Category: IGN

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.

Article translation courtesy of Blythe Dujardin.

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.

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.

And yes, the game is on Game Card.#IndianaJones https://t.co/jJ0cTDKLLL

— Bethesda (@bethesda) February 5, 2026

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.

Late last year, one Switch 2 developer initially suggested that Nintendo was preparing to make more sizes of Game Cartridge available for manufacturers to ship titles on, rather than relying on Game-Key cards. However, the developer then scrubbed most of this information from the internet, and implied it was unable to announce anything that Nintendo itself had not confirmed officially.

Bethesda’s other three titles getting physical launches on Switch 2 this year will not be on Game Cartridges, or even Game-Key cards. Instead, Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition will all have physical editions that are “code-in-a-box,” Bethesda has said. Of course, all of these games will be available via digital download too, via the Switch 2’s eShop.

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.

For much more, here’s everything else announced in today’s Nintendo Partner Direct.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Square Enix is planning to “share more updates than ever before” on its Final Fantasy 7 Remake project this year, according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi.

This comes from a tweet posted by Hamaguchi following today’s Nintendo Switch Partner Direct, during which Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth received a June release date for Switch 2 and Xbox consoles. The post, which Hamaguchi wrote in both Japanese and English, reads as follows:

“We’ve announced that FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH will launch on June 3.

“With the addition of Switch 2 and Xbox, the game will be released as a full multi‑platform title.

“This year, we plan to share more updates on the FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Project than ever before.

“We look forward to celebrating together with even more players around the world.”

We’ve announced that FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH will launch on June 3.
With the addition of Switch 2 and Xbox, the game will be released as a full multi‑platform title.
This year, we plan to share more updates on the FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Project than ever before.
We look… https://t.co/GFImeiPiC7 pic.twitter.com/f0TaiDHlhJ

— 浜口直樹 /FFVII REBIRTH launches on Switch2&Xbox Jun 3 (@nhamaguc) February 5, 2026

This is exciting news for Remake fans, who have been on the edge of their seats for the last few years, waiting for news of the third game in the trilogy, which we have yet to see at all. Though Hamaguchi didn’t outright say it, this feels like a tease for a reveal this year. Rebirth left the story on one heck of a cliffhanger, with players left doubting whether the game’s most famous twist really took place or not. The third game has a lot of work to do to land the plot plane set up by Remake and Rebirth, and it will be interesting to see how Square Enix does it. Fans have already been speculating as to what Part 3 will be called, following the “Remake” and “Rebirth” titles as well as “Reunion” on the recent Crisis Core remake. Popular suggestions include Reincarnation, Revival, Reawakening, Redemption, and Return.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake first launched in 2020. At the time we gave it an 8/10, saying that it “breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own.” The game was originally a PS4 exclusive, but came to PS5 in its fancy DLC-filled form with Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade, later to PC and Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2 as well just last month.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was also excellent, with us giving it a 9/10 and saying it “impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long.”

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Fans of 2023’s Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, got a delightful surprise this morning during the Nintendo Partner Direct, with the reveal of a surprise sequel coming to Nintendo Switch. It’s called Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, and it’s coming out in just two weeks, on February 19.

The Mermaid’s Curse follows a young pearl diver named Yuza who one day, while working, sees a ghostly version of himself. This sets off a chain of other strange incidents: corpses washing up, a girl with no memories, and townsfolks with ulterior motives. As Yuza, you’ll question people around the island to try and find out what’s going on, while also diving into the waters of the bay for clues. All of it has ties somehow to a centuries-old legend of a mermaid, and true to form, it all seems kind of creepy!

The original Paranormasight debuted in 2023 on Switch, PC, and mobile. While thematically similar, it told a different mystery story with different characters, and it’s unclear if there will be narrative times between The Seven Mysteries of Honjo and The Mermaid’s Curse. The first Paranormasight was well-received, and currently stands at an 85 critic score and 8.9 user score on Metacritic. We’re still waiting to hear if the new game will come to other platforms, but given the mobile and PC releases of The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, it seems like a reasonable expectation.

You can catch up on everything announced at today’s Nintendo Direct right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Wait, Leon Kennedy is in Resident Evil: Requiem? Yeah, okay, we’ve known that for a bit now, perhaps longer than Capcom wanted us too. But what is news today is that the long-rumored Leon S. Kennedy amiibo is real, and coming alongside the previously announced Grace Ashcroft amiibo this summer.

This was announced during today’s Nintendo Partner Direct, which showed a trailer for Reqiuem mostly containing footage and news we’ve seen already. We knew about the February 27 release date, the Gold Editions of Resident Evils 7 and 8 releasing alongside it, and the special Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. We’d also already heard about the Grace Ashcroft amiibo before.

