Category: IGN

Another day and another boatload of deals for anyone looking for new AirPods, Beats and big brand EarBuds. We’ve also got the latest stock updates and preorders for Pokémon TCG and highly anticipated Magic: The Gathering sets such as Final Fantasy, Spider-Man and Edge of Eternities.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

I’ve also had a look at some of the most sought-after Final Fantasy and Pokémon TCG: Destined Rivals single cards, with the latter mostly on sale under market value right now. It’s certainly a better deal than buying sealed big-box retailer product right now, but it’s nice to have options, right? I’ve even found a cracking deal on 4K Blu Rays, picking out some of the best options for a “Buy one get one for 50%” offer. And yes, it includes the Lord of the Rings trilogy (theatrical and extended). Let’s get into it:

MTG Final Fantasy And Spider-Man Preorders

It’s mad how Final Fantasy and Spider-Man products are still available to preorder after the initial pre-sale flying off digital shelves. My take on these sets is to preorder whilst you can, the pricing on these sets are only going to go above MSRP on release day.

MTG Final Fantasy: Best-Selling Presale Cards

I usually share immensely cool Cloud and Sephiroth cards that belong in a slab in someones collection, but all of these cards are what MTG players are going for right now. Looking to build a deck instead of collect MTG Final Fantasy? Snap these up before other players realise how playable they are.

MTG Spider-Man Single Card Pre-Sale

Whilst it’s early days for MTG MArvel’s Spider-Man coming later this year, snapping up early deals on Spidey and his rogues gallery is going to look sick in anyones MTG binder. I might not get around to playing this, but I just want these scene box cards for my TCG display shelves.

Magic The Gathering Edge of Eternities Preorders

Sci-Fi buffs will find MTG: Edge of Eternities a cracking entry point into one of the hottest trading cards games on the planet. If going to the edges of the MTG multiverse to battle it out in the name of cosmic power in the heart of a dying star doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what will.

Magic: The Gathering Stock Updates

Big box retailers are squeezing us on pricing right now, but there’s still some deals to be had. I’m liking the look of the Lord of the Rings Scene Box bundle, but stretching to the commander decks would make for one hell of a games night.

Pokémon TCG Stock Updates

Another day of ridiculous pricing on Amazon for Pokémon TCG sealed products, but keeping an eye on it so you all have options is still important. If you can’t find other sealed products for a decent price, I can almost guarantee the market value on TCG Player is cheaper right now.

Destined Rivals: The Most Valuable Cards

On a more positive note, Destined Rivals top chase card prices are stablising, making it a great time to snap some up. Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex SIR has been going for anything over $450 since release, but is starting to settle on a more respectable $370.

Apple AirPods Sale

The big sell with this AirPods sale is the free AppleCare+, with some decent savings on the hardware itself for good measure. They’re all solid choices, but i’d personally snap up AirPods 4 as they’re currently the same sale price as their third generation variant.

Beats Earbuds and Headphones Sale

No, I didn’t forget about Dre thanks, and neither did Amazon. If you want Apple quality without the basic white branding, Beats are the way forward. They all come with AppleCare+ or AppleCare for headphones too, with the exception of a $25 Amazon Gift card for Beats Fit Pro.

Samsung and Sony Ear Buds

Samsung and Sony are two personal audio brands you can set your smart watch too, and I’m seriously tempted to sink some money into Sony WH-1000XM5 whilst they’re on offer. The noise cancelling is best-in-class, and those cans pack some serious punch.

4K Blu Ray Sale: Buy 2, Save 50% on 1

Amazon is at it again with a cracking promotion on Blu Ray, 4K Blu Ray and DVDs with a Buy 2, save 50% on 1 deal. There’s currently over 1000 qualifying items here, but here’s some of my favorite picks. Seeing the Lord of the Rings trilogy in this is a banging deal, but this offer is also a great way to get your physical media collection off to a healthy start without burning your bank card out.

Woodkid for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach 2LP Vinyl

IGN Live Game Bundle

Officially, it’s called Resident Evil Requiem, but make no mistake: this is the ninth mainline entry into the Resident Evil franchise, and set to star yet another new protagonist: FBI Agent Grace Ashcroft.

While Capcom surprised everyone with a trailer during the Summer Games Fest trailer, we got a chance to get the first hands-on preview with Resident Evil Requiem (aka Resident Evil 9) shortly after the announcement. And fans will be happy to know that Capcom is still keeping the series rooted in its newfound survival horror goodness.

First Person or Third Person?

