The tech experts at Digital Foundry have completed their analysis of Borderlands 4 on console, and confirmed a gradual worsening of framerate with continuous playtime, even on PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X.
As revealed in a new video published to YouTube, Digital Foundry found performance starts dipping after around 30 minutes to an hour, which it called “too intrusive on the overall experience, too regular an interruption.” Even after a completely fresh boot, the game is still prone to framerate drops.
Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has acknowledged the problem on social media, promising incoming improvements. As a workaround, Pitchford suggested console players quit Borderlands 4 and restart. Digital Foundry’s Tom Morgan confirmed this does restore performance, but criticized the situation, saying “resetting the game every hour should really not be an expected solution for players.”
“Each console is prone to sizeable, sub-60fps lurches given enough time on the clock, and it’s just a matter of how long you’re willing to keep playing before deciding to reset,” Morgan added.
“Borderlands 4 justifies the six-year wait since the last entry with some big technical upgrades via Unreal Engine 5,” Morgan said. “Despite the team’s huge ambition here, though, the game’s performance at launch is struggling on console if 60fps is the goal, and a patch cannot come soon enough. The gradually worsening framerates on PS5, Pro, and Series X lead to some dire mid-30fps passages of play after a while. And resetting the game every hour should really not be an expected solution for players.
“This lack in polish at launch also shows in its bugs where broken NPC pathfinding and flickering lighting are just a couple of issues I’ve experienced. The promise of Borderlands 4 is compelling, but following on from MGS Delta and Oblivion Remastered, we’re once again looking at a major UE5 release with framerate issues on every format. And once again, we’re having to hang tight for an update to save the day.”
So, what’s causing the problem? As Morgan points out, the situation with Borderlands 4 rekindles memories of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, another Unreal Engine 5 title where performance degraded over time on console and also improved with a fresh boot. It’s unconfirmed for now, but the leading theory for Borderlands 4, as with Oblivion, is there’s some form of memory leak at play, or, as Morgan put it, “a cache of data not being flushed from system memory that eventually catches up on the player.”
Gearbox has said addressing PC performance is a “top priority” for the studio. In the meantime, the studio pointed to a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, advising players how to optimize their graphics settings for “better performance and framerates” on PC with the Nvidia app, although users report mixed results.
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.
The main leaked Battlefield 6 gameplay making its way around social media is relatively straightforward and not unlike what we’ve seen in other, similar battle royale experiences like Warzone. The player can be seen running around a warehouse, dodging bullets from enemy players as they collect weapons, armor plates, and other tools from nearby loot chests.
Other clips have also spilled onto platforms like X, including footage of how things like upgrade kits and custom weapon drops work. It’s important to note that none of what we’ve seen so far is final.
Battlefield 6 itself still has a few weeks to go before its October 10 release date for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S arrives. BF Studios hasn’t officially announced when exactly the Battlefield 6 battle royale mode will launch, though ModernWarzone reported earlier this week that its sources expect its release date to be October 28, 2025.
EA and BF Studios are no strangers to leaks, especially when it comes to Battlefield 6. That’s mostly thanks to BF Labs, which has allowed a large number of players to experience in-development content as the developers look for fan feedback.
“I remember, at one point, making a big presentation that said, ‘What will leak? Everything.’ Like, we just started with that assumption that things would leak,” technical director Christian Buhl told us. “Now, to be clear, we didn’t want things to leak. We weren’t seeking leaks, but we knew that the most important thing was to get the game in front of players, get real feedback from players, get real telemetry, real data, and that had to come at any cost, including the fact that things would leak.”
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).
Over the last few decades, soccer (or football, if you’re not from the US like me) hasn’t changed much. Sure, there are new rules, improved tactics, and so much more money involved in the modern game – but at its heart, it’s still all about kicking a ball into a goal more than the other team. So how does a series like EA Sports FC improve each year when the sport it’s emulating isn’t introducing massive changes? For me, it’s about quality-of-life updates, and FC 26 has those in spades. You’ve heard the phrase “death by a thousand cuts,” but this is more like “fixed by a thousand pieces of tape.” It’s not that every problem has been solved, and many of the micro issues like confusing player-switching and weird tackle animations have returned from FC 25 – but at least in my early time with it, FC 26 is inching in the right direction in nearly every aspect.
A phenomenal example of this is the new gameplay presets. In the past, everyone was using the same gameplay style, whether diving into competitive games in Ultimate Team or trying to win the league against CPU opponents in Manager Mode. This year, EA has split things between two different presets: Competitive and Authentic. With the Competitive preset, you can expect the fast-paced action and smarter AI teammates that you might be used to from previous FC/FIFA games. Meanwhile, Authentic will feel more realistic to what you see on the real-life pitch every weekend. Players are slower, and you need to use your tactical intelligence to get into scoring position.
The most important part of this change is that these two options do not impact each other. That means EA can tune Competitive mode however is needed without changing the balance of Authentic mode, something they couldn’t do in previous versions of FC. I’ve only played about a dozen games with each preset so far, but they already feel distinct in a way that is valuable. Players come to FC 26’s various modes for different reasons: Career Mode players want a game that plays as close to real-life a possible, while Ultimate Team and Clubs players want fair and balanced online competition. Those two ideals have sometimes worked against each other in the past, so giving us two totally separate gameplay styles lets EA serve both communities.
What’s strange about the implementation is that the Authentic preset is restricted to offline modes only. That means you can’t even use it in your Squad Battles matches despite them being the only single-player content in Ultimate Team. It’s something I hope is added in the future, as it feels strange not to include all of the single-player content by default, especially when it does exactly that with the new version of the Season Pass.
This might be the worst version of a Season Pass in a sports game yet.
Before diving into some of the other positive changes, let’s go over that Season Pass, as it’s one of the biggest points of contention for me. Last year, EA introduced a paid Season Pass into FC 25 toward the end of the cycle, so we knew this was coming, but seeing it drop on day one does sting. You can ignore it and stick with the free version of the pass, or even earn enough in-game currency to buy it without spending real-world money, but I would argue that this might be the worst version of a Season Pass we’ve seen in a sports game yet.
