President Trump’s administration is currently debating whether to allow Chinese megacorp Tencent’s stakes in major U.S. companies such as Fortnite maker Epic Games and League of Legends developer Riot Games to continue.
The FT reports that “top officials” have met to assess the security risk of Tencent’s investments in numerous U.S. and Finnish gaming firms ahead of President Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.
Tencent has been acquiring western game companies for well over a decade now, but its most high-profile investments include a 28% stake in Epic Games, which is based in North Calorina, and the wholly owned Riot Games, which is based in Los Angeles. It also wholly owns Finnish company Supercell, which runs mobile mega hit Clash of Clans, and recently invested in a new Ubisoft business following the Assassin’s Creed maker’s financial troubles.
Sources said that Tencent was negotiating with the U.S. administration’s Committee on Foreign Investment (Cfius) last summer to help ease these security concerns, and, as far back as President Trump’s first term, was assessing whether Tencent’s investments could jeopardize the data of millions of American players. Cifus is similarly concerned about the company’s acquisition of Finnish firm Supercell, which has a huge player base in the U.S.
In January last year, the U.S. Department of Defense classified Tencent as a Chinese military company. At the time, Tencent insisted it was all a mistake. The upshot of this latest development is that the Trump administration may force Tencent to divest the gaming companies, or force it to create data protections it’s satisfied with. Neither the White House nor Tencent or Epic responded to requests for comment.
Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
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.
It seems like a million years have passed since the release of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, the squalid shooter-looter set in banged-up Washington D.C. In fact, it’s only been seven. Which is quite a lot of years, in fairness, but that period also spans a lot of upheaval – the Covid pandemic, Trump’s re-election, the exploding popularity of generative AI, the onset of chronic live service apathy, the lingering undeath of NFTs, and the literal invasion of Washington D.C. by the National Guard.
Both The Division 2’s original looting mechanics and its 100% apolitical regime change storyline now feel to me like the products of a different universe, though Ubisoft have been updating the game and releasing new stuff for it throughout. Their latest addition is a Realism Mode, exclusively available through the existing Warlords of New York expansion, which will itself be freely available to all players until 2nd April.
Capcom has announced that Resident Evil Requiem has already sold over 5 million copies since its release on 27th February 2026 (thanks, Eurogamer). Yeah, that’s 5 million in less than a week, folks.
We’re not sure what the platform split is for this running total, but with the combined release of the standalone game and the Generation Pack bundle, we imagine the Switch 2 has seen its fair share of sales. Regardless, this is a stellar start for the game, and a true indication that audience appetite for highly curated, single-player experiences is still extremely high.
Great news: Resident Evil Requiem absolutely kicks ass. While it was initially advertised as a survival horror vehicle for new protagonist Grace Ashcroft, it turns out Requiem is equally a reunion with the series’ fan favorite hero, Leon S. Kennedy. Despite showing up in several remakes recently, Leon hasn’t had a genuinely new adventure since Resident Evil 6. That was 14 years ago! Requiem brings us a Leon who’s still that campy, quippy, tough-as-nails legend we’ve always loved, but now he’s older, wiser, and carrying a bit more baggage with him. This kind of return is pretty uncommon in video games, but take a look at the screenings at your local multiplex and you’ll see it’s happening all the time now in movies. Old heroes from old franchises coming back to prove that a few extra wrinkles can’t stop you from kicking ass. That’s exactly what Resident Evil Requiem has done. It feels like a Hollywood blockbuster legacy sequel for one of the coolest video game characters of all time.
You could easily make the argument that Resident Evil 4 is the greatest video game ever created, and diehard fans of Capcom’s game changer have wanted a reunion with Leon for decades. His short part in Resident Evil 6 simply wasn’t enough, and while 2023’s Resident Evil 4 remake was incredible, it was ultimately a retelling of a story we all knew extremely well. For years, we’ve been left wondering if we’d ever get anything like Leon’s gory Spanish vacation again. At least until now: Resident Evil Requiem is a worthy successor to Resident Evil 4. But more than that, it gives us a fresh take on Leon that’s more interesting than many sequels offer.
