Hot on the animated heels of The Simpsons, which enjoyed its own Fortnite mini-season throughout November last year, it’s been confirmed South Park has its own collaboration with the battle royale juggernaut set to arrive this week.
The only official information related to South Park’s upcoming Fortnite crossover is an image of Butters playing the game, which notes the date January 9, alongside a caption that reads, “Chaos, loading…”, shared via Fortnite’s official social media.
There’s no further confirmed information regarding how extensive the South Park content will be, but clarity on this appears to be just a couple of days away.
Rumours of a South Park/Fortnite crossover have been in circulation since late last year.
1047 Games has some thoughts regarding how Splitgate: Arena Reloaded is faring on Steam, and it’s got a message for fans: “Steam Charts don’t measure fun.”
The Halo and Portal-inspired FPS re-launched December 17 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S after the studio chose to U-turn with an overall rework for Splitgate 2 back in July 2025. It was a move made amid layoffs at 1047 that saw both the sequel and its popular predecessor pulled offline as the studio promised to return with “big, sweeping changes.”
Those changes seemingly failed to attract players, with just around 2,300 players logging in to play the free-to-play game on Steam at launch and a little more than 800 playing at the time of this piece’s publication (via SteamDB). The Splitgate community quickly drummed up debate about what another disappointing launch could mean for the future of the shooter, but 1047 has a different take.
“Steam Charts don’t measure fun,” a message from the team says. “They show one number, on one platform, at one given moment. They don’t show the full picture or what it feels like to actually play, and they definitely don’t capture the community that’s actively helping shape what Arena Reloaded is becoming (including upcoming content like Arena Royale).”
It’s hard to separate Splitgate: Arena Reloaded’s launch player numbers from the nearly 26,000 users who showed up for Splitgate 2, but 1047’s targeted response does aim to remind players that the re-launch also came to consoles and the Epic Games Store. Metrics for those platforms aren’t as openly available as they are for Steam, so it’s unclear if interest is similarly quiet elsewhere.
Regardless, the studio wants both veteran and potential players to know it’s put work into getting Splitgate: Arena Reloaded ready for launch, and it doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
“To our amazing community: thank you,” 1047 continues. “Your feedback and passion have helped make Arena Reloaded better every day.
“And to everyone who hasn’t played yet: Arena Reloaded is free, the gameplay’s the best it’s ever been, and we’d love for you to jump in and form your own opinion. A lot of passionate people worked very hard on it.”
As 1047 takes to social media to combat the negative sentiment surrounding its re-launch effort, its Arena Royale component is expected to launch in the near future. Splitgate: Arena Reloaded came with a rebuilt progression system, new and reworked maps, and more. We gave Splitgate 2 a 7/10 review upon its launch last year.
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).
Magic: The Gathering sealed product is making waves at big box retailers and TCGPlayer, but who has the best prices this week? Well, both Amazon and secondary marketplace TCGPlayer have their bargains, so I’ve noted the best deals down to save you looking, as well as the other best deals of the day.
TL;DR: Deals for Today
Alienware has just dropped a massive discount on their NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 build, coupled with one of the best gaming processors on the market right now in AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Looking for a cheap and cheerful deal instead? How about two 6.6ft braided USB-C cables that can handle up to 240W for the price of a coffee? Thought so. Coming in at the product you didn’t know you needed today is a cordless air duster for easy cleaning of desks, PCs, fans and more that’s currently half off from $39.98. Let’s get into it:
MTG: Cheapest at Amazon
Amazon is putting out some decent pricing, with my favorite pick here being the “Game Edition” of Cloud Strife-themed Limit Break Commander Deck. It’s around the same price as TCGPlayer, making it market value, with the artwork being based on in-game moments instead of the traditional MTG artwork.
The same can be said for the Marvel’s Spider-Man Play Booster Box containing 30 booster packs with the following: • 14 Magic: The Gathering cards • 1–4 cards of rarity Rare or higher • 3–6 Uncommon cards • 6–9 Common cards • 1 Land card (Traditional Foil Land replaces a Land in 20% of boosters) • 1 card of any rarity is Traditional Foil; Foil Showcase Mythic Rare in 1% of boosters
MTG: Cheapest at TCGPlayer
Meanwhile, TCGPlayer is the place to go for MTG preorders. It’s the cheapest for the Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box and Bundle, with the next Universes Beyond entry Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Play Booster Box, Turtle Power! Commander Deck and Bundle, the latter being over $15 cheaper than Amazon.
