Ecco The Dolphin Is Making A Comeback With Remasters & New Game

“Something stirs beneath the surface”.

Move over, Gears of WarEcco the Dolphin is finally getting a remaster. And not only the first game, but the sequel, Tides of Time, is also getting the remaster treatment.

Oh, and to top things off, a “new, third game” is also in the works, series creator Ed Annunziata has revealed. And where was this all announced? At the bottom of an Xbox Wire blog celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Wildgate Community Preview Coming May 9!

We are excited to bring Wildgate Community Preview to Xbox Insiders on Xbox Series X|S consoles! The playtest will begin on May 9 at 9:00 AM PDT (17:00 BST) and Xbox Insiders are able to sign up to participate. Space is still available, so join now to secure your spot! Join other prospectors in epic spaceship battles and leave with the Artifact, bragging rights, or at least a few stories.

Key Features:

Epic Spaceship Battles:
Blast rivals with hi-tech cannons and gadgets, lure them into deadly traps, or even mess with their ship… as long as they don’t sabotage yours first. When your perfect plan goes out the airlock, there’s only one option… wing it!

New Adventures, Every Match:
Stay one step ahead as you and your crew navigate the Reach — a vast, procedurally-generated map that changes with every game. Just be sure to beat other Prospectors to the punch, or risk flying away empty-handed.

Unique Prospectors:
Choose from a variety of daring Prospectors, each with their own abilities and tools. Whether you’re a brave pilot or a clever trickster, there’s no wrong way to commit space crimes!

Explore the Reach:
The Reach is a dangerous, unpredictable place, filled with deadly hazards and treasure beyond your wildest dreams. Navigate through cosmic storms, battle space vermin, and plunder alien outposts for lost caches of loot.

Outgun or Outrun:
The Artifact is the most valuable object in the known universe. Be the first to find it, snatch it, and pass through the exit point, or destroy the ships of every other crew and be the last crew standing.

Playtest Times:

Start: Friday, May 9 9:00 AM PDT (17:00 BST)
End: Monday May 12 5:00 PM PDT (May 13 01:00 BST)

How to Participate:

  1. Sign-in on your Xbox Series X|S console and launch the Xbox Insider Hub app (or install the Xbox Insider Hub from the Store first if necessary)
  2. Navigate to Previews > Wildgate Community Preview
  3. Select Join
  4. Wait for the registration to complete to secure your spot for the Community Preview!

NOTE: Wildgate Community Preview begins on May 9 at 9 AM PDT. Joining now secures your spot for the playtest. Return to the Xbox Insider Hub on May 9 and select Show in Store to begin installing the game. You’ll also receive an Xbox Insider notification when the playtest begins.
NOTE: Limited space is available and offered first-come first-served.
NOTE: This playtest is only available on Xbox Series X|S consoles.

The post Wildgate Community Preview Coming May 9! appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The Coolest Figures and Collectibles Revealed for Star Wars Day 2025

A big part of the fun with Star Wars Day each year is seeing a new wave of toys and collectibles revealed by companies like Hasbro, Sideshow, and Hot Toys. This year’s event certainly didn’t disappoint, as we got glimpses of a wide range of upcoming products, ranging from less than $20 to over $1500. What can we say? Being a Star Wars collector is nothing if not an expensive hobby.

From Sideshow’s epic Luke Skywalker Red 5 statue to Hasbro’s nostalgia-heavy Episode III figures to Hot Toys’ mind-bogglingly detailed Jar Jar Binks figure, these were the coolest figures and collectibles revealed during Star Wars Day 2025.

Hot Toys’ Star Wars Figures

Hot Toys revealed quite the impressive lineup of 1:6 scale figures for Star Wars Day, including a couple of major characters who have surprisingly never gotten the Hot Toys treatment before now. The real surprise is definitely the Jar Jar Binks figure. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that this Jar Jar looks like he walked right off the screen. He’s even got seamless arm joints and two swappable face sculpts for recreating all those wacky poses.

Hot Toys is also filling a glaring hole in the Sequel Trilogy lineup by finally releasing a Poe Dameron figure. Fittingly, Poe is wearing his Resistance X-Wing jumpsuit. We’re also getting another of the fan-favorite Republic Commandos in the form of Clone Commando Boss, and the company’s new Star Wars Rebels-inspired line of animated figures is getting a Darth Vader to accompany the previously announced Stormtrooper figures.