But we didn’t actually know about Leon. He was, uh, strongly suspected, even before we officially knew he was going to be in the game, something Capcom tried to keep hidden way longer than was necessary. Since his officialy reveal at The Game Awards, we’ve seen a sudden surge of love for the classic protagonist, with fans referring to him as a “Hot Uncle” and comparing him to Keanu Reaves. He’s set to be getting a roughly equal amount of screentime to fellow protagonist Grace, so it only makes sense they’d both get amiibos.

You can catch up on everything announced at today’s Nintendo Partner Direct right here.

Developing…

With perfect timing, the modders behind the Van Buren remake in Fallout: New Vegas have released a new teaser trailer.

UnitedWestTeam released the teaser, which sets up Fallout: The New West, the fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout: New Vegas inspired by Fallout: Van Buren, the cancelled Fallout 3 that was in development at Black Isle Studios in the early 2000s before the franchise moved over to Bethesda.

Why is this well-timed? Because Van Buren would have been set in post-apocalyptic Colorado, which is exactly where Amazon’s Fallout TV series is headed for Season 3.

Fallout: The New West aims to adapt the core narrative threads of Van Buren and turn them into a fully playable story built in the New Vegas engine. Expect modern gameplay systems, expanded roleplaying opportunities, and “the mechanical depth and tone that defined classic Fallout,” the modders said.

Here’s the official blurb:

Fallout: The New West is a fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout: New Vegas. In many ways, it tells the same broad story envisioned by Fallout: Van Buren, but restructured and expanded to form a cohesive, playable experience. The project’s primary narrative goal is to take the disparate plot threads and unfinished concepts found in the original design documents, including for example, the NCR–Brotherhood conflict, the Great Tribal War between Caesar’s Legion and the Daughters of Hecate, the fight for the soul of the Mormon State and much more, and weave them into a satisfying, unified narrative that adheres to the main plot as described in the design documents.

Players assume the role of a new protagonist, released from captivity in 2253, known as “the Prisoner,” and the story is set in an alternate continuity that predates and reinterprets the events of Fallout: New Vegas. Unfortunately due to many Van Buren concepts being folded into FNV, we cannot set the project in the same timeline. Our secondary goal is to incorporate many of the modern gameplay conveniences introduced through Fallout: New Vegas and its more than 15 years of modding, while preserving the distinctive mechanics and design quirks of classic Fallout found in the original design documents. Much of Fallout’s original charm is an acquired taste, and one that we believe remains worth acquiring.

It sounds exciting, and given the success of Fallout: London, which had Bethesda’s blessing, it may even have a chance of survival. Indeed, a new demo is apparently due out soon (an initial demo, which released under the name Fallout Revelation Blues, came out last year). This alternate start demo under the new name of Fallout: The New West will be followed up with the entirety of Act 1 of the game as a vertical slice, the modders said.

If Fallout: The New West does make it to release, it will see Van Buren realized — albeit in fan-made form — 20 years after it fell by the wayside. In 2024, Fallout creator Tim Cain revealed new information on how it ended up canceled amid significant financial problems at Interplay.

Cain, who worked on the first two, much-loved Fallout games in the mid-to late 90s before leaving Interplay to start a new studio called Troika Games, revealed that in the middle of 2003, an unnamed Interplay vice president asked him to play the Van Buren prototype, saying: “I don’t think they can get it done, so I’m just going to cancel it. But if you look over it and give me an estimate there’s a chance I wouldn’t cancel it.”

Cain said he played the prototype for two hours and asked the development team a number of questions before delivering his verdict to the vice president. “I said, ‘I’m convinced in 18 months you could have a really good game shipped.’ And he said, ‘huh, could it be done any faster?’ And I was like, ‘oh, shoot, I’ve said too long.’ I said, ‘well, even if you did a death march crunch I don’t think you could do it faster than 12, and then you’d be shipping something that was unbalanced and buggy, and the team would be destroyed. So I don’t recommend that.’

“And he said, ‘OK, thanks.’ As we walked out he basically explained any answer over six months was going to result in him having to cancel it, meaning the answer I just gave got the game canceled. But he was going to cancel it anyway. He thought it couldn’t be done in six months, and I just confirmed that to him.”

According to Cain, the cancellation of Van Buren was, ultimately, about money; Interplay’s dire financial situation meant it simply did not have enough cash to fund more than six months of further development. Interplay went on to close Black Isle Studios and cut its entire staff. The company released the console spinoff Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel in 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but it was not enough. That same year, Interplay announced a licensing deal with The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda for future Fallout games, and in 2007, Interplay sold the Fallout IP to Bethesda outright. The rest is history.