Despite being a medium that has been going strong for over fifty years now, video games rarely let their protagonists grow older. Mascot characters like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog are basically the same age now as they were when they were first introduced in ‘80s and ‘90s. There are a few exceptions, of course. Uncharted’s Nathan Drake had aged slightly by the time we said goodbye to him in 2016, and Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft has jumped around to various stages of her 20s throughout her numerous sequels and reboots. But most video game characters live in an endless time loop, destined to stay encased in amber at the same age forever, like Bart Simpson and his fellow classmates being stuck in fourth grade for decades.
The Resident Evil franchise is different; it’s one of the few long-running video game series that actually allows its characters to experience the passage of time, albeit with all sorts of silly B-movie plot armor, continuity leaps, and other various nonsensical story beats to help carry them along the way. That’s why seeing a gruffer, more weathered Leon S. Kennedy’s return in Resident Evil Requiem feels so special – it’s something we don’t get to see very often in video game form. Games are largely power fantasies, after all, and seeing an older Super Mario clutch his knees after a triple jump, or a hunched over Sonic the Hedgehog gasp for breath in the middle of a half pipe run, would be way less cool and way more of a stark reminder of our weary, fragile lives than just seeing those guys at their peak age forever.
On the other hand, Hollywood loves to bring back older versions of classic movie characters for a big legacy sequel, partly because it’s fun to check in on old friends you haven’t seen in a while, but mostly because actual human actors – unlike video game characters – get older as time passes. For example, think about Harrison Ford in Star Wars: The Force Awakens portraying an older, greyer Han Solo. Or Harrison Ford in The Dial of Destiny portraying an older, greyer Indiana Jones. Or Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049 portraying an older, greyer Rick Deckard. (I swear I have more examples besides Harrison Ford.) Do all of these movies need to exist? Definitely not. But when a legacy sequel works, they feel like a great reunion with someone we haven’t seen in a while, and sometimes, even a perfect final sendoff to a character we’ve cherished our entire lives.
When you’re put in control of Leon, it really does feel like a return to the character’s best days.
We may have technically caught up with Leon recently, thanks to the glorious Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes, but those games take place in 1998 and 2004, respectively. The Resident Evil timeline progresses in real time, though, so in Requiem, set in 2026, Leon is actually much older now, and he’s got the wrinkles and mannerisms to prove it. He’s slightly less likely to crack a corny one liner or silly pun after a big, violent encounter (but don’t worry, the man still has some jokes here and there.)
Requiem balances Leon’s dad jokes (or should that be “hot uncle” jokes?) with some grit and gravitas. He is reminded of his regrets and past failings as he revisits the horrors that unfolded in his early days as a cop in Raccoon City, with its current bombed-out streets, dilapidated police station, and gun shop all trudging up the grief and remorse from his first big missions. But while this offers a darker side to Leon’s story, we don’t really get a deep look into his personal life, which definitely works in both the character’s and our favor. Going decades without seeing Han Solo, just to find out he ended up being a deadbeat dad who’d resorted to once again dealing with low life gangsters and petty crimes in The Force Awakens was a pretty depressing get together in hindsight – like running in to the older kid from your town that you grew up idolizing and finding out he still lives with his mom and he mostly just sells cigarettes to teenagers behind a gas station. We didn’t need that downer with Han and I’m glad we don’t get that with Leon, a character who in Requiem is largely focused on a new assignment with nearly all of the passion, intensity, and wit we expect from him. He’s struggling with his memories of Raccoon City because he’s back in it, not missing his daughter’s dance recital because he’s pounding shots at the bar.
What’s important, though, and an experience unique to the video game medium, is that Requiem’s Leon still feels like he did in Resident Evil 4, despite being much older. Mechanically, he moves and controls just like he did in RE4’s 2023 remake, just with a few extra tricks up his sleeve thanks to the benefit of age and experience. There were so many little moments in Requiem where I thought to myself “I cannot believe I’m getting more Resident Evil 4 right now.” It wasn’t that I thought I’d never ever play anything like that again in this franchise, it’s just that after RE7 and Village, I truly had no idea where things would go next. And while Requiem certainly does build on the survival horror elements of those games, when you’re put in control of Leon, it really does feel like a return to the character’s best days.