Hasbro’s Star Wars Toys

Hasbro revealed a number of new figures in both the 6-inch Black Series line and 3 3/4-inch Vintage Collection line. Hasbro continues to capitalize on the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith by releasing new Black Series figures in packaging based on the classic RotS toy line. Next up are Aayla Secura and a Magnaguard droid. Black Series collectors can also augment their Imperial trooper collections with a Rogue One-themed 2-pack that includes both a Shoretrooper and a Death Trooper.

On the Vintage Collection front, Hasbro has a couple very interesting multi-pack releases in the works. The “Stormtroopers of the Empire 3-Pack” features a Snowtrooper, Scouttrooper and a Sandtrooper. The “Cantina Adventure 4-Pack” includes four aliens from the iconic Mos Eisley sequence, including Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Greedo, and Snaggletooth. It should go great with Hasbro’s crowdfunded Mos Eisley Cantina playset.

Finally, Star Wars prop collectors will be happy to know that a new ForceFX Elite lightsaber based on the weapon used by Rebels’ star Ezra Bridger is in the works.

Sideshow’s Star Wars Figures and Posters

Not to be outdone,. Sideshow Collectibles had a wide lineup of figures, statues, and art prints to reveal. Undoubtedly the showpiece of their Star Wars Day lineup is the Luke Skywalker: Red Five, Standing By Premium Format Figure. This massive 1:4 scale, mixed media statue features Luke decked out in his X-Wing jumpsuit and climbing up the ladder to his trusty ship. What really makes this piece special (and especially expensive) is that Sideshow went to the trouble of actually sculpting a portion of the X-Wing so that it hangs in mid-air.

Sideshow is also continuing to release 1:6 scale figures alongside distributing Hot Toys’ releases. Sideshow is focusing on its “Scum and Villainy” line, which highlights the many aliens and creatures that don’t necessarily receive attention from Hot Toys. The second wave of Scum and Villainy figures is focused on characters from Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, like Bib Fortuna, Klaatu, and Vizam.

Finally, Sideshow showed off the latest 1:10 statue from Iron Studios, which happens to be a shrunken-down version of their 1:4 scale Darth Vader statue. This Empire Strikes Back-inspired piece still looks mighty cool in the new, smaller scale.

Let us know in the comments below what your favorite Star Wars Day 2025 reveal was, and why it’s Hot Toys Jar Jar.

For more Star Wars collecting fun, check out our ultimate guide to Star Wars figures, and check out the many Star Wars Collectibles available on the IGN Store.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Devolver Digital Is Going Out of Its Way to Launch a New Game the Same Day as GTA 6

Rockstar Games has revealed that Grand Theft Auto 6’s release date is May 26, 2026, and indie game publisher Devolver Digital says it’s already making plans to be there with a new game of its own.

The company took a lighthearted shot at what is indisputably set up to be the biggest game launch of 2026 with a release date announcement of its own on X/Twitter. Now that GTA 6 has a proper release date, Devolver Digital has announced plans to release a mystery title on that same May 26 date. It’s a chaotic marketing strategy that Devolver Digital seems serious about following through on at least for now.

The mystery game’s release date arrives after the company previously made the promise to launch a game of its own when Rockstar finally announced its long-awaited GTA 6 release date. We now know that date to be May 26 of next year, so naturally, Devolver Digital has a message: “You can’t escape us.”

Devolver Digital has an extensive library of smaller-scale titles such as Hotline Miami, Enter the Gungeon, The Messenger, Katana Zero, Cult of the Lamb, and more. Whether the company plans to release a follow-up to an existing series or something new entirely remains to be seen. Upcoming entries in its catalog of games include Baby Steps and Stick It to the Stickman, two projects that are due out before 2025 comes to an end. There’s also Enter the Gungeon 2 and Human Fall Flat 2, which are both expected to arrive sometime in 2026, though developer No Brakes Games has already assured fans that it has no intention of releasing the latter on May 26.

More than a year out from launch, GTA 6 is already positioned to be a juggernaut video game. It’ll be Rockstar’s first numbered entry in its critically acclaimed sandbox series since 2013, with many doing everything they can to ensure they’ll be able to play on day one. Devolver Digital is doing its best to get a slice of that pie in a very Devolver Digital way, but we’ll have to wait to see exactly how it will do so.

