PlayStation will stream a major State of Play broadcast this week, featuring over an hour of news and reveals, including the latest updates from its own teams within PlayStation Studios.
The event will be held this Thursday, February 12 at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK time — and as ever, IGN will be reporting live.
Sony has said that the broadcast will run to “60+ minutes” — suggesting fans have a meaty show to look forward to. But what could PlayStation have up its sleeves?
Sony’s last major State of Play broadcast, held back in September 2025, finally treated fans to a good look at Marvel’s Wolverine, which is in development by the talented team behind the console’s various Spider-Man titles: PlayStation studio Insomniac Games. Other games showcased included Saros, the next project from Returnal studio Housemarque, as well as third-party titles such as Battlefield 6 and Nioh 3.
PlayStation fans will certainly be keen to see more of Wolverine and Saros, and potentially discover a release date for the former. We’re also likely to see something of Bungie’s long-delayed Marathon, which will finally arrive on March 5 — less than a month away.
Saros has already been dated for April 30, though currently all we know for certain of Wolverine’s arrival is that he’ll land in the second half of this year. (With GTA 6 due on November 16, it’ll likely be earlier, and well clear of that.) Last week, a tease from Insomniac Games hinted at Wolverine meeting Daredevil in the game.
Third-party games set for PS5 in the coming months include Capcom’s Monster Hunter Stories 3 and Pragmata, which just got a showing in Nintendo’s Partner Direct, Square Enix’s climactic Life is Strange Reunion, Hitman developer IO Interactive’s 007 First Light and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight from Warner Bros. Games.
The confirmation of a State of Play this week will mean that all three major platform holders will have held some form of announcement broadcast within the first six weeks of 2026 — though Nintendo fans still hope there is a dedicated first-party Nintendo Direct also waiting in the wings with more news on the company’s own games (and perhaps a new 3D Mario).
For now, though, join us here on IGN for all of the news and reveals from this week’s State of Play in just a few days.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Epic Games has hit back at claims it made “provably incorrect statements” about controversial horror game Horses, and instead insisted it was transparent with developer Santa Ragione about its inability to sell the game via the Epic Games Store as planned.
Horses, the indie horror game banned from both Steam and the Epic Games Store ahead of its launch in December 2025, is an indie first-person horror game with live-action sequences set in a horse farm. Over the course of 14 days, it “welcomes you into encounters that test your obedience, complicity, and restraint.” The player experiences “the farm’s unspeakable horrors through daily unique interactions,” as they must “withstand 14 days of spiraling dread as the reality of the farm unfolds.”
Horses was first banned from Steam two years ago after the team submitted an in-progress prototype. While some feedback was provided, Santa Ragione insists that no specifics were shared with the team at the time, nor was there an opportunity to appeal. It was banned again in December due to its disturbing imagery, and while violent and sexual content is hardly new for either Steam or Epic, Santa Ragione took issue with what it deemed to be censorship, calling for “clearer rules, transparent processes, and meaningful accountability from near monopolistic distribution platforms and the systems they enforce.”
Fast-forward to this past weekend, and Santa Ragione posted a statement refuting Epic VP Steve Allison’s comment that said “we love [its] studio,” blasting the firm for “refus[ing] to provide details supporting their claims,” and accusing Epic of making “provably incorrect statements about the game’s content.”
“Epic made provably incorrect statements about the game’s content, refused to provide details supporting their claims, and has not shared their claimed AO IARC certificate, which normally includes a link for the developer to appeal,” the studio posted in response to an interview with Game File. “They do not ‘love that studio’, they have effectively ghosted us.”
“The fact that the game does not deserve an AO rating is apparent from the widely available full walkthroughs on YouTube and Twitch, as well as from its distribution on the Humble Store.”
Epic Games, however, has remained adamant that the game violated the Epic Games Store’s Content Guidelines. In a statement to IGN, Epic Games’ senior communications manager, Brian Sharon, said: “Our team played the game and found it violated the Epic Games Store’s Content Guidelines, specifically the ‘Inappropriate Content’ and ‘Hateful or Abusive Content’ policies.
