The latest trailer for Resident Evil Requiem shows experienced agent Leon S. Kennedy whiffing every one of his shots — and fans think Nintendo is to blame.
Yesterday’s Nintendo Partner Direct featured a fresh look at the highly-anticipated survival horror title, which features newbie agent Grace Ashcroft alongside veteran zombie fighter Leon S. Kennedy. But watch yesterday’s trailer and you’d think Leon was fresh out of the academy, as he is unable to land a single bullet.
The Nintendo showcase included new footage of Leon kicking zombies to the ground, but then firing over their shoulder. At one point he picks up a rifle, then fires at a tree. Leon’s even able to miss with a chainsaw, spinning at a zombie only to graze some furniture.
Nintendo making Leon miss every shot and attack to keep the show PG is so funny pic.twitter.com/fknXycULvQ
Online, Leon’s sudden lack of fighting prowess has not gone unnoticed, with Nintendo itself believed as being to blame.
“Nintendo making Leon miss every shot and attack to keep the show PG is so funny,” wrote nin10doland in a long thread on social media. “I can feel the frustration from the guy who was recording this game footage,” replied NikTek. “How many years of service does Leon have exactly?” added HuhShalien.
The Partner Direct broadcast was rated as being for an 18+/Mature audience, though some fans have suggested the footage used here was likely the same seen in the stream’s separate Japanese version. In Japan, Resident Evil games are frequently censored, and Nintendo may feel a particular need to keep gore and violence unseen.
Others, meanwhile, noted that this was nothing new for a Nintendo Direct.
“They did the same thing with The Great Circle during the boat action shot, where they were shooting the water in front of the enemy boat instead of the actual boat,” wrote Donnyboi.
“Reminds me of the Hitman trailer when they’d cut right before he’d kill anyone,” added RileyEatsGood.
“This is also why the initial reveal for The Duskbloods from FromSoftware looked super underwhelming,” concluded VBandit47. “They couldn’t show literally ANYTHING that is core to the Soulsborne experience cause they couldn’t show any blood. Watch it back, you’ll see what I mean lmao.”
But it wasn’t just Leon’s aim that came under fire during the Nintendo Direct. The beloved character’s new amiibo figurine also took flak for its facial design — “hot uncle” it is not.
“Honestly, they look like the hot chocolate chocolates you put in a cup of hot milk to dissolve,” wrote Iv0ry_Falcon on reddit in a thread dissecting the look of both Leon and Grace’s amiibo.
“This 20$ Leon is on 20$ shrooms judging by his look,” claimed PhysicalKick3812. “Grace looks good.”
Arc Raiders, an extraction shooter and the second game from developer Embark Studios, has taken the world by storm.
This sci-fi, third-person PvPvE experiment launched with little more than a $40 price tag and an enticing premise back in October and almost immediately established itself as one of the biggest games of 2025 – and maybe even 2026. Now, with a post-launch roadmap paving the way with the promise of new map updates and new apocalyptic AI enemies, all eyes are on Embark to see if it can keep the momentum up for months – or maybe even years – to come.
We caught up with CEO Patrick Söderlund to learn more about the surprise success of Arc Raiders, its huge impact on the studio, the battle with cheaters, content updates, hotels in Italy, weird pants, and more as Embark heads into its first full year with a mega hit on its hands.
IGN: I’d like to start with PvE. Like so many others, I’m fascinated by how players have chosen to communicate and interact with one another in the game. What is Embark doing to encourage that behavior and capitalize on the special sauce that makes this element unique?
Patrick Söderlund: I think you said it well. I think it’s, maybe, not just capitalizing on the aspects of PvE, but it’s capitalizing on the unique sauce that we managed to cook that makes this game special. I think PvE and PvP are both ingredients in that sauce. I could sit there and pretend like, ‘Yes, everything that happens in the game and everything that people do in the game, of course, was intended.’ That’s not the case, of course. When you build a game, and you structure it to a large extent with elements of a sandbox, the stuff that happens in Arc Raiders is just the output, which is incredible and very rewarding for us to see as developers.
What we do is we look at, ‘OK, what do we think we should double down on?’ I, personally, am touched by all the social elements to this game and the things that make me and, I think, everyone else, believe in humanity again. There’s something very kind about that, in many aspects. Just as sometimes PvP can be exciting, frustrating, and thrilling, as well. Those are the aspects that we have to look into. I think we look at it from a holistic perspective and try to understand what more we can do to foster and to nurture both those sides.
One of the discussions that I think is, to some extent, public is ‘What’s Speranza?’ I think Speranza is heavily underutilized, personally. I think that’s something that we want to, probably, improve and make into something else. Are there elements of the game where there could be meeting points? Again, these are personal ideas, right now, that I’m basically brainstorming with you, but the Speranza idea is obviously something that I think people have told us about, something that I think could be cool.
Could you meet up with people there? Could that be a social hub to some extent? What more can we do with that? It also deepens what I think is something that players maybe want more of, which is the lore of Arc Raiders. So, we look at it from multiple angles and multiple perspectives, and then, as we build content as quickly and fast as we can, we try and push updates and changes into the game that does more of what we believe is great about this game.
IGN: A quick offshoot: are there any plans for more instruments?
Patrick Söderlund: You’re going to laugh. If you ask the team, ‘Who has been the biggest advocate for instruments?’ They will send you a picture of me. I was so upset that we only had one at launch, and I kept [saying], ‘Where are my instruments?’ There are so many of them that have been designed and built, and I happen to be in a position of decision-making authority [laughs]. So, the answer is yes, there will be more instruments. For sure. I love them, and they create such cool moments. What the team basically wanted to make sure was that, not only can they be played separately, but they can be played in unison, and that makes sense. That makes it a little bit more complicated for us to add them. Then, they want, obviously, appropriate animations, but all the instruments and everything that you play has been recorded by the people that work at Embark, which is pretty cool.
