Category: IGN

Marvel Rivals developer NetEase has issued an apology to disgruntled players who it unfairly banned for cheating.

In a post on Discord, NetEase admitted it had mistakenly flagged as cheaters some who were playing in compatibility layer programs, even though they were not using cheating software. This, unfortunately, resulted in false bans, although NetEase failed to say how many.

“We sincerely apologize for this situation and want to assure you that we do not and will not ban players who are playing fairly and without cheating,” NetEase said.

The developer said it had made a list of affected players and lifted their bans. “We have identified the specific reasons behind these false bans and have compiled a list of affected players,” it said. “We have lifted these bans and want to express our heartfelt apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.”

NetEase went on to insist it is investing in improving its anti-cheat, and called on players to report cheaters if they encounter them. Here’s the rest of the statement in full:

Our mission is to provide all players with a fair, just, and enjoyable gaming environment. Therefore, preventing and identifying cheaters is one of our top priorities. We have invested significant manpower and resources to improve the speed and accuracy of our detection systems. With any ongoing detection system, there is always room for improvement. We appreciate your assistance in helping us tackle this challenge. If you encounter any cheating behavior, please report it immediately; our reporting system will respond promptly. If you believe you have been wrongly banned, you can appeal to our customer support team, and we will review your case and respond in a timely manner. You can reach the support team via either in-game or in Discord!

Thank you for your understanding and support!

The news comes ahead of Marvel Rivals Season 1 and the arrival of Fantastic Four playable characters, teased with a first-look image and set for a trailer of their own next week.

Call of Duty players are flooding to Activision’s privacy support page after a YouTuber showcased a method of finding out their hidden skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) rating.

For years, SBMM has been the hottest of topics within the Call of Duty community, with some proclaiming it ruins the experience, others saying it helps level the competitive multiplayer playing field. High-skilled Call of Duty players often bemoan SBMM for chucking them into what they call “sweaty” lobbies full of similarly high-skilled players. All the while, Activision has kept players’ skill rating hidden from them, forcing them to speculate about where they might sit compared to others and how it fluctuates from game to game.

However, popular Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce exposed a method that will let players know their skill rating for every single Multiplayer game they’ve played going all the way back to 2021’s Vanguard. However, it involves jumping through a few hoops and you’ll have to wait a little while before you get the data.

The method involves heading over to Activision’s privacy page and submitting a new personal information access request. You’ll need to log into your Activision account to automatically include the various Call of Duty games, but once done, you can submit a request. IGN has gone through this process and can verify its legitimacy, although you’ll have to wait a day or two for the data to arrive via email.

TheXclusiveAce received his data and, in his video on the subject, showed off just how extensive it is. It shows every single Multiplayer match in detail, down to the mode played, the map played, the operator and skin you used, and even the execution you had equipped. You can see the number of hits you landed in the match, your longest streak, damage done and taken, and, if you’re interested, the percentage of time moving. Many more data points are included, but it’s the skill stat that’s of most interest here.

With his data, TheXclusiveAce was able to chart his Black Ops 6 skill rating, showing how it changed over time. TheXclusiveAce, who will be one of the better Multiplayer Call of Duty players around relative to the overall player base, has a skill rating of around 400 through the course of his time with Black Ops 6, although there are occasional sharp drops and rises.

Unfortunately, this data in isolation doesn’t help players understand how their skill rating compares to others’. It also doesn’t reveal the skill rating of the lobby or why a player’s skill rating changed from game to game.

However, TheXclusiveAce compared his K/D ratio to his skill rating to try to draw conclusions on Black Ops 6’s SBMM. From what he can tell, poor play relative to previous performance does reduce skill rating, and improved play relative to previous performance increases skill rating, although it can take some time to kick in either way. TheXclusiveAce suspects lobby skill rating impacts changes in individual skill rating; if the SBMM expects you to perform at a certain level relative to the lobby skill rating and you fail to meet that expectation, your skill rating might drop even if you had a good game.

Last year, Activision explained how Call of Duty’s SBMM works in somewhat vague terms. Skill is determined based on a player’s “overall performance,” Activision said. This includes kills, deaths, wins, losses, as well as mode selection, and recent matches as an overall metric across all Multiplayer experiences. “This is a fluid measurement that’s consistently updating and reacting to your gameplay,” Activision explained. “Skill is not only a factor in matchmaking players against appropriate enemies, but also when finding teammates.”

Activision went on to say skill in matchmaking means all players (regardless of skill level) are more likely to experience wins and losses more proportionately. “We use player performance to ensure that the disparity between the most skilled player in the lobby and the least skilled player in the lobby isn’t so vast that players feel their match is a waste of time,” Activision said.

The question now is whether the Call of Duty community will work together to track skill ratings at scale. If it does, not only will players finally get a sense of their skill rating relative to the wider community, but they will start to learn exactly what influences skill rating changes over time.

