Category: IGN

Battlefield 6 Season 1 is here, and players have already turned their attention to one major issue: Blackwell Fields.

The California sun-soaked fields of EA and Battlefield Studios’ first new post-launch map are home to an army of oil pumpjacks, smoky hills, and an orange tint that blankets every scrap of metal and radio tower. It also happens to be what some believe is “hands down the worst map in the game” if not “the worst map in BF history.”

This week’s Season 1 launch was meant to be the first in a long line of exciting moments for Battlefield players. Instead, it’s kicked off seasonal updates on a sour note, as fans flock to criticize Blackwell Fields as a wasteland that suffers from a lack of cover for infantry and vehicles alike.

“I can’t count the amount of times I spawn on this map and instantly have direct vision of the enemies capturing points,” one dissatisfied Battlefield 6 player said. “You get shot at from every angle on this map, there’s never a break. People can just spawn and start shooting you straight away.”

“My playstyle is engineer class and I blow up armored vehicles, but I cant even get into cover in this map without getting shot from ALL sides,” another popular post explained. “The massive open areas makes it a sniper haven and every other class is just trashed.”

Despite its relatively large battles, Battlefield 6’s Conquest mode seems to suffer the most when it comes to Blackwell Fields, as players report facing enemy fire from as far away as enemy HQ spawn points. Pilots for air vehicles, specifically, report having a hard time on the new Season 1 map. Despite being considered one of the larger maps Battlefield 6 has to offer, opponents with the right hardware can still lock onto some jets before they’ve even taken off.

“This is fantastic,” one Reddit user jokes. “I was hoping for more maps where Helis are useless.”

“No no, they are perfect nice garage helicopters,” another user teases. “You keep them nice and clean in the hangar.

“It’s not helicopter season yet.”

These Blackwell Fields balance issues only add fuel to the fire that is the conversation surrounding map sizes in Battlefield 6, but many have expressed dissatisfaction with the map regardless of game mode. Even smaller objective-based game modes in downsized versions of Blackwell Fields still feature those orange visuals, leading to even more chaotic moments as bullets fly through dense environments obscured by smoke.

“I played a round of breakthrough which was decent and one of conquest which was a disaster,” one Steam user commented. “The visibility is already so bad in this game no matter what settings you use, the red/orange tint that this map have it’s a disaster.”

Although the stray comment praising Blackwell Fields and its cinematic feel can be found if you look hard enough, it seems most players online would trade atmosphere if it meant BF Studios would fix what they feel are one-sided battles and suffocating gun fights. Of course, it’s only been one day since Season 1 launched for Battlefield 6, so opinions could shift after they spend more time with the new map.

Me on Blackwell fields pic.twitter.com/03GkOb6pAd

— Lou (@louallen026) October 28, 2025

It’s unclear if Blackwell Fields will receive any changes, but EA and BF Studios have proven to be responsive when it comes to fan feedback so far. Even if Blackwell Fields continues to be a sore spot for the community, Season 1 will at least deliver a new, less orange map in the form of Eastwood come November 18.

Numerous updates, big and small, have arrived since Battlefield 6 launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S October 10. Included in the list of past tweaks are toned down green highlights for a controversial skin, and reverted ticket sizes for Conquest.

As the team works to iron out the kinks in Battlefield 6 Season 1, they’ll also continue to deliver updates for Battlefield REDSEC and its battle royale mode. The standalone experience launched yesterday and is facing its own issues, as players have taken to the Steam reviews section to call for changes to its battle pass and queue options.

Meanwhile, check out our full list of all currently available Battlefield 6 multiplayer maps. Those looking to brush up on their online skills can also read our multiplayer tips and tricks guide.

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).

RuneScape developer Jagex is considering removing one of the game’s least popular, yet most pervasive, layers of microtransactions. But instead of just making the decision itself, it’s letting its entire playerbase vote on whether or not to ditch them entirely.

Oh, and the vote is definitely rigged. But it’s…rigged in the players’ favor?

Currently, the modern version of RuneScape (also known as RuneScape 3) features a number of different types of microtransactions, including a major feature called Treasure Hunter. Very basically, Treasure Hunter allows players to obtain keys in various ways, which are used to open treasure chests and receive items of varying rarity. Though it is possible to obtain small numbers of keys without spending money, far more are obtainable for players who spend money on the game. Over time, this has led to players complaining that Treasure Hunter is essentially a pay-to-win mechanic, since players can obtain items that give them large amounts of experience points through Treasure Hunter, effectively encouraging players to spend more to level up characters quickly.