Frankly, what you say there is something that I believe we need to lean into and do more of. Those types of things. I don’t know what another instrument can be, but the joy… When someone told me that we’re going to do fireworks, I’m like, ‘Why would we do that?’ Then I see these crazy things people do with them. I said, ‘We need more of this stuff.’ I think the things that are maybe not centered around going out there, shooting Arc, looting, or other things, they’re just there because they’re fun. They’re just there to bring joy. That’s been, frankly, our biggest surprise with this game. I’ve read a bunch of articles saying the Arc Raiders is almost like a social experiment, and it kind of is, and I love that.
I genuinely love the fact that that’s what it is. I actually had a conversation at dinner three days ago with a very prominent professor in neurology that had gotten to know about the game, and said, ‘Listen, you have no idea what you’ve built. Forget about the game itself.’ From just the whole idea of psychological experimentation and social experimentation, and what this game can be. She, a good friend of mine, basically said, ‘You should go and do a collab or work with people from the medical field to study what behaviors are triggered in Arc Raiders.’
We may not go that far. That would not be anything to do with the game itself, but it points to something that I believe is so fundamental with this game, and I believe is a big component to why the game has been successful. We knew that we had elements of that, but we could never anticipate that it would take the route it took.
IGN: When I play, I sometimes hear players outright comment on being in ‘friendly’ or ‘unfriendly’ lobbies. I’m not sure if this is something you know off the top of your head, but is Embark aware of how much of its playerbase is intentionally taking advantage of the aggression-based matchmaking to place themselves in PvE or PvP-centered lobbies?
Patrick Söderlund: I don’t know the answer to that. It’s obviously something that we are and need to continue to monitor. That’s not the intent of the game’s design or our ambition to segment the game in that aspect and make it so that people can sneak in. That’s not, of course, what we want. We want you, as a player, to have the experience that you’re looking for and makes you happy. We have to deal with the factor of the human beings and real players, which we can’t curate that 100%. It’s impossible because humans make decisions. I can be the friendliest guy and then, all of a sudden, I can decide to start shooting people – or the opposite. It is just the nature of a multiplayer game, but we understand that is a concern. We understand that could be the case, and sometimes is the case.
We are obviously pushing our systems and thinking about other means of trying to just give players the experience they’re looking for without going into any deep details around this, because it is pretty complex, to be honest. You are, frankly, like me for the most part.
I’m PvE to a large extent, but I’m also PvP sometimes because I think it’s fun. You have other players that just want to PvP, and for them, it’s completely fair. I think the game should cater to all types of players, but what we don’t want to have happen is for you to feel like you’re in a situation that you don’t want or that you didn’t wish for. That’s kind of the important aspect of this.
IGN: So the aggression-based matchmaking is still something you guys are tweaking every day, then?
Patrick Söderlund: All systems, when it relates to matchmaking, will undergo changes continuously. That’s a part of running a live service. We have to, and it’s not just that element of our matchmaking. Matchmaking, it’s not as simple as, ‘Are you someone that shoots a lot of people or not?’ It is far more sophisticated than that. The PvP, PvE aspect of it is a small portion of it. There are other aspects, and then we need to take into consideration, how do you play the game? How good are you? You obviously shoot a lot of Arc enemies, we will determine your abilities to shoot in general and your ability to shoot against AI and shoot against other players.
Matchmaking is a complex system as a whole, and as a developer, pretty hard to get right. I’ve been working with matchmaking systems for the majority of my video game career. All the way from Battlefield to a bunch of different games. Frankly, some of the first multiplayer games, no one even knew what matchmaking was. It was like, ‘Play the game. Have fun.’ Then, as games and multiplayer games evolved over time, it obviously became a necessity. It’s a formula of many, many, many things, where PvE and PvP is one aspect of them, and all of it gets continuously tweaked, of course. There are probably other systems that we are working on, or that we probably should be working on, that will be added as well.
IGN: Embark said it was going to start cracking down on cheaters in January. Could you give me an update on the anti-cheat process and how that’s gone so far? If you, again, would happen to have a rough estimate on how many cheaters have been banned?
Patrick Söderlund: I’m not going to give you a specific number, but I can give you ballpark. We have been pretty aggressive on this. The game wasn’t prone to so many cheaters in the beginning, but as with all multiplayer games that get successful, this becomes a component, unfortunately. For us as developers, just like a DDoS [Distributed Denial-of-Service] attack, it’s one of these things that you just have to try and be a step ahead. To be very honest with you, it’s not always easy because the minute you do something, the minute you come up with something, they’ve come up with something else to do. The banning process is obviously delicate because we need to make sure that we ban people that deserve to be banned, if that makes any sense. If you take general figures, anywhere between 0.1% to 1% of any multiplayer crowd in a large-scale multiplayer game is cheating, and therefore, to some extent, should get a temporary or a longer, or permanent ban.
It could be a minor thing that you’re trying. An aim bot that may get you a 24-hour suspension, to doing something that, frankly, means you shouldn’t be playing the game anymore. So, we’ve put together a system. We’ve started banning players, and why do I know that? Because I see an influx of people trying to get to the studio, and to me. ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything.’ We’re seeing a pretty substantial change in that, but I know that we have banned probably tens of thousands of players so far, that I know. Again, we need to make sure that we get it right. That we are fair, and that, in the case where it’s clear that we didn’t get it right, that we can quickly remedy the situation so that player isn’t affected in an unfair fashion or way.
