Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Players Rotate Between Wanting to Skip the Winner’s Circle and Liking It Because It Gives Them Time to Check Their Phone Between Matches

With Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 now a week old, fans of the Multiplayer portion of the game are having their say on the controversial — and unskippable — Winner’s Circle feature.

The Winner’s Circle shows the top three performing players from the winning team after the Play of the Game has run its course. Under normal circumstances it lets each player who does well enough to appear on the podium perform an emote, most of which are either toxic or hilarious depending on your point of view.

Black Ops 6 isn’t the first Call of Duty to feature The Winner’s Circle mechanic, as it’s appeared in the likes of Black Ops 3, Infinite Warfare, and WWII. But it’s impact feels particularly pronounced this year, and the debate around it was only exacerbated by the recent release of fan-favorite map Nuketown, which in addition to the Play of the Game and the Winner’s Circle, shows a short cutscene of the map getting nuked before players return to the lobby.

There are a number of issues players have brought up with Black Ops 6’s Winner’s Circle. The main one is the time it takes to view: players have to sit through the Winner’s Circle whether they make the cut or not, and the handful of seconds it lasts can feel like an age when all you want to do is get into another match or check your loadout. Because of this, some players have called on Treyarch to add a skip button or even pull the Winner’s Circle from the game entirely.

Then there’s the issue of toxicity, with some saying the ability to taunt your opponent after a victory discourages them from continuing to play having just lost a game. The slow camera zoom into the top player’s face doesn’t help matters.

Treyarch actually nerfed the Winner’s Circle following feedback from the Black Ops 6 beta so it had a shorter overall duration and “mitigated emote spam” for launch. During those preview weekends, players were able to spam emotes in the Winner’s Circle, which was certainly more frustrating to watch. Currently, you’re only able to trigger one emote. Or at least, you’re only supposed to be able to trigger one emote.

Players have worked out that they can still spam emotes here by quickly pausing and unpausing the game. Doing this, they’re able to fit in a few emotes into the Winner’s Circle before it closes, which, yeah, is pretty annoying to watch.

But! If you’re sick of watching the shenanigans that go on in the Winner’s Circle, players have worked out they can make the player avatars disappear by heading to the in-game social tab. This doesn’t make the Winner’s Circle go away any quicker, but it does get rid of the emotes, if you’re feeling particularly put out by them. It’s a bizarre glitch that Treyarch will probably patch out at some point.

It’s been interesting to see how players have reacted to the Winner’s Circle since Black Ops 6’s explosive launch. Some have said they don’t mind it, given it provides them with a bit of time to check their phone before being thrust into the next match (modern gaming!). Others really, really hate it, and want to skip it at all costs. “Goofy” is a word I’ve seen tossed about by many in response to these emotes.

Despite the ongoing debate about Black Ops 6’s Winner’s Circle, it seems unlikely that Treyarch will strip it out of the game or even let players skip it. It provides an opportunity to show off players’ elaborate and often costly cosmetics, including premium emotes, to all players still in the lobby — and we all know how crucial cosmetics sales are to Activision’s bottom line.

If you’re jumping into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer, check out our Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks to help you get started. We’ve also got a full weapons list, a guide to all multiplayer maps and game modes, and details on how to unlock all Black Ops 6 operators.

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.

Black Ops 6 devs still looking into unfair spawning – “yes, we saw ourselves in a Killcam before selecting a Loadout too”

Early reactions to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer range from frothing dislike through omnimovement hype to our own Ed Thorn’s dead-eyed appraisal that it’s “a good one, I think. Not a bad one. If you like Call Of Duty, you will like this. If you don’t like Call Of Duty, you will not like this.” I feel like we need to emergency-deploy a supply crate of smelling salts, because the sheer OK-ness of Black Ops 6 appears to have tumbled Ed in a stupor.

Perhaps it would be a different story if he’d encountered some of the spawning issues and glitches people are talking about, with players joining games and materialising right into a hail of fire. The players in question include Black Ops 6’s developers, who comically note in the latest Black Ops 6 patch notes that “Yes, we saw ourselves in a Killcam before selecting a Loadout too.” The latest patch seeks to address this, naturally. As regards the campaign side of things, it also resets your safehouse currency to 5000, if you’ve had your single player funds stolen (or multiplied) by technical gremlins.

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As the World Waits for Nintendo to Announce Switch 2, Sales of the Switch Continue to Plummet

Nintendo has slashed its forecast for Switch sales this financial year amid growing anticipation for the announcement of the Switch 2.

Today, November 5, Nintendo cut its Switch sales projection for the financial year ending March 2025 from 13.5 million units to 12.5 million units, with the console now in its eighth year on sale.

Nintendo also cut its forecasts for sales (1.35 trillion yen down to 1.28 trillion yen) and operating profit (400 billion yen to 360 billion yen).

Nintendo has said it will announce the Switch successor at some point during the current financial year, which means fans can expect to hear more before April.

As for the second quarter of the current financial year (July to September 2024), Nintendo generated 276.7 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in revenue and a net profit of 27.7 billion yen ($182 million). That’s a 17% revenue drop and a whopping 69% profit drop versus the same quarter last financial year.

It’s worth noting that last year was a big one for Nintendo, with the release of the Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom breaking records. This year, however, has been notably lighter for the company.

Nintendo sold 4.72 million Switch units in the six months ending September 30, down from the 6.84 million sold during the same period last year. That’s a drop of 31%. Software unit sales were down nearly 28% year-on-year to 70.28 million.

“Unit sales of both hardware and software were extremely high for the first half of the previous fiscal year,” Nintendo said, pointing to the Mario movie’s positive impact on its video game business.