There have been other issues with Treasure Hunter over the years as well, as well as its predecessor microtransaction “Squeal of Fortune”, but the ability to essentially pay to bypass gameplay is by far the most controversial. In fact, Jagex even experimented with removing the feature in part back in July, when it disabled microtransactions for a week. A follow-up survey run by the studio suggested that 65% of players felt positively or neutral about the change.

So today, Jagex sent out a press release stating that it was launching a community vote to “decide the future of RuneScape’s microtransactions.” The developer has launched a page on its website that allows players to vote to remove Treasure Hunter from the game entirely, simultaneously removing over 220 associated items, including the experience points boosting items that have caused issues in the past. Jagex says it will remove Treasure Hunter from the game if the poll receives over 100,000 votes.

“This vote is one of the most important moments in RuneScape’s history,” said Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy in a statement. “Starting right now, players will cast the deciding vote on the future direction of the game. Since Squeal of Fortune was introduced in 2012, and subsequently Treasure Hunter in 2014, our approach to monetisation has, over time, eroded some of the integrity at the heart of RuneScape.

“The most concerning elements of our MTX systems have been those that allowed players to bypass core gameplay, skipping over the depth, challenge, and sense of discovery that make RuneScape truly special. While these systems have helped fund the game, they’ve done so at a cost to something far greater: the integrity of our worlds. This vote is about correcting that, and taking a step toward designing experiences that are fair, rewarding, and built to last.”

It’s critical to point out though that Jagex’s poll really isn’t a poll at all. It’s a button players can press if they want to vote in favor of removing Treasure Hunter. There’s no option for players to vote “no”, Jagex will simply implement the change if 100,000 people total vote in favor. And the page itself makes it pretty dang clear that Jagex wants players to vote for this. Using language such as suggesting those who vote “yes” want to “see an integrity-led RuneScape powered by your own accomplishments” and the presence of multiple green “Vote Yes Now” buttons all down the page are, uh, not exactly subtle. Nor is the fact that Jagex seems pretty ready to implement this, as if it already knows what the result would be.

But while a clearly-rigged non-poll sounds bad, it’s also critical to note that players actually do seem to want this to happen. Over on the RuneScape subreddit, players are ecstatic. The top comment on the Jagex mod’s official post announcing the vote simply says “Holy based”, followed by “I can’t believe I lived to see this”, and many, many more comments along those lines. In fact, the positivity is overwhelming. While some players seem skeptical that they’ll meet the 100,000 vote requirement, others are confident, even suggesting the OSRS (Old School RuneScape) players might support the poll as well, just on principle. It seems as though they needn’t worry. At the time this piece was written, the poll had been up for just four hours, and had already reached 50,000 votes. For context, Jagex says on its website that there have been over 320,000,000 RuneScape accounts created over the years…though how many of those are active is a very different question (Old School RuneScape recently surpassed 240,000 players this past August).

Overall, this seems like a positive, long-needing, and welcome change for the RuneScape community. It’s just a little weird that it’s being framed as a poll, when the desired outcome for both players and developer is pretty obvious. There is a potential reading of this as simply a move for positive PR, specifically given that Jagex was acquired just last year, Bellamy was instated as a new CEO just this past March, and he’s already had a bad round of headlines over canceling annual in-game Pride events.

Players have until November 12 to vote if they would like to remove the microtransactions, and can continue voting beyond the 100,000 needed numbers to express support for the change. Removing Treasure Hunter won’t fully remove all microtransactions from the game, with cosmetics and bonus XP items with set caps to help curb exploits will remain.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

After a few long sessions since yesterday’s surprise launch of Battlefield REDSEC, the free-to-play battle royale spin-off of Battlefield 6, it’s clearly coming after other grounded-ish military battle royales like PUBG and Call of Duty: Warzone. Hiding a fun mission structure within its streamlined familiarity — as well as an entire non-BR game mode — I’ve had the most fun when its map, called Fort Lyndon, is used to push the boundary beyond the requisite ever-shrinking storm. I still need some more time in the fray to nail down a final opinion, especially since most of the random squadmates I’ve matched up with in the main BR modes haven’t exactly been playing as a team. But for now, the squad-based, elimination-driven, free-for-all Gauntlet mode has impressed me more than the battle royale option itself.

