Category: IGN

Microsoft has confirmed Wave 1 of the Xbox Game Pass May 2025 lineup.

In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft revealed 12 games hitting its subscription service, taking us up to May 20. The biggest hitter here is Doom: The Dark Ages, the latest game in id Software’s world-famous first-person shooter series. That is, as a Microsoft-owned game, a day-one Game Pass launch. But it’s not the only day-one Game Pass launch of May 2025.

Available today, May 6, is Dredge (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), which hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. Here’s the official blurb, from Microsoft:

Dredge is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.

May 7 is a big day for Game Pass, with a number of additions: Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard; Dungeons of Hinterberg (Console), now on Game Pass Standard; Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (Xbox Series X|S), now on Game Pass Standard; and Metal Slug Tactics (Console), also now on Game Pass Standard.

Here’s a big one: May 8 sees Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hit Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day-one title.

In a future knocked off its axis by corporate greed and stupidity, you have been made redundant and abandoned on the far edge of space with little gear and no safety net. You must explore every nook and cranny, collect dozens of upgrades, and turn over every mysterious alien rock if you want to get revenge on your former employer and return to Earth.

Also on May 8, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed (Cloud, Console, and PC) joins Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard.

Join the legendary Turtle brothers straight from the sewer and slide into this new adventure of shell-shocking proportions. With the help of April’s insightful reports from the streets and Splinter’s sage guidance, gear up to fight crime and unravel an epic saga of justice and chaos!

Moving on to May 13, we’ve got Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Cloud and Console) on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Standard.

Making a return to the Game Pass library! Fight together with your friends against the forces of Chaos and Skaven in this epic 4-player co-op game set in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world. Vermintide 2 expands the intense first-person combat with a brand-new enemy faction, 15 new career paths, talent trees, new weapons, an improved loot system, and more.

The main event is of course Doom: The Dark Ages (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S), on May 15 when the shooter hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass day-one.

Doom: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the Doom Slayer’s legend. In this third installment of the modern Doom series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the Doom Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell. Get a head start on slaying demons with the Premium Upgrade, including up to 2-Day Early Access, the campaign DLC at launch, and more.

A day later, on May 16, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Cloud, Console, and PC) launches on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as yet another day-one title.

Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is a papercraft adventure game where you’ll meet the many good and not-so-good folks of Limbo, a place where souls with deep regrets are cursed into repeating the same day on a loop.

Rounding out the May 2025 Wave 1 lineup on May 20 are Firefighting Simulator: The Squad (Cloud, Console, and PC) across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard, and Police Simulator: Patrol Officers (Cloud, Console, and PC) also across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard.

Xbox Game Pass May 2025 Wave 1 lineup:

• Dredge (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 6
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 7
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Dungeons of Hinterberg (Console) – May 7
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (Xbox Series X|S) – May 7
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Metal Slug Tactics (Console) – May 7
  Now with Game Pass Standard
• Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 8
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 8
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (Cloud and Console) – May 13
  Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Standard
• Doom: The Dark Ages (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 15
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 16
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Firefighting Simulator: The Squad (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 20
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
• Police Simulator: Patrol Officers (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 20
  Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard

Leaving Xbox Game Pass on May 15:

The following games are leaving the Game Pass library on May 15. As always, you can use your membership discount to save up to 20% to keep them in your library.

• Brothers A Tale of Two Sons (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Chants of Sennaar (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Dune: Spice Wars (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Hauntii (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Big Con (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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.

Put simply, there’s nothing on PlayStation 5 quite like Forza Horizon 5.

The Crew Motorfest? Close. Leaning hard into the philosophy of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’, its fully fledged festival approach certainly makes Motorfest more like the Forza Horizon series than either of its predecessors.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? Sadly, no. The Forza Horizon series itself may owe a significant debt to the trendsetting MMO racing of the original Test Drive Unlimited, but Solar Crown went on to fly too close to the sun in this department. An always-online racer with no dedicated solo component? The Horizon series has allowed players to seamlessly slip between offline and online play since 2014’s Forza Horizon 2!

Need for Speed Unbound? Well, there are definitely several areas of Need for Speed’s impressive customisation suite that handily eclipse Horizon, but Unbound’s arcade focus on high speed hot pursuits means it’s not really a like-for-like comparison.