For more, you can read up on Rockstar’s history of delaying it big-budget releases. You can also learn more about how a game like GTA 6 affects more than just Rockstar’s plans by clicking here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).

Guide: Best Twin-Stick Shooters On Nintendo Switch

Opposable thumbs required.

We’ve given this list a little revamp and added the excellent Shotgun Cop Man. Enjoy!


Twin-stick shooters are ruddy good fun, right? It’s a genre that allows you to just switch off your brain for a few minutes at a time while you blast enemies into the abyss. All you need is a couple of analogue sticks and a thirst for destruction and you’re ready to go!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

PlayStation Store: April 2025’s top downloads

It’s time to see which PS5, PS4, PS VR2, and free-to-play games topped the PlayStation Store download charts last month.

April saw a lot of action among the top spots. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Forza Horizon 5 broke into the top three for the U.S. and EU PS5 charts, while Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate dominated the PS VR2 charts across the board. 

Check out the full listings below. What titles are you playing this month?

PS5 Games

US/CanadaEU
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredForza Horizon 5
MinecraftThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Forza Horizon 5Minecraft
MLB The Show 25Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
NBA 2K25EA SPORTS FC 25
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33Grand Theft Auto V
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Grand Theft Auto VIndiana Jones and the Great Circle
Assassin’s Creed ShadowsSplit Fiction
Devil May Cry 5 Special EditionCall of Duty: Black Ops 6
Indiana Jones and the Great CircleDays Gone Remastered
Days Gone RemasteredDevil May Cry 5 Special Edition
Split FictionNBA 2K25
EA SPORTS FC 25Hogwarts Legacy
EA SPORTS College Football 25Cyberpunk 2077
WWE 2K25It Takes Two
EA SPORTS Madden NFL 25Lords of the Fallen
Mortal Kombat 1The First Berserker: Khazan
PGA TOUR 2K25Mortal Kombat 11
Hogwarts LegacyMortal Kombat 1


*Naming of products may differ between regions
*Upgrades not included

PS4 Games

US/CanadaEU
Red Dead Redemption 2Red Dead Redemption 2
Devil May Cry HD CollectionMinecraft
MinecraftA Way Out
A Way OutDevil May Cry HD Collection
Devil May Cry 4EA SPORTS FC 25
Mortal Kombat XUnravel Two
theHunter: Call of the WildNeed for Speed Heat
Batman: Arkham KnightGrand Theft Auto V
Need for Speed HeatKingdom Come: Deliverance
NBA 2K25Mortal Kombat X
Grand Theft Auto VBattlefield 1
Middle-earth: Shadow of WarBatman: Arkham Knight
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6Gang Beasts
Gang BeastsMafia Trilogy
Unravel TwoDying Light
Kingdom Come: DeliverancetheHunter: Call of the Wild
Mafia TrilogyMiddle-earth: Shadow of War
Dying LightDevil May Cry 4
Battlefield 1Watch Dogs 2
Stardew ValleyHogwarts Legacy


*Naming of products may differ between regions 

PS VR2 Games*

US/CanadaEU
Wanderer: The Fragments of FateWanderer: The Fragments of Fate
Beat SaberCreed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition
Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship EditionBeat Saber
Alien: Rogue IncursionFlight Simulator Delivery 2025 VR
Metro AwakeningMetro Awakening
Arizona Sunshine 2Alien: Rogue Incursion
Among Us 3D: VRArizona Sunshine 2
Flight Simulator Delivery 2025 VRAmong Us 3D: VR
PavlovKill It With Fire VR
Kill It With Fire VRPavlov

*PlayStation Store purchases only. Game upgrades or games bundled with hardware not included

Free to Play (PS5 + PS4)

US/CanadaEU
FortniteFortnite
Call of Duty: WarzoneCall of Duty: Warzone
RobloxRoblox
Marvel RivalsRocket League
Rocket LeagueeFootball
FragPunkAsphalt Legends Unite
Apex LegendsStumble Guys
Asphalt Legends UniteMarvel Rivals
Fall GuysFall Guys
eFootballThe Sims 4