“There were no such special factors in the first half of this fiscal year, and with Nintendo Switch now in its eighth year since launch, unit sales of both hardware and software decreased significantly year-on-year,” Nintendo added.

Alongside the financials, Nintendo provided sales updates for its recently released games. Paper Mario Thousand-Year Door, released in May, sold 1.94 million units, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, released in June, sold 1.57 million units, and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, released in September, “got off to a good start,” Nintendo said, with sales of 2.58 million units. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to sell incredibly well, with another 2.31 million units. It’s now up to an eye-watering 64.27 million sold.

Looking to the future, Nintendo failed to say anything about the Switch 2, but did say it plans to continue to push the Switch.

“By continuing to convey the appeal of Nintendo Switch, we try to not only put one system in every home, but several in every home, or even one for every person,” Nintendo said. “Another objective is to continually release new offerings so more consumers keep playing Nintendo Switch even longer and we can maximize hardware sales.”

Upcoming Switch games include Mario & Luigi: Brothership later this week, and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD in January 2025.

Photo by Anusak Laowilas/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

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.

The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth celebrates 10 year anniversary with online co-op announcement and sale

Beloved roguelike traumatic-childhood-em-up The Binding Of Issac: Rebirth turned 10 yesterday, and it’s half off on Steam to celebrate. What’s more, maker Edmund McMillen has announced that the foretold online co-op update is due on the 18th of this month, alongside a “considerable” balance update. Consider me considering the considerability of said considerable update!

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Rayman Creator Michel Ancel Confirms Involvement With New Ubisoft Project

And hopes ‘The Lost Crown’ team can reform for a sequel.

After Ubisoft confirmed Michel Ancel would be a consultant on its new Rayman project last month, the creator of the series has now acknowledged this in a post on Instagram.

He mentioned how he’s “very happy to have been consulted” and confirmed it’s a “real pleasure” to know Rayman and his pals will be returning. Ancel also took this opportunity to speak a little about the recently disbanded development team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – calling for a “well-deserved sequel”:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Update 4 Now Available, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Fixes, changes, improvements and much more.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered has done a great job reviving Lara Croft’s original trilogy of games, and months after its release, Aspyr is still rolling out new updates for this collection.

The latest one (Patch 4) is now available for all platforms and includes a bunch of fixes, changes and improvements for Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider 3. Here’s the full rundown, courtesy of the official Aspyr support page:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Mini Review: Vampire Survivors: Ode To Castlevania (Switch) – Divine DLC Is Absolutely Essential

Finally, some vampire killers.

Ode to Castlevania is a full-circle moment for Vampire Survivors. Heavily inspired by the franchise, and originally built with assets influenced by Konami’s whip-cracking series, Luca Galante and Poncle have blown all of their other excellent DLC out of the water. If your jaw isn’t on the floor by the time you roll credits, we’ll get back in our coffin.

This is Vampire Survivors’ second collaboration with Konami following the Contra-themed Operation Guns DLC. This time it’s the same great, roguelike, auto-shooting, time-sucking Vampire Survivors gameplay, but now with a distinct twist to delight Castlevania fans. And while those fans will get the most out of the DLC, it doesn’t really matter whether you’ve played a Castlevania game before — this DLC is a must-play, in our book.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Stardew Valley Creator Explains Why Chickens Are Disappearing in Patch 1.6 and Blames It on a Wild Coyote

Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone finally brought update 1.6 to console and mobile devices today, but there’s one small issue – everyone’s chickens are going missing.

The developer warned players about the poultry disappearances in a post on X/Twitter. He says that those who start a new meadowlands farm and open their animal door on day one will find that their chickens are vanishing. It’s a public service announcement that let’s players know that there’s a small issue with update 1.6, and a fix is on the way. Until a follow-up patch arrives, ConcernedApe says players can blame their missing chickens on a sneaky coyote that only appears on day one.

It’s unclear when Stardew Valley will fix its missing chicken problem. In the meantime, update 1.6 brings a field of other changes and additions for those still digging into the massively popular, cozy farming sim. Following its arrival on PC this past March, the update dropped Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One today (you can see the full patch notes here), adding the ability to find lost items, use cheat commands on certain platforms, and more. ConcernedApe recommends players start a new farm to see everything update 1.6 has to offer, which is why it’s so important to make sure the word about that pesky coyote gets out there.

We gave Stardew Valley a 10/10 in our updated 2024 review, calling it a “modern classic with an endless list of enticing activities to complete and a deeply satisfying time management challenge to take on.” For more on ConcernedApe’s farming masterpiece, you can read about how the creator only just managed to nab the game’s hardest achievement last week.

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.

Marvel Rivals: Exclusive Psylocke Gameplay – IGN First

Our IGN First “cover story” game for November is Marvel Rivals, the upcoming 6v6 hero shooter featuring many of Marvel’s biggest superheroes. We kick off our exclusive coverage with five exclusive minutes of gameplay showing Psylocke, the most recently confirmed hero added to Rivals’s sizable roster.

Take a look at the exclusive gameplay above, and if you missed it, you can check out the Psylocke reveal trailer in the video below.

If you missed our hands-on preview impressions from the closed beta from over the summer, you can read that after you finish the Psylocke video. And stay tuned all November long for more exclusive Marvel Rivals coverage on IGN!

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Stardew Valley Version 1.6 Is Finally Out Now On Switch

Back to the farm we go.

Stardew Valley‘s long-awaited 1.6 update has landed on Switch, bringing with it a whole new crop of features. Developer ConcernedApe shared the news on Twitter (now known as X) earlier today.

First landing on PC back in March, this has been the longest fans have had to wait for a big update to make the jump from PCs to consoles. But it sounds like the wait has been worth it.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com