“We did a secondary check by filling out the ratings questionnaire for the game ourselves and the content got an Adults Only (AO) rating — which we do not allow on the Store. Because this wasn’t an official submission, we do not have a certificate to share with the team. We did give the developers context around the policies they violated. When they appealed, we reviewed the content again, and let them know the decision was appropriately applied and will remain in place.”
Despite the distribution issues, Horses has managed to sell over 18,000 copies. Though that’s not enough for the publisher to fund a new game, it says it has been able to generate $65,000 in net revenue by mid-December, which was enough to pay off loans and settle royalties owned to creator Andrea Lucco Borlera. Our own reviewer gave it a 7/10, calling it “an affecting first-person horror game that, despite some repetitive tasks and signposting issues, delivers a harrowing story you won’t forget in a hurry.”
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.
Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski has said that his scrapped BioShock film adaptation would have somehow included both of the original game’s endings to mess with the audience’s heads.
Verbinski was attached to make a movie version of the beloved game back in 2008 alongside Universal Studios, with a script in place from Gladiator and Skyfall scribe John Logan.
Alas, the project never materialized due to lengthy wrangling over its planned $200 million budget — deemed risky due to it also aiming for an adults-only R rating. Verbinski has previously said the movie came within eight weeks of shooting, before plans faltered. Work continued to try and get the film financed for several more years, though BioShock creator Ken Levine confirmed the project had been fully cancelled by 2013.
“I loved this project when we were getting close to making it at Universal,” Verbinski has said now, discussing the project in a reddit Q&A. “I was going to dive deeply into the Oedipal aspect and definitely keep it hard R with the Little Sisters, and the ‘choices’ the protagonist makes… and the consequences.
“I had worked out a way with writer John Logan to have both endings and I was looking forward to bringing that to the big screen and really f***ing with people’s heads,” he continued. “[We] had some great designs for the Big Daddies and the entire underwater demented art-deco aesthetic. Every year I hear something about the project, but I’m not sure any studio is quite willing to go where I was headed.”
The original BioShock has two endings, based on the player’s choices to either rescue or sacrifice the game’s Little Sisters — and the two very different outcomes you get based on your level of mercy. The game’s ‘happy’ ending — seen if you rescue every Little Sister — rewards the hero with a long life and the surviving sisters present on his eventual deathbed. However, if you harvest any Little Sister, your character is shown instead having influenced Rapture’s citizens to believe that power is all that matters. An ominous final cutscene then shows what looks to be a nuclear submarine being taken over in an attack.
The two endings are pretty different, then — a long and happy life or potential nuclear apocalypse — and it’s unclear exactly how Verbinski’s movie would have shown both. Could one have been a dream sequence, showing what might have been the alternative outcome? Or would the movie have presented audiences with two possible futures, and left viewers unclear as to which actually played out?
The later BioShock Infinite played on the multiverse theory (“there’s always a lighthouse”!) but it’s worth pointing out that this was still years away at the point of Verbinski being involved. Still, it’s fun to ponder how an adaptation might treat the game’s two endings now. Especially as plans to adapt BioShock have since resumed — with Netflix now involved in a potential adaptation.
Netflix announced plans for a fresh adaptation back in 2022, though recent years have seen the project stall again, as cuts changed the scope of the movie, necessitating changes to its script. In September 2025, producer Roy Lee confirmed the project is still in active development, with director Francis Lawrence on board to direct after finishing his work on the forthcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
“It’s a tricky adaptation, so there’s lots of things to figure out and to get right,” Lawrence told IGN previously. “There’s regime changes at Netflix, and so things stall out and get re-energized and stall out and get re-energized, and I think we’re in a pretty good place, honestly.”
