Category: IGN

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Dispatched by the crown as part of a secret expedition to a remote island part of the realm, you’re ready for a life of adventure. But in third-person RPG Of Ash and Steel you’re not one of the highly-trained, well-armored holy knights trying to enforce the will of the king… you’re the clever orphan-turned-cartographer along for the ride because the maps of the island, Grayshaft, are pretty bad. Perhaps they’re bad because the island suffers periodic volcanic eruptions so devastating that it’s blanketed in deadly ash that cakes inside your lungs and kills you, eruptions so awful that ships avoid the island for the entire year when one seems imminent.

Which is obviously why brave cartographer Tristan has agreed to go there. And so like many fantasy protagonists, Tristan will soon be in way over his head—all because he wanted a bit of adventure—when the holy knights are all dead and he’s the only one left to deliver the urgent missive. At least, that’s what a hands-on preview with a beta build tutorial and first few hours of Ash and Steel told me.

Of Ash and Steel looks like a pretty traditional RPG, reminiscent of classics from the 2000s. It’s unapologetic about not giving you quest markers or anything but in-world directions, but at the same time it does highlight loot on the ground or chests you can interact with when you’re near them. It’s somewhere between Gothic and the first Witcher game, in its own way, with a nod toward the survival-centric games of the last decade or so. While it doesn’t go all-in on survival and encumbrance, Ash and Steel still has something of the 2019 RPG Outward in it.

More than anything, Of Ash and Steel feels like a game in the legacy of dearly departed mid-tier RPG studio Piranha Bytes, creators of the Gothic, Risen, and Elex series. That includes the signature campy acting mixed in with some decent drama, as well as plenty of oddball and unexpected humor. (One early quest has you finding the soiled trousers of a man who, when drunk, just craps himself and leaves the pants right there to clean up later.)

Perhaps its most old-school feature is how it has no level scaling in its world—creatures are a fixed level in a fixed location, forever. You’re warned early on that going off the path can be dangerous, and each new enemy encounter is often a question of getting close enough to see if it massively out-levels you before you decide to try and take it on or not—and hope for good loot when you do. Coupled with that lethal-but-rewarding exploration is the rudiments of a survival system, where staying fed and watered is a must to survive, and setting up shop at pre-determined campsites lets Tristan rest and cook to regain hit points and pick up buffs. It also passes time, which is useful in a world where the NPCs and monsters follow a schedule of their own as to when and where they appear, or even when they’re taking a nap and won’t talk to you about your very urgent quest.

Tristan has three skill trees, and perhaps the most pressing one is Combat. Investing in combat skills lets you pick up to three different stances to fight from, each of which looks to have different effects based on what kind of weapons you’re wielding—there were axes, swords, clubs, daggers, and a crossbow. Sadly, poor starter Tristan wasn’t strong or competent enough to wield most of them.

Which is a big part of what I think the story developer Fire Frost is telling with Of Ash and Steel. This isn’t a fantasy hero game where your character starts as competent at any useful skills relevant to his current situation. It’s going to be a zero-to-hero story, with other characters in the world reacting to Tristan as he grows stronger. “If at the beginning of the game you were treated like a ragamuffin,” said Fire Frost, “by the end of the game the characters will literally bow to your feet.”

There was a hint of that in action during the preview play, as characters who previously saw Tristan dressed only in threadbare clothing later had complimentary things to say about a suit of basic armor I’d purchased. Where before they’d just asked: “Are you really wearing that?” they later said, “Ah, I had a sturdy suit like that when I was younger.”

And a sturdy suit of armor is much needed, because the fighting can get pretty brutal. Armor will help you survive a few hits, but the stamina-based combat was really based around perfectly timed dodges and parries. Tristan’s attacks, at least at the start of the game, are slow and clumsy—he’s literally never fought before. As he got combat skills, though, he moved more confidently and picked up the ability to parry in a way that opened up enemies for counterattacks. That blended well with a fast knife, which let him get in those hits before quickly going back on his guard. Still, there’s some tweaking to do on the early stages of the fighting—some people will definitely bounce right off of how clumsy Tristan was, or just won’t be familiar with the time-honored strategy of “train the difficult enemy into a nearby powerful NPC.”

