Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket received its Space Time Smackdown expansion yesterday, January 30, and players have expressed shock and heartbreak at one specific card’s artwork that depicts a particularly brutal scene for Pokémon.
The card in question is Weavile ex, and while this comes in three separate forms, it’s the 2 Star full art card that has fans in an uproar. In the artwork, below, a group of Weavile are hiding in the treetops with claws at the ready, preparing to prey on an innocent Swinub.
“No Swinub,” look up! Look up!” reads a Reddit post featuring the artwork with nearly 10,000 upvotes. “Always got to be one card per set that shows Pokémon in the process of straight up killing each other,” one user replied. “Leave the lil guy alone,” said another.
“The ecology of Pokémon is always so crazy to imagine,” another fan added. “Like these are still animals, some smarter than others. Just they have the ability to fire laser beams.”
Some are choosing to believe the full art card for Mamoswine, the final evolution of Swinub, depicts a happy ending though, as it shows the mammoth pocket monster looking up while protecting a handful of Swinub.
“Hey, Mamoswine protected his baby. Don’t worry. He most definitely saw those Weaviles,” said one desperate fan. “The Mamoswine alt card already looks above. He saw them. He saw…” said another.
Space Time Smackdown arrived as a Pokémon Diamond and Pearl themed set bringing the likes of Weavile and Mamoswine alongside Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, and more. It includes a total of 207 cards and is therefore significantly smaller than Genetic Apex’s 286. That being said, 52 of these are the alternate art, Star and Crown rarity cards, and as Genetic Apex had 60 of these, there is a higher percentage of rare pieces to collect.
Creatures Inc. still hasn’t commented on the controversial trading update which arrived the day before, with its social media accounts and the game itself only really focusing on Space Time Smackdown. It also failed to respond to IGN’s request for comment.
A “Trade Feature Celebration Gift” did arrive with 500 Trade Tokens and 120 Trade Hourglasses (the former of which is enough to trade a single ex Pokémon), but the developer has otherwise remained quiet on fan complaints.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Cardy, Jesse, and Wes are here to go through some of Xbox’s most famous franchises, and rank each of them in tier lists based on which they enjoy the most. Is Halo still S-tier? Can Playground’s Fable return the series back to its Lionhead heights? Does anyone want a new Fuzion Frenzy? Some of these questions will be answered.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
Midnight Society, the game studio co-founded by stream Guy ‘Dr. Disrespect’ Beahm, has announced that it will be closing its doors and canceling its FPS game, Deadrop.
The studio announced its closure on a post on X writing, “Today we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of over 55 developers[.]” The studio added a call asking if any studio is hiring and could offere employment opportunities to its team members.
Midnight Society was founded by Beahm, as well as veterans of games like Call of Duty and Halo Robert Bowling and Quinn Delhyo. The studio’s first game, Deadrop was meant to be a free-to-play FPS that would build on the team’s expertise. Deadrop was targeting a 2024 release, but missed their target.
Midnight Society parted ways with Beahm in 2024 after the streamer announced exchanging messages with a minor through Twitch’s Whispers feature that “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.” Despite the split, Midnight Society continued development on Deadrop until this year when it shut down.
The game was set in a fictional universe where “the 80s never ended,” according to the studio. Images shared by Midnight Soceity shows characters wearing Daft Punk-like helments and wielding guns and swords. The gameplay was set to be a PvPvE style extraction shooter.
Midnight Society joins the list of studios that have experienced closure or layoffs in this difficult time for the games industry that has impacted companies like Ubisoft, BioWare, Phoenix Labs, and many many more.
Xbox’s popular racing game Forza Horizon 5 is heading to PlayStation.
In a surprise announcement, Playground Games announced that the most recent Forza Horizon game is coming to PS5 this spring. It will be the latest Xbox exclusive heading to the PlayStation console following Bethesda games like Starfield, Sea of Thieves, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
The PS5 version was developed by Panic Button in partnership with Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games and will feature the same content as the Xbox and PC version. Furthermore, Car Packs, and the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions will also be included.
The move comes amid growing interest from Xbox in releasing its games on non-Xbox platforms including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirming its intention to support the Switch 2.