So many of Leon’s sections in Requiem work as callbacks to things I loved about Resident Evil 4, but he approaches them with the added benefit of the wisdom and experience that comes with getting older. Remember the chainsaw wielding lunatics from the village? Well, there’s new ones now, and this time you can shoot those chainsaws out of their hands and use them to tear a room full of zombies apart. Remember the high speed jetski escape sequence? There’s a new one now that’s an infinitely cooler set piece and adds enemies to the mix.
Not everything here is an improvement over Leon’s most iconic mission, of course. Requiem doesn’t have a lovably weird merchant character, or shiny costume jewelry dangling from its corridor ceilings or inexplicably hiding in the bellies of its creepiest basement creatures. Resident Evil 4 is, after all, one of those once in a lifetime video games where a team of bold creative geniuses were given several years and a blank slate to create a sprawling, cinematic single player game that reinvented a beloved franchise. We’ll almost certainly never get anything like it on that scale again. But when Requiem comes close to hitting some of those same highs, it’s a fantastic feeling.
But the one thing a truly great legacy sequel recognizes – and one that Requiem very much understands – is that our heroes don’t live forever and, frankly, it’s selfish of us to expect them to. The people we look up to eventually get old and die, and leave us with just memories to remember them by. Yes, even the ones that can somersault over zombies or dive roll through a second-story glass window and land on both feet unphased. But the greatest heroes don’t just leave their legacy behind, they impart their wisdom and experience on the next generation in the hope that they will grow to become as great, or even greater, than they ever were. That’s how legacy sequels bring together their original and new cast members, and we see that in action with Leon and Grace, a skittish FBI agent who enters into Requiem’s instantly threatening story with fear and trepidation.
Grace begins her journey quite literally stumbling around in the darkness, holding a crude knife in a shaky hand and struggling to survive. But by teaming up with Leon while also confronting her own past traumas, she slowly becomes a strong, resilient, fully capable star of her own. She might never go full blown action hero like her mentor, and that’s okay, but it’s exciting to think her story may just be getting started. What we see between her and Leon is a torch passing ritual, a necessary chapter in any ongoing story where characters are allowed to age naturally, reach the end of their tale, and eventually even die.
That’s not to say I would turn down any more adventures with our old friend Leon in the future, of course. I love the guy, and I think there’s still a lot of gas left in his tank. I just don’t know if I want to play a video game where he’s 80 years old and I need to upgrade his hip replacement every time he attempts a spin kick. Then again, for all of the ways Requiem handles an aging legend gracefully, Resident Evil has long been a franchise where body mutating mega viruses and super serums allow once-human characters to return bigger and stronger than ever, even after getting axed apart or blown to smithereens with nukes. So hey, maybe next time Leon’s in town he’ll be looking a little less like a hot uncle.
But until they jump that zombie shark (and this series literally has one of those, named Neptune) I’ll gladly take more Grace and Leon games in the future. And seeing how well Capcom handled an older Leon opens up all kinds of possibilities for other classic Resident Evil characters to return with a few more grey hairs. After all, Resident Evil Requiem never makes any mention of Claire Redfield (outside of a reference on a charm) so here’s hoping she shows up in some DLC or even gets to star in the next mainline game. Either way, it’s great to see a series I’ve loved for so long find so many great ways to stay alive and thriving while so many other classic franchises shamble along long past their expiration dates, like the rotting, festering zombies that Leon – and now Grace – are so great at defeating.
Next week’s annual celebration of Super Mario will be marked by the return of three retro games via Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo will add two more Virtual Console titles and a popular Game Boy Advance classic to its subscription service on March 10, otherwise known as Mario Day (because its date is MAR10).
The recently-launched Nintendo Switch Online Virtual Console range will get Mario Tennis and Mario Clash, both released in 1995, while its Game Boy Advance catalog will add 2004’s Mario vs. Donkey Kong. You will, however, need the Switch Online’s pricier Expansion Pack tier to access the games.
