EA’s highly anticipated Skate revival will require an “always on” internet connection.
In an updated FAQ on the official blog, developer Full Circle gave a “simple answer: No,” adding: “The game and city are designed to be a living, breathing massively multiplayer skateboarding sandbox that is always online and always evolving. You’ll see bigger things evolve, like changes to the city over time, as well as smaller things, like live events and other in-game activities.”
An “always on” requirement means games cannot be played offline, even if you avoid multiplayer modes or prefer to play alone. However, in this case, Full Circle prefers Skate to be connected to the internet “to deliver on [its] vision of a skateboarding world, the game will always require a live connection.”
“That is probably not much of a surprise if you’ve been in our playtest,” the developer added.
That’s because in September 2024, the team began its Always-On Playtest. The new phase “tests the game in a permanent live environment, with servers running around the clock.”
Skate’s early access launch is set for 2025, although there’s still no confirmed date at this time. It was announced during EA Play way back in 2020, but at the time was stated as “very early” in development. Since then, Full Circle has kept the community up to date with closed community playtests of early builds and, last month, added microtransactions.
You can spend real-world money on a virtual currency called San Van Bucks, which in turn is used to buy cosmetic items. It sounds like Full Circle wants to test Skate’s microtransaction purchase system, as it told players it wanted them to have a “positive experience when purchasing items from the Skate store.”
“We know that using real money during a playtest is a little unusual, but we think it’s the best way to properly assess and adjust the system before launch,” the team added in today’s blog update. “If you see prices or other things changing over time, please understand that this is normal. And of course, you will receive the amount you spent during playtesting in San Van Bucks (SVB) when we reset for Early Access launch.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
When I first saw a demo of Dune: Awakening over a year ago, I went from being skeptical that a survival game on the famously barren world of Arrakis could even work, to being absolutely hyped to get my hands on it. Now, after enduring the unforgiving conditions and hostile lifeforms of a desert planet for nearly 20 hours in the closed beta, I’m confident developer Funcom has the foundations of an absolutely stellar MMO that makes fantastic use of one of the greatest science fiction worlds ever created. Harvesting raw materials from the brutal wasteland, constructing bases, upgrading your character and loadout, and then bringing all of that to bear against raiders and rival houses is just about as good as I’d hoped for. That said, I still feel like I only got a small taste of the larger game, as all of the major social spaces, most of the PvP, and especially any of the all-important endgame areas were kept out of reach. And it’s also no wonder the release date for Dune: Awakening was pushed back a month while I was in the beta, as the build I played was absolutely rife with bugs and performance issues that will definitely need ironing out. Even so, I was quite impressed by the vast majority of what I saw, and am more optimistic than ever that they might just be able to pull this thing off.
If you only just recently got spat back up by a Shai Hulud, Dune: Awakening is an upcoming massively multiplayer survival game from the team of developers who gave us the quite underrated Conan Exiles. The premise is simple: you find yourself on Arrakis and have to find a way to not die there, and if you know even a little about the setting, then you should understand just how tall of an order that is. In typical survival game fashion, you’ll start off with almost nothing, and turn piles of rocks and scraps of metal harvested from the wilds into tools to help you survive, building shelter along the way to protect yourself from the harsh environment. While you might (and frankly, wouldn’t be blamed) for wondering how the heck jogging around a massive, featureless desert could possibly be fun, Funcom has actually done a great job of filling each region with shipwrecks to plunder, hidden caves and fortresses to blast your way through, and mountain ranges to climb. And while there’s plenty of empty space with nothing but unremarkable piles of sand to greet you, these spaces are actually used to great effect as obstacles keeping you from the next area, which must be navigated across quickly, lest you find yourself on the business end of a giant sand worm.
For example, early on you’ll be limited to a very small area that’s cut off from higher level areas that contain better loot and materials you need to craft better equipment. But crossing the massive distance of sand that stands between you on foot is a death sentence, as you’ll undoubtedly draw the attention of an angry worm in the process. To get to the other side, you’ll have to go through the steps of constructing your first vehicle, a small motorbike, then race across the gap as quickly as you can. This clever use of empty space brilliantly turns what I thought would be a weakness in the setting into a strength, and finding ways to cross a completely barren area with a Shai Hulud hot on your tail actually made up some of my favorite moments.