No, the pound-for-pound champ of modern open world racing is Forza Horizon 5 – and now it’s available on PlayStation 5 for the very first time. Its broad and beautiful Mexico map. Its delectably drift-friendly vehicle dynamics. Its mammoth, 900-odd car garage that goes way beyond just featuring the essentials, and is brimming with cult favourite cars that simply aren’t available in any other racing game. The whole box and dice. PlayStation users are being immersed in all of this, many for the very first time.

The reaction has been fun to watch.

This influx of brand new players has been something the team has been particularly looking forward to.

“Yeah, I’m super excited,” confirms Playground Games art director Don Arceta. “Like, brand new people; for many, this will probably be the first Forza Horizon game that they’ve ever played. So it’s super exciting just to think about that, and think about what our first Horizon experiences were.”

Arceta is especially keen to see what kinds of places and races PlayStation 5 players begin creating with Forza Horizon 5’s huge set of customisation tools – the Event Lab.

“We have over 800 props now in the Event Lab, and just seeing what the community’s done with that feature and mode – and the creativity of the community – it’s just mind blowing,” he continues. “I’m super excited, once we get into the PlayStation 5 users, about what they’ll build, and the creativity that will come from that community.”

“You’ll actually get some pretty good Halo content too on the PlayStation, with the event lab props!”

In pleasing news, the port itself is proving to be as technically impeccable as its Xbox and PC counterparts, which is some flex considering the sheer girth of the game – and the fact that the engine that underpins it has never been unleashed on PlayStation before.

“As you can imagine, because the series has been based around the Xbox environment and architecture, there’s a lot of code and engineering that’s worked with that,” says Arceta. “So when we brought it to the PS5, it was no small undertaking. It was quite a huge task.”

“The PlayStation 5 version was developed by Panic Button, in collaboration with Turn 10 and ourselves, but Panic Button did an amazing job. So you get that amazing, quality experience that you get on Xbox and PC – now you get on the PlayStation, and it’s just amazing work that Panic Button has done.”

Personally I’ve never been able to look past the Forza series as a whole as home to the biggest and best bag of Hot Wheels on the block. No other racing series contains more weird and wonderful cars that I want, piled on top of a cavalcade of cars I didn’t even know I wanted. As a car fan, I love the idea of a whole new cohort of players potentially discovering their favourite cars in Forza Horizon 5 – cars their other racing games just haven’t been serving them.

For Playground Games lead game designer David Orton, however, it’s the sheer breadth of Forza Horizon 5 that he’s anticipating will impress new players.

“The breadth of Horizon is quite staggering,” says Orton. “I think what we find is players go in and find what they really enjoy but, because there’s so much freedom, that can really be whatever you want it to be.”

“We always pride ourselves on giving the player that kind of agency and freedom to do whatever they want, and the game will reward them and react in that way. I’m really looking forward to players just discovering the breadth of the content. If you just want to do road racing, or if you’re really into Rivals and track racing, you can totally do that. But if you love taking incredible photos, you can totally do that. If you’re into Event Lab, and you want to create content for other people, you can totally do that. Horizon is the space where really everyone is welcome, and there’s something in it for everyone. I think the feeling of people going in and realising this is more than just a racing game is what’s really exciting for me.”

“For me, a victory would be, like, ‘I can’t believe I’ve never played this game before,’” says Arceta. “I think the surprise.”

“That, for me, is a victory, because once they’re surprised, they’re engaged – and they want to learn more. So I’m really looking for that. The delight from players; just hearing their surprise and hearing their stories.”

Here, Orton is in agreement.

“Yeah, I think it’s that,” he adds. “Players who’ve never tried Horizon before – whether that’s because it’s on a different platform, or they’ve just never had the time to do it – to actually jump into this world and realise that it’s actually a really warm, welcoming place that’s full of fun, and finding a home at Horizon.”

“Players who’ve never played before realising that, ‘Oh my goodness, how have I never played this game before? This is incredible.’ That, to me, is a win. We’re about to target a cohort of players who may have never played a Forza title before. There’s a bit of an unknown to how people react to that, but I think when you look at the history of our titles, we’re continually perfecting our craft. We feel so excited to bring this to PlayStation. I think we’re going to bring in a whole load of new players and that’s really exciting.”

