IGN has verified the leaked spoilers as legitimate, but will not be reporting any details of the game’s plot or ending within its own reporting.
Capcom has now said that the posting of these videos constitutes copyright infringement, as well as generally being “an act that offends other customers.” However, the publisher seems somewhat limited in what it can actually do in response — suggesting it will simply delete the videos or issue “warnings.”
“We have found a large number of gameplay videos of Resident Evil Requiem that appear to have been obtained through illegal means,” Capcom wrote. “For the sake of our customers who are eagaerly awaiting this game, we ask that you refrain from publishing or posting gameplay videos on video streaming services or social media before the game’s release date.
“Posting gameplay footage before the release of this game is not only a copyright infringement, but also an act that offends other customers, so we will take firm action, such as deleting videos or issuing warnings, as soon as we become aware of such activity. Additionally, we also ask anyone viewing this post who happens to see the videos in question, please be careful not to watch or share it.
“Through this game, we hope to deliver a ‘story that intertwines mystery and tension’ and a ‘thrilling gaming experience that challenges unknown threats.’ We would appreciate your cooperation in not ruining the excitement for others. Thank you for your understanding.”
Resident Evil Requiem’s February 27 release date is now less than a week away — so for those still trying to avoid spoilers, there’s not too long left to wait. If you were hoping to get your hands on the bizarre Japan-only version of the game that comes with exercise equipment, however, we’re sorry to say that this has now sold out.
“After getting hands-on with a total of about four hours of Resident Evil 9 Requiem at this point, and sharing that experience with colleagues, I’m more excited for the series than I have been in recent memory,” IGN wrote after going hands-on with Resident Evil Requiem recently. “It’s the old mixed with the new, but all in a modern package with two protagonists I already like a lot.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
In Japan, Capcom has teamed up with a company known for its shopping channel-style infomercials, to release a bizarre and extremely limited edition of Resident Evil Requiem that includes exercise equipment.
Limited to only 50 sets and priced at 19,800yen ($127), the Terrifying Nightmare Set made in collaboration with e-commerce/talent management Yume Group sold out completely in less than 5 hours, as fans reached for their credit cards faster than they ever ran from Mr. X.
Resident Evil Requiem’s Terrifying Nightmare Set includes a copy of Resident Evil Requiem on either PS5 or Switch 2 and a full-sized pull-up bar for exercising. Yes, you read it right.
In Japan, Yume Group (Dream Group) is known for its catchphrase “make it cheaper!” and for selling all sorts of shopping channel-style products via their website and through commercials. Naturally, the Resident Evil Requiem Terrifying Nightmare Set has its own tongue-in-cheek commercial — which you can watch above — in which Yume Group president Shigehiro Ishida and affiliated singer Yuri Hoshina promote the game in their signature style, with Ishida introducing the selling points and Hoshina exclaiming enthusiastically in response.
Brilliantly, the commercial even features Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi, who makes a rather deadpan cameo wearing industrial workwear and an unconvincing wig. Nakanishi mentions Requiem’s dual protagonists Grace and Leon, and the game’s mix of horror and action, while these keywords flash boldly on screen.
But what’s with the pull-up bar? The idea here is apparently so that gamers can use this piece of freestanding exercise equipment — dubbed the “Dream Hanging Health Device” — to release tension after fighting off zombies and getting perplexed by puzzles.
“When you’re tired from gaming, hang on tight. It’ll loosen up your back and shoulders stiff from fright!” advises the product’s store page. The accompanying tongue-in-cheek infomercial advertises the pull-up bar while showing shots of a terrified Grace Ashcroft hanging upside down from the game’s reveal trailer.
Other moments from the commercial include Hoshina cheerfully exclaiming that the game is “easy for even beginners to start playing,” while the ‘You are Dead’ game over screen plays in the background, and an apparent claim that the exercise equipment is also good for drying laundry on a rainy day.
When official Resident Evil accounts in Japan suddenly started posting a Yume Group infomercial on the morning of February 20th, some users thought it was simply a parody. “I started watching it with a smirk, laughing at the image of Grace hanging upside down on the device but then went dead serious when the detailed purchase rules and phone number came up ‘Huh? They’re actually selling this?!'” a user commented in Japanese on X.