Speaking of trying to survive, that’s the focus of Tristan’s other two skill trees: Survival and Crafting. They’re much more down-to-earth, practical skillsets simply due to their nature. Survival lets you keep yourself fed and alive, while Crafting lets you upgrade and upkeep your equipment. Crafting also does one very important job: Makes you money. Quests and other odd jobs are a great source of experience and cash, sure, but paying people to train Tristan in all these new skills ain’t cheap.

What was cool is that investments of money and skill points into the Craft and Survival trees actually did pay off in combat. A good craftsman can better sharpen their weapon for bonus damage, or reinforce their armor for extra defense. Survivalists, meanwhile, could pick up nasty tricks like thrown daggers and the use of poisons on their weapons—though poor preview Tristan was a bit too intellectually dull and low-level to get to try those skills out.

Even with all the advantages of level and time, however, Of Ash and Steel is definitely going to be a game where you get your butt kicked. A lot. Quicksave, I expect, is Tristan’s greatest friend in the world. Enemies hit hard, and enemies that are higher level than you hit extremely hard—or even so fast that poor low-level Tristan simply stood no chance of reacting in time, let alone getting a single attack in. As a result, he got splatted by a lot of things. He got mauled by a giant rat-thing. Trampled by a big bug. Eaten by a lizard-thing. Dismembered by all manner of bandits, both living and apparently undead.

And the only dang reason Tristan didn’t get splatted by this giant troll is because when everything can splat you, well, you get pretty good pretty fast at running and climbing your way out of danger.

While some people might find that kind of thing frustrating, Of Ash and Steel was pretty nice on that count. The action-RPG combat was somehow clunkier than a FromSoftware game but settled into its own rhythm after a while, and hopefully gets more and more fluid with more skills and abilities in the full game.

Don’t expect miracles from Of Ash and Steel, but the preview was evidence of a promising mid-tier RPG that’ll likely enthuse ye olde genre purists while still being accessible and interesting enough to draw in lovers of more modern character-driven action.

There’s an old idea that second efforts generally aren’t as good as the first. It’s called the sophomore slump, and there are a dozen reasons for it. Sophomore students don’t care as much as freshmen; bands have less time to write, practice, and record a second album than the “breakout” hit they worked on for years before anyone knew who they were; athletes who have exceptional rookie years regress to the mean; and so on. There’s no denying the power of new car smell. I think part of the reason College Football 25 popped off as hard as it did (and trust me if you’re unsure: it popped off) was it’d been more than a decade since NCAA 14 and people really, really wanted a new game based on college football. It didn’t hurt that it was also a good game, but the yearly “it’s the same game as last year” fatigue of the sports genre hadn’t set in yet. That makes College Football 26 the real test.

I’ll be honest, reader: I haven’t had a ton of time with this sequel yet (I’ve been busy finishing up my review of Mecha Break, which I thought was pretty great), so these impressions are going to be pretty light. One of the things I’m interested in as I play more is how this car handles after we’ve put some miles on her, and if it falls into the same slump so many games, bands, and students have hit before it. But while that remains to be seen, I’m having a pretty good time so far.

Part of that is College Football 26 is built on a really firm foundation. College Football 25 was a good game, and it still has that infectious spirit and sense of tradition that made it a nice change of pace from the more straight-laced Madden. From what I’ve seen, College Football 26 builds on that in good ways. One of the things I’m appreciating most is the Trophy Room, which tracks the real world trophies you’ll accumulate across your entire career, no matter what mode you’re in. It’s cool to see stuff like the Heisman Trophy, the Unitas Golden Arm Award, and the Orange Bowl Trophy collected in one place, and be able to learn about them, too. There’s a lot of history to college football, and I appreciate that EA has tried to capture that.

So far, most of my time has been spent sneaking Quick Play games in where I can, so I haven’t really dug into College Football’s major modes too much yet (something I plan to remedy this weekend), but I have noticed some on-the-field stuff that makes me happy.