That’s why the approach should probably be a little bit more cautious than what I think some people want for that specific reason. Regardless of how cautious you are and what systems are in place, there are always people that are going to feel like they’re treated unfairly that, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ and then there are absolutely people that will get caught or that are unfairly banned that we need to deal with. We try and look at it from that perspective, but we will continue to go after people that are doing things in the game that they shouldn’t do.
IGN: It sounds like there’s a lot planned for the next four months, though I have seen some players dissatisfied with the roadmap. What do you say to the people who saw that four-month plan and feel like it’s not enough to keep them coming back?
Patrick Söderlund: First and foremost, what I say is, I hear you. I understand what you’re saying, and I would maybe even feel the same if I were you to some extent, because they don’t have the details. We opted for a pretty generalized plan for now because, to be very honest, we’re developing things as we go. It’s a live service, and we know what we’re going to do, but we don’t actually know whether something that we’re working on may or may not make it on time for that particular release. As we get closer to releasing something, you’ll see – and I think you’ve seen it in our latest patch notes – they’re pretty detailed. We’re not trying to hide anything. We’re just trying to be as transparent as we can be at this point in time, but if we get into the studio development schedule and make that public, we’re probably going to be in a world of hurt.
People may or may not be as forgiving of some of the things that we are not able to deliver, but our goal is to make sure that this game gets continuous updates, that we build things that people love, and that we do it as much as we possibly can. I feel that if I paid $40 for this game, I would’ve felt like I’d gotten probably a decent value out of the game. We’re not resting.
We did take some time off for Christmas. The team had been working day and night, so they needed, frankly, a rest. I realize that if you’re a player, you probably don’t care about that, but as the CEO of the studio, I have to care about those types of things and make sure that people can rest and that we are fair to the people that work there. But from the beginning of January, whenever everyone was back, we’re working around the clock to deliver as much content as we can to players.
IGN: Generally, what does a map update for Arc Raiders look like? Is this the kind of thing players should expect to be a frequent part of the live-service roadmap going forward?
Patrick Söderlund: The answer is yes, they should. For us, we look at the existing maps as… When you build something, you test it, and you test it extensively, and you do whatever you can, but nothing can compare to 10+ million people playing your game. You can’t test for that, and also over time. So, for instance, Stella Montis is a good example of a map that I think has divided our player base to some extent. Some people love it because it’s high action. It also did something that we didn’t really realize. It changes not only how people play the game, but also the emotions that map evokes compared to others. Sometimes, I don’t know if you recognize this, but when I play it – and I do play it – I feel like I’m in a horror movie, and I think that’s pretty cool for a game to be able to give me that feeling.
I like for the game to be that, but at the same time… Some maps require an additional area, some maps require a redesign of an area because we don’t like the flow of the map. We can monitor everything from our data. For instance, we can see, utilizing a heat map, where action happens and where players mostly spend their time. If there’s an area of the map that’s not frequently visited, that feels like it’s underutilized. How can we change that so that people get a better gameplay experience as they play the game? We for sure want to bring up new content, but we can also evolve and update existing content to make it more fun and better for players, and that’s the intent of the map changes.
IGN: There was a recent report going around claiming that Arc Raiders had a $75 million budget. Is that figure something you can confirm or comment on?
Patrick Söderlund: We haven’t communicated our development number, and we won’t do that, but it’s not hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah, it’s not. I don’t know, frankly, where that number came from [laughs]. It didn’t come from me, but it’s not too far off, if that makes sense.
IGN: I saw it floating around there without the confirmation, so I wanted it just straight from the horse’s mouth. That makes sense.
Patrick Söderlund: Yeah. We’re not going to give a specific number, but ballpark? Yeah.
IGN: If you could, I’d like for you to comment on how profitable Arc Raiders has been for Embark, or at least how that success has changed the studio and its team for the better.
Patrick Söderlund: Well, you don’t have to be a math professor to realize that the game has done well for us and that we’re obviously incredibly happy with the performance from a financial perspective. So, of course, it’s been very profitable for us. What does it mean for us? Well, first and foremost, it means that… Unfortunately, it’s not something that I’m happy about, but our industry has been riddled with layoffs and studio closures for the past, I would say, 24 months. At some other time, we can discuss what I believe is the root cause of that, which is going to take far longer than what we have today, but for us, it means stability, long-term security.
We can live for a long time on the money that Arc Raiders has been generating, and that does give financial security and employment stability for the people that work there. We’re growing our studio, we’re hiring people, we want to build more of Arc Raiders, we want to build more of The Finals. We also have two new games in development that we hope to finish someday. So for us, it’s a sigh of relief, obviously, for any developer, and we’re incredibly happy for that, of course, and thankful for everyone that’s been supporting us by buying the game. It feels great. Obviously, hopefully, we can have competitive salaries, good bonuses for the people that have done all this hard work and deserve to be taken care of adequately.
IGN: One of the funnier conversations I’ve seen online had to do with the Abyss set, and specifically its pants.
Patrick Söderlund: [Laughs].
IGN: I guess the natural question I have after that is, what guide or philosophy, if any, does Embark follow in creating cosmetics to add to the game?
Patrick Söderlund: Well, Robert Sammelin, who’s the art director, does all this stuff. First and foremost, we want to make sure that everything fits the fiction of Arc Raiders, and that it’s something that sits well within the Arc Raiders universe. I mean, there are other games, very successful games out there – The Finals being one of them – in which the IP is designed so it basically happens to be very elastic. You can do whatever the hell you want, and people are like, ‘That makes sense. It’s completely plausible.’ I can be a pink banana, and you can be whatever, and everyone’s like, ‘That makes sense. It fits the universe. No problem.’ Arc Raiders has a more curated lore, curated world, so we have to stick within boundaries slightly to a different extent than maybe The Finals or Fortnite or another game in which Batman can shoot Bart Simpson.