However, just five hours later the Terrifying Nightmare Set was sold out. Perhaps some Resident Evil fans aspire to get chainsaw-wielding worthy biceps like Leon S. Kennedy’s, whose new look has won him a bit of a fan following.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
For as long as humanity has existed, we’ve looked up at the stars and wondered how we got here, and whether we were alone. In Causal Loop, the answer to the latter is obvious: no. Or, at least, we might not have been. Causal Loop follows exo-archaeologist Bale and exo-linguist Jen as they land on the planet of Tor Ulsat to study the ruins of the Tor civilization. Whatever was here is gone now. Only the monuments and the structures remain. It’d be a pretty neat set up in and of itself (we need more games about archaeology), but that’s just the start for Causal Loop, though you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the jump.
Causal Loop starts slowly, letting you get to know its characters, systems, and world before pushing you into the deep end of the pool that’s the actual game. See, Jen and Bale aren’t alone. They’re accompanied by Walter, an AI housed in a drone armature. It’s clear from the jump that Bale and Walter don’t get along. Bale constantly needles Walter and openly resents his presence; it’s clear that the AI is there to supervise him and keep the mission on track because Bale did something in the past that caused issues, and Walter isn’t about to let him forget it. “That’s why they pay me the big bucks,” Bale crows when his idea to open an early door by shorting it works out. “Until your contract gets terminated again…” Walter shoots back. Even letting Walter have access to his suit so he can activate Bale’s amplifier is something Bale pushes back against. They don’t like each other much, these two.
Ironically, Causal Loop wasn’t always that way. It kind of happened by accident, according to creative director Kai Moosmann. “So the first version of Walter was like, “Hey, Bale, my scans detect this and that. And that’s very interesting.” And Bale would be like, “Oh, thank you Walter, let’s move on to the next thing.” So it was always: they see something, they comment on it, they move on to the next thing. And more by accident, one of the placeholder audios for Walter was a bit snippy, and I was like, ‘That’s interesting.’ That’s interesting stuff right there because now we could maybe have these characters quip with each other and riff off of each other on that emotional level. And the problem was still though that Walter was not really sentient and I was not sure whether or not Walter and Bale, their relationship should be seen as something like a tool versus an actual character. And so we started experimenting and started treating Walter like an actual person, and that’s how all of it happened. That’s how Jen was introduced. That’s how all the other characters got into the mix because now we needed a reason for Bale to dislike Walter.”
“I think one of the rules in the design document was whenever we can do Hollywood, we do Hollywood.”
The moderating influence is Jen, who is clearly sympathetic to Bale but would like him to try to work with Walter to make things go more smoothly. The pacing here is very deliberate, Moosman tells me. “We said right from the get-go, we didn’t want to lock the player into a playground, into a jungle gym or something like that. We wanted to make sure that the story of Causal Loop and the gameplay are completely inseparable in so many ways… We wanted to make sure that people get to know these characters and that they get to care about the characters and what happens to them. I think one of the rules in the design document was whenever we can do Hollywood, we do Hollywood. That was sort of the rule for all of this, and it led to this slow opening and it was deliberate. We could have made it even slower, but we accelerated it even a little bit because at the beginning we had a scene where we showed the characters arriving on the planet and unpacking their gear, having conversations with each other, but we just wanted to push people into gameplay faster.”
And make no mistake, Causal Loop is teaching you how to play it long before it becomes obvious. Whether it’s Jen’s gentle ribbing about Bale’s speed (he’s not fast; Jen often refers to him as slowpoke), learning how to scan items in the world and determine their purpose, or having Jen and Bale synchronize their actions to open a door or switch on a bridge at the right time so the other one can cross. There’s also some really nice foreshadowing as to what you’re actually dealing with before the characters themselves find out.
As the group progresses, they gradually awaken more of the Tor technology, which culminates in the awakening of what seems to be a power source. Walter is hesitant to check the thing out because they have no idea what it is, but Bale’s full steam ahead, and… well, it goes about as well as you’d expect. Jen gets zapped away, Walter’s drone armature is destroyed, and Bale… Bale dies. When Walter brings him back, things are different. There’s a massive megastructure they didn’t notice before, alien squids are flying through the air, and there are farting plants. Yeah, no seriously. And all of that is intentional, because the developers at Mirebound knew that Tor Ulsat needed to feel alien, despite being a barren planet. What does the ecology of a planet like that look like? What still lives here? And that, in turn, influences the story. The blue goo you see everywhere eventually became something that powered the Tor’s buildings.