Back in the world of video games, 2K confirmed last summer that it had overhauled the similarly long-awaited BioShock 4, which has been in development for the last decade. Amid layoffs and a further delay to the project’s release, former Gears of War head and Diablo franchise lead Rod Fergusson will now oversee the project. Fergusson will also head up the game’s development studio Cloud Chamber, as it attempts to finally wrestle the project to release.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
More details of the unannounced Rayman remake have bubbled up again, this time from the creator of Rayman himself, Michel Ancel.
In a new interview with RetroGamer, Ancel discussed the secret project, confirming that rather than a remaster that simply presents the same game with slightly snazzier visuals, the re-release — which Ancel calls a “remake” — will also address some of the original platformer’s pain-points, including additional checkpoints to “make it a bit less frustrating.”
“I think Rayman is still a fun game, and there’s a lot of content,” Ancel said in the interview that was shared by fan account, Rayman Merchandise. “The pacing is a bit slow because you have a big character on the screen. It also has pixel-precise gameplay, so it’s not always easy, but it’s interesting that the constraints of yesterday make it still feel original today. Even though it’s complex, I think there’s a kind of remake planned.”
NEWS: Series creator Michel Ancel reveals in a new Retro Gamer article that Rayman 1 will be receiving an HD rerelease! This follows previous reports of a “Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition” being rated. (I apologize for the new post; my prior post was incorrectly worded) pic.twitter.com/jzKlTg6on3
“I don’t remember when specifically, but it will be in HD and I think Ubisoft is adding a few more checkpoints and things like that just to make it a bit less frustrating. I think it’s a nice move, because that’s the only point that could be a problem for non-skilled players. But yeah, I think it’s still a very nice game.”
“Rayman turns 30! Join us on our official channels to celebrate an incredible legacy,” the account exclaimed at the time, attaching a brief video. In the video, brand producer Loic Gounon — who has been working on the Rayman franchise since 2006 — revealed that “a very talented team at Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan are currently working together on the future of Rayman.”
Back in October 2024, Ubisoft confirmed a new Rayman project was currently in the “exploration phase” at its Montpelier and Milan studios, after it was reported that Ancel had been contacted to act as a consultant.
Ubisoft began this year by announcing a sizable company restructure, resulting in the cancelation of six games, including its Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, and a delay to a further seven titles. Two Ubisoft studios will close completely as a result of the changes, while others are subject to further layoffs.
Of the half-dozen games that have been fully scrapped, Ubisoft only publicly named one: its long-awaited Sands of Time remake that had been rebooted once already. Three of the other canceled games were new IPs, while one was a mobile game. We’ve received no specific details of the seven titles that Ubisoft has delayed, either, though this number does include the unannounced game once set for launch before March 31 that is widely expected to be the company’s Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remaster. This will now launch in the coming financial year — so before March 31, 2027. With Ubisoft’s core focus going forward being open-world and live-service games, it’s not clear how — if at all — a Rayman remake fits into those plans.
Ubisoft quietly released an NFT game featuring Rayman at the end of 2024, of course. Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. was barely advertised or given the kind of showy spotlight reserved for major releases, quite possibly because it’s a Web 3 game that uses cryptocurrency and blockchain. A top-down multiplayer shooter available on PC, it featured a number of Ubisoft characters, including Rayman.
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.
If Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has been on your list to jump into, but you missed out on the holiday sales price drops, we have good news: Amazon’s currently offering its PS5 version for just $29.99 on both PS5 and Xbox (see it here). What a thrill, indeed.
When it was first released, Metal Gear Solid Delta was listed for $69.99, so this deal makes for 57% in savings overall. For a game we consider to be one of the best video game remakes of all time, that’s a discount worth making a move on. Head to the link below to scoop it up for your PlayStation or Xbox library while the deal is still available.
Alongside the base game, this version also includes the Sneaking DLC Pack, which comes with an array of gear for Snake to wear in the game. Here’s everything included:
Uniform: Battle Dress (PW ver.)
Uniform: Sneaking Suit (PW ver.)
