No joke.
Persona 5‘s Joker has made surprise appearances in games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and now he’s making his way to Blizzard’s free-to-play hero shooter, Overwatch 2.
The Season 18 trailer has gone live and it finishes with the Persona 5 theme along with a silhouette of Joker. Atlus has also acknowledged the collaboration, which will go live on 26th August 2025.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Eight years after its initial launch, first-person extraction shooter Escape from Tarkov has a version 1.0 release date: November 15, 2025. That’s over eight years after Escape from Tarkov first entered beta, and 13 years after initial development began.
Developer Battlestate Games announced the release date alongside patch notes for update 0.16.9.0, which serves as an “interim milestone” that brings a significant number of improvements and changes. Meanwhile, the development team is focusing on optimizing the final version of the game.
The main highlight, Battlestate Games said, is synchronization between EFT: Arena and EFT PvE Zone. Its “key feature” is a one-way sync: progress in EFT: Arena will sync with PvE Zone, but progress in PvE Zone will not sync with EFT: Arena.
“This one-way synchronization includes the addition of the trader Ref, the ability to transfer currency, synchronization of Tactical Clothing sets and Battle Pass rewards, along with several other innovations,” Battlestate Games said. “Additionally, improvements have been made to enemy AI systems and in-game audio.
Changes:
PvE mode synchronization
Added synchronization between Escape from Tarkov: Arena and Escape from Tarkov PvE mode.
The main feature of this synchronization is that it only works one-way (excluding regular tasks), meaning the progress in EFT: Arena syncs with PvE mode, but not the other way around.
Trader Ref
Item transfer
Tactical clothing
BattlePass
In-game tasks
Trader standing
Character experience, skills, and weapon mastery
Character wipes
AI:
Audio:
QoL:
Balancing changes
Fixes:
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.
Get ready for “instant driving enjoyment”.
It’s been announced another racing game is joining the Switch 2 library. This time it’s Gear.Club Unlimited 3 for the Nintendo Switch 2 and it’s arriving at some point in “late 2025“.
This game will follow on from the first two games, which were released on the eShop during the original Switch generation.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
You no longer have to pay an egregious sum of money to play games at a consistently solid framerate in glorious 4K resolution. Walmart is currently offering the iBuypower Element Pro gaming PC equipped with an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU for just $1499 with free delivery. This was the best “high-end” gaming PC deal during Prime Day – better than anything I found on Amazon – and it’s still the best deal I’ve seen so far at this price point. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is an outstanding graphics card that can run the latest games (like Battlefield 6) in 4K.
The iBuypower gaming PC is generously equipped across the board. It features an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X CPU, Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 2TB M.2 SSD. The Ryzen 9 7900X processor has a max boost clock of 5.6GHz with 12 cores and 24 threads. This is an excellent CPU for both gaming and multi-tasking and you won’t need to upgrade from it for a long time. It’s cooled by a very robust 360mm all-in-one liquid cooling system and runs off an 850W power supply.
We rated the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT a “perfect” 10/10. Even though it costs $150 less than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, the 9070 XT beats it out in several of the games we tested. In a few benchmarks, the results aren’t even close. The 9070 XT is also comparable in performance to the older $1,000 RX 7900 XTX but with better ray tracing and upscaling performance than its predecessor. It does lose out on VRAM (16GB vs 24GB), but that isn’t really an issue for gaming. By “4K ready” I mean that this gaming PC can run pretty much any game at 4K resolution and at framerates of 60fps or higher. Any video card that’s weaker and you’ll have to compromise in order to get playable framerates.
One side note is that the product photo doesn’t accurately show what you’re getting in terms of components. PC system builders like iBuyPower, Skytech, CyberPowerPC, and ABS use off-the-shelf parts that are available and cost effective at the time. So, for example, although the image shows what appears to be an Asus ROG Strix graphics card, you’ll probably be getting the Asus PRIME card instead. If you want a PC that’s made more assembly-line style with predictable components, your best bet is to stick with bigger PC builders like Dell, Lenovo, or HP.