The little change I’m happiest about is to how defenders play the football when it’s in the air. If you’ve played College Football or Madden in the last few years, you’ve probably been intercepted (or had one of your defenders intercept) a pass that they can’t see without turning around. They’ve essentially got eyes in the back of their heads, and it could be very frustrating. EA has said they’ve changed that, and in my testing, it’s proven true. Now a defender has to see the ball to pick it off, and you’ll notice defenders turning their heads (or not) before the ball arrives. If they don’t, however, it doesn’t mean that defender can’t make a play on the ball. They can still swat it. It’s a good change because it’s two-fold: you now actually have a reason to swat the ball down instead of going for the pick every time, and better defenders can now make plays average ones can’t.

I’m also a big fan of dynamic subs and custom zones for defenders. The former allows you to swap players on the field and not just on the playcall screen (thank God), though you may have to wait a play for the substitution to take effect, and the latter is the defensive version of last year’s custom stems for routes on offense. I enjoy the defensive game more than the offensive one, so being able to set where I want my zones to be on the field in real-time and not in a menu is welcome. I’m enjoying playing around with this stuff, and I imagine I’ll be using it quite a bit.

Now that I have the time to really dig into College Football 26, I am excited to see all the new additions to Road to Glory, where I’m really looking forward to being able to play my high school career, as well as all the new bells and whistles in Dynasty, which is where I imagine I’ll be spending most of my time. But the on-field stuff is where it counts. I can’t say yet if EA has avoided the sophomore slump with College Football 26, but I’m going into this year optimistic, and that’s not nothing.

Some of my favorite childhood memories come from playing co-op games with my friends over summer break. Now, as an adult, summers don’t quite hit the same. Whether it’s the weight of the world bearing down on me or the severe lack of couch co-op games, I’m not sure. But, every once in a while, a special game comes around that brings me back to that feeling of pure joy.

Split Fiction, the follow-up from It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios, launched earlier this year and features another amazing co-op adventure designed specifically for two players. Despite being only a few months old, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game are already discounted to just $35 during Prime Day. Don’t wait too long, though, as Prime Day ends tonight at midnight PT.

Split Fiction Drops to $35 on Amazon

Looking for active Parasite Testing codes? We’ve got all the working codes for this Roblox experience, so you don’t have to search for them. Redeem each one for rewards like credits to buy weapons or leveling up to access the armory sooner!

Working Parasite Testing Codes (July 2025)

Here are all the current active codes you can redeem in Parasite Testing as well as the rewards you’ll get from them:

• PUPPETEER – 50 Credits, 10 Levels

Expired Parasite Testing Codes (July 2025)

The below codes have unfortunately expired and will no longer work. We’ve included them here so you know not to bother trying to redeem them:

• ACOLYTE
• 2KSERVER
• 1M VISITS
• 1KSERVER

How to Redeem Parasite Testing Codes

Redeeming codes in Parasite Testing isn’t too hard once you know where to look. Follow these simple steps to start getting those rewards:

1. Launch Parasite Testing
2. Interact with the laptop in the first room you spawn in. You can see it in the screenshot above.
3. Enter a code in the box that says, “Enter a code…”
4. Press the big green Submit button to redeem your code.

Why Isn’t My Parasite Testing Code Working?

If you’re having trouble redeeming a code, there are two common reasons why it may not be working:

• The code is expired
• The code has been entered incorrectly

If a code has been entered incorrectly or has expired, you’ll see a message that says, “Not a valid code”. In order to avoid this, we recommend copying and pasting the code directly from this article. As long as you don’t accidentally get an extra space in there when copying it, it should work if it’s active. We make sure to check and test every Parasite Testing code before we add them to this article.

Where to Find More Parasite Testing Codes

We always recommend checking our article here for up to date codes since you can rely on us to verify which ones are working. But, if you’d prefer to search for some Parasite Testing codes on your own, you can check the dedicated Discord server.

What is Parasite Testing in Roblox?

Parasite Testing is a Roblox experience that revolves around shooting eldritch creatures. A large red biomass will keep spawning parasites that evolve when attacking players. If you let them get too close, you’ll become infected and have to worry about your teammates taking you out. Depending on the parasite type, you’ll either respawn or can fight researchers while infected.

Eliminating creatures and infected players will give you credits and level you up. This will help you unlock new weapons for taking on tougher creatures. But you can also use traps to wipe out hordes of parasites via decontamination or electricity.