The issue with FC 26’s Season Pass is that you’re not just earning rewards for Ultimate Team, where people are already (unfortunately) conditioned to spend money. You’re also earning a ton of rewards for Clubs, Player Career, and Manager Career. The latter is where things really get icky, because one of the big draws for FC 26 is that Icons and Heroes are finally available in Manager Mode. For the first time ever, you can take classic players like Luis Figo, Toni Kroos, and Julie Foudy and put them into your Manager Mode saves. It should be a revelation, but instead, EA made the strange decision to lock many of these players behind the Season Pass.
There are several reasons this is frustrating. The first is that you probably won’t be able to acquire enough XP for them by playing Manager Mode alone. EA might implement more ways for non-Ultimate Team players to earn XP, but with how things are currently constructed, you’ll need to dive into that lootbox opening simulator if you want to finish enough of the pass to claim all of the Career Mode rewards. Even as someone who primarily plays Ultimate Team, this change sucks. I already know how bad FC’s monetization can get, and I hate seeing it expanded to more of the playerbase in a way that feels scummy.
As if that weren’t frustrating enough, Career Mode players aren’t likely to earn enough Ultimate Team-specific currency to purchase the Season Pass in that mode alone. That means you’ll need to spend real money to unlock players like Gianfranco Zola, Miroslav Klose, and Park Ji-Sung. Keep in mind, this is only the first Season Pass. If FC 26 continues to lock Icons and Heroes behind future passes, we’ll likely see desirable players like Ronaldinho, Ruud Gullit, and Johan Cruyff tucked behind a paywall as well.
It’s an unfortunate situation that reeks of EA trying to get even more money out of its playerbase than usual. It’s bad enough that Ultimate Team players are being milked dry, but now you can’t even enjoy your offline Career Mode without feeling the pull to spend money.
Most of the modes feature fun updates to their tried and true formulas.
What makes this even more painful is that most of the modes feature fun updates to their tried and true formulas this year. For example, the new Manager Live Hub lets you dive into specific challenges and earn new jerseys for your club. These feel like the next step toward a historical mode like the Negro Leagues option in MLB The Show, as you’ll be challenged to recreate moments like Jamal Musiala’s double with Bayern Munich or take a mid-level club like SK Rapid or Strasbourg to European glory. The classic version of Career Mode is still there, but Manager Live gives you a rotating list of challenges that will test your skill on and off the pitch.
Even Ultimate Team is home to several small yet meaningful changes. Everything from the return of tournaments to the ability to choose the cosmetics on your Evolutions feels carefully crafted to deliver the improvements fans have been asking after for years. We’ll have to wait a month or two to see the impact of the slower Ultimate Team power curve, and I’m hesitant to judge the stability of the servers until they are live for everyone, but my early experience is positive.
While I’m not much of a Clubs player, the new Archetypes have certainly piqued my interest. Without a dedicated group, it’s unlikely I will spend too much time in Clubs, but the Archteype system seems like an improved way to handle progression to my untrained eye. While a meta will surely settle over the mode in the coming weeks, having this clear sense of forward momentum makes me wish I had a group of 10 friends to play with.
I have more to play this weekend, but so far FC 26 seems to provide enough quality-of-life changes that I feel more positive about the on-pitch product after a few years of stagnation. However, I can’t help but be annoyed by how heavily monetized every mode is becoming. I’ve always felt it was relatively easy to ignore the pull to spend extra money unless you wanted to compete at the very top of Ultimate Team, but that’s much less true this year. Now, not even the Career Mode players are safe. FC 26 is EA at its most money-hungry yet, and I can’t help but worry where we’re going next.
CD Projekt looks set to include multiplayer features in Cyberpunk 2, years after similar plans were scrapped for Cyberpunk 2077.
A posting for the role of Cyberpunk 2’s lead network engineer lists the job’s responsibilities as including the need to “develop and optimize multiplayer systems, including matchmaking” with an aim to “address challenges related to latency, bandwidth usage and server performance.”
Applicants will also need to work “closely with game designers, gameplay programmers, and other departments to integrate network features seamlessly,” the job description continued, to “play a pivotal role in designing and implementing the network architecture and online systems.”
As expected, the role is primarily based out of CD Projekt’s Boston studio, where work on Cyberpunk 2 is now underway, while the company’s Polish teams focus on The Witcher 4.
The prospect of Cyberpunk 2 finally achieving the studio’s multiplayer ambitions therefore should not be surprising — though until CD Projekt confirms the features officially, there’s always the possibility these could fall by the wayside once again.
“We really needed to look at what were the priorities for Cyberpunk [after it launched],” Cyberpunk 2077 senior quest designer Philipp Weber said back in 2022. “The priority was that the main experience will run for the people in a really good state, and essentially, the switch of priorities meant that other R&D projects had to go away. With Cyberpunk, we wanted to do many things at the same time, and we just needed to really focus and say, ‘Okay, what’s the important part? Yeah, we will make that part really good.’”
Last week’s Apple Event provided a first look at mobile gameplay from upcoming 3D RPG and strategy game Arknights: Endfield, alongside confirmation of the title’s early 2026 release.
The GRYPHLINE game, set in the same world as the studio’s tower defence hitArknights, featured in a segment showcasing the iPhone 17 Pro. The gameplay demo was shown running on the next-generation A19 Pro chip, which enabled the combat sequences to play out super-smoothly, while the hardware-accelerated ray tracing and 16-core Neural Engine helped the vibrant visuals of the AAA title to shine.
Apple’s post-event press release also exclusively revealed an early 2026 release window for Arknights: Endfield. Following its appearance in the showcase, the game has since featured on multiple Apple channels, from the official website and Apple Newsroom, to other promotional materials for new products.
This high-visibility, pre-launch inclusion indicates Apple’s confidence in the game’s quality and its strong performance on mobile devices – a significant step as previous demos for the exploration, real-time combat and base-building centred game had focussed solely on the PC version. This included a technical test running back in 2024, and a closed beta that took place earlier this year, allowing players to have hands-on experience of the updated combat and AIC factory system.
Arknights: Endfield has enjoyed a major presence at headline gaming events and conventions throughout 2025, including Japan Expo, Anime Expo andgamescom. GRYPHLINE has confirmed that this run of high-profile appearances will continue with a showcase at the Tokyo Game Show (September 25-28).
