Microsoft has solidified its plans for June, confirming an Xbox Games Showcase 2025 as well as an The Outer Worlds 2 Direct.
Microsoft normally hosts a June showcase to reveal upcoming Xbox games, and 2025 is no different. Xbox Games Showcase 2025 will be livestreamed on Sunday, June 8, starting at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK time.
Xbox Games Showcase 2025 will offer a look at upcoming titles from across Microsoft’s first-party studios, Microsoft said, “in addition to incredible new titles from our third-party partners across the globe.”
On the Activision Blizzard side of things, there will of course be a new Call of Duty game later this year, and various releases from Blizzard itself. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 launches in July, so that may make the cut.
And following in the footsteps of the 2023 Starfield Direct and 2024 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct, this year Microsoft will follow its Xbox Games Showcase by The Outer Worlds 2 Direct. The Outer Worlds 2 is from Obsidian, which is fresh from the release of Avowed. The direct “will bring you inside the walls of Obsidian Entertainment, revealing new gameplay, details, and developer insights, straight from the people making the sequel to the award-winning, first-person sci-fi RPG.” The Outer Worlds 2 is expected out later in 2025, so it seems likely we’ll get a release date during the showcase.
Airtime for the Xbox Games Showcase followed by The Outer Worlds 2 Direct in local time zones:
PDT: June 8, 10am
EDT: June 8, 1pm
BST: June 8, 6pm
CET: June 8, 7pm
JST: June 9, 2am
AEST: June 9, 3am
Microsoft said the Xbox Games Showcase and The Outer Worlds 2 Direct will be digital-only, which means there’s no theatre experience for fans and media this year. But it promised that its livestream will bring fans “everything you’ll need to know about what’s next for Xbox, no matter where in the world you’re watching.”
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.
Hades 2 is coming to Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 as a timed console exclusive.
While we don’t yet have a firm release date, developer Supergiant confirmed the highly anticipated sequel would release on PC and Nintendo Switch 2, as well as the OG Switch, at the same time later this year.
We knew Hades 2 was coming to Nintendo’s beefed-up Switch 2 courtesy of last week’s Nintendo Direct, of course, but developer Supergiant has now confirmed that it’s not just coming to Switch 1 and 2, but it’ll be a timed exclusive on Nintendo’s console, too.
“Hades II v1.0 will launch simultaneously on our Early Access platforms (Steam and Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch 2, and the original Nintendo Switch,” the team recently clarified on X/Twitter
Hades II v1.0 will launch simultaneously on our Early Access platforms (Steam and Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch 2, and the original Nintendo Switch.
Right now, it’s not clear when Hades 2 will make the inevitable jump to other consoles like the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S.
Hades 2 is the sequel to Supergiant’s hit first game, mixing engaging storytelling and roguelite action elements in a dungeon-crawling experience.
“Hades 2 feels impossibly huge and unbelievably polished by any standard, much less an early access game,” we wrote in IGN’s Hades 2 early-access review, awarding it 9/10. “Mel is awesome, the new tweaks to the combat and progression are excellent, and it’s just unbelievably feature packed with twice the content of the first.
“What’s here right out of the gate is astounding, and the thought of more coming on the way is a tantalizing treat.”
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.
Sabrina Carpenter has joined the ranks in Fortnite, and she’s bringing peace and love to the battle royale.
Developer Epic Games reported “dance-related stalemates are on the rise” as players sporting the Sabrina skin are putting away their weapons and getting jiggy with it instead.
“[Battle Royale] is all vibes now,” the developer teased on X/Twitter.
“So, I was playing a game of Fornite ZB Reload and I saw two Sabrina skins just hanging,” explained one fan on the Fortnite subreddit.
“They crouched and uncrouched and I stopped shooting, and well, before we knew [it], us three became, like, nine players who stopped fighting and only danced around.
“Truly the most wholesome thing I’ve seen in a video game,” they added.
“This right here is why I love Fortnite,” added a commenter. “Out of all the online games I’ve played, the fact that this game has silly emotes and a rotating character pool that the community gets into makes for unique moments like this, that I’ve never seen in any other game.
Sabrina Carpenter dropped into Fortnite as the Season 8 Icon of Fortnite Festival. As part of the Season 8 Music Pass, players can unlock the Sabrina Carpenter Outfit, themed cosmetics, and Jam Tracks like “Juno” and “Nonsense.” Sabrina Carpenter-themed items are also available on the Item Shop, including the “A Sweet Little Bundle” packed with items for fans to enjoy.