Similarly, the oppressive nature of the sun, which forces you to dart from shaded area to shaded area, turns the entire planet into a high stakes game of “the floor is lava” that can make otherwise uneventful jaunts from one place to another into an entertaining minigame. Refusing to take sun exposure seriously will drain you of ever-valuable water, wipe out your health, and kill you in pretty short order, which kept me on high alert, and since each region increases the heat level, you’re constantly having to invent new equipment back at your base to give yourself the best odds at survival. Sure, it can be a bit of a pain now and again when you hit the head and come back to find the sun’s shifted position and you’re now frying to death in the merciless heat, but hey, that’s just the price you pay for living on Arrakis, my friend, and I mostly enjoyed this little minigame that just made survival that much more tricky.
Of course, in addition to crossing arid deserts and dodging sunlight, you’ll be fighting off bands of bloodthirsty raiders and exploring forgotten places with a gun or sword in hand. The third-person gunplay isn’t groundbreaking by any means, as you’ll duck behind cover, toss grenades, and and return fire in pretty by-the-numbers encounters, but for an MMO with a massive number of players on the server, it’s still quite admirable that they managed to pull off gunplay that feels this snappy. And with a whole bunch of skill trees to pick from and build into – like the tricky and stealthy Mentats or expert survivalist Planetologists – there’s tons of ways to differentiate your character from the rest of your guild. As for myself, I focused most of my skill points into the tried-and-true soldier, which I expected might be a tad boring, but was pleasantly surprised to find myself very happy to be grapple-hooking around and tossing deadly gadgets to and fro.
Running and gunning with friends at your side is especially entertaining, and there were moments, like when my co-op partner used her Bene Gesserit skills to force an enemy to walk out into the open, then I threw a grenade to take them out, where combat really shines. There was also just the tiniest sampling of PvP in the beta build, focused on a couple crash sites that allowed for player-on-player violence, but due to server populations being fairly low in the closed beta, it was hard to get a sense for how this aspect will shake out. In any case, the vast majority of PvP hot zones are in the endgame areas I wasn’t allowed to progress to, so it seems we’ll probably have to wait for the full game to get a good feel on PvP anyway.
As a longtime fan of Dune, it also just feels so good to explore and learn more about a world that I’m quite fond of, and Funcom has clearly put a ton of effort into worldbuilding and lore, even despite taking quite a bit of creative liberty by placing Awakening within a parallel reality and canon than the books/movies. There are little details that have a massive impact on gameplay, like how incredibly valuable water is treated as the ultimate resource – you’ll drain blood from every fallen enemy, turn your own bodily fluids into water with a stillsuit, and take down bases just to pillage every drop of liquid gold they’ve got hidden away. And since water is required to make advanced materials used for crafting more higher level equipment, you’ll need to harvest and stockpile as much as you can, in addition to drinking it just to keep yourself alive. I won’t go into spoilers, but this kind of attention to detail touches just about every aspect of the world, including the factions and characters you meet along the way, which should be a treat for any fan of the setting.
If there’s anything to be concerned about with this otherwise thoroughly engaging beta, it’s the fact that I encountered a whole heap of bugs and performance issues during my time with it, which included everything from crashes to framerate dips, characters and objects getting stretched out bizarrely, and more. With the final version set to debut very soon, I was then pretty relieved when, in the middle of the beta, Funcom announced a month-long delay, presumably to address these issues. As always, it’s tough to gauge how much of this is cause for concern when betas are sorta designed to help highlight and patch these sorts of issues, but the sheer number of problems me and my friends encountered while playing was definitely cause for alarm with the launch date so near.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has become something of a lightning rod for the ongoing debate around Nintendo’s pricing for the Switch 2 and its games, with some fans saying the company behind Mario could learn a thing or two about video game pricing from Bethesda.
Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.
The base Oblivion game costs $50 and includes all the DLC originally released. It’s an impressive, high value package, and for many it makes Nintendo’s Switch 2 game pricing look even worse.
