Gaming News

2025 U.S. Video Game Chart Rubber-Stamps Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Sales Struggle

Battlefield 6 ended 2025 as the best-selling game in the U.S., beating its first-person shooter rival Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which ended down in fifth place. Black Ops 6, which also launched day one on Game Pass, was 2024’s number one best-selling game in the U.S. According to sales data from Circana, EA’s Battlefield 6 finished as 2025’s best-selling video game in tracked full game dollar sales. Battlefield 6 ranked first on both Xbox and the aggregated PC storefronts for the year while placing second on PlayStation behind only NBA 2K26. Battlefield 6 had a massive launch in October 2025, breaking franchise records by selling over 7 million copies in its first three days and becoming the best-selling game of 2025 by revenue. This...

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Alan Wake 2 Developer Defends Deal With 'Excellent Partner' Epic Games, Despite The Fact It's Still Missing From Rival Storefront Steam

Remedy Entertainment has spoken out to defend its publishing deal for Alan Wake 2, which saw the game launch on PC exclusively via the Epic Games Store. More than two years later, there's still no sign of it coming to rival storefront Steam. Released in October 2023, Alan Wake 2 took a year to eventually begin generating royalties for Remedy, after ticking over the 2 million sales mark. Now, a debate has been sparked over its sales — which would undoubtedly be higher if it had also arrived on Steam, even if the game only exists because of Epic Games cash — as well as the benefits of storefront exclusives. Discussion was sparked on social media by a lengthy thread from Michael Douse, director of publishing at Baldur's Gate 3 and...

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Blizzard Brings Azeroth to the Heart of Melbourne This Weekend

If you're in Melbourne Australia this holiday long weekend, you'll get the chance to step into the world of Azeroth's prime real estate. Ahead of the launch of the next World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, Blizzard have constructed an impressive interactive display, appropriately called the "Midnight House & Lounge" in Federation Square. Just in time for a certain racquet-swinging international sports event in town, this interactive slice of Atherothian lifestyles of the rich and orcish allows fans to experience a so-called "home away from home... a sanctuary crafted for heroes of Azeroth to relax and unwind and explore what’s next for World of Warcraft." Plus, Blizzard will be giving away exclusive gifts at the venue until they run...

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade - Nintendo Switch 2 Review Update

After watching Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s gorgeous opening cutscene on Switch 2, I instinctively reached for the PlayStation 5 controller sitting on my coffee table instead of my Switch 2 Pro Controller. That’s not to say VII Remake looks exactly as good on Switch 2 as it does on the beefier PS5, but this is an impressive port that’s easily up there with the best third-party games we’ve seen so far in the Switch 2’s first year, and I’m still not used to games looking this beautiful on my Nintendo console. That strong first impression held up as I blasted through the familiar first hours of Cloud’s adventure in Midgar – which remains one of my favorite RPGs of the decade – with solid performance both handheld and docked...

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Nintendo Switch 2 Was the Best-Selling Console of 2025 in the U.S. and Is Still Outselling the Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console of 2025 in the U.S., both in unit sales and dollar sales, selling a total of 4.4 million units in the U.S, and continuing its streak of selling faster than the original Nintendo Switch. This comes from Circana's full-year reporting on the U.S. games market courtesy of analyst Mat Piscatella, and shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. The Switch 2 has been at the top consistently since it launched earlier in the year, amid a period of decline for the steadily aging PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of last year, and the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller was the best-selling accessory. Overall, the U.S. games market reached $60.7 billion in sales for...

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Sovereign Tower Preview: Hands-On With This Unique Arthurian Round Table Management RPG

Text-based games, management RPGs, and visual novels – of whatever kind – rarely make the most exciting previews. It's just not easy to build a rich interest in the world and characters of a story you can only get the slightest taste of. I'm very pleased to say that a few hours with Sovereign Tower broke that trend entirely. Whosoever turns the key in the giant magic lock on the tower becomes king. So, as the mystically-appointed lord of the tower, your poor faceless wanderer becomes a very important person overnight in what developer Wild Wits calls a "story-rich, Round Table management RPG." It's an entertaining concept that draws its characters and dialogue equally from fantastical tradition and modern life. Couple that with a...