But the biggest difference is what that energy source did to Bale. Soon after waking up, Bale is contacted by a Tor named Nala’Tor, who informs him that the device he activated is called the Chronolith, and that Bale’s meddling has “fractured the fabric of reality, altering the very constraints that define [Bale’s] existence.” Fancy. In reality, that means that Bale can now see and interact with phase rifts, which allow him to create echoes of himself. The uses for this start small. Is that button that opens a door too far away from said door for Bale to press the button and run through it? Have an echo do it for you and waltz through once he opens the door. That bridge too far for you to cross before it vanishes? Get an echo to press the button for you and walk on over once it materializes.
The cool thing about echoes is that they’ll repeat their path over and over again until you tell them to stop… or until you run into them, which will kill them. There are some interesting existential questions there, and even Bale doesn’t quite know how to feel about them. What’s better is that everything you need to know about echoes is presented diegetically, as is almost every part of Causal Loop’s UI. Walter color-codes them for you and creates a meter that shows how much time you have while creating one – and where each echo is in their cycle.
After getting a good grasp of the basics, I’m taken to a later part of the game to kick off the training wheels. Now, there are teleporters – which, like doors and bridges, often need to be activated by an echo, and can also be used by echoes. Handy – and square keys that explode if they’re out of a socket for too long. Now, the puzzles become more complicated and more interesting. Make an echo to run down and turn on a teleporter, then stand on it when he does. It takes me to an isolated, outside area with a key. Great. I grab that sucker and head back to the teleporter, and the damn thing promptly explodes in my hands. Okay, so teleporters and keys are out. But there’s a hole in the wall, so I chuck it through there, zap back through the teleporter, and manage to slot the key into another wall slot before it explodes (though it takes me a few attempts).
To get him through, I have to synchronize my echoes, passing through the forcefield while creating my second after my first has lowered it.
A couple of pit stops later, and I put it in its lock, which reveals a gravity lift that takes me up real high. A little key-throwing and another gravity lift later, and I get to what is probably my favorite puzzle in my time with Causal Loop, and the first one I play that requires two echoes. I send the first to a lower level and through a teleporter into a sectioned-off room to hit a switch that controls a forcefield. That done, I make another echo (this one’s blue) who runs around the upper level I got to from the gravity left. He needs to hit another button, but the trick is that there’s a forcefield in the way, and running into one means you’ll have a dead echo. To get him through, I have to synchronize my echoes, passing through the forcefield while creating my second after my first has lowered it. It’s not the most elaborate puzzle I play in Causal Loop, but it’s a great example of the strengths of Causal Loop’s puzzle design. When designing them, Daniel Radschun, Mirebound’s Technical Director, told me that he’s often starting from the end goal of the puzzle. “I work my way a little bit backwards, but also not, and I add separate elements step by step and really make sure that each of the elements are already working together.” Every element builds on the last.
I’ll be honest, y’all: I have an extremely poor sense of direction in both video games and real life, and I’m pretty map reliant. Causal Loop doesn’t have one, so my path through it often started with exploring a bit, finding a phase rift, and saying, “Okay, what can I do from here? What can I interact with? If I push that switch, what happens? Where does that teleporter take me?” Then, I’d work out the answers to those questions and see what I could do from there. A lot of my time with Causal Loop was spent in trial and error, learning new mechanics and seeing what did what. Sometimes, that meant doing something dumb and dying. Others, it meant looking at something like a gravity lift over a pit of lava and saying, “I wonder if I can get into that?” and learning I could in the coolest way possible. But I was always learning as I played it.
Radschun and Moosmann assured me that the full game builds these lessons up organically and reiterates the lessons you’ve learned, something I got a feel for even though I was jumping around to several points in the game. The fact that I was solving some of Causal Loop’s later puzzles without help speaks to how well it teaches you, and both developers I spoke to were proud that folks had been finishing Causal Loop’s public demo in ways they hadn’t intended.