Deals For Today: Pokémon TCG Rare Packs And Crashing Singles

The Pokémon Trading Card Game singles market has taken a sharp dive, making it an ideal time to pick up high-value cards for less. With prices on many chase cards falling below recent norms, collectors can now complete sets or grab favorites without relying on luck from booster packs.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

Interested in sealed products? Amazon is discounting a selection of TCG boxes and bundles. From legacy boxes to recent releases, many of these products are coming in over MSRP, which is why I want to let readers know that retailers putting pricing up isn’t their only option during Pokémania 2025. TCG Player is a secondary marketplace that is widely used in the US for the gold standard on current Pokémon TCG values thanks to its value tracking across the secondary market. Let’s get into it, regardless of ripping open booster packs or finding that dream chase card:

Infernape V Box

This set comes with four booster packs, a foil Infernape V, a foil Empoleon, and a jumbo-sized Infernape V card. It’s a compact product with good display value and a steady mix of packs. This big box set is one of the only ways to buy Sword and Shield era booster packs at retail, and it’s cheaper than the secondary market right now. Looking for Fusion Strike or Lost Origins singles and sealed product? I’ve got you covered there too:

Azure Legends Tin

This five-pack tin includes a random promo card featuring Kyogre ex, Xerneas ex, or Dialga ex. Two of the packs are from Surging Sparks expansion which is nice to see amongst the mix of Stellar Crown and Temporal Forces. If you’re only after some illustration rares and nothing too expensive, you’ll find plenty of single cards for you binder for less below:

Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 Merch

The IGN Store has launched exclusive merchandise for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The collection includes prints, hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, and other themed gear. Prices start at $15 with a wide range of characters and designs represented.

Surging Sparks Booster Box

This full booster box contains 36 packs from Surging Sparks. For players who want 36 packs to open in one sitting, this works out the cheapest, but it’s still around $60 above MSRP. Most of the chase cards from this set can be bought for less:

Doom & Wolfenstein Mayhem Game Bundle

Humble’s latest bundle features fifteen games and bonuses from id Software, including DOOM Eternal, DOOM 64, and multiple Wolfenstein titles. It also includes a coupon for 10% off DOOM: The Dark Ages. For $28, the value is strong across retro and modern releases, making this a savage deal for FPS fans.

Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium

This includes 18 booster packs, three exclusive promo cards, a magnetic card holder, a playmat, and a deck box. It’s built for collectors who want full presentation value. Once again, if you just wasnt a certain card, take a look at the singles market before you buy:

Prismatic Evolutions ETB

This box includes nine booster packs, a full-art Eevee promo, 65 themed sleeves, and a wide array of gameplay accessories. This is also nearly three times the MSRP, which is crazy. If you really want to box and contents, go for it, but there’s better options on the secondary market right now:

Shrouded Fable ETB

This ETB focuses on Pecharunt with a sweet looking promo and comes with nine booster packs, themed card sleeves, dice, condition markers, and a collector’s box with dividers. Same situation here, it’s a cool addition to your collection, but this has gone up by around $10 from last week. Meanwhile the singles market is crashing:

Paldean Fates Booster Bundle

This six-pack bundle features cards from the Paldean Fates line, which centers on Shiny Pokémon. The pricing puts it just under the typical cost of buying packs individually, but it’s still expensive compared to the cards that can be bought right now in this set:

Prismatic Evolutions Surprise Box

Each box includes four booster packs and one foil promo featuring a random Eevee evolution. The included storage box has built-in dividers, which helps keep growing collections organized.If you fancy paying $15 per booster and want the stamped regular ex eeveelution card, go for it. The stamped cards go anywhere from $15 to nearly $60, so there’s arguably value in this box when considering the promo.

2004 Pokéball Bundle

Each bundle includes three collectible tins, nine total booster packs, and sticker sheets. This box in particular contains Poké Ball, Premier Ball, and Moon Ball tins.

2004 Pokéball Bundle

The same situation here, but trainers will get Poké Ball, Great Ball, and Ultra Ball tins instead.

