Well, it happened again: the Maw devoured a Monday. My recent, highly suspicious news article about a sudden “bank holiday” was, of course, a hasty PR smokescreen to avert a stock market crash. In Horace’s name, we have now forced the Maw to sick up the missing Monday, but locating the gag reflex of a cosmic monster has its risks, and there have been a few casualties.
Mark has theoretically been “on holiday” since last Wednesday, returning tomorrow, but that’s another piece of disinfo – he’s actually stranded somewhere in the Cretaceous period. James, meanwhile, has come down with a case of the Schrödingers, neither away at Gamescom nor back at his desk. I am going to email him shortly – fingers crossed the quantum binary collapses in a way conducive to preview write-ups. As for this week’s new PC games – here you are. I’ve included the regurgitated Monday, but please handle with care as it’s still rather radioactive and, er, talkative.
You’ve heard what we think of Ninja Gaiden 4 — from an expert point of view. But what if you’ve never played a Ninja Gaiden game before? Will this latest entry in the notoriously difficult action series offer newcomers something they can get to grips with? Will the story make sense if you don’t know your Ryu Hayabusas from your Yakumos?
That was my angle of attack going into my gamescom 2025 session with Team Ninja’s Masakazu Hirayama and PlatinumGames’ Yuji Nakao, co-directors on this eye-catching new co-production from Xbox Game Studios. As Nakao expertly dispatched a boss on a big screen overlooking our behind closed doors presentation, I couldn’t help but marvel at the slick, fast-paced ninja action I was seeing. But I also felt intimidated. I’m no stranger to action games; I love Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, for example, but I know Ninja Gaiden operates on a whole other level.
I also know that Microsoft, which is publishing Ninja Gaiden 4, hopes that that this latest entry appeals not just to hardcore fans of the franchise, but to the wider action game fanbase. That it will, essentially, convince the likes of me to give it a shot. And so my line of questioning is probably a little different compared to what you’ve already seen from the illustrious Ninja Gaiden experts IGN has on-staff. Read on to find out how Team Ninja and PlatinumGames convinced this worrisome action game fan to give Ninja Gaiden 4 a shot.
IGN: I’m a newcomer to the series. For people who have never played a Ninja Gaiden game before but have perhaps heard about it by reputation as a very difficult action game, will they be able to get some enjoyment out of this, or is this very much aimed at people who are veterans of the series who know how to play?
Masakazu Hirayama: So with Ninja Gaiden 4, first and foremost we wanted to stay true to the tradition of intense combat. But with that said, it has been quite a while since the last mainline Ninja Gaiden came out, and we also want to make sure that a wide audience can approach our game and enjoy it.
So to that end, we’ve prepared not only difficulty options, but other features for those new players. In terms of difficulty settings, there is a mode called Hero Mode. So when you choose Hero Mode, it’ll automatically enable a number of assists. So these assists include Auto Guard, Auto Dodge, and another assist that allow you to perform more complicated actions, moves more easily. And these individual assists, once you select Hero Mode, you’re not stuck with the assist. You can actually go into the menu at any time and toggle them on and off individually.
So if you start out in Hero Mode and then you feel like, oh, I want to start dodging manually now instead of having automatic dodge, you can go to the menu and toggle it off and see how you fare. But not only that, the difficulty settings themselves in your first play through, you can freely change between hero mode, normal mode, and hard mode.
So for example, you start your game on hero mode with all the assists. After you beat the first chapter, you turn off the assists, and then after you beat the next chapter, you feel like you’ve developed as a player and it’s getting too easy. You can go to the menu, change to normal, and then after that, if you feel like you need more of a challenge, you can go back and change it to hard, and then you can adjust it on the fly. So you can really curate your combat experience based on your progression as a player.
So for newcomers who may feel like this game might be too difficult for them, I want to assure them that the tools are available for them to train themselves and allow them to progress as a player and enjoy that core intensity of the combat while also providing that tools to allow them to progress through the game.
IGN: And for newcomers who aren’t familiar with Ninja Gaiden but are perhaps familiar with the action game genre, what sets Ninja Garden apart? What are its signature mechanics that other games in the genre perhaps don’t have?