Compare and contrast, as many are doing, Oblivion Remastered to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, which costs $70, or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2, which costs an eye-watering $80. There’s a $10 upgrade path for existing owners of the OG Switch versions, and Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can upgrade for free. But Nintendo’s standalone pricing here has sparked a backlash online, especially when you consider the jump to $80 not only for Tears of the Kingdom, but for a number of other Switch 2 games.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Breath of the Wild comes with improved visuals and performance, achievements, as well as support for the new “Zelda Notes” service in the Nintendo Switch Online app. If you already own Breath of the Wild on the Switch, you won’t get those features automatically; you need to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition to gain access.
If you don’t own the game, you can buy the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Breath of the Wild for $70, $10 more than the game initially retailed at (so basically the price of the original game and the pack). But it won’t include the DLC Expansion Pack, so if you want access to that, it’s another $20 on top of that. That makes $90 total for the full Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 experience.
And here we have Oblivion Remastered, which some are saying is good enough to be called a remake, with all the DLC thrown in for $50. You can see why Nintendo is coming out poorly in the wake of comparisons.
“Nintendo will look at them and say ‘those guys could have made $30 extra,’ ” joked redditor Cultural_Writing2999. “It’s hard for them to learn much of anything over the sound of all that money being printed,” geldonyetich added.
This response taps into the idea that Nintendo is charging what it’s charging for Switch 2 because it knows people will pay for it. As Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, told IGN: “Nintendo is charging this price because they feel they can and that people will pay.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
PlayStation Plus is an online gaming service for PlayStation platforms that includes free monthly games, limited-time trials, online multiplayer, and member-exclusive discounts. It also includes a catalog of hundreds of current and classic games for Extra and Premium members.
As noted by Push Square, the removal of 22 games on May 20 includes two high-profile first-party Sony PS3 games, both set to exit the PS Plus Premium library.
That’s because both Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 are no longer purchasable on the the PS Store, making the PS Plus Premium streaming service the last place to play them unless you happen to have both games and a working PS3 still at home. Both titles are being removed less than a year after they were added to the library at the end of 2024.
Resistance is a series of alternate history first-person shooters Insomniac developed following its work on the Ratchet and Clank games. Three Resistance games were released for the PS3 before Insomniac moved on to other projects like Marvel’s Spider-Man and new Ratchet and Clank games.
While it’s unusual for Sony to remove first-party games from this service, it’s not unheard of, as demonstrated by the shock removal of both Horizon games — Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West — in August 2024. But at least you could still buy both of those games when they were removed; Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 will now completely disappear for modern consoles.
Interestingly, Resistance 3 and Resistance: Retribution will remain on the service. It’s also worth noting that more recent first-party PS4 game InFamous: Second Son is also leaving PS Plus.
Insomniac’s Resistance series has been dormant for some time now. In February, Insomniac founder and outgoing president Ted Price revealed that there was a real push to get Resistance 4 made, but unfortunately the game never received the green light. Resistance, like Horizon developer Guerrilla’s Killzone shooter series, has fallen by the wayside.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Breath of Fire IV is back from the dead on PC, 25 years after its original launch.
Capcom’s much-loved role-playing game first launched on the PlayStation in Japan and North America in 2000, then in Europe a year later. The PC port came out in Europe and Japan in 2003.
It revolves around a man called Ryu (not that other Capcom Ryu) who can turn into a dragon. He teams up with other warriors to prevent an emperor from destroying the world.
As part of its ongoing Preservation Program, GOG has fully updated Breath of Fire IV for modern PCs and released it DRM-free on its platform.
The enhanced version is fully optimized for modern systems, with Windows 10 and 11 compatibility. There’s both English and Japanese localizations, along with improved graphics powered by an upgraded DirectX renderer, new display options like Windowed Mode, V-Sync, Anti-Aliasing, and refined gamma correction for better visuals. The audio engine has also been upgraded, restoring missing environmental sounds and adding new configuration options.
Breath of Fire IV isn’t the only classic game revived on GOG today. The list below includes Ultima Underworld 1+2, as well as Ultima 9. This means the entire Ultima series is now preserved and available within GOG’s Preservation Program.