If there’s any hobby that’s more tribal than car culture, it’s those who hinge their identities on their video game console of choice. For racing game fans, however, one big wall has come down.

Let’s hope it’s not the last.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

The creator of Ecco the Dolphin has revealed that not only are there remakes of the original games underway, but a “third” instalment is also in development.

Revealed via a brief post on Xbox Wire, Ed Annunziata — the original creator of the famed, and fiendishly difficult, action-adventure games — was interviewed about raising awareness about ocean conservation, his life as a developer, and, right at the end, dropped this bombshell revelation:

“Me and the entire original team are going to remaster the original Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time games. Then we will make a new, third game with contemporary play and [graphics] sensibilities. Stay tuned.”

There is, of course, already a “third” game. As the last mainline Ecco instalment, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future was released on Dreamcast 25 years ago in 2000. However, creator Annunziata wasn’t involved. A further sequel, Ecco 2: Sentinels of the Universe, which had been written as a direct sequel to Defender of the Future, was cancelled.

“I just want to finally be able to enter my secret password from the end of Tides of Time. I still have it written in the codes section of the game manual,” wrote one fan, while another reminded us: “I wonder how many people know how completely bonkers the plot of the games are.”

Annunziata didn’t provide any additional details as to when we’ll get to be reunited with Ecco, but a countdown on the official Ecco the Dolphin website is set to expire in 8,508 hours’ time — that’s about a year from now.

Ecco the Dolphin originally launched in 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and was followed by a sequel, Ecco: The Tides of Time, in 1994. Ecco Jr. and Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt were released in 1995, although they were “edutainment” games and primarily developed as learning tools.

Ecco the Dolphin sees you play as the titular dolphin, as your underwater world has been devastated by a swirling gust of air and water. You must help him navigate back through treacherous tropical reefs and freezing polar ice floes to reunite him with his dolphin pod. We thought the 2000 remake was okay, writing: “Ecco the Dolphin is a classic from SEGA. But sometimes classics should stay in the past.

“For those who have played Ecco before, there’s really no reason to come back to it,” we wrote of the 2007 remake in IGN’s Ecco the Dolphin review. “There are no extras offered and the Achievements are junk. If you’ve never played Ecco, then you may want to give it a go. It really is one of the more innovative titles of its time. But, again, that time has long passed, and Ecco’s gameplay doesn’t stand the test of time like Sonic’s.”

The last Ecco the Dolphin game fared much better, getting a 7.6 score in IGN’s Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future review, saying: “If you thought Flipper had personality, wait until you get a load of Ecco the Dolphin. Experience amazing visuals and an engrossing story, and defend the ocean that is rightfully yours.”

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.

As if impressive Steam concurrent player numbers and Bethesda’s own announcement of 4 million players wasn’t enough to cement it as a hit, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is now the third best-selling game of 2025 in the U.S. after just one week on sale.

Oblivion Remastered, which shadow-dropped on April 22, has a peak concurrent player count of 216,784 on Steam. While impressive, that figure doesn’t tell the whole story, given Oblivion Remastered also launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, as well as straight into Game Pass.

Now we have a new milestone: after just one week on sale, Oblivion Remastered became the third best-selling game in the U.S. of 2025 so far by dollar sales. That’s according to Circana’s Mat Piscatella, who took to social media to say Oblivion Remastered trails only Monster Hunter: Wilds and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows at the top of the 2025 sales chart.

It’s worth pointing out that Circana’s sales charts do not include players via subscription services. So, we know that Oblivion Remastered is a sales hit despite also being available on Microsoft’s Game Pass.

With this success, it seems inevitable that more remasters of Bethesda games will follow, with most suggesting either Fallout 3 (it was leaked back in 2023) or Fallout: New Vegas are next.

If either game is indeed next, what should players expect? Bruce Nesmith, one of Fallout 3’s designers, has pointed to Fallout 3’s “not good” gun combat, which he expects Bethesda would improve significantly for a remaster.

