Category: IGN

Ubisoft’s failed Call of Duty rival XDefiant has received a hefty final update today, December 18, ahead of its shutdown in 2025.

The XDefiant X/Twitter account shared the patch notes, below, while executive producer Mark Rubin thanked fans and the development team in his own post for their dedication to the game since before and after its May 2024 launch.

“I wish everyone who worked on this game directly or indirectly the best for their future endeavors,” Rubin said. “And the same goes for all of the fans who played our game, who streamed it, or who worked to build the XDefiant community.”

XDefiant’s final S3.0+ update includes the previously announced Assassins class, which are modelled after Assassin’s Creed’s titular heroes, alongside myriad additional features that were planned for now cancelled future seasons.

This includes a total of three new factions, 13 new maps, a new experience called Tactical, a means of gaining experience versus bots, new weapons, new progression mechanics for Faction Mastery and Badges, and more.

xDefiant is a free-to-play, fast-paced arena shooter that combines intense gunplay with personalized loadouts and specialized factions. But that market can be incredibly brutal, and perhaps after PlayStation arena shooter Concord was shut down after just two weeks on the market, some fans of xDefiant grew concerned for its longevity.

While Rubin said in September that XDefiant “is absolutely not dying,” Ubisoft announced earlier this month it would be shut down on June 3, 2025.

XDefiant Update S3.0+ Patch Notes

Factions

New Faction: Assassins

• Hiding in plain sight through the centuries, the Assassins have waged a clandestine war against their ancient enemies, the Templars, to safeguard human freedom. Assassins combine rigorous combat training, unconventional weaponry, and a sixth sense to track and take out their targets. Their signature Hidden Blade is a one-hit melee elimination.
• The Assassins receive combat guidance from Rebecca Crane, the technical genius who developed the Animus 2.0, an advanced model of the machine that lets Assassins relive genetic memories. She guided some of the Order’s most well-known Assassins, including Desmond Miles. With Crane’s assistance, the Assassins work in the dark to serve the light, combating oppression with lethal force.

New Faction: Wolves

• Ex-special forces gone rogue, Wolves employ an arsenal of Skell Tech drones for both offense and defense. The Wolves trait allows the pack to be a sight unseen, undetected by AI abilities and devices. Their Legion drone acts like a homing proximity mine, while the Stolas is effectively a mobile turret. And their ultra, Drone Swarm, is the last word on area denial.

New Faction: Blood Dragon

• Super-deadly cyber commandos from a dark future where cyborgs and mutants collide. Use your cyberstrength, throw deadly shuriken, strike with your shock punch, or use the Killstar laser to deal massive damage.

Fixes and Changes:

Cleaners

Fixed a couple of glitches with the Cleaners’ Incinerator Drone when Hijacked by a DedSec player:

• The Drone no longer explodes next to the player who Hijacked it.
• The Drone now leaves a complete fire trail back to its point of origin.

Echelon

• No longer have a 50% reduction in flash grenade duration debuff

Phantoms

• AEGIS – Addressed issue with shots not registering at point blank range.
• Blitz – Increased movement speed to truly “Blitz” your opponent.

DedSec

• Spiderbots 2.0 – We got the message. Spiderbots, DedSec’s infuriatingly face-adjacent electro-minions, are now less in your face and more of an area-of-effect threat. When activated, Spiderbots will now dutifully follow their deploying player for 30 seconds, emitting an electromagnetic pulse that disrupts all enemy equipment within a 10-meter radius. And with that, the era of Spiderbot facehugging comes to a close.