Yuji Nakao: Ninja Gaiden is a series that has been developed by Team Ninja up until now. One of the main characteristics that sets apart Ninja Gaiden from other action games is just that feeling you get when you’re gripping the controller in the sense of precision and responsiveness. Ninja Garden has an intricate feeling of control, but at the same time it’s elegant and precise, and that’s what really sets it apart.
And since this is a collaborative effort — it’s not just Team Ninja, it’s PlatinumGames that’s developing the game — PlatinumGames has injected their own flavor into Ninja Gaiden 4. And that’s best represented in the Bloodraven form, which is the main new system in Ninja Gaiden 4, where Yakumo can unleash these over the top, really expressive attacks. Ninja Gaiden 4 fuses that over the top expression with that elegant precision of a Ninja Gaiden.
IGN: On the story, this is Ninja Gaiden 4, so newcomers will be aware this will be the fourth mainline game in the series. Do you feel that newcomers will be able to understand the story without having played the previous games in the series, or would they benefit from catching up? And how does the story differ from what’s gone before? What do you hope to achieve with the story this time around?
Hirayama: New players can rest assured that they can just jump into Ninja Gaiden 4 and enjoy the story from the jump. It’s not directly connected to the prior games. The world and the setting is the same, but the story itself stands alone. So as long as you know that Ryu Hayabusa is the badass ninja, then you’re good to go with Ninja Gaiden 4.
IGN: You mentioned previously that it’s been some time since the last mainline Ninja Gaiden game. What have you been able to achieve with this game that was impossible before that makes use of all the new technology that has been created since then?
Nakao: In prior Ninja Gaidens you weren’t able to seamlessly switch your weapons on the fly. With the new technology and the new hardware that’s available, we’re actually able to realize that, which really opens up the possibilities in combat.
And then another point is how violence is depicted. So Ninja Gaiden 4, as well as other prior Ninja Gaidens, when you dismember an enemy and you cut into them and there’s blood splatters, we were really able to amp that up in Ninja Gaiden 4 and provide an even more elevated sense of satisfaction and catharsis when you are devastating your enemies.
IGN: You’re collaborating with Platinum this time for Ninja Gaiden 4. What made Platinum the perfect choice? What is it that they bring to the table that’s unique that no other developer perhaps could?
Masakazu Hirayama: PlatinumGames, they have a lot of accomplishments in the action game genre, and they’re really known for their expressive stylish action. So with Ninja Gaiden 4, because it’s a collaborative effort, we really wanted to allow PlatinumGames to bring that to the table in development. And we previously touched on Bloodraven form — we think Bloodraven form is the best representation of how we were able to incorporate it. But not just incorporate it for the sake of adding new things, really incorporating it into the foundation of Ninja Gaiden, so it doesn’t just exist on top of it, but it exists within it.
IGN: Why was now the right time to make a new Ninja Gaiden mainline entry? How will Ninja Gaiden 4 expand the audience for Ninja Gaiden as a whole so it is more popular than it has been in the past?
Hirayama: In terms of the timing of bringing a new Ninja Gaiden into the world, it wasn’t necessarily that we wanted this to happen right now. It was more the result of a series of events.
At Team Ninja we had wanted to make a new Ninja Gaiden for quite a long time. And when that opportunity started to present itself, there was a conversation that took place between the president of Koei Tecmo, Hisashi Koinuma, and the president of PlatinumGames, Atsushi Inaba. They’re actually friends, and they were talking about, wouldn’t it be great if we could work on something in the future? That’s when the idea of creating a new Ninja Gaiden together came up. And then Phil Spencer from Xbox caught wind of this idea and just threw his support behind the project. That’s what got it off the ground.
Like you said, it’s been a long time since the last Ninja Gaiden game. To the end of providing a fresh entry point for new players, we introduced a new protagonist. This protagonist was a proposal from PlatinumGames, actually. And I think we were able to allow PlatinumGames to really incorporate their own take on Ninja Gaiden through Yakumo.
But of course, Ryu Hayabusa is the icon of the series, so we’ve also made sure that Ryu Hayabusa is playable and has a strong presence in the game as well. So I think through this collaborative effort we’ve been able to provide a fresh experience, but it still feels like Ninja Gaiden, and it will be a fresh entry point for new players.
IGN: Why did you accept the proposal for a new protagonist from PlatinumGames, and what exactly is it about this new character that sets him apart from Ryu Hayabusa?