With destructible environments, the ultimate buzzword (levelution), powerful vehicles that can alter the tide of battle or serve as fun chokepoints, and a baked-in squad system, Battlefield 6 seems like a perfect fit for a battle royale mode. But so far, REDSEC’s translation of Battlefield’s role-based structure feels like a shallow, if fun, take on the genre. Its hasn’t offered much yet to fully draw me away from Fortnite’s cartoonish chaos and electrifying events or separate itself from the likes of PUBG or Warzone beyond using Battlefield 6’s weapons and the Frostbite Engine. On the surface, REDSEC seems intent on reviving the rote 360-era conversation about shooters with a washed-out color palette because it seems so similar to its contemporaries.

Thankfully, REDSEC’s compelling mission structure takes a rewarding cleaver to the otherwise ho-hum military BR doldrums. They’re kind of like the missions and bounties you’d find in Fortnite, but with better rewards and more diverse challenges. Even with otherwise uncooperative squadmates, I found myself planting bombs and capturing waypoints to reap the benefits of well-communicated rewards. That seems to be REDSEC’s secret sauce: each in-game mission pops up like clockwork after a few minutes, only requiring a few button presses to get you to the next simple target.

Hinging on classic military FPS objectives like babysitting a planted bomb or picking up an important file so you can transmit its signal back to home base, these smaller sidequests add order to the otherwise chaotic pace of conquering the battlefield. Completing an objective will always come with some kind of supply drop. I really like how these drops are handled, offering a clearly communicated reward before accepting the mission, since some will alert nearby players to your presence.

In contrast, Gauntlet expands each of these extra objectives into full-fledged game modes, pitting a handful of four-player squads against each other to rack up the most points on each objective. The mode and objective will change throughout each of the four rounds, with the lowest-performing squads getting eliminated until only two remain. Rotating through different named locations within Fort Lyndon, each game mode uses a piece of the map and works more like a mish-mash between Fall Guys and a squad-based, free-for-all version of traditional Battlefield that’s easily been my favorite part of REDSEC for now.

Battlefield REDSEC’s slow-rolling storm just hasn’t done much to incentivize me toward a hard objective or new destination, but its mission structure usually got me (and any uncooperative squadmates) moving in the right direction towards otherwise flat attempts at the #1 spot so far. I’ll need more time to complete missions and snipe away at opponents across the map before delivering a final verdict, but for now, REDSEC at least has some unexpectedly interesting things going for it.

Humble Choice is always a good deal for PC gamers who like a variety of game types. But the online storefront just launched a promo code that gets you October’s Humble Choice games for just $10, rather than the usual $14.99. All you have to do is enter promo code SPOOKY25 at checkout, and you’ll save $5. This month’s eight-game lineup is pretty great, with Atomic Hearts, V Rising, System Shock, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, and more. Read on for the details.

Humble Choice – October 2025

EA just introduced its new, destructive take on battle royale with Battlefield REDSEC, and Battlefield 6 base game players are already slamming it with “Mostly Negative” Steam reviews.

PC users who head to Steam to check out the standalone Battlefield experience, which launched across PC and consoles for free yesterday, will be met with a flood of negative Steam reviews across the board. At the time of this piece’s publication, just 35% of REDSEC Steam user reviews were positive, with positive reviews in all languages fairing just slightly better at 39%. Both measurements result in a dark red, Mostly Negative label.

A wave of negativity for Battlefield’s latest crack at battle royale arrives as Battlefield 6 players continue to express their dissatisfaction with the premium experience. Calls for changes to the base game reached a boiling point with the launch of Season 1 yesterday, and now, criticism is spilling into REDSEC.

Although Battlefield 6 and REDSEC exist as separate multiplayer offerings, both EA and Battlefield Studios games share unlocks tied to many challenges, cosmetics, and battle pass unlocks. Where this has evolved into a problem is how one experience might affect another, with many Battlefield 6 players complaining of weekly challenges that require them to play battle royale.

“I wouldn’t hate it so much if I wasn’t forced to play it for challenges in the main game,” one negative Battlefield REDSEC Steam review says. “But I am. So I do.”

“This is not why I bought Battlefield 6,” they add.