Jeffrey Lerman is a freelance game journalist for IGN who has been covering games for over a decade. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller has addressed criticisms that Blizzard Entertainment “dropped the ball” when it comes to things like story content, PvE, and animated shorts.

The face of Blizzard’s popular hero shooter opened up about the team’s struggles during an interview with content creator Jay3 and Overwatch 2 voice actor Conor McLeod. Although the multiplayer title is largely known for its team-based gameplay, Keller recognizes that some story content will need to “come back” for Overwatch 2 to be “firing on all cylinders.”

“One of the things that we hear our players talk about a lot, you see online… it feels like Overwatch has dropped the ball when it comes to story and lore,” Keller said in response to a question from McLeod. “You kinda see that. We used to put a few more of the big animated shorts out than we do nowadays.”

pic.twitter.com/gLo6fdyWhQ

— Laurence @ Drawing💙 (@volskayadottxt) July 11, 2025

Overwatch animated shorts are a sore spot for fans. Blizzard originally built excitement with a series of high-quality cinematics from 2016 to 2023, with each highlighting abilities for characters like Reinhardt, Hanzo, Genji, Mei, Bastion, and more while also showing how many of its 43 playable characters fit into the larger story. What began as somewhat frequent lore drops eventually started to fizzle out around the release of Overwatch 2 in 2022. It’s been nearly two years since fans received a 3D-animated cinematic.

Frustrations with the lack of animated shorts reached a boiling point when Blizzard announced it would be scrapping its PvE Hero ambitions in summer 2023. With a long-promised story-driven mode canceled and animated short releases crawling to a halt, Blizzard had to start from scratch. Although it’s been years without a significant update, Keller says the Overwatch 2 team hasn’t completely left story behind.

“To speak frankly about it, we did have a big plan to go after story in the game. That was the PvE side of it with the campaign and everything like that,” he added. “That didn’t work out. So, it was kind of a bit of a reset moment for us when that happened, and we would like to get back to it. I think one of the best parts of Overwatch is the universe and the characters that are there. That’s definitely a goal of ours to get back to it. There’s been a bit of a step backwards that we had to take in order for us to be able to start moving forward on it again.”

Blizzard announced a gameplay facelift for Overwatch 2 in February of this year. During its breakdown, the studio announced a major new PvP game mode called Stadium as well as the return of free loot box cosmetic rewards, two new Heroes, and a gameplan for the next year of content. Many of these additions, including a fundamental gameplay change called Perks, have launched since, signaling that Blizzard has found its footing as it makes good on significant promises.

Many of these changes have been accepted with open arms by the Overwatch 2 community, but as new players flock to see why fans are suddenly talking about the 2016 hero shooter again, the desire for story content still echoes across Reddit threads and X/Twitter posts.

One idea many fans – including McLeod – would love to see is an Overwatch TV series. Keller says he’s not opposed to the idea, going as far as to say “we’d love to do that.” It’s unclear how, when, or if Keller and the Overwatch 2 team will be able to enter another golden age. One thing is clear: Keller knows Overwatch fans want more story content.

“I think for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we need to have some of that come back,” Keller said.

Overwatch 2 is currently in the midst of Season 17: Powered Up, which features a selection of retro-gaming-inspired skins, Mythic cosmetics for Reaper and D.Va, new Stadium Heroes, and crossover content with G.I. Joe. Time will tell if Blizzard is able to regain lost ground, but in the meantime, you can read about how many players are finally enjoying Overwatch again after years of downtime. You can also check out the 2025 Stadium roadmap for a closer look at some of the content set to arrive in the near future.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).

While server wipes have long been a staple of MMO shooter Escape from Tarkov ever since it released in 2017, some players are particularly unhappy about this week’s cull.

The latest wipe, this one nicknamed the “Hardcore Wipe,” introduced big changes to the game, buffing the challenge and removing quests and maps. This wipe is particularly brutal as Tarkov also now boasts slower progression and harder difficulty, too, making it harder for players to recover their pre-wipe status and inventory.

Although developer BattleState Games has been “monitoring player feedback closely” and is committed to tweaking balancing changes where necessary after the wipe on July 9, fans are taking to social media to complain, and evoking a… strong reaction from head of studio, Nikita Buyanov.