Speaking to VideoGamer, Nesmith said Fallout 3 Remastered would have shooting more in-line with that of Fallout 4. “What did you see in Fallout 4? That will tell you what they felt was necessary to change from Fallout 3,” Nesmith said.

“I know in Fallout 4 there was a lot of work done on the gun combat, because Fallout 3 is the first time they ever tried to do a shooter-style game. And, well, I think the work that was done was amazing.”

Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.

Nesmith said Fallout 3 Remastered would probably include improvements and changes along similar lines to Oblivion Remastered.

“[Fallout 3 combat] didn’t hold up to shooters at the time,” he said. “Also, it’s an RPG shooter, it’s not a run-and-gun shooter. But a lot of work was done on that for Fallout 4. So I anticipate seeing a lot of that work go into it, assuming they’re doing the same thing.”

“Oblivion wasn’t just brought up to the 2011 version of Skyrim,” he added. “It was brought up to something that, at least on the surface, looks like it exceeds the most recent graphics update in Skyrim.” Nesmith has said The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is so impressive it could be called “Oblivion 2.0.”

It’s a busy time for Bethesda, which is working on The Elder Scrolls VI and, maybe, more Starfield. Throw in remasters and ongoing work on Fallout 76 and the Fallout TV show, which is heading to New Vegas for Season 2, and fans are in for a treat in the coming years.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

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.

A big part of the fun with Star Wars Day each year is seeing a new wave of toys and collectibles revealed by companies like Hasbro, Sideshow, and Hot Toys. This year’s event certainly didn’t disappoint, as we got glimpses of a wide range of upcoming products, ranging from less than $20 to over $1500. What can we say? Being a Star Wars collector is nothing if not an expensive hobby.

From Sideshow’s epic Luke Skywalker Red 5 statue to Hasbro’s nostalgia-heavy Episode III figures to Hot Toys’ mind-bogglingly detailed Jar Jar Binks figure, these were the coolest figures and collectibles revealed during Star Wars Day 2025.

Hot Toys’ Star Wars Figures

Hot Toys revealed quite the impressive lineup of 1:6 scale figures for Star Wars Day, including a couple of major characters who have surprisingly never gotten the Hot Toys treatment before now. The real surprise is definitely the Jar Jar Binks figure. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that this Jar Jar looks like he walked right off the screen. He’s even got seamless arm joints and two swappable face sculpts for recreating all those wacky poses.

Hot Toys is also filling a glaring hole in the Sequel Trilogy lineup by finally releasing a Poe Dameron figure. Fittingly, Poe is wearing his Resistance X-Wing jumpsuit. We’re also getting another of the fan-favorite Republic Commandos in the form of Clone Commando Boss, and the company’s new Star Wars Rebels-inspired line of animated figures is getting a Darth Vader to accompany the previously announced Stormtrooper figures.

Hasbro’s Star Wars Toys

Hasbro revealed a number of new figures in both the 6-inch Black Series line and 3 3/4-inch Vintage Collection line. Hasbro continues to capitalize on the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith by releasing new Black Series figures in packaging based on the classic RotS toy line. Next up are Aayla Secura and a Magnaguard droid. Black Series collectors can also augment their Imperial trooper collections with a Rogue One-themed 2-pack that includes both a Shoretrooper and a Death Trooper.

On the Vintage Collection front, Hasbro has a couple very interesting multi-pack releases in the works. The “Stormtroopers of the Empire 3-Pack” features a Snowtrooper, Scouttrooper and a Sandtrooper. The “Cantina Adventure 4-Pack” includes four aliens from the iconic Mos Eisley sequence, including Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Greedo, and Snaggletooth. It should go great with Hasbro’s crowdfunded Mos Eisley Cantina playset.

Finally, Star Wars prop collectors will be happy to know that a new ForceFX Elite lightsaber based on the weapon used by Rebels’ star Ezra Bridger is in the works.

Sideshow’s Star Wars Figures and Posters

Not to be outdone,. Sideshow Collectibles had a wide lineup of figures, statues, and art prints to reveal. Undoubtedly the showpiece of their Star Wars Day lineup is the Luke Skywalker: Red Five, Standing By Premium Format Figure. This massive 1:4 scale, mixed media statue features Luke decked out in his X-Wing jumpsuit and climbing up the ladder to his trusty ship. What really makes this piece special (and especially expensive) is that Sideshow went to the trouble of actually sculpting a portion of the X-Wing so that it hangs in mid-air.

