The floodgates open.
Following the official reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, accessory maker Nacon has revealed a range of new products for the upcoming console.
If you’re familiar with the kind of stuff manufacturers would make for the original Switch, then very little here will come as a surprise. That said, the premium-looking steering wheel that houses both of the Switch 2’s Joy-Con looks rather swish; we’d love to take that one for a spin.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Superheroes often conceal their identities behind masks, capes and in my case, a pungent snood-and-hoodtop combo that makes me look like I’ve crawled out of a drain. No, don’t ask what my real superhero identity is. After all, knowing my secrets might expose you to the wrath of my enemies. And in any case, I don’t trust you. It turns out some of you people have been keeping secrets from me, as well. You have been furtively playing superhero shooter Marvel Rivals with a keyboard and mouse adapter, which makes it look as though you’re playing with a controller, so that you can take advantage of controller features such as high-sensitivity aim-assist in competitive play.
It’s been six years since Team Cherry announced Hollow Knight: Silksong, the eagerly awaited sequel to 2017 Metroidvania masterpiece Hollow Knight. In those years fans have seen Silksong pop up and fail to pop up at various shows, and at one point Microsoft even appeared to confirm the game would launch before June 2023. The Game Awards have been and gone with no Hollow Knight: Silksong. But could the just-announced Nintendo Switch 2 Direct finally be the one?
Fans think so, and it’s all because of a picture of a cake. Allow me to explain.
Supersleuths on the Hollow Knight subreddit noticed that on January 15, co-director of Team Cherry William Pellen had changed his Twitter/X profile picture to a picture of a chocolate cake. Pellen tweeted: “something big is coming. keep your eyes closed tomorrow.”
something big is coming. keep your eyes closed tomorrow
— little bomey (@everydruidwaswr) January 16, 2025
At the time, Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal was rumored for January 16, and so it proved. That was the day Nintendo finally announced the Switch 2, although there are still a number of burning questions we have about the next-gen console. Had Pellen really asked followers to keep an eye out for the Switch 2 reveal? If so, why?
This is the point where the Hollow Knight community went into overdrive — or off the deep end, depending on your point of view. Fans reverse-searched the picture of the cake, which led them to a recipe for Brooklyn Blackout Cake on cooking website Bon Appétit. The date the recipe was published: April 2, 2024.
Why would that date be important here? Because Nintendo has confirmed Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 will air on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. That’s right, fans think Pellen has kicked off a Silksong alternate reality game (ARG) with that tweet and that picture of the cake.
Fans haven’t stopped there. They’re currently trying to work out what Pellen’s new X/Twitter handle, @everydruidwaswr, means, if anything. Redditor Representative-True has the best theory I’ve seen so far: “The character limit on Twitter handles is 15 characters, which is the length of ‘everydruidwaswr.’ I think “wr” is likely the start of a word, like wrong or something. I have yet to decipher this, but the Druid of the Moss Temple is a Silksong NPC.”
The plot thickens! Pellen has a new X/Twitter name to go along with the new handle and profile picture: little bomey. What’s that about? Fans have noticed Little Boomey is a wine from Southern Australia, where Team Cherry is based, but the spelling is different. What could it mean?!
It’s worth remembering that when Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced, Team Cherry confirmed launch platforms as Windows, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. But that was six years ago. Has Nintendo snapped up Hollow Knight: Silksong as a Switch 2 launch title? Is it a timed exclusive? Is this all just bonkers behavior from information-starved fans?
We have a few months to find out. In the meantime, check out everything announced at Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal.
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.
Friends, another soul is departing the RPS treehouse today. Ed has decided to lay down the mantle of reviews editor and rejoin polite society. Come join me in saying goodbye.
Hopefully there are plenty of units to go around.
As exciting as new console launches are, it’s become increasingly difficult in recent years to secure certain systems on release. Sony’s PlayStation 5 was hugely impacted by this coming off the pandemic, so how will it be for Nintendo’s Switch successor this many years on?
Bloomberg has released a new report about the possible shipment data for the Switch 2 in the first year of its life, and according to Robin Zhu – an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, Nintendo’s supply chain is ready to sell more than 20 million units in 2025.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
PlayStation Store’s extending the new year celebrations with the January Deals promotion, starting January 15 for a limited time*. You can enjoy steep discounts on a variety of titles, including Gran Turismo 7 25th Anniversary Digital Deluxe Edition, EA SPORTS FC 25 Ultimate Edition, The Last of Us Part I Digital Deluxe Edition and many more.