Here’s the full list:
● Ultima Underworld 1+2
● Ultima 9: Ascension
● Worlds of Ultima : The Savage Empire
● Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams
● Worms: Armageddon
● Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood
● Realms of the Haunting
● Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon
● Stonekeep
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
If you’ve wanted to give VR gaming a try but the cost of entry has kept you at bay, then you might be interested in the first actual discount on Meta Quest 3S for 2025. Right now, you can save $30 off the wireless VR headset, whether you get the 128GB model or the 256GB one.
To sweeten the pot even more, the package also 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
The Quest 3S is an improvement over the original Quest 2 in every way and, amazingly, without a price increase. It also adopts many of the same features of the more expensive Quest 3, like the new and improved Touch controllers, the upgraded SnapDragon APU, and support for full color AR passthrough. In IGN’s 9/10 Quest 3S review, Gabriel Moss wrote that “raw processing power, full-color passthrough, and snappy Touch Plus controllers make the Quest 3S a fantastic standalone VR headset that also brings entry-level mixed-reality gaming to the masses for – arguably – the very first time.
What really sets this deal above all other VR deals is that the Meta Quest 3S can be played completely untethered. That means you can play games like Beat Saber or Pistol Whip without having to own a powerful gaming PC or a PlayStation 5 console. Try to find another standalone VR headset at this price and you’ll come up empty.
How Is the Quest 3S Different from the Quest 3?
Even at retail price, the Quest 3S comes in at $200, or 40% cheaper than the $500 Quest 3. Obviously, some compromises were made to get the 3S to its competitive price point. The spec comparisons are listed below:
Quest 3S vs. Quest 3 Similarities
Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor
Touch Plus controllers
120Hz refresh rate
Mixed reality passthrough (same cameras, different layout)
Quest 3S vs. Quest 3 Differences
Lower per-eye resolution (1832×1920 vs 2064×2208)
Fresnel lens vs. pancake lens
Lower FOV (96°/90° vs 104°/96°)
Smaller storage capacity (128GB vs 512GB)
Longer battery life (2.5hrs vs 2.2hrs)
In essence, the Quest 3S is nearly the same headset but with downgraded optics. On the plus side, since both headsets use the same processor, running at a lower resolution reduces the load on the APU, which could theoretically improve performance in games and also account for the increased battery life.
For the price, the Quest 3S is unquestionably a better value than the Quest 3, and a better choice for most gamers, especially if the Quest 3 was completely out of your budget in the first place. Compared to the previous generation Quest 2, the decision is even easier.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Remedy has announced a June 17, 2025 release date for FBC: Firebreak.
FBC: Firebreak is a session-based, multiplayer PvE experience set within the Control universe. It features replayable missions known as Jobs, each with different challenges, objectives, and environments that require teamwork and adaptability.
It’s set for launch across PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X andS, and PlayStation 5 for $39.99 / €39.99 / £32.99. FBC: Firebreak will also be available day one via PC Game Pass, Game Pass Ultimate, and PlayStation Plus Game Catalog (Extra and Premium). It’s Remedy’s first self-published game.
Remedy also revealed the FBC: Firebreak Deluxe Edition, priced $49.99 / €49.99 / £39.99. It includes a collection of exclusive cosmetics and premium voice packs. Base game owners can upgrade to Deluxe Edition for $10 / €10 / £7
The FBC: Firebreak Deluxe Edition includes:
“The Firestarter” Premium Voice Pack
“The Pencil Pusher” Premium Voice Pack
Firestarter Armor Set, Apex Revision (Helmet, Body Armor, Gloves)
Scorched Remnant Double-Barrel Shotgun Skin
Golden Firebreak Spray
Classified Requisition: “Firestarter”: A collection of 36 unlockable cosmetic items including weapon skins, sprays, and armor sets
Here’s the official blurb:
FBC: Firebreak introduces Requisitions, a system that rewards players with new gear and cosmetics simply by playing the game. Requisitions can include weapons, equipment, armor, sprays, and more – all unlockable using in-game currency earned through gameplay. There are no limited-time windows or rotating stores; if an item is added in the game, it’s always available.