Sideshow is also continuing to release 1:6 scale figures alongside distributing Hot Toys’ releases. Sideshow is focusing on its “Scum and Villainy” line, which highlights the many aliens and creatures that don’t necessarily receive attention from Hot Toys. The second wave of Scum and Villainy figures is focused on characters from Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, like Bib Fortuna, Klaatu, and Vizam.

Finally, Sideshow showed off the latest 1:10 statue from Iron Studios, which happens to be a shrunken-down version of their 1:4 scale Darth Vader statue. This Empire Strikes Back-inspired piece still looks mighty cool in the new, smaller scale.

Let us know in the comments below what your favorite Star Wars Day 2025 reveal was, and why it’s Hot Toys Jar Jar.

For more Star Wars collecting fun, check out our ultimate guide to Star Wars figures, and check out the many Star Wars Collectibles available on the IGN Store.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Rockstar Games has revealed that Grand Theft Auto 6’s release date is May 26, 2026, and indie game publisher Devolver Digital says it’s already making plans to be there with a new game of its own.

The company took a lighthearted shot at what is indisputably set up to be the biggest game launch of 2026 with a release date announcement of its own on X/Twitter. Now that GTA 6 has a proper release date, Devolver Digital has announced plans to release a mystery title on that same May 26 date. It’s a chaotic marketing strategy that Devolver Digital seems serious about following through on at least for now.

The mystery game’s release date arrives after the company previously made the promise to launch a game of its own when Rockstar finally announced its long-awaited GTA 6 release date. We now know that date to be May 26 of next year, so naturally, Devolver Digital has a message: “You can’t escape us.”

You can’t escape us.

May 26, 2026 it is then. https://t.co/eVa5bB1vrh

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) May 2, 2025

Devolver Digital has an extensive library of smaller-scale titles such as Hotline Miami, Enter the Gungeon, The Messenger, Katana Zero, Cult of the Lamb, and more. Whether the company plans to release a follow-up to an existing series or something new entirely remains to be seen. Upcoming entries in its catalog of games include Baby Steps and Stick It to the Stickman, two projects that are due out before 2025 comes to an end. There’s also Enter the Gungeon 2 and Human Fall Flat 2, which are both expected to arrive sometime in 2026, though developer No Brakes Games has already assured fans that it has no intention of releasing the latter on May 26.

We can confirm that Human Fall Flat 2 will NOT be releasing on May 26, 2026 https://t.co/zl3GbjSmia

— Human Fall Flat (@HumanFallFlat) May 2, 2025

More than a year out from launch, GTA 6 is already positioned to be a juggernaut video game. It’ll be Rockstar’s first numbered entry in its critically acclaimed sandbox series since 2013, with many doing everything they can to ensure they’ll be able to play on day one. Devolver Digital is doing its best to get a slice of that pie in a very Devolver Digital way, but we’ll have to wait to see exactly how it will do so.

For more, you can read up on Rockstar’s history of delaying it big-budget releases. You can also learn more about how a game like GTA 6 affects more than just Rockstar’s plans by clicking here.

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).

The Pokémon Trading Card Game singles market has taken a sharp dive, making it an ideal time to pick up high-value cards for less. With prices on many chase cards falling below recent norms, collectors can now complete sets or grab favorites without relying on luck from booster packs.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Interested in sealed products? Amazon is discounting a selection of TCG boxes and bundles. From legacy boxes to recent releases, many of these products are coming in over MSRP, which is why I want to let readers know that retailers putting pricing up isn’t their only option during Pokémania 2025. TCG Player is a secondary marketplace that is widely used in the US for the gold standard on current Pokémon TCG values thanks to its value tracking across the secondary market. Let’s get into it, regardless of ripping open booster packs or finding that dream chase card:

Infernape V Box

Azure Legends Tin

Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 Merch

Surging Sparks Booster Box

Doom & Wolfenstein Mayhem Game Bundle

Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium

Prismatic Evolutions ETB

Shrouded Fable ETB

Paldean Fates Booster Bundle

Prismatic Evolutions Surprise Box

2004 Pokéball Bundle

2004 Pokéball Bundle

Surging Sparks Booster Bundle

151 Poster Collection

Grand Theft Auto fans, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is finally, after all these years, we have an actual day-and-date release time for GTA 6. The bad news? It’s around six months later than the ‘Fall 2025’ we were originally told. To many in the video game industry, the new date of May 26, 2026 is a welcome sigh of relief – dozens of publishers and developers of all sizes were fearful of meticulously planning their release campaigns only to later discover they’d be releasing in the same month as this herculean title. However, there are many undated heavy-hitters due to land next year that will now be frantically searching for a new date.

What’s clear is that Grand Theft Auto 6 has found itself touted as the lynchpin to the video game industry’s near future – any news on the project’s development has a huge ripple effect. So how does a six-month delay reflect a significant change in Rockstar’s corporate culture, call into question this year’s console market revenue, and potentially affect the Switch 2?

Last year, the video game industry’s total revenue hit $184.3 billion, a 0.2% increase from 2023. Contradicting analyst predictions of a slight downturn, it prompted a sigh of relief for video game manufacturers and publishers. However, in the console space, revenue dropped by 1% – and we’re already seeing the consequences. A downturn of console hardware sales combined with a heightening technology tariff war has forced prices up for both Microsoft and Sony. This generation needs a definitive console-shifting title – it needs Grand Theft Auto 6.

Research groups estimate the crime sequel to make $1 billion off pre-orders alone and $3.2 billion in its first year of launch. It took Grand Theft Auto 5 three days to make $1 billion, could it take Grand Theft Auto 6 just 24 hours? Circana analyst Mat Piscatella believes that “there’s probably never been a more important thing to ever release in the industry,” because the game’s impact will help define our understanding of the video game industry’s potential growth over the next decade. There are rumors that it could be the first-ever $100 video game, making it a new watershed moment for the industry. That new benchmark could give the industry the shot-in-the-arm growth many analysts say it needs. However, it’s also possible Grand Theft Auto 6 is simply too much of a monolithic outlier to create progress outside of itself.

In 2018, Rockstar Games had a publicity crisis on its hands. Reports of 100 hour weeks alongside formerly mandatory overtime whilst developing Red Dead Redemption 2, plus former and current employees speaking on intense crunch periods stemming from Grand Theft Auto 4, painted a stark picture of one of gaming’s titans. Since then, the company has reportedly undergone an internal reinvention of sorts – according to a Bloomberg report, contractors being converted to full-time employees and a ‘flexitime’ policy enabling workers to take time off for every hour of overtime worked are just two of the many more compassionate policies enacted. Earlier this year, Rockstar’s old reputation threatened to rear its head as staff were made to return to the office five days a week to close out Grand Theft Auto 6’s development – a move which makes the reason behind the delay pretty clear. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier confirmed as much on BlueSky, explaining that his own Rockstar sources said that there’s “Too much work, not enough time, and what appears to be a real desire from management to avoid brutal crunch.” Rockstar can’t properly deliver a game that will change the video gaming world if it slips back into old habits; while the delay is disappointing to those playing, it’s undeniably a huge relief to those developing.

If you’re a publisher, releasing your game at the same time as Grand Theft Auto 6 is akin to throwing a bucket of water into a tsunami. Discussing the formerly scheduled ‘Fall 2025’ release window, a report by The Game Business highlighted how such a nebulous date was affecting publishers worldwide. One studio boss called Rockstar’s game “a huge meteor and we’ll just have to stay clear of the blast zone,” while another questioned “if we move out of 2025, what if Rockstar do, too?” (An unsurprisingly predictive worry). We even have the likes of EA CEO Andrew Wilson implicitly commenting on the game’s looming shadow in the context of the new Battlefield, citing “some things happening in the year that may cause us to think differently about our launch timing.”