The first question for everyone is likely to be whether or not Resident Evil Requiem will be in the first-person perspective like past mainline games Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village, or will it be playable in third-person like the Resident Evil remake games? The answer to that is both!

That’s right, from the jump Capcom will let players toggle between first-person and third-person perspectives through the Options menu at any point during the campaign. While it’s not the most seamless way to change perspectives, the fact that Resident Evil Requiem lets you swap perspectives at all without needing to restart feels pretty revolutionary for this series.

And with the perspective swaps comes an interesting dilemma, at least one that I encountered while playing Resident Evil Requiem. But first, let me set the table for you.

Scary Times at the Wrenwood Hotel

The trailer shows agent Grace Ashcroft as she awakes upside down on a scary looking examination table, and this is where the gameplay demo begins. Once free, Grace must navigate what appears to be a medical ward. It’s unclear if this is in the hotel or in a separate location, but like other Resident Evil locations such as Raccoon City Police Department, for example, this medical ward appears to be decorated by someone who loves classical architecture.

Grace is pretty powerless from the get-go, and she’s only able to pick up makeshift weapons like glass bottles to use as projectiles. The narrow hallways are sometimes bathed in blinking red emergency lights, or no lights at all, while some doors only lead to pure darkness. At some point Grace finds a lighter that helps her navigate these previously unlit areas.

Capcom describes Grace as a kind of bookworm – as evinced by the trailer when she’s surrounded by a stack of files. So while she’s had combat training thanks to being in the FBI, she’s not a hardened combat veteran like Leon Kennedy or Jill Valentine. That means she’s more afraid of her nightmarish surroundings, and as you explore the dark hallways, you can hear Grace as she lets out calming breaths to steady her nerves. It does a lot to convey how powerless Grace feels compared to more confident heroes like Leon or Jill, and even helps her stand out against Resident Evil’s last new hero, Ethan Winters, who was stoic to a fault.

I know online there’s been some theorizing about who the true main character of Resident Evil Requiem is. And while Capcom has done bait-and-switches before for Resident Evil protagonists, Grace Ashcroft makes a compelling new hero, whose vulnerability in particular already helps her stand out. I’m curious to learn more about Grace, particularly her connection to the forgotten Resident Evil Outbreak games.

Eventually, Grace will encounter a horrifying new monster that kind of reminds me of the creature from the 2022 horror film Barbarian (Fun fact: Barbarian director Zach Cregger is set to direct the next Resident Evil live-action movie). This monster will stalk Grace through the dark corridors much in the same way as Mr. X or Lady Dimitrescu. Combined with Grace’s palpable fear, running away from this mysterious new monster feels even more terrifying and reminds me almost like the first time I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

However, this fear I describe is mostly present if you play the game in first-person perspective. And as Capcom revealed during the preview, you can switch perspectives at any time. When I played the demo I did extensive testing in third-person mode, including while running away from Requiem’s new monster. In third-person I found that the tension of hiding and running to still be there, but the fear factor was replaced somewhat with a more action-like feel. In third-person, running away from the monster felt a little more tactical than survival-horror, though given Grace’s limited arsenal it was no less stressful.

Like I said, with only bottles to throw at the monster, Grace is better off running away, and in third-person Grace will stumble over her own feet while getting away, highlighting her inexperience and adding more stress to the encounter.

Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi says that the game will stay true to the survival horror core, but highlight a kind of thrill to the action – and I feel like these two elements are highlighted whenever you swap perspectives. For exploration and dread, first-person is the way to go, but for monster encounters, third-person feels livelier.

Visually, Capcom maintains the high standards set by all previous Resident Evil games since switching to the RE Engine with particular emphasis added to the contrast between light and dark. There are moments where Grace will turn on a hallway light only for it to cast the smallest light possible, while casting menacing shadows.

With Resident Evil Requiem, you no longer have to make the choice between first-person and third-person perspective, something Capcom flirted with when it released a third-person option as DLC for Resident Evil Village. While the balance between horror and action naturally shifts depending on the perspective, my main takeaway is that Resident Evil Requiem was exciting to play in either mode, and looks to continue Capcom’s strong string of game releases.

Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

A report has shed new light on Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s tumultuous development, and raised concerns about the future of BioWare.

In January, publisher EA said Dragon Age: The Veilguard had “underperformed” versus its expectations by around 50%, just days after the game’s director Corrine Busche confirmed she was leaving the company. Meanwhile, other BioWare staff who worked on the game were laid off. In the same month, BioWare signalled it had released its final update for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with no further content announced or expected.