The Battlefield 6 beta just finished its two-weekend stint with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of players signing on to try it out. The initial impressions are mostly positive, including those from our own IGN staff.
For those of you looking to upgrade your rig specifically for this game, Hardware Unboxed tested out a few different Radeon RX 9070 XT configurations in-game. At 4K and with the maximum “Ultra” preset, the RX 9070 XT rig maintained an average of 70-85fps with a 1% low of 67fps. This was tested with both lower-end AMD Ryzen 5 and higher-end AMD Ryzen 7 X3D processors and the performance difference was minimal, especially at higher resolutions (1440p and 4K) where games are typically less CPU limited. What’s also impressive was that the GeForce RTX 5080 equipped PC only averaged about 8%-12% better, even though such a PC would run you over $2,000.
Keep in mind that these tests were not performed on a iBuyPower PC. Instead it is more of an indication of how well a typical RX 9070XT equipped gaming PC would perform in the game.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time. He is also an avid Battlefield gamer and absolutely played the heck out of the BF6 beta with over 200 matches across both weekends. Add him (eksblenny) if you’d like to squad up!
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is departing the company after 23 years and nearly 10 as CEO. He is succeeded by Justin Truman, currently chief development officer and fellow Bungie veteran.
In a blog post on the official Bungie website, Parsons wrote:
When I was asked to lead Bungie in 2015, my goal was to grow us into a studio capable of creating and sustaining iconic, generation-spanning entertainment. We’ve been through so much together: we launched a bold new chapter for Destiny, built an enviable, independent live ops organization capable of creating and publishing its own games, and joined the incredible family at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Today marks the right time for a new beginning. The future of Bungie will be in the hands of a new generation of leaders, and I am thrilled to announce that Justin Truman will be stepping into leadership as Bungie’s new Studio Head.
Parsons has overseen Bungie during many turbulent years, first taking over as CEO in 2016 from Harold Ryan and overseeing its break from Activision in 2019. He was at the helm throughout many of the events catalogued in our 2021 expose of Bungie’s internal work culture. Though those we spoke to reported that Bungie had been toxic and hostile toward women in particular prior to Parsons taking charge, they also told IGN that he was frequently slow or reluctant to take action when issues were reported, or even seemed clueless as to how to reign in problem employees. Parsons apologized at the time, saying, “Our actions or, in some cases, inactions, caused these people pain. I apologize personally and on behalf of everyone at Bungie who I know feel a deep sense of empathy and sadness reading through these accounts.”
Just months after our report, Bungie was acquired by Sony for $3.7 billion, ending the studio’s flirtation with independence. As the acquistion settled in, concerns began to arise about Bungie’s future. Destiny 2 was struggling, and upcoming game Marathon was still years away. In 2023, Bungie laid off roughly 100 individuals and delayed Destiny 2’s The Final Shape DLC, with Parsons taking responsibility for the layoffs. Developers told IGN at the time that the atmosphere at Bungie was “soul-crushing” as fears grew of a total Sony takeover of the company. In 2024, this was followed up with even more layoffs, impacting 220 people this time, despite The Final Shape’s success. 155 people were also integrated from Bungie into Sony at this time. Troubles continued to rock the studio through 2024 and into 2025, with Marathon seeing a delay out of September of this year to an unknown future date.
It’s in this environment – Destiny 2 struggling, Marathon delayed, a smaller staff, and Sony looming, that Parsons departs the company. He leaves it to Justin Truman, who began at Bungie as a developer 15 years ago working on Destiny 1 and who has since worked his way up to chief development officer and now studio head.
When we’re at our best – we create those worlds alongside you, our player community, and build something that matters. Something that’s worth your time, your passion, and your investment in us. Something that I’ve learned, hopefully, overdelivers.