Head to PlayStation Store to see the full list and find out your regional discount.
*January Deals promotion available on PlayStation Store from 00.00am JST, Wednesday January 15 until 23:59pm JST Wednesday January 29. Game selection may differ by region. Check PlayStation Store for more details. Not applicable for Indonesia.
Is the cake a lie?
Hollow Knight fans have been waiting over five years now for Silksong, so when will we hear more about it? While the best guesses have been shared time and time again, the next date fans have discovered actually lines up with Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct.
Hollow Knight fan and YouTuber ‘fireb0rn’ highlights how a member of Team Cherry has changed their social media profile to a picture of chocolate cake after also teasing in a post how “something big is coming”. Long story short, someone ended up reverse image searching the picture of the cake and the first search result was for a recipe with the date “2nd April” at the top of the page. See where this is going here?
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Edit: The story has been updated to report that Bluepoint’s canceled live-service game was a God of War title.
Sony has reportedly canceled two unannounced live-service games that were in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, respectively.
Bloomberg reports that Sony has ended production on two live-service games that were in the works at Bend Studio, best known for the zombie game Days Gone, and another separate game in the works at Bluepoint Games, best known for their remasters of games like Shadow of the Colossus and the Demon’s Souls remake. The Bluepoint game was reportedly a live-service God of War game according to Jason Schreier.
A Sony spokesperson confirmed the cancellations to Bloomberg. Sony also added that neither studios will be closed and that they will work with them “to determine what are the next projects,” from the two studios will be.
This is another blow to Sony’s ambitious live-service game plans. In 2022, Sony acquired Destiny 2 developer Bungie and announced plans to have 12 live-service games running by the end of the 2025 fiscal year. Those plans have failed to materialize after Sony revised that number down to just six, of which Bend and Bluepoint’s games were likely two of them.
Sony also closed down Concord developer Firewalk Studio, oversaw layoffs at Bungie, and canceled numerous online projects like Naughty Dogs’ The Last of Us PvP game, a rumored Spider-Man online game, a live-service Twisted Metal game, and a third-person Destiny spinoff titled Payback.
This leaves just Bungie’s Marathon and Haven Studios’ PvP project still in the works, alongside continued support for Helldivers 2 which Sony is publishing. There are also rumors of two online Horizon games, one co-op experience and another being an MMO.
It’s clear now that Sony seems to be rethinking its live-service strategy, but whether that means backing online projects it believes will succeed or abandoning the space altogether remains to be seen.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
X/Twitter owner Elon Musk lit up social media feeds today when he launched a wave of posts publicly criticizing Twitch streamer and content creator Zack Hoyt (a.k.a. Asmongold) following controversy regarding the tech billionaire’s high-level gameplay of Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 2.
Musk first shared his thoughts in a reply to a post from YouTuber Screamheart, who published a two-minute clip from a new video that dives into the allegations surrounding the X owner’s Path of Exile 2 gameplay. The full video totals eight minutes and includes approximately 20 seconds of footage from Asmongold’s livestreams where he alleges that Musk is not totally responsible for the progress made on his level 97 Path of Exile 2 character.
“There is no way he played that account. Like, I’m sorry,” Asmongold says in the clip. “I think he bought the account, or somebody played it for him. A hundred-f***ing-percent.”
Asmon behaves like a maverick “independent”, but in reality has to ask his boss for permission before he can do anything. He is not his own man.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025
Musk’s response includes a series of replies where he calls the streamer “not his own man.” The billionaire also took the opportunity to post what Asmongold is calling a picture of “leaked” direct messages shared through X where the two previously spoke about how the streamer manages his YouTube account. It was a moment that has led to a messy back-and-forth between the two social media giants, and it’s preceded by in-depth investigation into Musk’s involvement in the gaming space.
Musk has long been championed as a gaming enthusiast. For years, he’s mentioned his appreciation for Blizzard Entertainment’s work on titles like Overwatch, and just yesterday, he said he still plays games “as my one recreational activity to quiet my mind.”
However, Musk’s self-proclaimed gaming prowess has been brought into question in recent months as players began to take a closer look at his performance and knowledge of the games he plays.