That’s not the vision for our game, but at the same time, the game, as it is now and from launch, is the start of the Arc Raiders lore. We obviously want to take it, expand it further, and also the art direction further, but the core of Arc Raiders’ art direction and lore will still remain the same. That won’t change. I think that’s going to be very important. I personally never believed that I would care about what I was wearing in a video game. Listen, I’m just being very honest with you, but I’m like a child. Whenever something new comes out, I need to have it. I swap my gear. I swap my backpacks and things and charms.
I just love to play around with it, and I think many people do as well. So what we have to do is to challenge ourselves and always make sure that we build things that have the right type of edge. Some things just need to be OG – if there’s such a thing as that spot in the middle of what Arc Raiders is – but we also need to build things that are on the fringe of what the lore and IP can tolerate without them being a pink banana. That is something that, I think, we’ve done to some extent, but I think we can probably do more of. Again, we will probably have a slightly segregated user base when it comes to what they like, but that’s probably fine given that they’re cosmetics. That’s probably how it should be. So, yeah. That’s kind of where we are.
IGN: I’ve seen some chatter about map conditions and events. Some players don’t like that they are on a rotating schedule. Does Embark have a response or explanation for those players?
Patrick Söderlund: They are on a rotating schedule for multiple reasons. Obviously, we believe that it’s a part of how the game should be played, that not everything is available at all times. We believe that creates tension. It’s an element of fun. It’s a way for us to move people from map to map, which we believe to be important. More so, I saw something online, that there were no events going on. Sometimes it could be, frankly, a malfunction or a bug that’s entered the system that we need to fix. We don’t want all the map events to be available at all times. That’s per design, and that most likely won’t change. Sometimes we’ll let them stay for longer. Sometimes we run two or three in parallel, but they may be different, but we believe that to be a part of how the game should be experienced.
IGN: With multiple new map conditions coming throughout Escalation, how will more map conditions affect how Embark schedules and rotates events? Will some conditions be rotated out for an extended amount of time as more find their way to the game?
Patrick Söderlund: Probably, yes, some of them will be removed, and some they may return, or they probably will return at some point but maybe slightly updated with a different edge. As we built the game and as we launched the game, we were working very late on the [Electromagnetic Storm], I remember playing that, and I told [executive producer Aleksander Grondal] and the team, I’m like, ‘I don’t get this. It’s not fun. It’s just annoying.’ That was a previous version of it. I said, ‘What’s the intent of this stuff? Are we really sure?’ I mean, I knew the intent, but, ‘Are we really sure that this is an important part of the game?’
The team said, ‘Yeah, we believe so,’ and all of [the map conditions] got tweaked all the way till the end. Cold Snap to me, I’m like, ‘That sounds like a dumb idea.’ But then, when I played it, for me, I loved it. I thought it was really cool. It gave me an edge. I loved the fact that I got cold, that I need to find shelter. It gave me another meaningful way of playing the game. Some people may not feel that way. I did. The Electromagnetic Storm, for me, still felt a little bit annoying, but some people loved it.
I think, as a game developer, when you build something, you just have to be fine with the fact that that’s the case. When we bring something out of rotation, we have to look at the data and say, ‘Can we make this more interesting? Can we make this more fun? Let’s have it make a comeback and see when that makes sense.’ I also know that some of the map conditions will be amazing. Some of them, we won’t get right, and we are fine with that. Then, when we don’t get them right, we will listen to people, and we will either remove them or change them rapidly.
I really hope that people out there realize that we don’t sit on all the answers. We are players and developers. Our goal is to try and make the best damn game we can with all you guys out there, and when we don’t get it right, you can trust in us to rectify that and try and get it right immediately. That’s kind of what I hope for people to understand. Most of these updates will be free, so just see them as that, please, and see we’re really trying hard here to give you even more value than we’ve given you. I hope people can see it that way.
IGN: I’m wondering if you’ve seen that, and if you can confirm or deny if the Stella Montis location in the game is named after this hotel.
Patrick Söderlund: I don’t know the answer to that question, but [CCO] Stefan Strandberg… [laughs] I’m reading them now. I see. ‘I don’t recommend this for solo players’ [laughs]. I didn’t know about that. That’s amazing. I feel sorry for the poor hotel, though. I’ll probably have to call them and apologize. But no, everything is inspired by locations in Italy. Stefan, it’s not a secret, he’s an Italian lover. He loves wine. He loves Italy. So there’s absolutely something there. We also felt like Italy is a good place for a lot of this to happen for multiple reasons, but I will have to defer to Stefan Strandberg for that specific question. I can find out – I will find out because now I’m intrigued – and I probably will call up that hotel and apologize for what we’ve caused them. That wasn’t intended, but I’ll promise to get back to you with a reply on that!
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer 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).
Borderland 4‘s first premium DLC, Bounty Pack 2: Legend of the Stone Demon, will drop February 26, 2026.
Described by Gearbox as an “all-new bite-sized yet flavorful narrative content,” the DLC includes a new mission and Legendary loot to collect, as well as a themed Vault Card featuring 24 cosmetics and four “rerollable pieces of gear unlocked through gameplay.”
While the team held back on the story details, promising that we’ll find out more about Legend of the Stone Demon “closer to the launch,” we do get more info about the “major” update that will be released alongside Bounty Pack 2: Pearlescent gear. A new rarity tier “with power levels superior to even Legendary gear,” this new rarity will be available to all players regardless of what edition of Borderlands 4 they own, although some pieces of Pearlescent gear will be exclusive to Bounty Pack 2.
