Hazelight’s latest co-op adventure, Split Fiction, has officially surpassed one million copies sold in the first 48 hours, setting a new record for the studio.
Notably this is one million copies sold, which means it’s possible that far more than that are playing Split Fiction. Every copy of the game comes with a Friend’s Pass that lets a friend play the entire game in co-op with the purchaser for free. While not everyone will take advantage of that option (some will play local co-op, some may play with someone who already owns the game, etc), that’s still a whole lot of people playing Split Fiction.
This is a huge sales jump from Hazelight’s last game, It Takes Two, which didn’t reach the one million milestone until a month after launch. But that in and of itself was deemed an impressive milestone, with studio head Josef Fares saying at the time that it proved players want co-op games.
We really dug Split Fiction, calling it “a rollercoaster of constantly refreshed gameplay ideas and styles ā and one thatās very hard to walk away from” in our 9/10 review.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
With all the trailers, showcases, and dev diaries that often lead up to a gameās launch nowadays, itās harder than ever for one to be a real surprise ā and thatās especially true of a multiplayer first-person shooter when, like me, you are a Certified Old Gamerā¢ whoās been playing them since the genre began. Yet FragPunk has done just that. What I worried might end up being a Valorant clone with a card gimmick and a big list of other buzzword features has instead impressed me with how fresh it all feels. It’s still early, and I’m far from ready to say if this is a definite winner, but so far, Iām having a hard time putting FragPunk down.
In many ways, FragPunk reminds me of a reverse Ship of Theseus. If every component of a game came from somewhere else, does it eventually become something original? Itās hard to say, but the result is at least a lot of fun. Like Overwatch, it has very distinct characters with big personalities and unique tools to match them. Like Valorant or Counter-Strike, the primary game mode, called Shard Clash, revolves around teams of five competing to plant or defuse a Converter (aka bomb) or eliminate one another across multiple rounds. And like Fortnite, it has a deep bag of cosmetic items like costumes, weapon skins, stickers, and emotes to entice you to spend some money on this otherwise free-to-play shooter.
FragPunkās playable characters are called Lancers, and so far this is a fun group to choose from. Some are relatively typical archetypes, like a sniper named Hollowpoint with her abilities that help reveal enemies. Others are way out there, like the punk rocker Axon, who shoots lightning from his guitar. Unlike Valorant, where abilities can give you an edge but are rarely what win a fight outright, Fragpunk places a much bigger emphasis on using them to dominate the map, which I like. When abilities like Brokerās rocket launcher can instantly erase enemies, it feels good to use it yourself or devise a counter on the fly as you see it coming, like throwing down a wall of Fungi as Pathojen to provide cover and then returning fire from a remote controlled combat drone.
Naturally, Fragpunk isnāt all lightning guitars and rockets. Your standard assortment of shotguns, SMGs, assault rifles, and more forms the backbone of combat. I donāt mind that the guns really arenāt the star of the show here, but I do wish there was more variety to choose from. There are two options in each category you can select as your primary weapon, and they all shoot pretty much exactly how youād expect. Most of the maps seem to favor medium-range engagements, so Iāve been gravitating toward the SMGs. The gunplay is smooth and responsive, and the fast time-to-kill does a good job of emphasizing the importance of positioning over raw gun skill.
The star of the show is the Shard Card system.
The other aspect of shooting that stands out is how little movement affects your aim. Unlike Valorant, where stopping and popping is often essential if you want to be accurate, Fragpunk fully embraces running and gunning. I found myself repeatedly lagging behind my squad in kill count until a teammate pointed out that Iām better off treating gunfights like Call of Duty with powers, advice that put me right at the top of the next matchās leaderboard. That style of shooting isnāt necessarily better than the more deliberate action of other games, but it does stick out as atypical for an objective-based tactical shooter in a way that seems like a perfect fit with the general FragPunk vibe.
The star of the show, however, is the Shard Card system. Before every round, each team has three random cards pulled that players can then put Shard Points into, effectively voting on which ones will be active. The costs of effects vary, and you earn more Shard Points by either getting kills or picking them up off the ground mid-round. Some Shard Cards are simple, like one that increases your movement speed, while others are extremely powerful, like another that forces the next round to play out as a melee battle ā or one called Big Heads, which (as advertised) gives the entire enemy team overgrown, easy-to-hit craniums. A few are even downright weird, like Egg King, which causes you to lay an egg after crouching for ten seconds, which you can then eat to regain health. Itās hilarious, utterly bizarre, and unlike anything Iāve ever seen in a shooter before.