There’s some gorgeous Final Fantasy scene boxes coming in cheaper than Amazon too, not to mention the standard Limit Break Commander Deck being just under $5 cheaper on TCGPlayer. It pays to shop around for sure.
Alienware Area-51 RTX 5090
This beast is loaded with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, 32GB DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That alone sells this system with the custom cooling that makes Alienware’s Area-51 builds worth the premium. The good news is we’re seeing a rare discount on something that has an RTX 5090 in it, a solid 10%, or $550 off, knocking this build down to $5,049.99. What’s not to love?
2 Lisen 6.6ft 240W USB Type-C Cables
Thanks to my kids destroying countless USB cables over the years, I know what makes a USB-C charging cable that lasts. Braided wins out over rubber cable every day of the week due to its flexibility and durability. Thick caps on either side protecting the port will also be a lifesaver, but getting 240W-capable cables can sometimes cost a fortune. Not today! You can get Lisen’s 6.6ft double pack for a ridiculously reasonable $5.60. These will handle fast charging for pretty much everything you can think of, from a mobile phone or Switch 2 to a MacBook. Even if you don’t need a new cable, it’s worth buying spares when deals like this crop up.
JVSCAM Cordless Electric Air Duster
Cleaning dust or crumbs out of your keyboard is a pain. No-one likes doing it and it takes ages to brush them all out. I was in the “Why the hell do I need an electric duster” camp, but then I bought one and I’m using it quite a lot.
I use mine to clear out vents, fans, GPU and more inside my PC, and even use it to get to hard-to-reach places in the car and on my desk. They’re very handy to have in your desk drawer and it’s a great deal for $20.
Pokémon TCG: Market Value at Amazon
Well, the good news is you can get the Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Box with Prime delivery without getting stung. It has nine booster packs, a gorgeous Charcadet Illustration Rare promo, Mega Charizard X–themed sleeves, card dividers, a tournament-legal coin, alongside some nice-looking dice.
Cynthia’s Garchomp ex Premium Collection has four Journey Together and two Destined Rivals booster packs, so if Trainer Pokémon cards are your thing, you’re good to go.
Pokémon TCG: Cheapest at TCGPlayer
If it were me making a choice from the TCGPlayer selection here, I’d go for the Destined Rivals Booster Bundle. It’s $13 cheaper than Amazon right now and works out at $4.66 per booster pack, which is one of the best prices I’ve seen for Destined Rivals booster packs recently.
If you want a decent Mega ex card for your Grass-type deck, I’d recommend the Mega Venusaur ex Premium Collection. If you run Meganium alongside it from Mega Evolution, you can double your Grass Energy value while being able to move a Grass Energy from one Pokémon to another thanks to their abilities. That means you can set up and use Mega Venusaur ex’s “Jungle Dump” attack for 240 damage in one turn (it costs four Grass Energy).
You’ll also get the following booster packs:
2 × Mega Evolution
2 × Destined Rivals
4 × Journey Together
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.
2025 was bursting with really cool new game releases: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yōtei, Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, I could go on. And yet, it seems like the vast majority of players (at least in the US) spent most of their time playing the old hits on repeat, because the five most popular games on PlayStation last year were exactly the same as the year before.
This comes from Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, who shared on Bluesky today the top five most-played games in the US on PlayStation for 2025:
The layout is different (I guess) on Xbox, with Minecraft and Roblox flipped for 2025, and a slightly more complicated order for 2024: Call of Duty at No. 1, then Fortnite, Minecraft, GTA V, Roblox. But uh, same five games.
It’s a pretty damning indictment of the current state of the industry. As Piscatella said himself almost a year ago on the Kinda Funny Gamescast, this is a fairly recent trend. As he explains, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a surge in the video game audience, with huge numbers of people playing games who never had before. As a result, many of the major gaming markets effectively reached a cap on how many new players they can obtain in future years, because everyone was already there.
On top of that, that capped audience is now playing a smaller number of games overall. Some of that is just because games are getting more expensive. More people are gravitating toward live service games they’re already familiar with where they can spend smaller amounts of money for a fun experience on a platform they already own, rather than spend larger amounts of money to try new things on new platforms.