The Chinese developer is gearing up for a busy Q4, as its 2-4 player co-op puzzle shooter POPUCOM lands on Nintendo Switch. Originally launched on Steam and the Epic Games Store in June, the candy-coloured title – in which you are summoned to an unknown planet to embark on a playful enemy-slaying and puzzle-solving adventure with your friends – featured in the September 12 Nintendo Direct, which revealed a Holiday 2025 release date.
User-made mods should not be considered prior art, Nintendo has argued, as part of the company’s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
Nintendo’s claim appears to be an attempt at blocking Pocketpair from using popular Pokémon mods as evidence that the franchise’s patented gameplay was already being featured in other games elsewhere.
The argument put forth by Nintendo — essentially, that mods require a separate base game to function, so therefore are not art by themselves — has raised eyebrows across the games industry and among Pokémon fans alike, with many suggesting it could have far-reaching consequences if accepted by a judge.
Writing in Games Fray, which first reported the development, games industry reporter and legal analyst Florian Mueller described the suggestion that gameplay ideas or innovations featured in mods were not viable as prior art as something that showed “utter disregard for the enormous creativity” of many mod makers.
Additionally, and perhaps more concerning from a legal perspective if accepted, the ruling could potentially open the door to mods being considered “fair game” for patent thieves, who could swoop in and incorporate the same ideas into full game releases — which would then be protected.
“Patents are a special monopoly granted by the governments of the world to encourage creative invention,” business lawyer and creator of the Virtual Legality podcast Richard Hoeg told IGN today. “If something already exists in the world, some new person is not allowed to claim they invented it and get that protection.
“We call everything that already exists ‘prior art,’ and it would be ludicrous to exempt any piece of game design from that category simply because of how it’s stood up in the software. The mechanism for access shouldn’t really matter. It exists. It makes things like it in the world non-novel and thus not subject to protection. We don’t give out monopolies to second place.”
Will Nintendo succeed with its claim? Mueller suggests it is unlikely, as courts typically reject any attempt to narrow what can be considered prior art — with Nintendo taking an “extreme position” here. But time will tell, as the lawsuit shows no sign of winding down.
While Nintendo’s legal threats continue, Pocketpair is busy putting together Palworld’s big 1.0 release, due at some point in 2026. In the meantime, development will focus on removing “jank” from the game, communications director and publishing manager John “Bucky” Buckley said earlier this week, though a smaller winter update is still planned.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
On January 20, 2026, students at the University of Tennessee will attend the world’s first Grand Theft Auto college history class. That’s right: we got a GTA college history class before GTA 6.
‘Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games’ was devised and will be taught by history professor Tore Olsson, who eagle-eyed IGN fans might remember from our coverage of his Red Dead Redemption American history class — another world first. Accompanying that course was Professor Olsson’s book, Red Dead’s History, and its audiobook narration by none other than Arthur Morgan actor Roger Clark.
It turns out, Professor Olsson had planned to launch his class with GTA 6 firmly under his belt, but Rockstar’s high-profile delay to May 2026 dashed those plans — just as they did those of so many video game publishers. So, with what will no doubt be the biggest entertainment launch of all time waiting in the wings, Professor Olsson will soldier ahead.
In this wide-ranging interview with IGN, Professor Olsson discusses why Grand Theft Auto was the right choice for a history class after Red Dead, what the GTA games get right and wrong in their portrayal of contemporary America, and the place of GTA 6 in the class. But perhaps most important of all, we ask the question: will playing the Grand Theft Auto games count as ‘studying?’
IGN: What’s the basic idea behind this class?
Tore Olsson: Video games are great at conjuring fictional worlds, but they also impact players’ thinking about real-world times and places. And just as Red Dead Redemption 2 has shaped folks’ perception of the nineteenth-century American West or Ghost of Tsushimahas informedtheir vision of feudal Japan, millions of people around the globe imagine contemporary America through the lens of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Just think of how many GTA veterans have recognized landmarks in Los Angeles and New York thanks to their hours in Los Santos and Liberty City!
In my class, I take seriously GTA’s fictional representation of the United States: its characters, its urban and rural landscapes, and its storylines. And I use that world as the framing device for a serious history class that examines what’s actually taken place in the United States over the last half-century. The class is much more about American history than the games themselves, but GTA provides the framework that structures our exploration of the past. My hope is that after the class, students will never look at these games, or modern America, the same again.
IGN: The Red Dead Redemption series, which you’ve worked with in the past, is obviously historical in its framing. Few people think of the Grand Theft Auto games in the same way. How can the GTA games’ contemporary setting serve as the backbone of a college history class?
Tore Olsson: Of course, most folks wouldn’t put GTA in the same category as games set in distant eras, like Red Dead, Assassin’s Creed, or Kingdom Come: Deliverance. But because the franchise is now nearly 30 years old, and because some of the early titles were set a decade or two before their release date, the games capture a particular historical epoch: the United States from 1980 to the present. Vice City Stories (set in 1984) and Vice City (1986) cover the 1980s. San Andreas (1992) and Liberty City Stories (1998) speak to the ‘90s, and then 3, 4, 5, and soon 6 provide different snapshots of the twenty-first century.
I really believe that the years between 1980 and today mark a distinct and cohesive era in American history. If we want to understand the divided and unequal U.S. of today, we have to grapple with what’s happened in that time. 45 years ago, the political fires that burn so hot today were much cooler. Most Americans got their news from the three TV networks – ABC, NBC, and CBS – which presented a very centrist spin on controversial topics. In 1980, the average CEO earned about 25 times the salary of their rank-and-file employees; today it’s nearly 400 times as much. 45 years ago, just over 5% of Americans were immigrants; today the number surpasses 15%. And the U.S. prison population quadrupled between 1980 and 2005.
In many ways, the America of today is unrecognizable from its 1980 version. In my class, we’ll explore how all of this came to change – and we’ll use the fictional world of the GTAgames as the window for this exploration.
IGN: What do the GTA games get right in their portrayal of contemporary America? What do they get wrong?
