of leaks, small and big. I’m wondering, how does the team, how does EA, feel about leaks like that? Did the team go to any lengths to try and tighten the lid?
Christian Buhl: I could talk about that a lot, actually. I could talk about that. I’ll start by saying we did not want leaks, but we also knew that the most important thing was to get player feedback through BF Labs, right? We had, actually, discussions, I think about a year or two ago… I guess it was maybe about two years ago, about how much we were going to do to prevent leaks versus how much we were going to do to get the game in front of players. We made a very deliberate decision that we were going to bias very heavily towards putting things in front of players and getting their feedback, even though we knew things would leak.
I remember, at one point, making a big presentation that said, ‘What will leak? Everything.’ Like, we just started with that assumption that things would leak. Now, to be clear, we didn’t want things to leak. We weren’t seeking leaks, but we knew that the most important thing was to get the game in front of players, get real feedback from players, get real telemetry, real data, and that had to come at any cost, including the fact that things would leak. So, that’s been our approach up until now, is like, ‘We don’t want leaks. We are doing some work to make it a little bit harder for people to leak things,’ but our priority has been: Get the game in front of players even though we know it will end up leaking.
IGN: The Call of Duty team appears to be backing away from including goofy skins for this year’s Black Ops 7. It’s, I feel like, all anyone can talk about, even in the Battlefield community because you guys have, conversely, doubled down on gritty realism. How does it feel for the team to see other shooters backtracking from the goofy aesthetic, while Battlefield sticks to its guns? Does it feel like this commitment to a more grounded shooter experience is paying off so far?
Christian Buhl: I think we’re really happy with where we are. We want to be a gritty, realistic shooter. Other games can and should be whatever they want to be, right? [laughs] Like we’re not, I don’t know… Fortnite is pretty goofy, and that game is pretty good. So, I think where we end up is we’re pretty happy with where we are. We are a gritty, grounded, realistic shooter. That’s what we intend to be, and that’s what the game is going to look like for a while.
Matthew Nickerson: From the design side, we are aware of what other products are doing, but we’re really focused on what works for Battlefield at the end of the day. We’re not chasing trends. We’re not chasing other products. I think a perfect example of the skins that we’re still committed to releasing is the Road to Battlefield 6 event that’s going on in 2042. Those are 30 premium skins that will give a player a taste of what is more to come when we talk about cosmetics in the Battlefield 6 product line. Generally, I think, from a design perspective, we’re doing us. We’re staying in our lane, doing us at the end of the day.
IGN: Auto-spotting is another topic I see brought up in the community. Is that being tweaked at all? Is it going to be like it was in the beta? How are you guys looking to address that feedback, if at all?
Matthew Nickerson: I can answer thatbecause we just talked about it and just submitted fixes and changes for it – literally just last week. So, yeah, we definitely reduced the range and overall reduced the power. We found out a lot in open beta that it was obviously very strong, just like players said. Really, players ended up just shooting Doritos. Light environments, dark environments – they were just like, ‘Hey, aim at the Dorito. You’re going to hit something at the end of the day.’
We definitely don’t want that for Battlefield, so we’ve definitely reduced the duration, reduced the range – everything across the board to really hit that system and align it more appropriately with what we want. Again, we want the information. It’s important to ping players, but it’s got to be an active part of Battlefield. It can’t just be a fire-and-forget sweep across the whole thing [and] everyone’s lit up. That was very apparent in open beta, so we’ve made some considerable changes to the system. In terms of strength overall, we’ve definitely toned it down.
IGN: I think my favorite and a lot of my friends’ favorite joke to come out of the beta was the meme where a player spawns, they look up in the mountains, and they see an ocean of sniper glints. I’m curious what you guys think when you see a meme like that. Do you think, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny,’ or is it more in-depth, like, ‘We don’t want players to have that feeling.’
Christian Buhl: [laughs] I feel like it’s both. I saw those. I thought it was hilarious. Obviously, we needed to fix some things and tune some things, so it was funny to see players react in a humorous way to those things but also great to get that feedback and say, ‘We need to tune down snipers or we need to change the glints so it’s not like…’ you know? I saw those memes with the hillside just full of these giant glares, so I think it’s both.
Matthew Nickerson: Definitely from the design team, we loved sending those around, internally. They’re really, really funny, and they kind of magnify, ‘Hey, we still have work to do, but also…’ For example, with the sniper glint stuff, we knew it was too strong, so we stepped it back. We knew the bullet tracer effect was too strong, so we stepped it back.
My favorite one is just the guy that has a shotgun that turns into a multi-utility thing. He blows the guy in half, turns around, blows up the building with a shotgun, and holds it in awe of the power of the shotgun in Battlefield 6. At the end of the day, it keeps us honest. It keeps us, like, ‘Hey, we still have work to do. There are things that players are, maybe, not vibing with or are vibing with in different capacities.’ We’ve taken a look at the shotgun, also, to kind of address that. From a design standpoint and from the team, we love this stuff. The community is engaged; we are engaged.