But some of that is simply a natural consequence of the rise of live service. As Piscatella continues to explain, the way the market used to work is that players would buy one big new game, spend all their time on that, then move onto the next one. But people just aren’t buying new games anymore.
“If you take the top ten service games every month…on PlayStation and Xbox, seven out of every ten people that turn on their console will play at least one of those games every month, and in terms of total time they’re taking, those ten games alone every month take up 40% of total playtime on the consoles.”
Piscatella also shares that at the time, Circana expected 30% of people that play video games would not buy a video game in 2025 (the actual numbers for the full year haven’t been released just yet). A further 18% would purchase a new game every six months or less frequently. Only 12% buy a game once a month, and 4% buy new games more often than that.
“So when we’re talking about the developers and publishers who are being hurt the most, are the games that are really targeting this 16% of total players that are purchasing very frequently, while the vast majority of players are buying a game or two a year, and they’re playing Fornite, Minecraft, and Roblox.”
The result is that it’s harder than ever for brand new games to break through, which has been a major part of the recent wave of layoffs, studio closures, project cancelations, and just general industry devasation that we’ve been reporting on primarily in the US industry for the last couple of years.
Piscatella concluded that Kinda Funny presentation with a sentence he’s said to me many times, and continues to say: “The biggest competitor to any new video game is Fortnite.”
Circana is expected to release its full report on US video game sales in 2025 later this month.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
If you want a single platform to play games at home and on the go, the Nintendo Switch has got your back. Even better if you’re a fan of Sonic: Ever since the Switch arrived in 2017, Sega has worked like clockwork to consistently release Sonic games for the hybrid console. Last year we got Sonic x Shadow Generations alongside the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, so it’s safe to say Sega’s speedster is bigger than ever.
Now that the Switch 2 has officially launched, it’s pretty much guaranteed more Sonic games are on the way. The next big release, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, is launching on the original system, but as we move toward Switch 2-exclusives, some good ol’ backward compatibility means your existing Sonic games aren’t going anywhere.
For anyone looking to check out the modern era of Sonic (and friends), here are all the Sonic the Hedgehog games you can play right now as well as upcoming Sonic games on the Switch 2.
How Many Sonic Games Are There on Nintendo Switch?
A total of ten Sonic games have been released for Nintendo Switch. This spans the first year of the system back in 2017 to the most recent game, Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, released in 2025. Keep in mind that this list below does not include the additional games available with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Every Sonic Game Released on the Switch (in Release Order)
Sonic Mania (2017)
Sonic Mania was developed by PagodaWest Games and Sonic fangame community member Christian Whitehead as a love letter to the classic Sonic the Hedgehog titles released on the Sega Genesis and Sega CD platforms. Taking place after the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the game remixes eight iconic levels, including Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, and introduces five new ones, including the glamorous Studiopolis Zone and the peaceful Press Garden Zone. This game also introduces a new troupe of Eggbots called the Hard-Boiled Heavies for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles to beat.
Mania is considered one of the best Sonic games of the 2010s because of the experiment in allowing a group of Sonic fans to create a game other Sonic fans would love, the vivid neon graphics, and the new challenges present in every stage.
Sonic Forces (2017)
Sonic Forces makes Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic form a resistance against Dr. Eggman after he conquered most of the world alongside Infinite, a masked jackal who uses the Phantom Ruby to create doppelgangers and warp reality. The game switches gameplay modes between third-person Boost gameplay with Modern Sonic, side-scrolling gameplay with Classic Sonic, and a mode with the custom avatar character, which can be any animal you want, whose weapons use Wisp power-ups. Forces’ writing and lighting aren’t exactly the best in the series, but the game is still tolerable for some people.