“Oh, but you just can reroll the challenges!” another negative review says. “Yeah and 3 of them are sill for the BR because they are pushing it hard on people that would not touch it even once…”

Other PC players agree that challenges granting large amounts of Battlefield 6 battle pass XP shouldn’t be tied to another experience, but dissonance isn’t the only thing tanking REDSEC Steam reviews. Some base game players are using Valve’s digital storefront to air out grievances related to multiplayer map sizes.

Early Battlefield 6 adopters have called for larger multiplayer maps as far back as the August beta tests, with the October 10 launch only adding fuel to the fire, as launch locations failed to live up to expectations for the community. At least a few negative Steam reviews even praise REDSEC’s exclusive battle royale map, Fort Lyndon, with their frustrations mostly summed up with one question: Why does the free-to-play game get the map sizes that premium players are asking for?

“Oh wow a nice big map with lots of POIs and flanks,” another negative REDSEC review says. “If only we could get something like this for the main game.”

“It’s trying to be too much all at once,” another Steam user review adds. “The map in this Battle Royale is so good it’s criminal that it’s not being used for Conquest right now.”

As Battlefield 6 players aim to leave their mark with REDSEC Steam reviews, there are plenty of comments actually related to the new standalone experience itself, too. Many are positive, applauding how BF Studios blends classic Battlefield mechanics with other popular battle royale experiences, like Call of Duty: Warzone. Launch also ushered in a spike in activity, with Steamdb recording a 24-hour peak of 549,766 Battlefield 6 players yesterday.

REDSEC, which encompasses Gauntlet and Portals modes in addition to its battle royale mode, is getting love in the Battlefield community, but there is still a general feeling that the experience is incomplete. Specifically, it’s the lack of a solo queue option and battle royale fatigue that many are calling out – both in negative and positive reviews.

“No solo Mode… When will they learn the overwhelming majority of players play solo?” one negative review asks. “It doesn’t feel good to play with randoms against premade coordinated squads.”

“Fun update, the battle pass is not half bad,” a positive review adds. “Only problem with me is not having a solo battle royal mode.”

REDSEC is just 24 hours into its time in the public’s hands. Seasonal updates will continue to offer shared experiences between REDSEC and Battlefield 6. Season 1 launched yesterday, introducing the new Blackwell Fields map for multiplayer, with more mid-season maps and guns set to follow in November and December.

EA has addressed fan feedback in the past, with the latest update introducing fixes for a controversial green skin and some of the bothersome lighting effects that have distracted players since launch. In the meantime, some players have been content simply using their time to draw on walls with the Engineer repair tool.

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).

Sony has confirmed the PlayStation Plus monthly games for November 2025, confirming a prior leak.

Dealabs’ ever-reliable billbil-kun had reported that Stray would be the main title for the PlayStation Plus Essential selection for November 2025, and would be available from November 4, 2025 on PS5 and PS4 for Essential, Extra, and Premium subscribers. And so it has proved.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony confirmed Stray, EA Sports WRC 24, and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator as the three games for November. All three are available to PlayStation Plus members from Tuesday November 4 until Monday December 1.

Stray is French studio BlueTwelve’s third-person cat adventure game set in the neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity and the murky environments of its seedy underbelly. As a stray cat, you roam surroundings high and low, defending against unforeseen threats and solving the mysteries of this unwelcoming place inhabited by nothing but unassuming droids and dangerous creatures. Lost, alone and separated from family, you must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find the way home.

IGN’s Stray review returned an 8/10. We said: “Stray is a delightful cat-based platforming adventure in a cyberpunk world worth exploring.”

Codemasters’ EA Sports WRC launched in 2023 and managed a 6/10 in IGN’s review. We said: “EA Sports WRC feels like a great racing game trying to fight its way out of an unfinished one.” TABS, meanwhile, is Landfall Games’ physics based medieval battle simulator that lets you pit wacky waving armies against each other.

PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for November 2025

• Stray | PS4, PS5
• EA Sports WRC 24 | PS5
• Totally Accurate Battle Simulator | PS4, PS5

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Everyone loves a cheeky preorder, and we’ve got everything from Kyle Katarn (Play Star Wars: Dark Forces more) and a Cyberpunk Comic to the Meta Knight and Shadow Star amiibo set. Also, the Pokémon TCG Black Bolt Elite Trainer Box is now under market value on Amazon, which pretty much never happens.