Did you catch the news that Fortnite is getting a special Nintendo Switch 2 port? Epic Games’ trend-setting battle royale showed up during a sizzle reel during last week’s Nintendo Switch 2 Direct to confirm that a new version is in development. It’ll launch with Nintendo’s new hybrid console this June.
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.
Inspired is one word for it, anyway. Still, since Heroes Of Might & Magic-likes aren’t exactly giving roguelite deckbuilders a run for their ubiquity, I’m broadly receptive – the warmest and most exploitable of the four gamer emotions. Stormbinders is a turn-based strategy set in a fantasy land with bad weather and badder shimmering angelic eyeballs. You may recognise what it’s going for. This may delight you.
You’ll choose a hero, then get stuck into the campaign. “The story progresses across unique scenarios, uncovering a tale of magic, heroism, unlikely alliances and betrayals,” reads Steam. The titular Stormbinding sounds like the interesting twist here. The game randomises weather patterns each time you boot it up, which apparently adds new wrinkles to both battle and the global map.
In case you missed it, yes, Deltarune Chapters 1-4 has been confirmed for the Nintendo Switch 2, launching on day one with with console on 5th June 2025.
It might not have been super clear from the trailer, but information posted on the official website confirms that the game will include a small, special room in which you can use mouse controls on both Joy-Con 2 at the same time.
Helldivers 2’s runaway success continues. It’s just won two BAFTA Game Awards: one for Best Multiplayer, another for Best Music. That’s from five nominations. The BAFTA wins bring to an end a fruitful video game awards season, drawing a line under what has been a remarkable year for Swedish developer Arrowhead.
Let’s remember, Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, with an astonishing 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks. It is a record no first-party Sony-developed game will likely ever beat. But so much has happened since that initial explosive release: a dramatic U-turn on PSN account requirements on Steam, review-bomb campaigns, and a community often at war with Helldivers 2 itself as nerfs and buffs either went too far or not far enough.
Through it all, Arrowhead has struggled to cope with a bigger, more mainstream playerbase than it’s ever had to contend with. But now, 14 months after Helldivers 2 hit PC and PlayStation 5, how does Arrowhead reflect on what’s gone before? Has it finally started to get to grips with the brutal, unforgiving world of live-service? And after that Killzone collaboration, could Warhammer 40,000 be next?
IGN sat down with Alex Bolle, production director on Helldivers 2, to find out more.
IGN: Congratulations on all the awards! When you were in the thick of development and things weren’t perhaps going as well as they might have otherwise been, did you ever imagine that a year after the game came out it would be considered one of the best games of 2024 and win all these awards?
Alex Bolle: No, no, definitely not. It’s a very humbling experience. I would say a year ago exactly, we had a hint that it would be a sweet year for us, but we were also in the thick of it. We were still fixing a lot of things, preparing our next big release for the content. So no, definitely not realizing we would get there.
Last time we spoke, we were preparing Omens of Tyranny. Even then we are like, okay, we have The Game Awards. We were preparing the whole shadow drop and everything. We were ready to make that shadow drop and be like, okay, this one is going to be fun. The awards part, maybe not that much.
I was next to my release manager trying to monitor the progress of Omens of Tyranny and the whole major order with the Illuminate. And I turned my head towards the TV at the office, it was like 2am. And I see Mikael Eriksson, the game director, just shaking hands with Snoop Dogg. And I’m like, what is going on here? Which reality are we?
So yeah, it’s been good. The Golden Joysticks, DICE, all those awards, it’s a good way to take a step back and look at the impact of the game. We’re nearing the end of the awards season and this one feels really good, because the credibility and the fame of it is just amazing. So yeah, it’s great. It’s going to be a good addition for the team, I hope.
IGN: It’s been over a year since the game came out, so people have had time now to reflect upon its release and its impact. Have you come to understand why it’s won so many awards, why it’s done so well? Why it’s resonated so much with gamers? Have you worked out why Helldivers 2 has ended up being the success it has been?
Alex Bolle: I wish the interview was two hours! It’s a whole soup recipe, or maybe more like a very sophisticated French dish. I don’t think we figured it out. One thing we keep at heart is just the interaction with the community. All the players, taking the time to really talk to them, understand what they want. We have so many devs that are continuously looking at Discord, at Reddit. We have a lot of things that come from there and we want to keep that interaction level.