Hirayama: In terms of the reason why we accepted Platinum’s proposal to bring a new protagonist, it was really what I touched upon earlier: providing that fresh entry point for new players, but also because this is a collaborative effort, really allowing PlatinumGames to bring their own ideas to the table. And Yakumo was a vehicle to allow that to happen.
Nakao: So with Ryu Hayabusa, he really retains his distinct qualities from the prior games. In Ninja Gaiden 4, he’s really all about that power and that sense of speed. So when you’re playing as Ryu Hayabusa in Ninja Gaiden 4, you can really experience that raw, primitive Ninja Gaiden experience.
Contrasting with Ryu, Yakumo has this savviness. There’s a cleverness to the way he fights with his arsenal, and he also has those more expressive combat techniques through the Bloodravenform. And through that he has this stylish take of the Ninja Gaiden combat.
So even though they both share the Ninja Gaiden fundamentals, there’s this very distinct difference that you will feel when you are picking up the controller and pressing the buttons and seeing how they respond to those inputs.
IGN: And what is the split in terms of play time, roughly? Is there one character we will spend more time with than the other?
Hirayama: In terms of the story, Yakumo is the protagonist, so the playtime split, Yakumo will have more playtime. So more than half of the story you’ll be playing as Yakumo. With that said, there are dedicated segments in the story for Ryu. And you won’t be playing as Ryu Hayabusa just for a short time and then you’ll be done with it. There’ll be a very robust amount of content for you to enjoy playing as Ryu.
And once you complete the story once, you’ll actually unlock a chapter challenge mode. This will allow you to freely play different chapters in the game and you’ll be able to play as either character. So you could, after your first playthrough, play through all the chapters as Ryu. Conversely, you could play Ryu’s story chapters as Yakumo. So there’s a lot of content that you can enjoy after you do your first playthrough.
IGN: I’d love to know your favorite new mechanic we’ve not seen in a Ninja Gaiden game before.
Hirayama: My favorite new aspect is the Bloodraven form. So Bloodraven form, it really captures the new kind of expressiveness that PlatinumGames has brought to the table in Ninja Gaiden. But not only that, there was a lot of back and forth with regards to Bloodraven form throughout the development of this game. So Team Ninja would get the build from Platinum and then play the game and provide their feedback. But a year ago Bloodraven form was just so OP, like as long as you activated Bloodraven form, you could really just defeat any enemy. And we were looking at it as like, well if Bloodraven form dominates everything, we’re going to lose the Ninja Gaiden essence. And there was a lot of interesting back and forth that we went through to arrive where we’re at today.
You’ll see that when we were incorporating Bloodraven form into the Ninja Guide game cycle. For example, when you use Bloodraven form and you attack an enemy, it’ll increase the likelihood of doing a dismemberment. When you dismember an enemy in Ninja Gaiden, you can perform an Obliteration Technique. Obliteration Technique is basically just a finisher, like an execution style attack. And then once you execute an enemy, they’ll drop a blood orb essence. Essence was in previous Ninja Gaidens, and it basically functions the same way in Ninja Gaiden 4. And then once that essence drops, you convert it into an Ultimate Technique using Ultimate Guidance. I know I’m throwing a lot of terminology at you! But we were able to bring this Bloodraven form into Ninja Gaiden and really incorporate it into that foundational Ninja Gaiden game cycle. Finding ways of exploring that was very interesting from a development perspective.
Nakao: In addition to the Bloodraven form, there’s also the base form. Within the base form I feel like we’ve been able to evolve Ninja Gaiden in terms of the new type of techniques that are available. Ninja Gaiden 4 introduces Just Guards and Just Dodges. In Ninja Gaiden, the dodging move is called the Reverse Wind. In Ninja Gaiden 4 you can actually do a Just Dodge Reverse Wind. And this really opens up the variety and possibilities of Ninja Gaiden’s combat and serves to continue to evolve that high speed back and forth between offense and defense that really makes Ninja Gaiden distinct.