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.

Atari has teased a re-reveal of its handheld console at CES 2025 next week.

In a tweet, below, Atari showed off the GameStation Go device, a portable video game player with extra buttons and a widescreen.

While the Gamestation Go comes complete with the d-pad, face buttons, and shoulder buttons you’d expect on a retro handheld, what makes this stand out is the inclusion of a Trak-Ball and Paddle on the left of the device, and a Keypad on the right.

An icon, reimagined. 🕹️ @MyArcadeRetro#Atari #GamestationGo #CES2025 pic.twitter.com/AvqTLuegR2

— Atari (@atari) January 2, 2025

There’s little else to go on at this stage, but the GameStation Go looks like the final design for a product Atari revealed a year ago. At the time the handheld was called the Atari Gamestation Portable and was due out during the fourth quarter of 2024 priced $149. This earlier version came with the Atari Trak-Ball, Paddle, and Keypad controllers, and we can see a refined design for these in the GameStation Go.

The Atari Trak-Ball is commonly used with arcade classics Centipede and Missile Command, with the Paddle used for the likes of Breakout. Atari games such as Brain Games and Codebreaker use the Keypad. The My Arcade logo is on the bottom of the device, which confirms the maker of the product under official license from Atari.

You’d expect the Gamestation Go to play a long list of retro games bolstered by Atari’s recent aquisition of the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. The purchase included the rights to more than 200 titles from the Intellivision portfolio and the Intellivision trademarks.

That’s all we have for now. Expect more when CES 2025 kicks off from January 7.

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.

Cardy, Dale, and Mat are back with a bang in 2025 to talk about the biggest movies and games scheduled for release over the next 12 months. In this bumper preview, they chat about the GTA 6, James Gunn’s Superman, the Nintendo Switch 2, and much, much more.

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.

IGN UK Podcast 781: The Big 2025 Movies and Games Preview

• IGN UK Podcast 780: The Alternative Game Awards 2024
• IGN UK Podcast 779: The Alternative Movie and TV Awards 2024
• IGN UK Podcast 778: The Game Awards Reveals and Ferry Fights
• IGN UK Podcast Special Episode: We Visited CD Projekt Red to Talk About The Witcher 4
• IGN UK Podcast 777: Indiana Jones and the Great Game

There were some incredible games released this year, and we wanted to know which you thought was the best of the best. So with our partners at Truth, we picked 64 of 2024’s best games, put them in a head-to-head tournament, and gave you the power to vote for your favorites. After six rounds of voting and more than 1 million votes in all, one game reigned supreme as champion: Black Myth: Wukong.

An action game from developer Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong is inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. You play as the Destined One, an anthropomorphic monkey based on Sun Wukong from the novel. You wield a staff with different stances, have access to several magic spells, and can transform into enemies after defeating them.

In IGN’s review, we cited its fantastic combat, beautiful environments, and well-designed bosses as the areas where it shines. While it may not be a soulslike, its combat can be quite challenging and forces you to weave together quick reflexes, smart resource management, and versatile attacks to take down its many bosses.

Black Myth: Wukong’s popularity was obvious from the very start of our fan-voted tournament. It had a dominant run, culminating in a win over Marvel Rivals in the final with 59% of the vote. Before that, it had to get through Harry Potter: Quidditch Championship, Star Wars Outlaws, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Stellar Blade, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, beating all of them with at least 67% of the vote.

Marvel Rivals’ run to the final was more contested, with it barely beating out the Silent Hill 2 remake in the semifinals and Astro Bot in the quarterfinals, which was one of the closest matchups of the whole tournament. There were more than 50,000 votes cast in that matchup, and Marvel Rivals won by only 960. Before those close calls, it had to get through some stiff competition in World of Warcraft: The War Within, Batman: Arkham Shadow, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

IGN’s pick for Best Game of 2024 went to Metaphor: ReFantazio, but it didn’t make it out of the first round of the People’s Choice Tournament. Mario & Luigi: Brothership took it down before falling to Black Myth: Wukong in its path to the title. Indie darling Balatro, one of IGN’s runners-up for Best Game of 2024 and winner of our Best PC Game of 2024 Award, also had a surprisingly short run. After narrowly defeating Still Wakes the Deep in the first round, it got only 26% of the vote in Round 2 against Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Space Marine 2 had a very impressive run overall, taking down multiple big names on its way to the Final Four. In addition to its resounding win over Balatro, it also defeated Sons of the Forest, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, another of IGN’s runners-up for Best Game of 2024. The other member of the Final Four was Silent Hill 2, which won the IGN Award for Best Horror Game of 2024. It got to the semifinals by going through Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, Helldivers 2, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.

