Category: IGN

Riot Games is ringing in the New Year with a fresh season of League of Legends — the first of three season launches that players will experience in 2025. In typical Riot fashion, there’s a cinematic trailer to go along with it, but this year’s video is a major step-up from its predecessors. For one thing, it’s absolutely stunning — thanks, of course, to a lending hand from Fortiche, the animation studio that brought Arcane to life. But more importantly, the five-minute video is leaving fans of Netflix’s Arcane hopeful that this Noxus-themed trailer doubles as an exciting prelude to another League of Legends show.

There’s a couple of apparent nods to Arcane that make their way into the end of the new cinematic. One of the biggest moments in the trailer that merges series with game comes when Black Rose members Vladimir and LeBlanc discuss how they need to take “advantage of the opportunity that has washed up our shores,” which we’re assuming is a reference to Mel. LeBlanc also comments that “Piltover was a lesson,” which Arcane viewers will recognize as the Runeterra region in which the original show takes place.

The holidays and big seasonal sale events may be behind us, but if you’re still itching to hop on the Game Pass bandwagon there’s still time to save on a membership. Amazon’s currently offering a nice 10% discount on three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, dropping its price from $49.99 to $44.88. With this, you can jump into exciting new releases like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which we gave a 9/10).

You can learn more about that deal, what’s coming soon to Game Pass, and the big releases still to come below.

Navigate to:

• Best Xbox Game Pass Deals
• What’s Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass?
• What Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass?
• Biggest Games Releasing on Xbox Game Pass

Best Xbox Game Pass Deals

Capcom has announced a second open beta for Monster Hunter Wilds ahead of its release date.

The beta includes the content from the first beta but adds returning monster Gypceros to hunt. You’ll get to use the character realtor, play the story trial, and complete the Slay Doshaguma Quest. Capcom said those who played the first beta can transfer their character to the second beta, and then onto the full game release. Game progress, however, does not carry forward, but those who take part in the test get special bonuses that can be redeemed in the full game, including a decorative charm for your weapon or Seikret, and an item pack.

Capcom warned fans that improvements it has already announced are set for the full release will not make it into the second open beta. This includes performance improvements, balance changes, weapon mechanics, and other known issues.

Monster Hunter Wilds’ second open beta goes live February 6 at 7pm PT, and runs until February 9 at 6.59pm PT. If you miss out on that, don’t worry: another beta weekend is set for the following weekend (February 13 to 16). Monster Hunter Wilds then launches proper on February 28.

Monster Hunter Wilds is the subject of the latest IGN First, which kicked off with two brand new videos featuring gameplay of Ajarakan and Rompopolo on the Oilwell Basin map. We visited Capcom’s offices in Japan, where we played the first five hours or so of Monster Hunter Wilds, and exclusively faced a few Oilwell Basin local monsters. Look out for more gameplay throughout January, along with in-depth interviews, fun details, and a final preview for Monster Hunter Wilds.

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.

Content Warning: The story contains details regarding physical and psychological abuse, as well as the death of a child.

A new report from People Make Games has unearthed deeply disturbing allegations of workplace abuse at Brandoville Studios, an Indonesian animation support studio that has worked on games such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Age of Empires 4, and The Last of Us: Part I Remake.

Allegations of mistreatment at Brandoville Games were first reported by People Make Games back in 2021 as part of a broader story on how Western AAA studios effectively outsource crunch on major games to overseas developers, effectively sweeping it under the rug. However, People Make Games was urged to revisit its reporting on Brandoville more recently, after accusations went viral on Indonesia social media of continued crunch, as well as physical, verbal, and mental abuse.

TheGamer reported on the allegations in September of last year, pointing at CEO Ken Lai’s wife, Cherry Lai, as the instigator of much of the studio’s worst issues. Numerous screenshots and videos verified by TheGamer as well as shared publicly across social media told a story of Lai’s abusive behavior, which included sending threatening and insulting messages to staff, verbally berating and insulting them, and in at least one case, repeatedly physically assaulting an employee and ordering them to physically hurt themselves as “punishment” for poor performance. That employee, Christa Sydney, has shared much of her story publicly, including claiming Lai once slapped her head so hard it caused tinnitus, and at other times choking her, pushing her down the stairs, and forcing her to bang her head on the wall until she had a concussion.