Highwaymen

• M79

1. Fixed an issue that would lock the skill when activating right after a weapon swap
2. This should now have damage dealt while on different elevations
3. Improved handling and reload speed
4. Cooldown reduced to 40s

• Buzzsaw Launcher

1. Increased ammo count
2. Addressed issue with damage inconsistency

Maps

New S3 Maps

• Mykonos (Arena): Experience the island of Mykonos like the ancient Greeks did, except with more rooftop firefights, in this new map for Season 3. Your itinerary includes sprinting by market stalls, seeking roof access for the high ground, and jumping across boat decks in high-risk flanking maneuvers.
• El Barrio (Arena)
• Jorvik (Linear)
• Animus Anomaly (Tactical): Ancient worlds collide in Animus Anomaly, a new corridor-style map for Season 3. Hunker down among Viking castles, flank around the waterways of ancient Greece, or go out with a boom in the new Defuse tactical variant of BOMB!.

New Future Maps – These maps were scheduled for later seasons but were too much fun not to release!

Arena

• Carlyle’s Lab
• Enchanted Forest
• Killstar Temple
• Razia’s Realm
• Skell City
• West End

Linear

• Skell Complex
• Esperanza
• Himalaya

Fixes and Changes:

• Adjustments were done to invisible collision and areas where players were able to jump to places that are out of bounds for the map.
• Adjustments to some maps where scrap turrets were also being placed where they’re not supposed to be.
• DUMBO has decked the halls to be more festive for the holidays
• Players can no longer climb and leap their way into what was supposed to be an inaccessible area of some maps, where they were using El Remedio to heal allies and doing other sneaky exploits.
• Many maps have undergone improvements to mantling which should now be fixed in several map locations that previously were not.
• Map voting improvements

Game Modes

New Modes:

Defuse

• This season sees the debut of Defuse, a tactical and slower-paced version of BOMB!. Teams take turns planting and defending bomb sites, yet all players only have one life. Defuse is designed for play on a new “corridor” type map, in this case the Animus Anomaly created exclusively for this category.

Vs Bots

• There’s now a Vs Bots option where you can face off against varying levels of computers. You’ll even earn XP by battling bots. Although at a slower pace with human enemies.

Lum Hunt

• Catch them if you can, Lums (beings of pure energy possessing of a mindbogglingly sunny disposition) have been placed around the Enchanted Forest map in this variant of Hot Shot. Also available in Private Matches.

Tilt

• Now available in our Linear playlists, this mode is a simultaneous battle over who can push around Carlos the most, poor robot.

Turbo XD

• Super jump your way to victory in this gravity defying mode.

New Party Modes Playlist

• From one shot kill, to headshots only, and even no skills allowed, there’s a little something for everyone in this playlist. With no one here to make names for them, we wish you the very best of luck to figure them out.

Fixes and Changes:

• Team balancing overhaul to ensure the fairest matches.

BOMB!

• Several quality-of-life improvements to BOMB! spectator cam.
• Planting and Defusing behavior improved not to conflict with other game features like looking at the scoreboard.

Private Match

• Fixed an issue where the lobby menu would become blank after another player accepts a private match party invite.
• Now allows you to select the server you wish to play on.

Ranked

Ranked BOMB!

• With Ability Restrictions still in place, we took it 1 step further and you will only be allowed to use your ability once per life.
• Round timer changed in Ranked BOMB! from 2 mins to 1min 30s, plant and defuse times adjusted, and Round 11 will go to highest scoring team.

Top 500 Leaderboard

• Season 3 sees the debut of the Top 500 leaderboard, which showcases the top 500 players globally each season as they progress through the ranks until the season’s end. These top players are displayed in descending order of total Rank Points earned in the current season. Highlighting a player on the Leaderboard displays the following stats:

1. Current rank insignia and RP total.
2. Win/Loss: Player’s ratio of wins to losses.
3. Kill/Death: Player’s ratio of kills to deaths.
4. Average Score/Minute: Player’s average score per minute.
5. MVPs: Number of times the player earned MVP.

Ranked Emblem in HUD

• Proudly display your ranked tier right on your heads-up display for all to see.

New Ranked Rewards

• New S3 specific Ranked Rewards are available (to everyone).