Team Sonic Racing (2019)
Team Sonic Racing takes racing games to a whole new level by having players race with each other, not against each other. This game has a cooperative gameplay mechanic similar to Splatoon and Overwatch, using Sonic Heroes as a frame of reference, where you play in teams of three characters and work together to win each race, paying very close attention to your teammates’ performance and sharing Wisp power-ups with them to allow them to speed up and pull your ranks. Since most of the karts are sports cars, you can customize them with gold rims and paint your car any color you want West Coast Customs style.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (2019)
Released a year before the real-life Tokyo Olympic Games was scheduled to begin (only to be postponed to 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 brings the platform rivalry between the jolly red plumber, the speedy blue hedgehog, and their respective friends back to the world stage with new events, like surfing, skateboarding, karate, and sport climbing, and bonus features. The game includes a story mode that takes Mario and Sonic back to the Tokyo 1964 Olympics and their early 2D sprite selves, while everyone else works to help bring them back to the real world in the present day. You get the best of both eras and some history lessons about the Olympic Games in Tokyo to go with it.
Sonic Colors: Ultimate (2021)
Sonic Colors: Ultimate is a remastered version of the original Sonic Colors developed by Blind Squirrel Games for Sonic’s 30th anniversary in 2021. The remaster enhanced the graphics to brighten up the colors of Eggman’s interplanetary amusement park and the character models, introduced a new Jade Ghost Wisp to help Sonic phase through walls and ceilings, replaced the traditional lives with rescues from Tails, and introduced mini races against Metal Sonic. You can also collect Park Tokens to customize Sonic with the wackiest designs for his shoes and gloves.
Sonic Origins (2022)
Sonic Origins compiles the first four classic Sonic games released on the Sega Genesis and Sega CD and remasters them for modern consoles and the audience that plays on them, whether they’re veteran fans seeking a nostalgia fix or young fans who want to understand Sonic’s history. Players can experience the game in Classic Mode, which is the original format presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, or Anniversary Mode, which replaces lives with coins and allows Sonic to use Drop Dash as he did in Sonic Mania. Each game in the compilation features new animated cutscenes at the beginning and end done by the incomparable Tyson Heese to connect all four games into a cohesive story, provided you play them in the original release order.
Sonic Frontiers (2022)
Sonic Frontiers is the first open-world game in the Sonic franchise – or should we say, “open-zone”? – born out of a trend of open-world games being styled after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Sonic explores the vast Starfall Islands to fight cybernetic enemies, solve various puzzles, and run through Cyber Space levels modeled after the levels from past Sonic titles in an effort to save his friends from the digitized dimension. Both veteran and new Sonic fans alike will enjoy running around the mysterious island set to a soundtrack that strikes a delicate balance between serenity and chaos.
Sonic Superstars (2023)
Sonic Superstars is a collaborative effort between Sega and Arzest to bring 3D graphics to a Classic Sonic game, a move that surprised everyone at the 2023 Summer Game Fest (including this author). With Classic Sonic being a CGI character on his own for the first time and classic levels getting revamped with new music and upgraded level designs, the game allows up to four people to locally play together as Sonic and his friends throughout 11 levels across the Northstar Islands and grants new powers for every Chaos Emerald they collect to overcome obstacles.
Sonic X Shadow Generations (2024)
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a remastered version of 2011’s Sonic Generation that goes beyond graphical upgrades and quality-of-life improvements by including an all-new campaign comprised of reminagined Shadow stages from past Sonic games. The two campaigns combine for 15-20 hours of content across over 150 stages, leading us to say in our Shadow x Generations review that it “soars far and above previous enhanced versions we’ve gotten in the Sonic franchise.”
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (2025)
The latest Sonic game follows up on 2019’s Team Sonic Racing, featuring the full set of Sonic characters as well as new crossover racers like Joker, Hatsune Miku, and Steve from Minecraft. Jada Griffin’s review of Cross Worlds for IGN says the game “fires on all cylinders with a fantastic roster, excellent courses, and lengthy list of customization options.”
More Sonic Games Available with Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
If you’re looking to play some classic Sonic games with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, there are a few available under the SEGA catalog. You can find more info about them below:
Sonic the Hedgehog is reaching its 35th anniversary in 2026, joining a host of other video game anniversaries that will make you question the passage of time. Some fans speculate the anniversary will lead to a new release, but SEGA hasn’t confirmed any upcoming Switch games yet.
Outside of games, Paramount has confirmed it will make Sonic the Hedgehog 4. The movie is targeting a Spring 2027 release window.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
Vanran, a fast-paced soulslike action game with Shadow of the Colossus-sized boss battles, is getting a playable demo later this month. Check out the new trailer above, and the reveal trailer below.