People Make Games’ follow-up investigation goes further to verify and detail these claims, including sharing a video Sydney was allegedly forced to send to Lai of her slapping herself 100 times. In addition to Sydney, People Make Games’ report details other accounts, including allegations that Lai pit employees against one another by verbally berating employees in the office or gossiping about them, forced employees to participate in Christian worship on a daily basis, and would insist on approving employee outfits every day before work. One former employee in the video claims Lai manipulated him into giving him a significant part of his salary.

Another former employee, Syifana Afiati, tells a story of being overworked while pregnant to the point of being asked to work while she was in the hospital. Afiati’s child was born prematurely, and she was asked to return to work just one month after giving birth, despite her maternity leave being three months and her son still being treated in intensive care. Her son died four months later. Three days after he passed away, Lai sent a message to company HR, strategizing on how to avoid supporting Afiati and deprive her of benefits while she was on leave.

Ken Lai did not comment to People Make Games when asked, but Cherry Lai provided a statement to People Make Games: “To me, my part of the story is not important, as long as my team are good and safe now,” but ghosted the outlet without much further commentary.

Brandoville Studios was shut down last year. While Ken and Cherry Lai attempted to spin up a new company with some of the former Brandoville employees, LaiLai Studios – it’s unclear if the company is currently running or working on anything. As of September, Jakarta police were actively searching for Cherry Lai as part of an investigation into Brandoville. Lai suggested in an email to People Make Games that she may have fled to Hong Kong, but that has not yet been confirmed.

IGN has reached out to Naughty Dog, Xbox, and Ubisoft for comment on their partnerships with Brandoville in light of this story and will update if a response is received.

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.

Netmarble has released a new gameplay trailer for Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, the upcoming action-adventure RPG for iOS, Android, and Windows PC (via Windows Launcher). A closed beta test will also be happening from January 16-22 in the U.S., Canada, and select parts of Europe. Watch the new gameplay trailer above.

Announced at The Game Awards last month, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is a class-based game where you can play as a longsword-wielding Knight, the Sellsword that takes inspiration from the Wildlings and Dothraki and promises “raw, aggressive, and destructive” combat, or the Faceless Man-inspired, dual-dagger-wielding Assassin. Gameplay will have “fully manual” controls – no doubt a nod to Kingsroad’s mobile game roots.

Story-wise, Netmarble describes the setup for Kingsroad as follows: “Players will experience a brand-new story as they take on the role of a new character, who, through a quirk of fate, becomes the heir to House Tyre, a small noble house in the North.”

Finally, Netmarble says, “Players can sign up for the Regional Closed Beta now through January 12 on the official game website to play the game on Android devices and through Windows launcher on PC.” The full game release will occur later this year.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

This year’s first IGN First “cover story” belongs to Monster Hunter Wilds, and we’re kicking off our exclusive coverage with two brand new videos featuring gameplay of Ajarakan and Rompopolo on the Oilwell Basin map. We visited Capcom’s offices in Japan, where we played the first five hours or so of Monster Hunter Wilds, and exclusively faced a few Oilwell Basin local monsters. Look out for more gameplay throughout January, along with in-depth interviews, fun details, and a final preview for Monster Hunter Wilds.

Check out the videos featuring the fierce Fanged Wyvern, Ajarakan, the abhorrent Brute Wyvern, Rompopolo, and a variety of weapons in the Rompopolo video at the top of this page and in the Ajarakan video below.

This is also our first good, extended look of the Oilwell Basin locale, where “oil wells up from the ground and accumulates in deep pools of oilsilt,” as the name implies. In the new gameplay, you can see the Oilwell Basin transition between its three “weather” cycles: the barren Fallow, the burning inclemency, the Firespring; and the peaceful Plenty. Can you tell which is which?