Fixes and Changes:

• Matchmaking ranges have been disabled and join in progress has been enabled so that matches are easier to find.
• Reduced the forfeit timer duration from 20s to 5s.
• Players are no longer pulled out of active Ranked game sessions after accepting the Party invite for a Private Match.
• Added a new menu experience, now players will be able to search for games and jump back to the Ranked menu tab to view rewards, info, and the top 500 leaderboard.
• Removed Domination and CTF from Ranked playlists.

Weapons

Assault Rifle

• FAMAS – The FAMAS is a burst-fire rifle like the M16A4 but with faster ADS time, movement, and rate of fire. It is slower to reload, however, and inflicts less hurt per shot.
• G36K

Sub-Machine Gun

• M1928

Light Machine Gun

• MG5 – Despite its shorter range and lower ammo capacity than other belt-fed LMGs, the MG5 with its higher rate of fire makes it a powerful and versatile option for those who can master its challenging recoil.

Marksman

• M1A – An agile warhorse built for medium-range battles, the M1A offers a speedy rate of fire but deals less per-shot damage compared to other marksman rifles.

Sniper Rifle

• SRS

Pistol

• Diceros

Fixes and Changes:Sawed-off Shotgun Balance Adjustment

• The range and damage potential of the Sawed-Off Shotgun have been adjusted to better focus it on its intended role as a short-range kill-finisher and prevent it from killing full-health opponents with a single shot.

1. Short Range reduced from 8m -> 6m
2. Medium Range reduced from 12m -> 10m
3. Short Range Damage reduced from 12 -> 11
4. Bullets Per Round reduced from 12 -> 9

• Tweaked smoke grenade effects so that some components of cosmetic skins will no longer be visible through the smoke, while also improving the size, shape, and transparency of the smoke particles and radius of effect.
• Adjusted the camera shake so that now it is based on distance to explosion. Removed friendly explosion camera shake.

Attachments

Tapered Barrel

Introduced the Tapered Barrel, an attachment for most weapons that increases handling speed but reduces damage. Here are the pluses and minuses:

• Pros:

1. 25 percent boost to sprint-out time
2. 15 percent ADS speed increase
3. 5 percent movement speed increase

• Cons:

1. 20 percent short-range damage decrease
2. 20 percent medium-range damage decrease
3. 10 percent ADS walking speed decrease

• In other words, this barrel will help you scoot around the map at a zippier pace, but you’ll likely need to land more shots than normal to get kills.

New Reticle Customization

• New for Season 3: Customized reticules. Players can unlock new reticule shapes and adjust their colors (a helpful feature for players with colorblindness). Custom reticules will be tied to individual loadouts.

Fixes and Changes:

• Fixed a graphical glitch that let players see parts of their weapon barrel through the Reflex and Holographic sights.
• Fixed a lagging magazine when player reloads weapons.
• Fixed floating when using left-handed skills and reloads.
• Fixed a scope crosshair missing when player ADS in spectating mode.
• Several skins have had their sights adjusted to match the base weapon being used.
• Various visual improvements

Progression

Prestige System!

• Introducing Prestige, an optional new progression system that rewards long-haul dedication with flashy cosmetics and extravagant emblems that showcase your experience to other players. Available to anyone who has completed their Base Challenges, Prestige resets player progress in exchange for an eye-catching Prestige Emblem. All starter and owned weaponry are locked – except the M4, M9, and frag grenade – but can be earned as players earn XP and Prestige Tokens to access their original gear plus new weapons until they complete the current Prestige Tier and acquire the next eye-catching emblem. Players can opt out of Prestige at any time and recover their weapons, or they can commit to unlocking the final Prestige Emblem, the ultimate display of dedication.

Badges!

• Badges are part of a mysterious new challenge-based progression system where players earn Badges for performing impressive feats and engaging with the game in creative ways. All Badge challenges have hidden requirements, encouraging players to go online and engage with the XDefiant community. Badges can also evolve, requiring players to complete the challenge a second or third time but with more challenging requirements for success.

Faction Mastery!