Surging Sparks Booster Bundle

One of the cheaper ways to get Surging Sparks boosters right now, albiet overpriced (again). There’s only five cards in Surging Sparks that can’t be bought for under $50, check it out:

151 Poster Collection

If you want to keep this sealed for your collection, go for it. Otherwise, this is a waste of money for three booster packs. Here’s some cool single card options:

Brace Yourselves, Upcoming Pokémon TCG Set Will Introduce A Whole New Level Of Rarity

Let the scalping commence.

The Pokémon Company has revealed that it will release a special Black and White-themed TCG set to celebrate the games’ 15th anniversary. Sounds fun, right? Well, aside from all that nostalgia, the set will also introduce a new level of rarity to the card game, something we’re sure the scalpers will behave totally normally over…

The ‘Black Bolt’ and ‘White Flare’ sets will be released in Japan on 6th June, containing all 156 ‘mon from the Unova region. While everyone will undoubtedly be chasing the usual full arts and ex cards, the set introduces a new ‘BWR’ rarity — the highest rarity in the collection — featuring Reshiram, Zekrom and Victini in some sweet single-colour designs.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Grand Theft Auto 6’s Delay Just Affected the Entire Video Game Industry

Grand Theft Auto fans, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is finally, after all these years, we have an actual day-and-date release time for GTA 6. The bad news? It’s around six months later than the ‘Fall 2025’ we were originally told. To many in the video game industry, the new date of May 26, 2026 is a welcome sigh of relief – dozens of publishers and developers of all sizes were fearful of meticulously planning their release campaigns only to later discover they’d be releasing in the same month as this herculean title. However, there are many undated heavy-hitters due to land next year that will now be frantically searching for a new date.

What’s clear is that Grand Theft Auto 6 has found itself touted as the lynchpin to the video game industry’s near future – any news on the project’s development has a huge ripple effect. So how does a six-month delay reflect a significant change in Rockstar’s corporate culture, call into question this year’s console market revenue, and potentially affect the Switch 2?

Last year, the video game industry’s total revenue hit $184.3 billion, a 0.2% increase from 2023. Contradicting analyst predictions of a slight downturn, it prompted a sigh of relief for video game manufacturers and publishers. However, in the console space, revenue dropped by 1% – and we’re already seeing the consequences. A downturn of console hardware sales combined with a heightening technology tariff war has forced prices up for both Microsoft and Sony. This generation needs a definitive console-shifting title – it needs Grand Theft Auto 6.

Research groups estimate the crime sequel to make $1 billion off pre-orders alone and $3.2 billion in its first year of launch. It took Grand Theft Auto 5 three days to make $1 billion, could it take Grand Theft Auto 6 just 24 hours? Circana analyst Mat Piscatella believes that “there’s probably never been a more important thing to ever release in the industry,” because the game’s impact will help define our understanding of the video game industry’s potential growth over the next decade. There are rumors that it could be the first-ever $100 video game, making it a new watershed moment for the industry. That new benchmark could give the industry the shot-in-the-arm growth many analysts say it needs. However, it’s also possible Grand Theft Auto 6 is simply too much of a monolithic outlier to create progress outside of itself.

In 2018, Rockstar Games had a publicity crisis on its hands. Reports of 100 hour weeks alongside formerly mandatory overtime whilst developing Red Dead Redemption 2, plus former and current employees speaking on intense crunch periods stemming from Grand Theft Auto 4, painted a stark picture of one of gaming’s titans. Since then, the company has reportedly undergone an internal reinvention of sorts – according to a Bloomberg report, contractors being converted to full-time employees and a ‘flexitime’ policy enabling workers to take time off for every hour of overtime worked are just two of the many more compassionate policies enacted. Earlier this year, Rockstar’s old reputation threatened to rear its head as staff were made to return to the office five days a week to close out Grand Theft Auto 6’s development – a move which makes the reason behind the delay pretty clear. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier confirmed as much on BlueSky, explaining that his own Rockstar sources said that there’s “Too much work, not enough time, and what appears to be a real desire from management to avoid brutal crunch.” Rockstar can’t properly deliver a game that will change the video gaming world if it slips back into old habits; while the delay is disappointing to those playing, it’s undeniably a huge relief to those developing.

This generation needs a definitive console-shifting title – it needs Grand Theft Auto 6.