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Forza Horizon 6: Here’s What Comes in Each Edition

Forza Horizon 6 is set to release for Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 19 — unless you buy the most expensive edition, which comes out May 15. This latest installment of the reliably excellent Microsoft racing series whisks drivers to Japan to get their speed on. It’s available now to preorder in a number of editions (see it at Amazon). Below, you can find out what comes in each one, how much they cost, and more. Let’s put the pedal to the metal and take a look. Standard Edition Xbox Get it at Amazon - $69.99 Get it at Best Buy - $69.99 Get it at GameStop - $69.99 Get it at Walmart - $69.99 Get it at Xbox Store (digital) - $69.99 PC Get it at Steam - $69.99 If all you want is the base game for now, the standard edition is the...

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Beast of Reincarnation Game Director Answers All Our Burning Questions About the Pokemon Developer's Upcoming Action Game

Today, Game Freak's upcoming action game Beast of Reincarnation reemerged at the Xbox Developer Direct, with a lengthy segment showing off traversal, combat, its cast of characters, some dang good music, and more. Also, great news, it's apparently out this summer. Beast of Reincarnation is a fascinating new game, and an anomaly in Game Freak's portfolio. Game Freak is, of course, best-known for developing Pokemon, a series that's grown in scope as it's transitioned to home console releases but has also seen notable declines in performance and visual quality. But Game Freak has also been increasing its other independent endeavors in recent years, with games such as HarmoKnight, Tembo the Badass Elephant, and Pocket Card Jockey. But...

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Beast of Reincarnation Game Director Says Game Freak's Primary Focus Is on 'Gameplay Experience' Rather Than Visual Fidelity or Graphics

We just got our first lengthy, proper look at Beast of Reincarnation, the upcoming game from Pokemon developer Game Freak that, at least based on what we saw today, seems to be their most ambitious non-Pokemon game yet. But as a Pokemon fan, that does leave me with a big question: is Game Freak up for this? Having sat wearily through Pokemon's Nintendo Switch era, I've now seen multiple releases in a row that suggest to me Game Freak has some serious struggles with home console optimization. I've written about it before, but several Pokemon games in a row have struggled with bugs, crashes, extremely distracting framerate issues, or just being generally kind of ugly. Pokemon Legends: ZA, the most recent entry, is significantly...

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Inky Blinky Bob, a Surreal Horror-Comedy Action Game, Announced for PC

Developer Eldelic Games has just announced Inky Blinky Bob, an upcoming surreal horror-comedy action game in development for PC that has you battling on the ground an in the air in your hot air baloon against all sorts of oddities – most notably the giant floating octopus from which the game takes its name. “With Inky Blinky Bob, we wanted to create something that feels like Monty Python crash-landed into a Lovecraftian fever dream,” said Eldelic Games CEO Miroslav Ilić. “It’s eerie, explosive, and deliberately absurd, blending unsettling imagery with moments of unexpected humour.” Check out the first trailer above. While navigating this strange archipelago world, you'll take quests from weird NPCs, accumulate resources, and prepare...

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'It'll Be a Bit of Work, but You Could Marry Them All' — Fable Has 1,000 Handcrafted NPCs for You to Play Around With

Fable, the upcoming open-world fantasy RPG from Playground Games, has 1,000 fully voiced NPCs, and, if you do the right things, you can marry every single one of them. The long-awaited fairytale follow-up to Lionhead’s original Xbox trilogy was showcased at the January 2026 Xbox Developer Direct, and finally gave us a good look at its gameplay. But, there’s more to learn yet, as IGN spoke to the founder of Playground Games, the studio crafting the Fable reboot. When speaking about the characters that inhabit the world of this new version of Fable, Playground chief Ralph Fulton told us: “They are handcrafted, and there are a lot of things about the way we have built the living population, which I think you could be forgiven for saying...

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'We've Been Working on This Game for a Really, Really Long Time' — the Big Fable Interview With Microsoft Developer Playground

Fable is back, and back in a big way. Microsoft's reboot of Lionhead's much-loved fantasy role-playing series has had its moment in the Xbox Developer Direct showcase, leaving fans with plenty to chew on. Ahead of the reveal, IGN's Ryan McCaffrey sat down for a chinwag with Playground founder and general manager Ralph Fulton to expand on what was shown and discussed during the livestream. So, put down those chickens and settle in for our big interview on the Fable reboot. And when you're done with that, check out everything announced at Xbox Developer Direct. IGN: So, Ralph, I wanted to start here. Number one, that was super impressive. We'll get into it. As a Fable fan, that made me very happy. But I wanted to start here, which is...