• Allows players to level up characters, earn prestigious rewards, and track their progression within the game

Pristine Weapon Mastery Skin

• A new Pristine Weapon Mastery skin is unlocked at weapon level 50 as an early reward to encourage players to pursue Weapon Mastery. These new Pristine skins are like unmarred, fresh-from-the-factory versions of these weapons. Pristine skins are retroactively applied to any weapons that have already reached level 50.

Daily Rewards and Credits

• Players can now earn various rewards just for logging into the game. Bigger rewards are granted every 5th and 10th login. The days do not have to be consecutive.
• Credits are a brand new in-game currency. Use Credits to buy cosmetics from previous seasons, giving you the opportunity to get any skins you may have missed back then, but you have everything now, so that’s nice

Fixes and Changes:

• Some Challenges, particularly those related to faction characters, weren’t progressing on the main menu, but now they are.

Audio

• Battle announcer lines have been tweaked for their frequency of play:

1. Lines announcing death streaks (or dying multiple times without killing an enemy) will trigger less often (now players need to die five times rather than three, and the death streaks will only trigger during the second half of a match).
2. Lines related to suffering from fire damage (from the Purifier, (Firebomb, Incendiary Drone–really anything involving the Cleaners) will trigger less frequently.

• Phantoms – Blitz – Now has sounds for blocking a melee attack and for attacking others with a Blitz Shield.
• GSK – Hardhat – Audio improved for impact confirm headshot
• Highwaymen – M79 – Now has sounds for hit confirm and impact confirm with the M79.
• Other various audio improvements.

Miscellaneous

• New Assassin’s video on the main menu
• New Career Stats page
• New Store Layout
• New Weapon Inspect
• Input-based matchmaking is now disabled by default for faster matchmaking times.
• Fixed various crashes and errors

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is reviving classic Sega arcade game The Ocean Hunter in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, marking its first release on console.

As reported by Automaton, RGG Studio revealed on X/Twitter the wealth of minigames coming to the incoming Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii including The Ocean Hunter as an arcade game.

The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series is known for its myriad minigames and inclusion of full classic titles by visiting actual Sega arcades in the fictional takes on Japan and Hawaii. Yakuza 0 had Out Run and Space Harrier, Yakuza Kiwami 2 had Virtua Fighter 2, Yakuza 6 had Fantasy Zone, and so on.

2025年2月21日(金)発売予定
『龍が如く８外伝 Pirates in Hawaii』

ゲーム内で楽しめるプレイスポットやサブストーリー、「ミナト区系女子」の概要が、公式サイトにて公開されました！https://t.co/zab3Bec4b5#龍が如く８外伝 pic.twitter.com/8rcinRKXOL

— セガ公式アカウント🦔 (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) December 12, 2024

Bringing over The Ocean Hunter, a 1998 on-rails shooter about killing giant sea beasties like great white sharks, was a “very difficult task that required the cooperation of many people,” however, according to an X/Twitter post from RGG Studio technical director Yutaka Ito.

As mentioned, The Ocean Hunter has never been ported to console, so RGG Studio had to do everything from the ground up. This included visiting actual arcades to understand exactly how it worked, since the game doesn’t exist in any other, more accessible, capacity.

Ito said the development team had been talking about bringing The Ocean Hunter over for a year ahead of actually beginning work, because it’s lack of license-related complications made it an ideal choice and it also very much fits the theme of Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

The game, which arrives February 21, is a spin-off sequel to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the eighth mainline entry in the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series (or ninth including Yakuza 0). It follows Majima as he wakes up with amnesia and becomes a pirate, exploring the likes of Hawaii along the way.

A trailer released at the October Xbox Partner Showcase revealed a proper first look at ship combat akin to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and the return of the beloved character Taiga Saejima, perhaps teasing more ties to the main series than previously thought.

It will also be a decent bit longer than previous Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, with its story taking around 15 to 18 hours to complete. Fans can also dress up Majima as longtime series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma, but only if they sign up for email notifications.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Nintendo Switch has officially passed the PlayStation 2 to become the second best-selling gaming hardware in the United States, now trailing only the Nintendo DS.