Hirayama: And building on the new possibilities that are available in Ninja Gaiden 4, sometimes you’ll see enemies glow up in red when they’re about to unleash a powerful attack. You can actually use Bloodraven form to counter that attack using an offensive ability. This especially becomes apparent in the boss battles, where you can not just be defensive, but you can actually use aggression to counter enemy attacks. And because of that, Ninja Gaiden 4’s boss battles especially feel very distinct and provide a new kind of intensity compared to our previous entries.
Ninja Gaiden 4 launches on October 21 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Fall in, recruits, and look to the sky. Out there, somewhere, millions of brave Helldivers valiantly fight the tide of oppression. Unflinching in the face of hostile alien forces. Unwavering in their mission to spread managed Democracy. And now we have reached Zero Hour… it is your time. You are needed now more than ever before. Take up the mantle of duty, hold the line and purge the galaxy of our freedom-hating enemies. The following material has been extracted from the pages of veteran Helldiver military reports, journals, and training programmes. Heed their words, it could mean the difference between death… and Democracy.
The Story So Far…
The First and Second Galactic Wars
After the First Galactic War, an era of peace and prosperity ensued, and the Helldivers were dismissed. For the next 100 years, Super Earth was safe from harm. But when old enemies and new threats emerged from the Galaxy’s darkest corners, the Helldivers took up arms again.
The Terminid Control System
The Terminids escaped the E-710 farms and rapidly spread throughout the galaxy. Helldivers responded by activating the Terminid Control System (TCS), a series of sophisticated Termicide-dispensing towers, to quarantine the Terminids and stop their advance.
Malevelon Creek & the Swift Disassembly
The Automaton Legion set its sights on Malevelon Creek to build their anti-democratic death machines. Helldivers held the line until the bitter end. This effort to stomp out the Automaton threat briefly eradicated the bots from the Galactic map.
The Meridian Singularity
The TCS caused the Terminids to mutate and reproduce faster, turning Meridia into a supercolony. Helldivers sent Dark Fluid, an experimental alien substance, beneath the planet’s crust which destabilized Meridia, causing the planet to collapse into the Meridian Singularity.
The Gloom
An interstellar spore cloud appeared, containing mutated strains of Terminids. Ships or probes that entered lost contact, with instruments unable to penetrate. Although efforts were made to successfully slow the spread of the Gloom, it still silently envelops sectors.
The Battle of Calypso
Super Earth’s old foes, the Illuminate, made their first attack on a colony on Calypso. They used captured colonists to perform grisly experiments, creating a new menace: the Voteless. The three-day battle saw the sacrifice of almost 38 million Helldivers.
The Illuminate Vanish
The Meridian Singularity began moving across the galaxy, swallowing whole planets on a direct path for Super Earth.
The Repulsive Gravity Field Generator, built using Illuminate technology, was activated and halted the Singularity. The Illuminate disappeared from the Galactic Map. Victory was in hand.
The Heart of Democracy
As citizens united in celebration, the unthinkable occurred: The Illuminate Great Host emerged and set their sights on Super Earth. Helldivers fought bravely in a glorious display of freedom and democratic prowess. The Illuminate retreated… for now.
Loadouts Of Liberty
Dispense peace with weapons of Mass Democracy to punch a hole through the webs of deception and treachery spreading throughout the galaxy.
Weapons
Get your hands on the most advanced, experimental, and explosive weaponry ever devised — from assault rifles to machine guns, energy blasters and even hand-to-hand melee weapons.
Each has their own stats and traits, and many can be customised from the Armoury Terminal on your Super Destroyer when you reach level 10 – Sergeant.
New recruits receive standard-issue equipment but can spend Super Credits, or Medals earned completing objectives, on gear from the Acquisition Centre.
Top tip: Friendly fire isn’t very friendly and is distinctly un-democratic.
Stratagems
The silver bullet in your arsenal. The doomsday device in the palm of your hands.
Stratagems are your gamechangers – immensely powerful, limited-use weapons, reinforcements and ballistics summoned from your Super Destroyer using unique sequence codes.
Rain down freedom from above with Orbital Bombardments, cheat death with Shield Generator Packs, tear your targets apart with Autocannon Sentries, and much more.
Top tip: Practice makes perfect. Try out Stratagem codes on your ship before deployment.
Armour
Sprint or stomp across the battlefield with specialist armour for every tactical manoeuvre.
Light armour keeps you mobile but won’t take much damage, heavy armour keeps you breathing longer but limits your movement, and medium armour is a blend of both.