Uniform: Crocodile Suit
Uniform: Naked (Woodland)
Uniform: Naked (Ammunition Belt)
Uniform: Gold
Face: Glasses
Face: Sunglasses
Equipment: Kerotan Mask
Equipment: GA-KO Mask
What is it that makes Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater stand out as one of the best video game remakes of all time, though? Well, it “collects together years of improvements and enhances them all with incredibly glossy modern graphics and an updated control system that finally turns Snake into the nimble operator he was always meant to be.”
Our review from IGN’s Michael Higham also highlighted that, “Between its old-school stealth-action gameplay and engaging spy-thriller story, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater largely succeeds as a faithful, visually impressive remake of the 2004 classic.” If you’ve been on the hunt for a thrilling adventure to keep you occupied this winter, Snake Eater can provide. And what better time to grab it than when it’s on sale, too?
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Pokémon’s promised ad spot at the Super Bowl just aired, and in it we got a glimpse into the Pokémon preferences of celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Trevor Noah, Charles Leclerc, and more.
The minute-long ad shows Lady Gaga, Trevor Noah, Formula One racer Charles Leclerc, singer Jisoo, actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Spanish football (soccer, for the Americans) player Lamine Yamal and rapper Young Miko all describing their favorite Pokémon before eventually revealing them.
Lady Gaga (of course) picked Jigglypuff, and Jigglypuff even did a brief little duet with her singing its signature song. Trevor Noah prefers Psyduck, Leclerc chooses Arcanine, Jisoo picks Eevee, Ramakrishnan chooses Luxray, Yamal picks Zygarde, and Young Miko’s partner is Gengar. Shockingly, The Pokémon Company managed not to put Pikachu in this ad anywhere (except in the logo, of course)!
The ad ends with all the celebrities asking the audience, “What’s your favorite?” This question is the start of a year-long campaign put on by The Pokémon Company in celebration of its 30th anniversary. In addition to the ad, The Pokémon Company is kicking things off by introducing a new camera feature to Pokémon GO (which is somehow ten years old this year!) that allows users to participate in the campaign.
Additionally, The Pokémon Company has promised various events including “Day Out” and “Night Out” experiences designed for fans to celebrate Pokémon, with daytime events more family-focused and nighttime events more for adults who grew up with the series. The Pokémon Company has also already announced other celebratory events, such as a themed TCG collection and Pokemon LEGO sets.
Pokémon’s 30th is a big moment for the franchise, and we’re expecting them to celebrate in style. Historically Pokémon has thrown a big digital showcase entitled Pokémon Presents on or around Pokémon Day (February 27), where the company lays out its plans for the year across video games, the TCG, and merchandise. Fans are eagerly hoping for the announcement of a new Pokémon game, perhaps a remake of beloved DS games Black and White, or the kick-off for the next generation of Pokémon, Gen 10. Heck, at this point, I’d just be happy to have the classic games on Nintendo Switch Online!
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
We’ve rounded up the best deals for Sunday, February 8, below. Don’t miss your chance to save on these deals!
The First Berserker: Khazan for $39.99
This weekend, The First Berserker: Khazan is back down to $39.99, which is the game’s all-time low price. In our 8/10 review, we wrote, “The First Beserker: Khazan is a brutal but impressive soulslike that makes pushing through its devastating bosses worth the effort.”
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X for $377.19
Amazon has the fantastic AMD Ryzen 9900X on sale today for $377.19, which saves you over $120 off MSRP. In our 8/10 review, we wrote, “The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is an incredible processor, easily able to power through creative applications like Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. However, its gaming performance is a bit less impressive for the price, making it hard to recommend to dedicated PC gamers.”
Silent Hill f for $39.99
You can also score Silent Hill f for $39.99 this weekend. This game is one of the most unique in the series, mainly due to its story, which was written by Ryukushi07. Composer Akira Yamaoka contributed to the project as well, and this edition on Amazon packs in a two-sided poster, plus the Day One items pack.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 Limited Edition Blu-ray for $49.99
The conclusion of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is almost here, with the final cour, The Calamity, set to premiere this July. Today, you can score the limited edition Blu-ray of Part 3, The Conflict, for just $49.99. This set only released last month and features all 14 episodes of Part 3, plus a 72-page production booklet, the NYCC 2024 panel, creditless opening/endings, and more.