And if you’re wondering about the Fallout TV show’s journey to Colorado, check out what co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet and even Todd Howard himself have had to say about it.

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.

With just hours to go until today’s Nintendo Direct broadcast, an updated ratings board listing suggests Hollow Knight could get an imminent Switch 2 release.

Team Cherry’s long-awaited game is now listed for Switch 2 with a February 5, 2026 release date, per the website of European ratings board PEGI. Hey, that’s today!

Of course, Hollow Knight originally launched for Nintendo Switch back in 2018, though we learned a couple of months ago that the game would be getting an updated Switch 2 Edition at some point this year. Now, it seems, that new version is moments away.

Nintendo is due to air its latest Partner Direct later today, at 6am Pacific, 9am Eastern or 2pm UK time. This third-party game showcase will include 20 minutes of announcements featuring titles headed to Switch and Switch 2 that aren’t developed by Nintendo itself — such as Hollow Knight.

Don’t tune in expecting a new Mario game announcement, then, but do keep an eye out for more news on other upcoming Switch 2 releases such as this month’s Resident Evil Requiem, and the promising-looking 007: First Light. Oh, and Hollow Knight now too. What will this new edition contain?

Alongside releasing Hollow Knight again on Switch 2, Team Cherry is now busy working on Sea of Sorrow, its first expansion to Hollow Knight: Silksong. Will we see more of this today as well? Time will tell, but as ever IGN will be reporting all of the major announcements live.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

As unhappy players fight to get refunds out of Steam, an update from one of the studio’s directors claims the “entire” development team working on the ill-fated MMO Ashes of Creation was reportedly laid off without notice or their January paychecks.

The shocking revelation comes from Intrepid Studios’ former director of communications, Margaret Krohn, who revealed in a lengthy post on Twitter/X that three days after originally being told around 100 developers would be losing their jobs, a “confusing email” arrived confirming “all” staff would be laid off. “It is still shocking,” Krohn wrote. “The entire studio gathered to try to understand what had happened and what it meant for our future.”

Earlier this week, Steam quietly withdrew Ashes of Creation from sale after its director and leadership team quit just weeks after it launched as a $50 Early Access game on Steam. The game’s director Steven Sharif said “much of” the senior dev team had quit “in protest,” claiming that its management board had asked him to do things he “could not ethically support.” According to Sharif, the Board then issued WARN Act notices — layoff warnings, in other words — to the remaining staff. It’s unclear who sits on this mysterious board.

According to a new public record request, we now know that the formal WARN Act notification was issued on January 31 and indicated that 210 employees were “affected” by the filing, 123 of whom worked in California.

“In the end, none of us are receiving our final paychecks, the 60-day notice and pay outlined under the WARN Act, PTO payouts, or other compensation owed,” Krohn explained.

“What matters most to me now are the people — both the players and developers. To my colleagues: this team is truly a family. The culture we built together is something I have never experienced anywhere else. In the midst of heartbreak and uncertainty, we have come together to review resumes, help with portfolios, share job leads, and support one another emotionally. That says everything about who we are as people.”

“To the players: the entire development team was working extremely hard, pulling long hours, and wishes with all our hearts that we could give you Ashes of Creation. There are no words that fully express how sorry we are that this journey ended this way. You should pursue a refund, you deserve it.”

Unfortunately, Steam doesn’t seem to agree. While you can find plenty of people across Discord and Reddit claiming to have received refunds despite having played more than two hours, there’s an equal number of players frustrated that their requests have been denied, and there seems to be little consistency across Steam’s Support team.

“They denied me with 2.3 hours played. Bought in December and denied because it ‘exceeds refund time,'” wrote one player, while another said: “I can’t believe it… and I’m hearing they froze/reversed the December payment to Intrepid so basically Steam have stollen [sic] my money.”

“How many hours did you have? I had 15 Hours played and got refunded on a manual process,” replied one. “[Steam support] said to me if I open another ticket about this they will close it without reading,” added this unhappy player who had failed to convince Steam of a refund despite several attempts.

The most successful requests seem to be via human checks, so players are still suggesting that those looking for a refund check the box to “request a refund,” but instead contact Steam via the “I have a question about this product” box. That way, your request will be routed to a member of customer support, and not an automated service.

19,576 backers pledged $3,271,809 on Kickstarter to help make Ashes of Creation a reality, the most ever raised on the platform for an MMO. Refunds via Kickstarter seem unlikely given the game launched in Early Access form.