However, huge releases don’t always overshadow those around them. Despite launching at the same time as Bethesda’s Oblivion remake, Kepler Interactive’s original RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 still sold over one million copies in just three days, with senior portfolio manager Matt Handrahan even joking that it was the video game industry’s Barbenheimer moment. It’s hard to believe such a moment can exist for Grand Theft Auto 6, of course, and so it goes unsaid that such a quirky idea will not be part of any publisher’s campaign plans. Don’t expect a Grand Theft Fable moment in 2026.

Currently, it’s unclear to what extent the new May 26, 2026 release date will shake up the plans of other publishers and developers. There are still many heavy-hitter titles that are undated including the likes of Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, EA’s new Battlefield title, Mass Effect spiritual successor Exodus and more. There will certainly be some developers now scrambling to change their internal release date plans, but the wider public will be none the wiser. However, this flag planting by Rockstar no doubt means that developers and publishers will feel more confident in announcing their release plans to the world. But they might want to hold on a minute.

It seems very unlikely that this will be the final date for Grand Theft Auto 6 for two reasons. Both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 were subject to two date delays, with the first delay being to the second quarter of the next year, followed by a second delay to the third quarter of that same year. Right now, Grand Theft Auto 6 is replicating that exact same timeline, delayed from Fall 2025 to May 2026, so one more delay to October/November 2026 seems a reasonably educated prediction.

That October/November window seems even more likely when you consider the potential for both Microsoft and Sony to create a new console bundle including the crime sequel, which will surely shoot up sales around the holiday period. Sony sold 6.4 million PlayStation 4s during October – December 2014, more than double the consoles they sold between April and September of that year. Of course there would have been the classic Christmas boost, but what else happened in that time frame? Grand Theft Auto 5 released on PS4.

What could be the bigger surprise, though , is that Nintendo may be one of the parties most affected by this delay. Recently, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick pledged full support for the Switch 2, leading fans to speculate about if Grand Theft Auto 6 may also be eyeing a Switch 2 launch. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy’s Definitive Edition saw a surprise launch onto the Nintendo Switch, so there’s precedent for an adult franchise on a typically family-friendly console. Many believed the Switch technology wasn’t powerful enough to run a game like Grand Theft Auto, however last year modders released a video showing off an in-progress port of GTA 5 running on Switch using the game’s leaked source code. While it does seem unlikely that Nintendo would have factored Grand Theft Auto 6 into the Switch’s first-year success, there’s a clear, strong relationship between publisher Take-Two and Nintendo that shouldn’t be ignored. When looking at the console market as part of the overall video game industry, Nintendo is still a huge part of that no matter how much of an island they may seem. The Nintendo Switch was still host to an array of generation-defining games including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Metal Gear Solid, Crysis and more. And with Cyberpunk 2077 arriving on Switch 2 at launch, complete with its current gen-only Phantom Liberty expansion, we shouldn’t ignore the potential for “miracle” ports.

What’s clear is that there is a hell of a lot riding on Grand Theft Auto 6. Many different head honchos of the video game industry, from studio heads to chief analysts, believe that this generation-defining game will be the one to break the industry’s growth stagnation. It’s hard to deny the global feverish demand and anticipation for a game that has effectively been in the works for over a decade. There are impossibly high expectations on the teams at Rockstar Games to deliver something that not only single-handedly restores the video game industry back to its pre-pandemic growth, but also presents an entirely new kind of video game experience that will become the new benchmark for developers and publishers moving forward. Rockstar only has one shot to get this right – what’s six more months after 13 years?

Sab Astley is a freelance writer who has written for IGN, Polygon, TotalFilm, Rolling Stone, Radio Times, and Metro UK.

The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 4.

The Last of Us season 2 hits its midway point with its strongest episode so far. It adapts one of the most memorable sections of the game – Seattle Day One – and so that means we get Ellie and Dina checking out Downtown before moving onto the Channel 13 TV studio and escaping the WLF through the subway tunnels.

There are five key sequences from the original game that are adapted for this episode. Here we’ve compared them against the original source material, analysing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. You can see both versions in the video above, or read on below for our written explanations.

Downtown

Ellie and Dina arrive in Downtown Seattle shortly after this episode begins. This section of the game was open by design, and so allowed you to look around several different buildings. We get just two of them in the show; Weston’s Pharmacy and Valiant Music Shop. The pharmacy gets only a couple of minutes of screentime but it does feature an adaptation of The Last of Us’ key gameplay mechanic: opening drawers and looking for junk.