Iām surprised by how much I enjoy the card-collecting aspect of FragPunk. You start with less than a third of the 169 total Shard Cards in your inventory and can earn more after completing matches. Getting more matters, as the cards that are randomly selected before each round are based on what each team member has unlocked. Itās pretty exciting getting a new card and reading what weirdness itās going to introduce. I also appreciate that you can easily see your collection, read the effect, and, in some cases, watch a quick video showing you exactly what it does.
Rounds of Shard Clash go by fast ā possibly too fast. In theory, one team is trying to plant the Converter on one of two objective points, which the other team would then need to defuseā¦ but in practice, the overwhelming majority of rounds end when one team wipes out the other, often in just a few minutes. That means that matches rarely have the same sort of strategic back and forth that makes hard-fought games of Valorant so engaging. It also means that Lancers with abilities that have more of a nuanced, tactical focus have seemed less viable overall so far. Iād love to hunker down with Nitoās turrets and drone to hold a point, but thatās just a recipe to have all the action happen elsewhere. Hopefully some balance tweaks will arrive to make the objectives a more relevant part of the action.
Matches end when one team wins four total rounds, but if both teams reach three wins before that happens, it activates one of my favorite twists: Duels. This has each team face off in a series of 1v1 fights in a small arena, and whoever survives sticks around to face the other teamās next champion until every member of one has been eliminated. Health and abilities donāt regenerate round to round, which makes it tough for one great player to run the table. The action is as exciting as it is tense, and spectating while you root on your teammate and wait for your own turn is thrilling, especially when you get the win that clinches the Duel and, by extension, the entire match for your team.
So far, I am really enjoying FragPunk, though there are still some unanswered questions before I can render a final verdict. Iām still a few levels short of being able to compete in ranked competition, which is an important mode for this sort of game. Likewise, as much as Iām enjoying both the action and the hilariously mad Shard Cards, I wonder if that novelty could wear off sooner rather than later. There are still more matches to be fought, Lancers to unlock, cards to collect, and quite a few in-game currencies to figure out. For now, I can say that FragPunk is very fun, and while it is pulling a lot from games that came before, it goes against the grain and mixes in twists in a way that feels original, which has me looking forward to playing more.
Rockstar owner Take-Two Interactive is suing online marketplace PlayerAuctions, alleging it contains “thousands of listings for unauthorized, infringing GTA V content ā including heavily modified player accounts, in-game assets, and virtual currency ā all gained by using hacking software, cheats, and technical exploits.”
The lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. Central District Court of California against the Chinese company that owns the website, Paiao Network Technology. It accuses PlayerAuctions of operating “with full knowledge that its sellers are engaged in rampant infringement and other unauthorized conduct,” while it “reaps millions in revenue by taking a cut of every transaction on its marketplace.”
Specifically, Take-Two alleges that PlayerAuctions hosts listings of modded accounts that have been manipulated to give high game levels and in-game currency, or to unlock content normally unlocked through playing or purchases. Take-Two also claims PlayerAuctions sells money drop services that work using hacking software to give purchasing players large amounts of in-game money, and account boosting services where sellers use hacking software or glitches to inflate a purchasing player’s in-game level or currency total.
Take-Two further argues that PlayerAuctions goes out of its way to “lull its users into buying illegitimate GTA V content from its sellers” by offering refunds if the hacked accounts purchased are caught and banned post-purchase. According to the complaint, Take-Two has “repeatedly confronted PlayerAuctions with evidence of infringement” and has issued a cease and desist, but PlayerAuction has refused to shut down these listings.
The GTA publisher is claiming relief for multiple different types and levels of copyright infringement, as well as intentional interference with contract. Take-Two is seeking a permanent enjoinment on PlayerAuctions from continuing to directly or indirectly sell accounts, currency, or items in any Take-Two game, or participating in or assisting hacking efforts, or infringing the GTA trademarks. It’s also seeing damages for trademark infringement, costs and attorney fees, damages, and restitution.