Game Boy Advance for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members: – Mario vs. Donkey Kong™ pic.twitter.com/amdzOF5tEn
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 4, 2026
If you like peering into a peripheral and batting away balls, Mario Tennis is a fairly standard sport experience that happens to feature Nintendo’s mascot and other Mushroom Kingdom residents on the court. Mario Clash, meanwhile, is set within the a series of underground pipes and lets you go bowling with Koopa Troopa shells.
Of the three, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is the most interesting. A spiritual successor to the original Donkey Kong, this puzzle platformer was successful enough that it spawned a whole spinoff series, and a full Switch remake that launched in 2024. Here, you can see where that all started.
Nintendo has not yet announced any other celebrations to mark Mario Day, though fans are hoping we hear more from the company soon following a recent third-party Partner Direct and this week’s Indie World broadcast. The company has often held a full Nintendo Direct in March, ahead of the financial year’s end. Maybe we’ll hear more about that next week too.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Have you ever noticed your next company-wide meeting’s due and thought the following: ‘Oh, we should post an image prominently featuring a screen from a game rumoured to potentially be getting the remake or remaster treatment, but solely to illustrate how much we love meetings’? Well, Iron Galaxy Studios – co-developers of Skyrim‘s Switch port and support studio on Fallout 76 – say was what happened late last week. The studio say their social media posts featuring Fallout: New Vegas‘ ‘Please Stand By’ screen have “nothing to do with anything Fallout being worked on”.
Outside of the recent Target preorders (that came and went incredibly fast), this is the best price I’ve seen on the upcoming Mega Evolution expansion. With six boosters included, you’re looking at just under $7.20 per pack.
Funnily enough, all things considered, this is actually quite a good deal. For just over $40, you’re looking at a certified bargain by comparison to the other recent Mega Evolution expansions. Phantasmal Flames bundles are still selling for $55+, and Ascended Heroes bundles are still rocking a $70+ market value over a month after release.
While it’s not quite as good a value as picking up the Booster Box at TCGplayer right now, including 36 packs for $228.80 market price (working out at $6.35 per pack), it’s still a great deal for anyone who hasn’t got a spare $200 to throw around, but still wants to get involved with the new set.
Amazon’s preorder price guarantee also means you’ll pay the lowest price possible between now and release day, no matter if the price increases or drops even further. Locking in your preorder now while the price is so low (comparatively to preorders elsewhere, and on the resale market).
Just to be clear, while this is still a good deal, it is also still above the recognised MSRP ($18.99). But, in all honesty, you so rarely see that price anymore that the de facto listings for Booster Bundles sit anywhere between $40-$60 at online retailers like Amazon, which tend to list closer to market price than MSRP. If anything, preorders are MSRP are so rare, that’s a deal within itself, and so hard to come by, most probably don’t even realise the inflationary pricing on listings elsewhere.
Market price is currently sitting at $95.88, and has been on a steady decline, dropping -26.76% in just the past 30 days. Funnily enough, while ETBs are dropping in price right now, the aforementioned 36-pack booster box is actually on the rise, jumping from around $200 just last week to almost $230 now.
Perfect Order is going to be honing in on many of the Pokémon featured in the Legends: Z-A game. Among the cards announced from the 120-card set so far, we know we’re going to be seeing many of the game’s starring Mega Pokémon: Mega Zygarde ex, Mega Starmie ex, and Mega Clefable ex; but also some surprising extra additions like Meowth ex.
It’s just a few weeks away now, releasing on March 27, so I’d highly recommend locking in your preorder for at least 1 or 2 of these booster bundles ASAP.
Robert Anderson is IGN’s Senior Commerce Editor and resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.
The new Pokémon game Pokémon Pokopia is almost here, and ahead of its Switch 2 release, the game has received a new update.
If you’ve already preloaded the game, and this update isn’t already preinstalled, you’ll be prompted to update your copy. According to the official update from the development team, this day-one update fixes some bugs and is also required to unlock the online content.
If you love role-playing games, you might want to tune into Bandai Namco’s “new RPG reveal”, taking place this week.
This special event will air 5th March or 6th March, depending on your location. The brief teaser trailer shows what appears to be a fantasy world, and towards the end of the video you can see a character equipped with a sword and shield.