This comes from Circana’s November video game sales report, which states that lifetime unit sales of the Nintendo Switch are now at 46.6 million (we’ve asked for updated totals on the Nintendo DS).

But Switch sales are still slowing down. Per analysis from Circana’s Mat Piscatella, it was only the second best-selling console for November, following the PS5 in both unit and dollar sales, with Xbox Series consoles in third. Overall hardware spending was flat, with 15% year-over-year growth for PlayStation hardware off-setting a 29% drop in Xbox Series sales and 3% drop on Switch.

PS5 sales were driven in part by the release of the PS5 Pro, which accounted for 19% of all PS5 unit sales last month and 28% of all dollar sales. Notably, launch month dollar sales of the PS5 Pro were over 50% higher than launch month sales of the PS4 Pro, but unit sales were 12% lower. This isn’t surprising, and is roughly in line with analyst expectations, given that the PS4 Pro launched at $399 and the PS5 Pro launched at $699.

Spending on games overall was down 7% year-over-year to $5.8 billion, and overall software spending was down 9% year-over-year to $4.5 billion. Both of these drops were in large part simply due to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s launch timing compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last year. Black Ops 6 launched in October this year, elevating sales that month, while Modern Warfare 3’s November launch last year pumped that month’s numbers and made for a tougher comparable this year as Black Ops 6 sales settle down a bit.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was still the best-selling game this month, however, and is the second best-selling game of the year thus far. It trails only EA Sports College Football 25, which is now the best-selling sports game in U.S. history by dollar sales, and ranks among the 50 best-selling games of all time by the same metric.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership debuted at No.7 for the month, right behind Super Mario Party Jamboree at No.6. Both games’ position on the chart only reflects physical sales, however, so it’s possible the inclusion of digital sales could have pushed either higher.

A few other big new games this month aren’t reflected on the best-seller charts for various reasons. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl launched on Game Pass, which means a lot of people played it for “free.” But it debuted at No.6 on Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker Xbox Monthly Active Users chart, and it ranked No.9 for Steam MAUs, indicating it’s doing all right for itself. In a similar situation, free-to-play Genshin Impact launched on Xbox in November, and debuted at No.10 for Xbox MAUs.

And over on mobile, Pokemon TCG Pocket was the second best-selling mobile game by revenue worldwide in November, beating out the incredibly popular Monopoly GO. It was the sixth best-selling mobile game in the States for the month.

The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of October, based on dollar sales:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Madden NFL 25
3. EA Sports FC 25
4. EA Sports College Football 25
5. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
6. Super Mario Party Jamboree*
7. Mario & Luigi: Brothership*
8. Sonic X Shadow Generations
9. NBA 2K25*
10. Dragon Age: The Veilguard
11. Hogwarts Legacy
12. Dragon Quest 3
13. Astro Bot
14. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
15. Silent Hill 2 (2024)
16. Undisputed
17. Metaphor: ReFantazio
18. Minecraft*
19. My Sims: Cozy Bundle
20. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, do not share certain digital data for this report.

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.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket received its first expansion yesterday in Mythical Island and the collection of new cards has shaken up the meta, seemingly pushing newcomer Celebi ex to the top.

Celebi ex is one of five ex Pokémon added in Mythical Island, a Themed Booster which brought 68 unique new cards to the digital trading card game. It’s a basic Grass type with 130 Hit Points and a Weakness to Fire and a one Energy Retreat Cost.

Its single attack is called Power Bloom and costs one Grass Energy and one Colorless Energy, with the following effect: “Flip a coin for each Energy attached to this Pokémon. This attack does 50 damage for each heads.”

Helldivers 2’s leaked Killzone crossover is real, and developer Arrowhead has released it. But be warned: these cosmetics are only available for five days.

Hot on the heels of the Omens of Tyranny update, which added the Illuminate faction, Helldivers 2 has its first official crossover. Part one of the Helldivers 2 x Killzone crossover is out now, and includes a Killzone-themed armor set, assault rifle, banner, cape, and player title. Part two hits Helldivers 2’s store on December 23, Arrowhead said.