IGN has reported on The Veilguard’s development before, detailing how it was rebooted from a single-player game into a live-service multiplayer game and back again. Now, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has revealed new insights into the goings on at BioWare during the making of The Veilguard, revealing exactly why it ended up disappointing some fans with a lack of meaningful choice and consequence — key qualities BioWare’s best games are best-known for.

Schreier revealed that many of The Veilguard’s issues were a hangover from the pivot from multiplayer back to single-player RPG, including its tone, dialogue, and lack of tough choices for the player. One tidbit stands out: BioWare was spooked by the failure of Square Enix’s Forspoken, worrying The Veilguard’s now out of fashion snarky tone would fuel a similar fate. So a “belated rewrite” of the game’s dialogue was ordered to “make it sound more serious.” This, in turn, resulted in tonal inconsistencies.

There were also internal concerns about how The Veilguard was being marketed (“an initial trailer made the next Dragon Age seem more like Fortnite than a dark fantasy role-playing game, triggering concerns that EA didn’t know how to market the game”).

EA declined to comment to Bloomberg on the piece.

The upshot of The Veilguard’s failure is that a small team is working on Mass Effect 5, but there are concerns about BioWare’s future. Dragon Age appears dead following the failure of The Veilguard, which when counting Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem is BioWare’s third flop in a row. Could EA close it down?

Bloomberg quoted TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz as saying that while EA needs more than sports to be successful, “if they shuttered the doors [of BioWare] tomorrow I wouldn’t be totally surprised. It has been over a decade since they produced a hit.”

Check out Bloomberg’s piece for the full story.

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.

Wondering just how powerful the Nintendo Switch 2 is in terms of raw computing power? One developer has said it’s closer to the Xbox Series S than the PlayStation 4.

In an interview with wccftech, Takuto Edagawa, producer of Koei Tecmo’s Wild Hearts S, said that while it’s difficult to generalize about the power of the Switch 2, the Series S is a decent comparison.

There are a lot of characteristics when it comes to raw computing power so it’s difficult to generalize, but I think it can be thought as closer to the Series S.

Switch 2’s tech specs include a custom Nvidia GPU with dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores. Ahead of the console’s launch, Nvidia said the GPU enables 10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch, with AI upscaling via DLSS and ray tracing.

The Xbox Series S is the less powerful alternative to the Xbox Series X. It launched alongside that console in 2020, in direct competition with the PlayStation 5, and this November turns five years old.

If the Switch 2 is similar in power to the Xbox Series S, that suggests it will run most third-party games. Microsoft mandates that any game that launches on the Xbox Series X also launches on the S, so any developer working on a game for the current-gen Xbox must ensure the S is capable of running it.

It’s also worth noting that Microsoft and Activision are still working on bringing Call of Duty to Switch. The recently announced Black Ops 7 isn’t confirmed for Switch 2 yet, but we do know it’s planned for release on the last generation of consoles (PS4 and Xbox One). That should mean it’ll run fine on Switch 2, based on Edagawa’s comments.

Indeed, Switch 2 released with a number of third-party games to flesh out its launch lineup, including CD Projekt’s demanding Cyberpunk 2077. Where the Switch lacked many third-party multiplatform games, perhaps the Switch 2 will thrive.

Switch 2 is off to a great start, selling 3.5 million units in just four days. That’s enough to make it the fastest-selling Nintendo hardware ever.

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.

Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has confirmed his upcoming game, Haunted Chocolatier, is “larger” than the already sizeable Stardew Valley.

How much bigger, or in which way it’s bigger? Sorry — Barone didn’t elaborate. “The world of Haunted Chocolatier is larger than Stardew Valley” is the full extent of his message. If he’s referring to the length of the game, however, How Long to Beat? has the average Stardew Valley playtime listed as over 50 hours for just the main story, and around 168 hours for a completionist run.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, these 10 words sent a ripple of excitement through his fan communities, with one exclaiming: “[Concerned Ape] STOP TEASING. I MEAN- DONT STOP TEASING. I MEAN- IDK IM SO EXCITED BUT I DONT WANT U TO RUSH TAKE UR SWEET ASS TIME WE LOVE U.”

Last month, Barone admitted that he “didn’t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy,” explaining that was why he’s currently working on Haunted Chocolatier. We shouldn’t expect a release date anytime soon, though — there’s “still a lot to be done,” Barone recently admitted, particularly as he feels it’s “got to be better” than Stardew Valley.

However, he also suggested that he may “eventually make a Stardew Valley 2.” Before you get too excited, however, the developer also said it’s “so much easier to just add more stuff to Stardew Valley than to make a whole new game from scratch.”