Octopath Traveler 0 for $39.99
Octopath Traveler 0 was easily one of the most overlooked RPGs of 2025. This massive game packs in a huge amount of content, with over 100 hours required to 100% the game. In our 9/10 review, we wrote, “Octopath Traveler 0 asks you to stick with a 100-hour journey, and it rewards you with the kinds of moments only lengthy RPGs can pull off with its overarching story, an intricate turn-based combat system, and a soundtrack that’ll leave you absolutely floored.”
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater for $29.99
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best games of all time. Konami’s remake, dubbed Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, was released last year, and it successfully did its job in faithfully bringing the beloved game to new audiences. In our 8/10 review, we wrote, “Between its old-school stealth-action gameplay and engaging spy-thriller story, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater largely succeeds as a faithful, visually impressive remake of the 2004 classic.”
Save 38% Off the Chainsaw Man Season 1 Limited Edition Blu-ray
Chainsaw Man’s first season only officially released on Blu-ray as of late last year, so while this release is pretty recent, you can save $30 off today at Amazon. The Limited Edition packs in all twelve episodes of Season 1, featuring both Japanese and English audio. Plus, you’ll also get a lenticular slipcase, a 72-page booklet of production material, and on-disc art galleries.
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake for $49.99
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is an overhaul of the first two Dragon Quest games, recreating them in the gorgeous HD-2D art style while adding modern features and still remaining true to the originals. Today, you can score this game for $49.99 on PS5 at Amazon. If you’re someone just jumping into Dragon Quest for the first time or a long-time fan, this is the ultimate way to experience two games that greatly inspired the whole genre.
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for $58.99
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 released for Nintendo Switch last Fall, and today, you can score this double pack for $58.99 at Woot! These two adventures are some of Mario’s greatest, making this a must-own game for any Switch owner. Plus, there’s a free update for Nintendo Switch 2 that enables 4K support.
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles for $34.99
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles is just $34.99 at Woot today. As one of the best Final Fantasy games ever, this remaster is the perfect way to experience the beloved classic with enhanced modern features like fast-forward, autosave, and more.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Out Now
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is finally out now! This remake aims to streamline the experience of the original game, while offering a brand-new art style and modern gameplay features for players. If you’ve recently cleared through the HD-2D Erdrick Trilogy, this is a logical next game to jump to.
New Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 Out This Week
Nintendo revealed the first new set of Joy-Con 2 earlier this year, which feature purple and green colors. These are set to launch this week, on February 12, alongside Mario Tennis Fever, so now’s the time to secure a new pair if you’re planning on heading to the courts together with friends.
Introducing The Dark West, a hardcore action-RPG for PC set in a cursed frontier that got too greedy and paid the price. Occult skills and a poker-esque deck let you customize your build and blast through the black-magic-fueled foes of The Order and The Damned as you aim to be the last one standing.
Developer Black Hand aims to bring the community along with them at every step of development. “We made The Dark West because we love ARPGs and wanted to create the kind of game we have always wanted to play,” the team said. “From the start, we’ve included the community in every step of development. Their feedback is shaping the combat, the story, and the world. This is a game made with players, not just for them.” Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.
Black Hand says that The Dark West will challenge “both your skill and sanity.” It takes aim squarely at fans of Diablo and Path of Exile. There’s no release date as of yet, but you can wishlist The Dark West on Steam if you’re intererested.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired 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.
Magic: The Gathering is continuing where it left off in 2025, rolling out a whopping four crossover sets under its Universes Beyond branding in 2026: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit, and Star Trek.
That’s quite the mix, but at a time when fans are crying out for some consistency and continuity, Wizards of the Coast is about to make the same mistake it made with last year’s marketing cycle.