One title that has seemingly taken up hundreds of hours of Musk’s time is 2023’s Diablo 4, though as he’s climbed leaderboards and chatted with developers on X, many have commented on how much time he might be dedicating to Blizzard’s dungeon-crawling experience. In November of last year, the billionaire boasted about his place as one of the top 20 Diablo 4 players in the world, and he reached the number one spot a few weeks later. While others spend hundreds if not thousands of hours merely chipping away at the never-ending faucet of content available, Musk has maintained his gaming status while juggling his responsibilities as a figurehead of companies like X, SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and more.
Leaking my DM’s is one thing but this is absolutely uncalled for https://t.co/I4eRo2QPKF
— Zack (@Asmongold) January 16, 2025
Discussion about Musk’s abilities as a gamer reached a new level after a recent, early January livestream that saw Musk tackling endgame tasks in Path of Exile 2 drew criticism from fans. Videos like those from content creators such as Quin69TV, penguinz0, and Asmongold have garnered millions of views as action RPG veterans analyze footage and commentary posted by the tech giant. One specific point of contention revolves around his (now deceased) level 97 Hardcore character, Percy_Verence.
“Two weeks into the league, when people are playing the game, literally, they are staying up 40 to 50 hours without sleeping, only playing Path of Exile – and they are the most try-hard guys in the world – the highest-ranked player in the Hardcore trade league was level 93,” Quin69TV explains in his video ‘Elon Musk is Lying About Being Good at Video Games.’
“You’re thinking to yourself, ‘That’s kind of close to 97.’ Every time you level up, it becomes exponentially harder to gain experience. A lot harder. So, these players, to get to level 97, had to be playing the game every day for the majority of their day.”
Musk’s stream features a number of moments that players are pointing to as signs he may not be quite as familiar with Path of Exile 2’s endgame mechanics as one might expect him to be after spending so much time in its world.
Seemingly struggling to access Maps, strange tab names, illogical inventory management, leaving behind rare loot, and a disregard for notoriously powerful weapons is just some of the evidence from Musk’s stream that players are using to accuse the billionaire of not playing nearly as much as he says he is.
Many are working with the theory that Musk might be paying others to boost his Path of Exile account for him, though there is no confirmation of this. The “why?” in the formula remains a mystery, too, but the idea is that maintaining his status as a gaming expert is something Musk is interested in, regardless of whether he’s actually the one playing the games.
Asmongold, whose YouTube channel features numerous other videos discussing content and updates for Path of Exile 2, took the time to address the topic with his own video called ‘Elon Musk is not getting away with this…’ In the footage, he largely agrees with Quin69TV’s analysis of the situation, believing that Musk may not be as truthful about his experience as he’s letting on.
“I thought it was really cool that Elon Musk was, like, a serious player of Diablo, and everything. I did,” Asmongold says. “I thought it was awesome, and I bet he probably did play PoE 2 on day one. I do. I bet he probably played it, and then he stopped.”
I’m on hundreds of streams on YouTube/Twitch playing live with the world’s best players.
No other way to say this, but, while Asmon IS good at caustic commentary and making fun of people, he is NOT good at video games 🤷♂️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025
In the fallout of Musk’s posts to Asmongold, X’s own Community Notes feature has chimed in to clarify a few points. Regarding the tech billionaire’s comments suggesting that Asmongold must ask his bosses for permission, Community Notes clarifies that the employees mentioned in the leaked screenshots are the streamer’s editor, not his bosses. The user-driven feature also addressed Musk’s comment that Asmongold is “NOT good at video games” by listing his achievements in World of Warcraft.
“Was he probably not happy about the PoE video? He’ll get over it,” Asmongold added in a recent livestream. “Listen – it was so obvious. You cannot get mad at me for bringing this up. Everybody was talking about this. Come on, man.”
Elon has not directly addressed the widespread criticisms regarding his Path of Exile 2 gameplay at the time of this story’s publication.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Like many JRPG series, it feels as if the Tales Of series has made strides in popularity in recent years. Both 2016’s Tales Of Berseria and 2021’s Tales Of Arise had charming worlds and flashy combat, and the latter has found a home on our picks for the best of the genre.
Now the series is adopting the other dominant JRPG trend of late: remakes and remasters. Tales Of Graces f Remastered, a revision of the 2009 entry in the series, is out now.