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Fable Reboot Release Window Set for Fall 2026, Launches Day 1 on PS5

As announced at the end of the Fable segment of today's Xbox Developer Direct, Playground Games' reboot of Fable will be released in fall 2026 for PC (including Steam), Xbox Series X and S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and PlayStation 5. As a first-party Microsoft game, Fable also launches day one in subscription service, Game Pass. Though a specific release date has not yet been confirmed, it's probably reasonable to presume that Fable will be released prior to November, so as to avoid being swallowed up by the impending release of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19. But the day-one release on PS5 is interesting, if only because Playground's own other 2026 release, Forza Horizon 6, will debut on Xbox first before making its way to PS5 later...

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Beast of Reincarnation Gets New Look at Action/RPG-Hybrid Combat and a Summer Release Window

During today's Xbox Developer Direct, Pokemon developer Game Freak arrived on the scene to give a lengthy new look at its new game, Beast of Reincarnation, alongside a narrowed release window: it's planned for release in summer of this year. Beast of Reincarnation takes place in a post-apocalyptic, future Japan in the year 4026. It's giving off big Nier: Automata vibes, with modern world ruins covered in overgrowth and plants, and the contrast of mutated natural creatures and machines. You play as Emma, a young woman who's been corrupted by the "blight", aka the force that's caused the destruction of most of the world. Emma is capable of sealing the blight within her own body, a gift that allows her to purify corrupted creatures but...

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Forza Horizon 6 Launches in May, and It Looks Like Gundam Will Be Involved

Microsoft has confirmed the release date of Forza Horizon 6 during today's Xbox Developer Direct livestream — and there's only a few months to go before you'll be getting behind the wheel once again. Forza Horizon 6 will launch for PC and Xbox Series X/S on May 19, with early access from May 15 for anyone who pays for the game's Premium Edition. The game's PlayStation 5 version is expected to arrive at a later date — though we still don't know when exactly. As announced last year, Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan — a location that has long been on the wishlist of many Forza fans. Amusingly, the setting was spoiled ahead of time by a real-life car import company connected to the game — which, if nothing else, showed that the...

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LIVE: Everything Announced at Xbox Developer Direct 2026

Microsoft is kicking 2026 off with a new Xbox Developer Direct showcase, which will feature some of the biggest games it has coming out this year. Confirmed to appear at the showcase is Playground’s Fable reboot, the UK studio’s other game, Forza Horizon 6, as well as Beast of Reincarnation, an action game from Pokemon developer Game Freak. Could there be more to Xbox Developer Direct? Find out right here with IGN. The action starts at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK today, January 22. 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. Continue reading...

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Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater for PS5 Is Down to $40 Right Now at Amazon

The start of a new year is a great time to settle in and boot up some new games. If Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has been on your list to jump into, but you missed out on the holiday sales price drops, we have good news: Amazon's currently offering its PS5 version for $39.98 (see it here). What a thrill, indeed. When it was first released, Metal Gear Solid Delta was listed for $69.99, so this deal makes for 43% in savings overall. For a game we consider to be one of the best video game remakes of all time, that's a discount worth making a move on. Head to the link below to scoop it up for your PlayStation library while the deal is still available. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (PS5) for $40 Alongside the base game, this...

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Akira Yamaoka on Remaking Silent Hill 2's Soundtrack (Again) for Return to Silent Hill

The Silent Hill franchise has stood the test of time for many reasons, not least of which being the haunting, ethereal soundscapes of these survival horror games. And when it came to adapting Silent Hill to film, perhaps the smartest thing director Cristophe Gans did was make sure that series composer Akira Yamaoka was still involved. Now Silent Hill is back in theaters with the third film in the series, Return to Silent Hill, and Yamaoka is along for the ride again. IGN was recently able to speak with Yamaoka about his work, how composing a Silent Hill movie is very different from the games, and which game he’d like to see adapted next. Read on to see what he had to say. [Note - this interview was performed with the aid of a...