When one player popped up in Buyanov’s mentions, saying, “you destroyed your game, bro,” the head of studio’s response was: “Oh, shut the f**k up.” And though he later added in a different tweet that he was “joking” — “don’t shut the f**k up. Every opinion matters” — fans seem split on both his response and the impact the wipe has had on the game.

“Unless they tweak some stuff fast, as in 1-3 days fast I think most of the playerbase will quit this wipe,” said one. “They have gone too far hardcore and removed most of what makes Tarkov… Tarkov.” Buyanov disagreed, writing: “I totally disagree with you. Seems like you never played early Tarkov.”

On Reddit, where one OP started a conversation with a screenshot of them uninstalling the game, hundreds of players have upvoted the thread.

“Finally the true 1.0 update, escaping from Tarkov IRL,” said one, while another added: “Turned on the PC. Saw that they actually implemented transit only, no tasks, and everything is dummy expensive. I actually turned off the PC and went and built outdoor furniture for the wife in the 92° heat. That’s more fun than playing the wipe rn.”

“Load into customs, wait 30 seconds, transit to interchange, have to wait and load interchange, see zero loot and then die to silent killa because 100% spawn rates. no quests either btw. Awesome wipe, Nikita,” commented someone else, whereas a X/Twitter commented said: “Your game lost identity cause you tried to please everyone. Listening to streamers ruined this game for you.”

To BattleState’s credit, Buyanov has clearly communicated that there won’t be able quests “for some period of time” — although they were back as of yesterday, July 10 — and assured players that they’re “working on” issues with broken Transits.

And other players are a tad more chilled about the wipe, too. “Some people do nothing but constantly complain,” posited one, whereas another responded: “Ignore the haters.”

Escape from Tarkov offers a hardcore MMO mixture of first- and third-person shooter and role-playing gameplay. Players need to find a way out of the isolated Russian city of Tarkov, survive deadly hazards and unearth all mysteries of the city. Die in the game, though, and you lose everything, including any loot, weapons, or equipment you brought in with you.

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.

The popular Cult of the Lamb franchise recently made the leap to comics in the graphic novel Cult of the Lab: The First Verse. Ahead of San Diego Comic-Con 2025, IGN can exclusively reveal the next chapter in the Cult of the Lamb Saga, Cult of the Lamb: Schism Special #1.

Cult of the Lamb: Schism Special #1 is a one-shot, 48-page comic that reunites the creative team from The First Verse, including writer Alex Paknadel (Red Goblin) and artist Troy Little (Rick and Morty vs. Cthulu). This new issue is again a collaboration between comic book publisher Oni Press, game publisher Devolver Digital, and development studio Massive Monster.

While it’s often a matter of last resort, video game cancellations are unfortunately a reality of the games industry.

There’s no single cause for why games don’t reach the finish line after months, or more often, years of development. Reasons for canceled games range from fast-shifting market dynamics and corporate restructuring to ballooning development costs and other creative challenges.

In 2025, 17 games have been confirmed or reliably reported to be canceled so far. Each of these games is listed below, ordered chronologically by the official announcement, or a report, of its cancellation.

Transformers: Reactivate

On January 8, 2025, it was announced that Transformers: Reactivate, an online action game in development at the Tencent-owned studio Splash Damage (Gears Tactics), was canceled. A statement shared on the studio’s X account did not provide a reason for the cancellation.

“This decision did not come lightly, and it is a difficult time for the studio and our people,” Splash Damage said at the time. “We want to take a moment to thank the team who worked on Transformers for their dedication and passion.”

Transformers: Reactivate was first announced in December 2022 at the Game Awards.

Two Unannounced PlayStation Live-service Games

On January 16, 2025, Bloomberg reported Sony had canceled two unannounced PlayStation games: a live-service project in development at Bend Studio (Days Gone) and a live-service God of War game in development at Bluepoint Games (Demon’s Souls remake).

Sony confirmed in a separate statement that despite the cancellations, neither Bend Studio nor Bluepoint Games would be shut down, and that Sony would work with the studios to determine their “next projects.”

While reasons for the cancellations weren’t reported, the decisions may have been related to Sony’s previous efforts to downsize its live-service plans. PlayStation had previously shuttered Concord developer Firewalk Studio and canceled other live-service projects such as Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game, a rumored Spider-Man online game, a live-service Twisted Metal game, and a Destiny spinoff called Payback.