Mirebound is rightfully proud of the way story and gameplay are inseparable in Causal Loop, but when I asked the team what they were most proud of, they told me it was Causal Loop’s optimization. Obviously, the build I played was a work-in-progress, but Moosmann told me every decision they made was with optimization in mind so Causal Loop could run on as many computers as possible. It was a ton of work, but the gamble seems to have paid off: other studios are now asking them how they did it. “If there’s a wall, for example,” Moosmann told me, “and that wall is casting a shadow, and in that shadow frustum, inside that shadow frustum, there are several other objects, they’re still casting a shadow even though you don’t see it because that big shadow is on [top of them]. We just disable the shadows of the objects…where you don’t see that they’re casting a shadow. And that might sound stupid. We’ve been called stupid for this. ‘Unreal handles this very well.’ Yeah, up to a point, up to a couple of thousands of objects. But our worlds are made of 7, 8,000, 9,000 objects and yeah, it stacks, so it’s totally worth doing that work.” The result is that as of our interview, they tell me that Causal Loop still runs at around 60 FPS on a 1080 Ti on high settings.
After spending a few hours with Causal Loop, I’m not surprised. You can see the attention to detail Mirebound is putting into everything, whether it’s the story, the characters, or the world. Causal Loop is shaping up to be a brain-bending puzzle game, and an interesting story to boot. It may not have been what I imagined when I first met Bale, Jen, and Walter, but one of the best parts of digging through the past is being surprised at what you find.
Buying the digital Switch 2 edition of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition from the Nintendo eShop will cost you $64.99. However, if you buy the digital edition for the original Switch through this Amazon deal and then purchase the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack from the eShop for $4.99, that’ll set you back about $45 instead. That’s roughly $20 in savings, so why not take this opportunity to upgrade for less if you’ve wanted Xenoblade Chronicles X for Nintendo’s latest console?
Step 1: Buy Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for Switch
Step 2: Buy Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a game that’s worthy of a spot in your gaming library. Our review from George Yang had high praise for it, saying “Xenoblade Chronicles X was already one of the Wii U’s best games, and this Definitive Edition has escaped the destruction of its old home like the White Whale and settled down nicely on Switch.”
Yang continued on to say that, “The quality-of-life improvements here are enough to justify another trip to Mira alone for veteran players, and it’s the perfect opportunity for newcomers to explore its beautiful landscapes for themselves.” If its one that’s been sitting on your must-play list, this is a great time to pick it up, especially because the Switch 2 upgrade lets you play at up to 4k resolution and with smoother frame rates.
Alongside Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, Amazon has plenty more digital Switch game deals to explore right now. Our rundown of Amazon’s digital Nintendo Switch game sale highlights some of our top picks, including Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Princess Peach: Showtime, and more.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
It was an understandably quiet January in the U.S. games market, with very few new releases and a bit of a comedown from a busy holiday season leaving Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 again the best-selling game of the month, and the PlayStation 5 on top for consoles.
The PS5 led hardware in both unit and dollar sales, with the Nintendo Switch 2 taking second in both, according to analysis shared by Circana senior director and analyst Mat Piscatella. Overall hardware spending was up 16% year-over-year, with an increase in Switch 2 spending (admittedly an increase over nothing, as the Switch 2 wasn’t out last year) offsetting declines in spending on PS5 (down 17%), Xbox Series (down 27%) and Switch 1 (down a whopping but understandable 79%). Accessories spending was down 5% to $185 million.
In content, spending up was up 3% year-over-year to $4.3 billion, largely driven by a 23% increase in subscription spending. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was once again the best-selling game of the month, followed by NBA 2K26 again in the No.2 spot, and Madden NFL 26 rising from No.4 last month to No.3 in January. Battlefield 6, last month’s No.3, dropped to No. 5 in January.
The only new game entering the top 20 for January was Code Vein II, which came in at No. 11. We did see Final Fantasy 7: Remake leap from No.225 last month to No.9 for January, thanks to its Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch 2 releases. Fallout 4 also made a big jump from No.68 to No.20, possibly thanks both to Season 2 of the Fallout TV show coinciding with a major drop in price on Steam at the end of the month.
Overall, total gaming spending reached $4.7 billion, up 3% year-over-year. Not exactly a thrilling start to 2026, but when has January ever been an explosive month for games?