In the most recent investor call, Microsoft revealed that while Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reached 4 million players, and Game Pass on PC grew 30% to increase services revenue by 2%, overall gaming revenue fell with console sales dropping nearly 30%. This may incentivize Xbox to prioritize Game Pass and push for more games on other hardware.
Forza Horizon 5 is the continuation of the open world racing series. A little more arcade than its racing sim sibling, Forza Mortorsport, Forza Horizon 5 allows drivers to race and explore beautiful Mexico. You can read our full review here.
The team came prepared, revealing names and release windows for a few of the more substantial updates it has planned to launch throughout 2025. Several DLC pack collections are on the way for those who plan to stick with the seventh entry in the long-running strategy series in the months ahead, with things like additional Leaders, Civilizations, and Natural Wonders set to be included. Alongside the paid drops arriving in the spring and summer, players can expect free Civilization 7 content to launch via patches, events, and more.
Headlining the paid DLC is a two-part release called the Crossroads of the World Collection. Part one launches in early March and comes with Leader Ada Lovelace, four Natural Wonders, and the Carthage and Great Britain Civs, while part two is set to arrive in late March with Leader Simon Bollvar and Civs Bulgaria and Nepal. Free content is also expected to release in early and late March, too, with the month split up between the new Natural Wonder Battle event and Bermuda Triangle Natural Wonder in the first half and the Marvelous Mountains event and Mount Everest Natural Wonder in the second half.
March is set up to kick off Civilization 7 post-launch support with a strong start, but there’s more set arrive later in the year. Firaxis says the Right Rule Collection will launch sometime this summer, bringing two new leaders, four new Civs, and four New World Wonders. The April through September window will also see the release of more free content and updates. It’s a promising roadmap (below) that has the 2K Games strategy-focused developer promising to deliver more post-launch support from October 2025 “and beyond.” Specific release dates for everything revealed today have yet to be announced.
Firaxis revealed even more plans in a recently published developer diary blog post, which includes the promise to add teams to multiplayer games, increased multiplayer lobby sizes, additional map variety, and even modding tools. The team explains that it will release features like these “as soon as we can.”
“The first set of updates we’ll be providing are those that directly target the game as it currently stands,” the dev diary explains. “There will be some bugs to fix, plenty of balance changes to make, and we know there are spots in the gameplay and user interface that can be enhanced with any number of quality-of-life improvements. You’ll see regular updates from us in all of these areas.”
In addition to a breakdown of how Firaxis will tackle Civilization 7 post-launch content, the livestream gave fans a closer look at how all of its systems work together in multiplayer. The hour-and-a-half-long gameplay presentation saw creative director Ed Beach take on senior designer Tim Flemming live to show off how two different strategies can be used to achieve victory regardless of whether you’re playing alone or against others. Today’s stream, Firaxis’ last before launch, also included Q&A sections where the team answered some of the community’s questions.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 launches for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S February 11. If you’re too excited for Firaxis’ latest domination strategy to wait, you can pick up the Deluxe Edition for $99.99 to take part in an early access period that begins February 6. For more, you can check out our preview, where we took a look at how things are shaping up so far.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Atomfall is set to release for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC in March. The deluxe edition will be available on March 24, while the standard edition releases March 27. Billed as a survival-action game, Atomfall is set in a quarantine zone in Northern England five years after a nuclear disaster. The game is available to preorder now in a couple of editions (see it at Amazon). Read on for the details about what comes in each edition, how much it costs, what preorder bonuses are available, and more.
The digital-only deluxe edition of Atomfall comes with the game itself, plus the following extras:
3 days early access (March 24)
“Story Expansion Pack” (coming later)
“Basic Supply Bundle” Pack
“Enhanced Supply Bundle” Pack
Atomfall Will Be on Game Pass
Xbox and PC owners can play Atomfall on PC on March 27, as long as they’re subscribed to Game Pass. Click above for the current best deal on a three-month membership, our check out our guide to the best ongoing Game Pass deals.
Atomfall Preorder Bonus
Preorder Atomfall from any retailer, and you’ll receive the following digital items for free:
In the five years since the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England, the place hasn’t become any more inhabitable – at least for the types of people you’d want to spend time with. Living in the quarantine zone are cultists, rogue government agencies, and all sorts of strange people. Your job is to survive by scavenging resources, bartering with others, and crafting items, as well as fighting and talking with the locals.