Earthblade

On January 22, 2025, Extremely OK Games announced that it had canceled Earthblade, a 2D platformer meant to be a follow-up to its celebrated platformer, Celeste. The news of the cancellation came three years after Earthblade was first revealed at the 2022 Game Awards.

In a blog post explaining the cancellation, Extremely OK Games revealed the decision to cancel Earthblade was made in December 2024 following a disagreement between members of the studio and a former art director over the IP rights to Celeste. In the aftermath of the dispute, the team evaluated the state of Earthblade and decided it wasn’t “as far along as one would expect after such a protracted development process.”

The studio said it’s now “prototyping again and exploring at our own pace, and trying to rediscover game development in a manner closer to how we approached it at Celeste’s or TowerFall’s inception.”

Football Manager 25

Football Manager 25 was canceled on February 6, 2025. It’s the first time the annual sports sim has skipped a release in its 21-year history.

Football Manager 25 had been delayed twice prior to the official cancellation, and the decision to end development ultimately came when developer Sports Interactive concluded it “would not achieve the standard required [to release the game], even with the adjusted timeline.” The studio specifically cited issues with “the overarching player experience and interface.”

Sports Interactive is expected to resume the series with the release of Football Manager 26 later this year.

Wonder Woman

In February 2025 it was announced that the Wonder Woman game was canceled and the developers, Monolith Productions, would be shut down. Wonder Woman would have been the studio’s follow-up to its acclaimed Middle-earth seires, and was expected to utilize its patented Nemesis system.

The decision came from parent company/publisher Warner Bros. amidst a corporate restructuring. In a statement, a Warner Bros. spokesperson said, “Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities.”

Following Wonder Woman’s cancellation, comic writer Gail Simone, who worked on the project, said the now-canceled game was “gorgeous and expansive,” adding, “[Monolith] made sure it had WW and DC lore on every aspect of the game.”

Wonder Woman was first announced at the 2021 Game Awards.

Respawn Multiplayer FPS

An unannounced, multiplayer first-person shooter from Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment was canceled in early March 2025. It was considered an incubation project, meaning it was in the very early days of its development.

IGN reported the shooter was being worked on by a group of Respawn developers that spun off from the team creating a Star Wars first-person shooter that was canceled in early 2024.

New Titanfall Game

A month later, Bloomberg reported EA had canceled an unannounced Titanfall game as part of wider cuts to the company that impacted roughly 300 workers. Of the 300 employees affected by the layoffs, 100 came from Respawn Entertainment, where this Titanfall project and the aforementioned multiplayer shooter were in development. No further details about the project were reported.

Titanfall is a fan-favorite FPS series that launched as a tentpole console exclusive for Microsoft’s Xbox One in 2014. A multiplatform sequel, released in 2016, was lauded for its addition of a single-player story, which IGN named the second-best FPS campaign of all time.

Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link

Square Enix canceled Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link on May 14, 2025. The planned mobile game was set to be an action-RPG that told a brand-new Kingdom Hearts story and would utilize Pokemon GO-like GPS mechanics.

In a statement from Square Enix, Missing-Link was canceled once it was “determined that it would be difficult to offer a service that players would find satisfactory over a long period of time.”

Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts 4 in April 2022. As part of the cancellation announcement, Square assured fans development of the next mainline Kingdom Hearts is ongoing.

Battle Aces

An action-focused real-time strategy game called Battle Aces was canceled on May 23, 2025. It was in development for PC and set to be developer Uncapped Games’ debut release.

“Battle Aces represented a bold vision — our attempt to reimagine real-time strategy for a new generation,” the studio wrote on Steam. “We set out to create something fast, tactical, and approachable, while still delivering the depth that makes RTS special.”

Development was stopped due to “the returns from early testing [not being] strong enough to support continued development.”

EA’s Black Panther

The second comics-based game canceled in 2025 was EA’s Black Panther game. The cancellation, announced on May 28, 2025, came alongside the closure of Cliffhanger Games, which was developing Black Panther as its first project.