We were also treated to a little update on what’s still to come, too. The first Story Pack for Borderlands 4, entitled Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, will arrive next month and introduces multiple main and side missions set in a new zone of Kairos, as well as new gear and cosmetics, of course.
The story will center on the “return of the indomitable fan-favorite Ellie,” and “focuses on a cosmic horror theme with a bloodier, darker tone.” It’ll also include the first new playable Vault Hunter, C4SH, a former casino dealer bot.
“Borderlands 4 gives the series the massive kick in the pants it has needed, with a fantastic open world and greatly improved combat, even if bugs and invisible walls can sometimes throw off that groove,” we said in IGN’s Borderlands 4 review, which returned a 8/10.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Riftbound landed late in 2025, and the general vibe around Riot’s League of Legends card game has been that it’s fun to play – it’s just not always easy to get hold of.
With an Origins restock dropping this week, the Riot storefront once again crashed out, leaving players frustrated in their attempts to get starter sets, decks, packs, and more.
While it remains to be seen if Riot can fix those teething issues from its first set, the good news is that there are four planned for 2026. Here’s everything coming to Riftbound this year, updated in February 2026 thanks to Riot’s new roadmap.
February 13, 2026 – Spiritforged
Spiritforged will be the first post-launch set for Riftbound, and will likely give us a good idea of what to expect from sets going forward.
New this time around are mechanics like Equipment which can be attached to Units, Gold that can be spent, and new keywords like Quick-Draw, Repeat, and Weaponmaster.
As for new Legends, you’ll be able to grab cardboard versions of Azir, Draven, Ezreal, Fiora, Jax, Rumble, Rek’Sai, Ornn, Sivir, Lucian, Rneata Glasc, and Irelia.
May 8, 2026 – Unleashed
While other TCGs (ahem, Magic: The Gathering) will overlap previews with releases, Riot is squarely focused on Spiritforged for now – so details about Unleashed are pretty scarce at the time of writing.
Expect it to introduce new mechanics as with its predecessor, but we’re also expecting to see the arrival of fan-favorite Vi as a Legend, alongside Master Yi, Rengar, and LeBlanc.
We’ll update this page as more information becomes available, but for now we know it’ll launch on May 8 (or April 10 in China). Expect Pre-Rift events on May 1 – 3.
31 July, 2026 – Vendetta
Again, information for another upcoming set is thin on the ground for Riftbound’s Vendetta. We know it’ll come at the end of July, and that Mel, Akali, and Ambessa are likely to arrive.
Riot has also suggested that Vendetta will see it merge the Chinese and North American release schedules into one. Here’s hoping the supply issues are sorted by then…
Pre-Rift will be 24 – 26 July.
23 October, 2026 – Radiance
While we have the set name for Radiance, we have no further information. What Legends will it include? What mechanics? ANYTHING!?
Until Riot is ready to talk, it remains a mystery, but as always we’ll have this page updated as we hear more. Pre-Rift is pencilled in for 16 to 18 October.
What about Origins?
Origins is still Riftbound’s current set, and while it’s tough to get hold of, that should get easier in the coming months (otherwise, Riot will be in big trouble).
The launch set’s tutorial set, dubbed Proving Grounds, is still going for inflated prices on the secondary market, making it tricky to, you know, learn how to play the game.
The same can be said of the preconstructed decks for Jinx, Lee Sin, and Victor, but anecdotally, I’ve at least seen some stock of those on local game stores, even if they’re not always readily available online.
Boosters are a mixed bag – sometimes you’ll find some, but you’re unlikely to find a box right now.
As we said at launch: “Sadly, as the first set of Riot’s first card game hits shelves, it’s being snapped up by scalpers and put on the secondary market.
“It’s a standard practice in TCGs, but Riot is reportedly printing more. If you can hold out, there will be more product.”
That still rings true today – stay strong, and wait it out.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
Larian Studios’ multi-award-winning fantasy RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3, is set for its own TV series on HBO, and will be helmed by The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin.
As reported by Deadline, a television adaptation of the acclaimed game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe is in development at the network, and interestingly, will be a continuation of the story from the Baldur’s Gate 3 game. The television show will reportedly take place after the events of Larian’s RPG and follow the characters players grew to love over time as they grapple with the aftermath of its world-changing ending.
The series will be helmed by Craig Mazin, no stranger to adapting video games to live action, following his work co-creating HBO’s The Last of Us with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann. A huge fan of Baldur’s Gate 3, Mazin told Deadline that “After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur’s Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created”.
“I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it”, he continued. “I can’t wait to help bring Baldur’s Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I’m deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property.”
By taking on this project that has no ties to any other Baldur’s Gate game in the pipeline, Mazin will have free rein over what story he wishes to tell, but we do know that it will include both existing and brand new members of the BG3 cast. Shadowheart? Karlach? Astarion? Who are you most looking forward to seeing on your television screen? Mazin reportedly plans to reach out to the cast of the games to sound out how best to approach their roles in the TV show, and if they’d want to be involved, something The Last of Us did with Merle Dandridge reprising her role as Marlene, for example.
Of course, the ending of Larian’s multiple game of the year award-winning RPG can vary massively depending on how you chose to play the game, so it will be highly intriguing to see how Mazin and co. go about choosing which ending is canon for them.
It may well be a while yet before we see Baldur’s Gate arrive on the small screen, with Mazin still attached to complete production on The Last of Us, which is gearing up for its third, and maybe final, season.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
Embark Studios has opened up about how it will make the second Expedition in Arc Raiders more enticing after the first left its community wanting more.