“It’s all the systems — all the major systems — are already all done. That’s the stuff that’s not fun to do. When I make an update [for Stardew Valley now], it’s like, you know, oh, throw in this, throw in that. Let’s add green rain — like, these random, whimsical ideas.”

Barone announced Haunted Chocolatier back in 2021. Much like Stardew Valley, it will be a top-down pixel-based sim, and it looks to have much the same flavor as ConcernedApe’s previous work.

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.

Lars Wingefors, founder of Swedish gaming company Embracer, is stepping down from his CEO role. Current deputy CEO Phil Rogers will assume the position from August 2025.

Embracer, which oversees IPs like The Lord of the Ring, Dead Island, Metro, and Tomb Raider, is no stranger to change, of course. After making high-profile acquisitions like the purchase of Middle-earth Enterprises and Borderlands-maker Gearbox in 2022 and 2021, respectively, Embracer found itself in turmoil after a $2 billion deal with Savvy Games Group fell through. In the time since, the company has shut down Saints Row developer Volition Games, sold Gearbox, split from Space Marine 2 developer Saber Interactive, and overseen thousands of layoffs. Wingefors called the criticism and backlash to its missteps “painful.”

The developer of MindsEye has said it’s working to improve the game’s performance after a number of players took to Steam user reviews to complain.

Build A Rocket Boy’s debut title launched on June 10 and has settled on a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam, where it also hit a peak concurrent player count of 3,302. Many of the negative reviews focus on MindsEye’s performance problems, which appear to be hitting PC gamers hard. There are also reports on various bugs, glitches, and NPC behavior oddities.

My second combat encounter in #MindsEye… The AI has become self-aware and is now committing suicide: pic.twitter.com/391R23S0Oa

— Jesse Gomez @ IGN (@ItsJesseGomez) June 10, 2025

In response, Build A Rocket Boy issued a statement on the MindsEye subreddit, saying its engineering team is “working around the clock” to improve performance. Patch 3 will be revealed soon, it added.

Here’s the statement in full:

Thank you kindly to all of you who joined us as pioneers on day one! We understand that the current minimum spec requirements are very high, but our engineering team are working around the clock to improve performance on mainstream hardware as well as consoles by integrating the performance improvements in Unreal Engine V5.6. We will provide patch 3 update timing, including these improvements, within the next 24 hours. In addition to the main campaign, we would also value your thoughts on Build.Mindseye.

MindsEye, led by former Rockstar North chief Leslie Benzies, has endured a tumultuous run-up to release. Last week, Build A Rocket Boy said fans should wait for MindsEye’s official launch rather than play it before its street date, after early copies made their way into the hands of players.

“We want everyone to experience the story the same way at the same time on day one, without bias,” Build A Rocket Boy said in a statement issued in response to early copies being played. “This means waiting until the official release date to play through the game firsthand.”

Mention of bias in the studio’s statement sparked speculation that the company was referring back to comments made by its co-CEO Mark Gerhard, who suggested there had been a “concerted effort” to “trash the game and the studio” with negative social media posts from paid accounts or bots.

IGN subsequently put this claim to Hakan Abrak, boss of Hitman developer IO Interactive, the company which is publishing MindsEye. His response: “I don’t know. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that. I just think the game should speak for itself on June the 10th.”

Physical copies of MindsEye also needed a “major” update for “key improvements to ensure MindsEye plays as we intended and to meet all the characters at their best.”

And just days before MindsEye’s launch, Build a Rocket Boy’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Financial Officer confirmed they had left the company, sparking concern from the studio’s fledgling community.

Steam concurrents do not tell the whole story, of course. MindsEye launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S as well as PC, so its true concurrent player count will be higher than that reported on Valve’s platform.

MindsEye carries a $59.99 price tag. At launch, there is a “tightly crafted linear story campaign,” and what’s called “single-player free roam,” but there are also a number of missions: a horde mode mission called “Destruction Site Shootout,” and two combat missions (“Honor Amongst Thieves” and “Friendly Fire”). Also at launch are six races, six checkpoint races, and three drone races. If you get the premium pass, you get an extra horde mode mission and an exotic cosmetics pack.

Following launch, Build A Rocket Boy said it will deliver a “constant stream” of fresh premium content monthly, “ensuring MindsEye is a living, ever-expanding player experience.” This includes new missions, challenges, and game assets. “The continuous stream of studio-developed content, combined with the very best of the community’s own beautiful creations, means that MindsEye will continue to surprise and delight its players for decades to come,” Build A Rocket Boy added.