Speaking to the cancellation and accompanying layoffs, EA said the decision was made to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”

Black Panther was planned as a single-player, open-world game and was led by Kevin Stephens, former studio head of the now-shuttered Monolith Productions. Cliffhanger was also comprised of veteran game developers who previously worked on titles like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Halo Infinite, God of War, and Call of Duty.

Black Panther was announced in July 2023 and was in development as part of EA’s multi-game deal with Marvel. EA said Black Panther’s cancellation hasn’t affected the structure of the deal and will still develop at least three Marvel games, beginning with EA Motive’s Iron Man.

Hytale

Hytale, a Minecraft-inspired sandbox game, was canceled in June 2025 alongside the closure of the developer Hypixel Studios.

In a statement, Hypixel said it “couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise.” The developer said it required “a lot more time to get [Hytale] to a place where it could support the ambitious vision for the game” and compromising on that vision wasn’t an option, as “it wouldn’t have been the game we set out to make.”

Hytale began development in 2015 by a group of developers who previously worked together on a Minecraft multiplayer server called Hypixel. Riot helped fund Hytale before acquiring Hypixel Studios in 2020.

Perfect Dark

On July 2, 2025, Microsoft announced over 9000 layoffs, including roles at Xbox. As part of the cuts, Xbox canceled its Perfect Dark reboot and shuttered its developer, The Initiative. Perfect Dark was also being co-developed by Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics.

Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty confirmed the cancellation in an internal email obtained by IGN. “We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio,” it read. “As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative. These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape.”

The Initiative was built from the ground-up by Xbox to be a first-party studio that set out to make “AAAA” games for Microsoft. The reboot of the classic 2000 FPS developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64 was the studio’s first and only project.

Perfect Dark was revealed at the 2020 Game Awards followed by a debut gameplay trailer in June 2024.

Everwild

Rare’s Everwild was canceled alongside Perfect Dark on July 2, 2025.

Xbox confirmed the cancellation to employees in the aforementioned internal email from Xbox’s Matt Booty, which cited “a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape.”

Everwild was set to be the first new game from storied developer Rare since its 2018 live-service pirate game Sea of Thieves. Rare announced Everwild in November 2019, and the game was reportedly a third-person adventure set in “a natural and magical world,” though official details were never revealed.

Following the cancellation, VGC reported 35-year Rare veteran Gergg Mayles would be leaving the studio. Among his many accomplishments, Mayles directed the N64 classic Banjo-Kazooie and served as creative director on Sea of Thieves. He was overseeing the development of Everwild prior to its cancellation.

ZeniMax Online’s New MMO

Lastly, Xbox cancelled an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax Online Studios (The Elder Scrolls Online) in July 2025.

Codenamed Blackbird, the game was said to be a new, sci-fi IP without ties to The Elder Scrolls or Fallout. It had been in development since 2018, sources told IGN, and was approaching full production.

The Blackbird development team was laid off in conjunction with the cancellation. ZeniMax Online Studios director Matt Firor, who held that position since the studio’s founding in 2007, also announced he’d be stepping down. He’ll be succeeded by studio general manager Joseph Burba.

Two Games from Dying Light Developer Techland

On July 4, 2025, Polish Media outlet Pulz Biznesu reported Dying Light studio Techland had canceled two in-development games.

Techland acknowledged the report to Eurogamer, and said in a statement, “Game development is never a straight line, and sometimes fresh approaches are necessary to make great games.” Techland also confirmed no jobs were cut due to “the reported changes.”

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

The founders of Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, along with former CEO Ted Gill, are filing a lawsuit against parent company Krafton amid an increasingly bitter row over a $250 million bonus.

In a new statement, Cleveland called recent events “an explosive and surreal time,” and told fans anxiously waiting to play Saubnautica 2 that they “all deserve the full story.” It’s just the latest twist in a long, convoluted dispute between Unknown Worlds’ original management and Krafton, the Korean mega publisher of battle royale behemoth PUBG.

Krafton acquired Unknown Worlds in October 2021 and at the time, said the Sabnautica studio would continue to operate as an independent outfit. Last week, however, former Striking Distance CEO, Steve Papoutsis, joined Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds as CEO. The shock announcement confirmed that the previous leadership team — Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire — were replaced “effective immediately.” In a subsequent statement, co-founder Cleveland responded to what he called the “shock” decision to replace the leadership team, saying that “after all these years, to find that I’m no longer able to work at the company I started stings.” The statement also intimated that while the former leadership team considered the game ready for early access release, Krafton did not.