If this is your first time hearing about Vanran, it’s an indie-developed, faster-paced-than-usual soulslike that features random dungeons, and whose developers at Becuzus describe its fantasy world as such: “Vanran is a dark fantasy action RPG where a fallen human slave wields a sealed blade to spark rebellion. Players walk a brutal path toward freedom in a world of despair.”
A playable demo will be available on Steam from January 23-30, and you can wishlist it on Steam if you’re interested.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Microsoft has made its first Xbox Game Pass announcement of 2026, confirming a number of big hitters for January.
The headline additions are Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws and Capcom’s Resident Evil Village, but there’s plenty more coming to subscribers this month, as confirmed on Xbox Wire. 11 titles in total were announced for this month, taking fans through to January 20.
Available today, January 6, is twin-stick shooter Brews & Bastards (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) and Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), both available across Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass.
Tomorrow, January 7, Rebellion’s Atomfall (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) hits Game Pass Premium, as does Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, Handheld, and PC), Rematch (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S).
Moving on to January 8. Final Fantasy (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC), a remodeled 2D take on the first game in the series, launches on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass.
Then, on January 13, we have Star Wars Outlaws (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass. Two days later, on January 15, My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass.
January 20 sees Resident Evil Village (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass, and the only day-one launch of the month: MIO: Memories in Orbit (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass January 2026 lineup:
Brews & Bastards (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
Resident Evil Village (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 20 Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
MIO: Memories in Orbit (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – January 20 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Leaving Xbox Game Pass on January 15, 2026:
As always, a number of games leave Game Pass. You can save up to 20% if you buy them.
Flintlock The Siege of Dawn (Cloud, Handheld, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
Neon White (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC)
Road 96 (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC)
The Ascent (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC)
The Grinch Christmas Adventures (Cloud, Console, Handheld, and PC)
Microsoft described today’s lineup as Wave 1 of January 2026, so expect more games to hit Game Pass later in January.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
If you’ve been wondering if TV executives have spotted Arc Raiders‘ rip-roaring success, wonder no more — “many” have already reached out to the development team to discuss making a TV series or movie.
While Embark boss Patrick Söderlund was coy about the details, he did admit that numerous companies had been in touch in hopes of making a movie or show about “this IP,” adding that Arc Raiders “fits quite well” for a game-to-TV adaptation.
“I can’t tell you how many companies have reached out to us wanting to make a TV series [and] movie out of this IP,” Söderlund told GamesBeat.
Asked if he’d been “tempted” to take up any of the offers, Söderlund admitted he had, but did stress: “We [wouldn’t] mind doing that. It would be fun, but it needs to be done in the right way. I hope that we will do that. I think the IP fits quite well with something like that.” As yet, though, while there is a team of writers working at Embark, the studio doesn’t “have anyone working on a TV or film adaptation yet.” And he did stress that “yet.”
If you’ve been finding it a little trickier just lately, that may be because you play a lot of PvP — Embark Studios recently confirmed one of the community’s biggest questions since the game came out: it does indeed feature ‘aggression-based matchmaking.’
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.
NetEase and developer Everstone Studio have outlined its January roadmap for the open-world action-RPG, Where Winds Meet, which includes new modes, campaign missions, quests, puzzles, and bosses.
The developer is set to push out the newly-announced Version 1.2 update on January 9. We can expect updates every week of the month, including the final chapter in the Kaifeng campaign — described as “the most formidable challenge yet” — and a competitive Guild Battle Pre-Season (more on that below).
You can also partake in limited-time festivities via the Jianghu Martial Games, and visit the Nine Mortal Ways Camp and mysterious puzzle cave, Mistveil Prison. “Hidden in the Ghost Market beneath Kaifeng, the Nine Mortal Ways Camp Serves as a gathering place for sect members with diverse personalities, full of intrigging encounters, secret treasures, and bustling fun — but beware of the scams!” the team teases.
Version 1.2 also ushers in “large-scale, coordinated multiplayer combat” with the arrival of the Guild Battle Pre-Season. You’ll be able to test guild strategies across six “intense” matches, which will be allocated to distinct Guild Regions based on country/region to “ensure broader accessibility for guild members worldwide.” Crucially, this means each Guild Region will launch matches “simultaneously according to its local time.”
