Bomb Busters was recently awarded the highest honor for board games as it was named the 2025 Spiel des Jahres in Germany, beating out Flip 7 and Krakel Orakel for the top honors this year.

The Spiel des Jahres may not be a household name in the U.S., but it’s the most prestigious and influential board game award in the world, similar to winning an Oscar for film. The Spiel des Jahres (literally “Game of the Year”) has been awarded to the best overall board game by an independent jury in Germany since 1979.

This year’s winner, Bomb Busters, is a strategic cooperative game for up to five players that requires everyone to work together to defuse a bomb by cutting the correct wires. It’s basically the tabletop equivalent of the video game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

This is a great game for families as it’s not too difficult to learn and includes 66 unique scenarios to conquer together. Typical games take around 30 minutes, making it a quick board game to get to the table and play.

Scarlet and Violet base set prices have been anything but steady lately, with some Illustration Rares climbing fast while SIRs cool off just as quickly. I’ve been tracking a handful of cards that stood out this month, with some pulling in surprising gains and others dropping harder than expected. Here’s a quick look at which Pokémon TCG cards are crashing and climbing ahead of the final Scarlet and Violet sets release in Black Bolt and White Flare.

Pokémon TCG Crashers

Amazon’s Prime Day sale this year was pretty good overall for casual board game and puzzle enthusiasts. There were discounts on quite a few popular games and many popular jigsaw puzzle brands had all-time low prices. But if you happened to have miss all of those deals, Woot is currently having a small sale of its own that gives you a second chance at savings.

There aren’t a ton of options in this sale, but there are enough to make it noteworthy. Some of the best deals available here are on 3D puzzles and some lesser known board games, so I’d suggest checking those out first. The popular LEGO board game that was on sale during Prime Day was also included, but has already sold out.

Puzzles and Board Games on Sale Today

Following a wave of mass layoffs that impacted an estimated 9,100 employees at Microsoft, many of whom were in its Xbox gaming division, the union of employees at Xbox subsidiary ZeniMax have responded with a statement explaining the current employment status of its members.

Today, ZeniMax Online Studios United (ZOSU), which represents employees on both The Elder Scrolls Online and the cancelled unannounced MMO, issued a lengthy statement addressing the layoffs and project cancellations. Critically, ZOSU confirmed that as of today, its members are all still employed by Microsoft and receiving pay and benefits, though this is likely not to be the case forever.

Per the statement, worker representatives of the union are currently bargaining with the company over how the workers will move forward following the shuttering of the MMO. While the union acknowledges that layoffs may be in the future for some members, “as a result of our organizing, we are able to ensure that those impacted will be able to depart with dignity.”

ZOSU was formed just last December, consisting at the time of its organizing of 461 employees across ZeniMax Online Studios. This number included web developers, designers, engineers, and graphic artists at ZeniMax Online Studios working on The Elder Scrolls Online and the unannounced MMO. While ZOSU still has yet to reach a contract agreement with Microsoft, its sibling union ZeniMax Workers United, which represents ZeniMax QA workers, reached an agreement at the end of May.

ZOSU’s statement is published in full below:

Earlier this month, Microsoft indefinitely shelved an unannounced MMORPG at ZeniMax Online Studios, a shock to the 222 ZOSU-CWA developers working on the project. It has been heartening and validating to see our game mentioned in the press and by players that would have loved to see the results of our work.

Undoubtedly, a future has been stolen from many of us and our community will never experience an amazing game. However, despite discussions regarding the status of our employment, the fact is: we have not yet been laid off.

While we understand that for most of us something like a layoff is inevitable, last December both the teams behind The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) and the unannounced project voted overwhelmingly to form a union and establish ZeniMax Online Studios United-CWA (ZOSU-CWA). Worker-volunteers elected to represent the interests of our union are currently bargaining with Microsoft for the benefit of our impacted teammates.

While Microsoft and ZOSU-CWA bargain over how we move forward following the project closure, the developers behind the unannounced project remain employees of ZeniMax Online Studios with full pay and benefits.

On July 2nd, our lives were upended without prior notice or communication from Microsoft leadership and without clear understanding about the status of our employment. In light of this, our union came together with urgency, gathering and distributing information and resources to our affected members.

Where Microsoft has failed to support the talented craftspeople who have generated billions in revenue, our union has stepped up to provide clarity and support.

It is true that a layoff may be in the future for some of our members. However, as a result of our organizing, we are able to ensure that those impacted will be able to depart with dignity.

More importantly, the work of ZOSU-CWA will continue so that our remaining teammates — the stalwart developers of ESO — can follow in the footsteps of our colleagues across other departments and studios at Microsoft, including our union siblings at ZeniMax Workers United (ZWU-CWA). We look forward to other units who will soon ratify fair contracts that will guarantee the rights we all deserve.

The impact of the massive Microsoft layoffs earlier this month on Xbox specifically was wide, and remains not fully understood. We’ve since learned that Everwild and Perfect Dark are no longer being developed, and The Initiative has shut down.

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

The director of the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza has acknowledged some “performance” issues, while saying the team prioritized “fun and playability” during development.

In an interview with La Vanguardia, director Kazuya Takahashi responded to performance issues noticed by a journalist whilst previewing the game.

“There are several factors to consider,” Takahashi said when asked about the issues. “First, we intentionally used effects like hit-stop and slow motion to emphasize impacts. Second, because we use voxel technology, there are times when there are major changes and destruction in the environment.

“We’re aware that performance may drop slightly at these times,” Takahashi added. “However, as [the journalist says], overall the game is smooth, and at points where large-scale changes occur, we prioritized fun and playability.”

“I think Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen,” we wrote in IGN’s Donkey Kong Bananza preview. “It really does take advantage of Switch 2’s hardware – the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived.”

Donkey Kong Bananza is out later this week on July 17 for $69.99 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. If you’re looking to stay spoiler-free, now may be a good time to mute words on social media, as Donkey Kong Bananza spoilers are being spread online after early copies of the game have turned up in the hands of several fans.

For more, we have a selection of stories in which we spoke to the development team about a number of topics related to Bananza, including how the game was first conceived and the necessity of releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2. You can read our entire interview in full right here.

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.