Team Ninja will release a Ninja Gaiden 2 Black update in mid February to make “balance adjustments” and add “additional features.”
The update was announced on X/Twitter but little was said about what it includes specifically. Players have already replied to the post with features they’d like to see, including options to tweak camera movement as well as a more traditional new game plus option, but Team Ninja has only said it will address “feedback” received so far. No release date was announced.
“Based on the feedback received, we are preparing a patch aimed for release in mid February with some balance adjustments and additional features,” the studio said.
Ver. 1.0.6.0 Patch Released A patch for the Microsoft Store ver. to fix the issue where super-resolution couldn’t be selected has been released.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, which shadow dropped for players on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S last week, also received a smaller update in the form of patch version 1.0.6.0 today. As detailed on its website, it comes with two specific changes: a fix for an issue that removed DLSS and XeSS resolution options for copies bought through the Microsoft Store, and a fix for a “rare” problem that halted progress for players after defeating certain bosses.
The game was revealed alongside word that Team Ninja and PlatinumGames are both hard at work on Ninja Gaiden 4, which is set to launch in fall 2025. The remake of the second Ninja Gaiden game, meanwhile, is here now, and it’s already made quite an impression in the gaming space. We’ve enjoyed it, too, giving it an 8/10 in our review, where we called it a “definite and gorgeous improvement” over the Sigma 2 re-release and “an excellent action game all around.”
I found a lot of joy in Hello Kitty Island Adventure when I first started playing its closed beta for IGN’s guide, way back before it hit Apple Arcade in 2023. Getting to create my own little Sanrio character and run around a tropical island collecting bits and bobs to gift to my new animal friends was pretty relaxing and fun. But day by day, that motivation to complete all my quests, find missing friends, and unlock new regions started to wear off. At a certain point it felt like a chore to log in, spam friends with gifts until I hit obnoxious daily limits, and hope I’d be allowed to progress my friendship levels a little further. Sadly, it’s the same situation on Switch and PC a year and change later: this island is still just as large, colorful, and geographically diverse as it was on my iPad, but it’s as frustratingly gated, repetitive, and stale too.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to like about Hello Kitty. The crafting, for instance, feels simple and intuitive. There are many different things you can make, from a variety of food items to cute plush pals. But at the end of the day, the main purpose of crafting is to get better gifts for your island friends. The better your gifts, the quicker you’ll advance friendship. That means there is very little incentive to craft things outside of gift giving or unlocking the next step of the very light “story.”
Gifting is what makes the world go ‘round in Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Everything revolves around giving your island residents presents and receiving resources (which you’ll use to make better gifts) in exchange. Progression in the story is largely locked behind different Friendship levels, which can be a slog to get through unless you’re gifting your residents two- or three-heart items – but the catch is that you won’t even be able to craft those higher level items until you’ve hit certain Friendship levels. It feels like a carefully curated maze of roadblocks to keep you from progressing too far too fast.
Although discovering the best order to level your residents while trying to figure out each of their favorite three-star gifts can be a fun challenge, gifting eventually starts to feel more like a tedious chore. You can’t even deliver multiple of the same gift at once to hurry up the process. And since gifting whatever earns you the most Friendship points is the only correct option, there’s nothing creative or rewarding about it – it’s a thinly veiled spreadsheet color-coded in bright, bubblegum pink. Even the dialogue triggered by gifting remains largely the same from friend to friend, only varying depending on the “tier” of the item you give.
The characters are super cute, but talking to them each day feels fruitless.
The characters themselves are super cute, and are sure to spark some nostalgia for longtime Sanrio fans. They have a bit of spunk to them, with the odd moment of humor which livens up otherwise-dull dialogue interactions. Other than that, though, talking to the island residents each day feels fruitless. You don’t really get any new interactions with them as time goes on. You just have to keep plugging along giving gift after gift to unlock their quests if you hope to see anything new or different.