Valiant Music Shop, meanwhile, gets more love. The show’s set has windows adorned with music-themed vinyl decorations, just as it does in the game. On the ground floor is the same red drumkit, and Dina plays around with them just as she does in the game. It’s upstairs where the main event happens, though, when Ellie discovers a guitar in an overgrown room. Bella Ramsey’s performance of A-ha’s Take On Me is very similar to that seen in the game, with a talk-y vocal style and slow melody.

The Forward Base

Episode 4 introduces us to the leader of the WLF, Isaac Dixon. This sequence is adapted from much later in the game’s sequence of events, when you play as Abby rather than Ellie, although due to the game’s overlapping dual timeline structure it seems likely that this sequence takes place at the “correct” time in the show.

During Abby’s half of the game, we see her visit the WLF’s forward operating base. There she meets Isaac, who is briefly seen conducting a torturous interrogation on a member of the Seraphites. In the show, we see a version of this scene play out in its entirety. Similar to the game, the WLF’s captured Seraphite has been stripped completely naked, but the show sees them tortured in a kitchen rather than a bathroom. Isaac’s brutal methods of torture were only implied in the game, but in the show we see him actively injuring his prisoner in an attempt to learn more about the Seraphites’ plans.

Channel 13

Ellie and Dina’s trip to the Channel 13 TV studio was naturally going to be the central event of this episode. In the game this is the sequence when the duo are first confronted with the murder cult-like methods of the Seraphites, as well as marking their first move towards finding where Abby is. The show recreates the key elements of the TV studio in grisy detail; WLF soldiers are strung up above the studio floor, and the Seraphites’ symbol is drawn on the wall in blood just as it is in the game. Ellie’s investigation of the area is interrupted by members of the WLF who, as in the game, are horrified to see what has become of their comrades.

The escape from the TV studio is shown to be a little more frantic than it is in the game, and the stormy weather adds even further drama to the scene, but in general the set design and pathway Ellie and Dina take feels authentic to the game, even if it’s not a one-to-one recreation.

The Tunnels

One of The Last of Us Part 2’s most exhilarating sequences is Ellie and Dina’s journey through the Seattle subway tunnels. Bathed in red light and infested by clickers, it’s a genuinely terrifying level. Unsurprisingly, HBO went to lengths to capture the striking visuals here, with the abandoned subway cars eerily lit by the WLF’s red flares and searching flashlights.

There are key differences between the game and the show’s version of events, though. This is very much a survival horror sequence in the game, with just a small but incredibly deadly collection of infected to avoid. The show, meanwhile, makes this more action packed – rather than have the infected lurk around the subway cars, they arrive as a charging, clawing horde. This makes the sequence much more action-oriented, with Ellie and Dina scrambling to get away rather than sneaking through the tunnels.

There are changes made to the sequence’s climax, too. In the game, Ellie gets trapped in the turnstile and Dina saves her by shooting an attacking clicker in the head. In the show, both Ellie and Dina get trapped in the turnstile, and Ellie allows herself to be bitten by the attacking clicker to protect Dina. It’s this bite that results in Ellie revealing her immunity to Dina. In the game, that reveal comes a few minutes prior, when Ellie’s gas mask is shattered by an attacking runner. Because spores are not a concern in the show (at least for now), the characters do not wear masks and thus this turn of events couldn’t be used.

I’m Pregnant

The last scene of this week’s episode recreates the culminating part of the game’s Seattle Day 1: Dina reveals to Ellie that she’s pregnant. In both versions, Dina shares the news at the Pinnacle Theater, which the duo has made their home base. In the game, it’s a subdued and anguished moment, with Dina looking notably stressed by the idea. The show’s take is quite different, as the reveal pretty much instantly turns into an impassioned kiss between Ellie and Dina.

For more from The Last of Us, check out our spoiler-free season two review and our spoiler-filled review of the fourth episode. You can also catch up with our comparison of the previous episode.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for May 4 below:

Save 30% Off This LEGO Star Wars R2-D2 Set