Tore Olsson: Unlike Red Dead Redemption and other historical games, the GTA franchise is a satirical parody of the past (and present), rather than an attempt at faithful recreation, which means it’s almost a waste of time to list what it gets wrong. But just for fun… here’s a few. Every GTA game depicts an America plagued by violence and criminality. This is rather ironic given that homicide and car theft, as two examples, plunged dramatically from the early ‘90s until the pandemic. The games imagine an America largely without suburbs or traffic. (Have you ever actually visited L.A.?) They present a society where most women seem to find their primary employment in sex work, and where people of color are often gang members. It’s not hard to see the flaws (and ugliness) in such a portrayal. Or what about the fact that no vehicle seems to have door locks?
But I find the games much more interesting – and useful in the class – when their parody rings true. For example, Los Santos, Liberty City, and Vice City are each home to bustling container ports – what 5 calls “the orifice of American capitalism” – that often sit near rusting manufacturing districts. This is spot-on: arguably no technology was more transformative of post-1980 America than the shipping container, which facilitated the global outsourcing of U.S. industry. Or there’s GTA’s radio stations, where much of the games’ sharpest social commentary takes place. In 4 (set in 2008) and 5 (2013), we encounter a highly polarized media landscape where rival political commentators spit acid at each other from separate stations. But the talk radio of the Vice City and San Andreas era are very different: here, an assortment of weirdos debate each other on a single station. It’s an interesting (and perhaps unintentional!) reference to how in 1987 Ronald Reagan began the deregulation of television and radio with the repeal of 1949’s “fairness doctrine,” which paved the way to overtly partisan networks like Fox News and MSNBC.
IGN: Can you give an example how you plan to use the games’ storylines to teach historical content?
Tore Olsson: I’ve invested more hours than I care to admit in playing these games, and I’m eager to use their plots and characters to teach big historical topics. I’m perhaps most excited to use San Andreas, set primarily in a fictional Los Angeles of 1992. As many know, the game follows Carl “C.J.” Johnson as he returns to the West Coast, seeking to evict drug dealers from his neighborhood and then free his brother from prison, while crooked cops seek to derail his plans. The narrative climax of the game comes when these police officers are found innocent of their crimes, which triggers a vast urban rebellion against the miscarriage of justice. “Los Santos will burn tonight,” declares an in-game news anchor ominously.
It’s probably obvious to many that this drama is an allusion to the L.A. Riots of April and May 1992, one of the most significant turning points in contemporary U.S. history, but also one that is widely misunderstood. Explaining the origins and meaning of this violent convulsion is a key goal of my class. Most folks understand the 1992 riots as a knee-jerk reaction to the videotaped police beating of Black motorist Rodney King and the near-total acquittal of the officers charged. But that explanation lacks backstory and context, some of which San Andreas hints at, but much of which is absent from the game.
Immigration, policing, capitalism, drugs, government policies – these are all towering dilemmas of contemporary America. And it’s my plan to use GTA’s allusion to them as the entry point for a history that I hope will be fresh and timely to many students.
IGN: How can a less-than-serious video game be the foundation for a serious college class?
Tore Olsson: It might surprise or even shock some folks to learn of a college class built around the fiction of a video game, and especially this franchise. But video games have by now moved from the margins to the mainstream. Other forms of pop culture have made the same journey before. 50 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to find a “history of rock’n’roll” class at a college or university, thanks to the music’s edgy and risqué reputation. Today, that exact course is one of the most popular at my institution. Perhaps a generation from now we’ll see many more courses built around the digital fiction of games.
When it comes to GTA’s unique brand of unseriousness, I’ve certainly played enough to become familiar with its cynical, irreverent, and crude sense of humor. Sometimes this is amusing; often it’s not. In my class, I’m steering clear of the games’ most distasteful satire. Instead, I’ll be emphasizing the elements that are most evocative of big social, cultural, and political paradoxes – of which there’s plenty.
And from day one, I’ll take great pains to establish that this is a serious college class that will handle weighty and difficult topics, which we’ll always approach with sensitivity and respect. I’ll make clear that my classroom is a professional environment for students, nothing like their friend’s basement where they may have played GTA for the first time. I’m confident that my 20 years of experience teaching challenging subjects – and my four years of working through such material via the Red Dead games – have prepared me to navigate the unique demands of teaching through a complex piece of pop culture like GTA.
There’s also the question of GTA’s nihilistic violence, which has been the subject of controversy many times during its career. In no way do I celebrate or endorse that digital bloodshed. Indeed, the core message of my course is profoundly anti-violent, revealing the common humanity and strivings of all Americans. My hope is that students will walk away from this class with the understanding that Americans are divided today because powerful forces profit from that division, and that a more harmonious future is possible.
IGN: Has there ever been a class like this before?
Tore Olsson: Not really! Certainly there have been other college classes built around pop culture, whether Taylor Swift or HBO’s The Wire, and there are other historians who teach using video games – though it’s fairly rare to see instructors frame a class around one particular game franchise. There’s been a game design course at a Canadian university on GTA, but its goals are very different from what I’ll do as a historian. I’ve searched far and wide but have come across no previous examples of instructors in traditional disciplines who’ve made these games central to a class – which is rather surprising, given how astoundingly popular GTA has become in the last two decades.
IGN: Are students required to buy or play any of the games? Will playing the games count as ‘studying?’
Tore Olsson: I bet many students would embrace that kind of studying! But no, I’m afraid they will be disappointed on that count. As with my previous courses on Red Dead Redemption, I don’t require students to own or play the games during our semester. I’d be anxious asking cash-strapped students to buy a pricy console or gaming PC plus the games themselves. And I never examine students on the fictional content of the games; there’ll never be an exam question about Trevor Philips or Niko Bellic.
However, that’s not to say that the games will be absent from the class – far from it. I begin each lecture by showing game footage or screenshots on our topic of the day. Sometimes I’ll pull out a controller and briefly play on my laptop and projector – perhaps loading shipping containers in the Port of Los Santos – before proceeding to the core historical content. I expect many students will be familiar with the GTA franchise, though ultimately their knowledge of game lore won’t do much to earn them an A. Yet I do hope that their passion for the games’ fictional world will inspire a similar dedication for learning the history that informs the games in the first place.
IGN: What is the place of GTA 6 in the class?