In a blog post, Arrowhead announced that Helldivers 2 x Killzone 2 belongs to a new tier of special premium content “reserved for collaborations and other uniquely-themed work,” so expect to hand over plenty of Super Credits if you want the lot.

Helldivers 2 x Killzone 2: New Items Now Available in the Superstore pic.twitter.com/rYeNef1nOz

— Helldivers Alerts (@HelldiversAlert) December 18, 2024

The developer added that it plans to offer players “something distinct and special” with the content, and teased an additional Killzone 2 reward for all players depending on their success in the Galactic War.

Meanwhile, Arrowhead outlined plans to improve the way Helldivers 2’s in-game store works. “Right now, many of you feel the items are in rotation for too short a time, and that you sometimes miss out on that killer look you had your eyes on,” Arrowhead said. “At the same time, the more things we add to the store the longer it takes to come back into rotation.

“As we’re not quite ready to roll out a full redesign, we’re going to temporarily test longer rotations with Killzone, which will stick around for five days per page instead (there will be two pages of items to explore).

“After this, the page rotation will go back to its usual cadence and we will be asking for your feedback on our test. If you think this is too short, or you want us to look into bringing items back for longer periods, we’ll ask again in future surveys.”

Last month, Arrowhead CCO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt cautioned against doing too many crossovers, saying “it would dilute the IP and make it a ‘not Helldivers’ experience.” In its blog post, Arrowhead reiterated the point, insisting Killzone makes “perfect sense for the game.”

This crossover already has fans wondering if Sony may finally be ready to return to the Killzone franchise with a brand new release. Original developer Guerrilla Games has its hands full with the Horizon Online project and the inevitable Horizon 3, so any new game would probably have to come from another developer.

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.

It’s December 1994. The Santa Clause, Miracle on 34th Street, Pulp Fiction, and Forrest Gump are duking it out at the global box office. Boyz II Men’s On Bended Knee is about to (temporarily) cede the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 to Here Comes the Hotstepper by lyrical gangster Ini Kamoze. In video games, the original PlayStation has just launched in Japan.

But forget the PlayStation for a moment, because December 1994 also marked the arrival of another interactive icon: The Need for Speed, on the ill-fated 3DO home game console. The 3DO, despite being lauded as Time Magazine’s 1993 Product of the Year, was ultimately a flop. There was no ‘3DO II’. The Need for Speed, however, was not a flop. There was a Need for Speed II. And III. And a fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on.

In fact, 30 years later the Need for Speed series is still with us.

And it’s become one of the best-selling game series of all time.

If you’re shopping for last minute video games for the holidays, surprisingly you’re not too late. There are plenty of deals on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch video games that can still be delivered to you before December 25. Many (but not all) of these deals are actually as good as the ones we saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They’re mostly limited to retailers that have nearby retail locations like Best Buy and Target, but you should still be able to choose delivery and receive it with time to spare.

Nintendo Switch Video Game Deals (Arrives by 12/25)

PS5 and Xbox Video Game Deals (Arrives by 12/25)

Super Mario RPG

Today, Best Buy and Target are matching the lowest prices I saw for Xbox Series X|S wireless controllers on Black Friday. Right now you can get one in either Carbon Black or Robot White for only $34.99. Best of all, your order will arrive by December 25. These controllers are compatible with Xbox Series X and S and PC.

Xbox Controllers for $34.99

The battle for democracy in Helldivers 2 made it one of the biggest games of 2024. Many fans found the gameplay and multiplayer nature of the game fun, enthralled by the fast action and triumphant soundtrack. For the first time ever, you can take home the sound of freedom with the Helldivers 2 Original Soundtrack Vinyl, which is available to pre-order now at IGN Store.

Pre-Order the Helldivers 2 Original Game Soundtrack Vinyl Now on IGN Store!