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I Opened Up a Bunch of Handheld Gaming PCs to See Which Ones Are Easiest to Upgrade

Ever since the Steam Deck came out, the humble handheld gaming PC has been going through a renaissance of sorts. Because while these fun-shaped PCs have been around for a while, being made by the likes of Ayaneo and GPD, they’ve now hit the mainstream. I’ve reviewed a lot of these new “mainstream” gaming handhelds, and while they’re all varying levels of good, they’re still not all the same – especially when it comes to opening them up and upgrading the storage. Pretty much every handheld gaming PC will let you slot in a microSD card to expand your storage, but if you want to upgrade to a faster, more capacious SSD, you’re going to have to pop the handheld open and swap out the drive. I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone, especially...

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'Miraculous': Beyond Good & Evil 2 Fans Can't Believe the Game Has Survived Ubisoft's Major Project Cull That Killed the Prince of Persia: Sands of Ti

Beyond Good & Evil 2 fans are celebrating a small piece of good news to come from Ubisoft's major cull of projects, studios and people yesterday — that after almost two decades, the game that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest development still isn't dead. While yesterday saw the end of Ubisoft's plans to release a Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake (a project that the company had been working on for at least six years) and five other unnamed games, no mention was made of Beyond Good & Evil 2, whose record-breaking development now spans almost 20 years, off and on. Indeed, Beyond Good & Evil was named by Ubisoft as an ongoing franchise that would now be overseen by its reorganized "Creative House 4" division...

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Helldivers 2 Patch 5.0.2 Introduces All-New Mission Type, Commando, and the Redacted Regiment Warbond

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has just dropped details of its latest patch, Into the Unjust: 5.0.2., which introduces a new mission type: Commando, the Redacted Regiment Warbond, and "important updates" to suppressed weapons. "Democracy doesn’t always need to shout," the team teased on Steam. "This patch is deploying some important updates to suppressed weapons, allowing Helldivers to eliminate threats with reduced detection and tighter tactical control. Expect quieter kills, cleaner engagements, and new opportunities for coordinated strikes before the enemy knows you’re there. Remember: stealth is a tool, not a substitute for overwhelming firepower. Use it wisely, Helldivers!" Arrowhead suggests Commando missions — which send you...

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Ubisoft Says Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake Needed 'More Time and Investment Than We Could Responsibly Commit,' 5 Years After it Was First

Ubisoft has said that completing its now-canceled Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake would have "required more time and investment than we could responsibly commit," after more than half a decade of development. Yesterday, Ubisoft shocked fans by announcing it had scrapped the long-awaited remake completely as part of a major business reshuffle, nearly six years after the project was first announced, and five years to the day after it was initially set to launch — on January 21, 2021. Ubisoft has never fully explained why the remake has had such a tortured development — first at the company's Mumbai and Pune studios, then at Ubisoft Montreal since the project was rebooted in 2022. What has been happening behind the scenes since...

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's Upcoming Techmarine Class Has a Unique Ability That Has Fans Very Excited Indeed

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 will soon get the Techmarine, its seventh playable class, and with it comes a unique ability that sounds very exciting indeed. In a post on Xbox Wire, Space Marine 2 game director Dmitry Grigorenko revealed that the Techmarine is designed to be a crowd control and area defense specialist, leaning on tech to get the job done, as they do in the Warhammer 40,000 lore and tabletop wargame upon which Space Marine 2 is based. In melee the Techmarine uses the Omnissian Axe for wide swipes. This is an upcoming weapon only the Techmarine will have access to upon launch. He also has mechanical arms and an automatic turret bolted directly onto his Power Pack. This means that while you’re actively fighting, you...

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People Are Working Unofficially to Bring Anthem Back From the Dead Following EA Shutdown

Anthem, the failed attempt at a live-service game by Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare, may be officially offline for good, but some people are keeping the dream alive. Anthem publisher EA announced last year that it would stop running the game's servers on January 12, 2026, and confirmed that users would no longer be able play at all after this point. Premium in-game currency was withdrawn from sale last summer, and the game was delisted at the same time from EA Play. As an online-only game, this meant the game was essentially dead, with no way to access any content offline. Now, however, developer And799 has showcased their efforts in a video, and while they are keen to stress that what you see is merely a proof of...