Then, earlier this week, reports came to light that Subnautica 2 was delayed to 2026 just months before Krafton was due to pay a $250 million bonus to the development team. Bloomberg said the delay was “against the wishes of the studio’s former leadership,” and that the $250 million bonus would have kicked in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025. Without Subnautica 2 coming out this year, hitting those revenue targets is unlikely, and the bonus won’t be paid out.

In a statement to IGN, Krafton insisted the decision had nothing to do with “any contractual or financial considerations.” Instead, Krafton claimed, the delay was about responding to feedback from playtests, and delay talks were already under discussion before Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill were outed.

Then, in a new statement that made a series of allegations against the previous leadership team, Krafton claimed it made “multiple requests” to Cleveland and McGuire to resume their responsibilities as game director and technical director, respectively, but allegedly both declined.

“In particular, following the failure of Moonbreaker, Krafton asked Charlie to devote himself to the development of Subnautica 2. However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project,” the statement said. “Krafton believes that the absence of core leadership has resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule.”

Krafton then said it allocated 90% of the up to $250 million earn-out compensation to Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill, leaving the remaining 10% for the rest of the development team.

“Specifically, in addition to the initial $500 million purchase price, we allocated approximately 90% of the up to $250 million earn-out compensation to the three former executives, with the expectation that they would demonstrate leadership and active involvement in the development of Subnautica 2,” Krafton alleged.

Now, Cleveland has confirmed that the former leadership is taking legal action against Krafton, and disputed the allegation that they wanted to “keep [the earnout] all for ourselves,” calling the claim “totally untrue.” He did not, however, expand on what grounds, exactly, the former management team is suing under.

“It continues to be an explosive and surreal time for the Subnautica team and community. None of this is what we wanted. But we truly appreciate the amazing support we’ve gotten from everyone. It means a lot to us, especially now,” Cleveland stated.

“As I wrote last week, we know in our souls that the game is ready for Early Access — that’s just how we roll. And we’d like nothing more than for you to play it (game devs live for this). But it’s not currently under our control.

“We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public — you all deserve the full story,” he added. “Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it.

“As for the earnout, the idea that Max, Ted and I wanted to keep it all for ourselves is totally untrue. I’m in this industry because I love it, not for riches. Historically we’ve always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio. You can be damned sure we’ll continue with the earnout/bonus as well. They deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands. Stay tuned.”

Fans are now calling for a boycott, imploring others not to buy Subnautica 2 and accusing Krafton of “shady business practices.”

“I don’t know who’s in the right or wrong here, but honestly, what a bizarre business decision to promise that amount of money on that premise,” commented one fan. “Maybe Charlie didn’t do anything wrong, but no person is going to resist trying to push out a subpar product that isn’t ready when they’re staring 250 million dollars in the face. If Subnautica 2 wasn’t ready, it was going to be pushed out regardless just to get the money.

“Nobody wins in that situation. Well. Except for the person with lots of money, I guess.”

“We are rapidly approaching a ZA/UM level sh*tshow at this point,” added another, comparing the fallout to that of Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM when the studio’s leadership similarly fell out, resulting in three different studios now claiming to be developing a “spiritual successor.”

“I’m honestly not sure who is in the right here. Both sides have provided pretty damning arguments and I don’t think we’ll really know until this lawsuit plays out (and possibly not even then),” suggested this player. “That being said, I would love to see if it’s just those three asking for money (and screwing over the rest of the team) or if they’re including the team in their lawsuit in some respect.”

“Krafton is a massive company with an assuredly sizable legal team. I simply refuse to believe that there is anything that could remotely be construed as libel in their statement considering how explicitly clear their statement is,” reminded another fan.

“I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle but I can’t help but notice that nobody has denied Krafton’s allegations so far. They’re also a large enough company that these guys know they will very much agree to settle for a fraction of the 250 million to make this whole problem go away.”

Krafton has yet to comment publicly on Cleveland’s latest statement. IGN has asked for comment.

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.