The developer behind the popular sci-fi extraction shooter updated fans with a blog post on its website. Included are a February 25 sign-up date and a March 1 departure date for the account reset event, as players are told to look forward to more worthwhile rewards before sending their beloved Raiders into the unknown and starting from scratch.
Stash value requirements were the first thing Embark addressed, telling fans that they’ll now need just 3 million coins to reach the maximum bonus of five skill points. That means you’ll need only 600,000 per point, a significantly more achievable task than the previous Expedition’s ask of 1 million per skill point.
What’s more, Raiders who participated the first time around but didn’t amass enough coins can benefit from a new catch-up feature. Missed points can be claimed for 300,000 each, with coins first going toward Expedition 2 before being used for the makeup points for Expedition 1. In other words, you’ll need the 3 million for the five new skill points and an additional 300,000 per skill point missed. As Raiders jump into Expeditions for the first time, they’ll need to start by unlocking rewards from Expedition 1, leaving the catch-up feature only for returning players.
Other new permanent rewards for the second reset include a new Scrappy outfit, an evolved Patchwork outfit with more toggles and colors, and, thankfully, 12 more stash space slots. Returning expeditioners gain 5% more XP (10% total), a 6% boost to Scrappy materials (12% total), and a 10% increase to repair value (70% total).
All of the upcoming changes to Expeditions arrive after Embark noted a somewhat disappointing reception to its first crack at the account wipe feature. Design director Virgil Watkins told PCGamesN last month that “a little over a million players” successfully cleared their accounts and suggested the studio would keep its ear to the ground going forward.
“We completely acknowledge that it isn’t the most engaging thing to just go for money,” he said at the time, “[and it has] the potential outcome of disincentivizing using your gear, which is kind of what people look forward to towards the end of a reset cycle. So yeah, we’re looking at revisions on that.”
Arc Raiders launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S October 30, 2025. Its Escalation roadmap laid out Embark’s early 2026 plans late last month, with Expedition windows planned for February and April. Headwinds kicked things off with a solo vs. squads queue option and the Bird City map condition when it arrived January 27.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer 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).
Ubisoft has reportedly canceled a multiplayer, cooperative Assassin’s Creed title that has been in development at French studio Ubisoft Annecy.
This comes from a report by French publication Origami, which IGN has independently translated. According to the report, the project was codenamed “AC League”, was originally conceived as a DLC for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and would have potentially taken place in the same feudal Japan era. The DLC would have involved four assassins joining forces to take on a series of scripted missions with up to four players that would have ultimately concluded the story told in the game’s (canceled) Season Pass. You may have already heard of AC League if you pay close attention to Assassin’s Creed gossip, as it was previously rumored last year in a report from Insider Gaming.
The project, Origami reports, was apparently fairly ambitious and was intended to serve as a baseline for future multiplayer features throughout the series, such as a return to a hybrid solo/multiplayer playstyle as existed in Assassin’s Creed Unity or Black Flag (a remake of which has been rumored for some time now). However, as the AC League project progressed, directors at Ubisoft Annecy reportedly began to question whether it made sense to attach League to Shadows, as they worried it would take too long to make, and came up with a different plan that turned it into a small, standalone title borrowing pieces of the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows open world. Development on this progressed with an intended invite-only alpha planned for May of 2026.
Unfortunately, AC League was allegedly just the latest victim of the ongoing upheaval at Ubisoft. For several months now, the company has been undergoing a massive restructure alongside major cost-cutting measures, canceling numerous projects, closing studios, and reorganizing its creative houses. It was to this restructuring that AC League fell victim, with leadership at Ubisoft Annecy being informed just last week that AC League was being canceled.
However, there is still a sliver of hope for the project, Origami reports. Apparently, a handful of Annecy employees have been selected to transfer the technical advancements the team made back into the company’s proprietary Anvil engine, with the goal of eventually making it easier to add replayable multiplayer modes to future Assassin’s Creed titles that would be less expensive to develop. Unfortunately, that leaves more than a quarter of the 270 individuals working at Annecy without a project at the moment, leaving a lot of lingering anxiety that layoffs may be coming next.
IGN has reached out to Ubisoft for comment.
Ubisoft’s quarterly earnings will be reported next week, and all eyes are on the company to see if it can pull itself together amid some drastic financial times. Upon last reporting, the company had thrown out its previous fiscal year guidance for new, significantly reduced financial expectations, reflective of the fact that the company just closed two stories, laid off a lot of employees, and canceled six projects. It’s also handed off its three biggest franchises to Vantage Studios, a newly-created business entity owned by Ubisoft but with a 25% stake from Tencent to help keep the lights on.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
We now have our hands on the Nintendo Switch 2, a new console from one of the biggest names in gaming. Alas, a new console is only as valuable as the library of games you can build on it.
Thankfully, Nintendo hasn’t been shy about planned releases over the next year, which include a mix of Switch 2 exclusives, third-party releases, and the benefit of backward compatibility with any games still launching on the original Switch. Without further ado, here are all of the new Switch 2 games we can look forward to in 2026.
All Upcoming Switch 2 Games With Release Dates
PGA Tour 2K25 (February 6, 2026)
If you found Wii Sports golf to be a little too easy, here you go. PGA Tour, 2K’s golf series, is coming to a Nintendo console for the first time since 2K21. Take on tournaments as your favorite pro player or build up your own character through the MyCareer mode. IGN’s 8/10 review gave the game some solid praise, highlighting that “new swing mechanics, paired with the significantly improved graphics, makes for a much more realistic ambiance.” Let’s hope that performance holds up on the Switch 2.