TL;DR: Deals for Today

Need to upgrade you gaming setup? How about a soundbar and subwoofer deal from legendary sound tech firm Creative? If you remember Sound Blaster from when you was a kid messing up your parents Windows 95 PCs, you’re my kind of person. What about the best third party Switch, Switch 2 and PC controller i’ve used so far for 10% off? 8-Bit-Do is here to save your day. Finally, Halloween now needs calenders according to Pokémon, and it’s on a limited time deal. Let’s get into it:

Black Bolt Elite Trainer Box

STAR WARS The Black Series Gaming Greats Kyle Katarn

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners MADNESS Volume 1

Pokemon Halloween Calendar 2025

Meta Knight & Shadow Star amiibo

8BitDo Ultimate 2 for Switch / Switch 2 / PC

Creative Stage V2 2.1 Soundbar with Subwoofer

Shin Godzilla – Limited Edition Steelbook

INIU Portable Charger

JVSCAM Cordless Electric Air Duster

2 Pack Hand Warmers

Paladone Nintendo NES Cartridge Retro Drink Coasters

10Pcs Model Tools

Team Rocket Tin

Best Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution Deals

There’s some crazy hype behind Mega Evolution right now, and for good reason. Gold rare Mega Lucario and Mega Gardevoir exs are fetching around $400 at the time of writing, and the artwork on the Secret Illustration Rares and Illustration Rares is phenominal (Looking at you Mega Lucario ex SIR). All of these deals are at market value or below, and in some cases knocking big box retailers like Amazon out of the Poképark.

Best Deals on Sealed Pokémon TCG

I’ve found some banger Pokémon TCG sets in todays deals, kicking off with a Prismatic Evolutions Booster Bundle for $59.98. Still collecting Black Bolt and White Flare? How about a White Flare Booster Bundle for $48.99? All of these deals are well worth a good look, and you very well could pull something crazy like a Umbreon ex SIR from Prismatic Evolutions or Vicitini Black White Rare from White Flare.

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.

The developer of Arc Raiders isn’t worried about coming out between Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, insisting: “we believe the game can launch there.”

Arc Raiders ended its recent ‘Server Slam’ playtest with big player numbers on Steam, suggesting a strong launch ahead of its October 30 release date. It hit a peak concurrent player count of 189,668, making it one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform the weekend it ran and the biggest extraction shooter ever on Steam. That said, with the full release slated for tomorrow, which happens to be between the launch dates of two of the world’s biggest FPS franchises, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Soderlund admitted some people may wonder “what the hell are they doing?”

“I know. The insanity,” Soderlund told The Game Business. “People may look at that [Arc Raiders’ release date] and say, ‘What the hell are they doing?’ We have spent a lot of time looking at this from multiple angles and you know, for right or wrong, we believe that the game can launch there. This is the start of a long journey. It needs to start somewhere.”

As for whether or not the game’s huge playtest was enough to retain players for a full release? “I think it comes down to not being complacent enough to believe that we can build something without making a meaningful impact or innovation,” Soderlund said. “We have to bring something so that people pay attention. And if we’ve done a good enough job, maybe they’ll stick around. But in order for them to break away from what they’re already playing, there needs to be an attraction.

“A couple of years ago, I was concerned about Arc Raiders and whether it would find its market. So, when we launched the technical test, which was earlier in the spring, we were just blown away by how many people played it. We obviously tried our best to market it, but it became one of those things that just spread virally. We were humbled by that. It’s testament to the work that the team has done building something that is complicated, yet accessible. Something that is easy to play, yet has a lot of gameplay depth.”

Arc Raiders’ design director has said it was fortuitous timing to have its extraction shooter launch a playtest around the same time as Bungie’s Marathon, calling it “a great A/B test for us.” In an interview last week, Virgil Watkins said: “It was very coincidental that they had their test around the time we did. To my knowledge, I don’t think any of us knew that was going to happen. It was a very great A/B test for us, because obviously, they made decisions that we didn’t, and vice versa. So we could kind of compare and contrast how some of those things shook out.”

Embark Studios’ previous game, free-to-download competitive shooter The Finals, is still going, although its concurrent player numbers on Steam are a far cry from those during its explosive launch back in December 2023.

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.

Amazon is walking away from making new content from its MMO, New World, amid huge layoffs affecting 14,000 roles at the company. Now, there is concern over the status of its The Lord of the Rings MMO.