Check the protection, speed and stamina regen stats when choosing your combo – and look out for Armour Passives, special abilities for specific armour types
Top tip: Dress for the occasion – environmental conditions matter!
The Galactic War
Hundreds of battles are being fought across the galaxy, with planets liberated or lost by the time you finish this sentence.
You have a key role in the war effort; make your mark by capturing enemy worlds, repelling invasions, and completing your missions.
Check the Galactic Map for your next destination or review your Major Orders to dive into time-limited, community-wide objectives.
Move fast, Helldivers, this war is in constant flux and there’s no restart button. Your actions have far-reaching consequences.
Top tip: Fight smarter. Start on lower difficulty levels and work your way up.
Scan Your Sector
We know you’re excited to get out there for your first glorious liberation of hostile territory but remember to pull up your mini-map to get an overview of your surroundings.
Scope out enemy nests, tactical objectives, and all points of interest; and keep your eyes open for useful materials.
Samples, valuable resources to upgrade your ship, can be extracted from plants and sample nodes – the rarity depends on your mission’s difficulty, with Common, Rare and Super Samples scattered throughout the maps. And search any containers, bunkers or pods for Requisition Slips that you can spend on new Stratagems.
Top tip: Explore far and wide, who knows what you might find.
Warbonds & The Superstore
Boost your fight for freedom with new weapons, armour, Stratagems, and more with gear straight from the Ministry of Defence.
Head to the Acquisition Centre to purchase Warbonds – tiered rewards unlocked by spending Medals – and visit the Superstore to spend your hard-earned Super Credits on must-have items.
And from today, you can lay your hands on the new Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST Legendary Warbond – learn more here.
Top tip: Warbonds don’t expire, and you can spend Medals on multiple open Warbonds.
Warbonds require base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock.
Pre-order now for three armor sets:
• ‘TR-7 Ambassador of the Brand’ – Promotional armor made by SUMY Corp. as part of a highly successful marketing campaign for frozen yogurt.
• ‘TR-62 Knight’ – Crafted to deliver Justice to the darkest crevices of the galaxy.
• ‘TR-9 Cavalier of Democracy’ – Bearers of this armor ride no equine mount, but are nonetheless borne to battle atop the trusty steed of Liberty.
Edition includes:
– HELLDIVERS 2 full game for Xbox Series X|S.
– ‘DP-53 Savior of the Free’ Armour Set.
– ‘Will of the People’ Cape.
– ‘MP-98 Knight’ Weapon.
– Super Citizen Status.
– Stratagem Hero Ship Game.
– Premium Warbond Token
Enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across a hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic, and ferocious third-person shooter.
URGENT BROADCAST – SUPER EARTH ARMED FORCES
Freedom. Peace. Democracy.
Your Super Earth-born rights. The key pillars of our civilization.
Of our very existence.
But the war rages on. And everything is once again under threat.
Join the greatest military force the galaxy has ever seen and make this a safe and free place to live.
BECOME A LEGEND
You will be assembled into squads of up to four Helldivers and assigned strategic missions.
Watch each other’s back – friendly fire is an unfortunate certainty of war, but victory without teamwork is impossible.*
LOADOUTS
Rain down freedom from above, sneak through enemy territory, or grit your teeth and charge head-first into the jaws of combat.
How you deliver liberty is your choice; you’ll have access to a wide array of explosive firepower, life-saving armour and battle-changing stratagems… the jewel in every Helldiver’s arsenal.
REQUISITION
Super Earth recognises your hard work with valuable Requisition. Use it to access different rewards that benefit you, your squad, your destroyer ship and our overall war effort.
THREATS
Everything on every planet wants you dead. That’s what we’re dealing with.
Each enemy has distinct and unpredictable characteristics, tactics, and behavior – but they all fight ferociously and without fear or morality.
THE GALACTIC WAR
Capturing enemy planets, defending against invasions, and completing missions will contribute to our overall effort.
This war will be won or lost depending on the actions of everyone involved.
We stand together, or we fall apart.
Enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across a hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic, and ferocious third-person shooter.
URGENT BROADCAST – SUPER EARTH ARMED FORCES
Freedom. Peace. Democracy.