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AU Deals: From All Time Classics To Recent Bangers, These Games Discounts Are Worth Your Cash

I have played all of these, argued about half of them with friends, and bought at least three of them twice (think: multi-platform). This is not theoretical value I'm showcasing to you today. This is me saving you from a bad weekend purchase and nudging you towards a good one (or several). Contents Retro Nintendo Xbox PlayStation PC PC Gear LEGO This Day in Gaming 🎂 In retro news, it's been 17 years since we (repeatedly and hilariously) flung ourselves down hills and into the Hall of Meat in Skate 2. This second entry in the series was a pretty phenomenal upgrade over the OG and cemented the franchise as a proper threat to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater empire. Needless to say, I'm still jonesing mighty hard for the 'Skate 4' spiritual...

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Best Buy Has Open Box Asus ROG Strix G16 RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptops for Just $1,268

Best Buy is offering yet another fantastic deal on a preowned gaming laptop. While supplies last, you can pick up an open box "excellent condition" Asus ROG Strix G16 RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop for just $1,267.99 with free shipping. If you were to get it new, it would cost $1,600. These preowned laptops are Geek Squad verified and sometimes still have all or some of their original warranty. Note that open box availability depends on your location. Asus ROG Strix G16 RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptop for $1,268 Open Box - Excellent Condition The Asus ROG Strix G16 gaming laptop features a 16" 1920x1200 IPS display, AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX processor, GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5600MHz, and a 1TB NVMe SSD. It measures 0.9" thin and weighs...

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Elden Ring: Nightreign DLC Sees Surge of Negative Steam Reviews Thanks to Its Baffling New Map Full of Bottomless Pits

Elden Ring: Nightreign's DLC, The Forsaken Hollows, has been out for a month and a half now, which means players have had plenty of time to get used to its two new Nightfarers, two new end bosses, and numerous new night bosses. But one element of the new content that everyone is still really struggling with, even after weeks of practice: the new DLC map. It's really difficult, really confusing, and seemingly no one likes it that much, leading to a rash of negative Steam reviews and a lot of failed runs. The new map is technically not even a new map, though it may as well be. It's a Shifting Earth event, meaning it may or may not be active at any given time when you're playing a DLC boss, with other options being the default map or one...

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The $17 Baseus 67W USB-C Charger Will Fast Charge the Most Powerful Gaming Handheld PCs

From portable gaming handhelds to smartphones, our lives rely on portable, untethered electronics, and it can't hurt to always have a charger on hand. Fortunately, they don't have to be expensive. Case in point, Amazon is currently offering a Baseus Picogo 67W USB Type-C wall charger for just $16.99 after you apply coupon code "T9TLS56H". This diminutive adapter has plenty of ports and enough power output to fast charge most portable electronics. Baseus Picogo 67W USB-C Wall Charger for $16.99 The Baseus wall charger is very compact thanks to its use of gallium nitride (GaN) instead of the more common silicon for its semiconductor material. This makes the charger smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient than a traditional charger...

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Battlefield 6 Contaminated Map Revealed for Season 2 With Classic BF4 Map Also Confirmed to Return

Battlefield Studios is prepping for BF Labs testing by giving fans a first look at content coming to Battlefield 6 Season 2 and beyond, including the reveal of one brand-new map and a returning Battlefield 4 map. The studio discussed its plans to get back on track with behind-closed-doors testing in a blog post published on its website. It’s a lengthy message from the EA team that comes with a few highlights as it attempts to win back fans who may have been turned off by the recent delay of Season 2. Battlefield 6 players want new maps, and BF Studios wants to deliver. We don’t know how many new maps will be included in Season 2, but the Labs blog post confirms the name of one of the new locations: Contaminated. The studio says that...

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Fortnite Maker Epic Games Hits Back at Pirates of the Caribbean Director Who Blamed Unreal Engine for Bad CGI in Modern Movies

Fortnite maker Epic Games has hit back at a claim by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski that the company's Unreal Engine toolset should be blamed for modern movie CGI looking bad — via a response from its VFX supervisor who actually worked on the first three Pirates films. In an interview with ButWhyTho.net, Verbinski was asked why he believed visual effects in movies had changed for the poorer over the past 15 years — since he directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, which are notable for including the acclaimed CGI character Davy Jones. Responding to the question, Verbinski put the blame squarely on Unreal Engine, the near-ubiquitous toolkit used by game developers across the globe that also now has an...

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