Yesterday, October 28, Amazon confirmed cuts affecting an eye-watering 14,000 roles. It’s one of the biggest round of layoffs the tech giant has ever seen, and comes at a time when other companies in the tech sector, such as Microsoft and Meta, have made similarly huge cuts.

It also comes at a time when Amazon is performing well. So why are they happening? AI, basically. In a note to employees, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said:

Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well. Across our businesses, we’re delivering great customer experiences every day, innovating at a rapid rate, and producing strong business results. What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.

What does this all mean for Amazon’s gaming business? According to a report by Bloomberg, nothing good. There are “significant” cuts coming to Amazon’s video game operation, which will reduce development work and layoff staff mainly in its Irvine and San Diego offices.

The New World changes are a part of that, and while the game will remain online during 2026, this is basically the beginning of the end for once hugely popular MMO. Let’s remember, New World was a rare hit for Amazon in the video game space, and followed multiple flops that resulted in game and studio closures. The MMO set in an alternate 1600s America saw huge player numbers on Steam, with a whopping 913,634 peak concurrents on Valve’s platform back in 2021. Player numbers have significantly declined since that peak, however.

Bloomberg said Amazon is cutting back especially on MMOs, but will continue to develop Amazon Games Montreal’s strategy March of Giants, its new Tomb Raider game in the works at Crystal Dynamics, and “casual and AI-focused games” for its cloud gaming service Luna. UK studio Maverick Games will continue to work on its racing game, too. Amazon Games also continues to publish externally developed games such as Lost Ark and Throne & Liberty in western markets.

Amazon is also working on an in-house The Lord of the Rings MMO, although we haven’t heard much about it since it was announced in 2023. In August last year, Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann told IGN the company had 10 games in development and was negotiating “a couple more.” These include Tomb Raider and The Lord of the Rings MMO, as well as the new driving game from the former developers behind Forza Horizon.

On The Lord of the Rings MMO, however, Hartmann insisted it was still early days. “We’re still trying to find the hook, find that idea of what it is because we don’t just want to go and do the same thing over,” Hartmann said at the time.

“While it’s tempting sometimes with an existing IP, that’s not the point of doing it. You’ve got to find a fresh twist, and we’re still, I think, in that period where we really want to find out what could be the hook, what could be the thing which is different to all the other games out there. So it’s a little bit early.”

IGN has asked Amazon for an update on The Lord of the Rings MMO.

There are also plenty of questions around Tomb Raider, which has been caught up in the mire around the Embracer Group. Hartmann mostly waved off those concerns, saying that developer Crystal Dynamics is “fairly sheltered from everything going on with Embracer.”

“People obviously look at what the parent company is doing, but it never impacted on resources, never led to any changes on management for them, so they’re fine. I mean, doing a new Tomb Raider, the bar is so high. The longer you go, the expectation goes higher, so it’s a huge, huge task, but things are progressing. I mean, there’s some really great ideas here,” Hartmann said.

“Obviously, we’re not going to share any with you even if we would love to, but things are going well, things are moving forward. And from what I could tell, Crystal was pretty sheltered, because also when you look before…they went through a couple of ownership changes anyway before, it’s not brand new for them.”

Crystal Dynamics recently laid off a number of workers following Microsoft’s cancelation of the Perfect Dark reboot. At the time, the studio insisted Tomb Raider was still in development and unaffected by the decision.

Crystal Dynamics was originally brought in to revitalize Perfect Dark after struggles getting the project moving with former co-developer, Certain Affinity. Crystal was later acquired by the Embracer Group in 2022, at which time the studio was revealed to have 273 employees across its Austin, Bellevue, and San Mateo offices. Crystal laid off 10 people in 2023, and laid off 17 more people earlier this year. It’s unclear how many remain now.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding developer Hideo Kojima says he was “surprised” to read that the creators of The Matrix wanted him to develop a game based on the franchise, insisting: “no one ever told me such a conversation had taken place.”

Yesterday, IGN reported that The Wachowskis, the writers and directors behind the Matrix movies, once asked Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima to design a Matrix video game, but publisher Konami reportedly turned it down. “The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima,” Konami Digital Entertainment VP of licensing, Christopher Bergstresser, said. “So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who still works with Kojima), and I were at the Konami HQ, and we got a call from the Wachowskis, who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima. So they did!