Take-Two isn’t the only company going after PlayerAuctions. Early last month, Roblox filed a similar suit in the Northern District of California Court covering roughly the same accusations, attempts at a cease and desist, claims, and prayer for relief. Notably, PlayerAuctions offers similar sales and services across many other games, including World of Warcraft, Genshin Impact, Valorant, Path of Exile, Final Fantasy 14, Call of Duty, and Fortnite. In total, PlayerAuctions claims to sell various boosts, items, and benefits for over 200 games.
While the Take-Two suit is still early in the process, the Roblox case has its first hearing set for March 20 in Oakland, California, where Roblox is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop PlayerAuctions from selling Roblox-related products and services while the case proceeds.
The lawsuit comes ahead of the fall 2025 launch of GTA 6, which Take-Two recently reaffirmed. The hope is of course that any new version of GTA Online that launches alongside GTA 6 will be as free from cheaters as is possible, and the lawsuit may go some way to helping.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s latest trailer revealed a bevy of new information, including one particular casting that’s caused quite a stir thanks to the character’s distinctly Solid Snake-esque vibes. As it turns out, casting this character went a bit further, as director Hideo Kojima tried to find someone who could surpass a standout from the first Death Stranding.
On X/Twitter, Kojima wrote a lengthy post about the process of casting Italian actor Luca Marinelli to play Neil in Death Stranding 2. “During the pandemic, I was casting for DS2,” Kojima said. “Neil would be an important role that replaces Cliff from DS1. The fans would not be satisfied unless the casting would surpass Mads.”
Kojima first learned of Marinelli through his role in the Italian film They Call Me Jeeg, and a correspondence sprung up around the Japanese distribution of the film Martin Eden. Marinelli sent an email to Kojima, which read: “I grew up with Metal Gear. I am a big fan of yours. I am very honored that you saw the film I starred in. I wanted to tell you this directly.”
After seeing Marinelli in The Old Guard, Kojima sent the actor an email offer and talked with him after the actor wrapped filming The Eight Mountains. Once pitched, Marinelli agreed and, after learning Kojima was looking for someone to play Lucy, introduced the game director to his wife Alissa Jung.
“We did their scan and pcap [performance capture] during the height of the pandemic, but their on-set performance was excellent,” Kojima said. “You can see that in the digitized results from even the small bits of the trailer. I can only thank Luca and Alissa for agreeing to perform when we didn’t even have a script yet.”
Marinelli’s character, Neil, has been one of the breakout reveals from the latest Death Stranding 2 trailer. At its conclusion, we see Neil don a bandanna in the same way Solid Snake would in Metal Gear Solid, before directing a squad of soldiers in the same manner as Cliff in the first Death Stranding.
The casting has clearly been on Kojima’s mind for some time, as has the imagery of Luca donning the bandana. Back in 2020, Kojima talked about how Marinelli had caught his attention, adding: “I think if he donned a bandanna, he’d be a spitting image of Solid Snake!”
Monster Hunter Wilds has emerged as one of the most popular games of the year thus far, setting records for both the series and Capcom. The reason for its popularity, according to series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, comes down to story, immersion, and cross-play.
Tsujimoto spoke to The Nikkei (via Automaton) about Monster Hunter Wilds. According to the producer, the biggest factors that influenced the new Monster Hunter’s popularity are an emphasis on story, heightened immersion (citing Wilds being fully voiced), and cross-play.
It might sound a bit strange, but Monster Hunter Wilds does have a surprising interest in the story and “why” behind all of the monster hunting. Alongside the obvious points like cutscenes and a sizeable cast of characters, the low-rank section of the campaign moves along at quite a pace.
In IGN’s review of Monster Hunter Wilds, we noted as much. While the trek to the first credits roll is a little short than you might normally expect, the intent felt like a desire to have more players get through the campaign and see higher-end content.
Despite requiring players to sign NDAs to prevent details of EA’s upcoming untitled Battlefield game leaking online, it leaked online anyway, with dozens of video and screenshots popping up, showing off what players participating in the game’s closed playtesting have been up to.
Most publishers are fiercely protective of leaked early footage as pre-release gameplay can feature incomplete animations, unfinished UI, and less-than-stellar graphics. This time, however ā despite the fact players are breaking confidentiality agreements by uploading videos or screenshots ā EA has yet to issue takedowns.