Your Super Earth-born rights. The key pillars of our civilization.
Of our very existence.
But the war rages on. And everything is once again under threat.
Join the greatest military force the galaxy has ever seen and make this a safe and free place to live.
BECOME A LEGEND
You will be assembled into squads of up to four Helldivers and assigned strategic missions.
Watch each other’s back – friendly fire is an unfortunate certainty of war, but victory without teamwork is impossible.
LOADOUTS
Rain down freedom from above, sneak through enemy territory, or grit your teeth and charge head-first into the jaws of combat.
How you deliver liberty is your choice; you’ll have access to a wide array of explosive firepower, life-saving armor and battle-changing stratagems… the jewel in every Helldiver’s arsenal.
REQUISITION
Super Earth recognises your hard work with valuable Requisition. Use it to access different rewards that benefit you, your squad, your destroyer ship and our overall war effort.
THREATS
Everything on every planet wants you dead. That’s what we’re dealing with.
Each enemy has distinct and unpredictable characteristics, tactics, and behavior – but they all fight ferociously and without fear or morality.
THE GALACTIC WAR
Capturing enemy planets, defending against invasions, and completing missions will contribute to our overall effort.
This war will be won or lost depending on the actions of everyone involved.
We stand together, or we fall apart.
Apart from a new range of toys and even an interactive app, Nintendo’s new ‘My Mario’ line includes a series of stop motion shorts.
The first three episodes have now been uploaded to the ‘Play Nintendo’ channel on YouTube, and you can watch them right here. Below is the official summary:
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the sequel to Hideo Kojima’s 2019 hit Death Stranding, was well-received at launch. It’s “incredibly exciting and original,” and “bold work that deserves to be encouraged,” at least, according to our review. As a result, fans might be hoping for an eventual third game in the series. But for right now, Kojima isn’t planning to make Death Stranding 3…even though he already has a concept written.
Kojima said this in an interview in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, as a part of the Death Stranding 2 World Strand Tour. When asked by the interviewer about Death Stranding 3, he replied with the following:
“I’m not planning to do that at the moment, because the ending of Death Stranding 2 was my finale of 1 and 2. But I already wrote the concept of DS3, so I have that in data. I hope that someone would create it for me.”
This isn’t the first time Kojima has suggested that someone else might pick up the mantle of his games after him. Back in May, he said that he’d been thinking more and more about his own death lately, prompting him to create a USB stick “kind of like a will” that lays out the future of his studio, Kojima Productions, if he dies.
“I gave a USB stick with all my ideas on it to my personal assistant, kind of like a will,” he said. “Perhaps they could continue to make things after I’m gone at Kojima Productions… This is a fear for me: what happens to Kojima Productions after I’m gone? I don’t want them to just manage our existing IP.”
While we won’t be getting a Death Stranding 3 anytime soon it sounds like, there’s plenty coming from Kojima’s mind in the near future. Death Stranding is getting a live-action film adaptation in partnership with A24, and Kojima is busy working on two different games: horror project OD, in collaboration with Xbox, and Metal Gear successor Physint.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
After a high-profile failure in Concord and a high-profile success in Astro Bot last year, PlayStation is looking to adjust its strategy to incorporate fewer live service games, more big franchises, and stricter oversight of its owned studios.
In an interview with Financial Times, PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst says the company is hoping to mitigate future big, expensive risks with future games. “I don’t want teams to always play it safe, but I would like for us, when we fail, to fail early and cheaply.”
The differences between the two games are myriad, certainly, and their development stories are quite different as well. But what Hulst has taken away from this is that there needs to be more supervision of Sony’s owned studios to ensure that games veering in the direction of Concord are spotted before they become expensive failures, so they can be canceled or corrected in time.
“We have since put in place much more rigorous and more frequent testing in very many different ways,” Hulst said. “The advantage of every failure . . . is that people now understand how necessary that [oversight] is.”
Financial Times spoke to multiple Sony studio heads, who said that this oversight means more focus on group testing, more communication between internal Sony studios, and closer relationships between the studios’ top executives. “If we’re heading towards a giant landmine, like there’s another studio making exactly the same game, that’s good information,” said Jason Connell, art director at Ghost of Yōtei studio Sucker Punch.