Tore Olsson: I had originally hoped that it would be a major part! I first began planning this class more than a year ago, when GTA 6 was scheduled for release in late Fall of 2025 – well-timed for the start of our semester in January 2026. Of course, the recent delay to May 2026 made that impossible. So yes, that’s why we got a GTA college history class before we got GTA 6! (I really hope 6’s release date doesn’t fall during Spring final exams week, because I’d be very worried about my students’ ability to concentrate…) I certainly plan to integrate the new game into future versions of the course, but for now I’ll have to rely on the older games. Thankfully that’s a ton of material.
IGN: Is it a coincidence that you’re turning to another Rockstar game after RDR, or is there something unique about that developer’s game formula that allows a historian to base a course around?
Tore Olsson: I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Few developers rival Rockstar in terms of the granular detail that goes into their games. But I also think Rockstar is rather rare in their eagerness to comment on the social fabric of American life. Their games – from L.A. Noire through Red Dead through GTA – are all interested in saying something about the unique strangeness of the American experiment. What they say is sometimes thoughtful, sometimes not – but that they’re trying is fascinating.
IGN: What advice do you have for folks who are curious about your class but are not students at the University of Tennessee and can’t enroll in it?
Tore Olsson: First off, follow me on social media – on X/Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok – where I’ll be sharing regular updates about what we’re doing in the class, and my thoughts on GTA 6. I loved the work of adapting my college class on Red Dead Redemption into a book for wider audiences, and it was a dream to work with Roger Clark as the book’s narrator. So I’m very much considering the possibility of doing the same with ‘Grand Theft America’ – perhaps with an equally perfect audiobook narrator? Stay tuned!
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.
Fortnite maker Epic Games will allow creators to sell in-game items through its platform — and earn a better cut of sales than via Roblox.
The announcement comes at an interesting time for Fortnite as a whole, which has seen lower than average player numbers for its core battle royale modes over the summer. At the same time, Roblox’s player count has spiked thanks to trending hits like Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot.
Now, Epic Games is doubling down on encouraging creators to its platform, after several weekends where a Fortnite version of Steal a Brainrot soared in popularity. Next up for Fortnite’s third-party offerings will be the ability to sell items directly, with a better cut of the sales than in Roblox handed over to creators.
In a blog post on the announcement, Epic Games highlighted that it will hand over 50% of the V-Bucks value of purchases made in third-party experiences after store/platform fees, raised to 100% through the program’s first year (until December 31, 2026). Taking those store/platform fees into account, that translates to creators earning 37% of in-game sales, doubled to 74% for the first year. In comparison, as Epic Games itself points out, Roblox offers 25%.
The message here is clear: come launch your game on Fortnite’s platform and you’ll earn more money per dollar spent — and considerably more to start off with. It’s a similar tactic to one Epic Games has used before, to encourage developers onto its Epic Game Store rather than Steam. But it’s worth remembering that, while a better percentage, Fortnite’s player numbers are far below those of Roblox — meaning that while creators might earn less per dollar spent, they may still see far more money made.
Alongside this announcement, Epic Games has also announced a tweak to its creator payouts for engagement in third-party experiences, with better rewards for those who are detected as bringing in new or lapsed players. Here, it feels like Epic Games is clearly pushing creator content as a way to widen its audience further, rather than something that simply offers current players new things to do (another challenge it has faced over the past few months, with new additions in various battle royale offerings feeling like they’re just shuffling existing players around modes).
The push to highlight creator-made content will continue with the introduction of a “sponsored” block on Fortnite’s main screen, Discover, where creators will be able to pay Epic Games for placement. Long-term, Epic says it will use 50% of this revenue for its creator engagment payouts, though this will be boosted to 100% of the revenue for the first year. After that, Epic Games will keep the other 50%, for use covering server costs, safety and moderation tools, and R&D. “In recent years, Epic has been investing and operating the business at a loss,” the company noted.
Another change that better angles Fortnite towards its creator-made experiences will be the long-awaited launch of the game’s “thin client”. Beginning on mobile and PC, players will be able to download a smaller version of Fortnite with just its popular Blitz Royale mode included, along with the ability to play creator-made games. Other modes — even including Fortnite’s main battle royale — will then require additional downloads, if desired. It’s a smart way to get people playing trending hits like Steal a Brainrot without requiring a larger download than necessary. But it’s also feels like an eye-opening shift in priority for the company, and an acknowledgement Fortnite’s core Epic-made modes may no longer be the game’s hottest draw.
Fortnite has changed repeatedly over the years, from PVE zombie experience to battle royale, to a metaverse-y platform full of other genres. And while Fortnite’s next transformation isn’t wholly unexpected — the percentage of players in creator-made modes has been rising for years — it feels like it may be its most dramatic yet. There’s no suggestion that Fortnite battle royale is going away, of course, and there’s good reason to think its lucrative battle passes and live events will stick around for a long time yet as a differentiator to other platforms, as well as a way to introduce more IP crossovers. But with the growing focus on creator-made content — and the sheer number of players now engaged with it across Fortnite and Roblox — the game’s next era looks clear.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds‘ street date has reportedly been broken by some retailers, and the physical copies getting into fans’ hands seemingly confirm what’s coming up in the upcoming DLC via a leaflet nestled inside — including one character we didn’t yet know about: Mega Man.
What the leaflet doesn’t reveal is when we can expect to play, committing only to a broad “coming soon” window. But as we already knew that additional content from fan-favorite franchises like Minecraft and the inimitable SpongeBob Squarepants are coming in October and November, respectively, it’s possible the DLC logos have been listed in order, which could suggest we’ll see the Mega Man DLC ahead of TMNT and Avatar Legends, possibly in January if its a monthly schedule.
CrossWorlds is, of course, going up against Switch 2 exclusive kart game Mario Kart World, which has so far resisted adding guest characters from outside Nintendo’s portfolio. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is due out on both the Switch and the Switch 2, so it looks like fans are getting some old-fashioned Mario vs. Sonic rivalry when Sega’s effort launches later this month.
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.
For over 35 years, the Final Fantasy franchise has captivated fans with its anthology storytelling, keeping things fresh in its magical fantasy world by continuously introducing new characters and stories. The Final Fantasy games are mostly standalone, meaning you can jump into them in any order because they each have a fresh story. In general, Final Fantasy games tend to be set somewhere between the past and the future, staying connected with the same overarching, universal themes: a group of young heroes gathering to fight a great evil threatening their world while exploring their internal struggles and relationships with each other.