So if Friendship and gifting are simply the keys, surely the questing door they open is where more interesting or engaging experiences must be hidden… right? Unfortunately, all that awaits you is even more flavors of busy work. From quests unlocked by reaching new levels of Friendship, to the story quests which reveal the “mystery” of the island, these objectives are another never-ending list of to-dos, with very little variety in the simple puzzles, object fetching, crafting, and more they ask of you.
That means quest tasks get repetitive fast, and I had very little motivation to complete them outside of unlocking more of the story (which itself is full of dialogue that often falls flat) because rewards felt either minimal or inconsequential. We’re talking about a crafting material here, a “spooky” furniture item there – nothing that changed anything about the way the next task would unfold.
That’s because furniture and decorating are just as underwhelming as the crafting and collecting that precede them. You can decorate your own island home, plus the other homes you unlock to attract new Visitors, using the friendship and quest rewards. If you’re lucky, you might find something in a random chest hidden around the island. It’s a while, though, before you’re able to craft your own furniture.
Once you’ve unlocked some variety, the options are… okay. While you could mix and match, the decor isn’t very versatile, leaving little room to get creative and design your own style outside of the “themes” each furniture set comes in because they just don’t play well together. What am I supposed to do with a Hello Kitty bookcase, a Spooky Candelabra, and a Pirate chair? I can’t make my house look like a bookstore, or a cafe, or even redecorate for an upcoming holiday with such limited options. Heck, you can’t even rotate furniture at quarter turns or place objects on tables! Overall, unless you like decorating your houses in full-on Kawaii styles, you’re out of luck.
One of the areas where Hello Kitty Island Adventure’s customization is more successful is its character creator. I love that you get to build your own little Sanrio character, rather than the Animal Crossing approach of you being the only human on an island full of sentient, talking creatures. There’s a nice variety of different animals to choose from, including birds, bunnies, and even sheep (though I am bewildered that it doesn’t have frogs as an option). As you play more and level up your Friendship, you unlock even more “avatar” color options to choose from.
A lack of interesting hooks is why my motivation started to wane.
Tuxedosam has some cute clothes available to purchase at his island shop, and you’ll get the odd outfit from a chest or quest. However, much like the decor, there isn’t enough variety to inspire my creativity or make me want to dress up every day (or even very often) like I usually enjoy doing in games like this. I found one outfit I kind of liked and it became my “uniform.”
This lack of interesting hooks is a big reason why my motivation to continue playing started to wane once I reached a certain point. Sure, there are lots of things to collect in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, including furniture, clothes, critters, fish, and more, but there is very little incentive to do so other than simply for the sake of keeping you busy.
There is at least the Nature Preserve to fill up with critters, as well as the Fwishing Well to give fish to, both of which would normally satisfy someone like me who enjoys “catching ‘em all” and hitting collection goals. But, once again, the rewards for adding these places are so minimal they might as well be nonexistent. You’re telling me that for donating all the critters that can be found in the bog area of the island I get… 10 mushrooms? I could gather those myself in a single day!
It does help that the designs for the critters themselves are unbearably adorable, branching off beyond bugs to also include frogs, chickens, and even turtles. But that’s not enough to change the fact that bug catching itself is overly simplistic, and doesn’t offer much to make certain bugs more of a challenge than others besides having them vanish quicker. Of course, you can enlist Kerropi’s help to get a buff that makes the bugs stick around longer – but, as you might have guessed, this too is locked behind their Friendship level.
In comparison, I really like the fishing minigame, which puts a small spin on the typical “keep the fish in the colored bar” mechanic by turning the bar on its side and testing your reaction time to keep an arrow balanced in the center. However, there isn’t much more to fishing beyond this. There are no upgrades to get and no fishing collection challenges that I could find, other than hitting certain milestones by giving gifts… sorry, I mean making donations to the Fwishing Well. That’s a shame, because the designs of the fish are really cute, colorful, and match the unique vibe of the regions they are found in perfectly.
At this point, you’ll probably be making comparisons to another cozy tropical island game. Allow me to be the bearer of bad news: No, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is not really comparable to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While these two games might seem very similar on the surface (you are stuck on an island with some cute animal companions, tasked with sprucing the place up), they couldn’t be more different once you actually jump in.