For those who want additional customization options, Classified Requisitions offer premium cosmetic items – such as armor sets, custom voice packs, sprays, and weapon skins. Classified Requisitions are purchased with real money. The items are purely cosmetic, have no gameplay impact, and will remain available permanently. Read more about how Requisitions work here.
Remedy also confirmed its plans for ongoing support post-launch, including two new Jobs (missions) coming in 2025. More updates will arrive in 2026, the developer said. All playable content released post launch, such as Jobs, will be free to all players. Players have the option to buy cosmetics, but none of these items will affect gameplay, and there will be no limited-time rotations or daily log-ins, Remedy insisted.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most iconic video game series of all time. Starting on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, The Legend of Zelda follows various incarnations of Princess Zelda and Link as they fight to save Hyrule from the evil that is Ganon. While the series has always been popular, the Nintendo Switch has catapulted Zelda into one of Nintendo’s best-selling properties with landmark titles in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Echoes of Wisdom released toward the end of the original Nintendo Switch’s life cycle, but Nintendo has already revealed quite a bit about the next generation of adventures in Hyrule. Here’s every Legend of Zelda game on the Nintendo Switch as well as new features and Zelda games we can confirm are coming to the Switch 2.
How Many Zelda Games Are There on Nintendo Switch?
In total, eight Zelda games have been released specifically for the Nintendo Switch. This includes both mainline entries and spinoff games that were released from 2017 to 2025. All of these Zelda games will be playable on the Switch 2, with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom specifically getting Switch 2 Editions.
All Zelda Switch Games in Order of Release Date
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 2017
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the first Zelda title released for Nintendo Switch. Launching alongside the system, this title marked a turning point in the Zelda series, bringing a style of open world gameplay that we’d never seen before. You can traverse to anywhere you can see in the world. Link awakes after a 100 year slumber, where he is tasked by the spirit of Hyrule’s former King to save Princess Zelda from Calamity Ganon – a primal evil trapped inside Hyrule Castle.
Hyrule Warriors is an action hack and slash title developed by Omega Force and originally released for the Wii U. Characters from all kinds of Zelda games make an appearance, whether as playable characters or villains. The game was brought over to Nintendo Switch in 2018 in the form of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, and includes all characters, stages, and modes from the original game in addition to Breath of the Wild inspired costumes for Link and Zelda.
Cadence of Hyrule is an extremely unqiue collaboration between Brace Yourself Games and Nintendo. The game combines the roguelike rhythm gameplay of Crypt of the NecroDancer with the world of The Legend of Zelda and its characters. This spinoff offers an incredible soundtrack and beautiful pixelated graphics. Up against Octavo, a musical villain, Zelda and Link team up with Cadence to thwart his plans and save the Hyrule.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a remake of 1993 Game Boy title developed by Grezzo. This charming platformer sees Link castaway at Koholint Island, where he must solve the mystery of the Wind Fish, a legendary being said to be on the island. Unlike some of the more modern Zelda titles, Link’s Awakening takes you across many different dungeons and areas to collect the Instruments of the Sirens. If you never got the chance to play the original Link’s Awakening, this is the definitive way to experience one of the Zelda series’ most unique titles.
The second Switch entry in the Hyrule Warriors series, Age of Calamity is set 100 years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Here, you can experience firsthand the events that occured in the fight against Calamity Ganon. All of your favorite Breath of the Wild cahracters are here and playable, including Link, Zelda, the Champions, and so many more. Omega Force created a fun and expansive title, with two waves of DLC you can check out after completing the main story.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is the long-awaited remaster of the classic Wii game. Set at the beginning of the Zelda timeline, Skyward Sword takes Link to the skies as he traverses across the world to save his childhood friend Zelda. You’ll uncover the Master Sword was created as part of this journey, among other things. The remaster includes the iconic motion controls you can operate with the Joy-Con and a new button-only gameplay style for those looking to play without motion.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hit the market in 2023, selling over 10 million copies in just three days as well as quite a few special edition Switch consoles. Set a few years after the events of Breath of the Wild, Link is tasked once again with finding Princess Zelda after Ganondorf is resurrected. Tears of the Kingdom takes to both the skies of Hyrule and the depths below the land. This creates one of the largest maps you’ll find in any game, leaving for hundreds of hours of exploration to be had. All in all, it’s the best Zelda game of all time and a hard one to follow.