If you’re new and want to get into the Final Fantasy series, there are technically 16 numbered games, a few direct sequels, and a prequel to the first game. Each numbered game has its own stories, characters, and world to dive into, though a number of remakes and remasters can make things confusing at a glance. It sounds like a lot, but we’re here to help you make the journey a little smoother.
Looking at the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole can be overwhelming as most of them have hundreds of hours of content to play through. If you want to ease yourself into the franchise, we recommend starting with Final Fantasy VII. This game left an indelible mark on the game industry for having the easiest gameplay and combat systems to get the hang of, especially with the Limit Break system, and giving us the most memorable characters, like Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Sephiroth. Its popularity inspired Square to create Kingdom Hearts in collaboration with Disney so that some of its characters could interact with Disney characters. If you want the OG experience, FFVII is available on Steam and has been re-released for most consoles, including Nintendo Switch.
Square Enix is in the process of remastering Final Fantasy VII in three separate parts: Final Fantasy VII Remake hit consoles back in 2020, while Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth just launched on PC following its console release in 2024. A third and final part to the remastered trilogy is currently in development. Gorgeous graphics, endless minigames, and awe-inspiring motion capture performances make these Game of the Year-nominated remakes our recommendation of where to start with Final Fantasy in 2025.
How to Play Final Fantasy Games in Chronological Order
If you want to do a deep dive into the Final Fantasy franchise and play all of them in chronological order, here’s the full list. That said, there is no direct continuity between the Final Fantasy games, so I’d recommend trying out the game with the story that seems most interesting to you.
1. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin takes place in the kingdom of Cornelia, a dark fantasy world version of the setting of the original Final Fantasy game. Jack Garland and his companions and fellow Warriors of Light, Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia — each carrying a darkened crystal representing earth, wind, fire and water — set out to find Chaos and destroy him, restoring light to the world. Despite what the prophecy foretold about the heroes, each Warrior grows skeptical about their role.
You can change characters’ jobs on the fly, but with Jack as the player character you can only switch between two positions. No matter his job title, Jack has a decisive finishing move that crystallizes enemies and shatters them to restore a portion of his magic meter once the enemy’s break gauge is depleted.
Centuries after the events of Stranger of Paradise, Final Fantasy introduces four new young Warriors of Light, each of them carrying an orb representing the four elements that have been darkened by the four Elemental Fiends. At first, they’re tasked by the King of Cornelia to rescue Princess Sarah from the evil knight Garland, but their journey expands to defeating the fiends and restoring the orbs to their former glory, thus saving the world from eternal darkness.
Final Fantasy gets its name from series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s threat to leave the games industry and go back to university if it didn’t sell well, and Square Enix dealing with the notion of the game being its very last due to the threat of bankruptcy. Ultimately, the game sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide and grossed over $21 million, saving both the company and Sakaguchi’s career.
In Final Fantasy II, Firion, Guy, Maria, and Leon become orphans after the Palamecian Empire destroys their hometown and kills their parents, rendering them orphans. They join the Wild Rose Rebellion and, under the guidance of Princess Hilda, who initially deemed them too young to join the army, journey to stop Emperor Mateus’ plans to take over the world with his hellspawn.
Unlike the first Final Fantasy, the sequel had no character creation or job system because Square wanted the game to be more story-driven rather than filled with heavy gameplay mechanics. This game is notable for introducing a couple of staples that would forever define the series: chocobos and the recurring inventor character Cid.
Another group of four orphaned teens — Arc, Refia, Luneth, and Ingus — are drawn to a crystal of light in the Altar Cave after an earthquake hits the village of Ur. The crystals grants the youth a portion of its power, their first set of jobs, and instructs them to restore balance to the world.
Final Fantasy III is the first numbered game in the series to feature the job-change system, allowing players to change how the characters would battle monsters throughout the game. Instead of staying in one job or class, they could explore other job options and see which one suits each character. The 2006 Nintendo DS remake retained the elements of the original game, but gave the characters more well-rounded personalities.
Final Fantasy IV centers on Red Wings captain Cecil Harvey, who questions the King of Baron’s motives after he and his knights steal the Water Crystal in a raid on Mysidia. After the king strips him of his title as punishment for disloyalty, Cecil sets out on a quest with Kain Highwind and the allies they meet along the way to stop the sorcerer Golbez from seizing the other crystals in order to save the world.
This game introduced the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, which allows characters to perform a move when their gauge is full. Whereas a party is limited to four people in the previous games, Final Fantasy IV allowed a party of five characters.
Adventurer Bartz Klauser comes across a fallen meteor and finds four strangers, including King Tycoon’s daughter Lenna, and set off on an adventure to save the Crystals from falling apart, a phenomenon caused by Exdeath, an entity trying to free himself from imprisonment and gain the power of the Void. The group becomes Warriors of Light and focuses their attention on defeating Exdeath and stopping the Void’s energies from plunging their world into darkness.
Final Fantasy V expanded on the job system, giving players more than 21 jobs to choose from. To make the job system even more interesting, you can combine a skill you learn from a certain job with a different skill from another job in order to defeat challenging dungeons and bosses.
Set in a steampunk-style world filled with technology resembling that of the Second Industrial Revolution, Final Fantasy VI centers on a rebel faction known as the Returners fighting the Gesthalian Empire, which gained the power to take over the world by experimenting on magical creatures known as Espers. The Returners, including amnesiac former imperial soldier Terra Branford, work to free the regions under Gesthalian control using the magic they seek out and put a stop to the empire’s reign.
Final Fantasy VI, which was released as Final Fantasy III in North America and heavily censored due to Nintendo of America’s policies at the time, has 14 playable characters to choose from throughout the story, making it the largest cast in the series’ history. It also deals with mature themes of immoral military dictatorship, use of chemical weapons in warfare, the pursuit of a magical arms race, personal redemption, and the renewal of hope and life. This is also the first Final Fantasy game to not be directed by Sakaguchi, who handed the reins over to Yoshinori Kitase.