“I am scared to say that but this game is shaping up very damn well. I hope there are no catchesā¦” said one player, with another adding: “The animations of the weapons moving around while running / doing anything look better than 2042 to me.”
“Dude, even in a pre-alpha state, the explosions, bullets, and projectiles whizzing by, buildings crumbling down, dust kicking up. This has so much potential!” exclaimed another happy player.
“I can’t get over how good the sounds and the destruction look at alpha,” opined someone else.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
A leaked internal video has revealed Sony is experimenting with AI-powered PlayStation characters.
The Verge reported on the emergence of an internal video allegedly created by PlayStation Studios’ advanced technology group that uses Aloy from the Horizon games to demonstrate AI-powered game characters.
The video was subsequently pulled from YouTube following a copyright claim from Muso, an internet enforcement company The Verge said lists Sony Interactive Entertainment as a client. This suggests the video is legitimate. IGN has asked Sony for comment.
In the video, as reported by The Verge, Sony Interactive Entertainment director of software engineering, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, has a conversation with an AI-powered Aloy via voice prompts and AI-generated speech and facial animations.
The speech recognition is via OpenAIās Whisper for speech-to-text, the conversational AI via GPT-4 and Llama 3 for dialogue and decision-making, the speech synthesis via Sonyās Emotional Voice Synthesis (EVS) system, and the facial animation via Sonyās Mockingbird technology.
In the tech demo, Raghoebardajal asks Aloy how she’s doing, to which she responds: “Hello, I’m managing alright. Just dealing with a sore throat. How have you been?”
The voice heard coming from Aloy’s mouth is not that of voice actor Ashly Burch, who famously plays the character in the video games. Rather, it is a robotic voice similar to the kind you get from any of the thousands of text-to-speech voice generators used to narrate social media posts. AI Aloy’s facial movements are stiff and her eyes appear lifeless as she converses with Raghoebardajal.
When asked how Aloy’s search for her mother is going, she replies: “I discovered I’m a clone of Dr. Elizabeth Sobeck, which led me to understand my purpose and origins.”
How does it feel to be a clone? “Being a clone feels unique, connecting me to the past while allowing me to create my own path and future,” Aloy replies.
The demo then transitions into the actual Horizon Forbidden West game world, and Raghoebardajal continues the conversation while playing the game. It’s slightly jarring to see the player converse with a character they’re in control of, and the irony of using Aloy as an AI-powered PlayStation character given the plot of the Horizon games is obvious.
The demo is described as a prototype developed with the help of Horizon studio Guerrilla Games to show off the tech internally at Sony. āThis is just a glimpse of what is possible,ā Raghoebardajal says in the video. And while the video shows an investment from Sony in the exploration of AI-powered PlayStation characters, itās worth noting the company has yet to confirm plans to incorporate the tech into any public-facing PlayStation product, and there is no suggestion it would even be possible with PS5 games at this stage.
But it perhaps comes as little surprise to see Sonyās work behind the scenes here, given pretty much all its competitors in the video game space are working on AI tech of some description. Indeed, Xbox maker Microsoft is all-in on AI, and recently announced an AI called Muse designed to generate ideas for a game’s design.
Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. Generative AI thus far has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AIās struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was āunable to replace talent.ā
“For instance, non-player characters in games could interact with players based on their actions, making it feel more personal,ā Qizilbash said. āThis is important for the younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, who are the first generations that grew up digitally and are looking for personalization across everything, as well as looking for experiences to have more meaning.”
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.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach got a new trailer over the weekend, alongside a release date, collector’s edition, box art, and more. And as fans have pored over the details, one has noticed a fun connection to director Hideo Kojima’s past work: Metal Gear Solid 2.
The box art for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach shows Sam “Porter” Bridges, portrayed by Norman Reedus, holding the child “Lou,” who players of the first game will recognize. Reddit user ReverseTheFlash posted “He did it again,” showing that box art alongside a Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty slipcase with a similar motif.
The Metal Gear Solid 2 promo shows Japanese singer Gackt holding a child in a similar composition. Though it’s not a one-for-one, it’s certainly fun to note the similarities between the two covers. It’s also a reminder of a strange branch of Metal Gear Solid (out-of-universe) backstory.