That has been the thing that we thought, okay, when we prepare the fantasy for the next updates and so on, this is the part that we want to keep. We were talking about the future of the game with Mikael and it was all about that. What is it that the player wants? What is it that we are not achieving yet? What’s next? And this is always like, players in mind. It’s what works well. It’s the ability to talk to them, ability to make that kind of fantasy in the game around the Galactic War.
Last week with Pöpli IX, it’s been a year and we still manage to get those moments in-game. I think it’s important. These are needed. I was talking to our Game Master this morning, it feels good to have that. It’s one of the things we’ll cherish until we don’t make the game, but so far it’s working well.
IGN: You’ve spoken as a team before about the impact Helldivers 2 had on you as a studio, and it was a big shock to the system. Do you feel like now you’re starting to get a handle on what Helldivers 2 is, what the audience is, and settling into a sustainable, healthy way of keeping it going as a live service? Especially after having that influx of players that you weren’t perhaps expecting and the type of players that were different than what you were expecting?
Alex Bolle: We’re still trying to figure out the good recipe for a healthy cadence for the developers, for the players as well. Who do we cater to as well? It’s been super interesting. I’ve been at Arrowhead for a bit more than three years now, coming from bigger studios and yeah, there’s a lot of things that we had to go back to square one, on how it works at Arrowhead.
Johan Pilestedt, as one of our founders and the lead of the studio for so long, has been key in setting a development culture that we try to keep at heart while maintaining that live service aspect. This has been catching lightning in a bottle.
And I feel like every week is taking learnings again from the different wins and failures that we had along the way. Also from other developers. I think it’s been one of the good advantages that we had, is that success also allows us to talk way more openly with all the devs. It’s been very good on that side. It’s sharing ways to do it, better ways, more sustainable.
On who do we make the game for? That’s a tricky one. Arrowhead’s motto has always been ‘a game for everyone is a game for no one.’ When you add this amount of players, no one and everyone is a bit muddy. So it’s always a bit of a puzzle of like, okay, this content is for these type of players, this content is for this type of player. And this is where we are still working very hard with PlayStation, with the team internally to understand, hey, when you want to make this enemy, who do you have in mind?
I think it’s a very fingertip sensitivity that we are getting slowly. I think there’s a lot of work within direction as well to remind us who we were making the game for at the very, very, very beginning, because we have a lot of the old guard of Arrowhead still around to help us figure this out. We have one of the features upcoming that we’ve been developing with one of our old-time founders for example, and it’s been so good because he brings that magical angle on the co-op.
IGN: The internet loves to talk about Steam concurrents, but I would like to get your take as someone who knows the data. Do you think Steam concurrents are misleading? Do they give some insight into the success or otherwise of a live service game? Obviously you had a huge peak, but it is unreasonable to expect that to maintain itself forever, and Helldivers 2 seems to have settled on Steam. From your perspective, how do you view that?
Alex Bolle: I am far from being the expert of the studio on this. I do see sometimes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you talk about it, the more you show it, the more people are like, wow, interesting, it’s going up.
It’s a metric among many others. There’s many reasons for a game’s success or failure. I think we’ve been doing good numbers, like breaking some trends and everything. On our side, the only thing I can say is that, yeah, we want to keep that steady floor of players and bringing people again for new memorable moments for the game and for the community. So I would say that’s pretty much where we want to go. Do we have screens all around the studio with CCU [concurrent users] and all those metrics? Of course, because it’s always good to keep them in mind. But we’re not obsessed by it. I think we are in a position we don’t have to be, but we want to make sure, hey, when we make something, it’s meaningful. That’s the thing.
IGN: Whatever happens, you’ll probably forever now be the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time. I can’t see a game ever really topping that. As a studio, does that mean you can be a bit more relaxed about what you’re doing with Helldivers 2?
Alex Bolle: Yes and no. Yes, in a way, especially in these days for the industry, it feels like such a privileged situation. That is amazing. I think we are cherishing that a lot. At the same time, we don’t want to take this for granted. There’s a studio, we have developers to pay. We have a studio life to keep on for years and years and years. So that’s the thing where we’re like, yeah, it’s been good. We need to make sure it keeps going great.
There’s also an accountability for, again, the people we make the game for. We’re not going to just start to be like, okay, it’s fine. It’s going to be fine. We can take a bit more time. We want to take more time to make things better, especially now that the players are asking for it. But yeah, there’s definitely an ambition to keep things going, keep our standards of development, keep finding creativity and innovation. If we just became complacent, I don’t think Arrowhead would be Arrowhead.