If you’re a publisher, releasing your game at the same time as Grand Theft Auto 6 is akin to throwing a bucket of water into a tsunami. Discussing the formerly scheduled ‘Fall 2025’ release window, a report by The Game Business highlighted how such a nebulous date was affecting publishers worldwide. One studio boss called Rockstar’s game “a huge meteor and we’ll just have to stay clear of the blast zone,” while another questioned “if we move out of 2025, what if Rockstar do, too?” (An unsurprisingly predictive worry). We even have the likes of EA CEO Andrew Wilson implicitly commenting on the game’s looming shadow in the context of the new Battlefield, citing “some things happening in the year that may cause us to think differently about our launch timing.”

However, huge releases don’t always overshadow those around them. Despite launching at the same time as Bethesda’s Oblivion remake, Kepler Interactive’s original RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 still sold over one million copies in just three days, with senior portfolio manager Matt Handrahan even joking that it was the video game industry’s Barbenheimer moment. It’s hard to believe such a moment can exist for Grand Theft Auto 6, of course, and so it goes unsaid that such a quirky idea will not be part of any publisher’s campaign plans. Don’t expect a Grand Theft Fable moment in 2026.

Currently, it’s unclear to what extent the new May 26, 2026 release date will shake up the plans of other publishers and developers. There are still many heavy-hitter titles that are undated including the likes of Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, EA’s new Battlefield title, Mass Effect spiritual successor Exodus and more. There will certainly be some developers now scrambling to change their internal release date plans, but the wider public will be none the wiser. However, this flag planting by Rockstar no doubt means that developers and publishers will feel more confident in announcing their release plans to the world. But they might want to hold on a minute.

It seems very unlikely that this will be the final date for Grand Theft Auto 6 for two reasons. Both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 were subject to two date delays, with the first delay being to the second quarter of the next year, followed by a second delay to the third quarter of that same year. Right now, Grand Theft Auto 6 is replicating that exact same timeline, delayed from Fall 2025 to May 2026, so one more delay to October/November 2026 seems a reasonably educated prediction.

That October/November window seems even more likely when you consider the potential for both Microsoft and Sony to create a new console bundle including the crime sequel, which will surely shoot up sales around the holiday period. Sony sold 6.4 million PlayStation 4s during October – December 2014, more than double the consoles they sold between April and September of that year. Of course there would have been the classic Christmas boost, but what else happened in that time frame? Grand Theft Auto 5 released on PS4.

Rockstar only has one shot to get this right – what’s six more months after 13 years?

What could be the bigger surprise, though , is that Nintendo may be one of the parties most affected by this delay. Recently, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick pledged full support for the Switch 2, leading fans to speculate about if Grand Theft Auto 6 may also be eyeing a Switch 2 launch. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy’s Definitive Edition saw a surprise launch onto the Nintendo Switch, so there’s precedent for an adult franchise on a typically family-friendly console. Many believed the Switch technology wasn’t powerful enough to run a game like Grand Theft Auto, however last year modders released a video showing off an in-progress port of GTA 5 running on Switch using the game’s leaked source code. While it does seem unlikely that Nintendo would have factored Grand Theft Auto 6 into the Switch’s first-year success, there’s a clear, strong relationship between publisher Take-Two and Nintendo that shouldn’t be ignored. When looking at the console market as part of the overall video game industry, Nintendo is still a huge part of that no matter how much of an island they may seem. The Nintendo Switch was still host to an array of generation-defining games including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Metal Gear Solid, Crysis and more. And with Cyberpunk 2077 arriving on Switch 2 at launch, complete with its current gen-only Phantom Liberty expansion, we shouldn’t ignore the potential for “miracle” ports.

What’s clear is that there is a hell of a lot riding on Grand Theft Auto 6. Many different head honchos of the video game industry, from studio heads to chief analysts, believe that this generation-defining game will be the one to break the industry’s growth stagnation. It’s hard to deny the global feverish demand and anticipation for a game that has effectively been in the works for over a decade. There are impossibly high expectations on the teams at Rockstar Games to deliver something that not only single-handedly restores the video game industry back to its pre-pandemic growth, but also presents an entirely new kind of video game experience that will become the new benchmark for developers and publishers moving forward. Rockstar only has one shot to get this right – what’s six more months after 13 years?

Sab Astley is a freelance writer who has written for IGN, Polygon, TotalFilm, Rolling Stone, Radio Times, and Metro UK.