I’ve also been part of these efforts at Bungie when we’ve maybe not been at our best. When we’ve stumbled and realized through listening to our community that we had missed the mark. I know I’ve personally learned a lot over the years, as have all of us here, from those conversations.
I am committed to supporting and working alongside every member of the team here as we continue pouring our hearts and souls into these worlds. Worlds that we love, and that we hope have been worth your time and your passion. Because ultimately those worlds only exist, and thrive, with you in them.
We are hard at work right now doing that – both with Marathon and Destiny. We’re currently heads down, but we’ll have more to show you in both of these worlds later this year.
Per Bungie’s social media post, Parsons is retiring and will seemingly not remain at the studio.
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.
If you’re a fan of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books, there’s certainly no shortage of written content available. And in recent years, that same universe has started to trickle over into the world of tabletop games. One such experience is a collaboration with Brotherwise Games called Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game, which is currently discounted on Amazon.
The Mistborn board game pulls from Era 1 of the Mistborn book series. These were some of the first Brandon Sanderson books I ever read and are, in my opinion, the best entrypoint into The Cosmere as a whole. If you’re a fan of both the books and deckbuilding games, I definitely recommend checking out this crossover board game.
The Mistborn board game was designed by John D. Clair and published by Brotherwise Games. The game itself pulls directly from its source material, and players will have to burn and flare metals as they battle each other or the Lord Ruler throughout play. Like any standard deckbuilding game, everyone will begin with a weaker deck of cards and slowly add new ones to their hand throughout the game. It’s designed for up to four players total, but can also be played solo if you prefer that route.
The current discount on Amazon drops the price down to $39.17, which is the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this game. And while that’s still not exactly cheap, it’s just enough of a discount to make it worth considering.
Herdling! Roadwarden! Uhh…umm…
The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived — a few hours late, but unless you’ve been sleeping all day, you’ll know we’ve been dealing with a lot of silk(song).
Anyway! As always, we’ve got a list of new games galore that have arrived on the US eShop. It’s a little quieter this week than normal, but hey, that’s how it goes sometimes. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Starting this week, Xbox Insiders enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview will be the first to experience the new “My Apps” feature in the Xbox PC App on Windows 11 PCs and handhelds. You can conveniently access your games and essential third-party applications, such as browsers, gaming utilities, or storefronts, all within the Xbox PC app.
My apps is a new tab within the Xbox PC app’s library that allows players to locate, view, and download third-party applications and most commonly used storefronts. By consolidating gaming apps in one location, this feature supports the new aggregated gaming library, making it more straightforward to find, download, and launch games from multiple locations.
With “My apps”, you can easily find and download what you need without leaving your library or switching to your desktop. As an Insider, you will initially have access to a tailored selection of apps that you can view and download, and we will expand support to additional apps over time.
My apps enables players on an ROG Xbox Ally or other Windows 11 handhelds to more easily navigate between applications from the Xbox full screen experience, a new feature optimized specifically for handheld gaming. With new modifications that minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks, more system resources are dedicated specifically to gameplay.
Together with features like your aggregated gaming library and play history, “My apps” puts players at the center, making Xbox on PC your home for discovering, managing, and playing your entire catalog of great games from any storefront. We look forward to your feedback as we continue to invest in new features.
Stay tuned for more updates, and as always, let us know what you think—your insights shape the future of Xbox!
We want to thank all the Xbox Insiders for the feedback you share with us. Your feedback is a key part of our process. If you’re an Xbox Insider looking for support, please join our community on the Xbox Insider subreddit. Official Xbox staff, moderators, and fellow Xbox Insiders are there to help. We recommend adding to threads with the same topic before posting a brand new one. This helps us support you the best we can!