In short, it feels like it can’t wait to get Secrets of Strixhaven out of the way, forgetting why many people play Magic in the first place.
Magic’s Universes Beyond Sets Shouldn’t Come At The Cost Of Its Own Identity
There’s a running joke that Magic crossovers are the worst thing about the game until it’s a franchise you love, and as a longtime fan of Peter Parker’s adventures, I admit I bought into the Spider-Man hype last year.
It was easy to do, too, since Wizards started revealing cards and products super early, trampling over the Edge of Eternities set in the process. The rest, as they say, is history: Spider-Man was inarguably Magic’s most disappointing set of at least the last year (maybe longer), and Edge of Eternities was much more well-received but invariably didn’t get its chance in the limelight.
While I was hoping that Wizards would take some lessons from it, we’re now entering a 2026 roadmap with seven full sets planned. Lorwyn Eclipsed is great, and only just launched, but that’s January’s set. Preorders are now live for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Secrets of Strixhaven, and even Marvel Super Heroes.
That last set, by the way, is around five months from launch. While I appreciate that a company needs a line on a graph to go up to show success by bringing in new players, it’s starting to feel like Wizards of the Coast is trampling on Magic’s own legacy in its desperation to talk about crossover sets.
Lorwyn Eclipsed should be a celebration, a chance to return to a beloved Plane full of classic creature types, and instead, we’re getting close to the Turtles landing on store shelves. Looking past Strixhaven to a Marvel crossover, this early (and with the taste of the Spider-Man set still lingering), is just a bad look.
Please, Wizards – don’t let Secrets of Strixhaven suffer the same way Edge of Eternities is. It’s almost unavoidable with such a packed release calendar, but if you can’t pay enough time to your own universes, the ones that have captivated players for over three decades, does that not tell you a change is required?
Honestly, all of this is moot anyway – I’m part of the problem. I’ve pre-ordered some Marvel Superheroes products, and you can bet your Bilbo Baggins that I’ll be first in line for The Hobbit.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
This article contains some spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3.
So, HBO is turning Baldur’s Gate into a TV show. On its own, that’s quite an exciting proposition: a big-budget, live-action series set in Dungeons & Dragons’ most iconic city? Yes please. But the project’s announcement, which came courtesy of Deadline, contains a line that immediately had me burying my head in my hands.
“The Baldur’s Gate TV series will be a continuation to the games,” says the report, “telling a story that takes place immediately after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, as the characters — old and new — are dealing with the ramifications of the events in the third game.”
The ramifications of what events, exactly? The defeat of the Netherbrain? Or perhaps the enslavement of it in the name of the Absolute? Or Gale’s choice to turn into a magical nuclear bomb, sacrificing himself to save the city? These are just three of the many ways Baldur’s Gate 3 can end, and that’s before we consider the dozens and dozens of choices that you make on the way to that conclusion. There are approximately 17,000 variations of the game’s final cutscene. How could a TV show possibly “deal with the ramifications of the events of the third game” when every single player has their own version of events?
The answer, of course, is that showrunner Craig Mazin must decide what choices are “canon.” One half of the duo behind The Last of Us’ HBO adaptation must now set certain events in stone in order to create a baseline to build his story upon. But to decide upon a canon series of events for Baldur’s Gate 3 is not the same as, for instance, determining which of Mass Effect 3’s trio of concluding options would be the starting point for what comes next. It’s not a simple case of how the story ends, but everything that happened on the 100-hour journey up until that point, too.
The entire picture of Baldur’s Gate 3, the story any one player lived, is the result of hundreds of decisions, ranging from the tactical to the emotional to the completely unaware. For some, Minsc and his miniature space hamster, Boo, are vital parts of the story. Yet many won’t even know who he is, having passed by and never recruited him to their party. There are those for whom Shadowheart’s escape from the Church of Shar is a defining moment, yet others will have found an equally defining pathway in encouraging her to embrace the dark goddess. And for those players of a more chaotic leaning, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the tale of an unstoppable serial killer that greedily succumbs to their own Dark Urge, tearing limbs off wizards and letting goblins slaughter refugees. The game is less a single story with a handful of different outcomes, and more like hundreds of character threads that are entwined like rope. A rope that grows thicker and longer with every romance (steady now), argument, betrayal, and surprise you experience. To unravel all that and find a single golden thread for television seems at best foolhardy, at worst impossible.