IGN: I have to imagine it’s quite the balancing act, deciding when to take these funny things out or just tweak them. I have friends, who I played the beta with, who had never played Battlefield, and they couldn’t get into it until they discovered they could kill people with the defibrillators. Those fun moments like that, I’m sure, weave their way into the game all the time.
Matthew Nickerson: [laughs] Definitely.
Christian Buhl: One of the coolest parts about Battlefield is how open it is and how you can play it so many different ways. The destruction, obviously, opens up a lot of that. I remember, in one of our internal playtests, somebody posted a video where they looked in a room, a bunch of people are there, they ran into the next room, blew a hole in the wall, and then shot them from the back. You also could have just gone guns blazing into that room, right? It’s just so awesome in Battlefield how you can go do the same thing a bunch of different ways and play in a bunch of different ways. I love it.
Matthew Nickerson: There have been some really great clips from the beta, especially when it came to funny physics and interactions. A tank blowing up and then the whole top spinning. We’ve had discussions about, ‘Should we fix that? Maybe it looks a little bit unpolished,’ and we’ve decided on a lot of those to keep them just because they’re funny. It is classic Battlefield moments that you can’t get in any other product. We’re going to keep it. We’re going to preserve it.
IGN: Another talking point I’ve seen a lot about is open and locked classes. What do you guys think about that discussion, when you see so many people who want classes to have locked weapons and things like that?
Matthew Nickerson: It’s philosophy at the end of the day. We don’t really want to make a decision or really pigeonhole how you want to experience Battlefield. I know we’re supporting both open and closed weapon sets in Portal and in different game modes. We ran a giant telemetry, data collection test in open beta, and we posted those results.
I think it’s ongoing, and I think it’ll continually evolve, but again, from a design side, we don’t want to make a decision for the player base at the end of the day. We want to support both moving forward, and again, a key mantra for Battlefield 6 is, ‘Play Battlefield how you want to,’ so we’re making sure we support both open and closed systems. We just don’t want to make the decision for the player.
IGN: Is there anything else you want to say, before launch happens, about Battlefield 6, how we got here, what this game means, or what players can expect on consoles at launch?
Christian Buhl: I guess I’ll say we said internally, from the beginning, that our goal was to make the best Battlefield ever, and I think we did it. This Battlefield is amazing. It’s huge, the single-player is awesome, the multiplayer is amazing.
You’ve got a huge variety of maps and modes and weapons, and we built it from the beginning, as Matthew said, to be secretly console first. We made sure that this felt like a game that was built for console and not a PC game that was ported to console.
Matthew Nickerson: For me, and I think for the team in general, we’re just really excited for launch. We’re really excited about our unique version or vision for crossplay, when it comes to different backend systems or aim assist or anything. We do some things a little bit differently that, I think, works really well for Battlefield.
We’re really excited to collect more data on that and move that needle in terms of where we need to go next. I’m also excited about the post-launch content. We have such a robust post-launch lineup that is just… There are some really, really cool gems in there, and I’m really excited to see how that continually shakes up the game as more and more information comes from us about that. I’m excited about that. I’m excited about launch and excited about the future of Battlefield, for sure.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
This year’s highly-anticipated Pokémon Legends: Z-A isn’t out for another month, but already there’s word of DLC.
A teaser trailer revealed during today’s major Nintendo Direct revealed two new Mega Evolutions for Raichu. These will star in Pokémon Legends: Z-A: Mega Dimension, which will offer additional story content for the game and, presumably, the ability to Mega Evolve a Raichu for yourself.
Mega Raichu X and Mega Raichu Y both have their corresponding letters as part of their design, as part of their lightning bolt-shaped tail and as a set of antlers, respectively. Exactly what else will be a part of the new content is unknown, though dimension-travelling Hoopa also makes an appearance in the teaser.
Pre-orders for the add-on begin today on the Nintendo eShop, and will unlock apparel items in Pokémon Legends: Z-A when it launches on October 16, 2025. The expansion’s story content will then unlock at a later date.
Nintendo kicked off today’s September 2025 Nintendo Direct with confirmation that Illumination is back working on a new Super Mario Bros. Movie titled The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
It’s confirmation that arrives after rumours swept the internet yesterday, revealing that Nintendo will indeed be partnering up with the Minions movie studio yet again to create a movie adaptation of the classic 2007 Wii platformer. It’s slated to arrive in the U.S. April 3, 2026, and in Japan April 24, 2026, with its first trailer revealing a small amount of footage before showing off its official title and logo.
Today’s announcement also revealed some of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s cast. You can read up on everything announced during the September 2025 Nintendo Direct here.
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Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