But, of course, Tears of the Kingdom was not the end of this beloved Nintendo franchise. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was announced during June’s Nintendo Direct before launching on the Switch this week. While Echoes has the titular Princess take the story’s reigns, and features a more 2D art style à la Link’s Awakening, it should not be mistaken as a spin-off or side project. This is a full-blown, magical Zelda game, that lets you unlock your creativity to try and save Link and the rest of Hyrule in entirely new ways.
Available Zelda Games With Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
If you’re interested in checking out some of the older Zelda titles, the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service has loads of Zelda titles from Nintendo’s older consoles. Here is every Zelda game currently available on the service:
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Four Swords
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
A new GameCube library will be added to the Expansion Pack exclusively on the Switch 2, releasing June 5. This library includes The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The NSO Expansion Pack will also include free Switch 2 upgrades for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for anyone who owned the original versions on Switch.
What’s Next for Zelda on Switch and Switch 2?
Echoes of Wisdom was the last Zelda title to release exclusively on the Switch, with future titles releasing (either simultaneously or exclusively) on the Nintendo Switch 2. We do know that the new console will be “mostly” backward compatible, so you’ll be able to play all the fantastic Zelda games from the previous generation. In fact, Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom are getting free Switch 2 updates, while Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom get enhanced Switch 2 editions taking advantage of the new system’s improved specs.
One of the features that will be exclusive to Switch 2 editions of BotW and TotK is Zelda Notes, which will be accessible on the Nintendo Switch app. Zelda Notes adds additional voice-overs, interactive guides, and keeps track of your stats while letting you see how you stack up against other players. The app will also let players share and download creations for Tears of the Kingdom.
That’s not all. A new game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, was also revealed during the Switch 2-focused Nintendo Direct. It follows Princess Zelda during the events of Tears of the Kingdom, as she is transported to the past to battle Ganondorf. The third Hyrule Warriors game is expected to release on the Switch 2 this winter.
Upcoming Zelda Movie
In addition to the games themselves, Nintendo has also announced they will be bringing Hyrule to the big screen with a live-action Legend of Zelda movie. In terms of details, the movie’s director, Wes Ball (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), has expressed his desire to make a more “grounded” Zelda adaptation that feels like live-action Miyazaki. The Zelda movie will be releasing in theaters on March 26, 2027.
See the full list of upcoming Switch games for everything coming to the system in 2025.
Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered’s shadow-drop release on April 22 took the internet by storm, but indie developers who planned to launch their game on that same day were left reeling.
Jonas Antonsson, co-founder of indie publisher Raw Fury, took to social media to explain how “massive” shadow-drops from huge games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered can cause everything else coming out at the same time to get “buried.”
“I loved (when younger) and still absolutely love Oblivion and I’m personally excited to see it get a breath of new life and being introduced to a whole new generation of players,” Antonsson began.
“But from the perspective of indies and indie publishers, this is the problem with these sort of massive shadow drops. Everything more or least gets buried. We don’t have the cash nor muscle to throw around, so everything is carefully planned. Including when to release, based on other releases etc – to try to maximize the chances of getting attention.”
Antonsson then pointed to Red Soul Games’ Post Trauma, which Raw Fury published on April 22. It’s a puzzle horror game inspired by PS2 era classics where you “navigate environments, tackle threats, and meet other lost characters in the depths of the Gloom.”
“Love the game that dropped but feel the pain for our team and especially the developer we’ve worked with for years – who has poured his heart and soul into his game,” Antonsson said.
Raw Fury had tweeted sarcastically on April 22: “Thank god Post Trauma was the only notable release of today and nothing else happened!”
As for Raw Fury, when it set the Post Trauma release date it couldn’t have known Oblivion Remastered was waiting to steal the show. It may gone down as just one of those things.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The original Tron has a particularly interesting place in pop culture, delivering the first movie about video games and the hidden worlds within computers. So it’s a wonder that the first film and its follow-ups still haven’t made that many forays into video games proper after more than four decades since the 1982 original. Thankfully, recent attempts from developer Bithell Games have done more to push the concept of Tron beyond just the imagery of speeding light cycles and fast-paced identity disc combat to offer more of a look into the inner machinations of the Grid.