“This pre-season is crucial for us to gather player feedback and refine the core Guild Battle mechanics,” the development team explained. “We encourage all guilds to rally their members, hone their tactics, and prepare for the even more expansive guild content planned in upcoming updates.”
Here’s the full roadmap of what else to expect:
IGN’s Where Winds Meet review returned a 6/10. We said: “Where Winds Meet has a great understanding of what makes wuxia such a compelling genre, but its attempt to shove so many different things into one game only ensures that none of those elements reach their full potential.”
The Wuxia open-world action-adventure RPG set in ancient China only debuted on PC and PlayStation 5 on November 14, yet it had topped 9 million players in just two weeks. The mobile version released on December 12.
It didn’t take long for players to find creative — and highly amusing — ways to make use of the game’s chatbot NPCs, including taking a novel approach to solving riddles by… simply telling the game’s AI-powered chatbot NPCs that they have solved the game’s riddles.
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 original art director of Magic: The Gathering, Jesper Myrfors, has once again taken to social media to offer some interesting behind-the-scenes insight into the early days of the game, this time explaining his efforts to ensure Magic “celebrated female empowerment along with male empowerment” through a simple rule: “No babe art!”
In a Facebook post over the weekend, Myrfors spoke at length about his intentions for inclusivity in card art, and his efforts to hire women artists for the game. He says he wanted to ensure that Magic was appealing to women and men, particularly in the midst of a wider gaming environment that was often “less appealing for women” in no small part due to portrayals of female characters as “window dressing”.
Here’s how Myrfors put it:
When I was art directing Magic, one of my rules was “No babe art!” That is no artwork that shows a scantily clad woman in a subservient or weak position. I really did want Magic to appeal to a broader group than traditional fantasy. My gaming groups had included women for years, I saw the things about gaming that made it less appealing for women first hand. I also firmly believe that women have a bigger role in fantasy than window dressing. I made a point of hiring a lot of women artists on the game because I wanted magic to have it’s own look and I figured in a male dominated industry, the voices that are not as often heard would provide that look easily. While we leaned on tropes I wanted to avoid clichés. I wanted this to be a world that celebrated female empowerment along with male empowerment and not just portray women as damsels who needed rescuing.
Was this “Woke?” If you think so you are probably an idiot. Seriously, get help.
This game was meant for all people. I did not want to just create another male power fantasy. There is nothing wrong with male power fantasies. They are fantasies. People are allowed to have fantasies. I grew up reading the Conan books and I enjoyed them greatly but I wanted a bigger audience. I wanted an inclusive power fantasy that did not favor a single sex. If the word “inclusive” sounds “woke” to you I once again suggest that you may be an idiot. I have had female friends my entire life, they have always been included in what I am doing. This was normal for me, not “woke”. “Woke” is a term weak men use derogatorily to hide the fact that they see inclusion of anyone other than themselves as a state of victimhood. It’s frankly embarrassing. We all see your weakness for what it is, you are not fooling anyone but yourselves.
Myrfors goes on to acknowledge that the No Babe Art rule was not 100% enforced, referencing the infamous example of Earthbind:
And it’s worth noting this is far from the only example of the type of art Myrfors was trying to avoid that made it into Magic over the years. The sets he worked on mostly avoid the tropes Myrfors was cautious of, if not entirely, and some of the more salacious cards were drawn by women, and masculine and feminine bodies are both depicted. Myrfors is clear that he has “no problem with scantily clad women” and just didn’t want the subject matter to “flood” Magic: The Gathering. “It’s crazy to me that one of the secrets to Magic’s success was as obvious and simple as ‘hire talented women’,” he concluded. Five of the 25 artists who worked on Magic’s first release of cards were women.
Myrfors’ efforts early on didn’t magically turn Magic into a perfectly-inclusive space. Since Myrfors departed Wizards, there have admittedly been a number of cards that do fall into the “babes” category (here’s just one example, combined with its transformation, and here’s another). It was notable enough that in 2018, designer Mark Rosewater announced that Wizard was moving away from both scantily clad women and men, as it “would make a subset of players feel uncomfortable to play it.” Prior to that in 2015, Rosewater shared that the gender breakdown of the game at the time was 62% male and 38% female. And women have historically reported feeling underrepresented and alienated in the community, particularly at larger competitive events and regular playgroups.