Set in Midgar seven years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII centers on fresh-faced SOLDIER Zack Fair, who is assigned to look for missing SOLDIER and defector Genesis Rhapsodos, who went off on a rampage for reasons unknown. During his search, he discovers Genesis’ origin, Project G (or the Jenova project) and how it’s connected to the two aforementioned high-ranking SOLDIERs, and eventually battles him and other products of the project, which involves injecting Jenova DNA into them.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was notable for exploring the sensitive side of Sephiroth, the most successful SOLDIER beloved by everyone before he went insane after discovering the unnatural circumstances of his creation and quickly fell from grace, as well as some of Cloud Strife’s life as a SOLDIER before leaving Shinra Electric Power Company. It was originally a PSP-exclusive title, but managed to get remastered as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in honor of the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII.
In one of the most iconic games of the series, ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary Cloud Strife joins Avalance (led by Barett Wallace) in the fight to stop Shinra from lining the company’s pockets by mining all the mako from the planet to use as an energy source. Cloud initially fought for personal gain and to keep a promise he made to Tifa Lockhart when they were kids, but eventually developed friendships with other members of Avalanche, including Aerith Gainsborough, and works with them to save Midgar from both Shinra and Sephiroth, who was hellbent on destroying the planet in order to be reborn as a demigod.
Afters its original release in 1997, Final Fantasy VII grew so popular that most of its characters appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series and spawned the CGI sequel film, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It also spawned the full-blown and critically reclaimed remaster, Final Fantasy VII Remake, which will be released in three parts. The first Final Fantasy VII Remake was released in 2020, while Final Fantasy VII Rebirth came out on Leap Day 2024. Little is known about when we can expect the third and final game in the trilogy.
In this contentious follow-up to Final Fantasy VII, a group of young SeeD mercenaries led by Squall Leonhart (or Leon, as he’s known in the Kingdom Hearts series) help out a group known as the Forest Owls, an endeavor that escalates into a conflict by Sorceress Edea, who has seized control of a powerful military state and intend to destroy time itself. As they fight to stop Edea, Squall struggles with his role and falls in love with Forest Owls leader Rinoa Heartilly.
Final Fantasy VIII still incorporates ATB as part of its gameplay, but it overhauled the character leveling system. As far as spell-casting goes, the game threw out the Magic Points-based system, making characters collect, draw, and create magic from items to power themselves up using the junction system instead. This is also the first game to incorporate a vocal theme into its soundtrack with “Eyes On Me” by Hong Kong pop star Faye Wong.
In the first Final Fantasy game of the millennium, a thief named Zidane Tribal is tasked with kidnapping the Princess of Alexandria, Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, as a part of a war wage against the neighboring nation of Lindblum. His thief troupe ends up becoming the princess’ guardians, and Zidane teams up with Garnet to defeat her mother, Queen Brahne, who started the war.
Despite Final Fantasy IX being released in 2000, when most game franchises transitioned from 2D to 3D graphics by then, Square Enix designed the game to look like a retro-style RPG. However, it still managed to render CGI graphics for the characters and everything else in the world of Gaia.
Final Fantasy X is one of the most beloved games in the series next to Final Fantasy VII — and we’re not just saying that because it’s the first Final Fantasy game for the PS2. The story revolves around star blitzball player named Tidus, who is taken to Spira — a world inspired by the South Pacific, Thailand, and Japan — by Auron after his hometown of Zanarkand is destroyed by a colossal monster named Sin. He joins summoner Yuna and her guardians on a quest to defeat Sin and bring about the Calm after learning its true identity is Tidus’ missing father Jecht.
This game replaced ATB with the Conditional Turned-Based Battle system that uses an Act List in which characters’ turns are determined by their stats. It also introduced a new leveling system called the Sphere Grid, which sets characters down a specific path with stats and abilities and allows them to unlock all their abilities once it opens up.
In the follow-up to Final Fantasy X, Yuna becomes a sphere hunter and a member of the Gullwings, comprising Rikku and Paine. She sets out to find Tidus — or at least, a mysterious man who looks like Tidus — but gets caught in a political conflict that the Gullwings must resolve before it escalates to a war involving a secret weapon that was built to destroy Spira.
In addition to being the first game in the series to be an official game sequel, Final Fantasy X is also the first to feature an all-female cast and have multiple possible endings. It brought back ATB, but enhanced it to allow characters to interrupt enemies while preparing to attack. It also introduced dresspheres and the Garment Grid, which allow characters to change their character class mid-battle to alter the course of the battle.
14. Final Fantasy XI
Square Enix took a page out of World of Warcraft and made Final Fantasy XI an MMORPG instead of a regular console game. Players could customize their characters and make it into one of many races of being roaming the land of Vana’diel — Humes, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Mithra, Galka, etc. The plot revolves around defeating a demonic leader called the Shadow Lord, who rose from the ashes of the Crystal War and sent his beastmen armies off to terrorize the land, albeit in a less organized fashion.
Support for the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of Final Fantasy XI ended in 2016, but fans can still play it on PC. Rumors circulated last year that the game would shut down, given that it’s over 20 years old, but director Yuji Fujito stated that that was not the case. In other words, it’s still alive and well and beloved by many retro Final Fantasy fans.
Final Fantasy XII is set in the kingdom of Ivalice, where the Archadia and Rozarria empires are fighting an endless war with each other. When Dalmasca is annexed by the former nation, Princess Ashe forms a resistance movement and meets Vaan, who dreams of becoming a sky pirate, teaming up with him to rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire.
Final Fantasy XII took three years for Square Enix to develop after Final Fantasy X-2 was released, and it paid off. It won several Game of the Year awards and spawned the Nintendo DS sequel, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, in 2007. Over a decade later, the remastered version of the game, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, released on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows.
Lightning, the series’s first female protagonist aside from Yuna in Final Fantasy X-2, is a former soldier living in the floating world of Cocoon whose sister Serah goes missing after she’s branded an enemy of Cocoon by the government, Sanctum, for coming in contact with a god-like creature from Pulse. As Lightning searches for her sister, she’s joined by a band of allies to rally against Sanctum for authorizing a purge on citizens who also came into contact with Pulse, leaving the fate of the world at risk.