That comment rings especially poignant in light of Concord’s failure, which analysts say occurred for a number of reasons, including an oversaturation of multiplayer, live service shooters. Hulst suggests in the interview that PlayStation isn’t as intent on churning out live service games as it used to be. That said, PlayStation does have Bungie’s Marathon coming up before March 2026, a game that has a number of Bungie fans concerned amid delays, staff layoffs, and a general lack of information as to what the game entails.
But there’s another strategy Hulst also wants to pursue: he wants more, massive Sony IP. Astro Bot’s success has come about over the course of multiple games, with the little robot icon growing in popularity each time. According to Financial Times, Hulst wants studios to be thinking about how their IP can be turned into bigger and bigger franchises over time, following in the footsteps of The Last of Us and Uncharted. “We take a very intentional approach to IP creation . . . understanding how a new concept can turn into an iconic franchise for PlayStation, that can then again become a franchise for people beyond gaming,” he said.
Currently on the docket, PlayStation has Ghost of Yōtei and Lost Soul Aside coming this year, with Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls and Housemarque’s Saros for 2026. Other games such as Fairgames, Marvel’s Wolverine, Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Marathon, and more remain in the works.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
“They would love to do Switch 2 versions. They can’t get the hardware.”.
We’re almost three months on from the Nintendo Switch 2’s release, and while we have plenty of third-party games to come on the newer hybrid console, many developers say that they’re still having issues getting hold of dev kits.
This comes from the folks at Digital Foundry in response to a question from a listener during this week’s DF Direct (timestamped, 8:20). Part of the question focuses on Switch 2 kits, particularly pointing out Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, which runs at 30fps on the newer console (though it doesn’t have a specific Switch 2 version either): “Do you think Nintendo are regretting not sharing the dev kits wider, sooner?”
The Magic: The Gathering product release schedule continues, with anticipation building for the arrival of Spider-Man next month, but there are plenty of price changes to come before then. From classic cards seeing new life and staggering value changes, to big drops for some of Edge of Eternities’ most popular cards, there’s plenty to keep up with. Here are the big shifts this week for August 28, and why they’re happening.
This Week’s Climbers
Need for Speed debuted in 2001 (the card, not the video game series) and it lets you sack lands to give creatures haste, but folks have noticed that Toph, the First Metalbender from the upcoming Avatar set can take advantage of its effects.
Toph means all nontoken artifacts are counted as lands, while also taking cards, making them creatures, and bringing them back when they die or are exiled. This means a buffet of lands to get rid of and haste to pass around. It’s up to $7 from around a dollar as a result.
Toph’s also seen Ugin’s Nexus get some attention, but as the folks at Wargamer pointed out, a potential Toph/Ugin’s Nexus combo doesn’t work. The card has been climbing in value to around $5 because players think that Ugin’s Nexus will give them a bunch of extra turns, but the card actually says ‘If a player would begin an extra turn, that player skips that turn instead.’ It’s still a cool card, but be mindful before you buy.
Terra Eternal is our final Toph synergy this week, and it’s seen a price spike up to $7 from $1 thanks to its ability to make lands indestructible. With Toph’s ability to make artifacts into lands, that means they’re indestructible, too.
Scrapheap has been around since 1999 (the good ol’ days) and gives you life for sacrificing your artifacts or enchantments. It’s simple, but it pairs nicely with Ragost, Deft Gastronaut (remember him?) because he’s chomping through artifacts all day long. Scrapheap is up to almost $8 from around ninety cents.
Repurposing Bay can work nicely with it, too, with this Aetherdrift card powersliding up to a dollar or two in the last few days, having been around 50 cents just a short time ago. It’s seeing some use in Standard right now, hence the popularity.
This Week’s Crashers
Once one of the most sought-after cards of Edge of Eternities, Breeding Pool (Borderless) is a looker, and it’s seeing a drop. Not long ago, it was well above $100, but has dropped to around $35 now and could drop further.
Ouroboroid has also seen a drop, and it’s now around $20 having been upwards of $25 in recent weeks, while Tannuk, Steadfast Second has trailed off to around $7 from double that not long ago.
If you’ve been looking for The Endstone, this card draw engine is now close to hitting $5, while Terrasymbiosis is a dollar or so less, with both cards commanding around double those fees recently.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
2 Super Citizen Edition