Thank you to the many people who logged votes in this year’s People’s Choice Tournament. Let us know in the comments below what you think of the outcome. If you disagree with the winner, which game would you have chosen? And here’s to another great year of gaming in 2025!

Call of Duty publisher Activision has confirmed plans to charge players extra to earn the best Squid Game crossover event rewards in a first for the series.

In a blog post, Activision detailed the Squid Game event, which includes a Red Light, Green Light limited-time multiplayer mode for Black Ops 6, as well as new operator bundles based on characters from the hugely popular Netflix show for use across Black Ops 6 and Warzone.

One controversial addition, however, is the new Squid Game Event Pass, which includes a free reward track and a premium reward track. While Activision detailed all the rewards included in both tracks (the premium track includes a Front Man Operator skin), it failed to confirm a price.

The Fantastic Four are coming to Marvel Rivals, its developer has confirmed.

In a first-look image, below, we see Marvel Rivals’ take on Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and Thing, as well as the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. The superhero team are sitting in the Fantasticar, and we also see the Baxter Building in the background.

Ubisoft’s PC woes have continued into 2025, with the generally much-loved Assassin’s Creed Origins suffering a review-bomb campaign on Steam after a Windows PC update rendered it unplayable for some.

In November, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 version 24H2 accidentally killed Ubisoft games such as Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and more. The issue was so bad that Microsoft updated its support website to reveal it has placed a temporary block on Windows 11 for users with those games installed.

“After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might encounter issues with some Ubisoft games,” Microsoft said at the time. “These games might become unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay.

“In some cases, users might receive a black screen. The affected games are Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

“To safeguard your Windows update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on devices with these games installed. These devices will not be offered to install Windows 11, version 24H2 via the Windows Update release channel.”

Ubisoft released an update to fix the problem in Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but Microsoft and Ubisoft are both still working to sort out the Assassin’s Creed games, and frustration has finally spilled over into Steam user reviews.

Negative reviews for Assassin’s Creed Origins ramped up mid-December before hitting a peak as we crossed into 2025, with the game’s recent user review rating dropping to ‘Mixed.’ Overall reviews for the game remain ‘Very Positive.’

Pretty much all the recent negative reviews complain about the Windows update making Assassin’s Creed Origins unplayable. Until a resolution is found, Ubisoft told customers not to manually update to version 24H2 using the Windows 11 Installation Assistant or the media creation tool. If the game stops responding, you’ll need to use Task Manager to close the application.

Ubisoft’s Windows problems have hit the company at a particularly troubling time. The company is reportedly in buyout talks with Chinese megacorp Tencent after a torrid 2024 in which it closed studios, shut down games, and made mass layoffs. The company’s next big game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, was delayed into 2025 and Star Wars Outlaws failed to meet sales expectations.

Ubisoft’s shares fell to their lowest level in the last decade in September after it made a series of dramatic announcements around the performance of its games. As well as delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft announced a return to Steam after a period of PC launch exclusivity on the Epic Games Store, with Star Wars Outlaws recently releasing on Valve’s platform.

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.

Hideo Kojima has revealed the ongoing video game actors strike has affected production on his Xbox game as well as his upcoming action espionage title for Sony.

In a tweet, Kojima said that Kojima Productions was forced to suspend actor scanning and filming for the Xbox-published OD during the second half of 2024 after the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) video game actors’ strike began in July.

Similarly, casting for Physint, Kojima’s hotly anticipated return to the “action espionage” genre, was suspended due to the strike. Kojima added that he hopes to resume production in 2025.

SAG-AFTRA video game voice actors accuse gaming companies of refusing to meet their demands on artificial intelligence. Negotiations over a new contract began in October 2022 and SAG-AFTRA members approved the strike in September 2023. Check out IGN’s feature, What the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Actors Strike Means for Gamers, for more.

What this means for both OD and Physint remains to be seen, with both games without an official release window. Both are video game / movie hybrids, with Nope and Get Out Director Jordan Peele collaborating with Kojima on OD. Physint was announced during a Sony State of Play broadcast, suggesting it may release on PlayStation 6.

Meanwhile, Kojima is working on Death Stranding 2, which is out at some point in 2025, and the live-action Death Stranding film with A24. In his tweet, Kojima teased “other adaptations” are underway, without saying any more.

OD and Physint aren’t the only video games affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Last month, Activision confirmed it had recast some members of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 cast after fans noticed much-loved Zombies characters with new voices in-game. Activision said at the time: “We respect the personal choice of these performers. Out of respect for all parties, we won’t add new commentary about the ongoing negotiations with SAG-AFTRA. We look forward to a mutually beneficial outcome as soon as possible.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is not subject to the strike because it was in development before July 25, 2024, when the strike began. However, as suggested by Activision’s statement, the voice actors may have decided against signing new contracts in solidarity with striking union members. IGN has asked SAG-AFTRA for comment.

Photo by Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images.

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.