If you aren’t part of the Xbox Insider Program yet and want to help create the future of Xbox and get early access to new features, join the Program today by downloading the Xbox Insider Hub for Xbox Series X|S & Xbox One or Windows PC. For more information on the Xbox Insider Program, follow us on Twitter at @XboxInsider and keep an eye on this blog for all the latest news.
For more information: follow us on X/Twitter at @XboxInsider and this blog for announcements and more. And feel free to interact with the community on the Xbox Insider SubReddit.
The post Available for Xbox Insiders: Get to the Games Faster with My Apps appeared first on Xbox Wire.
The recent trends across Shrouded Fable and Stellar Crown illustrate a diverging market. Many Stellar Crown Illustration Rares such as Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Terapagos ex SIR are seeing sharp pullbacks, while a few under-the-radar Shrouded Fable Dark-type ex and Tool cards are appreciating steadily.
The contrast is clear. Flashy artwork loses momentum quickly, while cards with competitive or functional utility tend to hold or grow in value.
One of the most notable climbers this week is Stellar Crown’s Basic Darkness Energy in Hyper Rare form, which has risen from $34.15 in February to $39.98. That is a roughly 17% increase. At the same time, Shrouded Fable has not delivered any dramatic price surges, but subtle demand for tools and draw effects is clearly supporting modest value increases.
On the flip side, the Stellar Crown Illustration Rare staples are tumbling fast. Squirtle 148/142 has dropped from $73.63 in February to around $50 today, which is close to a 32% decline. Market price on TCGPlayer remains in the mid-50s, and the trend suggests collector demand is cooling quickly.
The most significant drop this week comes from Squirtle 148/142, an Illustration Rare from Stellar Crown that has fallen 32% since February. It opened at $73.63 and now sits closer to $50. Despite its nostalgic appeal and adorable art, Squirtle’s gameplay relevance is practically zero. Its Withdraw attack relies on a coin flip to prevent damage and Skull Bash only deals 20 damage, which is far below any competitive threshold. The early hype was fueled by nostalgia, but that interest has faded as supply increased and serious players ignored it in favor of actual utility cards.
Bulbasaur 143/142 is showing nearly identical behavior. Its value has dropped 31%, from $62.96 in February to $43.50 today. Like Squirtle, its charm is rooted in nostalgic appeal, not play potential. Leech Seed deals minor damage and heals, but this does not make it relevant in any current decks. Oversupply has pushed the price down and it is now mostly a binder card for casual collectors.
Another casualty is Earthen Vessel 096/064, a Hyper Rare Trainer card that was once priced at $58.33 but now goes for $46.80. That is a 20% slide. Its effect lets players discard a card to search for up to two Basic Energy, which has utility but lacks explosiveness. With more aggressive tools and search options now favored in top-tier lists, this card is seeing less demand from both collectors and competitive players.
The Special Illustration Rare version of Fezandipiti ex 092/064 has also been slipping. Down from $49.81 to $38, it has lost 24% of its value since February. Its Flip the Script ability is situational at best, letting players draw three cards if one of their Pokémon was knocked out on the previous turn. Cruel Arrow is a targeted snipe attack for 100 damage, but the overall package has not delivered the consistency or pressure needed to keep a spot in top decks. Though its artwork is compelling, it is not enough to maintain premium pricing.
Terapagos ex 170/142 has taken the most dramatic hit among the crashers. Originally priced at $77.89, it now sits at $36.88, which represents a drop of over 52%. Its Colorless typing and bulky stats looked promising at launch, but Unified Beatdown relies on a full bench and cannot be used on turn one if going second. Crown Opal is a strong move but only blocks attacks from Basic non-Colorless Pokémon. These limitations make it too slow and too narrow for the current metagame.
While the flashy cards in Stellar Crown have stumbled, several functional and competitively useful cards from Shrouded Fable are seeing steady gains. At the top is Basic Darkness Energy 098/064 in Hyper Rare form, which has climbed from $34.15 in February to $39.98. That is a 17% increase. High rarity energy cards have long been a collector favorite, and this one also happens to serve an important role in Dark-heavy decks that are seeing renewed interest.