Build A Rocket Boy also confirmed its 2025 roadmap of content. In the summer there will be community updates, new missions, in the fall new single-player modes, multiplayer, and new missions, and in the winter free roam updates and new missions. Premium pass owners get extra missions and new packs throughout.

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.

Games Workshop was forced to pull its own website, Warhammer.com, offline after scalpers caused chaos during the launch of pre-orders for the Siege of Terra: End of Ruin special edition book.

The Warhammer maker launched pre-orders for the hotly anticipated special edition of Siege of Terra: End of Ruin, a new anthology of short stories set during the aftermath of the Siege of Terra and the Horus Heresy. For the uninitiated, the Horus Heresy is the Space Marine civil war that took place 10,000 years before the current Warhammer 40,000 setting. It is the foundation of 40K’s grimdark universe, and reveals how the carrion Emperor ended up on the Golden Throne.

Siege of Terra: End of Ruin is a hugely exciting release for 40K lore fans, but its special edition is even more enticing. It features a leather-effect cover with gold foil details, gilt page edges, and a metal emblem of a ruined Imperial eagle.

inZoi publisher Krafton has addressed an ongoing debate about its plummeting Steam concurrent player count, insisting that as a single-player game sales are a better indicator of performance.

The eye-catching The Sims competitor launched big on Steam with an all-time peak concurrent player count of 87,377. Krafton announced inZOI sold impressive 1 million copies in a week, the fastest sales milestone ever for a game published by the South Korean megacorp. It rose to number one on Steam’s Global Top Sellers List (by sales revenue) just 40 minutes after release, with CEO CH Kim said at the time that Krafton planned to “foster” the game as a “long-term franchise IP.”

However, inZoi’s Steam concurrent player count has dwindled since launch, with a 24-hour peak of 1,477. As TheGamer reported this week, inZoi’s peak concurrent player count even dropped below the 16-year-old The Sims 3 on Valve’s platform.

IGN asked Krafton for comment on the situation, and it responded to dismiss Steam peak concurrent player figures as a barometer of the game’s success because it is a single-player game.

“inZOI continues to steadily generate sales, and as a single-player game, it would be most appropriate to refer to the additional sales count at each major update point as opposed to concurrent player count on Steam in measuring the game’s performance,” Krafton said.

The focus on Steam concurrent player numbers has become a hot topic within the industry in recent years, with a number of developers and publishers insisting they don’t tell the whole story of a game’s performance, particularly for single-player games.

In 2024, John “Bucky” Buckley, community chief at Palworld developer Pocketpair, said our obsession with the concept of the “dead game” and player counts was unhealthy for the video game industry and gamers. And in April this year, Alex Bolle, production director on Helldivers 2, told IGN that Steam concurrents are “a metric among many others.”

As for inZoi, Steam user reviews, which do have a significant impact on a game’s visibility on Valve’s platform, remain ‘mostly positive’ for all reviews, but are on ‘mixed’ for recent reviews. As an Early Access game, it has yet to fully release, a point Krafton made in its statement to IGN:

“That said, Early Access is only the beginning of inZOI’s journey, and in many ways our work is just starting. During this phase, the team’s top priority is gathering player feedback and continuing the development of the game with more enhanced features, improved performance, and an overall immersive and engaging experience. We’re thankful for our dedicated inZOI community and look forward to sharing new content updates over the coming months.”

Meanwhile, Krafton announced inZOI is coming to the Mac App Store and Steam in August. The Mac version of inZOI is optimized for the latest macOS on Apple Silicon, Krafton said, and takes “full advantage” of Apple’s MetalFX and Core ML “to deliver the same great gameplay experience as on Windows.”

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.

Starting this week, Meta has dropped the prices on both Quest 3 VR headset options. The 128GB model is $269.99 after a $30 off discount. and the 256GB is $349.99 after a $50 off instant discount. These discounts are honored at major retailers including Amazon, Target, and Walmart. The Meta Quest 3S is widely considered the best value in VR gaming. Not only is it priced hundreds less compared to most other competitors (including Meta’s own Quest3), it’s also a standalone untethered gaming system that doesn’t require a PC or PlayStation 5 to run,,

To sweeten the pot even more, every Quest 3S purchase includes a copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow VR game and a three-month trial of Meta Quest+. In IGN’s 8/10 review, Dan Stapleton wrote that “Batman: Arkham Shadow makes most of the Arkham series’ defining gameplay work respectably well in VR, and its mystery story pays off.”

Meta Quest 3S VR Headset with Batman: Arkham Shadow