Animal Crossing is all about collecting and crafting as you shape your own personal dream island, essentially a sandbox decorating game full of fun little guys who live alongside you. Hello Kitty, on the other hand, is all about transforming an abandoned island amusement park into the best (read, predetermined) version of itself along a linear path. The lack of customization for not only the island itself, but also your own house and visitor’s houses, means it feels less like your dream island, and more like a dream of Hello Kitty’s that you’re just visiting.
That makes it feel like Hello Kitty Island Adventure is asking nothing of me except for my time. While a game coming to more platforms is never a bad thing on its own, I fear this one was better off played on a phone – something to open up and fill the dull moments on long commutes or in waiting rooms. Despite the disdain mobile games often unjustly draw, there is no shame in wanting something that serves as a casual distraction for short spurts at a time. (That isn’t even to touch on the fact that many mobile games are so much more than that.) But even in that context, this isn’t one I want to spend my spare time on, and it makes me sad to think it could be what some people now think all cozy mobile games are: colorful, cutesy, and totally mindless.
Sony has issued an update on the classic PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PS4 limited-time console themes for PS5, as well as the prospect of more themes coming to the console.
In a tweet, Sony confirmed that the much-loved classic themes leave tomorrow, January 31, 2025. However, it also confirmed that they will return at some point, which is certainly good news for PS5 users who’ve enjoyed those nostalgia-fueled boot-up sounds whenever they turn their consoles on.
“Thank you for the fantastic response to the classic PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PS4 limited-time console themes, which will be leaving tomorrow,” Sony said. “Due to the positive response on these 4 themes, we’re doing some work behind the scenes to bring these special designs back in the months ahead.”
Your PS5 now has themes that use imagery and sound from previous PlayStation consoles! pic.twitter.com/5UAwEplcwX
That’s the good news. Now for the bad news. In a follow-up tweet, Sony said it has no plans to release more themes in the future. Here’s the statement:
“While there aren’t plans to create additional themes in the future, we’re excited to keep celebrating legacy PlayStation hardware with you all.”
Fans were quick to express their disappointment at the news. Sony has yet to add themes to the PS5 despite it being a feature of previous consoles, and based on this statement, it’s not happening at lease with this console generation.
The nostalgia themes let PS5 users style their home screen and menus after the PSOne, PS2, PS3, and PS4 in celebration of the 30th anniversary of PlayStation on December 3, 2024. The PSOne theme adds the classic console to the home screen background, the PS2 theme adds its menu shapes, the PS3 theme adds its wave background, and the PS4 theme similarly adds the wave patterns seen in the background of the previous generation of PlayStation. All themes also add each console’s sound effects.
Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
General manager Gary McKay said the studio is “taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine how we work.”
“Given this stage of development, we don’t require support from the full studio,” McKay continued. “We have incredible talent here at BioWare, and so we have worked diligently over the past few months to match many of our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open roles that were a strong fit.”
IGN understands that EA has already placed an unknown number of developers from BioWare into other, equivalent roles within the company. But a smaller number of Dragon Age team members are also seeing their roles terminated, and are being offered time to apply to other roles within the company if they so choose.
Following the announcement, a number of BioWare developers took to social media to say they were now leaving the studio. Editor Karin West-Weekes, narrative designer and lead writer on Dragon Age: The Veilguard Trick Weekes, and editor Ryan Cormier all said they were looking for work, with producer Jen Cheverie and senior systems designer Michelle Flamm also confirming their exit.
IGN asked EA for specifics on how many individuals at BioWare were being impacted by this latest change, how many face potential layoffs, and how many remain at the studio, but EA’s response was vague:
“The studio’s priority was Dragon Age. During this time there were people continuing to build the vision for the next Mass Effect. Now that The Veilguard has shipped, the studio’s full focus is Mass Effect.
“While we’re not sharing numbers, the studio has the right number of people in the right roles to work on Mass Effect at this stage of development.”
BioWare’s work on Dragon Age: The Veilguard was brought to an end last week with what sounded like its last major update.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the first new game in the fantasy RPG series in 10 years, but it came and went not with a bang but a whimper. Amid the launch BioWare confirmed Dragon Age: The Veilguard wouldn’t get any post-launch DLC, shocking fans who had hoped for expansions as previous Dragon Age games had received.
As for Mass Effect, EA said a “core team” at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