January 2026 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
NBA 2K26
Madden NFL 26
Minecraft*
Battlefield 6
EA Sports FC 26
Grand Theft Auto V
Red Dead Redemption II
Final Fantasy VII: Remake
Forza Horizon 5
Code Vein II (NEW)
Ghost of Yotei
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
EA Sports College Football 26
Helldivers II
Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
Split Fiction
Elden Ring
Flight Simulator 2024
Fallout 4
* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Finji, publisher of beloved indie titles such as Night in the Woods and Tunic and the developer behind Overland and Usual June, says that TikTok has been using generative AI to modify its ads on the platform without permission and pushing those ads to its users without Finji’s knowledge, including one ad that was modified to include a racist, sexualized stereotype of one of Finji’s characters.
This was first brought up by Finji CEO and co-founder Rebekah Saltsman on Bluesky, where she shared a screencap of a social media post from another brand that appeared to be going through the same thing, and saying the following, “If you happen to see any Finji ads that look distinctly UN-Finji-like, send me a screencap.”
Unusual June
According to Saltsman speaking with IGN, Finji’s official account on TikTok does push ads for its games, but has “AI turned all the way off.” The team first learned that generative AI ads were being created without their knowledge thanks to social media comments on Finji’s actual, regular ads from users concerned about what they were seeing. Saltsman was able to get screenshots from audience members showing the offending ads, which prompted her to escalate the issue to TikTok support.
The original adsin question appear to be videos advertising Finji’s games, with one showing off several games and the other focused on Usual June. The AI-“enhanced” versions, which appear on TikTok as if posted directly from the official Finji account, seem to consist of slideshows rather than videos as indicated by a number of comments on both ads. Finji has sent IGN screenshots sent in by viewers who claim they saw the AI version of those ads. While several of the AI-“enhanced” images seem to be relatively unedited compared to their official counter parts, one image seen by IGN is noticeably modified.
The offending image depicts an edited version of the official cover art, the original version of which is pictured above. In the seemingly AI-edited version, the main character June (center in the image above) is depicted alone, but the image extends down to her ankles. She is depicted with a bikini bottom, impossibly large hips and thighs, and boots that rise up over her knees, seemingly invoking a harmful stereotype. This is extremely distinct from June’s actual depiction in the game:
IGN has viewed a conversation between the official Finji account and TikTok customer support, including a part of the discussion where the customer support agent confirmed Finji did have TikTok’s “Smart Creative” option shut off. “Smart Creative” is essentially a TikTok function that uses generative AI to create multiple versions of user-created ads. So if a company makes Ad A with Image A and Text A, and Ad B with Image B and Text B, generative AI will mix and match these in different combinations to test which versions of the ads work best with users, and then surface the best ones more frequently. There’s also an “Automate Creative” feature that uses AI to “automatically optimize” assets, such as “improving” images, music, audio, and other things to make an ad allegedly more pleasing to an audience. Saltsman confirms that Finji has both of those options shut off, and showed screenshots of the TikTok backend for several of the ads in question to confirm this.
Finji also says it is unable to view or edit the AI-generated versions of its own ads, and is only aware of them via numerous comments on the ads as well as users in its official Discord reporting the problem and sharing screenshots. Saltsman says she suspects there is at least one other inappropriate generative AI ad circulating based on comments on some of the ads regarding another character in Usual June, Frankie, but is unable to see the modifications herself and thus cannot confirm.
In that same support conversation, the TikTok support agent was unable to find an immediate solution for Finji. At one point, the agent suggests that one of Finji’s ads was inadvertently using the Automate Create feature, to which Finji replies, “I have never turned that on,” and had the agent confirm that option was not on for the ads described above.
Later in the conversation, the agent said, “I am checking all the possible cause [sic] why this can happen but as per checking all the setup is clear and there should be no ai generated content included.” The agent offers to “raise a ticket” for further investigation, but ignored repeated requests from Finji to share a timeline for when the ticket might be responded to.
The Support Circle of Hell
Since this incident took place, Finji staff have made efforts to follow up and get answers, only to be shut down by TikTok support repeatedly. Finji has sent IGN screenshots of all of the following messages to TikTok, and their responses.