Anyone who wants a sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3 wants a follow-up to their own experience, not Craig Mazin’s.
None of this is to say that the show is guaranteed to be bad, or of poor quality. Considering Mazin’s prior work – in particular, Chernobyl – and HBO’s track record with fantasy programming, there’s every chance that Baldur’s Gate will be a fantastic show, at least when viewed in isolation. But it’s difficult to create that isolation when the project is explicitly a continuation of the journey so many of us undertook for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours. And because of Baldur’s Gate 3’s unrivalled branching RPG design, we have all become deeply attached to our own versions of this world and its characters.
It should be said that details of how the show will be structured are still incredibly thin. It will feature a group of new protagonists, so we don’t know to what extent the now-famous party of heroes and antiheroes that make up Baldur’s Gate 3 cast will feature. By being a “continuation to the games”, could it merely exist in a world where the Netherbrain once existed, and tales of heroes’ journeys to defeat it are muttered in the city’s streets like mythical tales? Or will meetings with the likes of Wyll, Astarion, Lae’zel be little more than fleeting encounters, kept somewhat shapeless in an effort to remain relevant to most players’ memories of them? It creates a dilemma: purposefully keep things vague and potentially undercook the history of this world, or pick a defined canon that could alienate large portions of your viewership?
Television adaptations are, of course, designed with more than one eye on wider markets. HBO wants people who have never played Baldur’s Gate 3 to become invested in its world. But that begs the question: why a direct sequel? Why take place immediately after a story that a portion of your audience has no investment in? If half your audience has no attachment to those events, and the other half will almost certainly have experienced a different version of the events you’re building upon, who is winning here? Anyone who does want a sequel wants a follow-up to their own experience, not Craig Mazin’s.
Baldur’s Gate won’t be the first show to tackle this problem. Just this year, the second season of Fallout told a story set after the events of Fallout: New Vegas, an RPG that also concludes with a number of very different, world-defining options. But Fallout has made a number of smart choices. Firstly, it’s not a sequel to the game; it’s just set in the same universe, and thus isn’t trying to continue the plot of New Vegas. Secondly, it’s set over a decade later, and purposefully leaves the events during that time a complete mystery. And so the show’s depiction of the game’s characters and factions doesn’t have to join the dots. Did you hand the Vegas Strip to the Legion in your playthrough? Well, in the 15 years since, they’ve succumbed to infighting and have fallen from their mighty position. You don’t need to know how it happened, it just did.
Using this method, Fallout (sort of) successfully ensures no one New Vegas ending is cemented as canon. Every outcome could have happened, but the result of your choices may not have endured for the 15 years between the game and the show. Larian Studios, the developer of Baldur’s Gate 3, understood the benefit of this kind of time gap; its gargantuan RPG is set more than a century after the events of its predecessor, ensuring it’s not restricted by the conclusion of Baldur’s Gate 2 and has space to create its own story. By starting immediately after the events of BG3, the show won’t have this luxury. It has to make a choice. It has to invalidate thousands of playthroughs. It can’t be the sequel to your experience of Baldur’s Gate 3.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The real lesson to learn from Fallout is that video game adaptations thrive best when they are decoupled from existing stories. So the big question is, why is this not just a Dungeons & Dragons show? You can set a D&D show in Baldur’s Gate. You can call a D&D show “Baldur’s Gate”. You can even include characters and reference (certain) events from Baldur’s Gate 3. But to purposefully shackle yourself to continuing the story of that game, rather than freely exploring its world, feels like purposefully rolling a critical fail on the first round of combat.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