A surprise riser is Dusclops 069/064, an Illustration Rare that has moved from $17.46 to $20.40 since June. The Cursed Blast ability allows you to place five damage counters on any of your opponent’s Pokémon at the cost of knocking Dusclops out. It is a one-time play, but it can turn the tide against low-HP attackers or finish off key threats. It is finding homes in creative deck builds and may have long-term appeal as a rogue tool.
Interestingly, while the Special Illustration Rare of Fezandipiti ex is declining, the Double Rare version Fezandipiti ex 038/064 is moving the opposite direction. It has jumped from $8.66 in March to $16.75 now, an increase of 93%. Competitive players are clearly buying in. Flip the Script is a decent comeback mechanic and Cruel Arrow is strong board pressure in slower matchups. It is a functional card at a lower price point, and it is benefiting from increased adoption in mid-tier builds.
The subtle but steady growth of Powerglass 097/064 also deserves mention. This Hyper Rare Pokémon Tool has gone from $17.35 to $18.50, a 7% uptick. Its end-of-turn effect lets you attach a Basic Energy from your discard pile if the equipped Pokémon is in the Active Spot. That kind of resource recycling is increasingly valuable in grindy games, and players are finding ways to incorporate it into rotating attacker strategies.
Lastly, Okidogi ex 090/064 has risen from $16.76 in March to $18.99 today, a 13% gain. This Darkness-type Pokémon has synergy built around Poison and self-boosting. Its first attack accelerates two Basic Darkness Energy at the cost of becoming Poisoned, while Chain-Crazed hits for 130 more damage if the Pokémon is poisoned. That interaction allows it to self-power and self-trigger a massive 260 damage attack, which is gaining popularity in certain fringe decks. Its Special Illustration Rare art adds collector interest, pushing both play and display value upward.
For collectors and players who prefer the thrill of opening packs rather than buying singles, both Stellar Crown and Shrouded Fable offer a solid lineup of sealed products right now. But if you’re chasing specific high-value Illustration Rares like Squirtle or playable staples like Fezandipiti ex, the numbers make one thing clear: buying singles will save you a fortune.
Take the Stellar Crown Booster Box, currently sitting at $219.99 on TCGPlayer. With 36 packs, you’re paying over $6 per pack, and the odds of pulling a specific Illustration Rare like Terapagos ex 170/142 are incredibly slim. Given that that card now sells for around $36.88, it’s far more efficient to buy it directly than to hope you land one by chance.
If you’re looking for smaller options, the Stellar Crown Booster Bundle at $54.01 or the Elite Trainer Box at $83.00 offer a few packs and themed accessories, but again, the likelihood of pulling a $50+ chase card is very low. Even the Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box, priced at $121.00, carries a high cost per pack with no guarantee of return.
On the Shrouded Fable side, the Booster Bundle at $46.24 and Elite Trainer Box at $55.01 offer a more accessible entry point, and this set’s price floor is generally lower. The Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box at $97.94 and Mini Tin Display at $164.95 are aimed at collectors who want a premium unboxing experience, but again, pulling specific cards like Powerglass or Okidogi ex is far from guaranteed.
Even the Kingdra ex Special Illustration Collection at $124.99 and Greninja ex Collection at $90.00 serve more as showcase pieces than consistent value plays. Unless you’re collecting sealed for long-term hold or display, the best strategy right now is surgical: identify the singles you want and buy them directly.
Sealed product is fun and occasionally lucky, but the current market makes one thing obvious. If your goal is to own a particular card, especially any of the climbers or crashers we’ve covered this week, buying singles is the smarter and more economical path.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
NVIDIA’s 50-series GPUs had a strange old rollout. From missing cores to marked-up prices, there’s also some disappointment about the push to use AI to push things further, rather than good, old-fashioned power.