The above conversation happened on February 3. On February 6, after a follow-up message to support from Finji asking for an update, TikTok Ads Support responded as follows:
After checking the creatives, we do not see any indication that AI-generated assets or slideshow formats are being used. Both ads are confirmed as video creatives sourced directly from your Creative Library / TikTok posts, and creatives appear unchanged at the ad level. There is no evidence that AI-generated content or auto-assembled slideshow assets were added by the system. [All emphasis TikTok’s.]
A Finji representative responded that same day with the screenshot of the offensive ad (which Finji had already sent during the initial support request) and asked for TikTok to escalate the issue, which prompted the following response from TikTok:
We acknowledge receipt of the evidence you’ve provided and understand the seriousness of your concerns. Based on the materials and context you’ve shared, we recognize that this situation raises significant issues, including the unauthorized use of AI, the sexualization and misrepresentation of your characters, and the resulting commercial and reputational harm to your studio.
We want to be clear that we are no longer disputing whether this occurred. We understand that you have provided documentation and that audience comments on the ads further corroborate your claims. This matter will be escalated immediately for further review at the highest appropriate level.
We are intiating an internal escalation to ensure this issue is investigated thoroughly, and we will work to connect you with a senior representative who has the authority to address the situation and discuss next steps toward resolution.
On February 10, having not received further responses nor been connected with a “senior representative”, Finji followed up again to ask where the ticket was at. It received a message containing the following:
I understand how surprising it was to see AI-generated or automatically created content appear in your ads, especially when you weren’t expecting any changes to your creatives.
Here’s what happened and why you saw those assets:
Your campaign recently included an ad that used a catalog ads format designed to demonstrate the performance benefits of combining carousel and video assets in Sales campaigns. This is part of an initiative aimed at helping advertises [sic] like you achieve better results with less effort. Campaigns that use these mixed assets typically see a 1.4x ROAS [return on ad spend] lift, and we wanted to ensure you had access to that potential improvement. [All emphasis TikTok’s].
The message from support went on to describe the claimed improvements gained from a catalog ads format, followed by an offer to request to be added to an “opt-out blocklist” for which approval “isn’t guaranteed.”
Finji responded, understandably pretty irate at this point, demanding to know why it had not been put in touch with a senior representative, why it isn’t addressing the “SEXUALIZED, RACIST, and SEXIST representation of [the] studio’s work” [emphasis Finji’s], why the company can’t track AI-generated versions of the ads, why it was opted into this without the company’s consent, and why TikTok cannot guarantee an opt out.
TikTok responded again, stating that the most recent response it sent was in fact from its escalation team, and that Finji would not be contacted by a “senior representative” because the person currently speaking was “the highest internal team available for this type of issue.” The representative went on to say the escalation team had already reviewed the situation and “their findings were included in the previous response” and that the feedback “had been taken seriously.” It said that Finji had been included in “a broader automated initiative” and concluded that the escalation team had “already provided their final findings and actions on this matter.”
Does TikTok want me to be grateful for the mistreatment of my company and our game?
After another reply from Finji, the TikTok representative promised to “re-escalate the issue internally,” but this was the final communication received as of publication time, even after another check-in from Finji on February 17. When reached out to by IGN, TikTok declined to provide comment on-record.
“I have to admit I am a bit shocked by TikTok’s complete lack of appropriate response to the mess they made,” said Saltsman in a statement to IGN today. “It’s one thing to have an algorithm that’s racist and sexist, and another thing to use AI to churn content of your paying business partners, and another thing to do it against their consent, and then to also NOT respond to any of those mistakes in a coherent way? Really?
“What really is utterly baffling is what appears to be a profound void where common sense and business sense usually reside. Does TikTok want me to be grateful for the mistreatment of my company and our game? Based on the wild response through the weeks of customer service correspondence we have received, I think this is their stance and take on their obvious offensive and racist technology and process and how they secretly use it on the assets of their paying clients without consent or knowledge.
“This is just simply embarrassing but not for me as an individual. For me- I am just super pissed off. This is my work, my team’s work and mine and my company’s reputation- which I have spent over a decade building. My expectation was a proper apology, systemic changes in how they use this technology for paying clients and a hard look at why their technology is so obviously racist and sexist. I am obviously not holding my breath for any of the above.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Harry Potter movie star Daniel Radcliffe has revealed he was once pitched a bizarre Wizard of Oz adaptation that also featured his fellow Hogwarts co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
Describing it as “one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard,” the plan had apparently been for the Harry Potter trio to reunite in a fresh version of the classic story, for which Emma Watson would have played Kansas girl Dorothy.