This game wasn’t received well not because it had a female lead, but rather because it had confusing battle systems — Command Synergy Battle and Paradigm Shift — and linear maps. Even so, it was well-received and spawned two more direct sequels.
Three years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII, Serah takes the lead and teams up with Noel Kreiss, a young man from the distant future, to travel across time and space to find Lightning. Meanwhile, Lightning finds herself in Valhalla, a realm between death and chaos at the edge of time in the distant future, ruled by the goddess Etro, who she protects as a knight during a war with Caius.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 retained the Command Synergy Battle and Paradigm Shift systems, but they were improved upon to make battles flow better. Mog Clock was added to the mix, which prompts players to attack monsters on the field before time runs out to gain the upper hand in battle.
In the last installment of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Lightning awakens from her 500-year hibernation to discover that the world is about to end in 13 days. She is chosen by the god Bhunivelze to save everyone, but along the way she learns the truth about the world’s fate and Bhunivelze’s real motives.
Players slammed this game because it featured a ticking clock that signifies how long you had until the game was over, putting a strict time limit on missions and side quests. Its saving grace was the heavily modified version of the Command Synergy Battle system, which employed real-time features, like freely taking control of Lightning’s movements and attacks.
Final Fantasy XIV has several storylines, but the main one involves the player character traveling five years into the future to escape the destruction of Eorzea at the hands of the primal dragon Bahamut. They enter Eorzea in the Age of Calm and work to rebuild the land, but must deal with the threat of invasion by the Garlean Empire.
The circumstances surrounding Final Fantasy XIV’s development were pretty complicated — especially since it’s the second MMORPG title in the series. The original 2010 game was embroiled in controversy because it was released in an unfinished state, although its servers remained active until November 2012. The next year, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn with favorable acclaim.
Of course, Square Enix hasn’t forgotten about its MMORPG. Dawntrail, the fifth expansion for Final Fantasy: XIV Online, launched this past July, and more expansions and updates are sure to come in the future.
The previous installment revolves around Noctis, a prince from the kingdom of Lucis is set to marry his childhood friend Lunafreya when he goes on a quest to rescue the Crystal from Niflheim, who stole it during an attack on the Lucian capital of Insomnia, killing his father in the process, on the eve of peace negotiations between the two empires. During his journey, he learns of his destiny to use the Crystal’s powers to save the realm of Eos from eternal darkness.
Final Fantasy XV received critical acclaim for its stunning visuals, gameplay — like driving around the world in the Regalia and the Active Cross Battle system — and its visceral soundtrack, including a rendition of “Stand By Me” by Florence + The Machine used as the game’s theme song as well as a few contributions from Afrojack. The game spawned a few spin-off games, the anime series called Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV, and a feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.
The latest Final Fantasy game in the franchise has arrived, and it has essentially redefined the series. With a third-person action style and fast, reflexive combat, there are a lot of new things to love about Final Fantasy 16.
If you’re wondering whether or not you can hop right into the series with this game, the answer is a definitive yes. While the gameplay may be quite different than previous titles, the characters and story fulfill that core Final Fantasy feeling.
How To Play The Final Fantasy Games By Release Date
If you want to play the Final Fantasy games in the order in which they came out, here’s the list of games by release date. Keep in mind that most titles were released in Japan first, followed by the U.S. at a later date. The first six games are remastered for the Nintendo Switch in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.
Final Fantasy – December 18, 1987 (JP) / May 1990 (NA) – Famicom/NES
Final Fantasy II – December 17, 1988 (JP) / April 8, 2003 (NA) – Famicom, PlayStation
Final Fantasy III – April 27, 1990 (JP) / August 24, 2006 (NA) – Famicom, Nintendo DS (remake)
Final Fantasy IV – July 19, 1991 (JP) / November 23, 1991 (NA) – Super NES
Final Fantasy V – December 6, 1992 (JP) / October 5, 1999 (NA) – Super Famicom, PlayStation
Final Fantasy VI – April 2, 1994 (JP) / October 11, 1994 (NA) – Super NES
Final Fantasy VII – January 31, 1997 (JP) / September 7, 1997 (NA) – PlayStation
Final Fantasy VIII – February 11, 1999 (JP) / September 7, 1999 (NA) – PlayStation
Final Fantasy IX – July 7, 2000 (JP) / November 14, 2000 (NA) – PlayStation
Final Fantasy X – July 19, 2001 (JP) / December 18, 2001 (NA) – PS2
Final Fantasy XI – May 16, 2002 (JP) / March 23, 2004 (NA) – PS2
Final Fantasy X-2 – March 13, 2003 (JP) / November 18, 2003 (NA) – PS2
Final Fantasy XII – March 16, 2006 (JP) / October 31, 2006 (NA) – PS2
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – September 13, 2007 (JP) / March 28, 2008 (NA) – PSP
Final Fantasy XIII – December 17, 2009 (JP) / March 9, 2010 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Final Fantasy XIII-2 – December 15, 2011 (JP) / January 31, 2012 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – November 21, 2013 (JP) / February 11, 2014 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Final Fantasy XIV – August 27, 2013 – PS3, PS4, PS5, PC
Final Fantasy XV – November 29, 2016 – PS4, Xbox One, PC
Final Fantasy VII Remake – April 7, 2020 (PS4) / June 10, 2021 (PS5) / January 22, 2026 (Xbox, Switch 2)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion – December 13, 2022 – PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Final Fantasy XVI – June 22, 2023 – PS5 / September 17, 2024 (PC)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – February 29, 2024 – PS5 / January 23, 2024 (PC)
Upcoming Final Fantasy Games
While this longstanding saga isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, we’ll probably have to wait a couple more years for word on Final Fantasy 17. Square Enix has admitted that FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth both underperformed in terms of sales, though Part 3 of the remake is still in the works and tentatively targeting a 2027 release window.
Going forward, it’s pretty likely we’ll see more remakes, especially as Square Enix pushes for a multiplatform strategy. The most recent Nintendo Direct confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will be making its way to Switch 2 and Xbox on January 22, 2026.
We’re also getting a new remake from the Tactics sub-series, titled Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. The remake comes with new content in addition to a number of enhancements, including full voice acting, for the original PS1 game. The Ivalice Chronicles is set to release on Switch 2, Xbox, PS5, and PC on September 30.