During our visit, the Monster Hunter developers revealed that some of the Oilwell Basin was inspired by the deep sea, which you can see more apparently in the exclusive new image of one of the caves in the depths of the Oilwell Basin below.

We also learned the mucky Oilsilt isn’t all bad news for us hunters–you can ignite Oilsilt Spouts with Torch Pods to cause explosions. Keep an eye out for Chillmantle Bugs, too, to offset the effects of the scorching heat during the Firespring, and to counter some monsters that are just too hot to handle, too.

Monster Hunter Wilds is set to be released on February 28, 2025 globally on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and will feature cross-platform multiplayer at launch. Don’t miss our first hands-on preview, and keep it locked here for the month of January for even more Monster Hunter Wilds!

Casey DeFreitas is deputy guides editor at IGN and has been hunting monsters since the PS2 era. Catch her on X @ShinyCaseyD.

One of the best premium phone controllers is on sale today at Best Buy. Right now you can get a Backbone One USB Type-C mobile gaming controller, compatible with Android and iPhone 16 smartphones, for only $49.99 after a savings of 50%. This is the lowest price we’ve seen for a Backbone controller and as a bonus, if you play Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, you’ll appreciate the 30-minute 2XP token that’s included. This is the black color variant with Xbox style buttons.

50% Off the Backbone One Controller (USB-C)

In a rather unusual merging of two completely separate reported stories from last year, the former staff of Annapurna Interactive are seemingly preparing to take over the portfolio of shuttered indie label Private Division. At least some of the remaining Private Division employees are expected to be laid off in the process.

This is according to a report from Bloomberg, which states that a currently unnamed company staffed by former Annapurna Interactive employees has reached a deal with private equity firm Haveli to take over the distribution of Private Division titles. Bloomberg reports and IGN can independently confirm that Haveli is the company that purchased Private Division from Take-Two Interactive last year for an undisclosed amount.

The portfolio includes both current and upcoming Private Division titles, such as Tales of the Shire, which releases March 25. It also includes Project Bloom, a AAA action-adventure game developed by Game Freak that was announced back in 2023 with nothing more than a concept art teaser.

Sony has debuted conceptual technology at CES 2025 that would essentially allow gamers to enter the worlds of PlayStation games such as The Last of Us and see, shoot, and even smell the baddies.

Footage of the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept was shared on YouTube and shows a giant cube players enter similar to the multi-person virtual reality experiences currently available. This isn’t VR, however, as the cube is instead made of incredibly high definition screens that present the game world around the player.

Looking to boost the immersion further, players are also delivered “engaging audio” and even “scent and atmospherics with interactive PlayStation game content.” The players in the video also had imitation weapons and would shoot at the screens as clickers appeared, presumably getting a whiff of rotten fungus and other offenses as they did so.

The demo was made using gameplay pulled from The Last of Us but obviously adapted to work for the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept, so unfortunately for fans is not a further look into the beloved world.

Even if it was, of course, this technology is still years away and presumably incredibly expensive, so there are myriad limitations to actually getting it into the public’s hands (or getting the public into it). Sony may showcase it with other franchises in the future too, such as God of War, Horizon, and so on.

The Last of Us has otherwise been dormant since 2020 when Part 2 was released, outside of a remake of the first game and remaster of the second. Another entry may not appear for a while either, as a multiplayer take was recently scrapped and developer Naughty Dog is currently focused on a new sci-fi franchise called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

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

The folks at Future Press have crafted another (presumably gorgeous) strategy guide for gamers, this time for IGN’s Game of the Year 2024, Metaphor: ReFantazio. The hardcover Metaphor: ReFantazio Official Strategy Guide (see here at Amazon) is set to release on February 28 this year with a price tag of $49.49 at Amazon, a nice little 10% discount from its $54.99 list price. Preorders are officially live, so give it a look at the link below.

Preorder Metaphor: ReFantazio Official Strategy Guide