During the run-up to the game’s release, Gackt was featured in multiplepromos for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Part of this, it seems, included special slip-covers for the game in some territories, which have resulted in random MGS ephemera that’s both intrigued and confused people over the years.
In case you’re wondering why Gackt, specifically, was so involved with Metal Gear Solid 2’s promotional campaign, Kojima offered an explanation in 2013. The reason he asked Gackt to “be on MGS2’s TVCM is ‘MGS1’ was about DNA & ‘MGS2’ MEME. DNA consists ‘AGTC’, adding ‘K’ of KOJIMA becomes ‘GACKT.’ ” So, there’s that.
Considering Death Stranding 2’s new trailer has plenty of Metal Gear vibes in it, it’s no surprise fans are drawing the parallels here. Personally, I think any similarities are, at most, a sign of recurring ideas across Kojima’s games. But still, it’s fun to speculate and ponder, and it’s always a good time to travel down memory lane with a promotional cover featuring Gackt.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launches on June 26, 2025 exclusively on PlayStation 5.
The Last of Us Season 2 showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have confirmed āspores are backā following their omission from Season 1.
The latest trailer for the upcoming HBO show, below, teased the introduction of spores after they were left out of Season 1. We see Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, view an infected whose breath releases the spores.
Warning! Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 1 follow.
In the video games, the cordyceps infection spreads via spores, which forces the characters to wear a gas mask at points. But for Season 1 of the TV show, spores were ditched in favor of tendrils, whose menace certainly appears more horrifying and cinematic. In Season 1, we see clickers sprout terrifying tendrils that simulate the way mushrooms communicate with each other through a root-like network.
There was a practical reason for the change, which is that using spores in the show would mean big-name stars like Pedro Pascal would be forced to wear a gasmask every other scene. While this works on The Mandalorian thanks to his cool helmet, a lot of the tension would be lost in The Last of Us, and tendrils are also way more menacing, visually speaking.
āItās disturbing and itās violative. I think itās very primal in the way it invades your own body,ā Mazin said in an interview with Variety about the decision to swap spores for tendrils, particularly in the final scene where Tess receives what can only be described as the worldās worst goodbye kiss.
Now, speaking at SXSW 2025, Druckmann confirmed there is “an escalation of numbers and types of infected, but also, as you see in the trailer, an escalation of the vector of how this thing spreads” in The Last of Us Season 2, adding: “Season 1, we had this new thing that wasnāt in the game of these tendrils that spread, and that was one form. And then one shot you see in this trailer, there are things in the air.”
Mazin later confirmed “spores are back,” before Druckmann added: “The reason [weāre doing it now], I mean, we really wanted to figure it out, and again, everything has to be drama. There had to be a dramatic reason of introducing it now. And there is.”
HBO’s plans to extend The Last of Us Part 2 beyond a single season, unlike the critically acclaimed Season 1 which covered the entirety of the original game. Mazin has said previously that Part 2 features a lot more story to cover, so while Season 3 isn’t greenlit as of yet, they’ve built Season 2 with a “natural breakpoint” after just seven episodes.
Image credit: HBO Max.
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.
Most people associate Monster Hunter with actually hunting monsters, but capturing is an important piece of the pie, too. As Monster Hunter Wilds players have discovered, capturing a monster and hanging around long enough can result in a funny little interaction playing out.
After capturing a Nu Udra and waiting around, the giant cephalopod just kind of gets up and leaves. Jokes about it all feeling like a wrap on a film set were made a few times over, it’s some good fun.
For actual in-universe theories as to why this is happening, well, it’s not like the research team has giant cages or anything. Monster Hunter Wilds taking a more catch-and-release approach to their studies certainly seems appropriate, and fits with the general attitude of Alma and the rest throughout the story.
Whatever the lore reasons are, it’s a fun little moment. I find it neat that the developers at Capcom thought this scenario through and planned a little animation, rather than just a fade out. It looks a little silly with this monster, now lacking in several limbs and other appendages, scurrying off into the distance. But it’s a neat touch that possibly adds some deeper insight as to how Alma and the crew are conducting their research.
IGNās Monster Hunter Wilds review returned an 8/10. We said: āMonster Hunter Wilds continues to smooth off the rougher corners of the series in smart ways, making for some extremely fun fights but also lacking any real challenge.ā