IGN: Do you think it’s reasonable for a game like Helldivers 2 to have a multi-year plan that envisages the game being around for a decade? For me, Helldivers 2’s gameplay feels almost timeless, so it could become a forever game. Or will there come a point where you have to think about what’s next when it comes to Helldivers itself?
Alex Bolle: Thank you for acknowledging that the game might not age at all! I love when you boot a game after 15, 20 years and it still plays the same.
IGN: Helldivers 2 has that about it doesn’t it? It‘s about the things that happen in the game and the physics at play and the feel of it, as opposed to it being future-proofed in terms of visuals, for example.
Alex Bolle: Absolutely. When I talk with the team, when I talk to the directors, when I talk to Mikael about the future, it’s exciting because we want it to be around for years and years and years to come. And it’s almost like, how do we stay true to the Helldivers 2 fantasy, challenging enough that we keep making amazing new features and new systems and all that while we stay true to who we are? And I think it’s something that is so motivating for the years to come.
The more we figure out how to thrive in a live environment, and we still have a way to go to figure out a lot of things around that, the more we can let creativity loose on new systems that we would’ve never thought about a year ago when we released. I’ve worked on live games before and it’s where you feel like you have something you can figure out: what if I would do this cool thing I’ve seen in other games and adapt it to our sauce, that still makes it true to ourselves? I’m looking forward to this moment.
IGN: You’ve done a Killzone collab. I’m a massive Warhammer 40,000 fan, and as soon as I started playing Helldivers 2 I thought, oh my God, if I was an Imperial Guard soldier dropping down, facing off against waves of Tyranids or Necrons… can you give me any hope as a fan of both Helldivers 2 and Warhammer 40,000 that this is even possible?
Alex Bolle: What I can say is that we had a blast working on the collaboration with Guerrilla on Killzone. One thing that everyone agreed internally is that making something from a different game IP in our universe, this is quite fun. It has challenges because again, we are very, very cautious about our fantasy. So we want to be able to explore those possibilities. We got super excited with Killzone. We want to do more for sure. I can’t tell you more.
Our devs are players, they play so many games. Obviously Warhammer 40,000 is something that a lot of guys internally love to death. So the devs are discussing, the devs are proposing stuff, and the hype is building. So these are discussions internally that we are having. Warhammer 40,000, I can’t really tell you. Maybe. Who knows? We’ll see!
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.
Palworld developers Pocketpair have announced their next gig as a fledgling games publisher. They’re palling up with MythicOwl to release the latter’s jaunty delivery sim Truckful, in which absolutely nothing waits for you in the woods. In which there are no ghost trucks. In which “hidden paths, misty wetlands, unforgiving marshes and dusty quicksands [do not] tell the stories of the past, waiting to be discovered”. Here’s a trailer.
Astro Bot has once again won big at an awards show, this time securing five gongs at the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards, including Best Design, Best Family Game, and Best Game.
The BAFTA Games Awards — the UK’s independent arts charity celebrating excellence in games — took place overnight on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in London, UK. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Astro Bot, and Still Wakes the Deep led the charge with 11, eight, and eight nominations, respectively. Thank Goodness You’re Here! also received seven nominations, Black Myth: Wukong six, and Helldivers 2 was up for five awards.
Accepting the award, Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet paid tribute to the game developers of the past, who paved the way for Sony-owned Team Asobi and other current studios to find success in the modern era.
Whilst Astro Bot was the night’s most-crowned game, The Chinese Room’s impressive Still Wakes the Deep secured three wins — including both performer awards — and Helldivers 2 won two BAFTAs.
BAFTA polled the public to discover that while games like GTA, Tetris, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Doom, and Half-Life 2did make the list, the top as ranked by the number of votes received was Sega’s 1999 action-adventure game.
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.
Warning! Potential Mario Kart World spoilers follow:
As with the Donkey Kong snafu, the guilty images were removed speedily from the official website, but not before someone snapped them and posted them to Reddit, of course.
As the images are pretty fuzzy — and there’s no accompanying text — this is essentially all we know so far. With a little cross-checking, it looks as though a hidden Rainbow Road track will sit just below Princess Peach’s Stadium on the four-way intersection in the bay area (thanks, Eurogamer), although it’s unclear if it’s a secret track or some kind of unlockable extra.
“I would say it’s less about the strategy of pricing Mario Kart World, it’s more just whenever we look at a given game, we just look at what is the experience, and what’s the content, and what’s the value?” Trinen said at the time.
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.
Last week, Nintendo shared a lot of fine details about the Switch 2 and in case you missed it, one thing it also confirmed was the new system would support the GameCube Controller adapter.