Tokyo Scramble (February 11, 2026)
Tokyo has been destroyed in a massive cave-in. In the aftermath, Anne wakes up underground to find a subterranean organization filled with creatures called Zeno. If they catch you, they’ll kill you. To escape, you’ll have to focus on stealth. Announced during the February Nintendo Partner Direct, Tokyo Scramble is launching on Switch 2 pretty darn soon.
Paranormasight: A Mermaid’s Curse (February 19, 2026)
Yuza Minakuchi is working as a pearl diver who encounters another version of himself on the sea floor. As strange incidents continue to plague his home island, he must investigate a curious cast of characters throughout the town as well as mysteries in the water.
Mario Tennis Fever (February 12, 2026)*
Mario Tennis is making its return with the first new release since 2018’s Mario Tennis Aces. The sports game will continue the more recent tradition of a Story Mode alongside Tournament, Trial Towers, and Mix It Up modes, all while featuring a whopping 38 playable characters.
Blazblue Entropy Effect X (February 12, 2026)
Next up, we’re getting an expanded, console version of the Blazblue spin-off originally released for mobile and PC in 2023. The action roguelite sets you on an adventure into the Sea of Possibility with new characters and story additions.
Reanimal (February 12, 2026)
From the creators of Little Nightmares 1 and 2 (not 3, keep that in mind), Reanimal is a new co-op horror game. Tap in a friend to play as siblings who must traverse through some incredibly creepy environments to rescue their missing friends. The game also supports a single-player mode.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties (February 12, 2026)
Yep, there are a lot of games coming out on February 12. To add to the bunch, RGG is releasing what we called a “much-needed” Yakuza 3 remake alongside a completely new companion story. Yakuza Kiwami 3 brings combat and QoL improvements to the original game, while Dark Ties lets you play out antagonist Yoshitaka Mine’s rise to power in the criminal underworld.
Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown (February 18, 2026)
Have you ever wished you could take control of the USS Voyager? Well, here’s your chance. The latest Star Trek game throws you and your ship 700,000 light years into Deep Space, tasking you with managing resources and your crew to make your way out in one piece.
Pretty soon after the Fallout TV wrapped up its second season, the Anniversary Edition of Fallout 4 will be coming to Switch 2 consoles. The game lets you customize your character to your heart’s content, but ultimately places you on a quest through the wasteland to find your son, Shawn, after centuries of being cryo-frozen. While the Anniversary Edition has gotten some criticism for its pricing, this is the first mainline Fallout RPG to release on a Nintendo console.
Alongside the newest Resident Evil game, the Switch 2 will also be getting “Gold” editions of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village, available separately or as part of a Resident Evil Generation Pack collection.
Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse (March 5, 2026)
From PocketPair, Never Grave is a new 2D roguelite where you harness magic powers (as a hat, of course) to journey into the deep, working to help a young witch retrieve her soul. You also have a home base you can build and upgrade into your own little village.
Coffee Talk Tokyo (March 5, 2026)
We finally have a release date for the next iteration of Coffee Talk, a cozy cafe series developed by Toge Productions. Manage a new but familiar cafe while learning more about your human and yokai customers.
WWE 2K26 (March 13, 2026)
There may be a surprisingly large amount of sports games on the Switch, but one franchise that is only just starting their relationship with the Nintendo consoles is WWE. Following the Switch 2 Edition of WWE 2K25, WWE 2K26 will be launching on Switch 2 consoles the day of its official release.
We’re getting a third game in the Monster Hunter Stories series, a sub-series of Monster Hunter that we’re pretty big fans of (we gave the first one an 8.9/10, and the second got an 8/10). The next story will follow a civil conflict between Azuria and Vermeil, two nations threatened by a “crystal encroachment.” A demo is available now, with players able to carry over their save data to the full game.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (March 26, 2026)*
Nintendo knows they have some modern classics, and they’re giving them a lot of love with this Switch 2 release. Following up on last year’s Super Mario Galaxy remaster, Nintendo is releasing a Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which we originally said “establishes a new standard for what 2D Mario platformers should look like” in our 9/10 review. The Switch 2 edition will feature a new area called Bellabel Park, new playable characters, and tons of new mini-games.
Goat Simulator 3 (April 1, 2026)
A bit of a throwback to the 2010’s and the era of the screaming goats memes, but the latest Goat Simulator release from 2022 will be getting a Switch 2 edition this spring.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (April 16, 2026)*
Tomodachi Life was a particularly unique game under the Nintendo umbrella, and I was pretty darn excited to see the series coming back on the Switch 2. The concept of creating Miis and watching them interact on a little island has more novelty than you can imagine, I promise, especially given the range of customization. Nintendo has also fulfilled their promise to introduce more inclusivity after criticisms of the original 3DS game.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream happened to get its own dedicated Nintendo Direct, where you’ll find gameplay footage and plenty more information.
Pragmata (April 24, 2026)
After a series of delays dating back to 2021, Capcom finally “re-revealed” Pragmata with a firm release date and confirmation of cross-platform support. Hugh Williams gets injured while exploring a lunar-controlled space station, where he finds Diana, a Pragmata android. The two are classified as intruders, and must combine their hacking and shooting skills to find the truth of the space station. You can learn more about this one in our hands-on preview.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (May 12, 2026)
Set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, this MachineGames adventure game places Indy on a quest for the secret of the Great Circle. Travel the world, from the Great Pyramids to sunken temples, infiltrate historic areas, and beat up baddies during your daring escapes. We had a lot of love for this one when it originally launched on consoles and PC, calling it “far and away the best Indy story this century” in our 9/10 review.