Speaking via the Hot Ones show, Radcliffe said the offer came in while the trio were still making the Harry Potter movies, when he was aged either 14 or 15. Even then, though, Radcliffe said he was instantly aware that this was “a bad idea.”
“One of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard, during Potter, somebody came to us and I think asked… like they wanted to cast all three of us, me, Emma and Rupert, in a remake of Wizard of Oz,” Radcliffe revealed. “Emma was Dorothy, I can’t remember what Rupert was, and I just remember that I was going to be the lion, but also he knew karate?
“I was like a karate kicking cowardly lion,” he continued. “And I remember I was like 14 or 15, and I was like, ‘I don’t know a lot about the world, but this is a bad idea, this should not be made.”
For context, the timeline here would place Radcliffe and his co-stars as filming the fourth Harry Potter book, Goblet of Fire. So, had the Wizard of Oz remake progressed, the trio would still have been fairly young — though not too dissimilar to the age of 16-year-old Judy Garland in the story’s classic 1939 adaptation.
Numerous Wizard of Oz adaptations have surfaced over the years, including various spin-offs, prequels and sequels. These include the 2013 Sam Raimi-directed Oz the Great and Powerful, which starred James Franco, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis, and of course the two-part Wicked, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Ubisoft has said its long-awaited Splinter Cell remake remains in development despite layoffs at the studio working on the project.
40 jobs will be lost at Ubisoft Toronto, the company has now announced, as part of the ongoing push to cut costs that has seen thousands of employees depart over the past few years. In a statement sent to IGN, Ubisoft said that work on Splinter Cell was unaffected by the redundancies.
The company announced plans to remake the original Splinter Cell using The Division’s snazzy Snowdrop engine back in December 2021, though little has been heard of it since.
“Following the recent announcement of the final phase of Ubisoft’s global cost-savings plan and the discontinuation of projects, Ubisoft Toronto will be reducing its workforce by 40 roles,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said.
“This decision was not taken lightly and does not in any way reflect the talent, dedication, or contributions of the individuals affected. Our priority now is to support them through this transition with comprehensive severance packages and robust career placement assistance.
“The Toronto studio continues development on the Splinter Cell game and serves as a co-development partner on Rainbow Six, along with supporting additional co-development projects.”
Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green, which originally launched for the Game Boy Advance back in 2004, will arrive on Nintendo Switch next week to celebrate the Pokémon series’ 30th anniversary.
The games will become available on Switch shortly after this year’s Pokémon Presents broadcast — The Pokémon Company’s annual announcement showcase held on February 27 each year — that is expected to be a very important one indeed.
Today, The Pokémon Company also now firmed up the timing of the Pokémon Presents stream, which will be held at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK.
════════════ Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen confirmed for Nintendo Switch! ═══════════ These download-exclusive titles will be available after the #PokemonDay Presents presentation which begins Friday, February 27, 2026, at 6AM PST. #PokemonFRLGpic.twitter.com/m8xEFOOjle
Unlike other retro games available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, Fire Red and Leaf Green will be standalone releases — sold via the eShop for $19.99 each. Local wireless play for battling and trading will be possible, though online features are not supported.
Still, the game is expected to enable players to connect and transfer Pokémon into Pokémon Home, the franchise’s cloud-based monster storage service.
As for next week’s Pokémon Presents broadcast, fans are anticipating that the franchise’s 30th anniversary will be marked by some big announcements. We’ll hear more about promising upcoming life sim spin-off Pokémon Pokopia of course, but fans will be waiting to see if the series’ long-awaited 10th generation of games and creatures also gets a showing.
Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green, which originally launched for the Game Boy Advance back in 2004, will arrive on Nintendo Switch next week to celebrate the Pokémon series’ 30th anniversary.
The games will become available on Switch shortly after this year’s Pokémon Presents broadcast — The Pokémon Company’s annual announcement showcase held on February 27 each year — that is expected to be a very important one indeed.
Today, The Pokémon Company also now firmed up the timing of the Pokémon Presents stream: at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK.
More to follow…
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