With Tron: Catalyst, we have a new action game set within The Grid’s neon, grey-soaked setting to uncover a larger conspiracy involving the impending end of the computer world. There’s so much detail to admire that’s packed into Tron: Catalyst from my recent hands-on time, and with an interesting time-loop twist, it carries on the familiar Tron action from a new perspective.
Set after the events of both Tron: Legacy and Tron: Identity, you play as a courier program named Exo, who navigates the large megacity of the Arq Grid to complete her various routines. After discovering one of their packages was secretly a bomb which detonates while in the city, they’re subsequently framed and imprisoned. As she plans her escape, she discovers glitches in the Grid that allow her to roll back time, letting her take information and skills backward in the timeline to a recent point. With a plan set, she seeks out the real culprit of the attack to clear her name and foil a larger plot that will disrupt the foundations of the Arq Grid.
Catalyst moves away from the static presentation of the visual novel and into fully explorable environments populated by programs.
The previous Tron game that Bithell Games worked on was Tron: Identity, a visual novel-style adventure game. Catalyst carries many concepts from its predecessor, particularly its investigation and character interactions. Exo even rubs shoulders with some notable returning characters from Identity – such as the previous protagonist Query. However, Catalyst moves away from the static presentation of the visual novel and into fully explorable environments populated by programs, making sense of the uneasy presence of security programs patrolling the city.
In a similar vein to games like Death’s Door and Tunic, Tron: Catalyst has a balance between narrative-driven exploration and combat sequences within the larger city. As Exo, you’ll be able to interact with a set of other programs going about their time in the town, and when the investigative element kicks in, she can engage in combat, exploration, and rolling back time to overcome the odds.
The combat style in Catalyst does well to capture the sense of precision and patience when using the iconic identity discs, which double as a close-range melee weapon and a long-range projectile that can depress enemies. The combat mechanics, while fairly simple during this opening chunk of the game, offered some fun when it came to carefully taking out squads of security officers. A particularly fun moment I had was nailing a parry and then unleashing some strikes before throwing the disc to finish them off. That said, I am hoping for the combat to really open up properly as the story goes on, as the action sequences can feel a bit one-note after some time.
While exploring the city, Exo can summon her lightcycle to explore and whizz through the streets freely. But with the increased presence of Grid security, Exo is constantly under watch and can easily catch their attention, which launches a GTA-style manhunt for her. While you do have the run of the city, Catalyst is not an open-world game but rather uses its scale to present the different layers of exploration for its missions. Still, exploring the city on the lightcycle was very satisfying, especially taking in those slick Tron vibes.
Much like Identity, Catalyst is propped up by impressive writing that gives nuance to the various characters living in the Grid. As the investigation escalates, opening up new pathways to complete objectives, you can rewind to an earlier point to take a more optimal approach. These moments gave me the same feeling of being Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, where I could do certain actions to learn some secret motives from characters holding back intel, or gain the upper hand in combat.
Tron: Catalyst certainly nails the look and feel of Tron, and it particularly captures the brighter and more visually alluring style of 2010’s Tron: Legacy. But what I found interesting about Catalyst’s style and storytelling was that its plot and focus on the inner society of the Grid scratch the same itch as the vastly underrated and short-lived series Tron: Uprising, which dealt with a similar storyline about programs within the Grid seeking to overcome an oppressive rule.
So far, Tron: Catalyst is an intriguing step in a different direction from Identity. While the latter game featured strong writing and plot, it lacked a more compelling package to contain its ideas, and I do like this upcoming turn with Tron: Catalyst that Bithell Games has in store. It’s more of a stylish, if modest, action game, but seeing Exo maneuver through the city and fight through the different battles reminded me of some of the more daring moments from the films and animated series. It’s always fun to see Tron showcase its rich and alluring world, which will build up throughout Catalyst’s dive into the world of the Grid.