The second part of the Final Fantasy VII revamp is coming to Switch 2 consoles this summer. After escaping the city of Midgar, Cloud and co. must traverse across a massive beautiful world in pursuit of Sephiroth. IGN’s 9/10 review describes the game as “both a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenge and depth, and as an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long.”
Besides the graphics update, Rebirth introduces a new affinity system with allies and, yes, a ridiculous amount of side quests and mini-games.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales (June 18, 2026)*
The Adventures of Elliot is a new HD-2D RPG from the creators of Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default. While exploring ruins near his hometown, Elliot discovers an artifact that lets him traverse space and time. From there, you must travel across four ages, each with unique citizens and scenery, to try and save your home.
Upcoming Switch 2 Games With Unknown Release Dates
There are plenty more Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 games in development that don’t have a solid release date yet. Here are some more games we know are on the way:
A new island just came to Fortnite that features a digital reimagining of Qatar’s capital city, Doha, as well as Hamad International Airport and a Qatar Airways aircraft. Called QVerse Island, it’s meant to give travelers an immersive way to experience the sights of the city and its airport. There are lots of minigames, a glimpse at some of the city’s unique architecture, and a hidden golden ticket that you can find for a chance to win a free Qatar Airways flight.
You can reach QVerse Island within Fortnite by searching for “QVerse” or using code 6020-0265-6735. When you arrive on the island, you’ll pull up to Hamad International Airport and get a look at the skyline of Doha with re-creations of its real-life skyscrapers. You’ll be greeted by Sama, Qatar Airways’ digital cabin crew member, who will give you five quests to complete.
After you’ve talked to her, you’re free to explore the city and do things in whatever order you choose. Right off the bat, you’ll see floating coins that give you 10 gold each. You can spend that gold at the airport vending machines for things like faster running speed, a jetpack that lets you double jump, or consumable items. You can also look for a hidden door that takes you inside the Business Class cabin of a Qatar Airways aircraft, where you’ll join other Fortnite characters as passengers.
Once you exit the airport and make your way to the street, you’ll see you can summon a car with one button press, making traversal of the city quick and easy. Your HUD will have icons for the island’s biggest attractions, which is also where you can complete the quests Sama gave you. These are some of real-life Qatar’s most recognizable landmarks, like the National Museum of Qatar, West Bay, Katara Towers, and The Pearl Island. And QVerse Island has a persistent day/night cycle, so you can watch the sunset around these locations and see the whole city light up at night.
Each location has a minigame associated with it. At the National Museum of Qatar, you’re given a scavenger hunt to find five lost artifacts that lie scattered around the city. At West Bay, you can use your summoned car to complete a time trial race. At Katara Towers, you’ll need to cross between the towers, high in the air, while a rotating bar tries to knock you off. And at The Pearl Island, you can take on a parkour obstacle course that runs across the rooftops of the city.
While you’re exploring, you’ll notice a timer counting down to the next departure. Once the countdown finishes, you’ll be transported to a multiplayer minigame with other people currently on the island. There are four minigames in all: Wild Wheels Safari, Neon City Drop, Jumpus Maximus, and Home Run Rush. For all four, the last person standing wins.
In Wild Wheels Safari, you drive cars around a desert arena while floor tiles gradually fall away. If you fall into a hole, you’re eliminated. Neon City Drop is a similar concept, but you’re on foot and the floor is made up of brightly colored panels that fall away over time. Jumpus Maximus puts you on a giant spinning wheel in the air while rotating bars of different heights try to knock you off. And Home Run Rush gives everyone a superpowered baseball bat that can launch other players out of the stadium.
In between all the fun and games, you can explore QVerse Island to find the golden ticket. You’ll get an on-screen alert letting you know in what area of the map it just spawned, and then it’s up to you to find it. It only stays in one place for a few minutes, so you need to hurry before it moves again.
Once you find it, take a screenshot of your in-game character with it. Then post that photo to Instagram, Facebook, or X/Twitter with the hashtag #FlyWithQR, follow Qatar Airways on Instagram, and you’ll be entered in a drawing. A winning entry will be randomly selected, and that person will win a Qatar Airways flight ticket. There will be a new drawing each week and the contest will run for 10 weeks. If you don’t win one week, you can try again the next.
QVerse Island is available to explore now, and between February 7–20, gaming content creators around the world will join in on the fun, too. So be sure to check that out. Who knows who you’ll get to face off against in all those minigames? To keep up with the latest news and updates from Qatar Airways, you can follow them on Instagram, Facebook, or X/Twitter.
Bethesda has trumpeted the news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be squeezed onto a proper Switch 2 Game Card for its physical release — though other titles coming to the console will just be codes in a box.
During today’s Partner Direct broadcast focusing on upcoming games coming to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Bethesda boss Todd Howard briefly appeared to welcome a swathe of games coming to Nintendo’s newest console.
In a press release sent to IGN following the broadcast, Bethesda has now detailed its launch plans further, and announced on social media that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would get a full-fat cartridge launch, rather than on one of Nintendo’s widely-disliked Game-Key Cards.
Bethesda’s social post has received a string of praise, with many fans wondering how the game has been made to fit onto a Switch 2 cartridge. “Wow, totally unexpected,” wrote Digital Foundry veteran and game preservation fan John Linneman in response.
As announced (and leaked) earlier today, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch digitally and physically on May 12. The game’s DLC, The Order of Giants, will also be available download separately on that date.
Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition launches digitally on February 24 and physically on April 28. Skyrim Anniversary Edition is available digitally already, and will come in a box on April 28. Finally, Oblivion Remastered has a vague “2026” launch window for now.
